Celebrating...

Bible Club in Ukraine

 I haven't had the time to share with you what we have been doing lately, but this just could not wait.  This is something that is dearest to my heart - the children of Ukraine.  It has long been in my heart to do a Bible club, but, just like with David, it was not God's desire for us to be the first ones to start this.  God allowed us to purchase the building last year and we are just now getting it to a place where it is ready to be met at (thanks to the help of the White's filling in for us).  They decided to start a weekly-one day Bible Club at the house first, then a week long club on the church property later.  They will be meeting every week on Tuesdays.  Please be in prayer for these clubs and the Week camp (VBS).  Pray also for workers.  The Lord knows there is no other place I'd rather be right now, but in His time.  Below I have posted the email from Joyce White.  I know it will be a blessing to you. 

 

We had our first Bible Club yesterday and we were very pleased.  Lina was so excited!  We knew that we would have 5, prayed for 7 and prepared for 10.  We had 14 children and 2 grandmothers come. (We only invited children we knew - 4 all together- they invited their friends) Then with Mike, Lina and me we had a total of 17.  One thing Lina and I learned is that we will not be able to do Bible Camp without some help.  We are going to encourage Vala to take off work the week of Bible Camp and help us.  We are also going to ask Slava to help.  We are praying about asking one of our  friends from Kaliningrad to come help us.  She is a wonderful Christian young lady and is great with children.  She would be a big blessing if she can come.  All the kids said they would be back next week and would bring a friend.  We are making preperations for 20 - I hope that will be enough.  - By the way, I'm using a lot of your stuff.  I've almost used all the card stock paper you had here, plus a lot of the scrap booking paper for the crafts.  I'll replace as much as I can while we are home.  I plan to get as much as possible for the Bible Camp while we are home.  The main thing we need is visual aids for the lessons and some craft stuff.

 

The hope for your church to grow is in the children.  If you can win them, you can win their families.  Not only was Lina encouraged but Mike and I were too.  When we get back at the end of July we will spend more time trying to reach the children. We now have 6 families that we can visit! We believe that having the Bible Camp at the end of August will help to get children in Sunday School in September.

 

Got to run, I've got to get all the crafts organized and most of them cut out so things will go smoothly next week. 

 

In Christ,

Sis. Joyce

Decorating Fever

The way my husband put it is, "I can tell your homesick because you just have to decorate."  I LOVE decorating and I love to leave a place prettier than I got it in.  I don't always get a chance to do that, but since we are staying for 2 weeks, except for Sundays, at our home church, the decorating bug that has been "itching" me has bit pretty hard.  I have been able to decorate some rooms for my pastor's wife, I'm working on the prophet's chamber and Pastor said I could decorate the nursery.  I am super excited to help with that.  He likes the idea of using scripture prints so I have been working on ideas for pictures.  This is one of them...

Fitting verse for the nursery, don't you think? ;)

I also took this picture for my pastor's wife.  She loves her horse and I knew she wanted to have a horse room, but didn't have enough decorations for it.

Only 2 more weeks until we travel to GA to see my family!!!  Can't wait, but not too excited about the drive.

I have also had a few opportunities to speak to the ladies at our churches and will be teaching a ladies' Sunday school class on Sunday and a ladies' meeting on next Thursday.  I think I have everything prepared for Sunday, but I still have a few more things I'd like to get together for Thursday.  I will also be decorating for that and planning some games.  If I feel up to it (still waking up every 2 hrs with a baby), I might even make a few Ukrainian recipes.

There are SO many pictures on my camera waiting to be shared.  The kids are growing way to fast!  But that will have to wait until I have more time.  The Lord has recently blessed me with a NEW camera and the pictures from the last two posts and this one were taken with it!  I am SUPER excited...though, my little Kodak easy share has been pretty good to me these past 5 years.  He won't be far - in my purse for "special" times.

 Just wanted to let you all know that we are still here.  Looking forward to seeing many of you soon!

Want to know where we'll be?
June ~ GA
July  ~  MD
August - October ~ ME
End of October ~ VA
November ~  HOME!!!

Tastes from Ukraine

 

When thinking of Ukrainian food, this may not be the first thing that comes to mind.  In fact, it may not come to mind at all.  But for us, we remember mayonnaise chicken.  I'm sure it came about just from the creativity of the Ukrainian housewives.  They use a little of everything they have with delicious results.  Whenever they could afford it, this is what Kristina usually fed us.  Because my husband was craving it, I decided to fix some the other day...and a few more days after that as well.

Ingredients:

Mayo (1-1/2 cups)

1 egg

juice from 1/2 a lemon

some or all of the following (onion, green onion, garlic, salt, pepper)

Spices/fresh herbs (I used rosemary this time because I was craving the flavor, but you can use whatever you have...dill, oregano, basil...)

Mix all of the ingredients together.  Spread over chicken pieces in pan.

Cover with tinfoil and bake at about 325-350 for about 45-1 hr.

