Odessa Odyssey

Floorball Sport Competition

On November 5, our Petrovka floorball teams were in a competition with other churches in our region. Our children and leaders worked really hard getting ready for this big day. Our younger team came in third place and our older team won FIRST PLACE!!! Praise the Lord for this sport ministry that reaches out to the young people in our community and gives them an opportunity to hear about Jesus.

3rd Place Winners - Valentin, Sasha, Dima, Olga, Radik and Kolya

1st Place Winners - Vlad, Alina, Oleg, Sasha, Donna and Igor

October Fall Camp

We had a wonderful opportunity to host a team from the Odessa Bible Institute where one of my co-workers studies. This team wanted to have a fall camp for our older children and help them to get deeper into the Word of God. The theme was "Not That Way, Jonah!" Our children became journalists for the week and we all had an AMAZING TIME!!! All of our groups had to interview someone in our town and ask questions about obedience to authority and to God. Our young children needed to interview the Director of the Technical College. When they showed up there were real journalists from a local TV station and the children got to meet them and were able to do their interview. One of our older groups interviewed the school principal and our last group interviewed the mayor of our town. We are so thankful for the team who came and served us and we ended up being helpers. Our children grew in the Lord and many were convicted of their own disobedience to parents and those in authority.

Our children with real journalists who showed up at the Technical College

One of our Older Groups Interviewing the School Principal

A Wild and Crazy Game with our Children Chasing these Guys for Sweets

Every Morning our Children Had Fresh Baked Goods! Yummy!!!

Harvest Celebration and Jim's Visit

We are so thankful to the Lord for our brother, Jim, who was able to visit with us again in October. He was a blessing to all of us by his sweet spirit and generous heart. Jim especially has a desire to bless the widows and orphans and he was able to fulfill that desire. Jim has also been our summer camp sponsor for the past two years and we thank God for him and his love for Ukraine and our church in Petrovka. We love you Jim!!!

Denise, Jim and Igor Purchasing Food for Widows

Our Sweet Girls Singing

Our boys reciting poetry about Jesus being the "Bread of Life"

My Children's Choir

SUPER BOOK

On September 17, we started the new school year with our Children's Bible Club. We are using the Super Book materials which has a children's film with a robot and two children who go back in time and experience Bible stories in person. We had 80 children attend our opening. We have several new leaders this year who have made a commitment to serve with us. We thank the Lord for Natasha who was baptized last year, for Sasha and Natasha - a couple from another church and for Marina, who repented in our church on September 11. We love our children and are thankful we have the opportunity to share Jesus with them every week!

Christina and Dasha

Igor, Dima and Kolya

20 YEARS IN UKRAINE

On September 2, I celebrated 20 years of serving in Odessa, Ukraine. I am so thankful for all of you who have financially and prayerfully supported me all these years. Thank you for partnering with me in the ministry. I was able to be with other TEAM missionaries on this day and we celebrated with a Chocolate Mozart cake!

Amanda, Kayla, Rochelle, Sierra, Elijah, Anna and Kurt

Baptismal Service

On August 21 we had our second baptismal service in our church. There were five people who were baptized - Natasha, Ira and Alonya from the mom's Bible study and one other lady, Lena. We also had one young man, Eugene, who was from another small church. Please pray for the ladies from our church who were baptized and who are currently facing many trials in their lives.

Eugene, Ira, Alonya, Lena, Natasha

Summer Camp 2016

We want to thank all of you who supported our summer camp in July! It was the best camp we have ever had at our church. We had 149 children registered and 30 leaders and helpers. Our biggest day we had 127 children. At the start of our camp our children had to visit the heart doctor, ear doctor, eye doctor and throat doctor and have their medical card signed that they could participate in our camp. The doctors and nurses from our hospital came and participated with us at the opening. We had special classes with a dental hygienist who shared how to properly brush and care for your teeth. Some of my supporters had helped with preparing bags with toothpaste, toothbrushes and floss that we gave to all the children at the end of the day. We had a sports instructor who taught our children about exercise and they actually had a workout. We also had one day that we shared about personal hygiene and we presented the children with shower gel and shampoo. We are so thankful for our cooks who fed our children and leaders every day. They were awesome!!! The main theme was that to be spiritually healthy you need to know Jesus!!!