Month 2 has begun! I just cannot believe that I’m in Ukraine and getting to do awesome ministry! It blows my mind on a daily basis!
As some of you know, I have worked at Camp Hydaway, which is up the LU mountain, for the past 10 or so years, with the exclusion of this past summer. I was a camp counselor and also helped in the kitchen a lot. I often had to do meal prep and then help serve and clean afterwards.
So why does this mean anything?
This month, I’m on a camp property! This weekend our host is hosting about 40 people from all over Ukraine. My team gets to serve in the background by cleaning the cabins and bathrooms. We get to do a bunch of meal prep and then serve and clean up. Which, honestly, does not sound like fun, at all, but I love doing it. Most of these people have not seen each other in a year or more, and I’m glad that we get to let them enjoy each other’s company instead of them worrying about food or clean up. (plus, we get to eat authentic Ukrainian food! ??)
But they are only here until Monday (10/16/17). So what will be doing after they leave? Well, our host is going to keep us busy ?? He has a lot of different ministry opportunities. He is originally from Texas but has lived in Ukraine for 15+ years. He and his wife work with orphans and children at risk in neighboring villages. On his property, he has a house with 10ish kids who are in a middle-ground and need somewhere to stay for anywhere from a couple months to a couple years. He also has two houses with foster kids and house parents. We will get to help babysit a lot this month and help the parents in all these houses! Another project he does is called the Sasha project, and he goes into neighboring villages and takes food to homes with at-risk kids. At-risk kids could mean that the family is impoverished or there is an abusive situation or neglect is present. Once a month, he has a big group of kids come to the camp for a weekend and get away from home. He can check up on them and feed them a good meal and give them a safe place to sleep, and we get to help with that too! He and his wife also have three kids who all go to an international Christian school (which happens to be a lot like LCA) and we get to be reading buddies and speak in their chapel!
Needless to say, I am so excited to do a lot of kids ministry! I love this place already and am so excited to dig deeper into ministry.
Also, the trees here are changing just like Virginia’s do! Even though I miss VA a lot, especially during the fall, God has blessed me with a wooded area that has beautiful scenery!
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