Beautiful People—A Year of Blessings

It has been our joy and privilege to serve the Lord over this past year here in Ukraine. I am so grateful for God's work in my life as I have learned many things about myself through some of the difficulties and challenges that naturally come from living in a new culture. I have also been greatly encouraged by some of the dear believers here whom I have come to know. I would like to tell you about a few of them.

I have been helping to teach an English class once a month in the nearby town of Brovary. I have found such beautiful believers there who welcome me with kisses and smiles. They are so eager to learn and they love writing to me in their journals each month. Some of them have shared prayer requests and dreams for their lives. Two of the ladies prayed with me earnestly when I was burdened with a troubling situation. One dear lady who helps take care of the church building found out I was fasting for a friend and asked to pray with me. All of which brought tears to my eyes as I realized they really cared for me. Many missionaries live in places where they don't feel loved and welcomed by the people. Relationships are very important to me and I think I would wither up and die without people around me who care.

Another wonderful experience I had of being welcomed and accepted was during an over-night New Year's excursion to a little village a couple hours outside of Kiev. I was invited to go there with a group of believers from a local church plant called Ecclesia. It was such a blessing to be there experiencing my first New Years in Ukraine with them. We ate our evening meal by candlelight at 11pm and followed it with beautiful worship songs in Ukrainian and Russian. We celebrated communion together and had a special message. After that we shared presents and played a very creative 3 hour game of “spies” followed by another meal at 7am. It was like a “summer camp” experience, when you really spend quality time with people in a way you wouldn't have been able to in the regular routine of life. It was a wonderful experience and a great prelude to the next blessing.

The day after I came back from my New Year's excursion, I hosted a lasagna making demonstration for eight lovely young ladies from the Ecclesia church. The only Italian restaurants here are very expensive and some of the ingredients are new products here, so it was a very new thing for everyone to experience. They loved mixing and layering it all together. I had them make some cheesy garlic bread to go with it, too. We set our long table up in the living room, added store-bought crab salad and I pulled out some extra banana bread I had for dessert. It was definitely an evening to remember. I was so happy to be able to share some recipes with them. They are all young and many of them are just learning to cook. It was also great to be able to practice my Russian while explaining the process. For me it was just fun and friendship, but as I found out later, it was also more than that. Several times in the weeks that followed the pastor of the church earnestly thanked me for sharing with these young ladies as a mature Christian woman. I knew these ladies where blessing me, but to be able to share my life to encourage them, this was the real blessing. I hope to have more of these events in the coming months to share with these same young ladies. I was asked to work with the pastors wife to possibly coordinate a ladies' retreat, too.

Many of you have asked about how we spent our first Christmas here. Since December 25th isn't an official holiday in Ukraine, it was business as usual for most of the folks in the country. But the dear believers in the village of Babintsy held a service that morning and invited us to join them. We enjoyed a couple hours of songs, skits, poems and two messages. Afterward, we were invited to lunch with Pastor Misha and his family at their home. We had a delicious meal together and shared with them, as best we could, in Russian. We were then invited to join Pastor Misha and his son Tolik at a local orphanage to present them with a large box of donations from First Baptist Church in Pennsylvania. When we got there, I was actually glad to see that many of the children weren't there, because that meant they were staying with foster families for the holidays. The few that remained, listened while Pastor Misha talked to them about the gift sent from America and how it related to the gift of Jesus. I was asked to tell them a few things about my being in Ukraine and they seemed to enjoy my attempt at speaking to them in Russian. I think I may have said the word for sing incorrectly, so instead of saying I enjoying singing at Christmas, I think I said I enjoy drinking at Christmas. Yikes! I hope that rumor doesn't get spread around.

I wish I had the time and space to tell you more. Let me just list a few more things I have been blessed by in the last few months. I had a wonderful birthday dinner at our apartment shared with 3 other Ukrainian couples I had known from the summer camps I helped with in Babintsy. I have been corresponding with a hearing-impaired young lady who I met on Facebook and who lives in the city of Kharkov. I finally began formal Russian classes twice a week with Maryanna, the most wonderful teacher in the world!

So there you have it! I hope you can see just how blessed I feel from getting to know and spend time with so many beautiful people here. It was very lonely when we first came here. We didn't really live near anyone we knew and our mission didn't have anyone living here. We didn't know the language or where to find the things we needed. We spent the first couple of months just trying to keep our heads above water. Now, we have new friends, favorite foods, our church, language lessons, and a deeper understanding of the people. We will never stop learning, growing and adjusting, but we definitely feel the peace and joy of the Lord in our lives. And like everything else, we are also getting more of a feel for what God has in store for us in ministry. As our language improves and as we make more connections with people, our ministry here is beginning to take shape. We greatly appreciate your prayers and support. We know we can't do it without you and the Lord. Let's ask Him together to give us many more years of fruitful service in Ukraine!

Valentine's Day

This month we celebrated Valentine's Day, the day when we celebrate love. Many of us celebrate Valentine's Day by having dinner with someone we love, sending and receiving small gifts like chocolates, or maybe you decorate your house with red and pink.

Love. It's a word we all think we know, but can't seem to find a definition for. Is love the feeling you get when you hold that special someone close to you? Is it the feeling you get when a friend or family member comforts you in your time of need? Is love the feeling you get when you see a poor homeless child on the street begging?

Nothing describes love better then the “love chapter” (I Corinthians 13:1-13). I would have written the whole thing out, but I don't have room, so you will have to read it yourself. This chapter basically points out the fact that without love, everything is worthless. It also goes on to list some attributes of love.

My hope is that this year, we will all remember what real, true, genuine love is, and that we will demonstrate it. Remember love is contagious.

THANK YOU

We can't say it enough. All your thoughts, prayers, letters, emails, packages, and support are very much appreciated. As we wrap-up our first year on the field, we thought we would mark the occasion with a new prayer card. As you can see, the kids have grown a lot since our first prayer card in 2005 and we also wanted to give it more of the flavor of Ukraine. But most importantly we want to ask you to use this prayer card as a reminder to pray for us and our ministry. So, please, put it on your fridge, or some other place, and remember us when you see it.

Also, if you are not getting our email updates please send us your email address. This is the best way to keep up with us. We send our newsletter out ever few months, but we send updates every few weeks. Some things come and go in between newsletter issues, but with our updates, you won't miss a thing. It only takes a minute. Send your email to GetHooked@Fish4Him.net today.