It's time to go!!!

Our team has been working hard, planning our trip to the Ukraine. We leave the day after tomorrow! We just can't believe it! We are so excited we can hardly stand it.

We know God is planning something huge this summer. We don't know what all He has planned but we know it's bigger than we can even imagine!

The way God supplied our finances has just blown us away. He has told us over and over again that He is our provider. Out of the 14 people we have on our team, four of them are in my family.

We knew that it would be impossible to raise enough money for the four of us to go but we asked God to do the impossible. My oldest son, Mike (known as Misha in the Ukraine) is not going on this trip. It will be very different with out him. He has gone since the very first trip....before any of the rest of us even thought about going! My husband will be joining us for 10 days, Dana, our 18 year old will be going on her 3rd trip, and our son, Brian, who is 16, will be going with us for the first time. Every check we recieved to help support our trip was so appreciated. As soon as we received a check, I would thank God for it and I would thank Him for using the person who sent it. With every gift, I asked God to multiply it just as He did when He fed the 5,000 men on the hillside. WOW...did He ever answer that prayer. We were only about 1/4 of the way there and we only had one month to raise the rest of the support we needed. We asked God to do the impossible. God arranged one of His cool "divine appointments" and sent a friend to me that I had not seen in a few years. She asked me if I was going back to the Ukraine this summer and I (very excitedly) told her yes. She told me to send her a support letter. A week or two later, she completely blew me away by calling me and telling me that she and her husband felt that God was leading them to financially support the FOUR OF US!!! WOW!!! God is incredible! This family is incredible! I was so excited that God answered our prayers in an even bigger way than we could have ever imagined!

We have 5 brand new people on our team this summer. They are ready to step out of their comfort zone and "drop their nets" and follow where Jesus leads them.



Let me share with you some details about our trip so that you can know what we'll be doing and how you can be praying.

We will arrive in Odessa, Ukraine on June 11th at 2:00 pm. We'll have dinner with our translators and discuss what the next few weeks will be like. We love our translators...they are part of our family so it is always a very big reunion when we get back together again.

The next two days, we'll go to the boys' orphanage that we went to last year, called Fontanka. There are 20-30 boys there. We will also go to Camp Vikotoria to see our sweet kids that we have known for several years now. We will see old friends and make new ones. We will even get to meet some Americans who are there adopting kids that we know and love! These families and I have been keeping touch for a year or two as they have been going through the long, hard (but so worth it) process of bringing their precious children home. Some of their kids are even in pictures from last years' pictures.

This summer will be different than any other. On Sunday, after church, we will head to a little village about 2 hours away from Odessa. There is an orphanage there that is very excited that we are coming. We will actually stay in the orphanage with the kids. The director is willing to give us every morning and evening with the kids to do our Bible stories, songs, crafts, activities, and games. We are looking forward to see what God will do in the orphanage as well as in the village.



On Friday, we will leave the village and head back to Odessa. Saturday we will see the kids at Camp Viktoria and go to the Black Sea with them. The rest of our time in Odessa will be at Fontanka and Camp Viktoria. Please pray that we will be able to have an organized program time at the Camp. We have been welcome to come the last few years and promised this teaching time, but have not been able to teach or do activities there. We still love going there and playing with the kids and spending time with them. God still works through us to show His unconditional love even with out the "planned program". Still, kids were led to the Salvation of Jesus.



We leave Thursday (or Wednesday?....sorry...I don't have the calendar in front of me) to go to Vienna, Austria, where we'll spend a few nights to recover a little and get ready to come back home.



Thank you for caring for orphans and thank you for your prayers.

Oh, and I can't leave with out talking about Lela. Lela is the 84 year old missionary who has served faithfully in the Ukraine since she was 69 years old. She fell a few months ago and broke her hip. She had to return to Florida for surgery and recovery. This trip will not be the same with out her. Everyone loves their Babushka Lela so much and she LOVES LOVES LOVES them with the love of Jesus every second of her life! We love you Babushka and we are praying for you!