One Week in Ukraine
Our first week out of our two months in Ukraine has flown by! It was exhausting, exciting, completely foreign, and somehow oddly familiar at the same time. We arrived late on Saturday night and met our host family. They are absolutely wonderful and have already become like our own family. "Mama" is always cooking something delicious for us, and "tato" (dad) always makes us smile. There are some languages that are just universal. Food and laughter, just to name a couple. I love having breakfast together while watching Bugs Bunny in Russian from the small television in the kitchen. We had a super competitive game of what seemed to be a version of "Sorry." Everyone's sense of humor just meshes really well. We are in good hands, to say the least.
As much as we love it, we haven't been home too often. On Monday we visited an orphanage in the mountains and took with us a LOT of clothes donated by the church. Because this orphanage is about 4 hours outside of Uzhhorod, not many people regularly get to it, so I'm glad we were able to go. We also got to talk with the director, and I learned more about what Ukraine will have to do concerning orphans in order to join the EU. That's a whole other topic though.
Rudy was so glad all of the bags fit in his van (back seat too)! Can you find Kelly?
On Tuesday we went to the school where mama works. There, the English teacher took us to different classrooms to talk with the children. We stood in front of the class as they asked us different questions in English. Most of the questions were about food, which was perfectly fine with Kelly and me! We went back on Friday and by then the children had written down some questions for us and weren't shy to ask us many different things. One of the girls went home and told her mom, "now I know why I need to learn English." It made us happy to hear that being there and spending time with these students encouraged their learning.
The rest of the week was full of meetings to discuss outreach opportunities and start putting a schedule together. We have been inspired and tremendously blessed by our friends here, and are so honored to be working with some awesome people. I see a real community of people from all backgrounds, uniting together to take care of "the least of these." It's beautiful. I see the church outside of four walls, outside of denomination, working together to love people just as Christ did. He loves His children so much. As each of us works to care for orphans, it's becomes more and more evident that this ministry is just an expression of Christ love overflowing into obedience to the call of James 1:27.
I'm so ready to be regularly visiting orphanages, working with the Roma children in the after school program, and doing this kind of ministry day in and day out. At the same time, I know that even in our time of walking around the city square, meeting with others for coffee, and popping in on different events and meetings we've been invited to- God is at work. We have been encouraging and encouraged by those around us in ways we never would've imagined. While I want to visit every orphanage here as much and as often as possible, I also don't want to leave without motivating those who will be here even after we leave! So for now we are taking it day by day while learning from and encouraging the people God has placed around us. Every morning when I wake up, I still pinch myself. I am just so thankful and amazed to see how God is working in Ukraine, and am so humbled that Kelly and I get to be a part of it. Not to mention, He's given me a pretty rad best friend to do it all with.
Thank you for being a part of this journey we are on! Your support and prayers mean so much to us!
