Why we love Uzghorod continued - Saturday

  We met up with a group of our friends today for coffee and a pastry in town. It was a good time of fellowship.  The little gal next to Sherry is Rita who has moved to Israel. She headed up a ministry to Jewish Holocaust survivors in Uzghorod for years.  She is now married and lives in the country that she loves. 

Bridge with locks.  Newly married couples put the locks on the bridge in the hopes that their marriage will last. 

Another gorgeous building on the river.

Oxana and Valodya Sergachov
Dear friends for 12 years. 

Sasha and Oxana and their two girls.




 

Coffee shop and a city street

 

Note what the bench says. 

Sherry sharing the bench with a young man who was drinking and a homeless person

Us with Edik and Ershika

Us girls having fun.  Olya is in the middle.

           Saturday Bazaar along the river

We met up with the American World Race team by accident at Mrs. Greenwhich Pizza Parlor. It was great getting to know them a little more. 

Friday - final day of seminar

Today was our final day of teaching.  It is so bittersweet. We have shared our lives this past week with our students and they shared with us.  It has been so good.  Today several of the foster parents came up and told us the first day they were skeptical thinking we might be a cult, then as we taught and  they realized that we were not trying to convert them to our denomination, that we really believed the bible had the answers and that they were ordering the tapes so they could re listen to the teachings which they said were very helpful.  God broke through and we give him all the glory. PW shared the gospel clearly in several of the teaching times.  What an honor it is to be his vessels.  So we planted seeds, someone else will water and someone else will reap. But God gets all the credit.  Praise His Holy Name.

 This is a foster child. As you can see she is very proud of her little doll.  Her foster parents have 5 of their own children and 6 foster kids.  The kids are loved and embraced as though they were their own.  You should have seen the dad playing with the kids and swinging them around. It is obvious this family is called to do this and is making a difference.

This is our class minus 2 couples who had to leave last night.
 

 This is Kola and Natalie.  She is from Belgium and He is from Ukraine. They are engaged to be married and always like to get with us and talk about relationships. They are a blessing to us both.  Kola is an administrator at Nehemiah and Natalie is the director of the summer english camps here at Nehemiah.

This evening we met with these 15 Americans from a ministry called World Race. They travel for 11 months, a different country each month, and serve the people in a country in any way that is needed in order to share the gospel. They are a true inspiration.  Anyway, we met with them to do a bible study and then pray for them.  This past week they served us by watching all the foster kids and doing a camp with them while their parents attended the seminar. Thank you to all of you for serving our Lord in this way.

Tomorrow is our last full day in Ukraine. We will spend it meeting friends for coffee and walks and Pw will go play his traditional game of pool with our friend Vasiko. 

Thank you to all of you for praying for us, for sending funds so we can do this and for welcoming us back home.  We love each one of you.

Pw and Sherry

Wednesday and Thursday

Wednesday was a non stop day of ministry from early in the morning.  We also taught for 6 hours and met wtih many others in between our teachings.  We were so tired last night that we came home and hit the bed and fell sound asleep.  I love days like this. 



This is a picture of some beautiful roses a lady brought us to say thank you. They have brought sunshine to our little home all week.
We are always so honored and humbled when they spend money they do not have to bless us.  



The living room of our little apartment at Nehemiah Center.  It is very homey and comfortable.



 This is Maxim. He is a 15 -19 yr old ( they have no birth certificate to know when he was born)  foster child who took a liking to us. He followed us around all day and kept smiling at us. He is giving you all a thumbs up.  :>))  When we finished the picture, he made Sherry an origami frog and presented it to her as a gift.  He is a gypsy boy who has some learning disabilities and other issues from the abuse he suffered as a child. I wanted to bring him home.  Such a sweet gentle spirit. Please pray for him, he says he wants to have an apartment in Uzghorod and live on his own and have a job.  This will not be possible for him, but he still dreams.  He is one of many children who are suffering like this over here.

This is Sasha and Lena, friends whom we met 12 yrs ago on our first trip to Ukraine. Each time we come, they come for fellowship and counseling. They are one of the miracles God performed. When we first met them they were on the verge of divorce, now 12 yrs later, they are still together, have 7 children and have been pastoring a church.  God is good.

