We've been back for five weeks already and as soon as we got back we said that it felt like we had never left, but in a good way. We hopped right back into our regular ministry/life schedule including Wednesday nights at church with our group of graduated orphan guys.
Mid-February Steve had a YFC meeting in Dnipro so we planned to do a mini #JustYouth in Nicolaipolia that day as well. He dropped the boys and I off on his way to Dnipro and after the boys went with Garry to collect milk he taught us how to make mozzarella cheese. We later ate the mozzarella on pizza for supper.
For our #JY event we played games with candy for prizes:
Steve shared on loving your neighbour and what that can look like in our every day lives. It was a tough time for him because one of the student attendees had a lot of opinions that he wanted to share aloud with everyone but Steve is really good at dealing with those situations kindly and gracefully and the rest of the students were really on board with his message which included sharing stories from their own lives.
Below is another photo of our Wednesday BOYS. There's one or two girls that come occasionally. They've been reading through the New Testament, discussing the stories together and then praying for one another.
I started our yearly visa/temporary residency paperwork and it's always SUCH a treat (sarcasm). It's honestly not hard to run around and gather the paperwork, the worst part is the multiple, ever-changing information we get from the very moody office ladies. There are always a few laughs along the way - like this pack of smokes that was open on the desk at the insurance office, like a bowl of mints for waiting customers, ha ha. I wonder what the lady would have said if I would have taken one!
Other things that have happened this past month:
We celebrated the boys' birthdays.
Steve had the flu shortly after we returned but thankfully it didn't spread to the rest of us. My back/neck had been feeling really great until about a week ago and then suddenly I was hit with horrific pain that took me out for an entire day and then lasted (less severely) for the past week. Hopefully it will settle down sometime soon.
It's finally spring! Warmer weather and some buds on the earliest trees has us noticing that there are way more people out and about on the streets. We were told by G42 that we probably won't be getting interns this summer and we're really disappointed. Last summer was so fantastic and effective for our ministry, we were hoping to build on that this year again. But God knows what we need and He will provide everything and everyone.
This week was "Maslenitsa" (pancake week) before Lent begins, I guess the Ukrainian version of Mardi Gras !?!? I haven't seen or heard of anything crazy though, it's just traditionally a week of imbibing before being very good for Lent. Also today is International Women's Day which is a HUGE holiday here. Like, Dez's school is closed, day off work type of huge!
Steve has a floorball tournament this weekend here in Zap. Please pray for the team and for him that he keeps his....passion.....to an appropriate level, ha ha. He values justice and fairness and floorball can bring frustration with those things to the surface so please pray that he stays calm and joyful the whole tournament!
