Missions for a Lifetime - Ukraine and France
In September, we decided to join our church mission outreach to Lviv, Ukraine, and then a short stop over in Rubelles, France, on the way home. We could never imagine what was about to unfold.
As it turned out, John, our Ukrainian born son decided to join the team for his first missions experience as an adult. The three of us felt that we should extend the mission trip to include two additional cities; Ternopil, where John was born, and Kyiv, where our spiritual daughter resides with her husband and three daughters. Our purpose in Ternopil was for John to seek healing and peace from his early childhood trauma; and Kyiv to reconnect with Halia Mokryk, who was our translator for the six years we ministered in Ukraine from 1997 to 2003.
Team from Community Bible Church, Highlands, NC
Lviv
Our mission in Lviv was to work with International Partnerships through one of their church plants, The Message of Hope Church, providing ESL, English as a Second Language, training. We had over 60 participants from the local community join the four day teaching. We were able to make life long relationships with our new Ukrainian friends and many came to a deeper knowledge of Jesus in the process. It wasn’t all work in that many of our new friends learned the Cupid Shuffle at our closing celebration. See the pic! Interestingly, the church primarily serves displaced Eastern Ukrainians from the war with Russia. Over 2 million Ukrainians have now been displaced by the war. Please pray for our Ukrainian friends.
Ternopil
As the team returned to the US, the Christie family remained in Ukraine and took the train to John’s birthplace. We were met by the now retired Bethlehem Childrens' Home Director, Nadia and our translator, Tanya. It was a great welcome home!
With only 24 hours in Ternopil, we began visiting special places from John’s past. The home he grew up in where he experienced much abuse, the Orphanage which is now a state-run preschool, the city centre and the lake area where we first bonded as a family many years ago. While taking a coffee break, unbeknownst to us Nadia made a call to social services to try and locate John’s sibling of whom he had only a vague memory. Vague because they were infants when the police and social services took him away. Within minutes, they were located and Luba, his sister, agreed to meet us for dinner in a few hours. Also, Lyubchyk, the brother, was located and as it turned out he is in the army stationed only a few blocks from where we were enjoying coffee. With amazing circumstances, it worked out that John’s unexpected reunion with his brother and sister was to take place that evening. The best way to describe the meeting was awkward at first and then spilling over into tears of joy and amazing happiness being reconnected to their big brother whom they weren’t sure existed. Since that evening, we have maintained a daily dialogue with John’s brother and sister and our "new-found children". Luba is 22 and a Dental Assistant and Lyubchyk is 21 and a soldier fighting the Russians to protect Ukraine’s sovereignty. We were a family of 3 coming to Ternopil and now it seems we are 5!
Pictured above: Rebecca and our son John at the Children’s Home / John at the house where he was until age 6 / John with the children’s home director, Nadia / John and Charley reliving memories from the past / The 3 siblings finally meet / And now we are five!