Two places at once...

This week was filled with many different activities.  We have added an additional night to our playground ministry so now we have it on Tuesdays and Thursdays.  This Tuesday we decided to just do a craft.  We chose to decorate composition books with scrapbook paper, stickers, and sharpies.  In Ukraine there is one age group of people that are willing to accept missionaries easily.  This group is children.  Christ had it right in Matthew 18:3 "'Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.'"  Since children are the most accepting we use playground ministry to reach them and to eventually use the relationships we develop with them to reach out to their familes.  Tuesday we were joined by several mothers and even a grandma.  The kids really enjoyed decorating their books, a grandma gratefully accepted the demo book I had made for the craft, and we were able to talk to several mothers. 

I heard a statistic once that it takes around seven experiences hearing the gospel for someone to accept or reject salvation, these experiences are often called "planting seeds".  Here in Ukraine things are a little more difficult than this though.  It feels like it takes over 100 planting seeds experiences and then more than likely you are still going to get rejected.  The most important part of mission work here is to build relationships and then SLOWLY bring in evangelism.  This is the hardest part of mission work in Ukraine.  You want to be super on fire for God, but if you jump the gun and try to witness without a relationship you will certainly be shut out completely.   Relationships are vital here, and relationships of course take time!  Playground ministry is a perfect opportunity to work on these relationship with people in the community. 

Wednesday I joined the Ledford family and took a day trip to Poland.  To get to Poland we had to take a 2 hour bus ride to the border, walk across the border and then take another bus to the nearest town.  Ukraine is considered a third world country and Poland is not; therefore, Poland and Ukraine are like two very different worlds.  It was nice to get away and experience another country while I am in Europe.  We got to visit a castle and see some really interesting buildings.

 I was excited to get extra stamps on my passport.

 A main square in Poland.

 A huge church in Poland.

 The castle we visited.

The view from the castle.

I guess the most interesting story from Poland was the ride home.  We ate dinner and thought we would have pently of time to get home because we thought the last bus back to L'viv left at 10.  When we got back into Ukraine we found out that the last bus left at 9 and we had missed it.  We were told we could start walking 80 km roughly 50 miles or we could sleep on the street until the next morning for the bus to come.  This was really scary!  We knew we had some friends that had cars that could come and get us, but we were still going to have to stay in a scary city at night for around two hours waiting for them to get there.  We all began to pray.  About 15 minutes later a man drove up in one of the nicest cars I have seen in Ukraine, and just offered to give us a ride to L'viv.  There were five of us and he just happened to be driving a van with five extra seats.  I know that God answered our prayers and was keeping us safe that night.  What a blessing to experience an answered prayer so quickly, and to feel so protected by God!

Thursday we had a translator at playground ministry so we were able to tell the story about Jesus feeding the five thousand.  As a craft the kids were able to express their artistic talents by painting wooden fish.  Afterwards we played some basketball, ping pong, and soccer.  It was a fun night all around!

This was officially my fourth week in Ukraine... I can see the time dwindling and this feeling is bittersweet.  I love it here and I have greatly enjoyed my time.  I have had the most amazing experiences and met some life-changing people.  I, of course, miss home and will be happy to see my family again, but I have gained such an unexpected passion for this place.  For the first time in my life I wish that I could be in two places at once.  Through this experience I now know that God is calling me to do more mission work in the future.  I will continue to pray for the decernment to know where in the world this calling is, but Ukraine is at the top of my list.  But God isn't just calling me to do mission work, He is calling you too!  This can come in many forms both in the US and overseas.  I encourage you all to be open to anywhere that God calls you!  He will bless you for answering His call. 

"And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.  Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it." - Matthew 10:38-39

"And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up." - Galatians 6:9

"If anyone serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there will my servant be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him." - John 12:26

I'm looking forward to two more amazing weeks here.  Keep praying.

A week of ups and downs...

So first of all I apologize for the lack to blog updates this week.  With Euro 2012 being in town we have been staying up late watching soccer and I just haven't found the time or I guess really made the time to update the blog...Anyways I will just fill you in all at once with updates from the whole week. 

