Count Your Many Blessings, See What God Has Done...

The Lord has really poured out his blessings on me these past couple of months!

Blessings #1 and #2 - A great wrap up to my English class in XTZ and a fabulous time with my momma!

April was a busy month getting stuff done before my mom came to visit. And then we had a great two weeks together here in Kharkov. Mom came to visit both of the English classes and shared about what life in Alaska is like. My class in XTZ surprised me with a little party as we had our last class together. The gave me an encyclopedia about Ukraine (written in Russian on a children's level), and candy and flowers. The flowers and gifts are very traditional for the last day a class meets as a way to show appreciation to the teacher.

It was really fun having my mom here in Kharkov and getting to experience all the local culture through a fresh set of eyes. I enjoyed taking her to see the local monuments as well as getting lost at Barabashova (the largest outdoor market in Ukraine).

Blessing #3 - Getting to do my dream vacation - a mediterranean cruise!!! (Which I have wanted to do since I was about 16 years old and studied european history in High School.)

Mom and I flew to Barcelona to begin our cruise. The first couple of days on the boat both mom and I were sea sick. But we got over it and really enjoyed our time. Every day was a new adventure and even now I can't believe all the sites we saw. The only downside was not enough time to soak it all in.

I think my favorite sites were the ruins at Ephesus and the scenic views around every corner in Venice. Someday I'd like to go back and spend a couple of days checking out all the art museums in Florence.

Blessing #4 - Serving alongside our mission team from Grenada, Mississippi doing a medical clinic at XTZ!

Our biggest medical clinic of the year was the week right after my mom left to go back to the States. The team was split into two groups and worked in five different locations throughout the week. And Praise the Lord!! - The team served over 1,000 people in those five days! They had been praying and asking the Lord to send them at least 800 and He really blessed our socks off!

During that week I served with the team holding the clinic in XTZ in the building where we have our church plant. The church was launched last year just after this medical team left. I helped regulate the flow of people into get registered. Ukrainians are no strangers to standing in line - expecially for medical care. When we arrived there were over 60 people waiting for us each morning!

Blessing #5 - Serving alongside a team from Lynchburn, Virginia doing Kids Bible Clubs!

A group of three from Liberty, Virginia came and joined with 4 Journeyman (2 year) missionaries from Kiev and did Kids Bible Clubs in the Gagarina and Gorizont areas of Kharkov. It was a great week and I really enjoyed being out in the sunshine and watching the kids have lots of fun.

Blessing #6 - Getting to spend a fabulous week in Greece with my fellow coworkers from across Central and Eastern Europe and Russia (CEE). We got to hear preaching and worship together in our heart language and we got to relax, sunbathe, and swim in the ocean. We celebrated what the Lord did over the past ten years in the areas of CEE and began to plan and look forward to what the Lord will do as we begin to operate under a different organizational structure. Instead of being group by countries, our mission agency will now be group by "people groups." Where I serve is now part of the "European Peoples Affinity Group." That group covers most of what used to be called the Western Europe Field and the Central and Eastern Europe Field. But most of our discussions about ministry will not take place at that level. Within the European Affinity and smaller people group "clusters." I am serving in what is now called the "Black Sea Orthodox Cluster" of people groups. The people we are targeting for ministry are primarily of a slavic ethnicity, their culture is largly influenced by Russian Orthodoxy, and they live in the areas surrounding the Black Sea. Our new organizational structure doesn't change anything about our ministry strategies. Our goal of leading people to Jesus and gathering them into reproducing churches hasn't changed. We pray that this new structure will allow our teams of missionaries to better strategize and minister to people of simmilar backgrounds regardless if the target people are physically located in different countries.

I can't post pictures of all the other folks that were there during the week for their security purposes. But here are a few snapshots of me. This first one is at our resort and the second is me at the base of the Acropolis in Athens.

Blessing #7 - I am blessed by all of your prayers and financial support for me!!

Your prayers for me mean more than anything else! Thank you so so much! Your financial support - coming to me through the channels of the Cooperative Program and the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering - is what makes it possible for me to serve here in Ukraine. Thank you!!

