Camp photos

I uploaded all of our camp photos, in three batches: part 1, part 2, part 3.

And then here are some highlights:

Frogs and toads

Advanced English class

Most of the preschool group that I worked with

Preschoolers ready for their skit

The lovely view (photo by Kimberly)

I want to add more, but I'm out of time now. Later?

School 2013-14

I had been having trouble getting excited about starting school. Jaan and Raia didn't finish whole AO years, and they're in different weeks of their respective years, and Asya's joining us, and.... But then I came back from camp and couldn't stop thinking about our next school year! Now I'm excited. Oh, and I'm wanting to do the brand-new Year 12 myself. (Remember this? On June 8 there: you could say that picture might show some of the birth of Year 12.)

I'm thinking of things that I really want to do well in the next year:

• Formal nature study, i.e. nature notebooks (Haven't done well with that since Bogdan reached the age of interference.)
• Morning together time, with memorizing, music and more (Dropped that when we moved to this tiny-kitchen apartment.)
• Handwriting!
• English narrations (Camp showed me that Jaan and Raia can do much more here.)
• More individual work for Jaan and Raia (Definitely need to think of how to get that in.)

I'll write more about each of those points as I can. This focusing in all different directions stuff is hard for me! I need to get ready for camp here, move to another city AND plan our school year. Sigh. But, I'm excited now, and that counts for a lot.

An Agape question

Here is one that we've been asked, that I thought I would share:
Q. "Are you just going to be translating for Agape?"
A. No, not only translating. Really, we don't know too many details of what we'll be doing in Kherson, but the job Will and Alex Fedorchuk talked about might be called English Representative, or something along those lines. Alex said that he would like help in all of the relationship between Agape and the foreign sponsors. Plus, there's translating for the web site and videos and such. And the fun part: visiting local orphanages! We'll see how it all develops, but that's what we know so far.

Do you have more questions? We really do want to dialog about this with anyone who is interested!

A favorite camp photo

Bogdan and Denis

Plans?

In case you're wondering what's next... so are we! Well, not entirely. In fact, in a very unprecedented way, we have a Plan A and a Plan B. (If you know us, you can just fall down with shock right now. And then expect Plan Z to be what really happens.)

Plan A: We'll move to Kherson in August. Soon Will will go to spend a few days there, looking at housing options. If he finds something, we'll move in the next month.

Plan B: The director of Agape is in the states with his family, awaiting the birth of their fifth baby, due in August. When they come back, they want to move into a house. They suggested that we might be able to rent their current apartment after they move out of it. That would mean waiting a little longer before we move.

Blog and photo roundup

Since I still haven't had time to share our camp photos, here are some from other people on the English team. I'll try to add to this list as I find more, too. If you're not on Facebook, I'm sorry; some of these might not be available to you. Even if you are on Facebook, you might not be able to see them, because they belong to other people. Here's the list, though:

• Ellie
• Anna: blog and Facebook
• Kimberly
• John: another post, another, and yet another
• Nathan R. (one of three 16-year-olds named Nathan on the team!)
• Julie
• Zhenya? (Compilation of many people's photos to download.)
• New: Kelli
• New: Kristie
• New: Elizabeth

P.S. to yesterday's post

It's going to take us a while to catch up here. If you're waiting for emails or anything else from us, please be patient. Thank you so much!

Quick camp report

When we got back last night Bogdan kept walking around our cluttered little apartment touching everything and saying "wow." It does feel good to be home!

The thirty-second version of how family English camp went is that it was very wonderful and very exhausting. Will and I taught a whole lot, and all of us made lots of new friends, while spending time with old friends, too.

I'm stealing one of Ellie's photos here, because I haven't even looked through ours yet:

Martha and Marianna

Martha and I taught preschoolers at camp. She befriended little Marianna in our group, and the photo above is just about the story of our whole week after that. We actually had several little ones who wanted to run to their mothers non-stop, but Marianna was the queen of that... at first. The one thing that really did hold their attention all week was the Bible stories. Many times we felt like we were just going crazy, but when we would settle them for the story each day, they were just glued to it. That part was an amazing answer to prayer!