Tuesday marked one of the lowest times I have had here in Ukraine.  When the weather changes here it does something serious to the pressure of the atmosphere.  I don't really understand how it all works, but I do know that it can cause severe headaches.  This is what I was feeling Tuesday and was stuck inside all day.  It was a good day to feel bad though because it rained all day.  I hope I can get through the rest of my trip without having to feel like that again.

On Wednesday Chelsey and I traveled to the "fan zone" in the center of the city to catch up with a missionary team from Texas and some fellow Ukraine missionaries to watch the Euro 2012 game. 

Thursday was the day I had been looking forward to all week because it is playground ministry night.  This week I was unsure about what to make, but after some thought I planned to make a flower pen.  It is an artificial flower taped to a regular pen.  On this particular night we ended up having mostly girls and only a few boys, so it turned out to be the perfect craft.

 We even convinced some boys to make the flower pens...

These guys were just so precious, and they thought my English was just so funny!  They ended up convincing all the "big kids" to play on the monkey bars...

At the end of the day we had two extra flower pens one unmade and on that I had made as an example.  This lady always shows up during the time of playground ministry and reads by herself.  You can't tell by this picture, but she had a baby wrapped in her jacket.  Since we had left overs I took her the flower pen I made as the example.  She seemed happily surprised that someone was giving her something.  I hope that a seed was planted by this small act of kindness.  Please pray that a relationship can be made with this lady in the future. 

Friday was my 21st birthday.  I thought that I would be really homesick, and I guess I was a little, but a good dinner, fellowship with friends, and some chocolate cheesecake made me feel much better.  I have met some amazing people here and I am so thankful that they have taken me in and treated me like family! 

Saturday we stayed in the center of the city we took Mikola some food and spent some time fellowshipping with him.  He was in good spirits smiling, and laughing.  It was the first sunny and hot day we have had in a long time so I was wearing my sunglasses.  Mikola didn't have a hat or sunglasses and I knew he had spent the whole morning squinting and would spend the whole afternoon squinting as the sun beat down on him so I offered him my sunglasses.  At first he was worried that I wouldn't have any buy I assured him that he needed them more than I did.  He joked that he looked so cool after he put them on and insisted that I take his picture so here it is. 

Today was Father's Day and we were able to spend the day at a local park grilling pork and sausage.  I was honored to share in the family festivities of the Ledfords, but I couldn't help but miss my own daddy.  I know that I would not be the person I am today if it weren't for my dad who raised me in a Christian family since I was born.  He has always been there for me and supported me in anything that I do, even if that meant traveling half way around the world!  I missed my dad so much today, but I know he understands and is proud of me for being on this journey. 

It was certainly a week of ups and downs, but thankfully more ups than downs.  I have almost been here 3 weeks.  I am halfway through my journey!  I still consider myself blessed to have this opportunity to follow God's calling for my life.

What an amazing weekend...

As the title says it has been an amazing weekend, but at the same time it has been VERY busy, so I'll go ahead and apologize for the length of this post...

I'm sure many of my readers know that the European Soccer Tournament is taking place in L'viv and the first of three games in the city was Saturday.  A huge gated area has been constructed in the center of the city called the "fan zone"! I was hesitant at first to venture into this area because a lot has been broadcasted on local news about the violence associated with the European teams, but it turned out to be a somewhat safe adventure.  It was however a little disheartening to see the vast numbers of drunken people celebrating their teams through songs and chants.

