What's Up Lately

It's been far too long since I posted anything but it's been a little....boring around here!! September the kids all go back to school and the entire month, if not two months following are a complete wash! September in particular was really slow - it was the perfect time for Steve's Mom and sister to visit and for us to take a little break in Spain and Budapest.

Now that it's October things are picking up again:

 - Steve has made connections with a new school. School 71 which is fairly close to us. He went a few times with other people and then met with the director and some teachers and after the school break this next week they want him to start helping with English.

- Dezmond is back in "kindergarten", or what we would call preschool. It is VERY different from the last preschool year - he is in a classroom with desks, textbooks, new teachers and an earlier schedule (from 9-12 in the morning now instead of 10-1). This is supposed to be preparation for real school next year and it's all very serious.

- Supper club has started again. We are no longer involved as leadership, we are more like helpers now - the leadership responsibility was given to one girl who is employed by New Hope Center and is one of the girls house parents. If you can recall in late spring I wrote about being frustrated with how supper club was going because of problems we were having just among the leadership team so we are relieved and excited to just be able to show up, visit with the kids and not have to plan or run the evening. However the kids from the orphanage are no longer attending so it's a much smaller group once again, mostly just the kids who live in the group homes, so we'll see what happens.

- We continue to have Bible study at our home every Thursday evening. Garry and Teresa are the constants with a flow of other attendees from week to week. We've had up to 18 people squashed into our living room but more often it's four to six of us visiting over coffee and dessert, praising God and discussing His word.

- Our next #JustYouth event is happening next Saturday. We are doing a costume party and a penny carnival and we have some new volunteers to work with so with a bit of a larger event and more planning we're excited to have the help.

- It's the most wonderful time of the year!!! Visa renewal time!!! Ha ha obviously I'm kidding! I would say it's the worst, but it's really not that bad. This year my best friend forever Jessica isn't around to help out so I enlisted the help of our dear friend Olya. Jessica has all of these connections and was wonderful to pass them on to us, and it seems that as long as we mention her name, we get whatever we need from whoever we need it from! We ran around all week collecting paperwork and we had everything together Friday morning, ready to hand in but the lady said we were too late - she wasn't seeing any more foreigners that day. Oh dear! So now we wait all the way until Wednesday and then we hope and pray that they don't discover that we now need this document from that place, or a different date on this sheet of paper, or, or, OR. It's a run around but this year is the most calm I've ever felt dealing with this and it's probably because Olya was willing to do so much on her own! I just handed over what I had and she took care of the rest.

- Steve has been playing on a soccer team in the Christian Football League again this fall. I think they even WON a game so far!

- We booked our flights home! We will be home from December 15 until February 2nd. It feels like such a long time - spanning three months! But in reality it's merely seven weeks - one LESS week than our last time at home!

I think that about covers everything that's been up lately. Thank you for your continued support, prayerfully and financially. We feel that it is a great privilege to serve God by living here in Ukraine to share about Him and we couldn't accomplish that without each and every one of you!