Ok guys, Romania was amazing, God taught and showed me many things that I am sure I will grow upon in time. But I can’t believe that its already month two! It’s Gap L’s first time splitting up since we made it to the field and my team is the furthest from all the other teams, 15 hours to be exact. My squad got to spend 10 hours on a bus into Ukraine until we parted ways to each of our teams ministry sites. It was hard to leave them, but I can’t wait to see how God moves in each of my squad mates while we are apart!
After 24 hours of sitting in multiple buses deciding on whether or not I was going to puke (roads in other countries are way worse than back at home, be thankful that there are people working on ours to make them more smooth) we made it to our new home for the month.
This month my team is working with a guy from Texas named Andrew Kelly. Andrew and his wife, Jenny, have lived in Ukraine for 15 years and in this time they have had three kids: two girls and a boy. Their house is connected to his camp ground, farm, and a temporary foster care house. There are multiple cool things about the ministry that Andrew provides. Although we have only been here a couple of days and my team hasn’t gotten to do everything yet, I can already tell that this month is going to be so so so good.
We are in a town of 300 people called Kolentsi near the northern border. Disclaimer Andrew says we are 1km closer to Chernobyl than we are to Ukraine’s capital Kiev. Not to worry, but, pretty cool right?! Andrew’s kids go to a K-12 missionary school in Kiev an hour away from his house. My team is getting the opportunity to help with fall festival, be a math tudor, help out in classrooms, and possibly speak in front of the school. I am so excited to be able to be apart of a school ministry this month. There is another house on Andrew’s land that takes in kids that are at risk because of guardian abuse. A middle ground for them to stay in for as short as a month or as long as needed, he says sometimes kids come in and out throughout the time they stay there. Although I haven’t gotten the chance to love on them yet I can’t wait because there are definitely some cutie-pies. This first weekend we have been here we have helped out cooking in the kitchen, because there is a church that hasn’t seen each other since the war that broke out in their area about 5 years ago. We have been spoiled a little bit by the camp cook, Nilla, she makes some mean Ukrainian food and is trying to make sure some of the girls on my team thicken up for winter. She is so sweet to us and even though she can’t speak much english it’s fun getting to laugh with her.
I just want to thank my supporters so much for believing in me and helping me get to this point. If there is one thing that I could tell you from what The Lord is teaching me right now is that sometimes we believe things that the church tells us or because we read about it in the bible. It becomes repetitive and it goes straight to our heads and we don’t really truly receive it in our hearts. This is what happens when we become dull in our beliefs, but we serve a God that is a holy father and wants to show us his goodness every day in ways that we don’t normally see. This is very beautiful and it makes my heart melt every time I think about his goodness.
Let The Father take your hand today, let Him take you on a journey see what happens when you let your guard down. I promise you will see things in a new light. The Father’s love never fails.
