Generally speaking, we faithfully post on here at least once a week, but this last month, we fell off the grid.
We fell behind on our emails. We fell behind with our Russian studies. And, we fell behind on blogging. However, the crazy is behind us, and we are now able to get back into the groove of a normal (missionary normal) life.
After some consideration of how to catch you up on everything, we decided to break it into two posts. So, if you want to read Byron's thoughts about our CELTA class and the time we spent in Kiev, click HERE.
If you want to read my thoughts about our time in Donetsk, Kramatorsk, and spending three nights sleeping on different trains, then sit back, relax, and enjoy! I'll do my best to make it brief (20 pages instead of 50 lol).
So, I guess I should give you a little bit of a back story as to why we wanted to visit Donetsk and Kramatorsk.
A few months ago, Byron and I were miraculously (it's such a crazy story, it would need a blog post of its own, but for the sake of time, I'll just say "miraculously") put into contact with a couple from Colorado that has a nonprofit orphanage organization in Ukraine (Click here: Ukraine Orphan Outreach ). They currently have a Ukrainian couple running a boys' home in Kramatorsk, Ukraine. The idea behind these homes is that when orphans become too old to live at an orphanage (generally this is 16 years old), the orphans won't just be left to their own devises and the streets, but will move in with Christian house parents, learn life skills, trades, seek jobs, and, most importantly, learn about God and hear the Gospel.
Byron and I were really excited to hear about this because we have actually been praying about turning our own home into an "aged-out" transitional home for orphan girls for some time. So, we decided we should visit Kramatorsk and see what the boys' transitional home is like.
We also have a friend at our church here in Ternopil that used to be affiliated with Donetsk Christian University (Click here: Donetsk Christian University), and recommended we get in contact with them to see if they have any information on how to volunteer actively at orphanages. So, we emailed the university, and ended up getting into contact with their event coordinated, who just so happened to be planning an event to celebrate the 1025 anniversary of Russia and Ukraine being baptized. He asked Byron if Byron would be willing to speak at this mini-revival and offered to find us a place to stay in Donetsk, provide us with transportation, and pick us up from the train station - and we agreed!
Now, onto the story.
After we finished our CELTA class around noon on July 26th, We had eight hours to celebrate the completion of our course, repack our bags, and hop on a 12 hour train headed to Donetsk.
The celebration part was the easiest task out of them all. During our time in Kiev, some good friends of ours (We love you, Sveta and Alex!) opened our eyes to the amazingness of sushi. So, Byron and I grabbed some sushi (it's surprisingly cheap in Ukraine - Roughly $4 for 8 tasty rolls) and then hit up a local art museum, which was free! Then, it was time to get to work.
Once our celebrating ended, we started to feel the anxiety of our impending travels building, and we even considered dropping our plans and just heading back to Ternopil. It sounds silly typing that out, because every time we have felt that way, the Lord always helps us to push through, and He blesses us with an amazing adventure, new friends, and a special Word from Him. But, for whatever reason, getting on a train in Ukraine and heading to an unfamiliar city is simply terrifying for us, not matter what. Fortunately, as always, the Lord was faithful to us this trip. He calmed us enough to get on the train, and He reminded us of His blessings in the past and promises from the Word that we have hidden in our hearts.
The train to Donetsk went well, and the Lord really blessed Byron and I with sleep on the train. We ended up sleeping for 11 hours straight on the train, and we woke up feeling pretty refreshed (As refreshed as you can be on a train) and ready to see Donetsk.
When planning our trip to Donetsk, we were told that someone would be at the train station to pick us up, but we didn't receive a picture of the person that would be picking us up, so we had to hope we looked American enough to stand out in the crowd.
And, of course, we did.
Nikolay was there to pick us up, just as he had promised, and then took us to the store to buy food for our trip. He then brought us back to our hostel, where we rested for a few hours and then were picked up to head to the celebration/mini-revival.
We had no idea what to expect from the celebration, but it ended up being one of the coolest, most emotional things I've ever experienced.
When we arrived, we quickly understood the order of things. Each pastor/priest/minister that was asked to speak would talk about a Bible verse of his choice, discussed practical application of the verse, and then lead the crowed in a guided prayer. After the prayer, the crowd would be lead in a worship song, and then the next pastor would come up.
It was so emotional to see the 400+ people singing songs like "How Great Thou Art" in Russian, and praying for their families, their government, their country, etc. The whole time, I was fighting back tears... The Spirit was moving in a mighty way.
