Ben and Kristy Blog

Prayers for the New Life E-Camp!

What an odd 4th of July! Ben and I have celebrated this holiday together since we were high school kids. It’s always memorable, even if many of our recent independence days have been spent in Eastern Europe. At least we’ve always had fireworks and smores. But this year, I am on Lake Michigan in St. Joe, with Ben’s dad, Dave, and Karen, while Ben just launched the first day of our 120-person English camp with our local L’viv youth group.

I’m able to call Ben at camp through the great “Skype Out” feature for only a few cents/min. It’s no surprise that he has requested prayer for a smooth first few days, since camp is always chaotic until about Day 3, when a rhythm is finally established. In addition to that, please pray for Adrian and Vlad (see pics of each of them w/ Ben). These are some of our youngest Christian leaders at youth group, and we advertised almost solely in their high schools. 60+ of their peers are going to be challenged this week to put their faith in Jesus Christ and live for Him. This is a bold evangelism opportunity, in particular for Vlad and Adrian. Pray for courage, joy, and great leadership from these guys. It is so clear that God is stirring up something for each of them and their classmates this week.

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun – Live

While Ben’s been away, I’ve been able to have some great girl time. For example, last night, my best friend from high school and college, Annie, and I took the train from downtown Wheaton to the House of Blues on the Chicago River, where we saw CYNDI LAUPER, to celebrate old times and our 30th birthdays a bit early.

And speaking of 30th birthdays, I’m excited to wish another dear friend from high school a 30th birthday wish! Kate, I can’t wait to celebrate next week!

I’ve also had a nice visit with my mom-in-law, nephews, and sister-in-law. Unfortunately, Sara couldn’t make it to my baby shower with my side of the family, but Marissa’s cousins and Gram did! Thanks for the incredible presents, esp. the ABC bedding and room decor!

And then there’s the day-in and day-out girl time I’ve spent with my mom and sister. We impressively made Martha Steward frosting for the “M” cookies for Marissa’s shower. And the bonding time that my sister and I have had at her apt. complex pool.

Lastly, here is a picture of soon-to-be four generations of the women in my family. This is Grandma Brooks, my dad’s mom, my mom, my sister and I, and future Marissa.

Prayers for the 2010 Lutsk Camp

JV Ukraine has had a long-standing partnership with God’s Design church in Lutsk, a city about 2.5 hrs. from us in L’viv. This church has a huge heart for the youth from their city. They do an impressive video ministry and produce high-quality films about social awareness (Think “health class” themes with a Christian perspective) for the public school system and different Christian organizations and churches.

As I type, our summer intern team is doing their first overnight 7-day English camp for the summer with this Lutsk church. I actually had a nightmare last night that I was in a car with all the girls on the intern team, and we drove off the road. I woke up as the car was tumbling down a mountain-side. I’ll just take the vivid dream as a reminder to pray intensely for this team from afar.
Join me in praying specifically for these key leaders of the youth group (see photo). Pray that the proper emphasis will be placed on the campers, many who are non-Christian kids who have a relationship with students from the youth group. Pray that no one at camp will be so caught up with camp details and logistics that they lose focus on the work that God wants to accomplish at camp. In particular, please pray for these girls, sisters Anya and Tanya, who were with us at camp in 2007. Here they are with the head leader, Yura,  Ben and I had a wonderful relationship with them then, and it was amazing to connect 3 summers later. Pray that their hearts will be open to a life that is lived for Jesus.

Camper Meetings

Each summer we encourage the Ukrainian youth groups who will do English camp to plan an event or two to gather their campers and leaders together BEFORE they go to camp. This gets campers excited, puts them and their parents at ease, and is a good foundation before camp begins. Yesterday Ben and the New Life team had a chance to do this. Check out our church sanctuary! Ben said there were about 75 out of the 90 Ukrainians who will attend our camp. Syava even proposed that some of the campers serve as translators and helpers at the Vacation Bible School program that the US team will host during the week before camp.

Our target age here is 14-16 yr. olds, mostly coming from 2 prominent L’viv high schools that place a high emphasis on English learning. This is a new, yet always dreamed about, demographic for our camp. Join us in praying that God would add many from this younger generation to the body of Christ this summer. SO EXCITING!!

