Romanian schedual:

Saturday, April 26 Leave early for Brasov. (4 hours)

Stay at Hostel. Visit Dracula's castle, hike up a mountain. . . .

Sunday, April 27 Leave Brasov for Cornest (10 hours)

Stop along the way and see some sights. Arrive in Cornest

Monday April 28 Aviation Camp Starts - - - -

Saturday, May 3 Aviation Camp Ends

Travel to Pitesti. (10 hours)

Stay at church.

Sunday, May 4

Church in Pitesti.

Travel to Bucharest. (1 hour)

Tour Bucharest.

Monday, May 5

Leave Bucharest for Odessa (10-12 hours)

Romania

Arkadiy, and a group of six others left for Romania yesterday morning.
I, Anneke, got an email from Arkadiy this morning and he said that they made it to Bucharest safely, last night.

Apparently the border crossings did not go too well, but praise the Lord they are safely there now :)

Today early they left for Brasov.

Please be praying for them as they serve, disciple and minister to the two guys (Andre Solonchuk, Ukrainian - may be a new believers and Geidar Agakishyiev, Ukrainian - unbeliever). Marina (A girl that I disciple). Laura (our mission partner) went with as well so I am excited to see how God is going to use them all!

Orphanage Pictures

Here they are as promised :) Thank you so much for the churches that sent the "easter parcels"! The kids LOVED them!!! Here you can see two of many shining, happy faces.

Retrospective for April

Basketball camp went great! Before the camp started we were a little bit concerned about working together with the school here in our neighborhood. The reason for it is that last year we were kicked out of the school a day before the camp was over. The Gospel was shared. We were wondering how this year would go and whether the school would want us back. But when we went to ask the school principle whether we can have the camp she said of course and she even said that we can talk about Christ and Christianity. Praise be to God for an amazing change! The Gospel was shared and now the time of the follow up has to start.

Thank you so much for praying for Marieke, Brendon, kids and us as we were serving them from the beginning of the February till March. It has been a very challenging time but the Lord is faithful! Even though it was a hard time, the Lord is faithful and He has been encouraging, blessing, and caring for us in ways that we could not even imagine. We felt very confident and secure in His hands because of Him holding us! We are very grateful!

Anneke is back!

Anneke got back to Ukraine on the 2nd of April (a day after George Bush left Ukraine). And it was so good to be together again! It hasn’t been nice (to put it lightly) to be apart from one another for so long! We are grateful for strength that the Lord has granted us to be able to go through this time of being apart. We are so grateful for the Internet and the fact that we could talk to one another everyday. So it is wonderful to be together again!

Laura Hermans

We got another ministry partner!! Her name is Laura Hermans and she will be serving with us for as long as the Lord wills. We are excited to have her over and are looking forward to what the Lord will do in her, in us and through us together as we are serving together here in Ukraine. She will be joining us in all of the ministries we do and it is great to have another helper! She loves the Lord and wants to serve to Him! We are so grateful for another ministry partner!

Aviation camp

We are still waiting for the invitations to come through since all of the Ukrainians need invitations in order to apply for the visas and sadly the consul would not take the copies of the invitations- they want originals. So we will see. So far we have two unbelievers joining us and few believers as well so this trip will be a wonderful possibility for Evangelism/Discipleship.

Brendon and Marieke

The battle still rages on but we know who has the victory! There are some changes taking place in Marieke’s understanding of the situation and what she has to do. We are grateful for those! Thank you so much for praying for them! We really appreciate those prayers!

Orphanage

It has been good to go to the orphanage again! There has been some changes done as far as the management of the orphanage and probably the most significant change was the fact the the person who is in charge has changed. The previous lady who was in charge was a believer and the present person in charge isn’t. Our last visit went fine and we hope that the Lord will work not only in the hearts of the orphans but also in the heart of the new director. So far she has been very supportive! Praise the Lord! (Pictures soon to come)

Summer camps

We are still in need of team members. Family camp looks pretty set but we are still in need of people for the youth camp. We are not doing youth camp in Feodosia this year but we are bringing Feodosians to the camp. The church in Feodosia will send a team of 16 people which would include both believers and unbelievers. The rest of the campers will be from Odessa. So it will be fun!

Prayer requests for April

*Please pray for wisdom as to the follow up of the kids who came to the basketball camp.
*Please pray for the invitations to Romania to come in time so that we could get our visas.
*Please pray for Laura as she adapts to life in Ukraine and for us, for wisdom to serve her the way God wants us to.
*Please continue to pray for Brendon and Marieke as they go through these trials. For God to keep showing Marieke the truth about Himself, her and the world around her. For Brendon: for strength and wisdom as how to serve his wife God’s way in the present situation.
*Please pray for the director of the orphanage that her heart would be opened to hear the truth and accept it!
*Please pray for more team members to come to the youth camp!

Basketball Camp

Basketball camp went great! Here are some pictures :) Enjoy...
More to come :)