For me (Phyllis)--actually, probably for most of us--the highlight of the Christmas season was the winter day camp at church. This was a new experience for us, and it went really well. The youth wanted to try to put it on without any outside help, so sometimes it seemed like we were short on helping hands, but they did a great job and pulled everything together. We spent several days focusing on who Jesus is, with the theme of “Who was born at Christmas?†The children who attended were mostly relatives of church members, plus some very needy village children. Will worked with the middle age group, which turned out to be all boys. I had the preschoolers. Our own children had a great time attending and also putting on a nativity play the last day.
The Christmas season ended with the January 7th Christmas. That day we celebrated with our church family. Jaan and Raia took part in the nativity play again, this time for church members and their guests. Then we went caroling in the lovely Ukrainian tradition. This year we just took the Sunday school children around to the bedridden babushki. They thoroughly enjoyed seeing and hearing the children, and we loved visiting with them!
And then we collapsed. Not really literally collapsed, but we did come down with colds, and exhaustion hit hard the very next day after “Second Christmas.†I know God answered specific prayers by keeping us healthy all through the holiday season, though.
The next big event of our winter was Will attending a summit in Kiev about orphan ministry. The rest of us stayed here, but we were able to watch a good bit of it online, too. We didn't get any specific immediate answers about the next step in ministry for us, but it was a great opportunity and confirmation of the general direction that we want to go. Please continue to pray for wisdom for us to know where we should go next.
I wrote before about what a challenge this apartment is for us (or just for me?). I know a lot of you have been praying, and some have asked how we're handling it. Better! I can say that by God's grace, I am getting used to it. It is possible to fit a family of our size back into a smaller space. Of course, it also helps to have working plumbing and unbroken windows and such now!
Our family has been busy at home, too, throughout the winter. Jaan has continued in his third year of music school, and we enjoyed his concert near Christmastime. Raia has been very diligent in her beloved homeschooling, and she's reading in Russian now. Asya keeps us laughing with the crazy (and long!) statements that she makes. Bogdan finally conquered potty training and is officially a big boy now.
As always, thank you for your prayers and love and support! We'd love to hear from you, too.
Love and prayers,
Will and Phyllis Hunsucker
and Jaan, Raia, Asya, Bogdan
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