MINISTRY HIGHLIGHTS - Part 2

AUGUST 26 - 31, 2013

I arrived in the city of Kramatorsk with the Canadian team on Sunday, Aug. 25th, where we met Yura, the pastor of the small Evangelical Free Church there and discussed our ministry plan for the week.

Each morning we met at the church at 8:15 for prayer before the children's program started at 9 am. It started with a time of worship - songs and Bible lesson - before the kids were divided into 3 groups by age: Crafts, Sports and English (45 minutes of each). Then we gathered once more in the church for a couple more songs and a testimony before the kids went home. I was the one of the assistants and the person responsible for attendance in Crafts.

ASSEMBLY

The kids listened very well during the speaking times and we used a lot of energy in our singing too!

CRAFTS

The kids are SO artistic - no matter what craft we did, they showed their creativity!!

SPORTS

The trampoline was hugely popular with the kids all week!!

ENGLISH LESSON

Some of the older girls had very good English skills and helped out with the lessons.

These two kids hung out with Sergei all week - I think he was like an older brother to them. It was fun to watch, as you can see from Jack's smile behind them.

Our theme was the "Armor of God," so Daniel was our Roman soldier - a real-life illustration!

Pastor Yura did all the main translating; his wife, Alyona, helped out with explaining the crafts, Sergey helped out in sports and Daniel Dantsev helped translate in the English class. Without these people it would have been MUCH more difficult, so I am very grateful for them!!

After lunch, which was prepared for us by Irina -- again, VERY delicious and satisfying -- we had a little bit of quiet time and then went back to the church for the evening adult sessions. We started with tea and fellowship between 5 and 5:30 pm and then had worship, Bible lesson and testimony inside the church.

Then, the adults in attendance were divided into Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced English groups for a 45-minute English lesson. I taught the 1st-level Beginner class, with Sergey helping me in translation. Stacy taught the 2nd-level Beginner class with Daniel as translator. Mike and Jack taught the Intermediate class with Pastor Yura's assistance. Dennis, Sandy and Darcy taught the Advanced group with no translation help.

This is me with one of my students, Luba. Her daughters came to the children's program in the morning and she came in the evening. She only speaks German and Russian, and by the end of the week was feeling confident with what she was beginning to learn in English. I feel blessed to have had the opportunity to begin building a relationship with her!

Sept. 1 is the first day of the new school year in Ukraine - and there is always a big ceremony, even if it's on Sunday. At church, all the students who are beginning another year of study were celebrated.

This is me, Stacy and Katya - a little girl with a huge smile and fun personality! I don't know what her family or home situation is, but she seemed to need much love and attention.

The other HUGE highlight for me (aside from the renewed passion for teaching English) was the privilege of staying with Kate, a sweet Christian lady. Every evening we enjoyed tea with her when we got home, and she was so kind and accommodating. We also got to meet some of her friends and enjoy some great Ukrainian food and hospitality!!

MINISTRY HIGHLIGHTS - Part 1

AUGUST 17 - 22, 2013
The Rays of Love team joined with some Canadian friends for a week of ministry in the village of Mishurin Rog, about 2 hours from Krivoy Rog. The team has been doing ministry in this village for many years, but it was my first time, so it was especially exciting for me!

We spent time each morning and evening from Monday to Thursday with the boys who live at a handicapped orphanage in the village. Some of them are unable to communicate well or understand a lot of what we tell them, but they have brilliant smiles and kind hearts, they love to sing and play, and they need affirmation and touch to let them know that they are very loved. Playing and singing with the boys and giving out lots of hugs were a couple of big highlights for me! Here are just a few of the hundreds of pictures I took while we were there.

Above: The boys singing some of their favorite songs with us at the assembly on the last day we were there.

Above: This is our whole team, including the members from Canada.

Every day we walked to the home of a special Ukrainian lady for lunch. It was a long walk (45 minutes plus) but very worth it, because the food was delicious!! The goats along the way were entertaining also.

We also did a program with kids from the village every afternoon - sharing a Bible lesson, singing worship songs, playing games and doing crafts - and we had a good turnout. One girl expressed a desire to know about how to accept salvation - praise God!

This young girl has a beautiful spirit and smile, and she was so open. 

On the last day, we made bannock over the fire with the kids -- they loved it!!

We were going to do this at the field where we played soccer, but one of the village boys started a grass fire, so we had to change plans. PRAISE GOD - we were able to get the fire out so that it wouldn't spread to the homes in the village (there was lots of dry grass).

We used Curtis's car to take buckets of water from the well at the church to help put out the fire.

Mike standing in the middle of the affected area. Thankfully it was contained to the field.

L to R: Ruslana, Vlad, Tanya, Yan, Sveta, Janna, Roma and Sergey.

The guys from our team also played soccer every afternoon with men and teenagers from the village -- this has been a tradition as well all the years we have been going to Mishurin Rog, and it is a really great opportunity to build relationships and be a witness for Christ. I was there cheering our guys on most of the days - it was pretty exciting! These pictures are from the championship game on the last day.

Yan presenting a celebratory award to the village team.

The Canadian team won, but there were good spirits all around.

This was a week of ministry that I will not soon forget, and I am grateful that God gave me the opportunity to be a part of it.