These pictures definitely don't do justice, but hopefully you can get an idea of the work we did in Liubeshiv.
We started the day with a sports camp for the kids. After playing for 2 hours, we separated them into smaller groups to teach a few Bible stories each day, leading up to the message of salvation on the final day. After sports camp and lunch, we spent the afternoons talking with people in their homes. That was probably our favorite part of the trip. We were amazed by the eagerness of the people we visited. It's not very common in America for someone to want to spend over 2 hours talking and asking questions about your faith. It was amazing!
In the evenings we did VBS with the kids, then went back to the hotel to unwind. Ryan & I truly felt God's strength each day, as we typically got only 4-5 hours of sleep each night and worked all day. I'm still amazed that we had the energy to do all that we did. On top of that, the sun comes up there at 4am (no, that's not a typo) and doesn't go down until around 10pm - that really messes up your internal clock!
OK, enough typing - enjoy the pictures!
This is the little room that we used for VBS. The local church meets here on Sundays, its a music room that they rent each week. It was a tight fit, but we made it work!
Kids from our small group are working on a craft for VBS. This was after they heard the story of Esther, so they are coloring their own crowns.
Yura and Ryan - this little boy came to all our events...and he was quite a handful! Every member of our team recognized this boy, even if they didn't know his name. He needed lots of lovin', despite his difficulties.
Ryan, Matt Hudes, and Irean (a translator) are talking to a group of teenage boys that came to check out what we were doing. The gospel was shared, seeds were planted, and now we're praying for growth!
This was our breakfast/lunch/dinner table. We ate our meals in their school cafeteria. The food was pretty good, as long as you like everything seasoned with dill weed:).
This is the only picture I have of the local pastors. On the left side is Pastor Andriy and on the right is Pastor Volodymyr. At this time, Ryan is having deep conversations with them about the Biblical distinction between spirit and soul. (As the day progressed, we had about half the team in on it:).)
We were extremely blessed to have 8 translators working with our group, so just about everyone had their own translator with them most of the time. This is a picture of our personal translators - Ryan worked with Lena and I worked with Anastasia. They are amazing gals that not only speak great English, but are also strong Christians. I could go on and on about them, but I'll refrain...
These were two sweet kids that played games with my group during sports camp - Lilya and her brother, Bogden. The group I had was for younger kids, but Lilya liked playing with us and looking after her brother. She became one of my helpers for the week.
This is the last day of the sports camp, and Ryan is wrapping up our storytelling sessions. I told the crucifixion and resurrection story, then Ryan finished up with explaining our need for Christ's salvation and that Jesus would come again for those who believe. We really enjoyed the storytelling and the kids loved answering our questions.
This is most of the kids that were in our storytelling group. Just like you would expect with 7 to 10 year olds, we had a few squirrel-ey ones, but overall they were great!
Here we are outside the hotel in Liubeshiv. It wasn't bad by Ukrainian standards. We even had hot water for showers, but with a team of 18 people, you definitely did not want to be among the last 5 or so getting a shower in the morning.
We can't wait to get back home and tell you more about it...if you're interested!:)
