At the end of June, Maria & I traveled to the Ukraine to join with the Ukrainian Family Ministries team for the month of July. Upon arrival, Maria went to a special family camp for handicapped children. There, she joined with Tanya Sokolovsky for the next five days in ministry to handicapped children and their mothers. This was the first time that Maria & Tanya had attended this camp west of Kiev. What a blessing both Maria & Tanya received by just being able to encourage both the mothers and children. Tanya said "This camp has greatly touched my life!" She spent most nights until 1a.m. just talking/counseling with the mothers of these special needs children. Maria served in the childrens classroom and English Second Language(ESL) while the mothers had their own group time.

The next two weeks we stayed with Yura & Tanya Sokolovsky (Family Ministry Leaders for Eastern Europe and the Ukraine) planning for the next Family Ministries School (FMS) which they will run in March of 2010 in Kiev.

The last week we were in Lutsk, in the western part of the Ukraine, to serve Sasha & Alyona Yuhimchuk in their ministry in YWAM Lutsk. During our time there, we gave two evening seminars on effects that Daily Life Issues effect close relationships and had one evening of teaching with the local YWAM staff. At the end of one of these sessions a couple came up to ask questions about pre-marriage issues. They were from different religious backgrounds....after a few minutes we were able to share the Gospel to the young man and encourage him to ask God to show him the truth. This is a reminder to always be prepared to share the "Good News". Many questions followed! This encouraged us to know that we had reached the people in the seminar.

Even though our time in the Ukraine was short we were blessed by our time there. If you are interested in ministry in the Ukraine be sure to look up the contact info on the FMI website. Many Blessings to All!