Trip Updates

Saturday Night Update

Joe — Sat, 23 Jul 2011 20:22:24 +0000

Hi everybody,

It’s now pretty late on Saturday night and I wanted to squeeze in a quick update before going to bed. Yesterday we visited the orphanage just outside of Kherson and had a ton of fun playing with the kids. While they call it an orphanage, it’s really more of a processing center. They bring in kids that have been removed from the home because of care issues, or kids that have run away from home, and they keep them there for up to three months while they determine if they can be returned to the parents or if they need to be placed somewhere else. Sveta from Christ the Savior Church goes there every Friday and because of the constant turnover she’s able to recycle a lot of her lessons pretty regularly. The staff at the orphanage are very appreciative of the help and love shown the kids and there are no restrictions against presenting the Gospel. The welcome we got from the kids was awesome! From the way they greeted us you’d have thought they knew us all along.

Yesterday evening we had a potluck dinner at the church. We kept the doors open and invited some people from the neighborhood. There was a family there with their wheelchair bound teenage daughter. They like to come to the church in the evening and sit in the gazebo and watch the fountain. There was another guy who walked up and joined our Frisbee game, but wouldn’t come in to eat.

We then went to a small grocery store and bought about 75 ice cream cones. After distributing them to the people at the church we walked over to the adjacent park and started handing them out to the kids. That was a blast! Viola, our interpretor, was laughing the whole time. She said they kids and their parents couldn’t believe the ice cream was free and they were kind of blown away that someone would do this out of the blue. We kept today open to relax and do a little shopping. In the afternoon we went to an old fashioned Ukrainian village where we had dinner and a boat ride and a swim.

Afterward Michael fixed a Cajun meal for us at his host family’s house. Lots of eating and enoying each other’s company. Well, as I said it’s pretty late, so that’s it for now. We love you all and hope everybody is doing well. Thanks for your notes and prayers!

Joe

Thursday in Kherson

Joe — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 18:00:56 +0000

Hello everyone! Now that we’re back in Kherson I should be able to send updates more regularly. We had a relatively light agenda today, but it was not light in terms of impact for God’s kingdom. The plan was to visit the Kherson hospice, then spend the afternoon taking in some old Ukrainian culture before returning to the church so Michael, Matt and Cooper could practice with the worship team. While we were packing items we’d brought for the hospice visit a man came up to the church and started talking to Yuriy Birzov, our main contact at Christ the Savior. The man’s name is Nicholay and he told Yuriy (and us) that he’d been a soldier and had killed many people with no remorse and now that his wife is extremely sick he believes God is punishing her for his guilt. We told him that God is more interested in reconciling a relationship with him than punishing him. We explained that God sent his Son to die for us to make that reconciliation possible and invited him to ask Jesus be the Lord and Savior of his life. Nicholay prayed the prayer and we could see the Holy Spirit taking control of his body as he gave his heart back to Jesus. We then prayed for his wife, Luba. It was an incredible thing to witness this man’s repentance and we were all deeply moved. Nicholay said he will return to the church this weekend and I’m going to make sure we have a Bible for him and ask Yuriy to keep us informed about him and his wife. We then went to the hospice and Jen and Michael gave hand massages and sang to some ladies on the first floor. One of the ladies told Jennifer that she was in the garden when we drove up and hurried back to her room hoping we’d visit with her. Natascha, our translator, took me to the 2nd floor where I spoke and prayed with a lady and a man who had been bed-ridden for a long time. It’s a tough thing to see how minimal the care is (they have to get by with so little) and the smell is not pleasant at all. It seems like many of the residents are just being warehoused until they die. The man I spoke with is named Alexi. He’d been there for 18 months. There was not much of anything in the room and I asked him if he spent his time reading. He said his eyes are so bad he can’t read. I asked if he listened to the radio and he said they don’t have radios there. So basically he’s spent 18 months staring at what he can see of the ceiling. I can’t imagine what a tough existence it is. I decided if putting up with bad smells and feeling a little awkward and uncomfortable can make his day a little better, it’s not much to ask. After the hospice visit we had lunch at a nice cafe downtown where a church-member named Yana works. When we got back from lunch the other fellas stayed at church for worship team rehearsal while Jen and I rested at Yuriy’s flat. I then went back to the church to take some pictures of their sound equipment to send to a friend who’s going to donate a mixer console to replace their current one, which is on its last legs. That’s pretty much it for today. Tomorrow we’ll visit an orphanage, then a meeting with the youth festival director before returning to church for a neighborhood outreach picnic in the evening. Please keep us in your prayers. Pray especially for Nicholay and his wife Luba as well as the lonely people at the hospice. We love you all! Joe

