Prayer list for Ukraine Trip

This is the list that we sent out to our church; I thought that many of you would enjoy seeing what we are doing. I also hope that many of you will pray for us.

ODESSA TEAM PRAYER SHEET

Pastor Dan & Deb Jordan, Greg & Julie Nicholas,

Pete Faust, Lindsey Calhoun, Eric Hansen

Thank you for the prayer and financial support given to the Lord on our behalf. Here is a Daily Prayer Guide to give you some idea of the work and timeframe of this Odessa , Ukraine mission trip from July 23-August 5. Keep praying about your own participation on a mission team. Keep in mind that Ukraine is 8 hours ahead of the Central time zone. Consider praying for this ministry the day before. On behalf of the entire team, thank you for your prayerful support of the English camp ministry.

July 15^th (Pete Faust), July 20^th (Lindsey Calhoun), July 23^rd (Pastor Dan/Deb, Greg/Julie, Eric Hansen) departure days: Pray for safety and protection while traveling. Pray for connections with team members from other states, that there will not be any delays in the airports, that security screenings will go smoothly, and that our luggage arrives with us.

July 24 – Arrive in Odessa , Ukraine . Pray for the team as we adjust to the Ukrainian culture. Pray for team unity. Prayfor our flexibility, our witness and our strength.

July 25 – This is camp preparation day for the youth camp at the campsite facilities. Pray for the team as it plans, prepares and prays for this youth camp. Pray for everyone who will be attending this English camp. Pray for the work God is doing in their lives and our lives and the changes He is going to make.

July 26 – Pray for safe arrival of the campers in the afternoon. Youth Camp will begin this night. Pray for friendships between staff and campers.

July 27-30 – Pray for these elements of the youth camp.

English reading time: We will be using Scripture to teach English and to learn about Jesus. Pray that the campers will have open ears, hearts, and thoughts to these lessons.

English classes: Pray that the lessons challenge the camper’s English speaking skills. Pray that each student will gain confidence in conversing in the English language.

Please pray for our team members while they travel and serve. Specific requests are listed below:

Translators: Pray that they will accurately translate for us and clearly communicate our love of Jesus to our new Ukrainian friends. They must always be ready to translate for us and often without any notice.

Pray for each one who gives a testimony during the camp.

Pray for the evening activities. Relationships will deepen as we have fun together.

Pray that optional activities will be relevant. Pray that unplanned moments interacting with the campers in a relaxed setting will make an impact in their lives.

July 31 – This is the last full day of camp at this campsite. The evening activities will include a campfire, s’mores, and the gospel being shared. Specifically pray for those campers who are close to making a decision to accept Jesus. May they overcome the enemy and take a step of faith.

August 1 – The camp moves from the campsite to Odessa . Pray for safe closure and travel.

August 2 – Camp continues with a worship service at Living Hope Church in Odessa , a picnic near the Black Sea , and pizza and a movie with the campers at the church in the evening.

August 3 – Greg & Julie Nicholas return to Iowa . The campers take the rest of us on a tour of Odessa .

August 4 – The youth camp ends today and it is time to say “good-bye” to our new friends. Pray that we will finish well.

August 5 – Lindsey Calhoun, Pete Faust, Dan & Deb Jordan return to Iowa . Pray for safe travel and re-entry to home life. Eric Hansen continues on at a family camp until August 17.

Ukraine Bound

I only have a few moments, but I wanted to write something before Dan and I are out of the country for two weeks. We leave early tomorrow morning for Odessa, Ukraine. Please pray for us as we will be far out of our comfort zones. We will be teaching English at a Youth Camp. Please pray for our children and my mom also as they will be here. I really have to get finished packing. So much to do and literally so little time.

Where have I been?

I can't believe that it has been two months since I have posted. I have been on facebook. Which I do enjoy using keeping up with people on. It is not as if nothing has gone on here. I really did not spend a lot of time on the computer during a lot of that time. I don't think that I can get everyone totally up to date, but I can talk about recent history in our family.

School has been out for a few weeks. We spent one week relaxing after we were out. Dan's (and my) niece, Megan came out from WI for a 5 day visit. We had fun showing Megan around town, taking walks, going to the pool and the Viking for ice cream.

The day after Megan left, we took Mitchell to camp. He had a great time there last week and now it is Kirsten's turn to be at camp. Peirce is in South Dakota working on an Indian reservation with our youth group. We have a quiet house this week.

