March - April 2015 Prayer Letter

Prayer Letter Time :)

 

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Jan. - Feb. 2015 Prayer Letter

Sorry it's so late....but here it is....our newest prayer letter....

 

 

 

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November/December 2014 Prayer Letter

Prayer Letter

 

 

С Новым годом и Рождеством Христовым

 



Happy New Year and Merry Christmas!!!

Why, you ask, is Merry Christmas not first?  Because here in Ukraine, New Years comes first, then Christmas is on Jan. 7.  So according to this fact we have found that Corey is now a Christmas baby, because his birthday is on Jan. 7 :)  Corey really likes that!!!

For New Years our church here had a New Years service, or what you would call in the states a watch night service.  These services are always really hard for me because I am not a night owl.  Staying up to 11 pm is hard for me, but staying up later I am really going to need the Lord and a lot of coffee :)

We didn't have many come out, but I really enjoyed them.  My husband was the first one to preach for the night.  Then Bro. Sergi preached on the fruits of the Spirit being a part of the Christian like ornaments adorn a beautiful Christmas Tree (here called the New Years Tree).  Then Bro. Sasha (deaf) that was saved back in July, gave is first devotional in front of the church.  You could see Olya (his wife), she was so proud of him.  He poured his heart out and what a blessing it was :)

 

Between preaching, we went to the basement and ate and the guys played ping pong. 

 

 

Some even played games....

 

 

Towards mid-night we had a candle light service. Everyone that was saved gave their testimony of salvation.  The lights to help us remember who we are, lights in this dark world.  Starting the New Year right, with thoughts of those in darkness who need to be taught the truth of the scripture, so they can be set free.

 

 

 

 Right at mid-night the kids all shot confetti cannons...this year...because of what's happening in Ukraine...the government said no fireworks.  So they go the confetti cannons instead.  I know my kids had so much fun with that.... and so did many of the adults too :)

Happy New Year!!!!

 

Culture Shock Part 2

Where do I start???  I believe I will start right here.... хорошо? Below is a description of 2 stages of culture shock...I am still in the negotiation stage....

Negotiation Stage: After some time (usually around three months, depending on the individual), differences between the old and new culture become apparent and may create anxiety. Excitement may eventually give way to unpleasant feelings of frustration and anger as one continues to experience unfavorable events that may be perceived as strange and offensive to one's cultural attitude. Language barriers, stark differences in public hygiene, traffic safety, food accessibility and quality may heighten the sense of disconnection from the surroundings. This may lead to difficulty sleeping, sadness, homesickness, exhaustion, increased worry, a desire to withdraw, unexplained crying, or overeating.

Adjustment phase: Again, after some time, (usually around 6-12 months) one becomes more familiar and comfortable with the culture, people, food, and language of the new country. One will likely feel less homesick and will have a better handle on the situations that they previously found frustrating. The culture begins to make sense, and negative reactions and responses to the culture are reduced.

As of right now, we have been in Ukraine a little over 6 months.  I have been dealing with minor culture shock for several months now, and finally thought I was over the worst of it.  But I was wrong!!!  I honestly did not see this coming and I didn't think it would come at me like it did.  It has effected every part of me: physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.  I would like to just curl up into a ball in the corner of my bedroom and cover up with a blanket and ask the world to leave me alone and let me be.  Can't the world keep going without me?  Can't I just disappear until all this "culture shock" stuff goes away? You know, that's my nature, my make up.  I want to hide, be invisible, be alone when I am facing a battle I feel I can't handle, and this is a battle I was not prepared for.  Not that I didn't know that I would go through what people called "culture shock", but I didn't expect it like this.  I have literally been physically sick, and have such a hard time keeping my mind and heart on track.  It is very hard to explain.  Some of it comes from the frustrations of having to deal with a foreign culture.  What's normal for them is completely ridiculous to us.  I don't know how many times I have asked, "Why do they have to do everything the hard way here?".  "Why does it take me all day to get one things done, even with a car?" 

I have been told that no one but other foreign missionaries will even know what I am talking about or going through, because they have been through it themselves.  And God gave them grace just when they needed it the most!  And most people in the states have no idea what  a struggle and battle it is.  And in most cases could care less, and those who do care do not know how to comfort you because they do not know the struggles you are facing.  But слава Богу (PTL), Бог знаем (God knows).

Have you ever been in a place where it is so hard just to keep your thoughts, words, and actions positive.   Why does everything come out so negative?  Imagine living like this.  Imagine having the hardest time praying. Imagine hating the person who you currently are....  this is culture shock. 

