Chortkiv, Ukraine - 3 day outreach and quest!

Two weeks ago we had two days of our lectures devoted to “team time”. This was time where both teams, India and Ethiopia, were to spend together building relationships and learning together as preparation for the 3 month outreach phase.

Our team, Team India, had the opportunity to travel 70 km south of Ternopil to a city call Chortkiv. This city is quite a bit smaller than our present home, with about 30,000 people. It was nice to be in such a “small city” and we really felt it in the three days we were there. We saw the same people on the streets at least twice – he he he!!

We went to serve and work with a local church there in Chortkiv with whom our school staff have good relationships. In our time there we spoke, sang and did drama at the young adult group of the church. I was really blessed to connect with a few of the English speakers and we had some great conversation and I was able to encourage them in God’s plans and goodness for them. A young family from the church gave us their one room apartment to stay in...which was certainly a gift! They took their two young kids and stayed at a friends for the two nights we stayed. So...there we were...8 girls sleeping in the living room and bedroom....cooking together, cleaning together – ha ha ha! An interesting fact that was a surprise to us all.... the shower was in the kitchen if you can picture it!

Our first day, we had a "Quest", which was basically a big scavenger hunt to find people and information in a city we had never been to - in 2 hours. This was a GREAT cultural learning experience....by the end we were all agitated...and when we debriefed we realized that we all had different goals when we were given the tasks. To the North Americans - we could not believe that people wanted to stop and take pictures everywhere we went - we were on a time deadline - 2 hours and 6 people we had never met to find, interview,etc. To the Ukranians we were pushy and rude because we were not taking advantage of the opportunity to see the sights at the same time...and hey, we better get groceries for supper because we are walking by possibly the only large supermarket! Ha ha ha - LESSON LEARNED - COMMUNICATE THE VISION AND PURPOSE OF THE TASK - WITH TRANSLATION....so everyone is working together! 

The second day we had a time devoted to focused worship and prayer...so we hiked up a hill on the warm sunny morning, found a good spot overlooking the city and sang praises and gave worship to God. It was an amazing time for us as a team – our first time to just rest and worship together simply because Jesus is worthy to receive our praise and worship! In the afternoon we met up with some of the local believers and led them in some street ministry and evangelism. This was tonnes of fun! We met many people during this time and had some really great conversations with people. The people of Chortkiv were VERY friendly and so open to talk and share and pray with us. It was refreshing!

Two team mates blessing a dear lady we met
She is from Poland and was so encouraged
and blessed us as well!

Saturday night was a highlight for me....because we worked with the “Coffee House” outreach which is run by a former YWAMer and leader in the church, Lydia. God has given her a vision and heart to reach out to youth at the local disco-tech or night club. Once every couple of weeks Lydia and her team go to the night club and present a short drama and say a few words and hand out their contact info for people. There have been many young people who have responded through relationship to this outreach. Lydia shares that before she was born again, in relationship with Jesus, she was in the night club drinking and drugging away her abusive and failed marriage until some of her friends began to love her and really care for her and share Christ with her. I had the priviledge of playing a part in the short drama we did and then saying a few words to the crowd at the end. The message was simple, “We all get stuck to sin....but Jesus died for us while we were sinners, so that when we believe in Him and ask Him to He has the power to forgive us and FREE us from the power of sin.”

The drama is posted before this post. :) Check it out -  it is really great and you will get a sense of the atmosphere!

After the drama we stuck around and talked to people that wanted to talk. A young woman approached us, connected with us and two days later she ended up coming to visit us at home when we were in Ternopil. Yay God! Many other youth and young adults wanted to talk to us, ask us questions and get to know us. It was tonnes of fun....and a great reminder to me that people everywhere are in need of God’s great love and so often we forget about the places that might “seem” more dark....but LIGHT BELONGS IN THE DARKNESS.

The final day we shared at the local church we were working with in the city. It was tonnes of fun....we shared  with the congregation all about ourselves, DTS, India, and some of the students shared stories or testimonies of amazing things that God has done in bringing them to the school and while being here. We sang a song - Russian and English, but the only catch is we started in Russian, with microphones in the hands of people that have never used mics (we were not expecting personal mics for every singer!!) and whoever started, hit the wrong key and everyone else just followed suit (smile/frown**)!! ha ha - oh to be a part of a team. So...when it was English time, my choice was to try to save the song or to support the team - so I went with the support the team and tried to save it at the same time....it was a great and terrible experience at the same time! After the worship service, on the drive home, we all laughed so hard....we only can improve from here on in!  Our team leader said, "I thought you guys were going to cut it short....BUT you finished the song!!" Ha ha - we are still laughing about it!  Jesus is FUNNY!!

