Youth Night= blogging time

I just saw my husband's van pull in the driveway loaded with youth and I know that it is time to lock myself in the office and do my blogging. It has been very hard to find time to work on the computer. With homeschooling and ministery, and regular mom work, it seems like I am ready to fall into bed as soon as the house calms down for the night. We usually send the village kids and teens home at 5:30 so we can eat supper as a family. But on Friday night since Jason and Roman are in charge I have the time to slip away and blog to my heart's content. I do need to have the snacks ready but that's not a big deal. I pulled some cookie dough(homemade) out of the freezer
and Jessica baked them for me. I am praising God for time to relax and write, and read your blogs as well. So when do you find time to blog?

Sweetheart's Inn & Restaurant

Yes, Valentine's day has been here and gone for a while, but I wanted to share a few pictures with you all any way. Febuary 14th fell on Sunday this year, and I knew that was not going to work for a special celebration. So I talked it over with the kids and we picked Fri night, for our suprise. Fri. night is our youth night, and Jason along with Pastor Roman, are in charge. So while they were having the youth service in the living room I was cooking in the kitchen and trying not to make too much noise. After the last prayer and Jason took everyone home, I kids and I kicked it into high gear. We had our guest bedroom cleaned and decorated with hearts and ballons, and then lite the many candles. When Jason returned we blindfolded him and led him to the guest bedroom and sat him down at the table set up in there. Then Jessica and Josh dressed in their best served us. It was lots of fun to plan and I think Jason was really surprised. These are our two wonderfull servers. They even got a tip from Jason.

It was really good that we did it early because the next day we went to help Katrina in southern Ukraine and were gone on Sunday.

Papa Sturtevant

We are very happy to have Papa Sturtevant here in Ukraine with us for a few weeks. He has been staying with us in Oskiova but he is not just sitting around. He is a missionary no matter where he may be. Take a look at a few of the things he has been doing since he has been here. He shared an object lesson with the youth group, Fri. night.... Preached in several churches,.....

He had a gathering with some of his "sons" that he taught when he was teaching at the Bible college in Kiev. About 25 or 30 came.

He has been talking with and encouraging many.

Sharing God's love....

and enjoying a bowl of Ukrainian borscht. Dad we are glad that you came back to Ukraine. You have touched many lives here.

Keep up the good work.

Break down

We had a break down in our van a few weeks ago. Praise the Lord, we were near a city, where some Christian brothers had a mechanic shop and were able to help us. Without a shop it is hard for Jason to do repairs in the winter. Praise the Lord, the parts were found quickly and we have our van back now. We are so happy to have it back, because Papa Sturtevant is here visiting us in Ukraine.

hearing and telling

As missionaries we do our very best to share God's love and tell the Good News of His love. What I have found almost even more exciting than sharing this wonderful story with others, is finding out that someone you have told is now telling others. Luba, a pre-teen girl on our street, told me that every Mon. morning one of her classmates from a different village will bug her until she will re-tell the stories she heard in Sunday school. It was great to know that the message of God's love is not stopping here in our village, but going out. Luba rarely misses Sunday school, so when she wasn't here this last week I knew she was sick. I went to see her in her home Mon. night. She showed me she has been reading the New Testament and is almost finished. Luba told Jessica," If I were sick for a few more days, I would have finished it." Seeds are being planted. Pray they will take root.

back to blogging

S0me of you may wonder why you haven't heard from us. Well, between business from having guest, tiredness, and not a lot of positive things to say, I just haven't written much lately. What I have written is too dark to share with all the world. Yes, missionaries do have tough times too. If you get our e-mail up dates you have already read what is going on. Nothing big, just a load of little things. Don't really want to rehash it right now. Let's just say something must be going to happen, because the devil is fighting. At this point I am tired to depressing things. So I have thought up a few nice things to tell you about. My mother used to say,"If you can't say something nice don't say anything at all." Maybe that explains my silence.

Nova Odess youth

The first week in Jan, Katrina and some of her youth from Nova Odessa, came to visit us. They were with us for four days. As you can tell the teens just love Katrina. We are so happy that she is able to be "their missionary" in Nova Odessa. She lives in the little house we use to live in. Jason bought a foosball table for the village kids. We have it out on our veranda, so you can see laundry drying in the background. Here the village children and some of the teens are enjoying the new game. We are happy to give them a safe place to hang out and have fun.

The teens really seemed to enjoy the snow!!! We had enough for them to go sledding and Jason pulled them around the village, plowing the roads as they went.

In the end some of them looked like walking snowmen.

Even Jessica joined in the fun. Can you tell that is Jessica? She came prepared. We are still enjoying a lot of snow, but now we have a nice thick layer of ice under the snow. That can get pretty tricky when it comes to driving on it. I stick with my safe taxi driver named Jason. He gives good rates and gets you there safely.

Here is the whole group headed back home on the train. Pray for each one of these teens.

Cold and Snow!!!

Some of you have been asking if it is cold here and if we are getting any snow. Well, here is your answer.... Does it look cold to you? Yes, we are in our Ukrainian winter and loving it (for the most part). We do love snow even if it does slow things down a bit. Here is my honey and I, as we are shoveling the driveway. Great exercise!!!

We are so thankful for the patio with all this snow. It has really cut down on the dirt that is tracted in on the boots of our guest & friends.

