So we officially arrived in Uzhgorod, Ukraine yesterday which is where my team and team Aletheia will be serving for the month. We have been traveling since Monday so it has been a long week. On Monday night we slept in the airport in Dublin. Then we had a flight on Tuesday at 4 for Istanbul, Turkey. We arrived in Istanbul around 10 that night and slept in the aiport. Then on Wednesday we had a flight at 7 a.m. to Kiev, Ukraine. We arrived in Kiev around 10 and met up with our contact. We spent the day walking around Kiev till it was time for our train. Our train left at 8 Wednesday night and we finally arrived in Uzhgorod around noon on Thrusday. I'm so glad to say that we are all safe and staying at one of our contact's house until Saturday. So now to reflect on Ireland and all the wonderful things that happened last month. Here are some of the highlights from last month:
1. Kelan- I hope to never forget the experience that my team had with leading him to Christ. It was so amazing to just see how the Lord orchestrated every moment that we had with Kelan. We all could just see Kelan's heart softening and the Lord drawing him. The night Kelan accepted Christ still blows me away. I just love how he opened the Bible and felt like God was speaking right to him. He just continued to read for a long time and God continued to speak through his word. It is just so crazy what God did just after 3 days of meeting him. God is so amazing.
2. Sightseeing in Ireland- Ireland is such a beautiful place and there was so many good sights to see there. Cliffs of Moher was on the most beautiful places I have ever been to in my life. I could have stayed there for days just admiring God's beautiful nature. On Monday the 31st a few of us girls from my team went to Bray nd Greystones. We hiked up a cliff from Bray to Greystons. The hike was just beautiful.
3. Kid's Camp- So for our last week of ministry in Ireland we served at a Kid's Camp. The Kids in Ireland are really different from the kids in America. Most of them have a hard home life and have been around profanity and drinking all their life. So there was a lot of cursing and just not much respect for authority. It was a challenging week but it was well worth it. By the end of the week there had been around 12 girls that accepted Christ. I had 5 girls that stayed in my tent with 2 other leaders. I had a good week with the girls and I must say that I do miss them.
4. The different words that the Irish people used for things.- I loved some of the words that the Irish would use in different situations. For example rubbish was garbage, they used the word grand often, wellies were rain boots, food would be nice,beautiful,or gorgeous if it was good. I just loved hearing all the different phrases that they would say. Chipper is a fast food restaurant. It just helped me to learn the culture and I enjoyed that.
Month 1 was so amazing and all that I have been through and will go through in the next 10 months has already been worth it. I can not wait to see what God has in store for Ukraine! Yesterday I reading from Acts 20: 24. Paul writes about how his life was worth nothing to him if only he may finishthe race and complete the task that Jesus has for him. I pray that I will have that same attitude and count my life as nothing but just focus on what God has for me this year.