That is the trip in a nut-shell....

Disco-tech Outreach - Ukraine

Content from October Newsletter

OCTOBER NEWS (sorry - it is in a very borning....written form...if you want the newsletter in pretty fun reading form, email me!)

Discipleship Training School –

We are officially over one month into our lecture phase of the DTS....and I have been radically surprised by God through the teaching and working of God’s Spirit. So far we have been host to some humble and powerful teachers of God’s word, Paul Logan, Loren and Darlene Cunningham, Al and Carolyn Akimov, and Jim Isom. They have taught on evangelism, missions, hearing God and the role of family and our identity in Christ. I would love to be able to give you a better synopsis of all we have been taught and all God is doing...but that would take many more pages than I desire to pass on to you!

I will say that Jesus is changing us all by His Word and Spirit....and I feel that my heart is under deep surgery. Some of the challenges that I have been going through have been the adaptation to living in a community setting....if you go through something as an individual, you go through it as a group because you cannot hide anywhere to be alone!! God has been pointing His finger on a lot of sin in my heart – selfishness, pride, ungratefulness, complaining, judgement...the list goes on. And in all of these things, I am in an environment where I must deal with each of these things so that we can live in unity and love as a family unit in Christ.

Just this last week....which consisted of a lot of inner healing and identifying root beliefs that are in opposition to the truth (which is why behaviour exists that goes against God) so that they can be renewed by God’s word (Romans 12), the Holy Spirit really revealed the state of my heart.....which is in desperate need of the work of the cross! I have come back to a place of realizing how much I need Jesus, His cross, His blood and His continual work in me (through His Word and Spirit). In total honesty – I see how much of a mess I am and how lost I am without the hope of Christ and His power that makes me a new creation every day!

YWAM Jubilee –

At the end of September we joined with the rest of Ukraine and Russia and gathered together to celebrate the Jubilee (50^th) Anniversary of Youth With a Mission. It was a PARTY to say the least and a time of connecting, and readying for the future. As “non-YWAMer”s many of us students felt a little out of place, but by the end of the conference we were all powerfully impacted. It was a great encouragement to see and build relationships with other followers of Jesus in Russia, Georgia, Armenia, Belarus and other Ukranianian cities.  We were about 250 people and shared meals, teaching sessions, worship and more together. Many received fresh vision for future outreaches and we all were equipped in greater ways.

I attended a workshop teaching about “Understanding Islam”. The session was VERY powerful and imparted a lot of practical wisdom and tools. It was just a taste of a longer training session that is used as a training tool for people that minister in Muslim nations. One of the most interesting things I learned was that almost ¼ of the world’s Muslim population speaks Russian as their first language. That is amazing to me – I had no idea. The European city that has the most Muslims per capita....is not Paris or London, but is Moscow. Southern Russia, that borders the “stans” has contains this large population of Russian speaking Muslims that have no witness for Jesus Christ, many of which live isolated and in very low economic status because they have been neglected through the Soviet times and left alone afterwards. God is stirring some things up in my heart for these peoples and regions....

Breakthrough in Kiev –

After the conference our DTS group stayed in Kiev and joined up with the DTS in Kiev for one week of teaching on pioneer missions. It was a powerful week indeed. The greatest thing I can pass on is this quote from Brother Andrew, “Who told you that a nation is closed to the good news of Jesus Christ....? Did God say that the nation was closed? NO, it was men that told you. If God has not said it, it is not so. And if God wants you in a nation, He will get you in and open all the doors you need.” Inspiring to say the least!

I was also so blessed and thankful to help out with leading worship at the YWAM base in Kiev. On the Thursday evening the base had their “Family Night” and two of the Kiev DTS students and myself formed a last minute band and lead a worship night. This was a highlight for me, firstly because God supernaturally brought us together – a keyboardist (English), a bassist (Ukrainian) and myself, guitarist (English). We had to lead in English and Russian....ha ha ha – and we did! There were about 100 or so missions staff and students present...and it was a powerful time,

After the evening, I thanked the Kiev DTS leader for helping with sound and he expressed how much of a breakthrough this night was. He shared that for a long time, nothing like that had happened on the base and he knew that it was a start of God’s move and breakthrough for the Kiev missions base and staff. What an honour for us as DTS Ternopil to have been present and a part of God’s work there!

