Saying Good bye is always sad

Vasiko, Tanya and Maria Machabeli
They are dear friends who oversee the work here at Nehemiah

Olya is the adminstrator here and also does some
translating. We were using her today to translate our counseling sessions.
She does a great job and is always smiling.

Wayne and our friend Sasha
who comes to see us each time we come to Ukraine and asks lots of questions. He pastors a church
in Irshava and has 7 children. He and his wife Lena raise dogs and flowers to support their family.

Today was busy from sunup to sundown. We had counseling sessions all day and in between we packed up our clothes and got ready to leave. It always makes us sad to say goodbye but we are excited about coming home also. God has graced us on this mission trip in ways we are still trying to process. It has been an honor to come and minister to the precious people in this country. Words cannot express how much we appreciate each one of you has supported us on these missions. Your prayers, encouragements and offerings have made it possible and you will share in any rewards we receive from the Lord. WE have all been on mission in Ukraine. Lord willing we will be home Saturday night. Please pray for our flights to be on time and that we might even be able to make earlier connections to get home quicker. God Bless You, Wayne and Sherry

Sherry with the 4 girls from the social apartment

Theresa one of the girls in her bedroom

Sherry and Tanya with the girls

Wednesday

Wayne and Sherry with friends, Oxana, Valodya, Richard, Anya and Daniel
We had a lovely lunch at Valodyas home and several hours of fellowship with them.




Richard, Anya and baby ? in tummy. Please pray for Anya and her pregnancy, she almost lost this baby because of health problems.




Daniel and Vovcya waving hello to Nate



Orphan girls living at the Nehemiah Social Apartment with their "Mom".

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These girls are 18 - 20 yrs old and live here for 2 yrs and learn social skills that will help them live in the world. They are taught hygiene, cooking, cleaning and other things that will help them in their future. One of the biggest things they teach them is how to dream about what they would like to do. In the orphanages for the most part the children have vision for only working in the sewing factory when they leave. But these girls are learning to dream of college, marriage, and careers. The little gal on the far left is a product of fetal alcohol syndrome and cannot work like the others. But her dream was to be a dishwasher so Tanya hired her to work at Nehemiah cafe and she now does a great job washing the hundreds of dishes each day. They are all so cute. Sherry spent a few hours with then this evening and has over 22 pictures of them in various poses. They did all their acrobatic tricks for her and wanted her to take pictures of them. I will try to post them next. Anyway, they were so friendly and wanted to teach her how to speak Ukranian so she had a crash course in that language. They interacted in a very lively way. Our church CCF Chardon helps support this ministry and we are proud to do so. Only heaven knows what an impact ministries such as this are having on the children. Most of them come to faith in Christ and then are integrated into local churches where they are nurtured and loved. Most have never had real family before or felt the love of a family. So it is wonderful to see the changes in them after a short while. We were told that when they arrive from the orphanages, they all dress and look like boys. Most don't smile, but after a short time in the home, with the love a parent, they blossom. Please pray for this work and for provision for them to expand. At the moment they can only house 4 girls but with hundreds of orphanages in the country, there is great need.

Khust

Wayne teaching the young people in Khust


Valodya (translator) Pastor Vitaly, Wayne, Richard

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Today we traveled 2 hours by car to the city of Khust. We have been coming to this city and this church for 8 years now and are always warmly received by Pastor Vitaly and his wife Lena. Vitaly is only 31 yrs old and has been ministering as Pastor here for 9 yrs. He is a man full of much wisdom and reminds us of Timothy in the bible. If you remember Paul told him not to allow others to despise his youth but that by his lifestyle and maturity to be an example. Vitaly is just like that. We had around 25 - 30 young people that attended the meeting. They were very open and seemed to enjoy the teaching times. We taught the same topics as Monday night. Pastor said it was the best teaching on the subject he has heard. I am sure it was the topics that he was referring to inspite of the teachers. :>)) Anyway, we were blessed as always to be there and have been invited back to do a marriage retreat for his church sometime in the near future.
We arrived back at Nehemiah around 12 a.m. Needless to say we are tired.
Have a blessed day. Wayne and Sherry

Olya and Svyeta - Olya was my translator today for this time with Svyeta. She is one of the many single women in the nation who struggle with being single. Please pray for her as she begins her journey with Christ and learns how to apply scripture to her life. She would like to have a godly man for a husband one day.


Agape School Seminar -We were honored to be asked to come in and pray for this group of believers. They are being trained to go into the orphanges run by the state and teach biblical ethics to the children. They have found much favor with the government and they are changing lives one child at a time. The organization goes into 81 orphanages in the country.


About 120 young people and singles from 5 different churches gathered together tonight for a time of teaching on relationships. We had so much fun with them. They ranged in age from 16 to 45. Even the young ones were taking notes and responding with shaking heads and smiling faces. The meeting lasted from 6 until 9:30. The last half hour we answered questions and then two couples gave testimonies. Sherry taught on rules for dating and questions to ask, Wayne taught on the purpose of marriage. We encouraged them to develop simple friendships with the opposite sex and to enjoy getting to know each other that way and if something more developed ptl, if not, they would at least have a strong groups of believing friends to spend time with . We will do the same thing tuesday evening in the city of Khust. Please pray for us as we travel 2 hours by car on very bad roads.
Blessings to you all........................................Wayne and Sherry

Monday

Natalie is from Belgium and has been ministering at Nehemiah since March. She came to lead the English camps and has done an excellent job, she also has been working on the Web site that will be launched soon for Nehemiah Ministry Ukraine. I had the privilege to spend time with her this morning and get to know her a bit better. Please pray for her as she pursues Gods will for her life.

