October flew by!

“Who wants the leftover borsch?”

“Ya!”

“Who wants the rice?”

“Ya!”

“Who wants the last cookie?”

“Ya!”

Some days our apartment turns into a live multilingual auction for food. When kids show up unexpected, we empty out our fridge and they eagerly accept! While my American cooking is usually the last to go, none of the cookies I bake are hardly on the plate long enough to cool before they’re all snatched up.

These last few weeks here, our apartment has a consistent flow of kids! About 5 or 6 days a week, we have teenagers taking over our apartment. It’s been really exciting to grow in deeper relationships with “our kids” and develop new relationships with some new faces. Here are some of our latest exciting updates!

• Kolya, 14, (above in the white) is being adopted by a local family! We’re so excited about this awesome opportunity for him! Since the orphanage doesn’t allow kids his age to go out on weeknights, when Kolya told us about the adoption, one of the first things he said was “I’ll be able to come to Wednesday nights now!”
• Two girls, Yulia and Luda, who have been previously hardened to relationship or learning about the teachings of Jesus, have been consistently seeking our friendship. They come over a couple of nights a week and even invited us to the apartment they share; Anya and I are looking forward to having a slumber party with them soon!
• On Thursday evenings, we have been having a discussion night, specifically with the purpose of seeking the Lord and encouraging each other. We have seen a major growth spurt in the spiritual lives of our kids as they are beginning to share with us testimonies of how God has worked in their lives, discuss and ask questions, and listen to the Lord for spiritual songs and words of encouragement. We love watching them grow!

Thank you so much for participating in the lives of these kids with your prayers and encouragement. God has been teaching Jared and me a lot about the family of God and we are so thankful to know that we have family all over the world! We have a good Father and are continually learning about how to better love and serve our brothers and sisters.

September in Sevastopol

September in Sevastopol is proving itself to give Jared and I a continuing adventure here in Ukraine. The mass amounts of tourists and traffic found here in the summer is beginning to die down, and weekends at the sea are a little quieter. School has begun again, which means many of the kids we work with are under the restraints and requirements of a new schedule, new teachers, and in some cases, a new school altogether. Their new schedules have left Jared and I to jump at any open opportunity to visit with “our” orphans, not only in the Wednesday evening and Thursday afternoon format we had become accustomed to.

These last three weeks, we haven’t had more than two kids together at a time. A dramatic drop from our groups of 15, that can seem a little discouraging to an American numbers-driven mindset. After our kickoff BBQ at the sea, which had been a complication of schedules that only produced two kids at a time, I sat disheartened with my friend Julia. She promptly reminded me that it was the first week after a summer off and that we had two new girls come and visit us—surely they appreciated some rarely received one-on-one time! And as I sit here two weeks later, the Lord is reminding me that He knows what He is doing.

While we are being faithful with our Wednesday evening family nights, who are we to turn down orphans in need of love on another day of the week?? So, our apartment has turned into mentoring central. With one or two kids here at a time about 5 days a week, we are teaching English, playing cards, cooking dinners, and drinking a lot of tea. This season is definitely proving to be different—challenging in new ways, exciting in others. What we know for sure is that God is moving here in Sevastopol, and he has invited us to join Him in loving His people here—and one by one, that’s what we’re doing!

BBQ on the Beach

During our first week here, Jared and I have spent our days adjusting to the time change, catching up with friends & kids here, and praying for God's work in Sevastopol. Since we were here last, lots of exciting things have developed, the biggest of which is relationship with the orphanages. Yesterday, we had the opportunity to visit the orphanage for special needs kids, called "Internat." Today, we will be visiting the kids at another orphanage called "Dyetski Dome #2." And we're inviting them ALL to our BBQ on the beach tomorrow! We're praying that we'll not only have a good number of kids show up, but also that the kids who come would be open to the love of Jesus. We want to show them love and light, as well as let the kids know that we're available to talk with them, hang out with them, and that we want to spend time with them! We're also praying that God will help us communicate effectively and have a ton of fun! Please join us in prayer for tomorrow; we want to start this season off on the right foot and have an awesome impact on the orphans of Sevastopol!

Planes, trains, and avtobuses...

After two days of traveling, we finally arrived at our home away from home in Sevastopol, Ukraine! Amanda and I were curious about exactly how long it would take us to get here with layovers and all, so we started the timer on our iPod as we left for the San Francisco Airport from my dad’s apartment in Santa Rosa. We crossed over the Golden Gate Bridge just after sunset and began our voyage. It was beautiful to see the city lights of San Francisco and the beautiful fog surrounding the steep glowing spires of the bridge, but everything after that (three flights, escalators, trams, taxis, conveyor belts, and metros) was mostly a blur until forty four hours later when we made it to our apartment in Sevastopol! Overall, we had a great trip though, and we are thankful for 21st century technology that allowed us to get here in hours rather than months!

But what would a voyage be without a few setbacks along the way? It wasn’t until an hour before we were about to take off from New York that we realized that I booked the flight out of Kiev to Simferopol a day early! I did everything I could to get a hold of the Ukrainian airline company but to no avail. Praise God our friend Julia in Ukraine. We were able to talk to her on the internet at the JFK airport, and she called the Ukrainian airline for us. They ended up rebooking the flight we already missed for only $30 dollars!

