Ukraine

It is the half way point in our stay here. (Sorry this was written quite a while ago and I have been slack in getting it on the website--david) As I look back on the time we have spent here, I am humbled at all that the Lord has done in us and thru us. I am challenged to not grow “faint” as we go in to the second half. Much ground has been taken with the youth here but there is so much more to do. Rob Bell in His book “Velvet Elvis” Says “that we should replace the word “missionary” with “tour guide” because we cannot show people something we haven’t seen ourselves. Or maybe it means teaching people to use their eyes to see things that have always been there: they just didn’t realize it. You see God where others don’t. And then you point him out.”

We came not because we are trained, equipped, or even qualified. We came simply because we heard the voice of God saying “whom shall I send”. And our reply was simply “Lord send us.” Our life is not based on what is logical or practical but what we believe is faith. Faith that God is who He says he is and He will do what he said he will do. There are many people more “qualified” to send here to this place but who will go? Will you? Will you sell all, give up all, and go? Go for the cause of Christ? This may sound confrontational but it is not. This is simply what we have done. Not for the money, the comfort, or the glory because there is none. But we came for Him because he asked us.

“God is good all the time”
Before we left the USA our good friends Dave and Cindy Bargerstock who attend Rivertree church in Jackson Twp. Ohio informed us about a team that Dave was going to be leading over to the Crimea area of Ukraine one week after we would be arriving in Kharkiv. The church has connections with a ministry in the Simferopal (spelling?) area and they were going there to do construction on one of their buildings. Being that Dave and I have been friends since our high school days we thought how cool it would be to come see him when he was there and also to be able to observe the ministry there also. It remains to be seen here why we felt all of this, but let the story continue!

Trip from ????? You can guess!

Well we finally arrived after our trip from ????? you know where!
Just a few details here about our trip to Kharkiv Ukraine from JFK in NY. Just so happened that the day of our departure from NYC somebody flew a small plane into an apartment building in Manhattan. We never received the details about what happened and have not gotten any news since we have been here about it either. But that incident along with bad weather in the area, delayed our flight from JFK to London by over 2 hours. Needless to say we arrived at Heathrow airport in London over an hour after our plane had left for Kiev Ukraine! Well let the nightmare begin. Since the recent problems in London the government has passed a law that lets you carry on the plane at England airports only one piece of luggage. So no laptops and a carryon or no purse and a laptop etc sooooooooo we had to go thru customs and go thru the whole check-in process all over again including making new arrangements for a flight from there to Kiev Ukraine. The only way to get there the same day was to fly to Munich Germany and then catch a flight from there to Kiev. Of course we had our friends meeting us at the Kiev airport that afternoon at 3 pm their time and we would not arrive there until 11 pm. But thanks to those that helped us out we were able to make contact thru USA to someone’s cell phone in Kiev, and were able to get a message to them. So to make a long story short we arrived in Kharkiv on the morning of Friday the 13th rather than Thursday the 12th in the evening. From the time we checked in at NY and arrived in Kharkiv Ukraine it was right around 36 hours or a day and a half! Just a little longer than planned but we arrived safely so praise the Lord! Oh did I mention that one of our bags got left in Munich :-) And oh yeah we went thru security 4 times on this trip including twice in London. We decided next time we fly we will wear our bathing suits and sandals to make it easier to go thru security checks! We did receive the bag on Saturday so all was well that ended well!