And then it was time for Byron to speak. As he walked onto the stage and moved toward the pulpit, the crowd, which was a mixture of young and old Ukrainians, began to smile and really receive Byron - who was the youngest minister by at least 10 years.
Byron shared (His words were translated by a sweet sister in the Lord, Yana) from Ephesians 2:10 and encouraged the crowd to pray for the Church to grow in Ukraine, and for Ukrainians to become saved. When Byron finished, he began to pray.
In this moment, I felt the Holy Spirit like I've never felt before.
With the sun still shining, the clouds opened up and it began to rain. The rain started to fall at the exact moment that Byron opened his prayer. It was a gentle rain, one that felt rejuvenating. And simultaneously, a wind began to blow, but not a cold hard wind, but a warm, comforting wind, and the wind wrapped around me - my arms, my legs, my hair, the wind just swirled around me and through the rest of the crowd. And as soon as Byron said "Amen," the rain stopped, the wind stopped, and the sun went behind a cloud.
Byron's translator immediately said, "Wow, I've never experienced anything like that, it was amazing!" And I was in total agreement.
After the revival, we were going to go back to our hostel, but the man that was driving us home needed to stop by his own home on the way.
We stopped at his home, and we realized that his house wasn't just any house, it was huge. Then we noticed all of the children at the house, and it finally occurred to us, he was the director an orphanage. He offered to show us around, and we excitedly accepted his offer.
As he gave us the tour, he told us that his orphanage is called The Good Shepherd Orphan Home, and he takes care of 45 orphans, aged 3-18. He also told us that the children he takes care of all have at least one parent alive, but have been abandoned because their parent(s) are either addicts, abusive, or don't have a job and can't feed their children. He also told us that they recently began trying some new things with the orphans to help them have a better chance of living a good life after they leave the orphanage. One thing they do is having the orphans take turns working in the kitchen so that they can learn how to cook and clean. Another thing they are going to try soon is giving the older orphans an allowance so that they can learn how to budget and manage money. They are also considering giving the older orphans the opportunity to take an upper level English class at the orphanage.
As soon as he said that, he also said, "and we don't have a teacher for that yet, but we're praying for someone." Byron looked at me and then I said, "Well, we both just received our CELTA certification, and we are English teachers now."
In that moment, we all realized that the Holy Spirit might be orchestrating something, but because the visit to the orphanage was unplanned, we didn't have time to discuss the topic further, so we all exchanged contact information and agreed to pray about the Lord's will.
After that, we went back to the hostel and went right to sleep.
Then next morning, we woke up early and met Dima, a young man that works for DCU who was heading to Kramatorsk, and was willing to escort us so that we would get their safely.
We took a two hour bus ride to Kramatorsk, and Dima dropped us off with a man that was going to drive us to a baptist church, which has a pastor that speaks English and was willing to help us talk to Max, the man that runs a home for aged out orphan boys (now you can see why our traveling breeds so much anxiety!). We arrived safely at the baptist church, and we met Victor, one of the church's pastors.
He was so sweet to translate for us, and we learned a lot about Max, his wife, and the ministry they do. He told us about how for the first few months, the boys that came to live with them were various kinds of addicts, and that all he and his wife could do was pray constantly. But after a few months of praying, the boys started to change. And then, they started going to technical school to learn a trade, and they stopped being addicted to alcohol and different things, and then two of them even gave their lives to the Lord!
It was such an amazing, incredibly encouraging story... And for those of you reading, please remember, no one is too far gone for the Lord, and all we have to do is pray for that person, and the Lord will be faithful to do His good work.
After we met with Max, we got to attend the baptist church's service, and then have lunch with a really sweet elderly woman from the church that wanted to make lunch for us.
Then, Victor called Dima, and Dima came to meet us because he wanted to show us around Kramatorsk. We met up with Dima around 2pm, and he brought his friend Dasha to hang out with us too. Dima didn't speak very much English, and Dasha spoke more than him, so she was a good person to have with us :) However, by the time we were leaving Kramatorsk at 9pm that night, I was absolutely shocked by how much English Dima and Dasha were speaking, and how much Russian Byron and I were speaking. We had so much fun with Dima and Dasha, and Dasha's sister was sweet enough to make us a delicious dinner before we had to leave for the train station.
