Новость

Of course only a few weeks have gone by since my last post, but it feels as if it has been an entire month! So many things have been happening, or at least it feels like it.

Winter has finally come to Ukraine! I don’t know why this is exciting. After months of unseasonably warm weather we were met with our first snowfall of the year this past week. Let me tell you, now it is COLD! Although I am no friend of winter weather, it was beginning to feel as if I was missing out on a part of the true Ukrainian experience!

Grammar class has been going strong. For the past three weeks I have had a regular group of ten students, which is far more than I had thought would come. It has been a real blessing for me, as I enjoy spending time with the group twice each week. In a few days we will be getting ready to embark on our trip to Budapest, Hungary and Uzhgorod, Ukraine, which I am very excited for! I’m looking forward to exploring and seeing all that Budapest has to offer, within reason of course. After our holiday in Hungary the schedule will begin to run with full strength. Monday nights will be devoted to my grammar class. On Tuesdays and Thursdays I will be teaching another beginning adult ESL class, and of course Fridays will be our conversation group as always. I will be one busy girl, but it will be extremely worth it, of this I am sure.

For all of my prayer warriors out there—thank you so much for your diligence! I have needed much prayer during my time here, and I have really felt it all working in the different aspects of my life. Keep it up! And if you think of it please keep the adult ESL classes in your prayers, especially as I will be getting a new group of students in February. It is my desire to be able to introduce them to God, to a relationship with Christ and to the church that I am working with.

An interesting yet somewhat unfortunate tale from the orphanage…
Recently, during one of our twice-weekly visits to the orphanage, I was playing UNO with a couple teenage boys and one girl. These are some of the older students whom I have enjoyed building relationships with in the last few weeks. During one of our games, however, I spent the majority of time explaining to this one boy why he should not use certain English profanities, all of this is occurring in Russian by the way (kudos to me!). Looking back on the experience it gave me a chuckle. At the same time I began to think about what an awesome opportunity I have to be with those kids in that place, and to be able to minister to them through relationships, as I know that they most likely have no Godly influence in their lives. Please pray for this one boy in particular, as he has a dynamic charismatic personality who could be an influential leader of others for Christ one day. I am praying that God would do the impossible in his life.