Gypsy Church

7 New converts who were baptized yesterday. They sang Happy Birthday to them and gave words of encouragement to them as they begin their journey in the Lord. They truly celebrated these new converts.
Joyful worship and smiling faces as they gave their tithes and offerings. I was not able to catch the line of people dancing up to put their offering in the basket. The joy in this church is palatable. Since we were here last year they have outgrown their meeting place. People were standing in the hallway, and sitting on the floor and there was no airconditioning and only one window open. The service lasted 2 1/2 hours. PTL This is the church that has gone through so much heartache the past few years so it is wonderful to see how the Lord is blessing them. Weeping may last for a night, but JOY comes in the morning.

These little children were on stage as part of the worship, they were dancing. They are encouraged to come.

Wayne preached another anointed sermon tonight. He shared on the Power of the Resurection. It was so good and the people were talking back to him and applauding when he shared. They really do participate in all aspects of worship. It was so refreshing. We prayed with them at the end and gave a blessing. We so love to come to this little group of believers.
When we got back to Nehemiah Center we attended a birthday party for Tanya celebrated Georgian style. Her husband is from the country of Georgia. It was such fun. We are now exhausted and are going to bed. Tomorrow will be full. Not only do we have to prepare for the evening with the young people, but we have been asked by 5 people if we could counsel them so we have to try to work that in sometime. Please keep us in prayer all day tomorrow. Actually start praying tonight before you go to bed. We need stamina to finish this week of ministry and safety as we travel from place to place, most importantly we need the anointing of God to touch the hearts of the young people
CCF we love you and miss you and heard that Pastor Bill preached a wonderful message today. Lisa K. and Julie C. thank you for you notes of encouragement each day, they really have been timely and ministered greatly to us, thank you to all who are faithfully praying for us, we feel your prayers. And to our precious family, thank you for being willing to talk to us on skype so the time goes quicker and we dont' feel so disconnected.
Be sure to scroll down since I have posted 3 times with pictures today.
Grace and Peace, Wayne and Sherry

The favor of God

Worship team
The congregation

Wayne and Sherry with Pastor Edik Opalenik and Erzhika and son

This morning we preached at Ediks church and Wayne preached under a heavy anointing about what it means to Walk in the Spirit.
One young person told us he made 3 pages of notes on the sermon and that he was going to be sure to bring his friends to the youth meeting tomorrow night where Wayne and I will be speaking. It is amazing to us how God is giving us favor this trip. Every place we have spoken has been to hungry people who can't seem to get enough truth. Only God could do this. We give him all the glory and praise.
After service Edik took us to a lovely resturaunt for a lunch of lamb smothered in a sour cream sauce. We discussed the Bible School that we will be teaching this coming March and planned the topics and times etc.
We got home at 3;45 and had to leave again at 4 to minister to the gypsy church.

How to prepare a pig on a Saturday morning

We visited this transitional house for orphans on Saturday and while there they brought in this pig and put it on the table, then began to cut it up into serving sizes to freeze. The couple is Vascy and Maria his wife who oversee the work at the home. It was a great day of fellowship with them and the pig :>))))) How would you like to have to do this on your kitchen table ladies?
We also spent time with Pastor Vadeem and his wife, his church sponsors this home. Actually it is a working farm and when the children come to them, they teach them life skills and how to take care of themselves. The home houses 20 children and they stay for one year. Most of the girls arrive and look like boys and have to be taught how to be women. It is a very sad part of the life over here. But praise the Lord for the body of Christ who has risen up and started such places to minister to these precious kids. Most come to faith and become active in a local church and go on to live a full life with promise.

Saying Goodbye is Bittersweet

This week has been intense and fun all at the same time. Today we ended our seminar with teachings on parenting. Wayne did an excellent job with the Fathers Mandate followed by 22 Ways Parents Provoke Children to Anger and then finished with Progression of Teen Rebellion and ways to overcome this problem. The teachings originally came from Joe Propri, Wayne Mack and Gary Esso. All of them of course are with Wayne's personal spin but are excellent teachings that touch the hearts of the people.
When we finished the class asked if they could share some things with us and then proceeded to testify on how this week has touched their lives and brought conviction from God. We were very humbled to say the least. They then presented us with the doll that is in the picture below. Please click on the pictures and it will enlarge them for you. We always have mixed emotions when we finish a week of teaching. Because of the nature of our seminars, we have a lot of one on one time with each attendee so we become like family to a degree. This group asked if they could have our email address so they can write us and continue some of the counseling they started. One Pastor from Rivne asked us to come next winter to do a seminar in his church. We will be in touch with him to further those plans.
Tomorrow will be busy and start early. One of the local pastors has requested us to come and spend some time with him so he is picking us up at 9 a.m. and then at 4 we will be traveling to a nearby village to minister to young couples and then have a picnic. Of course the weather has changed and the temperature is going to be in the 60's. We did not bring warm clothes so this will be a challenge. Please pray for the temp to go higher. All things are possible with God.
On the home front, our hot water heater has decided to go south so our moms are having to deal with getting it replaced. Thankfully we had a good plumber we could call.
Have a blessed night and we will try to post again tomorrowThank you to all of you have written us and commented on our posts. When away from home it is nice to hear from those we love. Love to you all. Wayne and Sherry

Last Day of Seminar

Beautiful Gifts to say thank you


Saying goodbye Couple we counseled

Cuter in Person
She was pouting because her mom would not allow her to stay to hear PW preach.

Interacting wth the people