Back from L’vovo

Joe — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 18:17:21 +0000

It’s now Wednesday night and we just got back from L’vovo a couple hours ago. We were there for 2 1/2 days. I got to spend Monday night with the guys at the rehabilitation center. They are in the new house and it looks great! There are 10 guys staying there right now, including a new guy Dima brought from Mikeliev on Monday. I got to spend a lot of time with a man named Roma, who’s the cook for all the guys. Roma lost his leg after he was jumped by some acquaintances and left unconscious on a train track. After being released from the hospital he spent his days begging in front of stores downtown. One day a guy from the rehab center asked him “Are you ready to change your life?” At that point he was considering ending his life. He says he loves being useful now and enjoys friends like he never had before. It’s really uplifting seeing him minister to newcomers at the center. Miracles are happening there all the time and it’s such a blessing to have front row seat hearing their stories and seeing the changes taking place. We also got to help with a children’s camp at the L’vovo church. Over half the kids come from non-believing families and the camp is a great outreach opportunity for reaching the entire village. Michael, Cooper and Matt are truly in their element playing with the kids and teaching them stories from the Bible in a way they can connect with. Pastor Jim made contact with an organization that provides free Bibles to Eastern European countries and arranged to have enough Bibles delivered to give one to every kid! Jen and I cut out for a couple hours yesterday and visited the hospice in the village of Tyginka. We spent a little time with the doctor and were able to give him the microscope he’d asked for to use in their lab as well as the used scrubs provided by many of you. In addition to providing care for people with nowhere else to go, he’s the most immediate medical help for several villages outside of Kherson. They only have three patients there right now and we were able to spend time with each of them. When I prayed with Yuriy, a man who’s been there for about a year since suffering a stroke and being abandoned by his family, the doctor said he was touched to see our love and Yuriy’s response to the prayer. It’s been a real blessing to have Viola and Loscha as translators again. They do a great job enabling us to communicate with our friends and brothers and sisters. There’s no way to adequately explain the love and welcome we receive from the believers in L’vovo. Once you open your heart to them, they’ve got it for good! I’m not able to post pictures here at this time, but check out the album on my facebook page. Michael, Cooper and Matt have posted some too, I think. Thank you all for your love and prayers. It’s such a privilege to serve this way on your behalf! Peace and Love! Joe

Ukraine 2011 July 18 – From Kherson

Joe — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 04:02:33 +0000

Hello everyone,
I just wanted to take a minute to let you all know we arrived safely and all 15 of our bags made it too! A big thank you to United Airlines for allowing us 3 free bags each! Got to Odessa on Saturday and went to Church in Kherson on Sunday morning and in the village of Shiroka Balka on Sunday afternoon. Spent some great time with the men from the Shiroka Balka rehabilitation center. Volva, the leader of the center, was very appreciative of our group’s efforts to allow him to rent an apartment so he was able to move his family to Kherson, which is a relatively short ride from Shiroka Balka. Before that they were in a village 170km away and it was a 4 hour bus ride each way, once a week. This has been a huge blessing for him. We met with Valik and Luba Siney last night and had another great visit, talking about TCI, the youth festival, Marked Men for Christ and their upcoming visit to the US. Hopefully we’ll be able to see them in CO. Spent the later part of last night putting together bags for the VBS we’ll be helping with in L’vovo. We’ll be there for 3 days and we leave in about an hour. While in L’vovo we’ll also spend time with the Church body there, as well as complete the purchase of the rehab center. God’s timing is always perfect! Dima told us that after committing to purchasing their own house for the center, the owner of the property they were renting told them he needed them to move out. I hate to think what may have happened to that ministry if they had no place to go! Well, that’s it for now. I’ll write more when I can. Thank you for your prayers and keep ‘em coming! We love you all!
Joe, Jen, Matt, Michael and Cooper

Waiting in Chicago…

Joe — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 21:40:07 +0000

Jen, Matt, Michael, Cooper and I have made it safely to Chicago and will leave in about an hour for our leg to Warsaw.

Keep Praying, God is Moving!!

Less Than 24 Hours To Go!

Joe — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 19:31:06 +0000

Hello everyone, we are just 24 hours from leaving on this summer’s Ukraine trip! Your Mountainview team this years consists of Michael and Cooper Pecot and Joe, Jennifer and Matthew Brown. Please keep us in your prayers as make final preparations and get ready to go!

Alto Salaverry (Joseph)

Brendan Yost — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 06:57:03 +0000

First thing, today was awesome! The team was very exited that they got to sleep in this morning, though of course this is not the most amazing part of our day. After a simple breakfast of eggs and ham at Rosas, we all heading onto the bus driven by our faithful driver, Victor, and started our drive towards two other Barrios. Barrio Leader Jorge, split our missionaries into two teams. One team was to continue construction on the first church in this Barrio of Alto Salaverry, while the other group who was in a sister Barrio across the highway, was split apart again as some were taken on house visits, and the others were provided entertainment for the youth of this Barrio. Construction went on in Alto Salaverry until one o’clock. As did the crafts and the recreation time with the children. Angela Dallakoti, it took a while for her to step out of her comfort zone with the children, but indeed she did. I did not know she spoke so much Spanish, good job on her part.