A glimpse of our daily schedule:
7:30 Staff fellowship
7:45-8:45ish Staff meeting (We usually had Bogdan and Jaan with us.)
9:00 Breakfast (wake and dress our girls fast, just before that)
9:45 Morning meeting
10-11:00 Bible time for kids/English reading (Bible study) for adults
11:15-12:00 First English class (huge mental shift for me, from preschool Bible to upper-advanced adult English)
12:15-1:00 Second English class
1:00 Lunch!
2-5:00 Free time and optional activities
5-6:00 More Bible time and craft for kids/English conversation for adults
6:00 Dinner
6:45 Evening activities/Worship/Teaching/Kids story and craft
10:00 Quiet (hah!)
11:00 Bed

It might not look like a packed schedule--see all that "free time"?--but it was! The free time was for campers. As teachers and parents we were planning lessons, trying to get our younger children to nap, spending time with people, and shuffling kids to special activities and going to them ourselves. It was all amazingly intense. The intentional focus on building relationships was the best part, though. Several team members shared that there were many times when they felt like they just couldn't go another step, but God gave them strength; the whole week was like that for me.

Then, after the time out in the country, camp didn't end there. We continued in Odessa. Without catching a breath, we all came back and jumped into three days of sightseeing and fellowship with the campers on their own turf.

That's probably the absolute minimum that I can share, and still give you a picture of what camp was like. Hopefully I'll have time for more soon. Thank you so much for praying for us while we were there.

Another Ellie photo: the preschool group at skit night

Please keep praying! Pray for the second camp, going on now. Many of the people we got to work with are back at it. Pray for our family; we all came back sick and tired. I actually have a camp planning meeting to go to this afternoon, too, for day camp here. That camp will be August 5-9. And Will won't be taking part in that, because he'll be working on our move to Kherson: more to pray for!

On our way

We're headed to camp. Thank you for your prayers! You probably won't hear from us for about two weeks.

Moving on (Q & A)

You probably know that we're moving someday soon. That's been in the works for a while. When we first came here, a little over five years ago, we thought we might be returning to Russia after the five-year deportation sentence ran out. It ended in February, and as much as we would like to go back--our hearts are still there!--the political climate in Russia is not getting any better, and it's still not practical for us to try to live there again.

We really need to move on from Dneprorudnoe, though. It has been an idyllic place to live. We were probably able to hold out in the rough spiritual climate for so long, at least partly because we've been so physically comfortable and happy. Really, we love it! And we have people here that we love dearly. But, this church is not the place for us, and we have never been able to develop the sense of community and purpose that we need. That's not to say that these five years have been wasted for ministry and personal growth: we've seen both. However, we still need to move.

Where are we headed and when? So far, it's been a slow road. I just looked back through my journal, blog and memory bank, and this is what I found:
July 2011--really decided that we needed to move on inside Ukraine and talked about children/orphan ministry.
June/July 2012--told our churches what we were thinking.
May/June 2013--visited Agape and decided!
There have been other smaller steps and lots of praying in between, but those are the big ones, with about a year in between each. Hopefully, the next step will be faster. Ideally, I would love to move to Kherson in August. Will has already been making calls about housing there, and after camp he should be able to look at options.

What is Agape? (We're working on translating the web site and informational videos. Soon you'll be able to get a whole lot more info there.) Agape is an orphan ministry, based in Kherson and working throughout Ukraine... and expanding into Russia and Georgia too, now! It was founded by a Ukrainian-American couple. Agape works in orphanages, teaching Bible lessons and training Bible teachers; in "adaptation centers" where they help orphanage graduates learn how to live; in camps and more. That's just off the top of my head. For the official rundown of what Agape does, you could watch the intro for the videos.

What will we be doing? Their first suggestion was that we take on house parenting in an adaptation center, like in the video I posted. Because of the stage our family is at, we didn't think we're ready for that. Instead, we'll be doing office work. (Well, mostly Will will be working in the office, but even in the short time that we were there already he and I were able to trade off some with that. Still, my main ministry will be our home and family.) We are already helping with bits and pieces of translation for Agape. Once we move, Will will continue with that and handling English correspondence. We're counting on regularly visiting local orphanages... and we'll probably just help out with whatever needs to be done. That seems to be what we do wherever we are!