Thanks to Vonage, Ben & I get to talk on the phone each night and catch each other up on what we’re missing while apart. For example, last night I missed this meeting and a home-cooked meal at Cameron’s house. And Ben missed my US dr.’s appt. (seriously, the dr. doesn’t believe I have a husband) and a Vienna Beef hotdog. But really I’m the one who missed out! I so wish I could have met these teens.

Update on Marissa Justine

We’d been spoiled getting ultrasounds every few weeks (back in the winter/spring) while going to the fantastic Intersono prenatal clinic, located a block from our church. Wednesday was my last appointment with Dr. Uliana and the very helpful staff at this Italian-based clinic. The medical assistants have been a huge blessing to us as we ventured into the unknown with my pregnancy, not to mention medical care in Ukraine.

Here’s the latest pic of our baby. You can see her profile, as she is looking to your right, shying away from the camera. You can see her hand up by her face and her chubby right cheek. The black spot under her eye is a shadow cast by the difficulties of taking a 3-D pic. Soon we’ll see her for real!

Now you can pray for my (Kristy’s) flight back and for all the last minute things I will do in the next almost 4 weeks before Ben joins me. Pray that Marissa doesn’t come more than 2+ weeks early. Pray that I find comfortable ways to sit, stand, and sleep. Pray that I can get good time with family, churches, and supporters while back in the States. Pray for our summer teams who are in full gear but without us. Pray that many will come to Christ at these summer camps. Pray for our Ukrainian leaders who are really picking up the slack.

Six minutes with us at Horodok

Wow, we just finished our 2nd year of day camp with the boys at Horodok in the social rehabilitation center. It was great because 1/3 have already done camp and knew what to expect. The other 2/3 are younger and simply up for whatever. Hey, it’s better than cleaning the grounds, which is what they have to do most other days at that time! Actually, they love when we come, but often only the youngest ones really outwardly show it. But Max and I were dance partners each day (you’ll see a glimpse on the video) and today, our last day of camp, Roman and Slavik wanted to hang out with me and talk instead of play Ultimate. (See Roman, Slavik, and with Ben here). We had a good talk, maybe because this is the last time I will see them again, unless they call us or come to New Life Church. All the boys who finish 9th grade and don’t have more sentence to serve are released each summer. Luckily, they have our church’s contact info so that they have a place to turn. And some do stay in touch. I hope that’s the case. I’m sad because we said good-bye to some really special guys this week, but I’m encouraged by Philippians 1:6, because God really has done amazing things in this boys’ prison, and greater things are still to be done.
…being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

Early Summer Team Traditions

It’s hard to believe that this is the fourth summer we’ve been serving in this kind of intense summer camp ministry full-time. June is a high-stress planning/prep month, but a lot of fun before the exhaustion of day-in and day-out camps begins. Here are some traditions we’ve established in JV over the years for early June.

1. Josiah Venture INTERN TRAINING!!!!
We meet, run the Amazing Race together, and then gather with 100 other JV friends for important foundational elements of how to serve well as a summer team.

2. New Life Training Day
For the past 2 years, immediately after our arrival in Ukraine, we’re focusing on the Horodok Boys’ Prison Camp, which is a day camp and a great training ground for both the fresh intern team, and for our New Life leaders. For the first time, I hosted 26 people for a huge lunch and training session. So fun!

3. Ironing Out Camp Details!
Each year, Ben and I do most of the administration that happens behind the scenes. Everything from budgets and cash distribution to printing out manuals, refining the evening talks, and translating all of our camp media. Each year we get smarter. I enlisted a team of my Ukrainian English speakers to help subtitle all of our music videos and movie clips. They did so well!

4. Annual BBQ with the Hughes
Since our teammate Cameron is often home with the 3 girls (and a boy soon on the way, 2 weeks after Marissa) and Jay does the rafting ministry, we make it a priority to meet early on for a rest and bbq. This is the one time we’ll have a photo of EVERYONE together from JV Ukraine 2010 summer!

5. Team Dinners
We have Mike and Aaron living with us. The girls are living around the corner with our teammate, Brittney. God totally arranged it so that we’d move in less than a block away from each other! It has been great. Ben taught them how to play “Ticket to Ride” Europe, and it’s just been a lot of fun having them in our home.

6. The Horodok Boys’ English Camp
We just finished yesterday! We do a silly picture with all our leaders, and a group pic with all the boys. This year was wonderful.