Have you ever been in a place where everything is backwards and upside down?  Imagine that everything you do and have always done is considered wrong or weird.  Imagine walking down the road, or walking in the store like you always do and getting strange looks or even rude comments.  Imagine always being taken advantage of just because of where you come from.  Imagine living in a country that has such a preconceived idea of what an "American" is, they think you are what you are not, then have to overcoming them seeing you as such.  This is culture shock.

Have you ever been in church have no idea what is going on?  Imagine sitting in service and not understanding the songs, or anything that is being said.  Imagine not being able to fellowship with other believes because you have no way to communicate with them.  Imagine that the church services are so different than what you have been accustom to since you've been saved.  Imagine after 6 months, still not being able to just sit down and talk with another sister, not because theirs nothing to talk about, but its because of the huge language barrier.  Vocal language and sign language.  This is culture shock.

This doesn't cover everything I'm sure, but this is what was on my heart :)

 

Culture Shock - Part 3

September/October 2014 Prayer Letter

Current Prayer Letter

 

 

Living in Ukraine

Tuesday will make our 5 month anniversary here in Kharkov.  Wow, I can't believe we have been here 5 months.  I'm not as advanced in the language as I would have liked to been by now.  But we are working on it.  Brian and Briana are way ahead of the boys and I.  Briana read 2 long paragraphs to my mother-in-law the other day on Skype.  I have been praying that God would make it very easy for them to learn the language and that He would open their minds and understanding to Russian.  I have learned enough to speak very simple sentences, but nothing more than that.  When someone talks to me I break out in a nervous sweat.  Does that happen to anyone but me.  I also break out in a nervous sweat when I go to the store, especially in the check out line.  I get nervous riding public transportation also....some people are very nice when they realize you do not speak Russian and help you, but some are very rude and hateful.  But since I have no idea what they are saying....I just smile....

We had some excitement the other week....our first hospital visit here....Orion come in the house and said, "Mom, Zach's OK, I just wanted to tell you that.  But he hurt himself playing football (soccer)."  Ok, it is never good when he says that!  Zach come in the house and said it hurt alittle, but hurt more when he moved it.  It was only alittle swollen, and I couldn't really tell what was wrong with it.  Ms. Cathy O'Brien is a nurse, so I called her about this.  She said we needed to get x-rays to make sure it is not broken and go from there.  So we took a Taxi to Hospital #7 near the church.  After Zach got his x-rays, lo and behold, it is broken.  It broke where the 2 bones meet right at your wrist.  So they had to set the bone because it was not a clean break.  But praise God, the doctor was a good doctor and it did not take that long!  This past Friday we went back for more x-rays, and praise God, the doctor said it is healing very well, and he only has to wear the cast one more week.  Wow, I was shocked, I thought he would have to wear it much longer, but praise God, he doesn't.  He does have to wear a metal, removable brace for several weeks though.  But at least it's not a cast!

 

As for general life in Ukraine, it still takes a lot to get used to.  We're not used to having close neighbors.  We live in a kind of duplex.  We enter in through the front, they enter in through the back but we do enter in through the same front gate. Several of the rooms in our houses are connected.  So we are able to hear what is going on in there home, and I'm sure they can hear us too.  Sometimes, we really don't want to hear what is going on in the other house.  Currently there are about 3 or 4 young college students from Africa.  But their lease is up and I believe they will soon be moving.  My prayer is to have a family move in behind us.  There is also another small apartment (detached) behind us with other couple of African college students.  Praying about maybe trying to find a home with a yard all to ourselves.  We are hoping the Lord will provide just what we need.

PTL!!! God has answered our prayers for a vehicle.  I was hoping for a mini van, but this is better than nothing.  It is a 2007 Russian Lada Seyorka.  The body style of this car has not changed in 20 years!  It's about as basic as basic gets.  We are praying about getting power steering.  It is very hard to drive.  Trying to change gears and turn the steering wheel is very hard!  It has been such a blessing to not have to take a Taxi to church!!!  I had a scary taxi experience last week coming back from the hospital after Zach got his xrays.  The taxi driver decided to stop at an apartment on a dark road at 11:30pm...and left us in the Taxi for 10 minutes.  I called my husband and talked to him the whole time to make sure nothing would happen.  And that is not the first time that has happened!  So praise the Lord for the car!  Still praying that the Lord would provide us a mini-van.  It will be more roomy for our family, plus we would have room for other's too. 

July/August 2014 Prayer Letter

Our most recent prayer letter is now available...