How can you pray? Pray for us to find a good place to live in Kherson. Pray for our children to do well with the transition; at this point, they say that they don't want to move. Pray that we'll be able to fit in to Agape well and help them where they have needs.

***

And another question from a few days ago: How can you support Agape's ministry? On the Russian page that answers that question, it says that you can:

• intercede in prayer for Agape workers and children in orphanages;
• send packages;
• pray for Agape's sponsors;
• financially support Agape's projects;
• visit children's homes with a group, to hug even just one child and personally interact with them.

Also, once we move, we will officially be joining Agape and our own financial support will probably be going through the ministry, too. We have a lot of details to work out there, and we need to talk with our own supporters, but that is the direction we're headed.....


Those were probably the very most basic questions about Agape and our move. What else do you want to know? Leave your questions in the comments here or email us (xansaker@gmail.com), and I'll try to put together another question and answer post. That might be after we get back from camp, though.

Agape video

Remember our trip to Kherson? And Agape? While we were there, we got to help with translating their informational videos into English. The project is still ongoing; we're translating more here, and other people are doing the technical parts. The first one of the videos ready now, though! We'll be writing more about Agape soon, but for now, you can find out about one aspect of the ministry in this video:

And if you'd rather watch the original, or if you want more, here you go.

Going on a missions trip

In our most recent prayer letter, I mentioned that we're going on a short-term missions trip soon! Well, maybe that's not the way I worded it, but that's what it is. Will's sister and a team from our home church are coming to work at a family English camp near Odessa. We've been planning on joining them since we first heard about it, but we've just recently finished the piles of paperwork and started into the preparation work for the camp. Here are two videos about the ministry: short video and long video. (I must admit that I haven't watched the long one.)

We're excited! This is the first time a church team has ever come over, and, of course, we love camp work.

We really need you all praying for us every step of the way. We'll travel to Odessa July 3 (L-O-N-G, hot trip), greet the USA part of team on July 4, have training with the South Africa part of the team on July 5, and then head out to the camp. I will be teaching the preschoolers, for their Bible and English lessons. Our children will participate with the other children, and Will will be teaching somewhere. The mission hosting the camp has provided a general missions prayer guide for us to share. If you are willing to commit to praying for us daily, please print it out for yourself, and also let us know that you'll be supporting us in that way (xansaker@gmail.com). We won't be able to send updates from camp, but I will try to get an email reminder out to you just before we leave. Thank you so much!

EDITED to add: here is a day-by-day prayer guide, written by one of the team members coming from California.

My weekend

I got to travel to visit with the mother of this precious boy. (Don't just glance at the photo. Read the whole post. It's worth your time.) She's been here for over a month, working toward adopting him and a sister for him. I also got to spend time with her friend, who is also my friend now, and who is here helping. And with the sweet boy himself. I completely fell in love with him!

The time away was a nice treat for me. After chicken pox and other busyness, it felt good to have a few days away from my routine. My new friends spoiled me, and I did a good bit of sitting around holding sweet babies. We also had a time of fellowship with some people who live in that city and work with orphans. I had connected with them through Agape, and they made time for us. What more could I ask for?

Well, there is a little more. I'd love to know that the two other little ones left in that group in the orphanage have families. They are both available for adoption. Is anyone out there ready right now for international special needs adoption? Write to us, if you might be: xansaker@gmail.com. Even if you can't adopt, please pray families for Baby S. and Little L.! It's especially urgent for L., because she's already technically too old for the facility where she is, and she wouldn't survive long if transferred.

My favorite part of the visit: when I said goodbye to Mr. Sweetheart, he deliberately sat up to let me hug him! I am so glad that he has a loving family now.

By the way, Will is amazing to stay with our children and let me have a long weekend away!

Raia's birthday

I just got back from a long weekend away, but before I write about that, I wanted to record Raia's eighth birthday. She turned eight on Friday.

