Ben and Kristy Blog

Wedding Celebrations Continued into Day 2

We’re not sure if it’s tradition or not to see the bride and groom about 12 hrs. after the wedding, but we did. I don’t think the honeymoon concept here is what it is in the States, but they did get a hotel room for a few nights at a more expensive Ukrainian lake resort, which I’d always wanted to visit. So, at 12pm, a bunch of our church friends called and said “hey, it’s a holiday today and the youth are spending the day with Yara and Roman at the lake. Come after your language lessons.” We arrived at a nice complex about 30 min. away, hidden in a forest. All our friends were sitting around some patio furniture with the newlyweds, eating wedding leftovers. Sausage, olives, more pastries, kvas. As we all spent the afternoon together, I reconized just how tightly entwined ministry and friendships are for me. Although most of the people who surrounded us are part of our youth group, they really fill a role of friends and co-laborers for the Gospel. Just like our students in New Jersey, it is hard to put into words just how dear these people have become. Thank you, dear God, that we are not lonely here. You have fulfilled not only our ministry needs, but also our social needs. We are truly blessed here. Please continue to use us in whatever way we can be in the lives of students in Ukraine and elsewhere.

Wedding of Roman and Yara Kenyo

The wedding was beautiful! They have been working hard on our church’s main sanctuary for years now. As you see in the pic, it is a huge room. Our church was once part of a Soviet tv tube factory complex that is multiple city blocks long. Little by little it has grown its “church” feel and it is a huge blessing for Ukrainians to have their own property and not have to rent a school or a room somewhere.
Church started at 10am. The ceremony began at 11:30. An all-church cake social ended around 1:30. Ben was busy photographing everyone and everything, so I hung out with my girl friends . Everyone was dressed in Ukrainian Vyshyvanky (the national shirt, hand embroidered), including us. I’ve never felt like I’ve fit in so much here in the past 2.5 yrs! I wish others from the States could have experienced this great day.

We headed outside of Lviv for the reception. We got there around 2:30 and it ended after 11pm! It was a long reception, filled with lots of blessings (we were asked to share in front of everyone about our experience and advice for them! Suddenly our Ukrainian gave us away and we no longer fit in quite the same in those national shirts!), lots of traditional Ukrainian foods (lots of mushrooms, tongue, cucumbers, and pastries), and various bands and national musicians. The bar is set really high now, because the wedding and all the culture behind the reception was one-of-a-kind. It was our first Ukr reception, and we’ll never forget it. Here are some of Ben’s pictures from the day….

Big Tennis, Zags, and a Bachelorette Party

Just when we think we are understanding Ukraine, we get bombarded by Ukrainian wedding customs. Our dear youth leaders Yara and Roman are getting married tomorrow. It will be a traditional Ukrainian wedding, complete with the national dress and dance, in which we must participate, but that is for a later time…
Ben was asked to be one of the photographers for it, and not only that, but we are invited to the reception, which is a big deal. Only close friends/fam are invited. We are truly honored. And then we were invited to be 1 of 4 people sharing a blessing for them, in front of everyone. Wow. An even bigger honor. And then I was asked to host and attend the bachelorette party, which I was also honored for. So this is a big deal. This is how it went down:

Wed. we were called and told “you need to come with us to the ZAGS” - basically like a “Justice of the peace” type of place where they officially get married by law. Pastors/priest aren’t legally able to marry anyone. A bunch of youth group kids were there, but no family, and we celebrated their legal union. (See pic.) We threw rice; they threw candy. Then we went to McDonalds to celebrate with sundaes.
The Bachelor (& ette) parties were very impromptu. 6 days before the wedding, I was asked to host 15 girls for Yara’s bachelorette/wedding shower party - theme “Kids Pajama Party”. Among many other dishes, I served lasagna, and then made a joke about debating whether or not to make margaritas. No one had ever tasted lasagna before, and none of them understood what a margarita was, even after explaining it.
Meanwhile, Ben went to play “Velykyy Tennis” with about 10 guys. This means “big tennis”, because the word “tenis” is known to all Ukrainians as ping-pong. They just assume ping pong, because, for example, only 1 or 2 other guys w/ Ben had ever held a tennis racket before. (Ben accidentally called them tennis rockets.) We girls went bowling, and most had never been. It was so culturally eye-opening for us. We can’t imagine what the wedding will hold!

First Camp Visit in Ternopil

If you read about Ternopil on Wikipedia, you’ll find some really interesting info about the city we visited for camp planning. It has a similar history as Lviv, but you couldn’t really tell by appearance. The entire city was destroyed twice between the 1920s and 1940s, so there is none of that Austro-Hungarian and Polish architecture that we love so much in Lviv. But the city is cute and has a decent size lake right in the center.

We stayed for 3 days in Ternopil where we had our traditional “pre-camp planning sessions”. A typical visit is about a month before their actual camp. We meet with camp leaders and go over all the evening Christian topics and help train small groups. We have a separate session regarding little details like menu, which games and activities we’ll do, who’s incharge of what, etc. We often have a meal together, usually pizza. We just spend time getting to know our fellow leaders, and students if they are around. Then we attend church services (usually Ben preaches) and then head home. Here are some of the pics on our boat ride with the Druzhba church leaders.

