Global Aid Network Mission Reports

The Brown Bus visited an Elderly Home today in Kolomya, Ukraine where we found Ira, a delightful 35 year old lady, weeding the garden. 

When Ira saw us, she dropped her hoe and came running to meet us.  She had heard that some people were coming to visit her today.  As we hugged Ira, she kept saying, “Thank you so much for coming to my home today.”

The director of the home shared that Ira is a very hard worker.  She gets up early every morning to feed the horses and cows before taking her hoe and spending time weeding the garden. She also told us that Ira’s parents left her on the doorstep of an orphanage when she was about 3 months old because they could not care for her.   Ira stayed at the orphanage until she was 16 and then came to live at the Elderly Home.

Today the Brown Bus traveled approximately 2 hours out of Ivano-Frankivsk to Snyatyn to visit a Boarding Home for mentally impaired men.  At the home we found over 200 men from age 18 to 90 years old.  Some of these men had been at the home for many years.

There was a man in one of the groups by the name of L’onia who had celebral palsy.  As the group shared the bracelet with the men and told them how much God loved them, L’onia began to cry and tried to talked.  One of the caretakers told the group what he was saying.  He wanted to know if God would help him go home to his mother.  He had heartache because his mother had given him away when he was a year old and did not come to see him.  Pat H of Virginia went over to L’onia and hugged him and told him that he had a Father in heaven who loved him and that she would be his mother.  With those words, L’onia began to smile.

Subject: Ministry update

Hi everyone!

Yesterday, we arrived in Ivano-Frankivsk! On the way here, we stopped to take photos of a stork’s nest and a little girl kept peering at us at the entrance to her home across the street. Lynn and her son, Gabriel went with me to give her a bracelet and tell her that God loves her. Lynn gave her a necklace as a friendship gift. Her name was Nadia. Oksana told us her name means “hope”. That’s what we’re here for - to bring “hope” to the people of Ivano-Frankivsk and surrounding villages. By the way, guess what the name of our hotel is - Hotel “Nadia”!!

Today we had our first day of ministry. This morning we went to home for men, ages 18 and up. They had many kind of disabilities, some had missing limbs or severely crippled limbs. Others had cerebral palsey. They were very glad to have someone visit them. We split into groups and my group went to several rooms and gave them  gospel bracelets and the little leaflets that explained the bracelets. One older fellow immediately started reading the leaflet out loud.

Our second stop today was at a boarding school for mentally impaired boys.

My small group’s interpreter, Oleg is a pastor of a baptist church (Ressurection Church). This church is four years old and already has over 100 members. They go to this boarding school on a regular basis to minister to the boys. As soon as Oleg got off the bus they ran to him, they were so excited to see him! We took a two hour tour of the place while the boys patiently waited outside in the hot sun. This was a very impressive place.

The boys are taught how to make items that can be useful in their daily lives and can also be sold to raise money for the school such as brooms, gloves, even parakeets and guinea pigs (That really excited me since I had ten guinea pigs at one time when I was a child.)! They alse make wooden shelves and repair their own shoes. The boys seemed to have trouble communicating emotionally but were very good at using their hands, even though many of them had deformed hands and feet. When we finally got to spend time with the boys, they were so excited and had a hard time concentrating enough for us to share much they could understand. We shared the gospel anyhow and gave them books and backpacks from the ministry and some of our personal friendship gifts. I truly believe these boys are some of God’s special children and I told them with complete confidence that they were my brothers and I would see them someday in heaven!

Tomorrow, we may get to visit some more of God’s special children as we go to a boarding school for girls who are mentally impaired. We will also visit an elderly center.

Pray for safety on the roads as we had several close calls today even though these bus drivers are excellent!).

We are all healthy except for one young gal who is battling a cold and several of us get nauseous on the bumpy, windy roads.

Thanks so much for your prayers,

Esther

We have arrived in Ivano-Frankivsk.  The trip from Lviv took us about 3 hours including time to stop and take pictures along the way and stopping at a church to load aid and books stored there.  All the missing suitcases arrived safely tonight  from Lviv.

Everyone is excited about the sites we’ll be going to tomorrow.

In Christ

Dave and Talu

Hi everyone,

We’re here! We got to the hotel here in L’viv about 3 o’clock in the afternoon. There were only about three pieces of lost luggage - that’s a miracle! Pray they arrive tomorrow and can be sent to us at Ivano-Frankivsk.

We leave in the morning after breakfast and will be having orientation for the new people on the way to Ivano-Frankivsk. Praise, Lynn and her son, Gabriel were able to pick up their passports in New York several days before leaving for the trip.

The group is already starting to knit together as one. I’m looking forward to a great week of ministry together.

Thanks for praying,

Esther

P.S. L’viv is beautiful in the summer - very lush and green due to lots of rain