Day out wth group

We had a chance to get out with our group today and several host family members. It was extremely eye opening visiting the personal residence of the exiled fromer president (Viktor Fedorovych). Worth looking up information about his palace.

Personal residence

We also had a chance to connect with Pastor Alex and his family.

We met with about nine couples and answered questions they had about parenting. 

Mike McKay is traveling in route now and is expected here in a few hours. We will be going to Pastor Peter's house for a barbaque celebration with the team and all the host families tomorrow.

Dave giving English lessons

Marriage Conference

We didn't have great internet service at the conference location so we couldn't update until now.

What a blessing. Some 55 (mostly young) couples attended. A few highlights:
1. Praise God for the connections made during breakfast, lunch (they say dinner), and supper; and in the many conversations during "free times" we had in the weekend.
2. Super cool to experience how intentional the connections were not just on our part, but they really wanted to connect with us. They were as curious about our culture as we were about theirs.
3. So many couples really desire to know how to implement the concepts we presented regarding having a soft heart, effective communication, and love and respect.
4. We were able to pray for several individuals that were impacted in ways we didn't expect. Like Andrew who didn't know how to forgive his father. He asked for prayer (of transformation) after he heard one of our testimonies about parent relations. That was not the focus of that teaching, but God used that in unexpected ways.
5. Coming back to our host homes was like coming back home for each of us. We feel so welcomed. Of course we are always greeted with food: "eat, eat!"

Tomorrow, we will be paneling questions from nine couples about parenting.
Thank you for your continued prayers.
Rob O

Meeting with the marriage team at the church before the retreat

First session presentation by Dave & Gayle

We 💙 Kiev!

Today - another amazing day in an amazing country with amazing people!

We spent the day out in the city of Kiev : population 2.8 million. Sunny skies and conversation with friends boosted our energy to be fully prepared for the weekend retreat.

We are thankful the rest of our team (minus MM who comes soon) arrived safely today, and although we haven't connected face-to-face yet, we trust they are having fun connecting with their host families (and training their tired brains to think in Russian again)!
Our phrase of the day was Я не понимаю  (ya ne panimayu) - "I don't understand". 😄

We heard today that there many be quite a few non-Christian attendees at the conference. Please pray for the right words to come out of our mouths to encourage ALL marriages, whether Christian or not, married long or not, happily or not. We leave tomorrow evening and return Sunday afternoon.

Here in Kiev

So great to be back! Vanderkamps and Ockerses are here in Kiev staying with the same families from before. Such a blessing being welcomed with warm hugs and familiar faces. We truly have a family of Christ here in Ukraine. Now rested from the safe trip, we are off to visit the many sights in central Kiev that we experience pre-revolution three years ago. It has been eye opening hearing how this has impacted their lives. Already strapped financially, they have experienced extreme inflation with no pay increase to compensate. The currency here has devalued X3. Three years ago the exchange rate was .08 to the dollar, now it is .25. It is humbling to see their faith lived out daily.

Pray for safe travel for The rest of the team as they are taking off as this is being posted.
Rob O

   

     

Pre-trip preparations!

Well, we are on our way again. We are really excited to have the opportunity to connect with all our Kiev friends in person in a couple weeks! Our trip will be a little bit different this time, but also have some similarities.

Different:
1. Our team will be flying out in several groups: VanderKamps and Ockerses arrive in Kiev on June 21, while Deurs, Makis, & Sharon F will arrive on the 23nd, and Mike M arrives on the 28th. Mike will be speaking on June 29 & July 3 at the church services.
2. We are planning to participate in a Kids Camp, which some of the team has experienced before, but we did not have the opportunity to do this last time we were in Kiev.
3. A baptism will take place on July 3, which VKs and Ocks will not be present for, but the rest of the team be!

Same:
1. We are excited about the Marriage Retreat on the weekend of June 24, 25 & 26. We will be staying at the same place we stayed last time, so now we know what to expect from sleeping quarters, food and auditorium.
2. Most of us (at this point) are staying with the same families we stayed with last time. We are thankful for these families that are so willing to open their homes to us for this extended period of time!

Please pray for all the members of our team as we finalize last minute details of our travel. There are kids, family members, packing, work arrangements, speaking arrangements, health, and many details that need covering before we leave. Also, please pray for the marriages represented - those that are speaking, and those that will attend the conference on the weekend. Thanks for lifting up these needs as they come to mind.

Quick post...from Rob. Another full day in Kiev. We had a chance to visit St. Michael church along with some shopping time in the market with the team. Several of us went in the subway and thanks to Cherie and Robb (not me), we were able to navigate the metro. Came back to Transformation Church for a couples dinner night the church put on. Robb and Traci shared a great message once again to about 15 couples. Cherie and I sat with Vadim and Svetlana and had amazing fellowship. It was a sweat night as they prayed for our team.

Tomorrow is our last full day. We will go to Pastor Peter's for a final picnic. Please pray for safe travel as we will be leaving for the airport at 3:30 am (8:00 pm your time). It will be sad to say goodbye to all our new friends, but we are looking forward to seeing our family and friends back home.

Sunday night-Saturday

This is Rob. Cherie wanted to make sure I put that, however you will know by all of the spelling errors. Sunday evening we went into the city center with Nina (host mom), and her daughter, Svielana and her husband Vadim, and their son Daniel(5 years old). Vadim speaks English extremely well. This was such a blessing as he filled us in while we toured all around. Vadim has a fantastic knowledge of Ukraine history. He shared so many hardships the people have gone through. Gaining insight on all of the beautiful churches and buildings were great, but getting to know Valim and his family are priceless.

Today is an awesome example of getting to know the people. After touring with our church group to see the oldest church in this part of the world and checking out the monks in the caves (very interesting), we went to a church far outside the city in a small farming community that serves people with disabilities. None of us were prepared for the impact this would have on us. We started out with a meal (the forth meal of the day and only 3:00; everyone passed parts over to my plate where somehow I had to hide it all under my napkin). Pastor Alexander shared such genuine compassion for these people as I have never witnessed before. He brought up five individuals and their families as we prayed over them. He shared personal attributes and incredible hardships for each one. There wasn't a dry eye among us. Dave D said his eyes were "sweating". There was Litha and her special needs daughter that played the piano for us, Sergei is blind and wanted us to anoint him with oil so he could see, a widowed grandmother taking care of an autistic young son, an alcoholic son, and a granddaughter from a son who died. You could have titled this perspective.

We ended the evening back "home" having fun learning more Russian words from Nina and Sergei and eating another meal. Of course Cherie has already mastered some of the written language...compared to me anyway.