Time to Move On

My first CD I ever received was for my birthday freshman year of high school. My dad bought me the newest Tom Petty cd - Wildflowers. I was at first disappointed because I wanted “The Best of…”, but it turned out to be a great album. Our favorite song is …time to move on. Time to get going. One last gig, I have no way of knowin’…but under my feet babe, the grass is growin’…yeah, it’s time to move on. Time to get goin’.

The lyrics are often symbolic of our life here, esp. in summer. We jump from one thing to the next, planting seeds for the kingdom of God, but we can’t stay forever. It’s been a week since we left Horodok, the boys prison camp. This photo was the final goodbye of that week, as they were in their rooms, calling to us from their “rest/nap time”. In a lot of ways, my heart is still with those boys, but it’s time to move on. English camps start a week from today. But before that, we head to Ternopil this weekend to meet with two little churches who desire to do their first JV English camp with us. We have no idea what is in store w/ these groups. We pray for God’s blessing. We pray for new relationships to bloom. We pray for many youth of Ternopil to choose to follow Jesus Christ. We pray for unity with their leaders. Ephesians 4 has been meaningful to me as we go into a new partnership and new chapter.

Thanks for praying. It’s time to go!

Horodok Boys

It was a huge blessing to work with these boys this week. It is hard to believe that each of them is being punished for a crime. They seemed so respectful, so good, so normal. During the week we had the opportunity to share the redemptive story of God. The boys were totally engaged and full of questions. God’s story is a beautiful story of how God desires a personal relationship with His creation, but through the ages mankind has chosen to disobey Him. Just like each of these boys we have disobeyed God and done what was right in our own eyes. These boys are daily reminded of their disobedience by the walls they live behind. We learned how God’s justice requires punishment. But God continues to pursue his creation. He desires a relationship with each one of us and even provides a way for us to be in community with Him again through Jesus Christ. He took the punishment that we deserved. His blood paid for ours. God is in the midst of restoring his creation to the way it once was, a time where we walked in the garden with God in the cool of the day. Daily we are presented with the same choice that Adam and Eve had in the garden. Will we choose to obey God or will we do what is right in our own eyes. I pray that I would daily choose to live God’s way. I pray the same for these great boys from Horodok.

Horodok - Open the Eyes of their Hearts, Lord

Horodok Boys Day Camp ~ Josiah Venture Ukraine

CLICK ABOVE to see a Youtube video from our Horodok Boys Prison/Social Rehab Center camp this week. Here we’re singing “Open the Eyes of My Heart Lord; I want to See You.” These 18 boys (ages 10-16) captured our hearts this week. I don’t think I’ll ever be the same after working with them. They liked their new Bibles and the Stories of God program we used. Now we are praying that they will internalize the gift of walking with Jesus personally. We are asking for God to transform their lives, and that the Bible stories not just be head knowledge.
 
Open the eyes of their hearts, Lord. We genuinely saw this week at camp how they want to see you. They know who You are and what You did for them on the cross. May this impact their entire lives.
“I am sending you to them to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.” ~ The Words of Jesus in Acts 26:17b-18

Quick Update on our First Day of Boy’s Prison Camp

Keep praying! The Lord has been gracious to us today as we went into the boy’s prison, unsure about what the group home director would say, how much time they would actually allow, how many boys would actually be in attendance, etc. We were blessed by wide-open doors. The boys had a full 4 hrs. of outdoor group games, an hour of English lessons, the camp dance (Wake Up Wake Up), and then our “Evening Program” (at 12:30pm). Ben and Syava began to share the first 2 “Stories of God” and our youth leaders helped the boys engage in small groups and get TONS out of the story. We were so proud of everyone. Keep praying for open doors and open hearts. These boys have a really hard past - we want them to feel the love of Christ from us, and to choose to follow Him.

A Snap Shot of Summer Plan and Prayer Requests

You can totally pray for our camps. I am trying to be full of faith and not freak out b/c we have our boys’ prison camp that starts Monday. This is a huge deal. HUGE. We want to see these boys living for Jesus and help to get them out of the sin that has put them in this jeuvenile delinquent center. I have such a heart for these 9-16 yr. olds, and we want to see God do miraculous things at this camp. And then we want that to carry on to the other 4+ camps that we will do. Our first regular English camp is a bit scary b/c all the kids going are non-Christians, and a lot of them are really against Christianity. (This is Jay & Brit’s youth group). We need to not be afraid. And then our Lviv camp will basically have 100% of campers who we dearly love and have been investing in this whole year. We want to see them take steps toward Jesus Christ. And lastly, we have a camp w/ a new set of Ukr youth groups, who aren’t fully aware of the JV English camp model. We are praying for unity on strategy and preaching style. These churches have such small youth groups - this camp for them can be transformational.

Even More Amazing News:

My brother, Michael, has returned to US soil from fighting in the war in Afghanistan. I am in awe of God’s mercy and protection over my brother for the past year on the front lines. To God be this glory. Thank you, Lord.