Last week was Bible School at our church. Peirce and Kirsten both helped with corralling kids for classes. Peirce helped with 4th grade and Kirsten with preschool. My job was to teach music. It was amazing how tired we got, but it was a wonderful week. The kids learned some amazing truths. We had a neat project during the week called "Shoe Me". We had the kids bring money to buy shoes for orphans in the Congo who don't have good shoes to walk the miles needed to get to school. We started with a goal of $200 which will buy 20 pairs of shoes for this program. The kids had raised $400 by Friday and Friday evening at the program the kids and parents topped it out at $703!!! They were so excited to have something to tangible to be able to give toward.

Fun signs of Spring at the Jordan house

Spring was here this week.  I don't think that it will be here next week, but I have enjoyed it greatly.  It is raining right now and gotten cooler, but we did need the rain, so I will be thankful for it and the sun that preceded it.  I had a wonderful blessing brought to my house this week.  You may wonder what ugly plant I am taking a picture of.  One of the men in the church knew that I LOVE red raspberries.  I really, really, really love them. Well, Les brought me over 12 volunteer plants that had come from his plants at home.  What a sweet blessing!  Did I mention that I LOVE red raspberries.  My family will attest to this.  When we lived in South Bend, I was able to go to our cousins in Coloma, MI  and get some from their fruit farm.  Even when we lived in PA my aunt used to freeze some for me so that when we were home I could have some.  I think with 12 plants, I may even get some into the house to make a pie with.  Dan may even get some.  My dear, sweet husband does not usually eat them as he knows I love them.  I call them gold as they are so expensive and precious.  I know, I just wrote a whole paragraph about raspberries, but it was a sweet blessing for me.

Another sign of spring----I hung my sheets out to dry.  I don't have a whole lot of line out, but there is enough to hang our sheets---one set at a time.  I love that smell of line dried sheets!

Peirce's track meet

Another first in our lives.  We are now in the world of track and field.  Neither Dan nor I had ever been to a track event before Tuesday evening.  Fortunately this one was close to home so the two hours between Peirce's events was not an issue.  We'll see how we keep ourselves occupied at the away events.  Peirce is doing the long jump which is a difficult event.  He is working on it.  The winners at our meet were over 19 feet.----High schoolers!  Amazes me.  The world record is 29'4".  Today we went out to the field for Peirce to work with a friend of ours who was a long jumper in high school.  He once held the state record for a few hours.---I laugh, but have I ever held a state record in anything???  We had a good time as Peirce learned some fundamentals and then beat Dan at a 400 yd. race.

Resurrection Sunday

It has been a while since I have blogged.  I have pictures to post and more, but time has been a little tight the past few weeks.  Kirsten and I have been working on some projects together.  I'll have to post some pictures of those.  She is becoming quite the crafter and baker.  She made an angel food cake for our company today by herself. (It was from a mix, but she did do it all on her own.)

Today was such a great day!  The past few days have been part of today, so I guess that I need to go back to then.  Friday evening was our Good Friday Service.  A few years ago a book entitled, "On a Hill Too Far Away"was brought into our lives.  This was the first year that we did a Good Friday Service while we lived in South Bend.  This service was different than what we had done there, but it was a somber service focusing on Christ's suffering and death.  Each year I am touched in a different way.

We performed our Easter Cantata Sat. evening and twice this morning.  My voice is worn out now, but it was great.  It was titled, "The Wonder of  the Cross".  It follows the last week of Christ's life through the resurrection. (For those of you from South Bend, it ends with a familiar song--"He's risen, Hallelujah" from a past cantata)  I'm excited to hear from a few people about some people that came to church today.  We had so many visitors today, but I know that there were a few people in second service who were very much skeptics.  Dan was able to give a wonderful presentation of the gospel.

Well, I need to go to bed--brain is still running, but morning will come, and I still have one student at home.  I pray that each of you had a blessed day!  The title song to the cantata had a wonderful message...." May I never lose the wonder, the wonder of the cross....."

Thank God for my blessings.

So many times I hear a story on the news about something that happens to a child.  I hug my kids closer to me and thank God that they are safe.  I am doing that again but in a much closer way.  This time the story was much closer to home.  I received word yesterday that one of my cousin's sons was killed in an accident.  For those of you that know my family, this is the "Chicago cousins".  We don't see each other often, but we have grown up together and care about each other a lot.  Beth Ann is just a few weeks younger than I, so we have always enjoyed spending time together when our families visited.  Beth Ann's 12 year old son was at their business yesterday afternoon and there was an accident.  Nathan was killed.  Please pray for the Bias and Mate families.  I look at my children and wonder how I could ever be without one of them.  So, go hug your kids and thank God that he has allowed you to hold onto them.