Dnipropetrovsk Hallelujahs

It's now been nearly a week of being here in Dnipropetrovsk, and it feels more like a month. We've been working really hard and getting really tired, but it's good. The team is doing really well, the honeymoon phase is starting to be over and people are starting to get on each others' nerves...so what else is new? But it's to be expected with a team of 10 people from 7 different countries! So far, people have been good at working out their differences.

The church we are working with is a bit psycho with how much they work - meeting together at 6am, 12pm, and 6pm every day and doing lots of work in between. They are very old school Pentecostal, with plenty of Amens and Hallelujahs and Praise Gods thrown in at very random moments. I've been to churches like this one, but it's still not my style, plus it's all in Russian, so it's a bit rough for me. And there are some theology things that are a bit iffy, but it's still a good church to work with. They have a lot going on that we can help out with.

This week we were focused on a orphanage for handicapped kids. Tuesday to Thursday we did construction work for them - lots of painting, cleaning, putting up wallpaper, things like that. Then yesterday, Friday, we got to hang out with the kids (about 20 of them) and have a barbecue, play some games, and just hang out. Since we can't talk to them very well, Torben and I did most of the cooking and setting things up, but it was a great time. The kids really enjoyed it. Some were very severely handicapped, while others were able to do more.

So, that was it for this week. Next week we will be doing more street evangelism here in Dnipropetrovsk. Please pray for boldness and wisdom for us!

Outreach Looming!

Less than a week now until outreach starts. The students are getting antsy and last minute preparations are starting to kick in. This morning, we went to a local church to share about DTS and our outreach coming up. It was cool to do something as a team.

Just so everyone is on the same page about what our outreach is going to look like...

Dnipropetrovsk

We leave this upcoming Saturday (the 17) by train for Dnipropetrovsk, a city farther south in Ukraine. It's one of the larger cities in Ukraine, with a million people. We'll be working with a large church there, where we'll have opportunities like rehab centers, orphanage work, youth work, and street evangelism to help out with. We won't be sure exactly what our schedule will be until we get down there and discuss it with the church leaders. All 10 of us will be in a four room apartment, which is good and bad news at once. I had imagined we might be in one big room together, so it's cool that Torben and I will have our own room, but 10 people with one bathroom? Good times. My DTS outreach was in Romania and we had 14 people in two rooms, so I think we'll be okay :) After three weeks in Dnipropetrovsk...

Kiev Youth Festival

We'll come back up here to Kiev for a youth festival which is put together by 20-something youth organizations here in Ukraine. YWAM is one of those organizations, so the staff is all working with practical aspects of making the festival work smoothly. It will be around 8,000 Christian and non-Christian young people from all over Ukraine, so there will be a lot for us to do. We'll be here from the 11th of July to the 16th of July. After that...

Dnipropetrovsk, take two

We'll be back in Dnipropetrovsk from the 16th of July until the 26th of July to continue the work we will have been doing there.

Moldova

Our visas for Moldova start on the 26th of July, so we can head down to Chisinau, the capital, from Dnipropetrovsk. We are still working out the details of exactly what we will be doing in Moldova. The goal of YWAM Kiev and YWAM Iasi in Romania is to start permanent YWAM work in Moldova, which is one of the only Eastern European countries that doesn't have a YWAM base. We're hoping to have a DTS running there by the end of next year. Both YWAM bases have been sending DTS outreaches there for a few years. So, one of our main goals there is to spread the word of what a DTS is. Don't get me wrong, we'll be doing more than advertising, but we're still talking back and forth with our contact there to find out what else we can do ministry-wise.

And then...

We need to leave Moldova by the 24th of August (my birthday!), so we'll come back here to Kiev. Debrief week does not start until the 4th of September, so we're still working on what exactly we can do here in the city or in one of the surrounding villages. There's a lot going on here at the base that we can possibly help out with. My detail mind is about to go crazy with not knowing exactly everything we will be doing, but I know we are doing our best to get everything together. It looks like it will be a very exciting, mobile outreach experience for all of us with a variety of ministry opportunities for the students to be exposed to, which is the point of a DTS outreach.

So, with all of that looming, we're entering into our last short week of lectures. Teaching on evangelism Monday, picking up our Moldovan visas Tuesday, Torben is doing his follow-up relationships teaching on Wednesday, a pep talk from the base leader on Thursday, cleaning day on Friday, then we're off!! I've got that terrified excited feeling I get every time I start something new! It really is amazing that God has put me in this missionary life. I'm the girl who threw a fit when my parents moved the Christmas tree five feet to the left one year. No changes!!! Nothing can ever change!! Who says God doesn't have a sense of humor?