We started the day off with a lovely surprise: Bogdan's butterfly came out of its chrysalis!

Then, while I was making...

...birthday pancakes...

...Bogdan started yelling "butterfly, chrysalis, butterfly, chrysalis!" I kept nodding and agreeing, but then I noticed he was pointing in a different direction. There was another one!

After breakfast and butterflies, we set out for the beach. We had lots of fun in the water and sand, followed by a yummy picnic.

After the beach, everyone rested a little, and then we went to the grand reopening of the little store near us. Their special day just happened to be on Raia's birthday, and they were offering free ice cream and games and prizes. We had fun there, and then came back home for...

...tea and games with Vera.

And that was how our day of celebrating Raia ended. Happy birthday, Raia!

From Raia

I had an idea of writing a blog post by asking each child what they thought of Kherson. Raia loved the idea, but she wanted to do it by herself. Below is her completely unedited blog post, and then my translation of it:

мы жили рядом с рекой Днепр и там много рыбаков и мы видели две гадюки и Ян словил здоровенную пиявку. и рядом  снами была котельная и шелковица и возле нас был парк и в нём ест малинки парк аттракционный Херсон нармални город но болшое я запомнила некоторие места я помню толка одно названия улица ушакова мы там были на втором этажэ унас были болшие комноти там ми розбили пят чашок и одну тирелку там вся посуда стикляноя толка немношка глиининое пасуди было весила но не очень весило кагда Ян заболэл витрянкое кагда ми все зобалели ветрянкое кроми Мами и Папи и Жени это наш кот  не заболэл наш хамяк карликови Славик и наша криса Дина это все наши звери я думаю мне пора ПОКА ВСЕМ!

we lived by the Dnepr River and there are lots of fishermen there and we saw two vipers and Jaan caught a huge leech. and near us there was a boiler house (?) and a mulberry tree and beyond that was a park and in it is a small amusement park Kherson is a nice city but it's big I remembered a few places I remember only one street name Ushakova Street we were on the second floor there we had big rooms we broke five cups and one bowl there all the dishes were glass with only a few ceramic dishes it was fun but not very fun when Jaan got sick with chicken pox when we all got sick with chicken pox except Mama and Papa and Zhenya that's our cat our dwarf hamster Slavic didn't get sick and our rat Dina that's all our animals I think it's time for me to go GOODBYE EVERYONE!

Wow. What do you think of unedited, unchecked, almost-eight-year-old stream of consciousness writing?

More chicken pox

We had a pretty easy trip home yesterday. It's good to be back and resting a little. Our younger three are all just covered in spots, though. They're mostly okay during the day, but when bedtime rolls around, it's not pretty. The nights are long. Please pray!

See all the spots?

This will pass soon, and then we'll be done with chicken pox. And then I can write more about other, happier things.

Prayer letters

Did you sign up for our mailing list last quarter? If you want to do that now, here is the link.

Edited to add: And now here is the link to our most recent letter.

CP

I was trying to think of how I could write a blog post from my beloved Kindle. The internet access on it has been a nice treat this week, but typing is just about impossible. I was thinking that I could write "CP" and see if you all would guess that it stood for Chicken Pox and Changed Plans. Probably not.

We're still in Kherson. We should have been home by now, but last night, as we were getting ready to leave, they asked if we would stay another week. So, there are the Changed Plans.

As far as Chicken Pox, Jaan came down with them almost as soon as we got here. That made for a rough few days, but he was a trooper and is already starting to feel better now.

Photos are a challenge on this computer, so this is all I have for now:
Jaan and Bogdan down by the river.

