Finally an update

Wow what excuses can we come up with for how long it has been since we have updated this website?? Well probably none that anyone wants to hear :-)

In case anyone was wondering we are still alive over here and doing ok. It really has been a rough time in many ways but we have survived and really are doing well. Since I (David) have been back in Ukraine many things have been happening. I will do my best to remember the highlights of the past 3-4 months. We had the best intentions of writing updates every month but as you can see it has been a "little" longer than that!

Upon my return to Ukraine we started our search for an apartment of our own. As you may or may not remember we had been living with Oleg and Jenya at their apartment which worked out well for the first couple of months but as time went along we realized the need for our own place as it was not convenient to invite others to someone elses apartment. This situation kept us from doing one of the main things in our ministry. We do so much ministry in our home that it was almost impossible to reconnect with those we minister to on a personal basis without our own place. As many of you may know prices have gone up here so our options were quite limited. After looking at a few different apartments we finally settled on a one room that is very close to everything we need. The biggest of those things is transportation. We are less than 5 minutes walk to the Metro (subway) that allows us to travel to wherever we need to go in the city. Our joke to everyone is that if we lived any closer to the metro we would be living inside the metro! What a blessing it has been to be this close to our stop and also we are very close to the local market and supermarkets and a bank is on the way to the metro. The apartment is small but nice and the biggest blessing of the apartment is the size of the kitchen. Everyone that visits us is amazed at the size of it.

After the move and the usual cleanup of the place we were able to get back to a more normal schedule. It took almost 2 weeks to get everything done! By this time it was the end of March. Some of our unexpected purchases we needed to make were a couch/bed and a used washing machine. We were actually able to get very good deals on both of these major purchases. These along with other "surprises" such as the increase in food prices, and the sudden plunging (at least that was how it felt!) of the exchange rate from around 5 to 1 to 4.7 to one. This means that every 100 American dollars we exchange gives us 470 grivnea instead of 500. Those of you good at math can tell me exactly how much we are losing but my guestimations are around $6.00 dollars or 6% which is approximately 30 grivnea which adds up over time but once again God has been faithful and provides for our needs even though everything costs more and our money is worth less that what we planned:-(I wont lie and tell you it doesnt test our faith sometimes but we have to testify to God's faithfulness.

This reminds me of the first thing we did after i arrived back in Ukraine. We had been invited to come to a worship conference in the city of Yalta which is in the Crimea by the Black Sea. Just traveling and being in that city is a real blessing as living in the city here can really get on your nerves. It was a great weekend and it was great to be able to reconnect with our friends down there. There were also many people there from here in Kharkiv and also the capitol Kiev. We were blessed with a free place to stay which was under construction at the time but the bedrooms were completed and brand new.

Trying to keep this short I will touch on some of the things that have been happening.

Christine has been taking Russian lessons and is understanding so much more than before. She says she feels like a dog as she can understand but can't speak! She also has been doing some things with the Crisis Pregnancy Center at the invitation of its director Lena Batina. Her and Lena are also becoming closer friends and enjoy spending time together. One of the things they are doing together is a Women's club that meets every month. These are women that in one way or another have been connected with the CPC and expressed a desire for more time together. Also Christine has been ministering to the volunteers at the CPC.

Homegroups:
Our homegroup that we started over 1 year ago is still doing well. We meet on Thursday nites at Oleg and Jenya's. We have just recently started a new homegroup on Monday nites at our apartment. The response to the new one has been encouraging. As you may remember the first homegroup was what we call a closed group as our intention is to disciple and eventually reach out with those in that homegroup to the city in various ways. The one that meets on Monday nites is open to anyone but mostly young people are the ones that come. We usually have around 10 people and many different people show up from week to week. We are also visiting homegroups from time to time as the invitations come and we always enjoy those experiences.

Pre-Marital
We are currently doing the Pre-Marital program with a young couple that is getting married this October. Also the translated version (Russian) is being used for a few couples that are getting married soon. We are calling this a "trial run" as there are some issues that need to be worked out as with any translation. So far it has been working out very well and we hope to print this version soon. We are also planning on providing this program along with the needed training to anyone that is interested in this kind of ministry.

Women's Conference:
This is the second year that we have organized this conference. As with anything good there seems to be all kinds of difficulties and warfare! Christine had not planned on being a speaker but ended up doing 2 of the 3 sessions herself. Without going into detail this is what ended up happening because of people backing out and not being able to participate. Despite all the problems it turned out very well. It never ceases to amaze me where the problems and warfare come from. You never expect these things to come from the people that they do. That is all i will say about that:-) We are still getting positive feedback from the conference as well as requests for ministry.

One of the relationships that has been strengthened this time is our friendship with Pastor Richard and Mary. They pastor an African/Ukrainian church here in Kharkiv. We met them the very first time to Ukraine but this time our relationship has really grown. We try to attend their church as much as possible not only because of this relationship but also because the service is in English translated into Russian.
We were asked to participate in their ordination service which was on the 1st of June. We actually got dressed up for this event and I wore a suit for the first time in about a year! It was a good time for us and we got to meet various different people and made some good connections.

Well that should pretty much wrap it up. Again we apologize for being silent for so long, but one of the reasons for this silence is we still do not have internet access. We have decided to work on this when we come back in the fall. The week of the women's conference our computer crashed and our fridge quit working. As you can see things have been interesting! We will be returning to the States on the 30th of July and hope to connect with as many of you our friends as possible.
David and Christine