Blurry May

May has been a big blur so far so here's a really random recap of some of the things that happened:

#JustYouth:

We canceled our event for May. Our team seems to be prioritizing other things in life and we were feeling a lack of focus and some frustration recently so instead of having #JY we had a team meeting. Our main goal of the meeting was to discuss the vision - reaching unbelieving teenagers with the Gospel - is that still what we're doing? And if not - what's the point?! We came up with new ideas of where and how to find new teenagers and we solidified our core team members. It was an  encouraging meeting and we feel excited to move forward and see what we can do. Our June #JY will be our four year anniversary party.

Random Goings On:

Steve has been doing some biking with one of his guys, Andre and whoever else comes along with them. They always go to Khortitza where there are plenty of trails of varying difficulties.

Last Saturday we were invited to an event dedicating a new group home. We've worked with a few teenagers who have lived in group homes run by "Hope for Orphans" and we've talked with their director, Nancy over the phone. She's American but visits frequently and they used to have a home in Berdyansk but recently decided to move it here to Zap. We know a few of the guys living there currently and it was wonderful to finally meet Nancy in person and to make more connections, hopefully leading to more ministry opportunities. 

Health: 

It's been a super weird past three weeks for me. I had an angioma appear on my face, which is nothing new for me because I have a million of them. This one however, grew rapidly over a week and a half and led me to seek out a dermatologist to remove it. I was very thankful for Jessica's help with that and we went to a private clinic that was very professional and I'm 99% sure that their doctors didn't just buy their licenses. My face looks great now, 10 days later, so that's a good sign!

I woke up one morning after doing nothing and my ankle was in a great deal of pain and became very swollen. It was that way for almost a week and I had no idea what I did or why it was in so much pain.

Thankfully I got incredibly sick with a horrifying sinus infection and had to stay off my feet for the past seven days, so the swelling in my foot has gone down and I can walk fine, but I still do notice some pain there. Oh yeah, and that horrifying sinus infection seems to be going away too. It's just felt like I've been having never-ending issues over the last three weeks and I'm really praying that this is finally the end of them.

In other news, my neck, back and shoulder have felt amazing. I had a rough week when the weather changed drastically earlier in spring but since then I've felt great. I've switched up my fasting routine for the month of May to see if I can stay inflammation-free by eating a minimal amount of calories two days a week instead of a strict 36 hour fast once a week. So far the results have been good but I have to say that this is far more work than just not eating for an entire day!

Floorball: 

The final tournament of the second league is next weekend here in Zap, which is great! We'll get to go watch some games even though they don't anticipate doing fantastic (they're playing the number one team in the top league of Ukraine). 

Summer: 

We are starting to make solid plans for our summer ministry. I'm not sure if I mentioned it before but we are getting two guys from G42 in Spain to help us for July and August and we're really excited to have them. We will be working at a couple of Young Life camps again this summer and are starting to put together some new ideas for things we can do with the guys here. We'll be starting to look for an apartment for them soon and we're praying for something really close to where we live. We'll put up signs in buildings nearby and hopefully something great (or at least livable) will come up.

It has been absolutely beautiful outside these days and yesterday we invited ourselves over to Andre and Olya's for a few hours in the afternoon. We're working on the art of relaxed hang-outs with friends. Every gathering here always feels so formal and like it needs to be planned ahead of time so just calling friends up and bringing a bag of snacks and some games over is fresh and new and fun. We hope it catches on and happens more often!

Andre and Olya have two boys who are 5 and 8 so there is a lot of action when these guys are all together!

Wednesday Drop-In

For more than a year Jessica and Steve have been doing a drop in evening every Wednesday at our church for the graduated orphans they know. Steve's guys would always come to our place for supper altogether and then they'd all drive over there to hang out, play games and have a Bible study together. For the past three weeks my boys and I have been going along because now we all have room in the car!! 

Steve or a friend who also comes to help (Pasha) will lead a Bible study with the guys. Steve often does it in Russian unless it's a more difficult subject and then Jessica will translate for him. 

There are many many games of ping pong, sometimes involving everyone:

And Uno. ALWAYS Uno. How I HATE Uno!! Ha ha 

It's really fun for all of us to be able to go along! It's so important for these guys (and usually one girl who comes) to see what a Christ-loving family looks like and how we interact with each other is something they may have never seen before. 

Molochansk

We headed down to Molochansk this past Saturday afternoon and survived the drive! The main highway south was decent but the smaller highways were pretty brutal. I don't even know how to begin describing them but we are always praying for supernatural tire strength on our way anywhere! We would gasp loudly through big hidden holes and thank Jesus that no tires were imploding or exploding as we went! 

Our first stop in Molochansk was at the home of our old friend Olga who we stayed with for a week nine years ago on Trek. She is now 86 years old and is in poor health but she was joyful and happy to see us. She is still teaching some English lessons to young students and her grandson is living with her and taking care of her. 

