Anika, Chelsea, and I have been back in Ukraine for a little over 3 weeks now. I cannot believe how fast the time has flown by. So many great things have happened in those 3 weeks that I am excited to share about. We got to be apart of Andre's first birthday celebration. Andre is the son of Dusya and Sergei, both are graduates of Pravdinska. They have another daughter Vala who is 5. Dusya has told us numerous times how we are family to her. She does have family, even though she grew up in an orphanage. And they were there at the party, but they were drunk and you could tell she does not always feel comfortable when they are with her kids. I know we all were so thankful to be apart of Andre's day. They are very much family to me.
Sasha Peevniv is someone that is very dear to all of us. We have walked with him through the orphanage, juvenile prison, and now transitioning into everyday life. He is doing amazing and I am so incredibly proud of him. He has a little 12 year old sister that he had not seen in 5 years. He had it very much on his heart to go back to the village he thought his mom was living in and see his sister. This was confirmed for him when a pastor at a church, not knowing any of this, asked him if he had a sister. When he answered, yes, the pastor told him he needed to help take care of her. He came to find out that she has been living in an orphanage the past 2 years. He was heart broken as he did not want the same life for her that he had. We had the privilege of taking a train ride to go and meet her. We got to hang out with her for the day and then had the fun surprise that he got permission to take her for the weekend. She came and stayed with us this past weekend and it was such a blast. She was so very shy at first. But it wasn't too long before she was out of her shell. She got to experience many firsts with us. To name a few: riding in an elevator, riding an escalator, bowling, eating cereal, and pancakes. We are excited to continue to minister to Lena and help her and Sash in whatever way we can.We started weekly meetings for the graduates who are in the different trade schools in Sumy. The first week we had just the new grads come. It was a fun time of games, fellowship, laughter, and sharing. We look forward to this next week and all the weeks to come.
We also started weekly meetings for the graduates who are in the different trade schools in Sumy. They are like youth group meetings. The first week we had just the new grads come. It was a fun time of games, fellowship, laughter, and sharing. We are excited to have a weekly place for the kids to come and learn more about Christ and build good relationships with our Ukrainian volunteers. We look forward to this next week and all the weeks to come.