Student Ministry/Outreach –

Evangelism: We have been going out to the streets every week as a school. While in Kiev, we had the privilege to teach the Kiev DTS a crash street-evangelism course and then we took them out with us. In Kiev it was so different – most of the older people we spoke with in Kiev were atheists and full of anger and hurt from the war (WW2), much fruit from the Soviet Union. This really broke my heart because some of the older men we spoke with, professors, were actually asking us, “Show me God if He exists....prove it to me.” Deep in their voices, however was an earnest desire to know that God is real.

In Ternopil, this past week, we split into groups and prayed as teams and went “treasure hunting”, which is asking God to speak to us of a specific place and person He wants us to meet with. Each group came back afterwards with awesome testimonies of God’s faithful guidance and the precious people on the receiving end. We have been building strong relationships with the people God has been sending us out to meet. We are meeting with them on Friday nights to build closer relationships and begin discipleship of those that are giving their lives to God. Our focus for this will continue in hearing God’s direction, following Him, sharing His words with people and building relationship and discipleship.

Elders and orphans: Last week we went to our other outreach ministries for the first time. My post was an Old Age Home. We went in groups to find men or women to visit with for our time at the home. My group, Lena, Riza and myself, found an elderly man, Sebastien, in his room and ready to receive us. We entered his small, smokey room and sat down. He was so excited to see us and shared that he never gets visitors. We explained why we were there....to talk with him, get to know him, etc. and he said, “ask me anything and I will tell you.” To our surprise, this 84 year old man, was a Soviet War Hero. He was on the front lines and shared later that he had the honour of freeing Warsaw, Poland from the Germans (and he mentioned other cities)... The last person that came to visit him was a reporter from Kiev, to find out about his stories.

He was a dear man, and all three of us felt a connection instantly. He thought that it was really cool that I was from Canada and that I spoke English. He shared that when he was in Berlin fighting that he used to drink Vodka with English soldiers!  We left him some brownies that we had baked...and he was so blessed by our company and conversation! I am so excited to go back and keep visiting with this amazing man! What a reminder of the richness of life, wisdom and history that the older generation carries....and here he his, living in a tiny room in the state run seniors home on a very small pension. We are already planning ways to bless him....thinking about having a dinner in his honour, or taking him into town by taxi....if you get any ideas, please let me know!

Riga, Latvia – School of Prophetic Justice

I am writing this extensive (ha ha) newsletter from Riga, Latvia. I am sitting in an apartment of one of the YWAM staff, a Dutch woman, who is hosting us and the School of Prophetic Justice. School starts tomorrow and we have around 50 students from Estonia, Latvia, Finland, Norway, Russia, and other European countries. One of our students has come from Thailand....so we are expecting great things from God! It has already been such a powerful and supernatural trip to get here yesterday....and it is a priviledge to be serving with Jari and Tanya Koivu and the YWAM Alternatives Network to serve Europe with the information of Pro-Life Missions and Human Trafficking Ministry....I will share more in the next newsletter....but for now....keep praying with us for many to be changed, inspiried and set a flame for the work of love found in God’s justice for the unborn and oppressed of the world. We are believing that eyes will be opened in Europe to these vital ministries, as in many nations there is very little taking place through the ministry of the church. It is time! 

Divine Encounters on the Way to Riga

What a day – leaving Ukraine....train, taxis, planes....benches – kind men and women and above all the most amazing God beyond my imaginations! To me it is a miracle to be here....in a beautiful apartment – received with love and a warm open heart....in Latvia! I was so tired all day that it seems as though I am here and have come out of a haze. Ahhhh – it is already refreshing and already I have some perspective of what and how and why...although a dim shadow of Your full plan!

Faith, under construction as we go! 

I am staying with the wonderful disciple of Jesus that is going to turn human trafficking upside down in Riga and then all over Europe. This woman is already and will be a modern day hero.....an everyday lover of Jesus...who is putting hands and feet to the ending of the sex trade! What an honour...and you have brought me here to serve her Lord as a guest in her home. Already I see the priviledge and honour and strategy in staying here....all by Your hand. You are so faithful to provide for me...and so superabundantly!