Today has been very busy. We have counseled most of the day.  Then taught for 2 hours this evening.  It has been a good week and as always we are sad it is coming to an end but ready to go home to our assigned place once again.  We will have our last seminar session tomorrow then will meet with several people for counseling and tomorrow evening we have the pleasure of teaching the group of Americans who were here this week watching the kids so their parents could attend our seminar. We will take a picture of them and post it tomorrow. 

With love,
PW and Sherry

Tuesday

We got up early today to prepare for our second day of teaching. Today the foster families, who are required to get several hours a month of parental teaching,  arrived so our class doubled in size.  We had fun  teaching on how to resolve conflict and then the roles of the husband and wife.  Teaching biblical truth to non believers was interesting.  The amazing thing was that the non believers started off with arms crossed but by the end of the first session they were leaning forward in their seats and listening intently. Wayne presented the gosple very clearly during the session on husbands. Praise the Lord. 

 This is our class.

After dinner we went to a prayer meeting with a group of people who attend the New Testament church. We have known most of them for 12 years , since they were in their early 20's and we were in our 50's.   PW and I both had the opportunity to share the word with them and then we prayed and did some prophetic ministry for each one.  At the end they insisted on praying over us also.   It is always so humbling when those to whom you minister want to bless you in return. God truly met with us tonight and all of us left uplifted and encouraged in the Lord. 
  Wayne praying a blessing over a young man who has Autism. This precious young man sat and smiled the whole evening.  He is used of God to encourage others with his gentle spirit. He does not speak with his mouth, but his countenance says it all. 

 

This is the group we met with in Angelikas little 3 room house filled with love and peace.  Precious time of fellowship in the Lord.



Angelika and Sherry



We finally got home around 10:30. It has been a long day and we are tired but it is a good tired. Thank you for your faithful prayers for us while we are here.  We definitely feel them and have much peace and our energy has been good.  Tomorrow we will begin the parenting seminar.  Please ask God to help us answer the questions with wisdom that these parents have concerning their children. Most have specific issues for which they are wanting answers.  Discipline is a real problem with foster families since they are restricted by the government in many ways.  But God has answers and it is with His words that we want to minster.  God bless you all.

With much love,
PW and Sherry

Monday Update

These adorable children are just a four of the kids attending the English Camp while we teach the adults.







Today we began our Family seminar.  We had 28 in attendance today and the foster families are coming  tomorrow. Todays group had quite a few who had been traveling for 2 days to get here.   We began teaching on Marriage with the basic teaching on Purpose of marriage and then followed it with talking about the sources of conflict.  Two men asked us if we could do more eveing teachings so they would not miss anything. Always good to hear that people are hungry.  The people were very nice and came up to talk to us afterward.  Tomrorow we will see where the Lord leads.

Please pray specifically for us with the foster families. Several of them are non Christians so it will be interesting to see how they respond to the biblical teachings.  Pray for God to open up the eyes of their understanding and that many would come to faith in Christ.  We are excited about this week.

We will post pictures of our whole group after they all arrive.  Those who were not here today will recieve a copy of one of our previous seminars on marriage so they will not miss any of the teachings.  We will also be offering our Marriage DVD this week.

With much love,
PW and Sherry

Sunday

Today we had the privilege of ministering at the City of LIfe Church in Uzghorod. The church is pastored by our friends Edik and Ershika Opelenik. We have been coming to this church for the past 6 years and have become good friends with all of them. Pastor Edik asked us several years ago to mentor he and his wife in Pastoral ministry and it has been our honor. PW preached on the Gospel today. He has been doing a series at our home church and it is alive in him. The response was wonderful and many came up after to talk to us and thank him for the timely word. Pastor said he had felt led to focus on evangelism this fall and so it was a confirmation that PW had the spirits leading when preparing for todays sermon. After service we went to Edik and Ershikas home for a wonderful dinner and time of fellowship. We ended up staying until after 5 talking about everything from doctrine to world politics and a hope of an upcoming trip by them to the United States. We would love for you all to meet them in person and hear Edik preach.

Why we love Uzghorod continued

                                  Churches, city streets and bridge

My friends Valeria and Olya
We spent a lovely day together Sat. walking the streets and seeing
the sites.

Why we love Uzghorod

The Jewish Synagogue

Nehemiah Guest house, our home away from home.


