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Hello from Ukraine!
Wednesday,
July 2
Greetings to everyone from Gadzinka Ukraine! By God’s good providence the mission team traveled from Boston, arriving in Kiev Ukraine at 4:35 pm on Tuesday ,July 1. All the flights and connections went perfect and this is the first of our five years in which ALL of the luggage arrived! All 35 pieces of checked baggage came through and were waiting for us as we passed through Ukrainian customs.
After a two hour ride from the Borispol airport in Kiev, we arrived at the Lazar hotel in Gadzinka. Pastor Anatoly transported the team in a bigger and longer white van than he had last summer.
Wednesday
We began the day with team devotions, with singing, and a devotional in which Pastor Ken spoke from James 2 about ‘showing faith by our works’ and how important it is to have in our hearts ‘honorable and good thoughts’ toward the poor.
Orphanage
We have been praying as churches to prepare the team this year, especially as 11 of our ladies would be working in two orphanages and the Lord strengthened us in the first day of outreach. We were assigned for this first week to an orphanage with about 175 children who have some kind of mental, emotional or physical disability. The ladies ministered to about 100 children at different parts of the day, with Bible stories, crafts and sports/games time. Many of the children kept hugging and holding our hands and truly craved affection. Joan Callahan said that one of the children didn’t want her to get on the bus, wanting make sure the team would come back tomorrow. The first day went well, but due to the large number, several of the ladies are meeting tonight to arrange smaller classes for the children tomorrow with the hopes that things will run smoothly. Please keep our ladies in your prayers as they minister to this orphanage for three days. There is a portion of the orphanage, maybe 20 children, who have come down with either chicken pox or a similar illness and need our prayers on their behalf. Our desire is that the power of God’s Holy Spirit will be pleased to plant gospel seeds, and the grace of faith in this dear, poor children, that they might be rich in faith and enter the Kingdom of God. The orphanage day starts at 10 am tomorrow and will run through 5 pm Ukraine time (7 hours ahead of the east coast of the USA.)
Fence Project
All the men on the team were driven to Gorodishe in the morning by Pastor Viktor and Pastor Nicolai. The addition to the church building which was begun last summer is coming along beautifully. Pastor Nicolai and his son have been working diligently and hope to be completed in two months with entire inside and outside of the building. With 100 children in this village, perhaps a dental clinic in Gorodishe can be an option in the years to come.
The men spent a good portion of the day taking down the old fence which stretches across the front of the church property. A few holes were dug and after a day of hard work, the ground is well prepared to begin setting up the concrete pillars tomorrow. The Ukrainians love beautiful fences and this concrete fence has three panels, the top one has an ornate grapevine design.
Pastor’s Class
Today, Pastor Ken and Pastor John briefly introduced their subjects to the 7 men whom they will be teaching over the next several days. After each speaking a brief word, the pastors and other men enjoyed a season of prayer together for the upcoming classes and entire mission project. One of the translators, Natasha, did a wonderful joy in translating Russian to English and vice versa, as each of the pastors prayed. It was a blessed time of fellowship around the throne of grace. Tomorrow’s classes begin at 1 pm. The pastors will each teach a 1 hour and 15 minute session each day for five days. Providentially, the Samuel Waldron commentary arrived yesterday from St. Petersburg, Russia. This commentary was chosen for use as it comments one of the Reformed confessions and has been translated into Russian. Our pastors will have their copy in English and the brethren here will have their copy in Russian as they work together.
The unity, love and spirit of the team is very good this year, by God’s grace, and each one is working very hard and it is clear that they desire to do all to the glory of God. Please pray for good weather each day as the fence project and orphanage work is mainly outside. Also, we give thanks that the Lord directed Olga Sawuk to the join the team this year. Olga speaks fluent Ukrainian and grew up
in NJ and this is her first time to the Ukraine. She has been having long and good conversations with Tanya Kovba. Please pray for Tanya as she continues to suffer from headaches and some swelling in the back of her head. She is due for a 6 month check up but lacks the funds as the cost is close to a thousand dollars. Please, please pray for the physical stamina of our ladies on the team as the orphanage ministry is very demanding on them. Though they all LOVE it, and some have already said, “I know which one I want to adopt!”, they need our prayers for grace and strength.
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