Going back to my ROOTS

Zdrasfuchye (hello),

Now as I have been in Ukraine for about half a week I am all settled in at our apartment in Zaporozhye. My expectations have definitely been stretched, pulled, perplexed and broken and most actually better than I could have imagined. Our apartment is a lot bigger and nicer than what I thought it would be like. We have two bedrooms, one bathroom and a kitchen…oh and I don’t want to forget about our living room which has one table and four chairs and is serving mostly as a clothes drying room.

As for the actual city and people, it feels to put it in the simplest terms that we are living during the times in WW11. Most of the buildings are made of brick and they do not have names but are all numbered and this has been the same since just after the bombings from the war. The people here have very "dry" expressions but on the inside they are so sincere. We have walked around our apartment a few times and we have had a couple encounters with locals because we look american and they start talking to us, but I can just feel the darkness that they are feeling and experiencing and I just want to tell them about Jesus. If you would ask them they would all say that they are Christians but they are orthadox, and since it is a free place for religion we have to be very sensitive about talking about faith. If you bring up Jesus in a conversation too fast you can tell that the people are turned off, so we need to just build relationships then witness through our actions.Another thing I have been blessed by is to see all of the deep Mennonite roots that are here in Zaporozhye. John took us out yesterday and showed us some of the monuments, old schools, hospitals, houses and villages created by the Mennonites in the 19th century, and how they are still standing now to this day and structurally very strong. It really touched my heart to see how my ancestors lived and worked in Ukraine.

John and Ev have been showing us around the city and some orphanages this last week just to slowly put us into the Ukrainian culture. We have gone to a Bible study held by John and Ev, and we met and talked with some Christians from the area and we are hosting this study next week. We also been hanging out with mostly orphan girls lately, we have gone ice skating with them and taught them some English and they have taught us some Russian. The girls are a lot easier to talk with and they open up faster than the boys but I am going to continue to strive to build strong relationships with the boys so that in the future they can be strong heads of their households. 

 Old Mennonite Girls Finishing School in Zaporozhye

Please pray for continuing opportunities to talk with the locals and to show them the love they can have in Christ. Also that the LORD will bless us with fast language learning so we can carry out a conversation and build stronger friendships and trust with the Ukrainians. I have a strong feeling from God that he wants to do healings and work with freeing the oppressed, so please pray and expect that He will use us to show his love, authority and supernatural strength through that. Thank you for your prayers, I can definitely feel them lifting me up everyday. We are trying to get WIFI in our apartment this next week so I will be able to update more regularly. GOD IS HERE AND WORKING!

Blessings,

Mitch