Scuba papa, water baby and viligant mama!

We had so much fun at the lake yesterday! One of Oleg's lifetime dreams came true, he got to scuba dive. Oleg met a member of the Ukrainian FEMA rescue squad at our basketball camp. Sergei (resident scuba proff) was dropping his daughter off at camp and Oleg took the opportunity to talk to him, tell him who we were and why we were doing this camp. They hit it off and have been talking ever since. Yesterday, he taught Oleg how to dive. Oleg was on cloud 9 - complete with crawfish supper to complete his day (caught while diving). Please pray for Oleg's friendship with Sergei to be spiritually fruitful as Sergei is not a believer.

Abigail spent her time investigating stones in the shallow waters of the lake. Mama spent the day guarding her little explorer.

Everyone had a good time and is boasting a healthy summer glow.

1020 of Christianity in Ukraine

1020 years ago, the ruler of Kiev-Rus, Vladimir decided to take a religion for his people. He called priests and holy men from all the major religions of that time to come to Kiev to consult him on thier doctrines. After carefully examining what he had been told, Vladimir decided that Christianity was the most useful religion for his kingdom - as it taught submission to authority. Kiev-Rus at that time was very pagan and somewhat animistic. Vladimir decided to force his subjects to be baptized ito the Christian faith. From that time on Kiev-Rus has been considered Christian. Today in Kiev, there was a huge celebration with guests from all over the Orthodox world to commemerate the "baptism of Kiev-Rus."

Camp Follow-up

Please pray for us as we follow-up on the 150 contact - registration cards that we have from music and basketball camp. Our present plan is to start a hand chime circle for the music school kids in September at our church and a soccer league at the school where we held basketball camp. Pray that through our interaction with the kids, their parents will become interested in knowing more about our church and why we do what we do. Our long term goals are to start small group Bible studies from these follow-ups. We covet your prayers!

A new skill

Oh the joys of being entertained by anything! The UPWARD team that was here for basketball camp gave Abigail a couple of whistles - they have become a favorite toy -Abigail whistles and wants mama and papa to share the joy of whistle blowing too :).

Papa and Abigail

I keep collecting pictures of Abigail from members of the teams that came to minister with us this summer in Ukraine. This is one that I thought was just too cute. I thought this picture really shows off her bubbly personality and just plain cuteness. She has Oleg wrapped around that cute little finger of hers :).

They many roles of a preacher

As our senior pastor is often away, Oleg has had the opportunity to gain lots of experience leading our worship services and of course, preach. I love to watch him interact with the members/guests of our church after our services. We praise the Lord for the knowledge we have gained in church administration while we were mentoring at Gogol Street Baptist Church.

Head coverings!

Most Baptist churches in Ukraine ask that married ladies cover their heads during church services - a sign to the angels of their submission to their husbands :) - Sherry Goodson and Rachel Vradenburgh and of course, Lori Enskaya are very submissive :) :) :).

The end of camp season.... for a while....

Thank you so much for praying for our summer camp schedule! The Lord blessed every aspect of camp - from the people who came from the States to the weather and attendance. We have 150 information cards to follow-up on. We are really excited about the contacts we made with the children as well as with their parents. This year at the end of camp concert/celebration award's ceremonies, we had most of our campers attend and many of their parents. We held these meetings at the Baptist church we attend. We were very pleased with the turn outs. It is very difficult to get the average person to come into a Baptist church building. They not only came, but sat through our service and many of them said they would gladly send their children to any functions that our church had. What a wonderful start! Please pray for us to have wisdom and creativity as we follow-up on the hard work of our American short term teams. We have lots of contacts -our prayer is that many of them would turn into "converts" :).

Lovin' that bath

The end of everyday is met with a warm bath and wonderful toys from Bah. Usually, Abigail leads me into the bathroom and points to the tub when she is about ready for bed - she knows her schedule better than anybody. She loves to sit and play in the water and tacitly learn her abc's!

Mama's baby

These are some various pictures of Abigail and I at camp and church. She has been such a good little girl through these weeks of non-routine living.

UPWARD Basketball Camp

A group of UPWARD basketball leaders from Mississippi came to Mukachevo for an evangelistic basketball camp. We have had anywhere from 40-60 kids each day. Most of them are neighborhood kids in need of a lot of loving attention. They have been eating up the interaction they have been getting from our southern guests. Please pray that their parents will come to our award's ceremony tomorrow night at church. It is our goal to not only reach these children for the Lord but their parents as well.

Praise the Lord for Natasha (part 2)

Natasha was a life saver during music camp and will be during basketball camp. We praise the Lord for her tenderloving care of our Abigail!

New cuteness

We've got ourselves a people person :). Abigail loves to wave at people - perhaps not go to them, but definitely check them out. She generally uses her cute new little accomplishment to charm everyone - she even tries to charm Mama when she's done something wrong. Oleg and I try real hard not to let her win!