Christmas program- Osikoiva

On the 10th of Jan we had our Christmas program here in our village of Osikovia. That is the Sunday after Ukrainian Christmas , which falls on Jan 7th. Here is a little guy that is new to our Sunday school. He is pretty proud of his little angel that we made. Our program went well, with more parents attending than last year. The teens did a really nice skit about the true meaning of Christmas. Jessica even learned her lines in Ukrainian. There were several special songs.

Our little church (called house of prayer) was packed with guest for the program.

At the end of the program the children and teens sang Happy Birthday to Jesus!!!

Sunday School Christmas Party

Here is our little group of children from our village that come to our Sunday school. Some of them are from very hard homes, while a few have Christian parents. They really did enjoy the Christmas party we gave them. We were planning on more coming over from our Kid's Club in Kanyazachee, but the snow was too deep and the weather too bad. We had games, snacks and then gifts. When we were taking them all to their homes we gave jams and plates of cookies to their parents and sang carols to them. It was a great night. Natsha was helping to make the Christmas cookies. She can be a big help and also a big handful.

These are a few of the different kind of cookies we made to give away. Gingersnaps with white chocolate and sprinkles

Ritz crackers dipped in chocolate

Are you hungery yet?

New Years

I guess we are homebodies, because I really don't remember a time that we ever went to a New Years party. We usually "celebrate" by sleeping in the New Year. This year was different. Roman and Nodiea, our pastor and wife, invited us to a New Years party. Even though we are not big party people, we didn't have a good enough excuse. We didn't figure the need of sleep was a good excuse. So we dressed up and went to the party, at least we thought we were going to a party. I guess something was lost in translation. When we arrived they were having church, and praising God for His help this past year, singing and giving testimonies. Don't get me wrong, I am not against church and praising God, just not exactly what we expected. We did get one thing clear though, there was going to be food. So after praying in the New Year, all the guest headed to the basement for what we understood was snack time. Right and wrong, Yes they did have food, but not snacks, a whole Ukrainian feast. We thought the service or party or what ever it was would end after the fireworks at midnight, Wrong again. They were just getting warmed up. After the huge feast, mashed potatoes, three kinds of meat, endless salads and different kinds of pickles, then sweets, they sat around and talked and the kids started playing games. When we stood up to leave a 3am they asked us why we were going home so early. We were really feeling the need of sleep by this time.
and the next morning we woke up to this......... Yes, the village children came to bless our house and threw wheat at us, in every room and on everything they could, chatting little rhymes all the while. I hurried to find candy, and Jason had fun throwing the candy back at them. Then they stole our kids and headed down the road to "bless" more homes. Our kids had a great time. You should have seen the load of candy and money that Josh came back with. Needless to say, we headed back to bed. So how was your New Year?

family Christmas

Yes, we did have a family Christmas, here in Ukraine, with our little family. No not a family Christmas as in all the extended family and everyone getting together, but that was fine. We have each other and we are thankful for that. It was a happy Christmas even though we were far from home. Sometimes we call Dec. 25th American Christmas, because they don't celebrate Christmas here in Ukraine at that time. Jessica and Josh were very happy with all there presents but also the making of memories. We have special little traditions that we keep as a family every year. The kids really look forward everything that comes with making Christmas special, and remembering Jesus' birthday.

Josh adding the final touch to our Christmas tree. He made the star (snowflake) himself. He loved helping make the decoration for the tree. It was a Christmas full of fun memories. Cutting our tree in the forest, stringing the popcorn, making snowflakes, making gifts for each other, reading our favorite Christmas stories, the joy on little faces, and remembering the Best Gift of all.

Playing catch up again

Where Oh Where has the time gone. Has it really been that long since I last posted anything on my blog? Well, needless to say I am playing catch up again. I will do my best to let all of my fathful readers ( hey, thanks for being one of the few that are still with me) What has been happening, Who we have been with, What we are doing, and maybe if we get lucky Where we are going. What do you say? Let's get this started! ( the picture is of the icecream cakes Jason got for my birthday, last month. everything was going on last month and he still didn't forget my birthday. Good job , honey)

Donna and Wesley's visit

This is old news but I still wanted to share it with you all. The weekend of Thanksgiving, my dear friend from college, Donna Downing Buck and her husband, Wesley came and visited us. They are missionaries in Moldova, with children, and it was so exciting to have them as guest. Sometimes you have guest that just fit in so well that they hardly feel like guest. Well, that's the way it was with Donna and Wesley. I attended God's Bible School with Donna and we have many good memories together. Thanks you guys for coming. God knew when to send you our way, and you were a great encouragement to us. The whole family had fun playing games together.

I was impressed by their willingness to get on the floor and play games with the village children.

Of course the kids ate up the attention they were getting.

This was the first Sunday school without our regular translator. Donna and Wesley just jumped right in and helped act out the story and then pitched in and helped with the crafts as well. Such a blessing to have other missionaries that see what needs to be done and they jump right in and do it.

They told us at GBS that "the sun never sets on the students of God's Bible School". I can say, for this missionary on the other side of the world it was sure nice to spend time with not only a fellow GBSer but also devoted missionaries that are passionate about loving people and taking the Gospel where ever God leads.
Thanks for being the hands and feet of Christ.