Baseball Camp

From Tuesday to Saturday, Steve and Justin ran a baseball camp. There were a few Young Life leaders that helped out and they had from 9-15 youth each day. They did drills, learned the basic techniques and rules, and they played. They ran the camp from 9 a.m until 1 p.m and then they would head across the highway, down to the beach with the kids. 

This afternoon was regular baseball that we do every Saturday but all the youth from the camp were invited. For the first time ever there were enough people for two teams of 9 to play a "real" game.

 Pitcher Justin:

Steve and Justin showing their good technique: 

 And on a totally unrelated note, I made my first batch of Ukrainian Kompot (compote) today. 

It is traditional Ukrainian juice made with fresh apples, apricots, strawberries, cherries, raspberries, gooseberries (my Dad would enjoy that), basically whatever kind and combination of fruit you have. I used apricots, cherries, raspberries and apples, added a bit of sugar and let simmer it for a few minutes and then cooled it in the fridge. The fruit gets left in the juice to enhance the flavour as it sits, and you get a little treat every time you have a glass. With the amount and variety of amazing fresh fruits at the market I can imagine that this will not be my last batch! I might even get on the local bandwagon and can it for winter! 

Poland

We were in Poland from June 10-14, attempting to obtain a visa for Justin. Upon arriving at the Ukrainian Consulate on our first morning, Justin was told that another document was needed from the Ukrainian government to prove that the documents he already had were legal. Steve called John and Max (who works for New Hope) and they started organizing that on their end. By the end of Tuesday it was looking pretty bleak and by Wednesday morning we collectively decided that it was going to take a complete and utter act of God for Justin to leave Poland with a visa. Well, it turns out that God likes to show up in big and miraculous ways and with all of John's hard work back in Zaporozhye for us, Justin had the visa in his passport at 1 pm on Friday - when our bus for the airport left at 4 pm! The guy helping Justin at the Consulate remembered him from the first day and even stayed open past their closing time to ensure that the visa was done. 

We are again reminded of how awesome our God is! It seems so lackluster and kind of pathetic to say thank-you to Him - a simple word doesn't seem even close to appropriate for the miracles and blessings He pours on us but that's what His love looks like - lavish and extravagant. It's that kind of love that motivates us every day to wake up in this strange and foreign culture with a language we don't know to love people who don't know this kind of love. Everyone needs to know this kind of love, and to know how valued they are to the One that created them. 

Our first day was rainy which went kind of well with the disappointment at the Consulate but we wandered around the old town part of Krakow anyways: 

 We were able to visit Auschwitz and Auschwitz II-Birkenau one day which was a very sobering look back into history: 

As we headed back to Ukraine, Bobi headed back home to Czech Republic for the summer. We're not sure exactly where God will lead her next, back here or not, but please continue to pray for her. 

It's great to be home again although I personally loved the brief reprieve from the Ukrainian heat!! This week the guys are running a baseball camp with some Young Life leaders so I will update a little later on how that went! Thanks for your prayers concerning the visa - they were heard and answered!!
*Edited to add*:
We had NO trouble at all getting in or out of Ukraine! The customs officials were super nice and the boys even made them laugh a time or two which blew my mind - I wondered if we were at the right place and which country we were actually leaving/entering because usually they terrify me!

Baseball + Beach

We had another baseball afternoon today with mostly Young Life people and some of the graduated orphan guys. It was very hot so afterwards we headed to the beach and had a shashleek, or barbecue. We got some chicken and some sasseeski (wieners) and we got to use our new shashleek apparatus (which is basically 2 pieces that are a stand and then skewers that lay across it). 

 This is Katya who interprets for Steve a lot at Young Life things, with our shashleek thing: 

 Everyone loves to stand in a circle and play volleyball - everyone LOVES volleyball yet they are all terrible at it! Justin suggested that after the guys do their baseball camp that I should run a volleyball camp but I think it would be quite frustrating and I don't know if I could handle it! It makes for a good laugh but I don't often play. 

We have lots of plans for the summer - a baseball camp, a camp near the Azov sea (southern Ukraine), Young Life events and hopefully more events that we can plan as well. 

We leave tomorrow night for Krakow, Poland so that Justin can get a visa. Please pray for that process - that it all goes smoothly and everything is in order. Bobi will be heading home to Czech Republic from Krakow so pray for her transition back home with her family and also for direction and guidance in the next stage of her life. Also please pray that we get back into the country after our stay in Poland! We have heard from others leaving the country that the customs officials have never seen our type of residency documents before and have been given a hard time!!!  So we're hoping we're allowed back in after our time there - we don't really anticipate any trouble but it's always at the back of our minds!! Thanks for reading and thank you so much for your encouragement by email etc. - it really lifts us up to know that so many of you are reading our updates and blog and are standing with us in the things we do! 

Kids Camp at Orphanage #3

From Wednesday to Friday we were at orphanage #3 with John's Action Team of four girls doing a kids camp for the kids who hadn't gone away for the summer yet. There were 20-25 of them there and they participated in various activities like crafts, sports and games. It was supposed to be Monday to Friday, 9 a.m - 4 p.m, then it was Wednesday to Saturday, then finally Wednesday to Friday from 9 a.m until 2 p.m. We were also given strict instructions about what not to do (anything the kids didn't want to do) and what we could and could not feed them (dry cookies, ice cream and water). It felt very strange to us that there were so many restrictions when in most circumstances here there is no red tape whatsoever. In the end three days was plenty because it felt a lot like an uncontrolled state of constant chaos.  Don't get me wrong - the kids are just beautiful. There were some that stole my heart pretty fast (mostly because they were so sweet with Dez and August) and in the end I realized that we had totally done what we set out to do: be with kids. That's it. They had fun and that's all that matters! Some pictures from our week: 

Craft time: 

 Three of the sweetest little guys and Dez: 

 Water balloon fight prep (a.k.a disaster time):

 Water balloon fight: 

 Beach picnic on the last day: 

 Soccer on the beach: 

 Joanne Harder: Food Handler Specialist