Even missing the connection today in Kiev was such a pleasant surprise....just resting in Your grace and enjoying the sunshine, birds, people walking to and fro and of course Sasha from Georgia. As I sat on the bench reading my book....I noticed him looking at me a bit and then he came with his sandwich and sat on the bench next to me. I did not take too much notice until he began liberally feeding the pigeons and then more and more and more! He was taking great joy in sharing his lunch and they were frenzied as well!!  I had to duck for cover a few times! Then....I felt to offer him some of my yummy Ukranian chocolate ....and to my joy he accepted it. This made way for a lovely time together....Sasha, a native Georgian is probably in his late 60s, early 70s. A businessman who owns a hotel (or maybe a few....) It was a miracle that I even got that much information – he spoke no English and I used the very minimal Russian I have.....he tried speaking German with me, but that did not get too far! Ha ha ha! It was a great gift from God to meet him – I showed him photos of Ternopil, the base, the missionaries....and he understood I was a missionary!! He invited me to come to Georgia and learn Russian – and left me with his phone number when in Moscow and Georgia! For much of the time we just sat silent together....and tried to talk here and there....as I was showing him photos he blessed me and commented that I was a beautiful woman!! I believe if nothing else God brought him to me to tell me that very truth! I received it with gratefulness in my heart! What a gift from God that encounter was....and I believe the Lord will be with him and reveal Himself to Sasha...!

And then there was Maxim....a friends friends friend who met me at the train station.....waited for me to detrain, grabbed my bag from me....whisked me away to the taxis, found me a good price, got me in, warned the driver I didn’t speak Ukrainian and then was gone. The soccer coach and kind man, Maxim. Thank you father for taking care of me through all of these people...! You are too good to put to words and your provision is so abundant it astounds me!

Overlooking the lake in Ternopil....

Now – I am in Riga – and going to sleep....there is such an excitement in my heart. I know that I am here for Your purpose Jesus. I know that You have assigned me to be here as an ambassador of healing to the nations....to sow this seed in faith! Time to sow and believe! 

THE ipod challenge!!!!

What! It can not be so! You mean that I can not find my ipod...before I am boarding a 9 hour flight and before entering into a season of 6 month intensive and intrusive learning and ministry where personal space will already be little to none. Now....not being able to find my ipod almost is insult to injury...the only little device that allows me to plug into worship through music, to tune into God and tune out every other noise and person around (we all know how we “need” to do this at different points in the day – something we like to call “space” or “time to ourselves”.) And hey – when living in a community setting (I mean the only private space is a 1 X 1 room that houses the toilet!!) every buffer of personal space is welcomed and used as a tool to connect with Jesus and disconnect with people, even for an hour....to simulate solitary time and allow a vacuum of the Presence of God in a personal meeting space.


Yes, you might be thinking what God is thinking!! Ha ha ha ha...and He was letting me know some of His thoughts, as I was on the way to the airport and asking Him about this fiasco! Firstly, one of His thoughts was this : “Do I need to plug in an ipod to “tune out the rest of the world”? One of my classic crutches for using my ipod (let me clarify, I rarely use my ipod....mostly to connecting with Jesus in the midst of an airplane ride, to encourage sleep, in devotions and worship, on runs and walks at times...and you know...the rare occation to separate myself from the others around me that I might not “feel” like talking to and can’t physically get away from!) Back to the crutch - and it is this – to keep garbage from entering my ears. Most times, I would rather not hear the conversation my neighbours are having about the neighbour who does this and that....or the curse words exchanged in “normal” conversation that I am not a part of. I know my heart motive is pure, and as I write this is all starting to sound a bit like insulation.

Fire can’t start in a vacuum!

The next thought that God shared with me was relating to this very fact. God hears the just and the unjust. He has listened to every vile song, every curse riled against His own name, every degrading thing, every slander, every gossip, He HEARS IT ALL. Does He tune it out to regain His holiness? Does He need to keep His ears plugged with His own praises in order to do His mighty works in the heavens and earth? Nope – His holiness is settled in heaven, His heart is secure and fixed....and yet He is grieved, His heart breaks and He weeps and stirred to powerful love when He hears His creation entering into anything that is not faith. His compassion is the filter that takes sin and defilement and translates it into the burden of the Cross and the power of the resurrection that He is waiting to be received by every heart.

