First Children's Camp Underway....

To the glory of God, we have completed the first day of our first children's camp here in Ukraine.  We had a wonderful turn out, we are exhausted, but we are excited about the rest of the week.

Yesterday, we had a wonderful church service at the local Baptist church here in the Gorodische village.  There were two services, one in the morning beginning at 10am and the other one in the evening beginning at 5pm.  Both church services lasted two hours each.  All five of us guys preached and were did a variety of special music.  Vocal solos, flute solos, vocal duet, poetry as a group and individual, and singing all together.  The people were very welcoming and blessed us with their attention and kind remarks.  We had the opportunity to eat lunch with many of the young people right after the morning service.  Also, we walked to town and did some evangelical singing for people at the center park.  We gathered about 50 individuals all together in the middle of the park till past sunset!  It was a wonderful time.

Today, we had an early start to prepare and head out the church for the first day of children's camp.  The camp began promptly at 9am.  For the first 45 minutes, we had large group with all the children together.  We introduced ourselves and those who were helping us run the camp, introduced our theme for the day, and sang some songs together.  After large group, we divided the children into two groups by ages.  One group consisted of 34 children ages 5 to 8.  The other group had 37 kids ranging from 9 to 12 years old.  Yes, we had a total of 71 children for our first day!!! A wonderful turn out!  We were expecting around 50, so we were very surprised to have such a large turn out.  The day included Bible lessons, Scripture memory, learning songs in Ukrainian and English, playing games, and a variety of sports.  We also had lunch provided by several of the ladies from the church.  The camp ran from 9am to 4pm.  By the time we got home, all six of us were sunburned and exhausted.  However, we praised the Lord for such a wonderful turn out and fabulous first day.  We are expecting a lot more children to show up the next couple of days.  So please keep praying.  We are sharing the Gospel in chronological order beginning from Creation to the Cross.  So, Wednesday's lesson will be the big one as it will include an invitation for children to get saved!

Ilya and I cooked dinner tonight for the team.  We had a great time and we all enjoyed having a fairly American meal again. :) Also, we got together with the youth of the church this evening for a few hours to play volleyball, sing around a campfire, and share testimonies.  I shared mine thanks to Yuriy who translated.  Which leads me to speak about my language progress.  Well, ever since I got to Ukraine, I have been immersed in the language since I hear it left and right.  Everywhere I turn, I am faced with people who only speak Ukrainian and Russian.  So, besides my five American teammates, I have had to be very creative in order to communicate with the people and children here.  Olenka and Konstantin have been my main translators (Yuriy translated my sermon on Sunday) and I am quickly learning a lot of Ukrainian vocabulary.  Sometimes I am told too many words at once so I get them all mixed up.  The interesting thing is how much I get laughed at when I try to speak with such a bad accent.  The people and children are very kind and I feel very blessed by their willingness to help me communicate with them!

Well, there's another update!  Again, we greatly appreciate all your prayers and support! Please keep this first children's camp in your prayers this week and for our traveling to back to Kiev on Friday.  I am still unable to load up pictures, so I guess they will have to wait till this weekend when I am back in Kiev.  God bless you all!

In the Gorodische Village!!!

Well, its hard to believe that already two days have already gone by since we got to Ukraine.  We left Kiev yesterday around 2pm.  It was four hour bus trip.  It was a small bus (more like a big van), but it carried 20 people and all the luggage.  We were definately very cozzy and friendly :) The actual trip itself was very beautiful.  I enjoyed seeing the Ukrainian scenary and way of life from outside my window.  The four hour drive went by very fast, and before we knew it, we arrived at the Berznov bus station.  Bereznov is a small town that connects several surrounding villages.  Our next and final stop was the Gorodische Village.

We were warmly greeted by Mr. Konstantin Tsipan (one of the Dolzhanskiy's uncles) once we arrived.  He has graciously allowed us to spend the week in his home while we minister in Gorodische.  He has a very nice Ukrainian home which is still under construction.  There is plenty of room for all of us and he has been very hospitable.  Last night, we had time to relax from our traveling and settle in our beds for the night!

Today was spent getting to know the village.  We had a wonderful Ukrainian breakfast and headed to the village to visit extended family and friends of the Dolzhanskiys.  I had the opportunity to play with two little guys all afternoon, Paul and Roman.  We also had a wonderful lunch at one of the Ukrainian families here in the village, the Ivanovs.  I got to try RABBIT meat for the first time in my life! It was very much like chicken.  We also got to see their farm animals and I even got to milk a cow!  We walked back home which was about a 15 minute walk.  I forgot to mention that we rode on a horse and wagon around town early in the afternoon.

Tomorrow, we will be ministering at the local village churches.  We will be preaching, singing, quoting poetry, and playing instruments (guitar, piano, and flute).  Please pray that we will have good turn outs with attendance.  We have been inviting a lot of people from the village who do not normally go promotting our special music and speaking. In addition, people here are naturally curious to see the 'Americans' that are in the village for the week.

We will also be meeting with the youth pastor who is incharge of helping us run the children's camp beginning Monday morning.  Please pray that we get everything ready for this special week for the children in this village.  I will personally be teaching some songs, telling Bible stories, playing the flute, doing some skits, and doing crafts with the children.  The camp will run from Monday to Thursday.  On Friday, we will head back to Kiev.

Ok, there is a small update for now. I hope to write again soon. Thank you for your prayers.  I want to add some picutres, but unfortunately, the internet is not the best here in the village so my pictures are not loading.....but I will keep on trying! God bless.