Did you know that the IMB is currently have to turn away new folks who feel called to serve as missionaries or that short-term missionaries are not being able to return at the end of their terms if they want to? What the IMB received from last years Lottie Moon Christmas Offerining was not enough to meet our budget. It is a heartwrenching thing when our board had to decide to put a cap on new and returning missionaries going to the mission field.

A fellow missionary had this quote in her recent prayer letter: "Our current economic struggle is worldwide; I come across very few people these days who are beside themselves because they have too much money and no idea what to do with it. However, none of us is exempt from our responsibility to give sacrificially (those of us serving overseas included). The 2008 Lottie Moon Christmas Offering goal was $170 million....The total receipts fell approximately $29 million short of that goal… the single biggest drop from one year to the next in the history of the offering. When just looking at those numbers it’s pretty overwhelming. However, it all comes into perspective when you realize that entire shortfall could be made up by each Souther Baptist giving only about $2. That’s giving up one cup of coffee, one hamburger, one Route 44 from Sonic, one tots and cheese…Our missionary force is having to be reduced by almost 700 personnel." Please prayerfully consider what you could give up for the sake of furthering the Good News. Thank you for supporting me and all of us serving with the IMB. You play such a HUGE part in our ministries.

Blessing #8 - Bella!! I am so thankful for her!

On Saturday, July 4th, Bella will be 2 years old! I'm so thankful that the Lord gave me the perfect little friend! Today I was especially thankful! Bella is such a great way for me to meet my neighbors and chat with them. Today, because of Bella, I got to chat with a lady about the resurrection of Jesus. Thank you Jesus for how you open up doors!

My good friends Tanya and Anya (they are sisters) stayed in my apartment and took care of Bella while I was off traveling so much these past couple of months. It was so good to come home and love on her! These past couple of days she has been driving me nuts wanting to play all the time. More than usual. She follows me everywhere with a toy in her mouth. But she is SO cute and often too hard to resist! :)

So it is good to finally be home and know I'm going to be here for a while! I don't have any more trips again in the near future except maybe a trip to Kiev.

Prayer Requests -

1. Next Saurday, July 4th, all of our English classes will come together for a picnic and a game of softball. Please pray that it woiuld be a great time of relationship building. and please pray for the weather. Rain is in the forecast so please pray that it holds off until after the picnic. :)

2. My desktop computer crashed about two months ago. It is a new computer and I used it only about two months before it crashed. I havn't been home long enought to take care of getting it fixed. Please pray that I can quickly find a professional computer repair man that can fix it.

3. We have two mission teams coming back-to-back this month. They will be doing kids Bible clubs, and construction work. Please keep them in your prayers for safety in travel, physical and spiritual health, the effectiveness of their ministry, and the Ukrainians they will be serving and reaching out to. My team mate Linda's weekly prayer request blog/emails will have more details about the teams as the time gets nearer.

Please forgive me for not being so regular in my communication with you all. :( Depression was a factor in that struggle. It really made it hard to concentrate and I wasn't enjoying life so that made it kind of hard to think of thinkgs to write about. I really am doing better now!! The increase of sunshine and being outside coupled with a lot more social interaction has really helped a lot! Thanks for all of your concerned emails wondering what's up with me! It means a lot to know you care!

Wow! This is a huge post!! I'd better cut it off here. May the Lord overwhelm you with His blessings like He has me! Bye!

Some revelations

March was... an interesting month.

I had a fun time preparing for "Super St. Patrick's" - our party to bring together all of our different english classes and learn about the holiday. For those of you who don't know - St. Patrick was one of the first missionaries who brought Christianity to Ireland. He is believed to have died on March 17, 460. Centuries later he became the patron saint of Ireland and March 17th a feast day in his honor. Irish imigrants to America began to celebrate the day with parades in the 1700s as a way remember their homeland and take pride in being Irish. Now, parades and all things Irish are popular on this day. It is the one day of the year when "anyone can be Irish." I have always enjoyed all things Irish (food, music, history and culture) because my family name -Dillon- is Irish (even though I am a true mut of an American with ancestors from all over). :)

At "Super St. Patricks" we sang some Irish songs, I told about the history of St. Patrick and the holiday and Pastor Vitally of New Hope Church preached. He spoke about the trinity because there is a legend that St. Patrick used the three-leafed shamrock to teach the pagans in Ireland about the Trinity.