So....obviously, I can see Jesus probing my heart to teach me a lesson in this all. Admittedly, for convenience sake, I would really love to have my ipod with me...I mean – 6 months in different languages and cultures...some English solice of anointed worship at my fingertips seems greater than gold in this moment...and will seem as such a couple months into this thing!!

But there is a greater solice that the Lord is trying to open me up to receive. Jesus didn’t tote an ipod. He lived in constant fellowship with the Father – IN THE MIDST OF A PERVERSE AND SINFUL GENERATION. Jesus must have heard all kinds of ungodly conversations in passing, and we all know that He wasn’t afraid to be the light in those dark places. He lived in close community with the 12 disciples for 3 solid years. His “tune out” was the hidden place of prayer and the rest of the time it was the secret place of abiding in the Father’s presence and love by Holy Spirit’s constant help and presence.

This is it. This is the goal. This is the Father’s desire for me, for us. To not rely on anything but Him. So even an ipod, used for godly things, can become a crutch, and a means of disconnect from the very people God is desiring us to share deeper community with, even in the kaos of kosmos and defilement of the world. What would we do if faced without having the “normal” helps in our relationship with Jesus. We could call them conveniences, because they are that.

Take away my solitary place of prayer. Take away my “buffer” of personal space as manifested in my ipod. What will You find Lord?

My prayer in and through this learning time is that with or without the things and cultural expressions of worship and devotion there would remain ABIDING. You would remain, Jesus, constantly present and speaking and making holy. There would remain the love of God, burning deeply and passionately for Jesus and for others. There would remain heaven and earth and the two colliding through my life.

It’s time for the test!

The Gypsy Camp

Gypsy Camp


What an amazing experience – all around! Our team had the opportunity to go to a Roma Youth Conference on our last weekend in Ukraine. “Roma” is the rebranded name for Gypsy, because there has been and still exist so much racism and discrimination associated with the term gypsy throughout all of Europe and the world.

We went to the historic city of Mukachevo, which once was a part of Hungary and has one of the largest Roma communities. The Roma church was hosting a youth conference for the weekend and we went to be a part. It was an incredible experience....we drove through the beautiful city, crossed the rail road tracks and were all of a sudden in the gypsy camp. The conditions were very similar to Guatemala – the roads were dirt, there were children all around playing on the streets in dirty clothes, with dirty faces. Many homes are without running water, etc. and there are a lot of evidences of poverty, both spiritual and physical, that can be seen just from walking down the street. All of the brothers and sisters that we met that were involved and had desires to see change and improvement had at some point gone 'out' and done training with Youth with a Mission. This was an encouragement!

The church was special as well. The first thing that we all noticed was the music and worship...such passion and outward expression of praise and worship. AND THE BEATS – a confirmation that music is part of the culture...so much so that the two drummers in the worship team were around 7 and 8 years old! The conference speaker was a man from Operation Mobilization, a missions organization, from Hungary. He was a gem – an older gentleman that has given his life to reaching out and mobilizing outreach. Thankfully he spoke English, so we connected quickly. All of the worship, service and preaching and teaching was done in Hungarian, so we had to go through a few translators to get it into English.

I was greatly impacted by the children, and also by the overwhelming need for the Word of God to be taught in this place. Yes, it was a church setting, but in my heart I knew that culture and gypsy way of life still is lord over so many of the families represented and that the room and need for true transformation by God’s word and Spirit is too much for a human heart to bear or even do something about. The Spirit of God is and will do a mighty work in the midst of these people! One entire service, I was so overwhelmed with the need for true transformation of spirit that I simply sat and wept and wept before Jesus, crying out for Him to move!

The youth Pastor, Carlos, was very friendly and hospitable and they invited us to eat meals with them and to be together as much as possible. This was special! We stayed with the Senior Pastor and his wife, who are Ukrainian. This man, the Pastor, was one of the first people to bring the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the gypsies over 25 years ago. He shared that for the first 10 years he went around as a travelling evangelist to gypsy camps and within the last 15 or so years planted the church in Mukachevo and now 16 other church plants in other gypsy villages. It was such a great honour to meet this family and to connect with them! They are champions with hearts full of love and mercy. I hope in the Lord that someday I will be able to work more with them!

