It was a pleasant eight hour train ride from our ministry
site in Timisoara, Romania to Bucharest– the nation’s capital. We spent one
night there at some friends of Alexandria, she definitely had the hook-up for
us! We slept in and Jo and I used this last opportunity to grab as much wifi as
possible. The next afternoon we met up with the entire squad at the train
station in Bucharest and shortly after we departed the station for the 12 hour
trek to Chisinau, Moldova. We had a couple hours to kill there while we waited
for our next train to arrive. We grabbed some snacks, hung out, and said
goodbyes as our train chugged to the platform. All 12 guys and two girl teams
were making the 15 our journey to Kiev, Ukraine while the other girl teams were
headed to Odessa, Ukraine and Yalta, Ukraine. We arrived in Kiev at about 2AM
on April 2nd, and then the guys headed two hours north while the two
girl teams went somewhere else. Two full days of nonstop travel and we were at
our ministry site for April.
(Working hard on projects!)
April is MANistry month, a month where all of the guys from
isquad are together as one team. We are about 77 KM north from Kiev, the capital
of Ukraine, near the town of Ivankiev.
We are assisting an organization called Jeremiah’s Hope. Jeremiah’s Hope
reaches out to children who might have been abused or neglected, or are from
parents that are alcoholics or drug users. They have an emergency shelter where
these children can stay for up to six months if needed. They reach out to
neighboring villages, offering simple hygiene packages as an opportunity to set
foot inside homes to see and monitor special situations with particular
children who have gone through rough upbringings. Another huge thing that
Jeremiah’s Hope does is to hold summer camps all through the summer for these
children to come to. This is a fantastic and unique ministry!
(Beautiful green fence, b-ball hoop, and gutter job)
So far this month we have been doing a lot of manual labor
here on the property including the removal, installation, and painting of a new
fence, installing gutters, and assembling basketball hoops. My craftsmanship
skills have been put to the test as we’ve designed and made beautiful storage
benches for the inside of the lodge as well as “trust platforms” which they
will be using as an activity during the upcoming summer camps. We went to an
international church named International Church Assembly (ICA) in southern Kiev
last Sunday which was a great time with awesome, contemporary music and a solid
message. The next two weekends we will have groups coming to our ministry site
that we will be helping to host. A Youth With A Mission (YWAM) medical group is
coming next weekend, and the following weekend we will be hosting and leading a
boy’s retreat where 15-20 boys between the ages of 13-18 will be present and
ready to be entertained.
(Home visit in a very remote village)
It’s been a terrific and BUSY! month so far. We have an
industrial kitchen so meals have been amazing and we also have reals beds to
sleep in- another added bonus! Unfortunately we don’t have wifi available for
us to use at the ministry site so I won’t have internet more than one time per
week this month- if that. Just wanted to update everyone on what’s going on
right now, where I am, and what I’m doing. I have already learned a lot about
myself through these other guys, what great male friendship looks like, accountability,
and what I do and don’t miss about the girls of isquad. More specifics and some
humor to come!