Here I am with my friends Anya and Tanya and their younger brother. (Anya and Tanya are the ones who house/dog-sit for me when I travel. They are such dear friends!)
Here is Pastor Vitaly preaching about the Trinity.

In the middle of March I joined the Wofford family on a whirlwind trip to Budapest. It was for the purpose of going to the Ukrainian embassy there to renew our visas to live long-term in Ukraine. We couldn't renew our visas in Ukraine. It was one day to get there, one day to turn in our applicactions, one day to pick up our new visas, and then another day to travel back to Kharkov. Whew! It was fun to actually see some of the sights around Budapest though! It is SUCH a beautiful city! Last summer I traveled through the city as I was escorting some MKs to camp but I wasn't able to sightsee at all. But this time I did and the transit system was SO easy! Especially compared to Kharkov!! I returned to Kharkov on my own while the Woffords stayed on in Budapest and then had some vacation time at Disney World in Paris. I think I took almost every form of transport during those 4 days - taxis, trains, airplanes, buses, and trams. Oui!




When I got back to Kharkov I had my most difficult week of all during my time in Ukraine. At first I felt sick to my stomach and dizzy. I thought I was coming down with something and allowed myself to declare a sick day (or two, or three...). I laid on the couch pretty much the whole week. I was also really emotional and sad. For some time now I have been generally meloncholy, uninterested in life, procrastinating on doing simple things, and finding it hard to concentrate. (Thus my few and far between blog posts.) During that week though, with wise counsel of a friend, I came to realize that I was really struggling with the physical and emotional symptoms of Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), a sub-type of depression. I have always known that the sunlight or lack there of really affects how I feel. In fact I even own a special light that I can sit in front of 15 minutes a day. The light affects the chemicals in my brain and helps me wake up better in the morning and then, after a few days I feel better too. I just hadn't been using the light. I had forgotten about it. But my friend held me accountable and after using the light consistently for about four days I feel like a completely different person. It's almost a little scarcy - how much better I feel. Praise the Lord! Of course I still have problems/issues in life -like we all do - but they don't leave me imobilized on the couch. So now, I am going to consistently use that light even when I don't think I need to! So that was my big revelation to myself - how much SAD affects me and then thinking back over my life and realizing how it has affected my thoughts and decisions, etc. in the past.




It is a good thing that I'm feeling better because I've had to be quite busy lately. It is now April and I'm finishing up my English class in XTZ for the Spring. I'll likely start again in September - in XTZ or another location as the Lord leads. (The class Linda and I teach together will still continue into June before we break for a couple of months.) This week I also have been planning for "Super Easter." Just like we did a get together for Valentines and St. Patricks - we are doing one for Easter. It will be this next Saturday, April 11th. I've done the powerpoint and will talk about Easter traditions in America, our team will lead in some songs and Keith is going to preach about New Life in Christ. We would really appreciate you prayers for this event. Please pray that lots of our english students would attend and that it would make a big difference in their lives.



And then - ta da - drum roll please..... my mom is arriving in Kharkov on Saturday April 18th! I am SOOO excited! It will be exactly two years since I last saw her or any of my family! We are going to have a great two weeks in Kharkov and then we are going on my dream vacation - a cruise in the mediterranean!! We've been saving our pennys and eating "rice and beans" (not really rice and beans for me - they're expensive in Ukraine!) and then the financial crisis hit and it seems crazy. But we're still doing it and it will the the adventure of our lives! And I'm so excited that I will be able to share the memories with my best friend - my mom! :)

Blessings to you all and thanks for all your prayers!

