Guest Post from Summer Intern- Karah

Karah is from Illinois and is a student at Spring Arbor University in Michigan.  She's studying Psychology and Urban Studies which is a really interesting cross-discipline approach to urban development.  I wish we were further along in our "Transform Uzhgorod" project so she could really dig in to the "psyche" of the people in our community, particularly with the Roma people and help us figure out how to go about seeing this community and lives transformed by the power of God.

In the last month that I have been interning with International Teams, I have learned so much. I have learned that serving overseas is a lot like living in the States. It require diligent faithfulness each day. There are moments of joy and moments of tiredness. I have laughed and cried with the people I serve with. I have seen God moving powerfully in the churches here and have felt pain as I have seen the poverty of the Roma communities. I have built deep friendships with the two other interns who I am serving with. I am so thankful for those girls. They challenge and encourage me; their enthusiasm and devotion spurs me on as we serve together.

Serving as an intern here in Ukraine has provided me with the opportunity to work hard, but to also take time to develop friends with other Ukrainian young adults. Our days are not only filled with visiting orphans, holding abandoned babies and serving at day camps, but also with coffee dates and cooking parties as we get to know the hearts and lives of the people around us. I often stop and look around me and am struck with how blessed I am to be here. I feel that I have been poured into more than I could ever pour out. I have felt the arms of God keenly through the people I have met here. It is so encouraging to see the ministries that are being implemented and to hear International Teams long term goals for Uzhgorod. The journey so far has been incredible and I am excited to see how God shows up in the month ahead!

Guest Post from Summer Intern- Anna

Here's a guest post from one of our summer interns, Anna from Mississippi.  Anna is the oldest of 7 and the daughter of a college friend.  Her parents (and 5 of her siblings) are missionaries in Swaziland in Africa.  Anna is studying Criminology at Our Lady of Holy Cross College in New Orleans.  She was the first to arrive this summer and she'll be the first to leave in just a few weeks.  But as you can see below...this might not be her only trip to Ukraine!

I had been praying to come to Ukraine for years. I'd never been set on doing missions work in any particular country--wherever I went was fine with me--but I'd always had a particular fascination with the USSR and its former territories. I imagined that some day I'd come up with an excuse for going there, but I'd never planned on doing missions work there per se. 

Despite that, for years I had been praying to come to Ukraine specifically. My mom knows Clinton from college, so I'd heard him talking about Ukraine on visits to the U.S., and had read the newsletters my parents got from him about Ukraine the entire time he's lived here. He'd even mentioned to me a few times that I should "think about coming to Ukraine". And I had. But after four years of seriously praying about it, and always hearing "not yet", I'd almost given up on coming to Ukraine--at least for missions work. 

Last summer, as I was praying about what to do this summer, God finally said, "It's time. You can go to Ukraine." 

As thrilled as I was to--finally!--be going to Ukraine, I really had no idea what to expect from it. I had done some reading, and was religiously following the Maidan movement, but perspectives on Ukraine and its current climate where skewed at best, and many were biased. I've only been here a month, and will sadly be leaving in three more weeks, but I've already come to learn more about Ukraine and this Slavic region than I could've ever dreamed of. I don't know what the years have ahead for me, but I know this won't be my last time in Ukraine.