Friday, August 30, 2013

Living by fath


I cannot believe that the summer is almost gone... it seems that yesterday we were making all the plans for the summer VBSs, youth camp, trips and other activities. But now I have to look back and try to remember how everything went... I know I will forget many details but it's ok. The most important that in every step we took, we saw God there.
For those of you who are like me, (visual, pragmatic, precise, and all planed ahead) you know that living by faith is so apposite from our nature and yet God was teaching me to do just that. But when it was getting to tough He let me “touch” and “see’ just enough to continue my journey. 
In June we made a trip with both boys to visit our “new grandparents” (as Tyomka calls them.) I was nervous how he will adopt to bunch of new people and how they will react to him. I want others to see him and love him as we do but sometimes it just doesn’t work that way or it takes more time for people to see what we see. But God was teaching me that it doesn’t matter what other think, His opinion is the most important. Praise God both boys didn’t want to leave Grandpa’s place, they loved playing with dogs, watching cows on the pasture, feeding piggies, chasing chickens and many more fun things they did at Grandpa’s mini farm. I watched Tyomka learning many new things about family, which I think is very good for him. For example, my younger sister, who was pregnant, was visiting with us as well. I noticed that Tyamka was very confused when being around her because he would come and stare at her belly, or even wanted to touch it but was shy to do so. Finally he was comfortable to ask her why does she have so much FATJ When she told him (notice he is 9 years old, but his development is for about 6 year old) that there is a little baby and soon doctors will help to “get it out”, he ran to her and hit the belly thinking that she was joking with him. She was very good at explaining to him and letting him touch it to feel the baby move. After he realized it he was so good and protective telling everybody to be careful around the belly-baby (as he called it).
July was filed with camps and ministry trips. I started the month with going to women’s evangelical camp where I was a leader of a small group of ladies. It was a blessed time of many hours spent in prayer, Bible study and Christian fellowship. In the end of the week we had 11 beautiful ladies giving their lives to God for the first time!


Right after I got back we started to prepare for the youth camp. Praise God for the Boyd’s family who initiated this youth camp 3 years ago and since then they have been faithful by coming all the way from the state just especially for this time of the summer to help us out!!! This camp is a very special time because the location we chose is right by the village of Chornoholova where we have been doing evangelical work for 3 years. Every day one group of campers went to the village to invite the youth to come to join us for the evening service and fellowship by the fire. It was amazing to see youth boys (almost young men) and girls coming and asking so many questions concerning our faith and God we believe in.
Right after youth camp we did a VBS in that village. Praise God for the opened hearts of parents who let their children to come to Christian VBS. We had between 35-45 children everyday. Now we are planning to start an English Christian kid’s club where we plan to teach elementary English and Bible lessons. For now we can go only once a month but we are praying that God would provide a place where we could come more often. Right now we have to rent a cultural club every time we do something there.

In August God gave me tremendous opportunity to help translating for a Canadian group who did a VBS in the orphanage where our Tyomka has lived for the last 6 years. It was a great time for me to get to know him better, to meet his friends, and to feel the atmosphere he was growing in for all his conscious live. I am so thankful that God put him in this particular Christian orphanage because I could not asked for a better, loving place for my boy to grow in. I am calmer and secure knowing in what environment he grew up; all of the workers are good Christians and love the children.
Also we did a VBS in our village where God blessed us with more that 70 kids every day. 90% of them were from unchristian families. I am so thankful that God is leading us and can use us for his kingdom. We love serving our Savor who did so much for us.

 I made a birthday cake for Tyomka and we all went to his orphanage for his Birthday. He was so overwhelmed that he did not want to blow his candles so Timka so very happy for the opportunaty to help.
 But soon we got a pretty smile from him.
And this is the latest family picture.

We are still waiting on the final approval and some special classes we have to take before Tyomka can live with us. It is so hard to wait when you don’t know how long…. But as I said God has been teaching me to walk by faith not by sight. I am so thankful that He is patient with me.
Timka is growing fast. He talks fluently in both languages now. He loves to work outside with his daddy which means a lots of laundry for mommy. After all the VBSs he learned all the songs so now I don’t have to look for him, I can hear himJ this boy Loves to sing.
Well these are all the news I can think of for now . Thank you for praying for us.