How to Survive at the Dinner Table

July 12, 2016

How to survive at the Ukrainian table when served by a grandma

Step 1. Eat very slowly

2. Try to give some of your food to your neighbor or Dennis when her back is turned.

3. If the food is especially tasty and you want to lick your plate, choose a neighbor as your watchdog to make sure the grandma doesn't turn around.

4. If she gives everyone too much, slip some chicken back on the serving plate.

5. Try and tell her that you don't eat much, she won't believe you unless you are a small child.

6. Switch plates with your neighbor or Dennis, in order to eat less or make it look like you ate all your food.

7. Spoon some of your neighbor's macaroni onto your own plate, and tell the grandma you have enough.
(These methods are tried and true. They ensure good feelings between you and your babooshka. *Warning* there is really no way to leave the table without a stuffed stomach of delicious food.)

Colds and Medicine

July 12, 2016

Hello Everyone,

We are in the city for a day to do laundry and shopping. 

Mary, Lydia, Haley, and Audrey have been sick with colds. Please pray they stop coughing and get their voices back. 

Also pray that we make meaningful connections with people and that God works through us. 

Haley, Mary, Lydia, Audrey, Grant, and Mr. Nate

Ps

We have taken no less than 8 different mysterious medicines from grandmas. 

We went to jail and peeked over the wall. Maksim brought us some soft toilet paper. We ate ice cream all day on Mary's birthday. Her friend came and visited us with ice cream. We climbed down some cliffs to the black sea. Dennis gave Mary a thistle for her birthday. What a nice boy. 

We met some green pirates who gave us some pirate booty. 

All the pirates loved Haley's hammock. We had a ship's cook who made delicious food. This week the new cook is very creative. She uses dill to cover up the liver, snails and chicken parts in the mush soup. We went to the store today to stock up on cookies and fruit and sunflower butter. 

P p s 

This above is all 100% true and guaranteed.

Shopping

July 2, 2016

We went to the store. The exchange is 24 grivna for 1 dollar. The lady took Haley's 500 gv. note with no problem, which surprised Mr. Nate. 

Dennis has given up on people calling him Grant because no one can remember it. They think it's weird. So Larissa renamed him. By the way, it's pronounced Denise like the woman's name. But it is definitely not a girl's name. 

The water came back on last night!! 

We had famous traditional Slavic dish "Borsch" - beet soup and it was sooo good. The potatoes in it were perfect.

Every meal is too much, we can barely finish and poor Dennis has to eat all of our scraps. He isn't friends with Mary anymore because of this. Just kidding. 

Audrey has made great friends with a cat, she named "Skiski". 

Haley is progressing with the alphabet and everyone has learned more words :D :D

We practiced some balloon animals. He he he. We aren't so good. By we made a turtlecobra, a worm and a group of bananas. Here is Dennis charming the snake. 

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"I feel many things, but not bananas" - Haley at the Toronto airport
(She was searching for bananas...but of course it sounds funny) 

We are going to the camp "after lunch" in Ukrainian time which means who knows when. 

We drank grape juice that they made and ate potatoes they grew (Larica and Anton). 

Maxeem liked his beef jerky:)) Haley made Larisa some pot holders and we are going to give her a MI magnet:):) 

Mary's friend Alina stopped by :):) 

Mary

Ukraine Arrival

July 2, 2016

We are all safe in Ukraine. We made it here without any trouble. 

Lydia has made so many friends. Everyone loves her hilarious Russian and her English. Some guy even tried to get to become a fashion model. Another guy has a son her age to marry. 

We met a nice guy to help us get train tickets. 

Everyone is learning so much Russian and it makes Mary overjoyed. We went on a walk all over the region where Mary lived before and stopped by at another missionary's house. 

Grant got pulled over "how much money do you have" and he told them honestly how much, they scanned his bags and let him go. He also got in trouble at security because Lydia put a full water bottle in his bag. 

We took the 4:30 train and got here last night at 1:00 am, took showers at Makseem's and slept. The water is turned off in the whole city to protect from the water sickness in Ismail, a city over. 

Haley already found some people who are deaf, but she couldn't talk to them because it's Russian sign language. The security took her guacamole, she is still upset. 

Our hostess is a lovely lady and makes delicious potatoes. Her named is Larissa. The strangest we've eaten so far is meat + fat...so life is good. :):) 

Mr. Schuck was trying to compare learning Russian names and how hard it is, so he told us "my name is Pakamakawaka" 

We made a "camp" in the airport and they had beds and one airport had free tea, coffee and snacks. They even had a lounge, they moved our flight to the 9:15, so we could go to Montreal sooner. Then we slept at the Montreal airport on the beds. 

Ukrainian passport control guy said "missionaries"? And let us through with no problems! He was the nicest border guard Mary had ever met. 

Audrey is "keeping everyone in check" according to Haley and "is adorable and smart" according to Mary and is "slapping people to keep them awake" according to Lydia, and Grant says; "I've known Audrey for..." "Apparently Audrey knocked him out" says Haley. 

We are having so much fun. 

Love, 

Everyone

Ukraine Updates

Hello everyone! Sorry for the delay in sharing our journey with you, we had issues accessing the blog because Google knew it was being accessed from outside the US and wouldn't let us in so we've enlisted a friend to add content for us.

Prayers for Ukraine

• That God would cause a great thirsting for the Truth among those who will be attending the camps.  
• Maxim, who leads the camps, that he would see the fruit of his labor. That he would be strengthened through Christ as he prepares, runs, and cleans up from weeks of camps. 
• That the teams coming to help- both Ukrainian and American, would be united. That we would be filled with His love for the people around us. That we would truly esteem others better than ourselves. Live each moment trusting in Him. Live fully in each moment. 

"Lord, help us to see each person and moment as an opportunity to share your love and truth with those around us. Let us see Your heart for each person we come in contact with. Help us encourage each other and build one another up."

Living as Those Made Alive in Christ- Colossians 3

Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. ² Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. ³ For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. ⁴ When Christ, who is your^[a] life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

⁵ Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. ⁶ Because of these, the wrath of God is coming.^{[b] 7} You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. ⁸ But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. ⁹ Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices ¹⁰ and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. ¹¹ Here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.
¹² Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. ¹³ Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. ¹⁴ And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.
¹⁵ Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. ¹⁶ Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. ¹⁷ And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

Ukraine

On Tuesday (6/28) Lydia, Grant, and I (Haley) will be leaving for Ukraine. Our good friends, Nathan, Mary, and Audrey Schuck are coming also. We will be there until the second week of August, working with a local church in Odessa that is hosting a camp for gypsy children and two camps for people with disabilities.

Here are some things you can pray for the trip:

---To arrive safely The trip to Odessa is pretty involved. We are driving to Toronto on Tuesday night, flying to Montreal on Wednesday, where we have 45 minutes to catch out next plane, have a two hour layover in Frankfurt, arrive in Kiev, Ukraine on Thursday, take a bus to the train station, and have an 8 hour train ride to Odessa.

---For the hearts of the staff to be sensitive to the Holy Spirit and the work He wants accomplished.

---For the language barrier to be overcome. Especially for me, I want to be able to minister to people, but have almost zero knowledge of the language (Russian).

---For those attending the camp to be receptive to God’s message of salvation and to draw nearer to Christ through the camp.

---For peace in Ukraine. Some of you might know there is a civil war happening along the East coast.

---For health for the team. Thank you for joining us in prayer! We can’t wait to see what the Lord has in store.

 Haley