Trip to Western Ukraine

Well, first off I would like to thank those of you that where praying for our time in western Ukraine. The trip was amazing! I was blown away by how God led and blessed us.

So many people where affected by the flooding and have lost everything. After the waters receded many of the homes had so much water damage that they just simply collapsed. Everything was covered in mud and none of the villages had clean drinking water. ( You can see the water lines on the houses in many of the pictures.) It was extremely sad because the majority of the people we met there were older and so helpless.

Our goal was to go down and help any way we could, so that Christ's love would be seen. We were able to buy tons of flour, oil, sugar, buckwheat, bread, and pasta to give to people. Many times as we would hand a bag to people they would be on the verge of tears, they were so thankful. We met one woman whose house had been completely under water for a week. One of our days was spent trying to help her clean and salvage what she could.

This trip put a lot of stuff in perspective for me. We met so many people. Some had quite a lot before the flood and many had very little, but after the waters left everyone had about the same. Nothing! There was one grandmother who had lost everything. She was living in a shack. She probably had less than anyone out there. But, as they tried to give her food and cloths, she refused some of it and told us that she had enough and that God would lead us to someone in greater need then she was. This sweet grandma had nothing and yet was content. This grandma loved Jesus!

We also had the chance to get to know the coolest bunch of Romanian believes! That's right Romainian! We were on the border of Romania and some of the towns and villages are almost 100% Romanian. This Romanian church took us in and showed us so much love and hospitlay. It was very humbling! I know that we all left this trip feeling like we were the ones that were being blessed.

Again, thank you for all your prayers!



(thanks to Greg and Jake for some of these pics )