A little aside....on the Saturday night, there was a Praise concert...and Carlos, the Youth Pastor, asked if I would bring a song....so I agreed, with the understanding that I would sing in English and no one would understand! It was such a blessing and honour to bring a song to Jesus in the midst of such a crowd and group! For me, it was an honour to serve them with something so dear to me – my heart of love to God!

After the conference ended we had a short time to tour around Mukachevo...we even went to the castle! It was INCREDIBLE! This was my first time in a real castle...and in the company of dear friends and family in the Lord was a memory that I hold dear. After this we made the 6 hour drive back to Ternopil and packed and prepared to go home! It was a wonderful way to wrap up our adventure....and also wet our appetite for more outreach and ministry in Ukraine!

Praise be to Jesus for all He continued through our visit and all that He will do in the future. This people group are dearly loved by God and He has great plans for them!
 
Love,
Allison
 
For more photos of the time in Mukachevo click on this link:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=451221&id=741610340&l=27e8653a82
 
 

Visiting Orphans

Visiting Children who have been orphaned:

In our last week in Ternopil we had the opportunity to go to two orphanages and love on the children and staff there.

Berzhany – this is a special place, about 45 minutes west of Ternopil. The town is small and very beautiful and historically was a center of study and commerce during Hungarian rule. Now, however, it is small and somewhat impoverished.

There is a state orphanage here where 145 children live. Because summer had begun, most of the children were away at state run sanatoriums, or summer camps. There were about 40 children that were still at the institution, however and we were able to give them a short English class, play games with them, share a meal together and buy them fruit and ice cream (which was a really outrageous treat!)

We also had time with the staff and I was impressed with the heart and love that they have for the children. The orphanage is not a Christian institution, but many of the staff are believers and the director treats all 145 kids as his own. The evidence of the lack of funds was not hard to miss in the building structure and maintenance, but the staff seemed to do their best with what they had.

Once we had spent a couple of hours with the kids, some of them began opening up to us and asking us questions about our families and our lives. One young girl of about 7 years old, asked my team member, Megan, if she wanted to adopt her and take her home. It also was hurtful to see how violent and aggressive the children were towards each other and for a moment I saw into their lives of fighting their way for survival, attention and love.

Personally, I was overwhelmed with the need for love and attention this amount of children requires and over 100 of them were not here! This was a revelatory moment for me, understanding how limited my love is and how much more I need God to fill me with His love that is sufficient for every one of these dear children.

Petting Zoo Outreach:

This was an exciting experience for us all. Our team joined up with one of the regular Orphan Ministry teams from the base at YWAM. This group goes weekly to children’s homes and takes animals from the city ‘zoo’, along with city workers to allow the kids to learn about the animals and mostly to pick them up, pet them and play.

We visited a Christian orphanage in Ternopil and even from the get go there was a greater sense of peace and love in the kids and in the home. This was a testimony to me personally.

The children were ecstatic about the large rabbit, the guinea pig, the turtle and the hamsters. The birds did not get very much attention, but all in all the children had so much fun playing and holding the animals. We were able to talk to some of the kids, most of whom ranged in age from six to ten years old.

Interestingly, there was an older couple that was hanging around and I quickly found out that they were there to adopt one of the boys in our group. The couple were from Italy and had been in Ternopil for a number of weeks and had more weeks to go. This was my first experience seeing the process of foreign adoption taking place. I had a good conversation with the wife and she was so impressed and thankful for such a ministry that would come and visit and play with the kids. I pray that the Lord’s guidance and wisdom will be with them in their transition and with the dear boy that will become their son.

This was our experience in only two of the many, many orphanages in Ukraine. There are so many children needing parents, naturally and spiritually. Let's continue to pray for these kids, that they will know and receive the love that God has for them through the people that are in their lives. That God will raise up and send more people to go and visit and care for and love these children. Each one of them is so precious and dear!

For a larger photo album, please click on this link:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=451238&id=741610340&l=c27b437cd1

Praising the Lord that we were able to meet these precious ones and bless them with very little of what we had - our time and some icecream - all in the name of Jesus!
 
Blessing and love as we share all the Lord has given us to share...our lives and the rest!

(this is me sitting on the knee of a statue of some famous guy from Berzhony - a Ukrainian hero of sorts!)