Bila Tserkva, Ukraine

We returned on Saturday from our outreach trip to Bila Tserkva, Ukraine. We were blessed to be able to work with Nita Hanson, the founder of God's Hidden Treasures. She gave us an opportunity to experience several different areas of her ministry there. We were so busy that the time flew by faster than we wanted it to. Over the next few days I'm going to try and share about some of the amazing experiences we had. We met so many wonderful people eager to hear about Christ and share their culture with us, but it was on Friday that our hearts were really burdened for the people of Ukraine.



On Friday we were invited to help teach two groups of children at the Voloshka orphanage about Jesus. The first group of children we met were between the ages of 3 and 5 years old. When we walked into the room and saw their faces light up, Edna and I both felt our hearts break for these little treasures. We couldn't believe how happy they were just to sit with us and hear about how much Jesus loves them.



When it was time to go, we didn't want to leave. The children didn't want us to leave either. One little girl in particular gave Edna a big hug and kept touching her hair and telling Edna how pretty she was. This same girl, named Veronika, threw her arms around my neck and kept kissing my cheeks. Veronika had been watching me and Edna the entire time we were there, smiling at us and trying to get our attention. It really broke our hearts to leave. I was at least able to tell her in Ukrainian that Jesus loves her. Being with those children gave us a big incentive to learn Ukrainian since they don't speak Russian like most adults do. We feel that learning Ukrainian is vital to the ministry there.

Me and 5 year old Veronika.

Edna with Slava and Veeka. The second group of children were between 5 and 7 years old and were excited to meet us and tell us their names.

The children are singing a song about how Jesus is the same today as He was yesterday and as He will be tomorrow.

We were invited to come back every Friday so please keep these children and the open door there in your prayers.

-Greg