Matt

I just got the news from home, my brother-in-law is finally home from Iraq! And in one piece! Very exciting news, especially for my sister, Candice! He's here just in time for their 1 year anniversary on June 18th. He's been gone since January, so it's been close to half their first year of marriage that he's been gone! I'm very glad that he's home and safe. We've been praying for him so much. Thank God he's home!

The Scandinavian Invasion

Last week was a unique experience in this DTS. So far, the speakers have only been from Ukraine, Canada, or the US. Aside from Monday, when we did team building exercises, the rest of the week we had Scandinavian lecturers!
David Holme, the base leader from YWAM Belarus, was here to speak Tuesday to Thursday on Leadership. He's Norwegian, so Torben had someone else on the base to speak Danish with (don't ask me how that works, but he could speak Danish and David would speak Norwegian and they would understand each other).
The teaching was really cool and challenging for me. He talked a lot about the qualities a leader needs to have. I've struggled sometimes not thinking I'm a good leader because I don't have the typical qualities you assume a leader should have - liking to be in front and in the center of attention or being really really talkative or something. But one of the big qualities David talked about the need to have is vision for the people who are following you and the commitment to do whatever you can to make that vision a reality. I know for me, my vision is to see young Christians come to true freedom in Christ as they learn to live in the light. God has been teaching me so much the past few years about the freedom His truth offers, and I want to see others come to that freedom that I have only begun to taste. So maybe I have a few leadership qualities anyways.
Friday another wonderful Scandinavian taught the DTS. Torben! This time, the topic was a subject that is a true passion of his - relationships. His heart really shone through as he taught about godly relationships between men and women. He shared a lot of his own experiences as a single guy. It was a great experience for him. It's something he's been wanting to do for a while and he hopes to do more of in the future. And the students really enjoyed what he taught about. He didn't have time to finish his teaching, so they asked him to teach another day. I think he will next week.

Miracles all around...

Some cool things happening around the base these days. Two stories for you (not directly involving Torben and I, but really cool...:

Twin Dangers

There is a family here on the base who has one year old twins. The twins are actually the youngest of 10, so this family is used to babies. They're living in the second floor of a house here in Kiev, so they're pretty crowded together. And Pam, the mom, is home with the little ones a lot. Well, these twins are usually really easy sleepers. They go to bed easily, sleep soundly, and everything a mom dreams of. The other day, they just wouldn't calm down. They kept whining and wanting out of their crib. After a long time of this, Pam went in and brought them out to the living room. (You can imagine a frustrated mom at this point, I would think). Literally five minutes after that, the roof in the babies' room collapsed. Huge concrete slabs were seriously inside the crib where the babies had been just minutes earlier. Thank God for irritable babies at that point!!

Marina

One of the ministries here at YWAM Kiev, Mother's Care (I've mentioned it before, it's the one that works with orphaned babies) works with many very very sick little ones. The worst case they are in contact with now is a little one named Marina. She's around three years old and has never been outside the hospital. She has three main things wrong with her, I'll start with the least problematic - 1) She was born with a major cleft palatte and lip. 2) A deformity in her hands and feet caused webbed toes and fingers. Last year they developed gangrene and she became very sick. She lost most of her toes and some fingers. After much persuasion, the doctors did a surgery on her that fixed her feet somewhat, but the problem is back. I don't understand all of it, but it's awful for her. 3) Worst of all, she has some sort of a blood disease. The doctors here can't diagnose it, so they can't fix it either. She gets terribly ill very often because of it, and it is something that could kill her at any time.
So, Mother's Care has been lobbying to get custody of Marina with the view of taking her to the States for medical treatment. They already have a doctor and facility to do the operations necessary lined up in America, but they were buckled down for the long run with all the paperwork and loops to jump through here in Ukraine. Things tend to move very slowly here, with a lot of corruption and people expecting bribes if you want anything done. Sonya, the girl directly involved with taking custody of her, was getting the runaround with where she could go to get permission from something like 15 different doctors.
I don't know the exact details, but today, Sonya officially got custody of Marina. She met someone who knew someone high up in the government who could pull the right strings and now, weeks or even months ahead of schedule, they have the custody they needed and could be leaving for the States as soon as June 10!!!
I am so excited about all of this!! I've met Marina and it just broke my heart to see her so sick. This operation will save her life and possibly even give her a future. Now we just need to pray that she and Sonya can easily get visas to the States (not an easy thing for Ukrainians) so they can get there soon!!