The group who was doing the house visits came back with quite a story. The special needs children in Peru are not very well taken care of, or any many cultures for that matter. Skyler, Nick, Braxton, Joseph, Jennifer, Dani, and Hari visited two families who have been raising there own children, and battling with their illness’. God bless those brave women for being so strong in our Lord and fighting for their own child’s lives. Pamela was the child at the first house we visited, her mother and her along with her father and younger brother; lived in the mountains, in a place that was ruled by witch doctors, so when Pamela became sick the witch doctors commanded no western medicine. Continued to blame her sickness on bad spirits, once the sickness to it’s toll, and Pamela amazingly survived. The sickness crippled her body and her mind. Pamela is thirteen years old, and has been living in the same rustic wheel chair for three years; it’s wheels are practically gone, i could not even imagine rolling that thing through the sand. Her condition is some-what similar to cerebral palsy and down-syndrome. But God is she happy, she was a bit cautious with strangers coming into her house. But she allowed me to grab her hand and sit beside her, such life in her eyes.

The second house we visited is actually one of this Barrios few home churches. The girls name here is Gami (Jamie), Gami is three years old, the doctors told her mother that abortion would be the best route to go. The told Gami’s mother that her child will end up, well like this, Gami appears have hydrocephalus, massive swelling of the brain. After she decided to have the child, the doctors gave her three weeks. Gami is blind and mute, but she can still hear. She is in much pain and her mother protects her from her father. On one occasion, Gami’s father, in all of his helplessness decided to attempt to kill Gami. Much prayer is needed for these families, in July Gami will be going under surgery to remove the swelling of her brain. Also to get her teeth removed, for she cannot stop biting her self, she already had bitten her tongue off.

After lunch with the Peruvians, we all rotated tasks; those who preferred to lay brick at the new church were able to go. Those who wished to stay at there current job could, and those who wanted to visit more homes could as well. After the few hours of work, that all ended around 5:30; all of us worked along side with our brothers and sisters in the Barrio and prepared for a quinceanera! There were a mass amount of balloons and a whole lot of cakes. Charlie and Wesley serenaded the young lady with two English songs (Dare You to Move(Switch foot), My Jesus(Relient K)) and a good few Hillsong Latin America songs. I love how our brothers and sisters here in Peru worship, with hands held high and voices raised in proclamation. Today was a good day.

God of this City (Christy)

Brendan Yost — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 03:46:01 +0000

I know that others have talked about the relationships that are being built with our brothers and sisters in Christ here in Trujillo. Now that our time is wrapping up with only one more day here we are feeling a stronger bond than we expected with the Peruvians. Angela always has a swarm of girls around her and she has really enjoyed getting to practice her Spanish. Alycia has enjoyed dressing up as a clown and interacting with the young kids also. Andrew has been busy kicking the soccer ball with the other Peruvian kids. As parents we find great joy in watching the kids out of their comfort zone and being used by God. At church yesterday we sang the song God of the City and it was so powerful to see the heart of the New Hope leaders to reach the people in the barrios. Today Jorge, one of the local missionary, took us to the top of a hill that overlooked the barrios and shared his story and heart of where God was calling him to minister. God is definitely here at work and is blessing the ministry here. We serve an awesome God. We are excited to come home and share many more stories.

Blessings,

The Dallakoti Family

Building Churches and Relationships

Brendan Yost — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 03:08:26 +0000

Hey everybody! As the title suggests, we’ve been helping build a church using traditional Peruvian techniques. A lot of us have never been so covered in mud and adobe dust. We’ve also had the joy of spending time with Peruvians in several barrios, and their stories are incredible. I’ve been awed by the way that God moves people and uses sorrow to grow faith. Most everyone is healthy now, but please keep praying for health and patience.

Love always!

Tealia and Company

Counting the seconds (Brendan)

Brendan Yost — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 16:28:09 +0000

We are finally in Peru after months of planning, praying, and raising support. As our team moves between barrios and the city, we are aware that our time in Trujillo is coming to a end. Something about having numbered days causes us to try to squeeze as much as possible out of every available second. It’s an attitude of deep gratitude and awe. God has given us a fixed number of moments to spend with our brothers and sisters here, and we can’t hold on to a single one. In a week, we will be left with nothing but the relationships we have made.

Our hosts have said from the first day that building a church isn’t nearly as important as the friendships we make. Putting a roof on a home is secondary to getting to know the family. Being Mary will always trump being Martha. I am so thankful they have spoken this truth into our group.

Today, four of our teenagers will be visiting special needs children in one of the barrios. Others will be making crafts with a group of kids, and the rest will be continuing work on a church we have been building. Our prayer remains that we will not waste a second of this day we have been given; that we will make the most of every opportunity we have been granted to be the hands and feet of Jesus.

No time is it more apparent that there is something in everyone that wants to matter. While doing good works scratches the itch, nothing satisfies it like being fully present with another human being. Which may explain why Jesus commands: “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” John 13:34-35

There isn’t a moment in my life where I don’t want to be a part of that.

Because it matters, Brendan Yost