Special blessings - Thursday

When you are on a mission trip you never know what to expect and it is always fun to find out what the Lord has planned each day. Today was no exception.  Sometimes you carry something in your heart for years before you see the fulfillment.   Our friend Rudy and his wife Katya have a ministry to Orphans in the area. Their dream started small and has expanded to be a true God thing.  They go to 21 different orphanages in the region and take supplies and play with the children who have been placed there for various reasons. Some of them have parents who have abandoned them others the parents are drug addicts others are in jail some have no living parents or relatives some from abusive situations. These children are fragile and lonely and range in age from infant to teens, Rudy and his wife and many others in the body of Christ have a burden for them.  Many don't know how to receive love and it takes months to build trust.  But all are in need of loving homes with two parents so they can grow up and become productive members of society.  Our Friend Tanya Machabeli works with an organization called Transcarpathia without Orphans and I will post about the work they are doing tomorrow.

Coffee and treats. The presentation was lovely. 

So anyway, that brings me to our day.  We have carried a dream in our hearts for years to go to the Hospital to minister to the little ones and so today we met them for coffee and they made arrangements for us to go to the hospital to minister to two of the little ones.  The kids go to the hospital for 5 days before being placed in an orphanage so they are scared and unsure of what is happening.   Our two little ones looked like siblings and we both under 3.  The little boy took a real liking to Wayne and kept calling him daddy.  When we started to leave he sobbed and kept reaching out to him to pick him up and stay. It was heart wrenching to say the least.  Here are some pictures of these sweet little ones.

Aren't they adorable? they were well behaved and so sweet and we wanted to bring them home with us.  

When we got back to our hotel Tanya invited us to come downstairs for a little concert that was part of a seminar for those helping Abuse victims and Orphans in the city.  These musicians were amazing.  This was another unexpected blessings.

We also had the joy of having lunch with Pastor Alexey and Svetlana.  We met them 16 years ago when they first came to Uzghorod.  They are a precious couple who have stayed the course no matter how hard things have gotten or how many mistakes they have made. They went through a difficult season 4 years ago that could have destroyed them, but they hung in there and allowed God to work in their lives trusting that He had truly called them to Uzghorod.  They said that they realized that they had lost focus of the call of God to preach the gospel so people would be saved. They are now seeing people saved and their little Church is growing again as a result of their repentance and obedience. They have a feeding program to homeless and those in need several times a week and have recently seen some of them come the Lord and start attending their Church.  We will be doing a marriage seminar Friday evening at their Church and also ministering there on Sunday Morning.  They have a wide age range in their Church with most being either in their 20's or over 50.

After lunch we went to one of the Gypsy Churches and had the joy of speaking to a small group of single women who wanted to learn and grow in their faith.  We talked about God's purposes for them in relationships and how they can make an impact in the lives of those they love and the Church.  It was a sweet time as always.  There were two married women there so we kept the message focused on how women are called to make a difference.

I promise they were smiling a minute before I snapped the picture. It was cold in the building. A few minutes later some more came in to join us but we had already started to speak so did not get their pictures. 

Here is PW with Pastor Viktor. He is a godly man who loves his congregation and has seen amazing growth under his leadership.  They have also just built this gorgeous new building.  However there is no heat so they are saving to put heat in for the winter.  If you would like to help with this project let us know and we will see what we can do to get them the money. 

This is our sweet friend Angelica.  We have known her since  2001 when we made our first trip to Ukraine.  

As promised this is a picture of Valodya Sergchov and his wife Oksana.  Dear dear friends whom we always love to spend time with when in Ukraine.  We stopped in at the English School that they head up after our meeting with the Gypsy.  

We finished the day off with these yummy Polachinka.  Always a must have food  when we visit. 

Our sweet Olya, translator and friend.  It was  special ending to our day to spend time with her at dinner.

So all in all our day was good and busy with people whom God has put in our path.  Even though we did not have a huge group at the Gypsy Church we have learned not to despise the day of small beginnings.  We prayed God would bring those He wanted to come and so we rejoiced in them and thanked God for the opportunity to sow seed.   The nation will be affected by the group of women who came.

We would ask you to pray specifically for Angelica's daughter Esther. She has MS and the doctors have just found more lesions on her brain. They are wanting her to take a medicine that cost $16,000 a year which is absolutely  not an option for her.  We continue to pray for complete healing for Esther and also for courage and strength for her mom.  This is a difficult thing to face under the best of circumstances.  Angelica is a single mom with no support from her ex husband.

Thank you to all of you who are faithfully praying for us during this ministry time. We truly have had a peace each day as a result of your prayers.

Much love,
PW and Sherry