Catchin' Up - With a Few Words and a LOT of Pictures

So, I'm not that good with words. Never have been. I'm not shy. Just not extreemly chatty. Except I do get into a groove sometimes that I have to talk about everything. But usually that winds down and I'm back to the old quiet soul that I am. But I also value all my dear friends who cover the far reaches of the earth who are wanting to know how I am doing. So, here goes... :)

I had a wonderful holiday season here in Kharkov. It was full of business and fun times with my team and friends. In early-mid-January I was ready to post several slide-shows of pictures but then I finally had to face up to some problems with my lap top. I was computer-less for 10 days. I almost didn't know what to do with myself. It is amazing how much of modern day life is connected now to the computer and the internet (all my communication with coworkers and family, ability to do research, write documents, read the news and weather in English, listen to music, watch my tv programs, etc.)! While I missed being plugged-in I also was blessed by increased focus in my time with the Lord. It was a good lesson on cutting out the 'noise' in my life in order to better listen to what is most important.

I received back my lap-top with the news that its power supply problem was not fixable. So, I brought it home, rigged the power cord with some duct tape and it worked! Hallelujah! Nevertheless, it was time to get a new computer that is reliable. This past week I recieved the new hard-drive/tower that I had my parents mail over for me. (Computer prices are much much higher here!) Straight away I went out and bought a new monitor and speakers, and proceeded to have two fun days of loading and downloading programs and transfering files. I am so blessed and thankful to my friends who helped me to purchase my new computer! Thank you all so so much!

Below you will be able to view many slide-shows of events all the way from last November. In December I had a great time making Christmas cookies with Linda and the Wofford kiddos. Then our team celebrated all of Christmas and New Year's together. Christmas in Ukriane is celebrated on January 7th. So we also had great times celebrating with our English students and the church plants we are involved with.

The day before Valentines I invited over 8 of my single girl friends to celebrate with me. I cooked some "romantic" food for them (Italian - chicken parmasigan) and we ate by candlelight with romantic music playing. I told them about how in college I jokingly renamed Valentines as "Singleness Awareness Day." But then I went on to share some of my testimony how God has taught me that both singleness and marriage are equal gifts and either status can change very quickly. What ever state we are have both blessing and trials, and we are to use them to know Christ and to make him known. Because life, after all, is not about marriage. It is not about me. It is about make Him famous and bringing more worshippers into His kingdom. So... I think all the girls had a great time and were asking when we would get together like that again. :) Valetine's Day actually fell on Saturday and our team helped host "Super Valentine's Day" for all of our English students. We sang songs they had learned at the Michael Gott English school last Fall, I taught them the song "Beauty and the Beast," and Pastor Vitaly shared about "What is true love?"

Coming up soon we will have team of ladies coming to help us lead conferences for women of various ages. These conferences will be around the holiday on March 8th - International Women's Day. Then we will also have a "Super St. Patrick's Day" with our ESL students. Pastor Vitaly of New Hope Church will share about how, according to tradition, St. Patrick used the three leaves of the shamrock to teach about the Trinity. Since I enjoy celebrating my Irish ancestry and all things celtic, I'm really looking forward to this get-together! :) Also in March, the Wofford family and I will travel to Budapest to get our Ukrainian visas renewed. Then, when I get back I will be busy trying to get as much work done ahead of time as possible - in anticipation of MY MOM COMING TO VISIT!!! HOORAY!! I'm sooo looking forward to seeing her and the great time we are going to have traveling together in the month of May! Yeah!!

So, now for the tour of my recent holidays...

Pics of our Thanksgiving Retreat..

Dec. 7th - The first celebration of the Lord's Supper at the new church plant in XTZ!

Making Christmas Cookies... a yearly tradition. Both Linda and I grew up making and decorating sugar cookies for Christmas and now it is a tradition we love to share with the Wofford kids.

Celebrating Christmas with the international congregation at New Hope Church and with our English students later that evening.

Christmas Eve at my house and Christmas Day at the Wofford's (the 24th and 25th).

New Year's Eve

Celebrating Christmas on Jan 3 with our Saturday class of Advanced ESL students. They put on a Christmas pagent, then we ate sweets and sang Christmas carols. We ended the evening with a White Elephant Gift Exchange.

Christmas Program Outreach (Jan 11) for the Children in XTZ. Christmas in Ukraine is traditionally celebrated on January 7th.

A Valentine's Day Dinner Party (on Friday the 13th) at my place.

