Travel Day

Here are a few pictures from our travel day today. It has been a LONG day so far. We are still in Washington, with a delayed flight. We are definitely looking forward to getting home and sleeping in our own bed! :)

Family Time

Thanks to the Golden Arches (McDonalds) we found some free internet!! We have been hanging out and relaxing and boy has it been nice! Here are a few pictures from yesterday and this morning.

John & Will looking at the train passing by

We went to a park this morning near by where we are staying

John & Will riding this really cool merry go round with pedals that you ride like a bike

Looking down onto the city of Prague from up top by the castle

Practicing wave hi

John & Will sitting on some steps by the castle

Nichole & Will standing on the Charles Bridge

Hanging out in Warsaw

They have some free internet at the airport in Warsaw. Maybe this makes up for their crazy expensive food!!! They also had this neato play area for kids so Will was able to part take in hanging out with the kids for a little while. We are getting ready to board our plane for Prague. I think we might be eating McDonalds for dinner tonight. I wonder how much it will cost to eat their in Prague. In most countries it has been around 15 dollars for the 3 of us to eat there. I'll let you know if we get some internet connection later.

Peace on the streets,
Nichole

Leaving Ukraine

Yesterday was our last full day here in Odessa Ukraine. I feel like we have experienced so much in the last 8 weeks. So much that I don’t think I have near enough time to write everything out.

We spent our last day here going to church, eating lunch with the last few team members and in the evening we were with our friends Andy & Monica Coyle and their children. They moved here just last week to be missionaries working with the same ministry that we joined up with for the English Bible Camp.

There is a bittersweet feeling in my heart today, so excited to return back home to our loved ones and yet an ache for those who we leave behind. We know that if the Lord allows, we will see these people here in Ukraine once more.

John & I will be taking the next few days to spend some time debriefing what our family has experienced, what God has shown us this summer. We ask you to join in prayer as we spend a few days just talking with one another about what happened, what we saw and discerning some of our experiences.

We will arrive home on Thursday evening at 9:30. You're welcome to come see us at the airport :)

We will also be sharing on Saturday night at church and both services on Sunday!

Nichole

Ode to Will

We had an hour at the beach on Friday. It was the first time Will saw the black sea.

Will munching on some snack at school...bread with butter & cheese. He LOVES cheese!!

The first time will encountered chickens! He really enjoyed this!

Ukraine update #4

Greetings from Ukraine, once again! We can’t believe the week is already over! This week has flown by! Monday is always slow and a bit awkward because we are unsure of who our students are but by Friday we have made wonderful friendships and it is hard to say goodbye.

Thursday after school we were able to take a bus to Novagradovka and check out the house where some of Alex’s youth workers are living. This house is used for community outreach, to include: free doctors visits, a solar powered shower facility, various youth activities and outreaches to the elderly and children.

That same evening after dinner we had a music concert in the sanctuary of the youth center (where we were staying). Our team member Dwayne Knirk played the piano along with four young ladies who are from the village we are staying in. Kids from camp, people from the congregation and music students joined us to enjoy some music for the evening.

Friday night we ended our week of teaching by having a trip to the Black Sea and a BBQ with yummy sausages and pork shaslik (kabobs). After the BBQ we took time to pray as a team over the lawn area where the future Bible School will stand.

We had a wonderful week at camp! The teaching, music, crafts and sports all went so well! We are hopeful that next year we will have another great week of camp and see some of the same students.

This morning we traveled from the village of Petrodolina back into Odessa where most of us will be staying tonight and tomorrow night before we head home. Between today and tomorrow we will spend some time having a team debriefing discussing all that the Lord has done in our lives and the things we experienced. We will also go on a walking tour of Odessa and finish Sunday night at the opera.

Once again, it has been a joy to serve with such a great team from America and also to work with many of the coworkers that Alexander Gross works with in his ministry. We may come from different countries, speak different languages, have different cultural boundaries but our common denominator is Jesus Christ! God calls us to work together to spread the Gospel and we have enjoyed every moment (even the stressful ones) of being able to co labor for the sake of the Gospel.

If you would like more information about going on a mission trip with us next summer check out www.eemn.org!

Please Pray For:

• The Lord to send someone to water the seeds that were planted in the hearts of the students and our translators this week.
• The work being done to start a Bible School in the village of Petrodolina to go smoothly and quickly.
• One of our team members, Matt Phillips is heading to Slovakia for the next camp. Pray for him to have safe travels and be ready to serve again this next week!
• The Lords will to be done with planning camp for next summer.