On a better note, some pretty amazing things did happen because of these events.  The Ledford's have recently been helping a homeless man named Mikola.  He is the same guy I mentioned in my first post after arriving here, and he has an incredible story.  Mikola was a solider for Ukraine a long time ago, 15 years ago his wife died and as a result he turned to alcohol and lost everything.  He sleeps at the train station along with a lot of other homeless people and begs on the streets everyday.  He has spent the last 15 years of his life like this, but recently he made a life-altering change.  The Ledford's built up a relationship with him and invited him to church one week.  He accepted Jesus that day, which happens very rarely here!  Since then the Ledford's have noticed a real change.  He has no longer smelled of alcohol and he always greets you with a smile and a hug that just beems with God's love.  Anyways... Mikola has had a rough few days because he got beat up at the train station for some food he had been given by a local church.  We heard through a fellow missionary that a local church was hosting a viewing party for the game that night.  We were able to get Mikola to the church.  When they saw that he was homeless they welcomed him with open arms and let him use their facilities to take a bath, they offered him clean clothes, and he was able to fill his belly and enjoy some soccer.  It was such a blessing to witness a brother in Christ go from dirty, hungry, and afraid to clean, full, and happy!  I was overwhelmed...

...But wait there was more.  I also met another homeless man there who didn't speak very much English at all.  For most of the time I've been here the language barrier has been the most difficult aspect, but for some reason I felt led to speak to this guy.  So, in my clearest English, I tried to ask him which team he was rooting for in the soccer game.  He just looked at me like I was crazy, because he had no idea what I had said.  But with some hand gestures I eventually got my point accross.  We eventually communicated where we were both from and our names, and just as our conversation was ending he asked what I could tell was the most important question to him "are you a Christian?" I of course replied "yes, yes, dak, dak!"  The biggest smile came across his face, and he said "good, me too!"  I don't really know why God led me to talk to this guy, but I know that he was placed in my path for a reason.  Maybe he needed encouragment or maybe I needed encouragment to not let the language barrier hender my work here.  Either way it was a blessing to see the smile on the face of a fellow believer when he was able to declare that he was a Christian!

Today we ventured out to a church in a village near L'viv.  It was a 10 minute bus ride followed by another 50 minute bus ride followed by a 30 minute walk through streets dotted with cow manure.  When we finally made it there all I wanted was to be able to sit down on a nice comfy padded pew, but I instead rested my back side on a completely 90 degree angle wooden pew.  Not exactly comfortable, but as I sat there I came to the conclusion that for 20 years of my life I have taken for granted so many things like being able to drive 5 minutes to church and sit on a comfortable pew, in a temperatured controlled room, with music accompanied by instruments.  And despite all these nice things about my church back home, I still make up excuses to not go to church when I just don't feel like it.  God doesn't want your excuses, He wants you to come to church so he can bless you!  And bless me is exactly what He did!  Luckily Chelsey's dad Tim was preaching today with the help of a translator.  So I could understand him preaching in English and everyone else could understand his message through a translator.  He spoke about how loving your neighbor is one of the most important commandments from God!  It was something I really needed to hear because I know I have been called here to show the love of God to the people I encounter in Ukraine, and to be reminded that I am in God's will and following one of his greatest commandments is yet another blessing!

So to sum up the weekend all I can say is it has been full of blessings, GOD HAS BEEN SO GOOD!  I can not believe I have been here for almost two weeks.  The time has just seemed to fly by!  Please continue to keep me in your prayers, and while you are at it please pray for Mikola, The Ledford's, and all the other people in Ukraine striving to share God's love with the people here.  I hope you all had amazing weekends as well!

First night of Playground Ministry...

We have spent the past few days getting ready for our first night of playground ministry and it turned out to be a success!!  The idea of playground ministry is of course to show the kids the love of God, but its also a way of creating relationships with the kids and the parents.  For the first night we decided to do the sand art craft and then afterwards play frisbee with the kids for a little while.  We were also blessed to have amazing weather considering the past three days have been cold and rainy. 

 At first the kids didn't know what to do, only a few would come up to the table and then all at once they surrounded us.  As you can see one even made it on top of the table.  They all seemed so excited.

 We had kids of all ages.

The kids were all so excited and just full of energy, it was such a good day.

One little boy with his finished product.

My last box of craft supplies from home came yesterday and somehow one of the sand art crosses had been mixed in with the craft supplies in that box.  So when we opened the box yesterday I found it an put it with the others.  Then halfway through the kids doing their sand art we thought we weren't going to have enough for everyone to do one, but we ended up having exactly the right amount.  So without that last cross coming through the mail yesterday one kid would have been left without a sand art cross.  That is the power of God! I am so thankful to Him and to everyone who is praying for me and my journey.  I am having a blast seeing God work over here!  Keep on praying! 

