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Here we are looking at less then 4 weeks until we return to the States for a 3 month visit. It is so hard to believe that we have been here for 9 months. Actually we have been here just over a year if you include our summer in the States. We arrived in April 2006. We are no longer calling what we are doing “trips” but this is our life until the Lord shows us otherwise. It has gone by so quickly. We have no idea how to really “wrap up” what all has happened during this time. What a huge blessing to be here and serve the Lord. We read somewhere the other day that “Love is the root and obedience is the fruit”. Once again God has blessed us so much just thru our obedience to Him. It was pointed out to us the other day that the last thing that Jesus told His disciples was “Go and make disciples” and thank God for the opportunity He is giving us. Sometimes it is so hard to tell people exactly what we are doing because it often just doesn’t make sense to anyone unless you can see the results in peoples lives. Sometimes it seems so simple but the precious lives that He is touching would never agree. There are so many stories we could tell but it just isn’t the same as seeing them respond to Gods love and the freedom He brings with it. Breaking the “religious spirit” in Jesus name!! It gets us excited to see those that were rejected because of various things, being brought back to Jesus! Just like Jesus’ disciples were the rejected or “outcasts” it seems that is who the Lord is asking us to disciple. Some of them would revel in the label and others, well they might not appreciate it but for us it is a good thing. We are coming “home” with Joy in our hearts and we intend to let no one steal it from us!
As most of you know we had to move from our apartment in which we have been in since April 2006. It was sad for us to leave. We really enjoyed that area and location. Having to move with only 7 weeks left until we are to leave for the States made it difficult to know where to move to. Rent here has gone up significantly in the last year. We had a few offers from people willing to share their homes with us. After some thought and prayer we decided that the best thing was to move in with Larissa. She was most gracious in her offer to have us move in. So move in we did on May 9. The move went smoothly and quickly. THANK GOD!!!! We hate moving just like everyone else but we have to say it was pretty painless.
With the move came an adjustment period of getting used to a new location and transportation system. At our other apartment we were about a 5 minute walk to the Metro. Here in our new place we have to take a marshutka (small bus) or the tram to get to the Metro. I find the marshutka a bit intimidating since you often have to speak to get it to stop where you need to go. It is going Ok but it was and still is a stretch out of our comfort zone. I believe we have experienced all there is to experience in the ways of transportation. How aggravating it can be on these hot days to leave the apartment clean and dry and arrive where you’re going sweaty and sticky because of the heat on the tram or marshutka. Makes you long for the comfort of an air conditioned car.

As usual we have not run short on ministry or activities since our last update. David and I were blessed to take a week long Apologetics course at Providence University. Providence is a Canadian University that has a satellite campus here in Kharkov. All of the courses are in English and are completely credited. It was a lot of fun and very interesting especially since we took the class with 4 of our friends namely Tom and Jayne Gurley, Larissa, and Oleg Romananko. It was a good experience for us and we look forward to attending more classes in the future.

The rest of our time here will be spent tying up loose ends. The group that we have been meeting with weekly will continue when we are gone. Jenya, Oleg, and Olya will take turns running the group. We know that they are ready to do this and we are excited to see them step into this new thing. One of the things that we feel so strongly about is that you teach, help support, and encourage people to step into doing these things for themselves. One of our goals is to “work ourselves out of a job”. We see it working here, but it does take time.
Looking forward to seeing all of our friends when we come “home”! Please don’t be strangers as time with our friends is what we are looking forward to.
See ya soon! Oh I guess this would be a good place to say when we are coming. We fly into Newark N.J. on the 27th of this month which is June. Also we want to apologize to those who email us that we don’t have access to the internet like we did in our former apartment which makes it hard for us to stay connected like we want. We try to check emails and write about once a week so please continue to be patient with us.