I have a borrowed computer now, so I thought I'd type up what our time here has been busy with so far, before I forget. It's only been busy for about half of us. The other half has been going for long, slow walks and taking care of chicken pox. Anyway, in list form:

• Late Thursday night - arrived in Kherson and found the apartment we had reserved.
• Friday - walked around some, rested from the trip. Made plans to go to Agape seminar the next morning.
• Saturday morning - woke up to. . . Jaan with chicken pox! So, Will and the girls went to the seminar. I stayed back with both boys.
• Sunday - Will and the girls went to church in the morning. In the evening they invited Will to spend time with the teens at one of the Agape adaptation homes, so he went and ended up staying out until 1:00.
• Monday - Will was up early to go on an orphange visit out in Kherson oblast. That evening he and Raia went with a group visiting another orphanage here in Kherson.
• Tuesday - This was the big event for orphans from the surrounding area. More than 400 children came from orphanages all around for a puppet show, lunch, and a boat ride. (There are more photos on Facebook, too.) Again, Jaan, Bogdan and I didn't go, but Will, Raia and Asya were there.
• Wednesday - Will started working on translating and dubbing Agape's informational video clips. Soon we'll be able to link to those in English. In the evening we met up with the Fedorchuk family (Agape founder and director) and a visiting American for dinner. Jaan was starting to feel a little better!
• Thursday - Will worked on the videos more at the Agape office again and was able to finally spend some time talking in more detail with Alex Fedorchuk about the possibility of us working with Agape.
• Friday - that's today, right? Today we rested. Will only went out with Jaan and Raia to pick up this computer that he's borrowing to do further translation work with, and do some shopping.

There. That's "just the facts." I'll try to do more fun details and pictures later, as I have time and computer access.

In the week ahead, Will should be finishing up with the videos, we'll be attending a session of Agape's Bible school, and then on Friday or Saturday--we're a bit tired and confused here--Agape workers from all over Ukraine will be coming together for a day of fellowship and another boat ride. Jaan will get to go on that one! And we'll be able to meet many of the people that are a part of what is happening here.

Of course, that probably leaves you with lots of questions still. It's the same for us, but we are glad to finally make some progress on decisions about where we'll be going next in life and ministry. Thank you for your prayers, and please keep praying.

Have we seen Christ?

 “Legalism doesn’t need God. Legalism is the search for innocence—not forgiveness. It’s a systematic process of defending self, explaining self, exalting self and justifying self. Legalists are obsessed with Self—not God.” 

Max Lucado

For the past year or so, I’ve been reflecting more and more on what I have seen of Man-Centered Theology in my church and pondering how to help turn the focus of these believers more to Christ than Self.

Even though the theology here is not very systematic or cohesive, the bottom line is usually quite clear. Christ as Savior from sin, Victor over Satan and death and Redeemer from damnation - the central figure of our faith and confession - takes a second place to the importance of Me, My efforts and My ‘keeping myself blameless’.

As I was in church this past Sunday, this thought would not let me go: 

 

If I insist that my goodness, my zeal, my church-going, etc., is what saves me in the long run...

have I ever truly seen Jesus Christ?

The apostle Paul says this of those who have not believed in Christ, both Jew and Gentile, “...their minds were blinded: for until this day the same veil remains when they read the Old Testament, the veil that is done away with in Christ. To this day, when Moses is read, a veil lies on their heart, clouding what they hear... the god of this world has blinded the minds of those who do not believe, so that the glorious light of the good news of Christ, who is the image of God would not enlighten their hearts...” (2 Cor.3:14-15, 4:4)

I think that this is very applicable to many ‘christians’ in churches today.

Paul spent all of chapter 3 of 2^nd Corinthians comparing the New relationship with God given through Christ with the Old covenant of Law. He starts with the ‘chosen people of God’ when discussing how people miss out on Christ. How does Satan so effectively blind the eyes and mislead the hearts of those who are ‘good people’, who believe in God, yet have never truly comprehended ‘the glory of God in Christ Jesus’?

           After all, these are people who studied the scriptures and knew the commands of God. They even recognized Him as the One true Creator who has the right to demand moral uprightness from His creation, and dedicated much of their time and energy to adapting their lives to His commands.