Be Flexible...

So I haven't even been here a week yet, and I have already learned one of the most important things about being a missionary... BE FLEXIBLE...

No I don't mean the yoga, touch your toes, kind of flexible.  I mean don't be stuck to one specific schedule because thats the schedule you heard the night before or even the very morning.  It is important to know that plans change and that all-in-all God's plan is the one we must strive to follow. 

So long story short, I know in the previous post I explained how we would be passing out candy at a local market, unfortunatly that plan fell thru.  This past Sunday just happened to be the day that Ukrainians celebrate Pentecost, so it was not a good day to go through with our previous plans.  We assumed that we were out of mission opportunities for the day so we decided to go to the lake with some other missionary friends.  It was also an amazingly sunny day (a rarity in Ukraine) so the lake trip was a great idea.  When we got there we passed the frisbee around a little and played in the sand.  What we didn't know was that although we had written the day off as a day lacking missions opportunities God had a bigger and better plan.  A group of three Ukrainians came down to the lake as well and we ended up going over and inviting them to play Ultimate Frisbee with us.  They had never played before and didn't know the rules until we explained them, but somehow they still ended up beating us.  We also invited them to "slack line" (you walk across a line strung between two trees).  They seemed to have a lot of fun and we were able to invite them to a lot of church activities and they seemed very interested!! It felt so great to meet new people and then have an opportunity to plant a seed by inviting them to church!  So I have officially learned to be flexible, and just let God lead me!  What an amazing weekend...

                                                       Gorgeous view of the lake

Chelsey and I NOT getting in the freezing cold water...

How the slack line is supposed to look.

Our new friends trying the slack line out...

I wasn't very good...haha

Now that I have spent all this time talking about being flexible and not always sticking to the plan... Yesterday we "PLANNED" some of our playground ministry opportunities.. This is where we will get to play with some kids in a local neighborhood and plan crafts for them to make once a week... I am so excited to meet these kids and show them how much God loves them.  Please pray for some more nice weather and some more opportunities to share the love of God.  We are also waiting on one more box of craft supplies to come from the states so please pray that it makes its way thru customs and to us.

Encouraging others...

So the past two days have been somewhat low key... We are all just waiting around to start the playground ministries next week, but I must say I have learned a lot over the past two days....

I was so blessed to participate in the Ledford's weekly Shabbat.  For those of you (like myself) who don't know what Shabbat is it is a Jewish tradition which celebrates God's creation and rest with a blessed family time.  Although we are not Jewish we recognized that Jesus was Jewish and so Jesus participated in Shabbat.  We broke bread and drank grape juice symbolizing Jesus and his sacrafice and everyone at the table was blessed with a little prayer.  I loved learning about this interesting tradition and it was a great time of fellowship and thanksgiving with pretty ahhhhmazing food. 

Today we met up with some other missionaries for dinner and coffee as a way to encourage each other in our own specific journies.  One of the Methodist missionaries, Nick, that works with Chelsey had a friend from home come for a visit.  She is a full-time missionary in the Middle East!!! We all were blessed to hear about her journey.  She explained that anytime she went out she had to cover her head, and that they had to hide their prayer meetings by meeting at different times and places during the week.  I quickly realized how much I take for granted on a daily basis.  Back home and even here in Ukraine I can take my Bible out and read it anytime I want, I can go to church and worship in public, I don't have to worry about being caught and killed for my religion.  Hearing her experience was certainly eye-opening.  The bible tells us to be an encouragment to the people around us, and I hope that we were an encouragment to her to stay strong in her walk and missionary experience. 

Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing. - 1 Thessalonians 5:11

Tomorrow we are going to pass out candy and tracts at a local bizzare, which is similar to a farmers market.  Please pray that God is with us and that people will be willing to hear about Jesus.