The best part of our day with Dima and Dasha was that they both feel called to serve the Lord on the mission field. Nothing blesses Byron and I quite as much as hearing about Ukrainians being called to the mission field and being totally sold out for the Lord. Please keep Dima in your prayers as he serves the Lord at DCU and pursues full-time missions. Also, please pray for Dasha as she finished at her university and seeks the Lord's will after graduation.
Dima and Dasha saw us off at the train station, and then we started our trek back to Ternopil. We spent 12 hours on the train - Kramatorsk to Kiev. Then, we took an 8 hour train - Kiev to Ternopil, and we finally made it back to Ternopil on 7/30 after 4 days of traveling and 3 nights of sleeping on the train.
We don't know if the Lord has a future for us in Kramatorsk or Donetsk, but we do know that He gave us these new contacts in the east for a reason, and we're really excited to see what the Lord has for us in the next few months!
Blessings,
Emily
We fell behind on our emails. We fell behind with our Russian studies. And, we fell behind on blogging. However, the crazy is behind us, and we are now able to get back into the groove of a normal (missionary normal) life.
After some consideration of how to catch you up on everything, we decided to break it into two posts. So, if you want to read Byron's thoughts about our CELTA class and the time we spent in Kiev, click HERE.
If you want to read my thoughts about our time in Donetsk, Kramatorsk, and spending three nights sleeping on different trains, then sit back, relax, and enjoy! I'll do my best to make it brief (20 pages instead of 50 lol).
So, I guess I should give you a little bit of a back story as to why we wanted to visit Donetsk and Kramatorsk.
A few months ago, Byron and I were miraculously (it's such a crazy story, it would need a blog post of its own, but for the sake of time, I'll just say "miraculously") put into contact with a couple from Colorado that has a nonprofit orphanage organization in Ukraine (Click here: Ukraine Orphan Outreach ). They currently have a Ukrainian couple running a boys' home in Kramatorsk, Ukraine. The idea behind these homes is that when orphans become too old to live at an orphanage (generally this is 16 years old), the orphans won't just be left to their own devises and the streets, but will move in with Christian house parents, learn life skills, trades, seek jobs, and, most importantly, learn about God and hear the Gospel.
Byron and I were really excited to hear about this because we have actually been praying about turning our own home into an "aged-out" transitional home for orphan girls for some time. So, we decided we should visit Kramatorsk and see what the boys' transitional home is like.
We also have a friend at our church here in Ternopil that used to be affiliated with Donetsk Christian University (Click here: Donetsk Christian University), and recommended we get in contact with them to see if they have any information on how to volunteer actively at orphanages. So, we emailed the university, and ended up getting into contact with their event coordinated, who just so happened to be planning an event to celebrate the 1025 anniversary of Russia and Ukraine being baptized. He asked Byron if Byron would be willing to speak at this mini-revival and offered to find us a place to stay in Donetsk, provide us with transportation, and pick us up from the train station - and we agreed!
Now, onto the story.
After we finished our CELTA class around noon on July 26th, We had eight hours to celebrate the completion of our course, repack our bags, and hop on a 12 hour train headed to Donetsk.
Once our celebrating ended, we started to feel the anxiety of our impending travels building, and we even considered dropping our plans and just heading back to Ternopil. It sounds silly typing that out, because every time we have felt that way, the Lord always helps us to push through, and He blesses us with an amazing adventure, new friends, and a special Word from Him. But, for whatever reason, getting on a train in Ukraine and heading to an unfamiliar city is simply terrifying for us, not matter what. Fortunately, as always, the Lord was faithful to us this trip. He calmed us enough to get on the train, and He reminded us of His blessings in the past and promises from the Word that we have hidden in our hearts.
The train to Donetsk went well, and the Lord really blessed Byron and I with sleep on the train. We ended up sleeping for 11 hours straight on the train, and we woke up feeling pretty refreshed (As refreshed as you can be on a train) and ready to see Donetsk.
When planning our trip to Donetsk, we were told that someone would be at the train station to pick us up, but we didn't receive a picture of the person that would be picking us up, so we had to hope we looked American enough to stand out in the crowd.
And, of course, we did.
Nikolay was there to pick us up, just as he had promised, and then took us to the store to buy food for our trip. He then brought us back to our hostel, where we rested for a few hours and then were picked up to head to the celebration/mini-revival.
We had no idea what to expect from the celebration, but it ended up being one of the coolest, most emotional things I've ever experienced.
