Happy New Year!!!

Happy New Year friends and family! I hope everything is well with you back in the States. As for us everything is getting back to normal. Today is Old New Years, so last night we celebrated New Years again, it was very cool. You are probably thinking, “What is he talking about” and I was also thinking the same, but apparently Ukraine and Russia had a different calendar, an orthodox calendar, so they celebrated Christmas on January 7th and New Years on the 14th. Now they have joined the rest of the world in celebrating the New Year, but they still celebrate both days and January 7th is still their main Christmas. And so we had the pleasure of enjoying two Christmases and two New Years.
The Holidays were really great though. L’viv had very cool decorations and added some small vendors near the center. It was really beautiful. Hot chocolate, candy apples, and many souvenirs were there among other things. There was also a big, live Christmas tree! For our Christmas (Dec. 25th) we spent it at our friends the Ledford’s house. As I said in one of our previous posts they are a missionary family that has been here about 5-6 years and has been very good to us. We go to their house every Saturday for an English Bible Study. And for those who were praying for them I appreciate it, they needed to get some documents in order for their visas and everything worked out, so thanks again for your prayers. As for Seb and I we also got our visas so if you were praying for us in this matter we really appreciate it also. God took care of everything. We went to Poland in one day made our visas and came back. It was a fast trip, but we did everything we needed to do and even got to enjoy the mall there for a few hours as we waited for our bus. (It had Starbucks, Subway, and KFC!)
For New Years we went to a winter camp with GrapeVine church. It was great to get to spend time with some friends from GrapeVine , to serve with them, and to enjoy the holidays while reaching out to Ukrainian youth and telling them about Jesus and his love for them at the same time. GrapeVine does a great job of reaching out to the Ukrainian people, loving on them, and sharing with them from God’s Word. They often have camps which take people away from everything they know, and expose them to the Gospel for a week or two while they are away from home. This combined with love and the power and working of the Holy Spirit on their hearts is just so amazing to witness and be a part of. It is a real pleasure to serve with them in furthering God’s Kingdom, and we hope to be a part of more of their camps in the summer. It is also heartening to see how much they all serve. It isn’t a large church especially by American standards but they are very active in serving, maybe 80% or more of them are involved as much as they probably can be which is a great example and encouragement to me. Pray for them that God would continue to use them and bless them.
The Holidays really were great, but they did make us miss you more! To our friends in family back in the states, Thank you for all you have done and continue to do for us. For all your sacrifices and prayers! We love you and miss you. We will update you again soon. Please pray for our work here that God would continue to use us and that He would use us even more here in Horodok. That He would increase and we would decrease! We are still having trouble getting things started in School #3 here so please pray that God would open doors there or lead us in a different direction. Thank you and God Bless! - Joey