 

 

Krakow Poland Part 1

Today I am coming to you LIVE from Krakow, Poland.  This city is over 1000 years old and has a ton of history.  But tourism is not the reason we are here.  In order to get our Visas, we had to leave Ukraine and come to Poland.  Since Brian and Briana are going to the University we are getting student Visas.  They will be studying Russian.  

 

We are having to stay here a little longer than we intended to stay.  We had to leave Ukraine on August 21 because our 90 days to stay in the country without a Visa where expired.  But because of circumstances beyond our control, the paperwork that we needed from the University are a little late getting to us.  So now we are waiting for that paperwork to turn in with all of our Visa paperwork.  As soon as we get our Visa stamp, we will have 72 hours to get back to Ukraine to start our Residency paperwork.  (Lots of paperwork :))

 

 

 

We started our trip on a bus from Kharkov to Kiev Boryspil Airport.  It takes about 8 hours to get there.  We took the overnight bus, so it didn't seem quite so long.  Afterwards, we flew to Warsaw then on to Krakow by train.  It was a new experience taking the train.  I've rode on a train before (we took an Amtrak train from NC to PA and Brian I & took an overnight train from Kharkov to Kiev), but it was nice having our own personal cabin to ride in.  It make the 3 1/2 hours trip more bearable! :)

 

 

 

 My favorite things was getting a taste of home.  Some of the restaurants that they had in Poland, we do not have in Ukraine, such as....Subway, Pizza Hut, and KFC.  We didn't realize how much we missed these little things from the states so much!

 

Pizza Hut :)

We were able to get an apartment near the Old Town, which was a huge blessing.  We had to walk most everywhere we went, so being close to the embassy and town was a must.  We originally reserved a 2 bedroom apartment that all of us could stay in, but when we got here, we found out there was a glitch in the website in which we reserved our room, and that room was not available for several more days.  But PTL!  They offered us 2 apartments for the price of one!  So Brian and I stayed in the 2 person apartment while Briana and the boys stayed in the 4 person apartment one floor up.  It has been soooo nice, it's almost like a mini honeymoon for Brian and I :)  The picture below is the view from one of our windows :)

 

The day after we arrived, we just started exploring the Old Town.  In the picture below is a Catholic building.  The story behind the two towers is very interesting.  The legend tells of 2 brothers who were assigned to build the tower for the building.  The older brother finished first and was praised to the heavens for the great job he had done.  But soon after, they noticed that the younger brother had exceeded his brothers work in making his tower taller and more elaborate.  The younger brother was praised and honored even more that the older brother.  The story goes on to tell of the envy of the older brother, and how envy turned to anger, and that anger led the older brother to kill his younger brother in one of the towers, then went to the other tower and killed himself.  They say that the murder weapon still hangs in the tower as a reminder of what happened.

 

 

 

Here we are at the Wawel Castle.  Beautiful place to see.  We were not able to go inside, for the all the indoor exhibits you had to pay for.  And we are trying to site see as cheap as we can. :)

 

 

We also went and explored the Jewish Quarter in Krakow.  It made me think of what happened during WWII, and all the Jewish families that were taken and separated from each other on those very streets. Below is a picture of an old Jewish Temple/Synagogue.  It was used for this purpose prior to the war, but during the war, the Germans used it as a horse stable.  Now it is just a museum with pictures and quotes from Jews during the war.  There are not many Jews living in Krakow anymore.  Most of the ones who survived, left after the war.

 

See more pictures of our trip to Krakow Here!

 

 

 

Krakow Poland -Part 2

 

May - June Prayer Letter

 

Our most recent prayer letter is currently ready and available to be read!

 

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Finally in Ukraine

 

The first couple of days in Ukraine, we spent with the O'Briens at there home until our new dwelling was available.  In Ukraine, you have to peel your hotdogs, so that is what the boys are doing here :)

Not only do you peel your hotdogs, but you make your own hotdog buns, and the one's Ms. Cathy O'Brien made were very good!!! 

 



 

I am, slow but surely adapting to cooking without an oven.  Our new home only has a stovetop and no oven.  That did make things a little harder.  The language barrier is also a huge obstacle.  I go to the grocery store and have to shop by picture, or use my Google translator to try and figure out what things are.  Above is young capushta salad, Korean carrots, and boiled potato's.  The only thing I cooked was the potato's, the salads I bought pre-made.  I can't wait to get an oven and all my cookware from the states so I can cook a real meal!

 

They love their hot tea here.  I think Zach is a true Ukrainian at heart...he loves having his morning, afternoon, and evening tea :)  I'm not that crazy about it.  Many people here believe that you will get sick from drinking cold drinks....

