A very interesting week!

Hey everyone! I have been REALLY busy this week! Our speaker was also our DTS leader's wife... Nina. She taught on "Inductive Bible study." We took the book of Philemon (between Titus and Hebrews for those of you who don't know) and basically disected it. We learned about the Biblical history, we looked at all the details, and then put all of it together to make a general overview. It was really interesting. The weather here was kinda rainy this week, unfortunately. Not so many nice days. We were supposed to have our "fun time," on Monday, but it was raining so we didn't. Wednesday I led worship with Andrea. I have done that 2 times so far with Andrea. We made a schedual of who will lead worship, intercessory prayer, and meditation every day. We have worship every morning, but we alternate intercession and meditation. 2 days a week the pastor of the church where we are having lectures leads worship, but the other 3 days it's up to whoever is on the schedual for that day. I have been getting guitar lessons from the pastor, and plan on getting an electric when I get home. I also have been learning bass along with Yura, who has always wanted to play. I am learning things and then teaching him. It is going good so far... I think he has alot of potential. Anyway, yesterday after lectures we were told that this morning we would each have to take an "eternal principle" (something from the Bible that could be applied to everyday life) and preach a 10 minute sermon on this principle. I almost passed out. For those of you who don't know, I have a HUGE fear of public speaking..... HUGE!!!!! I knew I had to obey my leader so I went home and spent half the night preparing my sermon. I spoke on helping each-other with our problems or burdens. It actually went alot better than I thoguht it would. We had kind of an outline that we were supposed to follow, and the first thing was to build a "bridge" to the audience. We had to tell a joke, or a story, or something to get their attention and that would relate to what our message was. I opened by playing "Lean on Me," by Bill Withers. Everyone really liked that. They all said I did really good. Also this morning I helped Natasha lead worship... in Russian!!! It was... well... interesting. Thank God that I can at least read in Russian, otherwise I would have been totally lost instead of just mostly lost. I had to stop playing comepletely at one point because I was so confused. We did "God of Wonders," but that was the only song that I knew. It was really hard. Before I tell you the next thing, I want to personally thank everyone who contributed to our outreach fund. It was a huge blessing to all of us. I am happy to announce that we will all be able to go to India!!!!! Except for our DTS leaders, the Gurov family, unless some miricle happens. We have to leave as 2 teams though, which is disappointing; and we will only go for one month instead of 2. I am just happy that we all can go. The first group (Yura, Sveta, Natasha, and Nika) will leave on June 8th and return to Ukraine July 8th or 9th... I can't remember for sure. The second team (Gyulnara, Andrea, Vova, and I) will leave for India June 15th and return to Ukraine July 14th. If you could pray for us that would be great! We will have the second part of our outreach in Crimea on the coast, having youth camps on the beach!!!!!! I am really excited for that!!!!!!! Tomorrow some of us will go by car to Yalta, a very beautiful city right on the black sea. We can go swimming!!!!! I am really excited for this too, and I hope to somehow post pictures. It's hard because I can't post them from the internet cafe'. I'll try to find another way. Yura, Sveta, and Galya are in Sevastopol this weekend. That is Yura and Sveta's hometown, and Galya's boyfriend lives there. They won't be going to Yalta, because they have already been there several times because it is very close to Sevastopol. Next weekend, our team will be leaving early Saterday morning to go to Sevastopol. We will watch Yura be water-baptized and then we will go to the same rehab center where Sveta was ministering. She and Yura both completed rehab there, Sveta 2 years ago and Yura 6 months ago. We will be doing some kind of program for the 6 people going through rehab right now. We will spend the night there and go to Yura, Sveta, and Gyulnara's home curch on Sunday. We have opportunity Sunday morning to walk around Sevastopol, because chruch doesn't start until 1 pm. There are alot of historic places there, and it is right on the black sea. Well, I think I told you everything, except I love and miss all of you!!! I'll update again as soon as possible, hopefully with some pictures. God bless!!! -Missy