Saturday, October 31, 2009

Jeffrey is in Ukraine!

Update on Saturday 10/31/2009:

We just talked to Jeff with live video on Skype!

He is looking good, at the point half way through his time there in Ukraine. He'll return this coming Friday. He'll fly from Kiev to Frankfurt, then straight to Denver.

He said that their entire group "went to town" today; they went shopping in Kiev. He said that there is a major H1N1 scare there right now, as explained in this site: http://blog.kievukraine.info/ Many people in Kiev were wearing masks, and they were "spraying medicine from airplanes". I haven't heard of that before, and can't find anything about it online.

Please help us pray that the work team won't get H1N1 or other severe illnesses this week, or on their long flights home next weekend. Jeff said that everyone is sniffling, and he was coughing / sneezing some.


Update on Monday
:
Jeff wrote again on email today and also chatted with Mother, Jason, and Em. He said he's better, and got to work today. He reported that they all worked hard and were tired when they were chatting at 9 or 10 pm his time. He helped one of the guys float one of the concrete walls today... we don't know what that means, but we are excited for the opportunity he has to learn these things! Thanks for praying for him. We are glad he is doing better.
- Beth

UPDATE SUNDAY: We heard from Jeff today by short email. Everyone arrived just fine, but Saturday night (Ukraine time) Jeff awoke twice, sick to his stomach, as was Joanna Sturtevant (their hostess). He said that he was feeling some better, but didn't feel like writing a long or detailed email. Please pray for him, and for Joanna, who has a house full of guests!


On Thursday Oct. 22, which was our 26th wedding anniversary, Jeffrey left Denver to fly to Ukraine. He plans to return on Nov. 6. He is working with a Mission Helps team to finish a church basement near Kiev, Ukraine, to create Sunday School rooms. Jeff is very motivated to be a part of this kind of mission field involvement, and it was a blessing to him and to us to watch how the Lord worked out so many details in his life in preparation for this trip.

We have not heard from him since he left Dulles airport in Washington D.C. on Thursday evening, but we heard from one of the team members' wives that the entire team arrived in Kiev. That's all we know, but we grateful for that news. We'll edit this post when we get more news. We are very anxious to hear how the Lord helped him make it through the Frankfurt, Germany airport and on to Kiev, without the help of any other human that he knew! And no, he doesn't know a word of German or Russian... at least he didn't when he left here...

Jeff was able to acquire many tools to take on this trip, which he will likely use on many missions project at many places in the world.


Please pray for Jeff and the other team members, as well and Jason and Joanna Sturtevant, and Roman's family that they are working with them.