Dobri Den!

Hi everyone! I am so sorry; it has been forever since I have written. So that means I have a lot to catch up on…

Well the winter here is extremely different from Houston, Texas. There was about five months of snow! I did enjoy most of it, but towards the end I was looking forward to the sun and warmth, haha. The month of December consisted of a lot of planning for the holidays and celebrations in the church. We planned services and activities to do with all the different ministries; it was a lot of fun. On December 12th I went to go see the Backstreet Boys in Kiev. Talk about a flash from the past! Then soon after that I went to go visit my friend in Germany for Christmas. It was such a treat to spend Christmas with close friends, and get to experience a different cultures way of celebrating Christ’s birth.

The day I got back from Germany my mom came! It was so great seeing her! My mom came for an entire month. So she got to spend New Year and experience Ukrainian Christmas with me (here in Ukraine they celebrate Christmas on January 7th). It was such a blessing having her here. We did a lot of caroling and cooking and eating, it was so much fun! She got to experience a life of living here, and what it was like working with the Trinity team.

To start off the month of February I was sick with a cold, but once I got over that I started my ESL lessons for the second semester. There is a good core group that comes every week and enjoys learning English. It’s been awesome hearing about these teenagers’ faith in Christ and building relationships with them. Also I was able to see how things worked here with elections. It was really interesting to learn more about the politics here. Also small groups started on Sunday nights. It was really cool to connect in a small group setting and be able to talk about the sermon from the morning.

At first I was really bummed that I wasn’t going to be able to see the Super Bowl (especially with my favorite team playing, the Saints!). Fortunately, Evan (his parents are missionaries here, most of ya’ll that have come on trips have met him) invited me to a Super Bowl party! It was a lot of fun, and I got to meet many American missionaries living here in Lviv. It was nice being able to talk to Americans.

I also was able to see how schools work here. My friend asked if I could come help her with an English class she was teaching. It was a lot of fun. Many of the teenagers were very good at English, and some had even been to America. The rest of the month consisted of ESL, leaders meetings, the girls Bible study “Cooking with Jesus” and Ukrainian lessons.

Then at the beginning of March, I was invited to go to Prague for a few days. It was such an amazing experience. I went with Olya, Olya, Sashko and Oleg. They were on there way to the History Makers conference, and they were stopping in Prague on the way, so I joined them. God blessed our trip so much. It was a bit difficult getting there, especially when our bus broke down, but our trip just grew better and better from then on. We got to see most of the city (absolutely beautiful city). We had friends there who offered us a place to stay. On Sunday, we attended a Russian speaking church, and I had the privilege of sharing my testimony. I had never shared my testimony in front of that many people before, but God definitely grew me through that. I also met a very sweet girl on my way home. I was traveling alone and had to find my way to the bus station. So I asked this girl for directions and we got to talking and she offered to buy me breakfast before I left, and through that I made a new friend in Prague!

At the beginning of April, Chad came to visit the team. It was really good seeing him. We were able to get a lot of future planning and questions answered. Also Easter came along. We had a very good service. Easter was very relaxing for me, a lot of time to reflect on Christ’s resurrection. I also got to try paska, traditional Easter bread they cook here, it is very delicious! The day after Easter here was a big water fight between mostly kids and teenagers. Thankfully, I didn’t get soaked but I did get a tad bit wet. It was crazy.

Some things I am looking forward to is Anya and I will be getting another roommate during the summer. She is an American and is trying to decide if God is leading her to be a full-time missionary here in Ukraine. Also my brother is coming for a visit in the middle of May, so I’m very excited to see him. Prayers for the team coming in May and the team in June would be greatly appreciated. Also prayers for the ESL camp at the end of the summer, that we would get everything planned and that we will get many students interested.

Also if you could keep Poland in your prayers. They have recently lost their president, and many important government officials in a tragic plane crash.

Another prayer request is for flights to go well throughout Europe. They have only recently started flights back up since the volcanic eruption in Iceland. Please pray that there will be no volcanic ash to affect the airplanes.

Thanks everyone for your prayers and support. I really appreciate it. God Bless!