I'm living in Kyiv, Ukraine, working with an organization called Youth With a Mission. Most of my exciting moments and public reflections are posted on my blog where you can read more stories about me than you really want to know.
I'm the ministry leader of Key of Hope, a mercy ministry that works with orphans and at-risk kids. For reasons I don't always understand, I also visit the hospital about twice a week to work with abandoned babies with a ministry called Mother's Care. This is work that at times takes me back and forth across the scale from heartwarming and fulfilling to deeply disturbing.
As well, I work with two orphanages, and a school for orphanage graduates. The most recent orphanage we started working with has 75 kids and is intended for special needs children. They are extremely warm and loving at this home, and if they have actual learning disabilities, it's hard for me to tell. We dropped some clothes off there one time, and found that the only ministry involved with them was a church that visited on Christmas and Easter. Now we go every Tuesday with games, Bible lessons, snacks, etc.
This past June, I had the unique experience of visiting Opa and Oma Kosachuk's hometowns in Western Ukraine. I never actually made it to Opa's village, because the roads were awfully rough. But I did go to his church. The building no longer existed, the communists took it away. But the original pulpit is still in use there. The church has been in existence since the time of the Czars. This is it, in the photo to the right.I also met Oma's cousins in the village of Solomka, where she grew up. Traveling with Uncle John was alot of fun because he told all sorts of stories and showed where things happened. 
Solomka treated me like a lost son, and want me to visit more often, since I live "so close" now. But I really need a translator to come with me to make it any kind of decent visit. Here are some pictures of Oma's cousins. Uncle Zhenya was sent to Siberia at age 17 because he was caught with a Bible. How is that for an amazing heritage? Uncle John told me how Opa Kosachuk was an amazing idea man during those hard times. He had secretly built a grain mill in the barn to provide food for our family. He planned some brilliant escapes, that amazed Opa Bettig and company. Uncle John should write a book.
Solomka treated me like a lost son, and want me to visit more often, since I live "so close" now. But I really need a translator to come with me to make it any kind of decent visit. Here are some pictures of Oma's cousins. Uncle Zhenya was sent to Siberia at age 17 because he was caught with a Bible. How is that for an amazing heritage? Uncle John told me how Opa Kosachuk was an amazing idea man during those hard times. He had secretly built a grain mill in the barn to provide food for our family. He planned some brilliant escapes, that amazed Opa Bettig and company. Uncle John should write a book. That trip really connected me to my Ukrainian heritage, in a way that surprised me. I'd like to go back to visit before winter, but I need to recruit someone to go with me.
