Back to the Village today!

Hello all!
This morning we head back out to the village. We stayed here in Odessa for two nights. It was nice to get some rest and spend some time walking around just doing nothing. Today we will be able to see the students from the Bible school graduate from their first year! This is so awesome!

We will go over to the school today to set up our classroom and get ready for tomorrow.

Some of our team members are not feeling so well. Please pray for them to feel better and to get rested before tomorrow!

Thanks!

Day #5 of Camp

Well we have finished our last day of camp this week! It has definitely proved to be a tiring week of loving and serving these kids. Teaching is not for the faint of heart and working with a translator definitely adds in some complexity. We are so thankful to our translators for working so hard and dedicating their time to help us!

Wednesday was rough for some of our team members. Some of the students were pretty rowdy and not wanting to pay attention which disrupted entire classes. This also spilled over into crafts, music and sports. Having a camp in the village definitely brings challenges that aren’t always present in camps that take place in the city. The village life is very different. There aren’t a lot job opportunities and many of the parents are alcoholics which means that there are a lot of dysfunctional families. Parents do not have a lot of opportunity and therefore the children are the same. They do not get a lot of interaction with people and depending on the village they may not get a very good education. These are the children that we openly welcome into the camp. With that comes children who are rough, distant and maybe what we would classify as ill behaved. Add that onto the fact that kids are just kids.

We could easily walk away from this week thinking that we weren’t able to get through all of our lesson plans or really accomplish what we thought should be accomplished. Thinking through the week and the things that took place it is very apparent that what these kids need most is love. They need us to love them through being rough and rude. They need us to show grace when they are disrespectful. What are we if we do not have love? 

To end the day on Friday each class presented a drama. This is a great opportunity for the children to show off their English skills. Parents were invited to come watch the dramas and there was an invitation to attend the church and Sunday school. 

Again at the end of another camp week I (Nichole) am left thinking about the kids that we have spent time with. Who will continue this work in their life? Who will pursue them? There were so many familiar faces again this year at camp. We pray that they would accept this invitation to come to the Sunday school/Church which is about two miles down the road. I gave hugs to many kids but couldn't help but be sad that we were leaving. It's almost the feeling of leaving little sheep who need a Shepherd.

We are staying in Odessa this evening and Saturday evening. We are hoping to get rested up for the next week of camp! 

Thanks for your prayers and support!

Pictures from Day 4 of Camp

Here is some video of where we are!

A small clip of the kids signing this morning. Sorry, the video isn't the best...I was holding Elisabeth at the same time. Ha ha.

Our Niece Kate shared a little bit at the opening assembly

We took some time to pray as a team tonight over the land where the new building will be built for the Bible School.

Prayer Letter # 3

Hello again from Ukraine! Things have been going well this week! By Wednesday or Thursday 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.

So what have we been up to? Monday evening we had an evening with nothing planned so the team was able to rest up a little bit after their first day of camp. Tuesday evening we listened to Pastor Alexander Gross explain all of the exciting ministry opportunities taking place here in Ukraine. He spoke mostly about the Bible College that just completed its first year. This evening (Wednesday) we have a team prayer meeting. 

 We have had a lot of positive feedback from the team about their students, classes and experience. Many of the students are really excited to be in the class. As we said in the last prayer letter we have many students who have returned again this year. For the students here in the village this is a really special opportunity to be able to participate. There is not much to do in the village which is the reason many of them return. As our head translator Olga says, “The kids in the village don’t have much. They have school and cows. They don’t have much opportunity to be part of any thing extra or special.” 

We had a meeting with the school principle today. We discussed many things about the school and camp. The principle said that children start asking about the English camp in September!

This is our fifth time coming to Ukraine. We have seen over the years how our relationships with our hosts have grown and it is a special connection we have with them. We can see how the Lord is growing the ministry in Ukraine and we are so glad to be a small part of what He is doing.

Each year team members come and go. This year our team is a good mix of people with different backgrounds and ages. It is great to have a diverse team. There is so much we can learn from each other. 

The kids are doing well. Their bodies have fully switched over to Ukrainian time and they are sleeping well.They are even sleeping through the roosters and dogs making noise at 5 am! Elisabeth has been quite the cranky pants. I'm not sure what the deal is but we are hoping it will change soon.  

Well we must sign off for now! Talk to you soon!

John and Nichole 

Pictures from camp day #2