Kids, Cakes & Ninjas

Every Sunday evening I head over to one of the local orphanages with a group of people from our church to spend time with the kids. We usually do a Bible study, games, and crafts... but last Sunday was my 31st birthday. So, after celebrating with my family, I headed over to the orphanage to have a party with these little guys. It was a good day! Here are a few pic's of the time with them. Please be praying for these children!

The Ninja's are ready!

Marina liked the cake...

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Precious Children

This morning we headed into the tuberculosis hospital to spend some time with the kids. All these little ones have T.B. and some also have Aids. They don't get too many visitors and they get so excited when people from our church come to play and share the gospel with them. A young lady in our church, Oksana Polischuck, found this place and started going in all by herself to share Christ with these kids. They have a lot of needs. With the help of some generous people we have been able to replace 15 windows so their bedrooms stayed a little warmer this winter. There's still much that we want to help them with. There are about 30 kids right now. Here are a few pictures I took.

Oksana sharing the gospel with the kids.

Two little heads watching us leave... waving goodbye.

Video From Last Weeks Trip

Evidence Of Grace

There is a group of gals in our church that are headed out this weekend to go visit an orphanage in Bila Tserkva. Its a city about 3 hours drive from ours. From what I hear, the conditions at the orphanage are pretty bad. The group is going to be buying things like toilet paper, soap, and toothbrushes for the children.

What brings me so much joy from this whole thing is that there are five young women that want to use this weekend to serve overs. To see them wanting to use their own money and time to demonstrate to 100 kids that God loves them. It makes me so happy to see the grace of God at work in their lives! These gals are an encouragement to me! I am so thankful for what I see God doing in the lives around me!

Please pray for their time. Pray for these little ones that will hear and see the gospel this weekend!

Vlada, Olya, Marina and Valya.
You can't see them in the pic, but there are about 7 big bags of stuff for the kids the gals hauled on the bus with them.

Our Oksana joined the group a little later.
( We all can't get off work early, Huh Oksana?! )

This was taken at the same orphanage a few months ago.


They sent me this pic on their way there. They got to try the new Domino's pizza in Kiev.

Christmas Concert

This year our church decided to put on a Christmas concert at the Philharmonic of Chernigov. A small mission team from Atlanta, Georgia, was able to come and help us with the event. One of the men on the team, David Carnes, is a concert pianist and he agreed to play at our concert. David played his own arrangements of American Christmas songs and Ukrainian folk/Christmas songs. The audience really enjoyed the music. After, Pastor Jake was able to share about Christmas and God’s loving plan of salvation through the incarnation of God. People from our church baked homemade desserts which we served with coffee and tea. Our church worked hard to make it a special evening for our guests. We spent the evening talking with people that normally might not step into a church. It was a wonderful time, a simple and fun way to get to know people and share Christ with them.

We were really excited to be able to rent the Philharmonic for the concert.

Mr. Carnes doing his thing! He is amazing!!!!

Pastor Jake did a wonderful job explaining the the true meaning of Christmas, showing everyone that it is all about Jesus and what He as done for them.

Vlada was the perfect hostess for the event.

Miss Padiy has some great pictures of the event on her blog. Check out Underwater to see her take on the night.

Easter Sunday

Today is Easter here in Ukraine. (We are on the Orthodox calender here.) It was a wonderful day celebrating Christ's resurrection with the church. Here are some pictures from the service today and the picnic we had afterward. I also threw in a few of the kids. They had a lot of fun with balloons today!