Gone to the Mountains

Ok everyone, dont panic...we wont be emailing or posting for about 10 days or so. We are on our way to western Ukraine in about 15 min. We will be doing 2 more VBS and going to Uchgarod on the western border. Please pray for our safty. We will be back soon and well email then. Love everyone.
The Applings

Youth Camp Ukraine 2009!!!

WOW!!!!

What a great time we had at youth camp. This was the first time for Steph and me to be part of camp like this. We had 26 youth attend the camp which is not as much as we were prepared to have but God is in control so these are the ones he wanted there I suppose. We experienced some very powerful and spiritual moments with the Lord during these 5 days of camp. There were two days in particular that God's presence was really felt. Every night Steph and I prepared a skit before the main service, but there was something unusual about Wednesdays service. Tonya Duddek came up with the idea for the skit that just happened to be the life story of one of our translator/workers Vita, Stepon's wife from Carpathia. After the skit she shared her testimoney and then Jeff Duddek preached for just a few minutes. That night 16 young people up front and prayed and asked Jesus into there heart. It was a very emotional and serious moment. The kids were just crying all over the place. Then later on Artyom who repented last year at youth camp made some confessions that he had not lived the life people thought he did. He would say he was a Christian but did not live the life of one. He asked us all including the Lord to forgive him and we did and God really has changed him. The past couple of days around him he has been so different. There has been a lot of stuff that he was holding on to that he is burning in the trash pit out back. Friday we had a really bad brush fire that started from another campsite and the wind blew it right in our direction. All of our campers and workers pitched in and getting water from the sea we were able to put it out quickly. God really helped us.

Our Friend Katrina

Please pray for our friend Katrina. Yesterday she broke her ankle walking down a grassy hill in Crimea. Katrina,a missionary in Nova Odessa, took her friend Faith and the Duddek family down to see the Sanitsas in Crimea.Jeff Duddek is getting the documents he needs done so he can drive them all to Nova Odessa today. But Jeff and Jason are on their way to Kiev this morning to ride a bus down to Nova Odessa to pick her up and bring her back to Kiev to hop on a plane to go home in America for surgery.( that was a mouthful!LOL) I think Jason said she broke her leg in 3 places. I am not sure of all the details just pray that she makes it home safe and pray for youth camp. Katrina is in charge of youth camp and now she cant be there and it starts on the 10th. We love her and would like you to pray for her safety!

Bible Trip to Belarus border

Well thank the Lord for His help this week. We were in north Ukraine by the border of Belarus for 4 days passing out bibles and tracks and other liturature. I did get sick the second night at our primitive camp site with the flu and it was a very hard night for me but with God's help I made it through. Thank you for all that were praying I really felt the Lord's touch. As far as we can tell 11 people gave their hearts to the Lord during this trip and I am not sure how many excatly but we gave out several boxes of bibles. These areas that we were able to reach have never been touched with the Gospel before. Some of them may have been to an Orthodox church but most of these areas don't have a even one of those. Many people could not even read. There were a lot of older people and not so many young people. They all moved to the city. These people that we talked with have had a very hard life. Many if not all were here during WW2 and endured a lot of hardship so the lives they live now compared to that are very good. One village that Jeff D. and his translator Artyom stopped in we really got to reach the people. Most of the men were drunk. That is how everyone deals with their problems here. We got to open air preach to them and gave them bibles and some asked the Lord to save them right there. It was very amazing. There are so many details it is hard to remember them all and write them all down. Thank you all again for prayerfully supporting this trip.

They are Home!!!

Yes the guys are home! They had a wonderful trip. They got home last night (a day early) and Jeff D was on a bus to go down to Nova Odessa with his family! They decided to come home early because they were all tired and felt that they were able to accomplish a lot and wanted to get my Jeff home and Jeff D home and Jason had to get ready for Sunday and it just seemed like it was time. We haven't had an actual count but they seem to think that about 11 men were saved on this trip. They are going to set up the computer and put all pics into a folder and we are going to have a family night tonight and hear all the stories. Jeff will have more details for you later but I do know that they are already planning on returning in November to play the Jesus film and revisit the families who excepted them with open arms and received Bibles!I am so sad that I wont be here to go! I do know they did lots of open air preaching at bus stations and stores, and handed out Bibles by the handfuls! One place there were so many people crowding around the van asking for Bibles that they all had to get out, and put up a bench and began to preach!!! WOW! I know it was amazing!Jeff will make a post in a day or so but thank you everyone for your prayers. Thank you for following our blog and keep praying for the people in Ukraine. We love you all!

ALSO....please check out the "fav link" spot on my blog and visit Jeff and Tonya Duddeks blog as well as Jason and Joanna Sturtevant's blogs

Some more pics of Ukraine

Thank you Joanna for letting get some of your pics to post on my blog!!! Jeff left with mine! Oh anyway, the 1st pic is Shelby at the water hole LOL. This was the last day of VBS in Ocekiva, it was our picnic,and it was HOT! The 2nd pic is the 2 teams coming back together for a meeting in the middle of the week. We had supper outside and were so happy to see our friends from Kanyazachee( I am sure I am not spelling that right) and the last one is so funny, Jason dropped us off in different places in the village before VBS so we could invite people from the village to VBS. While we were out the clouds opened up and it poured!!!! WE WERE SOAKED! But we had so much fun, but we were freezing after running home in it and while we waited we took the wet clothes off the girls so they could get warm and wrapped them in a sheet that we got from the church and waited on Jason and Joanna to get back.When they got home we took a pic. Some lady in the village brought Joanna's team into her house and gave them all clothes, that is why they arnt as wet anymore. What a memory!
We love it here!

Ukraine Pics

Well here are some pics. The family one is on our way back to Ocekiva from Nova Odessa. We stopped on our way for some authentic Ukrainian food. The next one is VBS in Nova Odessa at Katrina's house. And the last one is Tonya and I helping with the crafts in that same VBS!