October Recap

It's been a while since I've posted so here's a recap of the past month, after our #JustYouth event that happened on October first. 

Steve started a ministry with another guy named Lyosha where they go hang out at one of the trade school dormitories where a lot of the graduated orphan guys we know now live. They started by playing sports with them and have started a Bible study and are working towards further relationships through sports teams to play in various leagues - mainly floor ball which is similar to ball hockey and in Steve's volleyball league. 

Steve's volleyball league starts this weekend! He has the gym rented for the next few Saturdays and has talked to a lot of different people from different churches and ministries to put teams together. The point is to have a team made up of Christians and non-Christians with a Christian leader who can get to know all the teenagers and invite them to get more involved in church or Young Life or whatever other ministry they run. Basically we just want to get them to Jesus....that's always the goal. 

Steve has also been in Dez's school teaching English again and has met all the older grades. One girl actually came to our church with her mother the week after he met her which was really cool. To meet youth that are already Christian is pretty rare! 

I had mentioned to Marina a long time ago that I would be interested in getting the boys vaccinated for Tuberculosis. They haven't done TB vaccinations in Canada (other than in high risk areas) since the 1970's but the occurrence of TB in Ukraine is the highest in all of Europe so it was something that I had fleeting, not-overly serious thoughts about. Marina told me that the vaccine wasn't currently available in Ukraine so we left it at that however she called me at the beginning of the month and told me that her friend had found the vaccine and we could get it if we wanted to. So off we went to a "lovely" clinic and first the boys each needed a skin test where they inject a tiny bit of stuff under their skin and then we have to wait 48 hours to see if they react, which they didn't. They administered the actual vaccine in the same manor - just injected it underneath their skin. They said that there should be no side effects and that within three to six months they would get a red bump and that would eventually go away and form a scar on their arm. It was all very interesting and I even got the option to choose a vaccine from Russia or from Bulgaria....um, NOT Russia, please!! Dez was quite upset about this whole fiasco and was quite concerned about getting a needle but in the end they were fine. August did have some hives a couple of weeks later which I assume were related but weren't serious and went away within a couple of days. Also the nurse regretted to inform us that the vaccine is only available for people under thirty.....well fine then, we didn't really want it anyways! 

My neck issues.....are ongoing. From September 14th to October 14th was the worst month I've ever had with almost no days of relief. There were whole entire days that I spent lying on the couch doing as little as possible in excruciating pain. Finally I got up the courage to send a consultation form to a spine clinic in Germany outlining my problem. They got back to me saying that they would assess my case as soon as I could provide them with the scans they needed - an MRI and four specific x-rays. Thankfully I have a wonderful friend Marina and you get immediate results if you pay for them so Marina had me in for an MRI the day after she called for one and x-rays the day after that (also an MRI is $22 and x-rays are $15 so......yeah). MRI:

X-Rays on the nicest x-ray machine I've ever been on in my life....compared to the last one I was on here that was probably from the 1960's:

I still haven't heard back from that clinic and I'm kind of scared to actually. I'm not sure if I should be praying that I don't need surgery or that I do.....if I don't then how on earth do I live like this for the next fifty years when I haven't been able to find anything at all that provides relief! But if I do need surgery, well that's just scary! So I'm praying that the Lord's will be done and for strength in either circumstance. 

We had planned to celebrate Thanksgiving but I just never got around to making any plans so we didn't and it worked out because I couldn't move at all that day. To our surprise a few Sundays later our church celebrated so we got to enjoy the day then! They decorated beautifully and had a wonderful spread of snacks for after the service. 

I guess that's most of the major things that have happened this month! We had another #JustYouth event this past Saturday that I will post about shortly. Please continue to pray for us here in the work that we do!