Yet they missed the very One to whom the Law pointed. Paul tells us that the purpose of the law was to reveal man’s need for the Savior promised by God. (Rom.3:19; Gal.3:22) However, God’s Chosen People took so much pride in the fact that God chose them above all others, and gave them His law that they turned their focus away from the promised Deliverer and to their own ability to keep the law. “Being ignorant of God’s righteousness, they zealously established their own righteousness as the ultimate standard, not submitting themselves to the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the Law, imparting His righteousness to anyone who believes in him.” (Rom.10:3-4)

I know that I have a tendency to over simplify complex theological concepts... but I am living and working and teaching in a very uncomplicated theological setting. I truly am perplexed at how people who claim to make the Bible their “Ultimate Rule” in teaching and practice can so easily set aside so much of the New Testament, the very essence of the New Covenant established with the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

This is the crux of the matter to me:
Either I see in the Scriptures my own lack of righteousness and begin to seek the Answer - the repeatedly Promised Redeemer of the Law and the Prophets...

OR I see myself in every line.

“My hands are clean before You, O Lord...” (Ps.18:20-24).

On every page of scripture, Old Testament and New, I see my chance to prove to God and others how good I really can be when I try.

If that is how I read the Bible, then my mind and heart is just as clouded and deluded as the most stubborn, self-righteous Pharisee. I may never truly see Christ.

“...God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, has shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ... we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, not of us.”         

(2 Cor. 4:6-7)

Not. Of. Us.

I am becoming almost desperate to walk into church and hear Christ Himself glorified far above any good that we may possibly find within ourselves.

Not my efforts, my attendance, my prayers, my appearance, my words, my blamelessness, my witness, my righteousness, my rejection, my acceptance, my separation, my repentance, my sacrifice, my sin... my sin, my sin, my sin...

I want to see Christ.

I want to hear Christ.

I want to praise Christ for His love, His mercy, His righteousness, His sacrifice, His resurrection, His goodness, His blamelessness, His beauty...

Jesus said that the Jews believed they would gain eternal life through their studying of the Scriptures, but that they would never attain their goal - because they never saw Him, the One to Whom all of Scripture points... and not having truly seen Him, they were not willing to come to Him and rejoice in accepting the Life He offered freely. (Jn. 5:39-47)

How is it that we are so ready to repeat the deadly mistakes that the Lord Himself pointed out so clearly, that his apostles expounded on in such detail?

Have we ever truly seen Christ?

“Warrior-Chieftain and Lord, Vanquisher of hell, I Thy creature and servant offer Thee songs of praise, for Thou hast delivered me from eternal death. But as Thou hast unutterable loving-kindness, free me from every danger, as I cry: Jesus, Son of God, have mercy on me.
We see most eloquent orators voiceless as fish when they must speak of Thee, O Jesus our Saviour. For it is beyond their power to tell how Thou art both perfect man and immutable God at the same time. But we, marveling at this Mystery, cry faithfully:
Jesus, Eternal God!

Jesus, King of Kings!

Jesus, Lord of Lords!

Jesus, Judge of the living and the dead!

Jesus, Hope of the hopeless!

Jesus, Comforter of the mournful!

Jesus, Glory of the poor!

Jesus, condemn me not according to my deeds!

Jesus, cleanse me according to Thy mercy!

Jesus, take from me despondency!

Jesus, enlighten the thoughts of my heart!

Jesus, make me ever mindful of death!

Jesus, Son of God, have mercy on me!”  
Akathist to Our Sweetest Lord Jesus Christ

Going to Kherson (and dacha photos)

Tomorrow we're leaving for a little over a week. We'll be visiting a mission called Agape that works with orphans. I actually first read about them in a Christian newspaper soon after we moved to Ukraine (as usual, I love to see how little our children were a few years ago!) and have been interested ever since. Last month Will went to a training session that they had in Khmelnitsky. Now we're going all together to visit them in Kherson. On Monday Agape is putting on a special day for children from local orphanages that we can help with. The rest of the time we hope to spend time together and get to know them and their mission. Please pray for safe, smooth travel, good fellowship and lots of wisdom to know if these are the people we should be working with next. Thanks!

And then, for no reason at all, here are photos from Saturday at our dacha:

In our grape vines

Working hard

Watering

"To your health!"

With friends

Most of the youth are out of town, but we invited the few who were here out for dinner and s'mores and had a great time together.

And that's all for now. You probably won't hear from us until next month (unless Will already has a post scheduled to go while we're away?).