Alright y’all, let me be honest with you, our hosts and the entire church we are working with in Ukraine can only be described with one word: INCREDIBLE. They are some of the kindness and most servant-hearted people I have ever met. They love us so well and we want to give back to them.
Our main host had a fire in the sauna/bathhouse attached to his home just a few days ago. We have not visited the property but from the pictures we were shown, it seems to have been significantly damaged. This is our host who drives us all over town for ministry and spends all day making sure everything we need is taken care of. Even the day after the fire, he was running around trying to make sure everything was perfect for us because he has a selfless heart and truly puts everyone before himself.
We aren’t sure how exactly we want to bless him and his family (we had an idea to potentially buy new tires for his car prior to the fire but because of the fire, it may be more ideal to put money towards repairing or rebuilding) but we know we are going to try and do something for them. We would also like to give him and his wife a “night out” where will take care of their kids so they can have a nice dinner in town.
Now, having this awesome host would make this month pretty good BUT we also have quite a few other people who are making this month truly amazing. Jane and Elijah, a couple at the church with three beautiful daughters (all under the age of 5), have both translated for us. They also invited us into their home for dinner and treated us like royalty. They don’t have a lot but they trust the Lord so deeply and they love others so well. Elijah runs a kids club on Sunday afternoons and teaches them about the Lord. We had the opportunity to attend/help yesterday and the way he relates to the kids is inspiring to see. He also has a group of young teens who help him put on the program and you can tell the way he is molding them to become incredible young leaders in the kingdom.
We would like to bless Jane and Elijah with a “night out” where we can take care of their three girls and they can just go spend time as a couple. We would like to provide them with money to have a nice dinner at one of the restaurants in town.
Another incredible pair is Svieta and her daughter Maryna. Svieta cooks all of our meals and her 15 year old daughter Maryna helps her mother almost every night. We have become great friends with them as we help in the kitchen and get to try and learn Ukrainian from them. Svieta is an incredibly hard-working single mom and she takes care of us just like a mother would. She strives to always make everything perfect for us and we have had some of the best meals from the entire race in the last week.
We would also like to bless Svieta, Maryna, and Tanya (Svieta’s 10 year old daughter) with a night off from cooking for us and a nice dinner for the three of them to just enjoy one another’s company.
Last, but certainly not least, the Ukrainian pizza fairy, also known as Lyodik, and his family. He and his wife have four awesome kids and a huge passion for kids from difficult situations. Lyodik works with local orphanages and teaches them about Jesus every week. He has a passion for the older children and has set up a program to assist boys who age out of the orphanage with housing, food, and clothing, if they can find a job or continue going to school. Two of those boys live in the upstairs of the hotel/apartment where we are living for the month and Lyodik as well as other church members are constantly here checking on them, bringing them food, and pouring into them. Lyodik dreams of starting a similar program for girls in the same position. He has also adopted us ever since we first saw him at the airport. He loves speaking to us in Ukrainian even though we don’t understand and always ask how we are doing. He invited us to visit one of the local orphanages with him and we got to see how great he is at teaching the kids of all ages. He welcomed us into his home and we got to play Uno with his entire family, eat fresh honey directly from a honeycomb, eat a lot of pizza (of course), and just get to know this awesome family even more.
We want to bless Lyodik and his wife with a “night out” where we will take care of their kids and send them to a nice dinner somewhere in town.
If you feel at all compelled to partner with my team and me to help bless any or all of these amazing people, please reach out to me! You can donate via Venmo (@notkateupton) or Paypal ([email protected]) and if those options don’t work, please let me know and we can figure something out. Feel free to specify if you would like your donation to go towards a specific person or family, otherwise, we will pool the money and allot it as necessary.
I have learned the true meaning of hospitality and putting others before yourself from these amazing people and I want them to know how much I appreciate all of the things they do for my team and for others.
