Mission Trip To Ukraine

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5/10/2024 12pm.
We have made our way to Poland and are currently on our first train headed toward Ukraine.   

5/10/2024 12pm.
We’ll change trains around 11pm before we cross the border. Then about 12 hrs in sleeper cars!

We got into the real physical labor as we help a bombing victim clear her yard of debris! I'm sure I will be grateful for the Advil I packed!

 Take care,
 Moe

Here are a few photos of the bomb debris removal we did today. God blessed us with good weather, a sturdy dump truck and plentiful work to do!

The elderly lady was helping us out while we were working as well. She had more energy than all of us combined. Excited to continue helping her and hopefully making her life easier. God has really been good to us this trip

We started digging trenches for the water pipes we are going to install on her well, to hopefully allow her to have water in her kitchen.

 Ukraine has an interesting history and is a country that has fought for their freedom.

A few of us went to a petting zoo where we got up close with some of  the animals.

5-11-2024

Message from Kristian

The first day we met at the church around 2:30 and rode the church van down to Charlotte and got on our first flight around 7. Our first flight got delayed so we were a little worried about getting on the second one in time. It was a large plane with around 400 people The first flight was nice and served us two meals and had cool tv screens on each chair. We tried to get sleep on the plane because it was about 8 hours. After we got off the plane into Munich Germany. We did not get to stay there long because our next flight was right around the corner. We were able to make the next flight. The second plane was not as nice and was much smaller, but it was only two hours, which was much easier. We then arrived at Poland in Warsaw. We grabbed a taxi and rode it to the train station. We had four hours till the train left so we ate some lunch. At this point we had not really gotten to sleep for around 24 hours, so we were all getting tired. We got on the first train and met a nice lady that was also going to Kyiv that we made friends with. We rode on that train for about four hours. It had nice leather seats we got to sit in, which was nice. Then we got to a stop where we had to wait a little bit to get on the next train. Once we got on the train after a hard time figuring out where we were supposed to be on the train we finally got to relax. The rooms were very small with four beds but at least we had beds. We all got to sleep and had around a 13-hour train ride. We had to wake up a couple times for them to look at our passports but other than that the train ride was good. We got to Kyiv this morning around 12 here and are having a relaxing day recovering from the journey over. Very excited for what God has planned for us.

Kristian Davis

5-12-2024 3am

God has blessed us with a safe arrival in Ukraine after a long train ride from Warsaw yesterday.

The train was one of the more modern ones so the rooms were slightly more comfortable than the Soviet-era trains that are still widely used. There were four of us in one small sleeping compartment for about 14hrs so we got to know each other very well very quickly!

We were met at the train station in Kyiv by Pastor Dima and his Assistant Pastor Ihor. After a short drive we arrived at the church where they showed us to our rooms.

Our rooms are in the basement of the church. That area also serves as a bomb shelter and Sunday school rooms for the children.  That area also served as a place of refuge for over sixty people during the initial Russian assault on Kyiv two years ago.

Once we were settled in, they fed us lunch and afterwards we went for a much needed walk to stretch our legs.  Behind the church is a nice pond and walking trail of which we took advantage.

The church ordered Domino pizza and wings for us last night for supper. It was just like back home! I guess Dominos is the same wherever in the world.

Today is Mother’s Day and pastor Dima will be preaching on “Honor Your Mother” from Ephesians 6:1-3. Although we won’t be able to understand the sermon he gives in Ukrainian, we will be able to follow along in the verses and take in the power and emotion of his words.

We look forward to being in His presence today.

5/12/2024

3pm

We found a candy shop which has a lot of yummy treats. The church has cooked us some great food. The soup is called borsch. Scott really likes the soup ha ha. There is some very beautiful buildings as well. We also had two church services today and the worship team did a great job and even though we can’t understand most of what is being said we can feel the Holy Spirit in the church. Happy mother’s day everyone! Hope to share more soon!

Kristian Davis

5/13/2024

10am

Hello from Ukraine!

We visited an elderly lady that is a shut in at the church. Her house was damaged during the attack from Russia and we are going to try to help her with the damage. We looked around her house to see what we could fix. Afterwards she served us tea and some sandwich’s. We bought some tools that we would need to try to help work on her property. It is very sad to see her living conditions, that she has to deal with at such an old age.

Please pray for us as we work on her house and for all the elderly during this devastating time that their country is going through.

Kristian Davis

5/14/24

Hello everyone! We had a very productive day today. We had a very good breakfast. The lady that serves us food at the church got on to me because I do not eat enough so I need to start to grow a bigger stomach, or I will get in trouble ha ha. We went to the elderly lady’s house to get started on cleaning up her yard that had a bunch of debris that was caused by the war. We paid a man to come bring a truck over to her house so we could load it up. We loaded up the whole truck and they said they would come back tomorrow so we moved the rest of the debris closer to the entrance. The elderly lady was helping us out while we were working as well. She had more energy than all of us combined. Excited to continue helping her and hopefully making her life easier. God has really been good to us this trip. Thank you for all the prayers so far.

5/15/14

Hey everyone! We had another busy day today.  We had a large breakfast today that was very good. Scott gave us a small lesson after breakfast before we left about the great commission. We went to the elderly lady’s house we visited before and cleaned up a bunch more derby. We thought the second truck would be enough, but we got that truck completely full  and still more derby that needs to be cleared. She fixed us some lunch at her house. We worked on making her stairs easier to walk down to get to her cellular. We also cut some long tree limbs that were growing above her old chicken house and fence area. We had a wonderful service tonight at the church. One of my favorite things is to hear them sing. When they sing many people will lift their hands in the air and you can tell they really love the Lord and put everything into worshiping him. Thank you for all the prayers. God has been taking care of us the whole time and I can’t thank him enough for it. I hope the service at our home church is just as wonderful as the one here.

5/16/2024

Hello everyone! Today we were shown some of the destroyed buildings and some areas where some very evil acts were committed. We were also shown some destroyed Russian tanks. It was very sad to see what Russia has done to these people. We went back to the elderly lady's house today to get some measurements to install a water line. She has never had water in her house. She must walk outside to her well to collect water in buckets. We hope to help her get  water to the kitchen. We took a while getting the parts, we would need to do this. Some of us took a well needed nap. Thank you for all the continued support and prayers.

Kristian Davis

5/17/2024