12/31/2008 - Last Day of the Year

So, what's been going on lately? We've been busy during the Christmas season with various things. Christmas in Ukraine is normally the 7th of January, but with our church being so international (with a large African presence too) we celebrated both. If you read further down, you'll see how we spent our Christmas.

Otherwise, things are going well. I've been continuing my guitar lessons with the church and also have started meeting with a guy twice a week for accountability and discipleship. Because of the holidays falling on Wednesdays/Thursdays, we've canceled English club for the last little while, but they came to our Christmas Eve party which was fun.

Christina's moms group is doing good too and those who come are quite faithful in attending.

I got to teach last week too which was great! I felt a bit rusty though to be honest and it took forever to prepare, perhaps because the topic was so vast and challenging - Spiritual Gifts (1 Cor 12:26-13:3). God helped though and at least a few people said they got something from it.

On a more personal note, it's getting easier to deal with the miscarriage now. We don't think about it too much, but when we do it still stings a little. It's hard to think about what could have been, but we just have to trust in God that He knows best!

Tonight, Jon and Steph are going to host a New Year's party, but I think we're just going to show up and leave since they aren't going to start it until it is Leah's bed time. On the one hand I'd like to go, but on the other, I'm tired and glad I don't have to :) The weather has been quite chilly today and that kinda sucks the energy right out of you while walking around. This morning when I went out, it was -6C and a bit of wind. They say it'll get down to -10C.

Jon and Steph leave at the end of this week to head back to the States. They've become such good friends of ours lately and it's been nice to have a couple who we can get close to and have the same interests. We'll miss them.

George and Sharon will be back next week also and we're REALLY excited to see them again along with the kids. I'm sure Samuel is HUGE and Kiyoshi is adorable :)

That's about it for now. I'll be writing up a newsletter today (hopefully) so more ministry details will likely be found within.

12/29/2008 - Wintery Scenery

Here are some photos of winter from around here that Christina took the other day.

12/25/2008 - Christmas Day

On Christmas Day we did a team gathering and invited a lady who is with the Peace Corps, Ruth. We had also invited her to hang out with us for Thanksgiving and she had a wonderful time then and so accepted again our invitation. We're glad she could be a part of our lil' family.

We gathered about 2pm or so and hung out a bit while the food was finishing being prepared - turkey, stuffing, potatoes, **sweet potatoes** (YEAH!), beans, and other stuff along with a few deserts. Everything was so delicious and being able to have sweet potatoes was great (we can't find those here).

So, afterward we just continued to hang out, exchanged a few gifts, watched "It's a Wonderful Life" and so forth. Jon got me a pair of toy guns with suction darts for my present so we set up targets from Leah's stuffed toy collection and were also shooting each other all night long.

Here are some pictures:











More pictures can be found here (all Christmas pictures are grouped together though).

12/24/2008 - Church Christmas Eve Party

I'm sitting here with a baby in hand so I can't write much, but we had a good Christmas (Western Christmas that is) with the Americans and Africans in our church. We gathered for fellowship and snack foods and had a white elephant gift exchange as well as some Christmas caroling. We also invited the students from our English club to come and hang out with the English speakers and 5 or 6 came! Here are some pictures:

















More pictures can be found here (all Christmas pictures are grouped together though).

12/20/2008 - Ukrainian Insights

Marilyn, a lady on our team, told me a story the other day and then she said she was going to use it in a newsletter to help people get idea about some things which happen here. Her friend witnessed an accident this is the story (edited for readability):

Two Sundays ago we came back from church in a taxi. Our driver almost ran down two different people on two different streets.

When Jon arrived at my home, I told him about our experience and he said he’d just passed an accident where it appeared that a taxi had hit a pedestrian. Since we were heading back into town, we drove past the intersection where he’d seen the accident. I was afraid it was the same taxi driver, but it wasn’t. However, my friend Oksana told me the next day that she had witnessed that accident.

She was very discouraged because of what took place. The taxi had hit the man as he was walking on the crosswalk. Fortunately, there was a doctor who also witnessed the accident. She ran to help the man and examined him. He had a fractured skull, but was able to move his toes and fingers. He was coherent.

When the police arrived, another taxi pulled up and ran to the police officer and told him he had seen the whole thing, explaining that the man on the crosswalk turned around to walk back to the side walk causing the driver to hit him. That was a lie. When Oksana and the doctor tried to talk to the policeman to explain what really happened, the policeman turned his head away and refused to listen to them.

They went back to the victim as the ambulance pulled up and asked if he had been carrying anything at the time of the accident. They wanted to make sure he had all of his things when he went to the hospital. He said he was missing a bag and his hat. The women looked all over the area, but his things were no where to be found. Someone had taken them.

From the drivers who are so reckless, to the police who care so little about justice, to the people who would steal from an accident victim, I am sorry to say there are many here in Ukraine. I’ve been hearing and witnessing these kinds of experiences for years. This is everyday life and it is a pity. But for me, it is an encouragement to continue on because the people here need to know the love of Jesus. Only God can change the hearts of those who bow down to a system of bribery and corruption. Only God can change the hearts of those who have given up and accept things as they are. Please pray for revival in Ukraine.

12/11/2008 - Pregnancy Update

If you read the newsletter update I sent, you already read this.

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Sorrow comes to everyone at some point in their lives. To some the sorrow is intense and to others not so much - yet everyone will experience it. We've gone through our share of sorrow in our lifetimes, however it has happened once again.

In this last newsletter we announced that we were pregnant and would be having another child, yet on Sunday we had a miscarriage so this is no longer the case. The miscarriage was not 100% completely natural and so the doctor has prescribed some medication, but otherwise everything is ok. Christina is not in a lot of pain any longer and is recovering.

I have been doing a lot of thinking over the last couple days as I struggled with different thoughts and emotions. Why would God allow the baby to go through this miscarriage? I know the truth of the matter is that God never designed for this to happen, but it is a result of the corrupted world we live in - decay was not in the original blueprints. I also know that God doesn't create anything that is useless and without purpose ... for even mosquitoes (no matter how annoying they can be) have their place - our baby was the same. The Bible says that God forms us while we were still in our mother's womb and so there was a purpose behind his/her conception and miscarriage, but I will likely never know.

This is the way we must look at the many sorrows which happen to us. We may never know the reason why, but rest assured that in the grand scheme there is purpose behind them. However, it is best to dwell upon the hope that we have for the future. The promise is, for those who follow Jesus and ask for His forgiveness, a place where sorrows will cease for eternity.

We thank you all for the innumerable emails we received wishing us congratulations. We were both greatly blessed to see how many people read our news and responded. We are grateful to have you all as friends, supporters, and prayer partners. Thank you again especially for those prayers for their were greatly needed during our time of grief, even though you may not have known about our sorrow.

December Newsletter

Here is our December newsletter: Clicky click

Also, it should be noted that I changed hosting for all our newsletters so the old ones will stop working when the old host takes the webspace down. The box to the right which lists our last 5 newsletters is already switched over to the new server location.