Rooftops and city streets

A lovely park along the river lined with trees

The oldest Orthodox church in Uzghorod

A view of the backside of the castle

 This is how they decorate the cars for newlyweds

Saturday and Friends

We had a wonderful day today.  Wayne stayed at Nehemiah and prepared his sermon for Sunday and I went with two friends, Olya and Valeria,  to visit the castle in Uzghorod which dates from the early 1600's. There are also ruins of an old church on the site.  The Ukranians love to walk so it was not surprising to me that we walked miles on end as we toured the old part of the city and took pictures after our visit to the castle.  The walk justified my eating fried potatoes and a blinski for desert at one of our favorite resturaunts.  All in all it was a beautiful day.

We are praying for all of you that you have a blessed Lords day tomorrow. We will post after our return from our ministry tomorrow.

Much Love,
PW and Sherry 

What do Ukranian mosquitos and Kamakazie pilots have in common?

Both dive bomb innocent victims in the night.... Here is the evidence of what damage they can do. Sherry was the innocent victim.        

This was our lunch today. A pizza with pickles. Yes you read that right.  Actually it was quite tasty.

Today has been quiet and we are starting to feel rested and ready to roll. We have met with a few people today for ministry time and tomorrow will be a study day because Sunday we start full speed ahead for the week.  There will be much on our plate this week. 

We had a delicous Georgian meal with our friends Vasiko and Tanya in the new pavilion at Nehemiah.  Good fellowship and food....a nice end to a day. 

Please pray specifically for our time of teaching the foster families. They have serious issues that they face with the children they are taking care of and are looking for biblical answers on how to help them. 

We will need much wisdom from God to minister to them.  

With much love, 

PW and Sherry

Jet lag

We would like to know how it is possible to sleep from 8:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. the next day and still want to lay back down and go to sleep.  Jet lag is an amazing thing.  Thankfully it only lasts a few days so we look forward to being able to think tomorrow.  :>)))) 
Blessings to you all,
PW and Sherry

We have arrived

We arrived at our home away from home about 2 hours ago.  The trip was very tiring but we are now in a cool room and ready to rest and hopefully feel human again tomorrow.

The drive from the airport in Kosice, Slovakia was wonderful. We had a great driver who was careful and pointed out the sites on the way. Of course he did not speak english so it was fun to play charades and hope we understood each other.  The villages are Sherry's favorites. Each little home has a garden on their plot of land. They grow mainly cabbage, onions, potatoes, beets, carrots and other root vegetables, but always have room for lettuce,radishes, tomatoes and green onions.  I always get inspired when I see these little homes.  Some have chickens or other animals and always lots of flowers and fruit trees. It is lovely and reminds me of my grandma who grew up in Yugoslavia. 

After we arrived we went to get dinner and topped it off with a real ice cream eskimo pie. Remember how they used to taste?  Well they still taste that good over here. Real cream...yummm.. So far today we had real apple streudal like grandma made and real ice cream. A great way to start a ministry time.  Of course the splurging ends tonight and tomorrow we begin to eat healthy again. 

Please pray that the next 3 days we get plenty of rest so we are prepared spiritually for our ministry times.
With Love,
PW and Sherry

The hills are alive with the sound of music

 As we flew into Vienna and I looked out at the fields which were like a giant patchwork quilt and the mountains in the distance that song just resonated in my spirit.  The villages below were filled with clay tiled roofed houses and church spires and all that we love about Europe.

The flight was anything but comfortable but it was a smooth flight and the staff were wonderful.  The food was good also. Both of us slept some but with knees touching the seats in front of us we did not rest. 

We have a 6 hour layover here at Vienna airport (where we just paid $7.00 for a bottle of water, yes you read that right)  and then fly into Kosice,  Slovakia and then have a 2 hour drive to Ukraine.  By the time you read this we will be in the air.  Please pray that our luggage arrives with us and that our driver is on time,  is a safe driver and that we do not have a long wait at the border. Sometimes you can sit still for hours waiting for the border patrol to finish their breaks. It is maddening.  We are so blessed in the United States.  The people over here are very patient since this is a way of life for them for decades.

We will update tomorrow sometime.  Have a blessed week.

With Love,
PW and Sherry