Wednesday Photos

Road to Ozero

Property purchased for future church building/community center

Campsite at new property

Greetings from Polina

Worship Team from House of the Gospel

Silly songs with Steve

Ozero Boys

The Housmans at lunch

Fun with "Photobooth" on Rusty's Ipad

Talia making fast friends

Wednesday Report by Suzanne

Today we finally arrived at our destination of Ozero, Ukraine.  Although the rain was still falling, we were excited to see the House of the Gospel team and the village children.  They were gathered in a tent on the lakeside property that was purchased last year for the purpose of building a church.

The children welcomed us with songs and a beautiful “Welcome to Ukraine” sign that was framed with all their hand prints.  The children sang “I Have Decided to Follow Jesus” in Ukrainian, Russian, and English.

We had our first day of bibles school, which of course the children loved because of all the games and crafts prepared in advance by Milly Davis and a group of FBC ladies.  Thank you ladies!  We had a group that beganwith about 25 children but grew to 40 by the end of the day.  Lloyd and Betty shared our bible story about God’s great power over nature illustrated by Moses parting the Red Sea.  The children were attentive.

The children made “sun catchers” by coloring glass shapes with washable paint pens.  Now my jacket pocket is a coat of many colors.  Rusty and Steve immediately became a hit with games and music.  Tolia has about 40 new best friends.  What a wonderful blessing.

Every member of our team has a passion to serve the Lord and the love of Christ shines through them.  We feel your prayers and know they are greatly needed to win the spiritual battle within the village.  I believe the children’s song of “I Have Decided to Follow Jesus” should become our team motto with no turning back, no turning back.

Love In Christ,

Suzanne

Rivne Arrival

Suzanne reunited this afternoon with Tolli and his daughter Zjenja.  You may remember Tolli (pictured on the left) from last November, when he preached at First Baptist Paducah while visiting the states.  He is the associate pastor at House of the Gospel in Rivne.  Zjenja is very interested in worship music and will be a huge help this week as we sing in bible school and worship at night.

The second photo is of our accommodations this evening in Rivne.  I was confused leading up to the trip where we would be staying when Suzanne talked about the "4x4 hotel".  Turns out, it's pretty nice!  We are going to eat a late dinner, and do a little planning and prayer with Tolli before we call it a day here in Ukraine.  In the morning, we drive to Ozero and lead our first day of bible school with the children.

Pray for us to lead wisely and make the most of our time.  It's very rainy this week, but we will have a mid-size tent to work with.  Also, pray for the Lord to give us favor with the people of Ozero.  There has been obvious resistance in recent days from local officials concerning a future protestant church being formed.  The local priest threatened to disassociate with anyone who attended services other that the Orthodox church.  Specifically, the locals would not have the priest available to bury their deceased loved ones.  In short, there are both political and spiritual obstacles at work, so we should intercede for this community.  Pray with expectation and assurance.  God's agenda is always for His own glory and for our good.

This may be the last post before we return from Ozero on Saturday.  Thank you for praying for our 2012 team here in Ukraine.  As of this evening, everyone is healthy and eager to serve.

Rainy Day in Kiev

We spent the morning doing a little site seeing in the rain.  We visited the Lavra Monastery, among other things.  You may not be able to tell by the pictures, but it is really cold and wet here this morning!  Ironically, their weather was in the 100s a couple of weeks ago.


Pictured, you'll see the girls huddled under umbrellas, as well as our Kiev translator, Luba. Luba is a worship leader for her church.

Safe Arrival in Ukraine

We made it to Kiev!  We are worn out, and headed to bed asap.  Thank you for your prayers.  We travel to Rivne tomorrow, and connect with the mission team from House of the Gospel.

Before we left the Munich airport, we had an opportunity to say hello to the Olympic volleyball team from China.  They were traveling home from London.  We couldn't resist the photo opportunity!

World Travelers

Rusty spotted a team returning from the London Olympics here in the Munich airport today.  We're guessing they were the China volleyball team.  Thought you would appreciate it at home!

Travel Progress Report

So far, so good!  We're sitting through a layover in the Munich airport this afternoon (morning at home).  We'll depart Munich around 7 (noon, central time).

The team is in good spirits, in spite of little sleep.  We've enjoyed great fellowship already, and anticipate an important week of ministry in Ukraine.  We'll get settled into our hotel in Kiev tonight, and hopefully get some good rest before we hit the ground running on Tuesday morning.  We hope to write again in Kiev and Rivne, but will be "off the grid" once we're in Ozero.