The Super Long Update

Hi my dear friends! It has been a long time since I last posted an update! Wow! There have been many times these last two months when I thought about hurrying home to post a little story about my crazy day but before I could get to the computer I got sidetracked or when I did sit down to write I had computer problems! (my computer overheats and shuts down a lot) Grr! But at long last I am finally sitting here actually typing to you instead of only thinking about what I would write if I did. :) Hooray!

October was a beautiful month with leaves falling to the ground in a riot of colors. We certainly enjoyed the Women of Hope ladies team at the beginning of the month. After they left I got really excited as God began to give me ideas for discipling women in this area. I began writing materials and also meeting weekly with my friends Anya and Tanya for discipleship and accountability. Each time we met it was such a huge blessing. But unfortunately, Anya and Tanya have had very busy schedules and it has been hard to meet consistently as we planned. I'm still plugging away at writing lessons though.

At the end of the month two churches we work with hosted The Michael Gott English School. It was a two week English school for students of all levels. It was an exciting time for the 5-600 students who attended. I went several times during the second week to just be around and meet students. I made several new friends. At the end of the school all the students were invited to join the weekly English classes that we have started in different places across the city.

In addition to team-teaching the Saturday advanced English class with Linda, I am now leading a lower-intermediate level conversational English class in the region of XTZ (Kharkov Tractor Factory and the surrounding neighborhood) every Thursday at 6pm. My class is part of the outreach being done by the new church plant I’m also attending there in XTZ. The first class we had was funny. There was absolutely no electricity or heat in the building where we meet. Eventually the director let us in and gave us a few candles. And I and my five students had class by candlelight! It was so funny to me! What else could I do but laugh?! The second time we met I had nine students and we did have lights but no heat. (Heat in the city usually gets turned on about October 15th but didn’t for most until early November this year. The building where we meet depends on the factory for support and the factory was supposedly being ‘economical’ in not turning on the heat yet.)

Our English classes were canceled during the week of Thanksgiving. Our IMB team here in Kharkov drove to Dnipropetrovsk and joined with other IMB missionary friends there to celebrate Thanksgiving. It was a great time of relaxation and I loved hearing all the funny stories my teammates and friends shared about their crazy and funny lives here in Ukraine. After two nights in Dnipropetrovsk we all went to a little resort type place just outside of town and had a little retreat together. We had some Bible study time together, worshiped together in English, dialogued about stress in living cross-culturally and how to handle it, ate lots of left-overs and yummy chilli, watched Christmas movies, and played some wild games of Farkle and Nerts. The little house where Linda and I slept also had a sauna and little pool attached to it. Too bad the pool water was dark green and smelly!

This past week was a week of celebration for me as I turned 30. On Wednesday my team took me out to lunch and in the evening my friend Masha came over to hang-out. On Thursday, my actually birthday, I stayed home and relaxed. In the evening I went and taught English and had six students. At the end my class they had a little surprise party for me with sweets and tea. They also gave me some white roses and a little gift. We sat around talking in a mix of English and Russian and talking about birthday customs and getting to know one another better. On Friday Linda and I went and checked out a new mall here in town. It is the second one like it here and it is right next to the first. We are excited that they are supposed to get a Sbarros Pizza place in the food court. That will be only the second fast-food chain from the West to make it into Kharkov. The other one we have is McDonalds. When I got home my new friend Lucy came over and ate some birthday cake with me. After she left, Anya and Tanya came over and also had some birthday cake and I taught them a card game while we sang along with the Christmas music I had playing. On Saturday I fried up some salmon just like my mom always does back home. Sigh… it was wonderful!! I gave a few pieces to Bella and she thought so too! :) So, thank you all for your prayers for me on my birthday! I had a really wonderful time!

So, what else… The other day I cooked a whole pumpkin for the first time. What a mess! But when I made pumpkin bread it was all worth it!! Also, I’ve been spending a lot of time online talking with my mom. She is coming to visit here next year in April for SIX WEEKS!!! I’m so EXCITED!!! We are having fun planning to do some traveling together! I’m so looking forward to it!