When we arrived, we quickly understood the order of things. Each pastor/priest/minister that was asked to speak would talk about a Bible verse of his choice, discussed practical application of the verse, and then lead the crowed in a guided prayer. After the prayer, the crowd would be lead in a worship song, and then the next pastor would come up. It was so emotional to see the 400+ people singing songs like "How Great Thou Art" in Russian, and praying for their families, their government, their country, etc. The whole time, I was fighting back tears... The Spirit was moving in a mighty way.And then it was time for Byron to speak. As he walked onto the stage and moved toward the pulpit, the crowd, which was a mixture of young and old Ukrainians, began to smile and really receive Byron - who was the youngest minister by at least 10 years.
Byron shared (His words were translated by a sweet sister in the Lord, Yana) from Ephesians 2:10 and encouraged the crowd to pray for the Church to grow in Ukraine, and for Ukrainians to become saved. When Byron finished, he began to pray.
In this moment, I felt the Holy Spirit like I've never felt before.
Byron's translator immediately said, "Wow, I've never experienced anything like that, it was amazing!" And I was in total agreement.
After the revival, we were going to go back to our hostel, but the man that was driving us home needed to stop by his own home on the way.
We stopped at his home, and we realized that his house wasn't just any house, it was huge. Then we noticed all of the children at the house, and it finally occurred to us, he was the director an orphanage. He offered to show us around, and we excitedly accepted his offer.
As he gave us the tour, he told us that his orphanage is called The Good Shepherd Orphan Home, and he takes care of 45 orphans, aged 3-18. He also told us that the children he takes care of all have at least one parent alive, but have been abandoned because their parent(s) are either addicts, abusive, or don't have a job and can't feed their children. He also told us that they recently began trying some new things with the orphans to help them have a better chance of living a good life after they leave the orphanage. One thing they do is having the orphans take turns working in the kitchen so that they can learn how to cook and clean. Another thing they are going to try soon is giving the older orphans an allowance so that they can learn how to budget and manage money. They are also considering giving the older orphans the opportunity to take an upper level English class at the orphanage.As soon as he said that, he also said, "and we don't have a teacher for that yet, but we're praying for someone." Byron looked at me and then I said, "Well, we both just received our CELTA certification, and we are English teachers now."
In that moment, we all realized that the Holy Spirit might be orchestrating something, but because the visit to the orphanage was unplanned, we didn't have time to discuss the topic further, so we all exchanged contact information and agreed to pray about the Lord's will.
After that, we went back to the hostel and went right to sleep.
Then next morning, we woke up early and met Dima, a young man that works for DCU who was heading to Kramatorsk, and was willing to escort us so that we would get their safely.
We took a two hour bus ride to Kramatorsk, and Dima dropped us off with a man that was going to drive us to a baptist church, which has a pastor that speaks English and was willing to help us talk to Max, the man that runs a home for aged out orphan boys (now you can see why our traveling breeds so much anxiety!). We arrived safely at the baptist church, and we met Victor, one of the church's pastors.
It was such an amazing, incredibly encouraging story... And for those of you reading, please remember, no one is too far gone for the Lord, and all we have to do is pray for that person, and the Lord will be faithful to do His good work.
After we met with Max, we got to attend the baptist church's service, and then have lunch with a really sweet elderly woman from the church that wanted to make lunch for us.
Then, Victor called Dima, and Dima came to meet us because he wanted to show us around Kramatorsk. We met up with Dima around 2pm, and he brought his friend Dasha to hang out with us too. Dima didn't speak very much English, and Dasha spoke more than him, so she was a good person to have with us :) However, by the time we were leaving Kramatorsk at 9pm that night, I was absolutely shocked by how much English Dima and Dasha were speaking, and how much Russian Byron and I were speaking. We had so much fun with Dima and Dasha, and Dasha's sister was sweet enough to make us a delicious dinner before we had to leave for the train station.
Dima and Dasha saw us off at the train station, and then we started our trek back to Ternopil. We spent 12 hours on the train - Kramatorsk to Kiev. Then, we took an 8 hour train - Kiev to Ternopil, and we finally made it back to Ternopil on 7/30 after 4 days of traveling and 3 nights of sleeping on the train.
We don't know if the Lord has a future for us in Kramatorsk or Donetsk, but we do know that He gave us these new contacts in the east for a reason, and we're really excited to see what the Lord has for us in the next few months!Blessings,
Emily
I am frequent visitor of your website as i love to read out the articles posted on your website. At the same time i request to post some great article on TERNOPIL NATIONAL MEDICAL UNIVERSITYand similar as well. Thanks !!!
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