Home again...

Arrived home this morning from my 8th summer in Ukraine. I am happy to be home, sitting in my favorite spot drinking coffee, but I really miss my Ukraine family. It is always hard to say goodbye because in the back of my mind, even though I plan too, I wonder what next summer will bring and if I will be returning. I love these faithful servants of God. They are family in Christ and family in love and friendship. Looking forward to the day when we will be able to understand each other...imagining a day when we can sit down over a cup of tea and plate of cookies, and chat with each other. Not sure there is tea in heaven, but it makes me smile thinking of it as we spend many evenings in Ukraine doing this. Joey Kader is doing a wonderful work in the small town of Horodok, Ukraine. He is loved and trusted by many of the kids and their families. It is because of the relationships he is building we were able to take a group of kids to Bible camp for a week, meet the kids for games in the stadium, go for pizza, go ice skating, and many other things. "A good name is worth more than great riches." There is a young missionary family ( Andriy, Alona, and their baby Zahar) living in Horodok and working along side Joey. They are Ukrainian. Their hearts desire is to buy a house in Horodok where they would live, take in orphans, and have church services. I am so excited by this since the plan from the beginning has been to start an Evangilical Church in this small town. They own land in the village where they were raised (and their families live) that they are trying to sell. Andriy is willing to leave his family for 3 months and come to America, doing construction work, to make money. They want to buy without taking out a loan and are willing to do what it takes to make this happen. At this point it takes over an hour to get to church on Sunday morning. Up early to take a 45 minute marshutka ride to the bus depot. Get on a bus for a 15 minute bus ride, then walk about 10 minutes to the church. By the time you attend church, eat lunch and get home, the day is pretty much over!! So exciting to think there could be a church in Horodok in the next year or so. I know many of the kids, and possibly families, relationships have been formed with would attend. Proud of the team that went to Ukraine this summer. Tanya returned for her 5th time. She just loves the kids and has fun with them! She makes them feel loved and they like hanging out with her. I love her laugh....especially when she is tired and finds everything funny! I am proud of her for staying and extra week and flying home on her own. I know the impact she has next week as she and Joey minister together will be wonderful. Little jealous she will be staying with Andriy, Alona and Zahar (who is 16mnths)as I know she will be playing with Zahar, and having evening tea and cookies with all. It was Katelyn Goode's first trip out of the country! She was amazing!! She quickly feel in love with the Ukrainian people and was loved back. I was amazed at how quickly she picked up reading Ukrainian and speaking many words. The kids loved giving her Ukrainian lessons, and she laughed along with them when they laughed at her pronunciation. She was willing to try everything from food to activities. She accepted each day and adventure with a sweet smile and good attitude. She was always willing to do what was needed. I love you Katelyn, thank you for coming and being so delightful!! Carissa O'Harrow was the fourth member of our team. I have known Carissa all her life, her mom has been my closest friend for about 27 years. I was proud of Carissa for wanting to come to Ukrain for two weeks, a long time to be away from home when you just turned 13. But, I cannot say I was surprised as it has been evident for many years that she has a heart for missions. She did great! I was pleased with how well she adapted to the Ukainian life style. Proud of her for not feeling pressured to eat or drink (tea really is good, Caris) what she didn't like, and amazed by her willingness to just have fun without reservation! She danced for the "Ukraine has Talent" show at camp and won 3rd place. She made friends easily and joked and laughed with all of us. She was aware of what was going on and often asked if I needed help, was ok or if another person needed something. She never complained even though I know she missed her family. Carissa, I am so proud of you!! It was a great trip! So glad we were able to do youth camp again this summer. The kids who came spent a week hearing God's Word and seeing believers live out His love. So happy we had many opportunities to follow up with the kids-lunch at McDonalds with some who came to church, pizza and ice cream one day, and lunch and ice skating the day before we left. Glad to be home.....sad to be home! Merrie

Ukraine 2012

Hard to believe tomorrow is our last full day! It has been a great trip. We have done a lot of fun things and created some great memories. Tanya and I have been here many times and know what to expect-lots of walking, different foods, carrying what is needed every day, cold showers, long days.... Katelyn and Carissa came for the first time and have met every challenge with a good attitude and smile on their face. I am so proud of all of us! We spent 6 days and nights at camp. It was hot, cold, sunny and rainy. The shower house was locked more than it was open. My favorite line was "maybe tonight, maybe tomorrow", when Tanya asked about having a shower. We did eventually get showers and they were hot. Since we have been back from camp we have shopped in Lviv with some kids from camp. Played at the stadium, taken kids out for pizza and ice cream, had kids over for dinner and played many games of UNO. tomorrow we will meet many kids from camp and go ice skating. That should be fun. Praying for no broken bones. This evening I made dinner for 10 people. It must have been good, I was finishing dessert and when I came to the table the food was almost gone. I made lots of food. We are still sitting around the table, drinking tea and eating apple pie with ice cream. Tomorrow is Katelyn, Carissa and my last full day. It has been a grat trip. Many exciting things happening that I will blog about when home. Must get these girls packing their suitcases. Merrie

We made it!

We are finally here! It was a long 25 hour trip....but not to bad. We had enough of a lay over in New York to have a nice last American meal. Our six hour lay over was a little more stressful as we had to keep up with all our luggage. We found a cafe where we ordered pizza, played UNO and chatted over tea and coffee. Tomorrow we head to youth camp, we will be there until next Saturday. Today we are relaxing at Joey's house, drinking tea and playing Uno.

Later We will go out and invite people to camp, then go to the stadium, play and visit with the kids and encourage them to come to camp. Will try to have one of the girls blog before we leave for camp. Thanks for praying for us. Merrie and girls