It’s been a week since we’ve all arrived back in Ukraine. We wanted to share some of what has already happened since we left. We have all been excited to see what this adventure of village living and this trip would bring us. We have quickly hit some road blocks that only God could bring us through. Even leaving California was an ordeal, so we were encouraged that God has big plans and the devil was already working to hold us up. The short version of that story is we had to be reticketed because of a visa issue with our flight itinerary to Kyiv for Sasha. We waited about 3 hours at the United counter, on the phone with United (don’t even get us started how that was) to try to get them to rebook us all on the same flight and not pay for their mistake. But finally, we got our tickets and boarded our flight(s) to Ukraine, all 4 of us together.
We stayed overnight near the airport, and our pastor came from Sumy to pick us up the next day. We crammed all of us and all our bags in the van and were on our way. About 30 minutes into our drive (and also 30 minutes after we posted a request for prayer for safety) we were cut off by a semi. We all watched and were sure that we were gonna slam into the back of it (with no seat belts). Nothing but a miracle stopped us. It was like at the last moment, something pulled us back and we stopped within a couple feet of hitting it. Praise Jesus!
We spent a couple of nights at a friends house in Sumy and then dove right into village life staying with Dusya. She welcomed us back instantly, even had a whole party with decorations and food for us when we arrived. We’re kinda cozy in her house – 3 of us on a 1 couch, 2 on mattresses on the floor, and Dus with her kids on the floor too. But she had been so gracious and hospitable to let us stay with them while we begin the work on our house.
We have no wifi and cell service is spotty so posting a lot is hard. We are doing our best to keep you all updated with Instagram, Facebook, and Snapchat. We will be working to keep you all in the loop with these Tuesday Tales, sharing the good, the bad, and the ugly on a weekly basis. Stay tuned for more updates on our progress in our home restoration and plans for more ministry in Ivanivka. Please keep the prayers coming!