More travel upadtes...

The team headed to America from Ukraine has the following schedule:

Depart Kiev 3pm Thursday
Spend the night in hotel in NY
Depart NY 10am Friday
Arrive Sav 2:30pm Friday

Each one of your children will be calling you upon their arrival Thursday afternoon/evening in New York. They are doing well and can't wait to see you. God bless.

Michael

Travel Plans...

Hi all, this is Michael from Dnipro Hotel in Kiev. We are about to leave to go into the city for a couple of hours before we head towards Moscow and ultimately on to China. Mr. Vince asked me to get on here and inform all of the parents about a change in itinerary for the team coming from Ukraine to the States.

Their flight this morning from Kiev was cancelled, so they will not be arriving Thursday night about 11:45. We will post their new complete itinerary in a couple of hours once we know all of their connections and such, but until then plan for them to arrive at some point on Friday, a day later. All looks good so far for the China team, and Michelle got off early this morning without a hitch, so everything still looks good for her.

We'll keep y'all posted. This will probably be my last post before I see you all again. I have appreciated your partnership with us in prayer, as well as your encouraging comments - the team has treasured them dearly. God bless you all, as you have blessed us. See you soon.

Until the whole world knows,
Michael

Farewell dinner.

Team picture at the Litin church.

Farewell dinner.

Stephanie, Lindsay, Heather, Jasmyn,Taci and Katherine planned, prepared and serve the farewell dinner.

It was so good!!!!!!!!

Team dinner in Litin

Stephanie serving spaghetti.

Service with a smile.

Inessa and Lena decorating before dinner.

Solomiya enjoying her meal.

Team Prayer requests.

Prayer requests:

Katherine: Continued good health and wisdom in applying all the lessons learned

Stephanie: To start feeling better and keep persevering even after the trip

Ryan: Stay strong as we go on to China

Stephen: Pray for the children

Heather: Transition from UA back to New Orleans

Jasmyn: Continued good health

Chance: To submit to the will of God not only here, but also when I get back home

Taci: Perseverance, rest, China adjustment

Lindsay: Same as Taci; no more shin splints and calf pain

Michael- Wisdom, make the most of every opportunity and strength for China

Hello Everyone!,

This is Jasmyn reporting for Team Uladifka! Sadly, today was our last day of camp in the village of Uladifka. We walked away with reminder of God's loving-kindess towards us and an urgency to share His gift with the world. Before starting we prayed as we usually do but Chance also shared with us his revived passion for our day with the kids.We all were challenged to take advantage of the time that we were alloted with the children and to especially love on them unconditionally. We knew that we needed God's power to truly be a light to the kids. God is amazing! Through every detail at camp I am positive that God was there, not that he hadn't been any other day, but that my eyes were finally open to His glory Through out our day God used small moments to bless us as well as the children. On the way back I remember hearing Chance talking about how a little boy was admiring his cross necklace, and asked for one. He told us with a big grin on is face that he shared with the little boy the gospel story and how the little boy listened with patience, and was excited to receive the necklace. We could tell that through that ittle boy there was a hint of God's heart that touched Chance's. We sometimes expect God to reveal himself in a big way but those may be the moments when we hear Himi a whisper. Today Heather and I were able to spend time with the teen-aged girls as we were able to get to know them better and share with them the gospel. Despite their shyness I truly believe that the Holy Spirit was working in their hearts. One girl in particular had many questions as we explained the gospel and shared  our personal testimonies. God only knows the hearts' of men but I believe that we may have another Ukranian sister in Christ. Please continue to pray for these girls as they truly need their Heavenly Father! I believe that our team felt like this was one of the greatest days in camp. Although there are times when we are just placed at a point to plant a seed, God knows,then it will be watered and harvested. Thank you for all your prayers for our team! They were truly felt today!Please pray for the village of Uladifka and our brothers and sisters around the world. We miss you all! In His Love, Jasmyn P.S. This is Stephanie or as I am so commonly referred to as "momma". I thought I would tell you about the joke that our driver, Anatoly, played on us. Yesterday we wanted to stop at the sign of the village to take team pictures. We got to the sign and I could clearly tell that it did not say Uladifka. Anatoly told me that they had recently changed the name of the village back to it's original name, Ivanople. Well we all bought it and told the entireAmerican team and all of you that same thing. When we stopped to really take pictures today it was the sign for Uladifka. Mysteriously Anatoly, who's speaks great English, didn't understand me when I told him he played a joke on us yesterday. So to say the least all of the Americans and a few Ukrainians were had! lol Just thought I would share that with you all.

Love and miss you!

Hello friends and family! This is Heather, writing for Team Evanople, which used to be Udladifka. We were going to stop and take a picture next to the village sign, but when we got there, we found out that the villagers had changed the name! Yesterday when we got to the school where we were supposed to hold camp, there were no kids there at all, and the new director of the school hadn't heard that we were coming at all! A bunch of ladies were cleaning the school and repainting some of the rooms, so inside the building reeked of paint, and we couldn't use any of the rooms. So we set everything up on the school's porch and made use of the yard in front of the building. Then everyone walked the village and invited kids! Stephanie, Jasmyn, and I stayed at the school to watch the trunks and backpacks, and to pray for the kids that would be coming; we had quite the time when kids started showing up for camp before any of our translators got back! Finally, after an hour and a half of village walking, the whole team ended up back to the school with about 30 kids. The school seems to be on a pretty well traveled road, so parents, grandparents, teens, and more kids seemed to drop in for a moment here and there throughout camp. I know Chance got to speak to three teenage boys for about 30 min towards the end of camp, and Masha spoke to a couple of teenage girls when they stopped by for a min. Because of our late start, the kids only got about 10 min to play games, and we had to scoot out of there pretty quick to make it back to the church for lunch. Today, we got to the school and almost 60 kids were there waiting for us! We found out that we won't be able to use the inside of the school at all, so (again) we set up outside on the porch. Needing a bigger area for lesson time, we took the kids out to the game field and Chance taught the colors Red and White outside. Nine teenage girls showed up this morning, so Stephanie and I talked with them for awhile. After getting to know the girls a little bit, we walked around the village some. When we got back to the school, the girls wanted to do crafts, so they made cross necklaces and little cotton ball sheep. After that, Jasmyn and I used the crafts to introduce the gospel. Turns out that all of the girls go to the orthodox church, but only on holidays. But they've obviously been to camp before, because they were jumping ahead of me while I was sharing the gospel. Our talk was ended a bit early by the rest of the kids' singing during closing ceremony; but I can't wait to come back tomorrow and talk with them more. I think these girls have a lot of head knowledge, but I want to challenge them to apply this knowledge to their lives. Some quick prayer requests for camp are the kids' attention spans and their open hearts (as always); the allergy problems due to the excessively strong paint smell; and the teams' unity. We've been having some drama on the Ukraine side of our team. A couple of the girls aren't getting along and we're having to help them work through it. I also covet your prayers for myself, Jasmyn, and the girls that I'll be talking with again tomorrow. I've never done this before, and it's quite the step of faith! But God is faithful; He will not leave me on my own, but will give me the words to say to reach out to these girls. I'm sad to realize that tomorrow is our last day of camp, but I've been so blessed to think back over the past week and a half to the three other camps I've been in.

Till later, Heather