God's been busy

Been a while since my last entry. Nothing earth-shattering in my life. Usual day-to-day goings and coming. I am discovering that once you turn 50 years old, every doctor seems to make it their personal goal to poke or prod me or hook me up to some graph-generating,continuous-feed form paper-spewing machine. I've had two examinations/tests Since the middle of October with two or three more to come.

This coming weekend is our annual hayride at my parent's home in Hartsville. 40+ guests are expected to show. Hope the wagon is big enough.

Linda, Christy Blazer and I are still working on preparations for our December Mission to Ukraine. Funding is going well. Nearly done - we think. Waiting for some news on updated costs form YouthReach International. Lesson plans are nearly complete. Some details left to be worked out then we can begin collecting and purchasing goods for crafts and gifts.

We're also waiting to hear who among our regular team of mentors (Local Ukrainian Christians) will be able to join us.

I'm overjoyed that two of our mentors Anya Goliakova and Vika Vdovychenko are back in Simferopol after a year in the US. About a month ago, Anya was blessed with a job opportunity to teach English at the Central Orphanage in that city. Although the job is stressful and, according to Anya, overwhelming at times, she feels God is and will continue to use her in that facility to show the unconditional love of Christ to the 90 some girls living there.

After just 2 weeks she was promoted to the educational department administrative staff as vice principal.

A few weeks later Vika was offered an administrative job in the same orphanage.Within a few short days Vika sent me a message asking for prayers. She already had witnessed one teen girl threatening to attempt suicide. She said in her message that the girls were more interested in sleeping with boys than hearing about the grace of God and His mercy.

Please keep them in your prayers as they serve these orphaned girls. I hope we will have time to visit them and perhaps arrange to work there in the summer.

On a more sad note, I won't be able to spend time with Fatyma Ametova or Anastasia Dudenichenko this trip. This will be the first time in 3 trips that they won't be actively a part of the team. Fatyma has a new job translating and may be in Kiev. Nastya is in Germany working as an au pere.

Aida

Arthur Kazaryan, Our lead mentor and in-country coordinator has purchased some of our transportation fare and David Hennessey of YR has already purchased our airline tickets.

I was also touched to receive from Arthur a photo of one of my favorite kids - Aida. It made my day. I can't wait to see her and introduce her to Linda. She's grown so much just since June!

Only a little less than a month left before departure. Tom Zvirgzds has diligently been teaching us Russian. I just hope I can remember it all. I'm getting exciting about what God has in store for this December mission.

Grace and peace.
=J