I'm still continuing to study Russian six hours every week. I'm enjoying it but it is difficult to make the time to study verbs when there is so much else to do. The strangest thing... my teacher got her lip stick tatooed on this past weekend so that her lips look bigger. It looks nice but still strange. She makes me think of Ivana Trump or somebody who got botox injections. She was very self-conscioius about it as they were still a little puffy. I was the first friend of hers to see her new lips except her son. It will be interesting to hear her mother's reaction or what all her high school students say about it. :) We giggled and laughed a lot about it!

Our mission board is going through a process of restructuring right now. And with that restructuring is coming new titles for places and people that more accurately express our theology of mission and strategy to reach people groups. It really is an exciting time as we plan to be more effective in reaching people groups across the world for Christ. The area of the world I serve in will be part of the “European Affinity Group” – meaning those people in the world affected by western culture which is basically all of Europe and Russia. The European Affinity Group will then be broken down into smaller clusters of people groups. Things are not in stone yet but it looks like the people of Ukraine will be grouped with other people groups mostly and named “Northern Orthodox” because the culture of the people has been influenced so much by the Russian Orthodox religion.

Thank you all so much for your prayers for me and for Team Kharkov. We ask you to also keep the IMB leadership in prayer as they are making many very important decisions regarding the changes in structure, etc. And we ask you to also remember to give to the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering during this Christmas season. The financial crisis in America will likely have an effect on this years giving in SCB churches. But the financial crisis in Ukraine, and other places in the world, is much worse. When people are struggling financially and looking for help and answers – it is a great time to be able to minister and share the love of Jesus. And we can only continue to do that with your financial and prayer support! Thank you! And Merry Christmas!!

God at Work - Thanks for your prayers!

This past month has been like normal: busy. The Lord has been guiding and planting ideas in my heart just like I had asked you all to pray for. Things have been bubbling up and forming inside of me but with everything in process it was hard to sit down earlier and tell ya'll about it. But here goes... :)

I really want to see women in Ukraine discipled. I really believe that reproducing discipleship groups of three would help build reproducing churches. I brought many discipleship resources from America with me when I moved here. Big problem #1) They are in English. Big problem #2) They are copyrighted. I began to seriously think about writing something myself.

We had a group of fabulous ladies here at the beginning of October on a "Women of Hope" women's ministry vision trip. Their first day here the ladies hosted a meeting for women on the topic of discipleship. That night the Holy Spirit woke me up at 2am and kept giving me ideas for what to write for reproducing discipleship groups. I never got up out of bed because I thought about how long my next day would be and how much I needed sleep. But he wouldn't quit! and my mind just kept running. Eventually I did get back to sleep. I didn't need to worry though - the next day I was overflowing with energy! Anyhow... that whole thing has been developing in my heart and mind over the past month.

I invited my friends Tanya and Anya to meet weekly with me for discipleship. They have grown up in a Baptist family but had never heard of the concept discipleship. I've heard that is quite common here. So, as I meet weekly with them I will be writing up materials, etc. As I write materials for our group of three, the girls know that the idea is that they will then go and reproduce what we have done in their own groups of three. I hope that this will be a method/resource that I can share around the whole Kharkov Oblast.


Our first official meeting - Tany, Anya, and I - was this past Monday evening. Our two hours together just flew by. I was so blessed by the fellowship and the girls are really excited about studying God's Word together and the accountabilty we will have amongst each other. I just really sensed the Holy Spirit there with us and when we finished both the girls gave me big tearful hugs saying this was exactly what they had prayed for. I am so blessed by their friendship and I know that I too am going to grow and be challeged too during our discipling relationship.

This past month I was also blessed with a fabulous trip to Riga, Latvia. It was a retreat for singles serving in Central and Eastern Europe. It was so great to reconnect with friends, to relax, and to laugh like crazy doing iPod Karaoke. Part of the team which came to lead the retreat included a hair stylist! He blessed us all with great hair cuts! I had him chop off my hair so now it is about shoulder length again with some long choppy layers. Hooray! I was so ready and I really like how it turned out! This past week, when Linda and I got back from Riga, I had her take some pics of me and I made up some new prayer cards. I had a lot of fun playing with photoshop when I made them. :)