Ten Great Years

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This month marks our tenth year in Ukraine. We were looking through our old prayer cards remembering how gracious and merciful the Lord has been to allow us to live here. To witness God's power in saving lives here has been amazing. We are so very grateful for how He has cared for us and provided for our every need these past ten years. We are blessed to be able to live in Chernigov and be part of the church family here.
Thank you to all who have prayed for us for so long!!! Please keep praying for Ukraine.

Emma Lost Her First Tooth

Crawling

Sidewalk Chalk

This past Sunday we were able to head outside with the children at the Orphanage down the street from our house. We had the Bible study outside and then ran around and played with the kids in the yard. It was so nice playing with them outside in the sun. Spring is here!

Something happened after the Bible study that caught my attention. We gave the kids a bunch of sidewalk chalk and told them to have fun. There is a little patch of pavement in the courtyard. The kids ran over to it and started drawing animals, some drew funny faces, while the girls played hopscotch. I noticed that two little boys had taken their chalk and drawn crosses on the pavement. I walked over to one of them and asked him about his drawing. He told me "I drew the cross that Jesus died on so that he could forgive our sins!" To see this little guy run from the Bible study, draw a cross and tell me its meaning made me so happy! Thank you all for praying for the orphans that our church visits each week. The Lord is good and He is opening the eyes of these little ones to the gospel.

Marina thanks for the pictures!

Hands

Arden Paige

Happy Easter From Ukraine

Church Babies

Lev and Arden hanging out together before church. They are only 2 weeks apart.

It Just Keeps Coming Down

We thought February would bring some better weather and a little less snow... We were wrong! It as been snowing for the past three days.

There has been so much snow this year that some weeks it has been impossible to drive down our road.

Our church sign now sits high on a snowbank letting people know where the church is.

Gavin and Emma hope that snow keeps coming!

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.

Just A Little

That's a picture of Gavin around the same age.

The Money Box

Yes, "the money box". It all started with a little cardboard box with a hole in the top. While we were in CA this summer, Emma came to me with a shoe box and asked me to cut a hole in the top. So, I did and didn't really think much more about it. But them Emma kept on asking me for the change in my pockets. "Papa, do you have any coin money?" Every time she would see my wallet out she would ask, "Do you have a one dollar I could have? Please, Dad! " We started to think that this little girl was getting a little money hungry! Then, after being asked yet again if I had any money for her "money box", I asked Emma what she was planning on doing with all her money. Her answer was this, "I want to buy toys for the kids with no moms and dads at the orphanage when we get back to Ukraine." Hearing this response made Koren and I so happy. Our little girl was not becoming a little miser. God was working in her heart love for others.
Soon after, Emma had the idea to put up a Lemon-aide stand at Grandma Kathy's house to see if she could raise a little more money for the kids. (I think that Grandma bought most of the lemon-aide). As word spread about Emma's box, the Lord put it on a dear friend's heart to give a donation for the children. We soon were informed that a church had given a donation as well. It blew us away how the Lord provided this money and how He was using Emma to be a part of His work.



So here we are... Yesterday we took that "money box" money and bought soap, toothpaste, tooth brushes, shampoo, fruit, and a few other things and made up twenty-five gift bags. Recently we found out about an orphanage that we didn't know existed. It is a home for children that have just lost their parents or have had to be taken from their homes for a number of reasons. I was told that there were about twenty kids right now and that they ranged from ages three to sixteen. After visiting the place a few times by myself, we thought that it would be a great place to use the money. We told Emma about these 2o kids and she thought it was the perfect place to take gifts. After talking with the staff we thought that tooth brushes and that sort of thing would be the best way to use the money. You can see by the pictures that the kids were very excited about these little bags.

Emma was so happy to see this whole thing coming together!

It was all up to the kids to get these bags ready.

It was a wonderful time with the children and the staff. The head teacher even asked me if I would say a few words to the children and the entire staff about the gifts. It was a great time to share who these gift were really from. I was able to share with them how much God loves them and what He has done for them! The head teacher also invited us to start coming in weekly from now on. Please be in prayer for this orphanage. There are currently twenty-four children living there. The Lord has opened wide the doors for us to minister there. Gavin and Emma are thrilled to be a part of it and we are excited to see the Lord using them.

Thank you Lord and thank you for using our five year old!

We love you Emmushka!





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