We Are In Ukraine!!!

Yes, we arrived safely to Kiev, Ukraine! Praise God! Thank you to all of your prayers and support. Our travels went very smoothly as a whole and we are so thankful to God for safe traveling.

We began our journey with a four hour drive from Manchester, New Hampshire to JFK New York Airport. We left early in the morning and had to take two cars to fit all six of us and all our stuff.  We had 12 suitcases and 10 carry-ons. Many of these are filled with supplies and gifts that we will use here in Ukraine during all the children camps.  To the glory of God, we made it safely to New York with plenty of time to check-in our bags and go through Security Customs.

Our flight to Moscow left around 2:45pm Eastern Time and it was about a nine hour flight.  We made it to Moscow at 8:30 am in Moscow time, but around Midnight our time! Due to a delay we had, we had a very short time to catch our connecting flight to Kiev, Ukraine.  It was quiet an experience to run through the Moscow airport!  We made it to our connecting flight on time and boarded for Kiev.

We arrived in Kiev around 11:30 am in Kiev time (about 3 am our time!).  Yes, we were very tired and weary, but we were so excited to arrive to our destination!  We were very kindly greeted by Pastor Yuroslav Machinskiy and one of the deacons from the church.  It was about a 45 minute drive from the airport to the church were we are staying while in Kiev.  By the time we got to our church apartment, we all needed to sleep!! 

So, to the glory of God, we praise Him for safe traveling and His goodness to us in allowing all our luggage and bags to make it safely with us.  Tonight we get to catch up on some much needed sleep and prepare to leave for our first children's camp ministry tomorrow!

We will leave for the Berezno village tomorrow around 2pm on a 4-hour bus trip.  Once there, we will begin to host a week-long children's camp.  Please keep us in your prayers for safety and health (some of us including myself have been fighting some mild colds!).  

Well, that is all for now.  Again, thank you for your prayers and support.  I look forward to sending another update from Ukraine! God bless!

Arrival to Ukraine!!!

Ready to leave for Ukraine from JFK New York Airport!

Our plane to Moscow!

We got awesome seats!!

In Moscow, Russia! (we had 10 minutes to go from
one terminal to another to catch our flight to Kiev!)

Boarding for Kiev

Arrived in Kiev! Met with Pastor Yuroslav Machinskiy

Packing up the vans (our 12 suitcases and 10 carry-ons!)

Ready to leave the airport! Here we come Kiev...

We are in Kiev!!! Hurray!

Nice Hotel and Flowers!

The Ukranian "Statue of Liberty" (actually, she is a
War World II memorial statue)

Beautiful churches

Kiev

The church building we are staying in! (On the 3rd floor)

The Living Room of the church apartment we are staying in

From old to new - Sermon

Six Days and Counting...

With just 5 days remaining before we leave for Ukraine on June 13th, I am very excited!  Currently, I am in Manchester, New Hampshire (the Dolzhanskiy's home) preparing for the trip with the rest of my team members.  First of all, I wanted to mention that to the glory of God, we all raised 100% support for the trip!!!  This is truly and answer to prayer and we are all so thankful to the many people and churches who have supported our trip.  Thank you all!  These last couple of days have been spent preparing for the missions trip in three ways: packing, making lessons and buying supplies, and learning special music and poems for presenting in the numerous churches we will be at this summer.  In addition, all of us guys are all preparing sermons to preach while in Ukraine.  Personally, I have already preached twice at the churches here in the New England area!

Your prayers are all still greatly appreciated, especially as we prepare to travel next week.  Please pray for our safety in traveling by car, plane, and train before we reach our first destination.  Also, please pray that we will not have any problems with our luggage, as we are taking A LOT of suitcases mostly full of supplies for the orphanages and church ministries.  And finally, please pray for our physical health.  We really need to be fully rested and in good health before we arrive to Ukraine.

Ilya, Yuriy, Olenka, Ivan, Konstantin, John

I wanted to take the time to introduce our Ukraine missions trip team.  As I mentioned earlier, several of them are also PCC students who graduated with me this past May.  We are all very grateful to God for providing this great opportunity to serve in Ukraine together.  Here is a little about each of the team members:

Ilya Marchenko - He is a Pastoral Ministries graduate from PCC.  He lives in Seattle, Washington, and will return to PCC in the fall to begin his Master's in Educational Leadership.

Yuriy Dolzhanskiy - He graduated with a Pastoral Ministries major and with several science minors from PCC.  He lives in Manchester, New Hampshire and will begin Medical School in August.

Olenka Dolzhanskiy - She is a Senior Biology major at the University of New Hampshire.  She lives in Manchester, New Hampshire.  Yuriy, Ivan, and Konstantin are all her older brothers.

Ivan Dolzhanskiy - He also graduated from PCC with a Music Ministries Bachelor.  Ivan is also from Manchester, New Hampshire, and also plans to begin his Master's at PCC this fall.

Konstantin Dolzhanskiy - He just graduated from the University of New Hampshire with a degree in Politics and Society.  He also lives in Manchester, New Hampshire.

John Loo - Well, that's me! :) And in case you missed it, I also graduated from PCC this past May with a Missions major from the Bible department.  I am from Houston, Texas!

Well, this gives you all a short update about our missions trip which is quickly approaching!  Please stay tuned to the blog for lots of future updates about the trip.  For now, God bless and next time I will write a new post, I hope to be across the sea in Ukraine!