A New Record for JV Ukraine, at least since we’ve been here

We are thrilled to have 6 summer interns serving from May 26 – Aug. 9 with Josiah Venture Ukraine! They are an amazing bunch, and they are really filling in where others of us have to pull out.  I want to introduce them to you. Enjoy all the photos!
First, we have Collin, our veteran, who is doing a unique internship that will better prepare him for future JV UA ministry.
Second, this is Mike in the red t-shirt. Mike was in Ben’s FAC small group when Mike was in high school. He’s grown leaps and bounds in his walk with Christ, and he’s served short-term with us in CZ (’06) and in UA (’08). His position as a Wheaton College RA gave us the confidence to pair him with Brittney for team leading, since neither Ben nor Jay nor myself will be around for all of the intern activities.
Third is Aaron, who is from a long line of Parkview Church in Iowa City’s commitment to Josiah Venture. They’ve sent many summer interns and short term teams. Aaron is living with us this summer, along w/ Mike.

Fourth is Hali, another Parkview Church attendee. We met her and Aaron in ‘08 at an English camp, and they are both good intern material. Thanks for taking that big step of faith!

Fifth is Rebecca, from Rockford, actually! What do we love about her? The fact that she boldly decided to serve all summer long, simply from hearing ABOUT JV and the internship, but never having experienced it herself. That is brave and faith-filled as well!
Sixth, last, and not least is Kate(lyn), from CA. She definitely brings sunshine! She was 1 of 36 on the Fullerton E Free Church who came over in ‘08 as a high school student. We’re excited that her church is coming back again this summer with a big group to help our New Life church.

Then we have Syava and Olya, our two New Life leaders who we’ve adopted as being an integrated part of this team. It is great experience for them, as well as it is preparing them to lead their own camp after we’ve left. There is also Brittney, who is leading the intern team this summer with Mike.

We understand that we are not a formal part of your team this summer, but we love you very much and have been praying for many months that God will do a great work in you b/c of your commitment to Ukraine this summer. Be bold in Christ! Let love cover over a multitude of sins! Endure hardships and serve your heart out! God has each of you here for a special reason, and it is a privilege for us to serve you and along side you. Be blessed!

Curious about the JV 2010 Camp Dance?

Enjoy the boldness of our leaders at the JV Ukraine leadership conference, giving their all to become familiar with the 2010 camp dance. Perhaps they haven’t perfected it yet, but they’re getting there. There were even a handful of attendees who aren’t even doing a JV camp this year, but who went for it anyway. It isn’t hard to get these youth leaders to be goofy and without inhibitions.  I love that about youth ministry!

Baby Marissa and I were content to be the videographer this time around. (I am feeling quite bulky, awkward, and sore in my lower areas than I ever imagined. Maybe it’s the 30 lb. bowling ball around my middle?!)

Another Surprise Shower?!

Wow, the girls (and Ben) got me GOOD last week! I had a discipleship meeting on Sat. with Xrystya at 2:30, and with Nadya at 6pm. It was that simple, and I was thankful to get out of “admin mode” for a bit, because we’ve been going NON-stop:

• Advertising in 3 schools for English camp.
• Troubleshooting problems with Ukrainian teams.
• Stopping into the CZ consulate for five consecutive days to make sure our 2 national interns will get their visas for Intern Training.
• Making an intern roles manual and budget.
• Reparing a leak in our newly remodeled bathroom.
• Trying to finish documentation on our apt. with the public homeowners association.
• Inquiring about visa laws, so as not to have anxiety when we leave again.
• Getting used to our “new” place (we cannot find A LOT of stuff b/c we don’t remember where we originally stored it before America.) again.
• Entertaining, because we want our lives to be about PEOPLE, not just administration.
• Taking a full week of language because we’re rusty from time in the US.
• Taking Sabbath days and spending deep time in Scripture to prepare our hearts for summer

YOU GET THE POINT. It had been a killer week. So, when I had the chance to meet with Xrystya at our favorite cafe, read the Bible together, and relax a bit, I was very grateful. Little did I know, the moment I left, probably 15-20 girls came over to prepare a surprise baby shower for me (even though they don’t even have such traditions in Ukraine.) We ate Spartak cake (my favorite!). We played silly games with yogurt and wishes for Baby Marissa. I love these girls. Enjoy glimpses of our fun together!