 

This is our semi-private courtyard.  The front gate is also an entrance for two other dwellings behind us.  But everything to the right of the gate is just for us :)

 

We do take a lot of public transportation, but we can also walk to where we need to go.  We have a grocery store about 1/3 mile from our home, which is a huge blessing.  We just can not buy more than we can carry.  Here we are walking home from Caravan which is about 1.5 miles from our home.

 

Some of the Ukrainians are real patriots and have painted the trees the colors of the Ukrainian flag.

 

Some Ukrainians do not like the US.  Spray painted here says... USA = Terrorists

I wish they could understand we are not terrorists...

 

Overall, we are trying our best to get acclimated to this culture, the language barrier, and all the other things that make us a little less than comfortable.   There have been some hard times, times I want to go home as fast as I can get there.  But many times, the Lord reminds me why we are here, it's not to change them to Americans, but to teach them the truths of the bible so they can know true salvation!  I am learning the language and culture to be effective and used by God to reach that goal!  But as a person that thrives off of stability and structure and one that does not like or adjust to a lot of changes well....this has been one the hardest things I have ever done!!! 

What a mighty God we serve!

The last couple of weeks have been filled with ups and downs like you wouldn't believe.  Other than stressing about packing and shipping our stuff and what's going on in Ukraine, I recently found out that I would have to have a hysterectomy.  Big news, especially since we are leaving so soon, and you need at least 6 weeks to completely heal (according to the doctor).  But PTL, let me tell you what happened!!!

Several weeks ago while at one of my doctor appointments, my doctor suggested that I have a biopsy on my uterus.  So I did (an it did not feel good :( ).  Several days later, my doctor called me with the results.  She said that they found that I have hypoplasia and they found A typical cells also.  She told me that I would need a hysterectomy and possibly a full hysterectomy (ovaries and uterus).  But we scheduled a time for the next week to review and talk about what we need to do. So at this point I was really stressing.  Brian and I trying to figure out when we could possibly do this so I wouldn't miss any meetings and still have enough time to heal before we fly out.  But here comes the amazing part....drum roll please.... after my phone call with the doctor, I called some people to ask them to pray.  At the doctors appointment on Monday, my doctor told me, the previous week after we had talked, she run into a doctor friend of hers who was a gynecological cancer specialist.  She told him about me and he suggested doing a D&C first.  This way all the trouble I was having and verifying whether there is cancer could be done at the same time.  And if there is no cancer found from this procedure, I would not have to worry about having a hysterectomy at all.  PTL, right?!  On top of that, she will be able to place in my uterus a device that will slowly give me the hormones I need to regulate me and to thin my uterine wall (take care of the hypoplasia).  God so intervened and answered our prayers, not in the way we thought, but just much better.  He took several difficulties and took care of all of them at the same time!!  What a mighty God we serve!!!!!

Updates in Ukraine and in the ministry

Right now there is so much going on.  From what I have read, there is a lot of Russians being bused into eastern Ukrainian cities to start problems to give Russia a reason to come in and invade.  That's how all that got started in Crimea.  They want Ukraine, or at least the eastern part of it.  Russian news agencies, even the one's in the US are falsely reporting what is truly going on in Ukraine.  And  of course the US is no longer a treat to Putin because Obama told him they would not get the US military involved.  REALLY Obama???  Oh my, I'm just glad I never voted him into office!!!

I'm praying for Ukraine!

From the way it looks, as soon as all the "false Ukrainians" start calling in for Russia to help them, Russia will be invading eastern Ukraine.  (Unless God intervenes) It will turn out just like it did in Crimea.  If you look at The Republic of Georgia, you will see that the non-Russian ruled areas are more prosperous than the Russian ruled areas.  Russia annexing southern and eastern Ukraine will not help them, it will hurt them. 

Not sure where this leaves us as missionaries.  Will we eventually be able to go in to Kharkov??  Not sure.  We are earnestly praying that the Lord would help us to have discernment in what to do and where to go.  The O'Brien family is currently in a western Ukrainian town of Zhitomir.  They may be helping to start a work in the eastern part of town.  There are many deaf in that area with no deaf ministry.  Please help us to pray about this situation.  We what to be where God what's us to be.  It seems churches do not want to commit to supporting us because of what's going on in Ukraine.  They want to see if we are still going or not.  As long as there is not war and if it is safe for us, we will go.  There are still many missionaries in Ukraine that have not left.  Even if it means going to Western Ukraine to begin with, that may be what we will do.  We are just waiting on the Lord!  Psalm 27:14 Wait on the LORD: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the LORD.