Any additional cooking, I usually cook at 425.

Ukrainians usually use chicken with the skins and bones.  I've done both skinless and with skins.

Moms ~ Making Memories

 Isn't he getting so big?  His cheeks are just as soft and kissable as they look!

A mom...growing up, that's what I wanted to be, just like my mom.  

She made the job look so fun!

Yeah, some may have criticizes her when there were dishes in the sink,

but while others were doing dishes,

she was cuddling and giving kisses.

 'Cause dishes, they will last,

but time soon will past.

You put up with imperfect jobs done, so that we would learn to do it too.

Now that I am a mom, I know how hard it is to not just 'do it yourself'.

You sat on my bed with me and listened to my worries.

You had warm cocoa waiting on winter days

and blankets warmed in the dryer to cuddle with on the couch.

You always told me

"When you are hurting, sad or lonely, reach out to help someone else."

You were always ready to play a game of cops and robbers or baseball.

Even though other moms had "successful" careers,

you were there for us...

and we knew

you'd rather be a mom to us 

than the most influential woman in the world.

 

One of my most precious memories of you

is waking in the middle of the night (or at least it seemed that way)

to see you praying.  I knew it was for us.

Thank you for teaching us God's Word.

Thank you for teaching me to make memories with my children

and I can't wait to share them with you.

I LOVE YOU MORE THAN YOU LOVE ME!

(Text on pictures from the book "Guess How Much I Love You" by Sam McBratney...our bedtime book.  This post does not contain entire text from book.)

Flutter Brain of an Inactive Missionary

 AHH!  Where to begin?  I have so many things I want to write about and share with you but my mind draws a complete blank as soon as I actually have time to sit down and write!  We have been riding in the car SO much that it might be nice to not have a vehicle when we get back to Ukraine.....I take that back.  We will be returning right when it's starting to get cold.  I do still miss my more active lifestyle in Ukraine.  It seems like all I do is sit now.
 

Only 1 1/2 months until we get to see my parents!  We are all getting excited.  For some (Sammy and Daniel) it will be the first time meeting their grandparents...though the girls were still quite small last time we saw them (Lydia was about 9 months and Anna was 2).  We enjoyed watching videos that Grampy made over the years, so I'm sure it won't take them long to warm up and start having fun.  After that, we will head up to Maryland for a month, visit with some old friends (looking forward to seeing you, Tiffany!); then it's back up to Maine.  The kids all said it's been too long since we've been to Grampy and Grammy Curtis' house and I know they are looking forward to destroying  .. helping in the garden.  I'm just going to be the bunny who sneaks in and nibbles off of everything.  One of the things I miss from Ukraine are the fresh herbs - ESPECIALLY the fresh dill.  The kids and I could eat a ton of that.  When I first arrived in Ukraine, I greatly missed all of the American salad dressings (ranch, blue cheese..).  But as long as you have dill, you don't need any of those.  In fact, it is better with the dill and a little apple cider vinegar or oil.  Mmmm.  I can smell and taste that fresh dill now.  Looking forward to a BIG bowl of borsch with freshly chopped dill sprinkled on top and a piece, no a LOAF, of black bread. :)

Even with nothing to say, I have managed to ramble my time away.  The kids are just starting to wake up and we are going to head outside.  They need to run as much as they can whenever they get an opportunity.  Because I've been having quite a few breathing/coughing problems, Eric left us here at our home church while he went to the meeting tonight.  I am enjoying a little break, um...with 4 kids.   I would appreciate your prayers concerning my health.  Not sure exactly what it is, but I am back on steroids for a short period of time.  It has also been recommended that I see a lung specialist.  I am hating that because they will probably just tell me it is nothing and to stay on steroids or something.  If so, I can probably just control it by monitoring what I eat - which I haven't been doing to well lately.  Too much good American junk. :)

Guess I need to get going.  The kids are all antsy to get outside...and so am I. 

(The pictures were taken when we went to the Richmond park with our Pastor on just a fun outing.)

Around Tennessee - part 3

It has been so long since our visit to Tennessee that I considered just skipping this post and moving on.  Until I saw this guys face...

 Haha!

When we first pulled up to the little petting zoo, we were greeted by this guy strutting his feathers around.  Isn't he beautiful?!

Eric decided not to bring the stroller out this time, so Lydia actually interacted...in fact, she was the bravest one!

This zebra did not want us petting him.  He would grab the food we offered then quickly turn away.

Anna and I went into the deer kennel, but we didn't stay long as they were a little overwhelming.  We didn't think we were going to make it out!  (Maybe that's why Anna was nervous about the other animals.)  They were a little too friendly for her.

The llama was very willing to pose for me and even waited for me to switch my camera batteries. :)

I had to snap pictures quick when the kids sat down on this little bench not only because my batteries were dead (again), but also because I thought the bench might collapse!

The peacock came out to say goodbye when we were leaving.  The kids had so much fun!