Praise God For:

• A great week at camp!
• Children experiencing the love of Jesus!
• All of the support and prayers we receive from our friends & family back home.
• People who are willing to translate from English to Russian for us!

By His Grace,

John & Nichole

Ukraine Team Leaders

The school we were at all week

One of the dramas of David & Goliath

Norm playing a mean game of four square

Here we are sitting at opening assembly

One of the crafts we made this week, they were called "friendship bugs"

Ukraine update #3

Hello again from Ukraine! Things have been going well this week! By Wednesday everyone finds their niche for what works best for their class and this really helps with students feeling more comfortable and being courageous to speak English!

Wednesday afternoon during our debriefing time many people shared about experiences they were having in their classrooms and activities they are doing with their kids. It was very encouraging to hear about all that is going on. Many teachers said that their students were coming to camp energized and ready to speak English. It takes many different types of people to make a mission trip successful. The Lord uses people in different ways and that is why we are so glad that we have a diverse group of people to serve with this summer in Ukraine.

A few times we have mentioned that we have some new team members so we thought we would take a moment to explain the story. While we (John & Nichole) were eating pizza one day with Bill & Sally a few days before camp we realized we were sitting next to some Americans. They proceeded to ask us some introductory questions of where we were from and what we were doing in Ukraine. Come to find out they have been on a mission trip around the world for the last 10 months called, “The Race Around The World” (11 countries in 11 months). As we sat there talking to them we found out that their contact here in Ukraine fell through and they had nowhere to serve the upcoming week. They asked if they could come help us with the camp and we said yes! They have been such a blessing and big help! As it turns out, only the Lord knew that we would really need their help this week. You can see a picture of them in the photo gallery. They will be finishing up their 11 month journey here in Ukraine. We are so glad we have been a small part of what they have experienced. We have heard some great stories of what God is doing all over the world!

We also found out a little bit more about the school we are at this year. There has never been a consistent English teacher and therefore the students at this particular school have minimal English skills. Len & Mary Sheard had the privilege of having the schools new English teacher sit in on their class on Wednesday. They had great things to say about her!

When we hear the Lord calling us to come on a mission trip it is funny how we initially think that we will go to help others and teacher others about Jesus. However, it is not uncommon for the Lord to call us on a mission trip to change our hearts and minds. God is so gracious to us all the time! It is a very neat experience to watch a team of people come in, ready to serve and a willingness to lead others to Jesus and in the end they themselves have been transformed and go home with a new mind set and renewed spirit in the Lord.

Working with these children is a wonderful experience! We encourage you to take some time to pray about where the Lord is calling you to go! When the people you know return home ask them about their trip and all they experienced! You might just feel the little tug on your heart to go on a trip somewhere!

Again, we are so thankful for all of your prayers and support! Stay tuned for more e-mails this week!

by His grace,

John & Nichole

Ukraine Team Leaders

The "World Racers" who joined our team

Craft teachers striking a pose!

Jump rope time!

Ukraine update #2

Hello again from Ukraine! We are happy to announce we have successfully finished our first day of English Bible Camp! We had a few unexpected changes but thanks to our Lord and our teams’ willingness to be flexible everything has been worked out.

This year at our camp is at a different location that the two previous years before. We are enjoying English lessons, sports, videos, crafts, drama and games. With the help of our able Ukrainian translators, we share the gospel with our students. Our first day went very well with around 109 students in attendance. Our first year we had only sixty students so as you can see our camp has nearly doubled. The age range of camp this year is 6-16 and about thirty children around age seven.

This year our theme is “Hope”, lessons from the life of David, with Romans 15:13 as our theme verse: “May the God of all hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”

It is especially meaningful to be able to experience first-hand the life and culture of the indigenous people. Petrodolina is in the country so when you take a walk it is common to see many farm animals, fields and lots of green. The warmth and hospitality we are experiencing here makes us feel more comfortable in our new surroundings.

After school we were able to come home and spend some time preparing for the next day of camp. Some of the team took a walk to the closest grocery store (1 mile away) while others were able to rest from the busy day. That evening we spent some time in groups praying for the camp and specifics prayer requests.

Each evening this week there will be some gatherings for our team, or, on some nights, outreach to the village. But our main focus and energy is saved for our days with our students at camp.

We are thankful for all of your prayers and support! Stay tuned for more e-mails this week!

By His Grace,

John & Nichole Moberly

Team Leaders