In the evening we went to Real School at the MB church, which is what we were invited there for. The weather was amazing so we played some games outside before the program started. 

The game pictured below consists of someone chasing another person with a belt - once they whack the person across the backside, that person becomes "it". You can be "safe" by standing in groups of two, but once it becomes a group of three, the last person needs to run. I didn't play......getting hit with a belt doesn't sound like fun to me!

Dez played this dodgeball-type game and actually won, probably because he's small and hard to hit with a ball.

Steve shared a message about the power of prayer, using the floorball finals weekend in Poltava as his example.

After the message we played more games and gave out some Canadian prizes before having tea, cookies and hanging out. 

We spent the night with our friend Pasha's family who are so kind to open their home to us. His mom had pelmini (meat filled tiny perogies) ready for us when we got there at almost 10 p.m and had a big breakfast for us this morning.  His grandma didn't call us weak eaters this time (she did two summers ago) but of course she packed up many jars of compote (juice) for us to take home. I've decided that being a Grandma is it's own worldwide culture that doesn't have language barriers or country borders. She made sure we ate enough, she made sure we weren't cold and she sent us home with goodies....sounds like every Grandma everywhere to me! How blessed we are to have a Grandma experience here every once in a while!

We went to church Sunday morning and Steve preached a short message. It wasn't originally a part of the plan for the weekend but the Monday before we saw the pastor (Alex) in Zaporozhye and Steve told him that we were coming to help with Real School and immediately Alex asked if Steve would preach in church too. We've always been told some version of "always be ready to preach, pray or die" so of course Steve said yes. We're always thankful to be included in the local churches and love meeting believers all over.

This is their beautiful new church building that they built only a few years ago:

We headed back to Zap after church and made really good time. Our new car is quite a bit more efficient at hills and passing and didn't fall apart when we threw it through some big holes.

Floorball Finals

Steve was in Poltava the weekend of April 21st for the finals of one of their floorball leagues so I got him to dictate to me his experience so you can get his first hand view of the weekend: 

I had a great weekend in Poltava! I was apprehensive heading there because of the travel, difficult teams we would face and unknown bed that I would be sleeping in but the weekend turned out to be really amazing. We traveled there on a bus with another floorball team who we are friends with. They are the the number one team in Ukraine and get to represent Ukraine in international tournaments so it's cool that we get to be around these guys. I stayed in a hostel with one other guy from the team and it was a really nice, clean and comfortable place. There I met many people who spoke English and with each one of them I was able to have really awesome conversations about Jesus and Christianity. Instantly I knew I was there for something more than floorball. 

Our first game was Saturday morning and being that we finished first place in the eastern division we got to play second place from the western division. The hype was that the western teams were much stronger than the east and that we were going to be crushed but we came out, played hard and beat them 13-7. 

It was during this game that I had a really awesome experience with Jesus. The week prior I had been in Dnipro in a floorball tournament and really lost my cool. As Lemony Snickets would say: "I had a series of unfortunate events." I was really upset there with a lot of things and had a hard time calming down and afterwards I felt ashamed that a missionary could be so upset among the people he is trying to work with. But this time in Poltava it was different. I asked for prayer from many people. I had one of my young guys pray for me before the game, we prayed as a team and I had another young guy who wasn't playing praying for me throughout the entire game. It was an incredible experience! The calm, the joy and the relief was just all so powerful. God was so clearly answering our prayers. Funnily enough, I played the entire first half missing every opportunity I had to score goals but I remained calm and joyful. It was in the second half that I was able to score a few and we got the victory. 

It's after moments like these that we have great testimonies about what God can do in our lives and it's also after moments like these that we often think "oh great, now it's all under control!" Sunday was our next game and we were playing the first place team from the western division and I heard God reminding me: don't think it's all under control yet! So I decided that I needed to take the same approach as the day before - people praying for me before and during the game and I was very focused on asking God for help. We lost that game very badly but at every moment I was able to remain calm and joyful, even after getting elbowed in the head. How those short Ukrainian guys managed to elbow me in the head, who knows! But it happened and it was okay. In the end, I scored a couple goals and was given our team's MVP but I was just so thrilled that God so clearly answered our prayers. We went to the change room and although defeated we were happy to be where we were. Others saw how God answered our prayers and we were able to smile and take selfies with our second place medals. 

I had many good conversations that weekend and God was at the center of them all. He is a Redeemer. It is in our weakness that He is strong. Thank you Jesus! 

The whole team with their silver medals: 

Steve receiving his MVP trophy for the second game: 

Celebratory selfie after the final game: 

Steve in a big bowl of galushky - traditional Ukrainian dough dumplings that he didn't really like, ha ha.