In Kiev we were so blessed to be met at the airport by a new friend named Alina. She is a local Ukrainian that served in the camp for orphans this summer with Andy and Jamiee. She helped us make our Ukrainian domestic flight connection to Simferopol, which can sometimes be a little tricky. We also had a long lay over there, so Alina took us downtown and we spent that day seeing some of the sights before flying to Simferopol at 9:30pm. By the time we boarded the plane for Simferopol, we were so exhausted that Amanda and I both fell asleep before the plane ever took off. In Simferopol our new friends and partners in ministry, Sasha and Anya, picked us up! Sasha and Anya moved from Kiev to Sevastopol just a few weeks ago to be part of the Operation Lazarus team, and let me tell you, they are a huge blessing! They are currently living with us until they find their own apartment, and we are having a great time together. It is going to be so great to have them here with us, as they are filled with the love of God and they can speak with the kids fluently in Russian. We believe God is going to use them to help the kids begin to grow a lot deeper in their spiritual walk!

We have our first get together with the kids this Saturday at the beach! After a successful outreach at the orphanage camp this summer, we believe there are going to be a lot of news kids meeting with us each week, hungry for love and truth. Please be praying for this Saturday, the kick off of our time with the kids this trip! We can definitely feel the effects of your prayers thus far. Also, thanks to all of those who have supported us financially. Your support is a great blessing to us, and we pray that it would be an even greater blessing to you! We will post regular updates on this blog, so stay tuned. Please send us an e-mail when you get a chance – we would love to hear from you! You can write us at: TheWhitesInUkraine@gmail.com If you would like to make a one time gift to support us financially, you can donate online by clicking on the Paypal link below. Gifts made through this link go directly to us. You are in our prayers. May His Kingdom come His will be done on earth as it is in heaven!

Returning to Ukraine

Summer greetings! 

We hope you have all been enjoying the sunshine as much as we have!  We have kept busy since our return from Ukraine at the end of May.  Amanda spent the month of June helping with her best friend’s wedding and we have both been working part time jobs. Amanda quickly gained a job at a local coffee shop, and I have been working at a local organic farm. Just a few days ago God provided a car for us to use until we head back to Ukraine, but up until now we have had fun and saved money by riding our bikes to get around.  Amanda’s parents have been a blessing by allowing us to stay with them in Lincoln, CA.  

Fall is quickly approaching, and we are making preparations to return to Ukraine in the first week of September!   We had an amazing time during the first trip to Ukraine, and we are excited to return for another three months.  During the first trip we were able to develop great relationships with the local orphans and local believers; we became familiar with the city of Sevastopol and the local culture, and we made great progress with Russian!  These things have prepared us to fill in the gap for Andy and Jaimee in Ukraine while they are the States for a few months having their baby!

When we return to Ukraine we will continue mentoring and loving the post orphanage youth by providing weekly family nights (which consists of making them a meal and spending time with them through games and other activities), giving English lessons, and staying connected with them throughout the week.  We will also start doing some of the groundwork for starting a transitional housing center by contacting similar programs that exist in other parts of Ukraine.  Another important part of filling in the gap in Ukraine is continuing relationships with the local believers there.  One of Operation Lazarus’ main goals is to inspire local believers to take care of the orphans.

We want to thank all of you for the prayers and generous gifts you have offered in our support thus far!  We are very grateful and so are the orphans in Ukraine!  Below you will see pictures of some of the orphans that you have shared the love of Jesus with by supporting us in ministry!  Please continue to pray for us, as we venture to Ukraine without Andy and Jaimee by our side.  Pray that our relationships with the youth continue to grow and that they become firmly grafted into the family of God. Please also pray for continued progress in starting the transitional home.

If you aren’t already and are interested in supporting us financially, we are grateful for every gift, no matter the size.  Our two biggest expenses are our plane tickets and rent while in Ukraine (we won’t be sharing an apartment with Andy and Jaimee this trip).  You can write a check to Operation Lazarus, with Jared and Amanda in the memo, and mail it to: 

Hidden With Christ Ministries

Attn: Operation Lazarus

P.O. Box 3267

Tustin, CA 92781

Or you can click on the link below to support us electronically!

Thanks again for all of your love and support.  We have felt your love and the effects of your prayers.  Your encouragement means so much to us! 

Grace and peace,

Jared and Amanda White

The end of our trip for now!

The last three months have gone by incredibly quickly! The time spent in Ukraine with Andy, Jaimee, and some of the orphaned youth of Sevastopol has truly given us a deeper understanding of the Kingdom of God. The more time we have spent with the kids, the more we have fallen in love with them, and it is going to be difficult to say good bye. They have been a joy and a challenge to be with, so in need and yet so independent. God has definitely been teaching us about his Father’s heart for each of them, showing us how to love, pray for, and empower them. Throughout our trip, as we have given our hearts and our time, God has never ceased to demonstrate his impactful and faithful love.

We have enjoyed all of our efforts and have been blessed to develop meaningful relationships with the core group of post-orphanage youth. It has also been exciting to see many new faces showing up at our weekly family gatherings and other events. A young lady named Luda is one of the newest friends we’ve made, and since spending time with us, she has shown a great change in her demeanor and has made a positive connection with Amanda. Then there is teaching English, while it has had its challenges, has been productive for the students and a learning experience for us. Regarding our Russian communication skills, we are starting to understand more and more basic phrases and have become comfortable with finding our way around the city and the market on our own. In that respect, living with Andy and Jaimee has been a wonderful opportunity to learn the language and culture. We are truly thankful for the opportunity we’ve had to work and live with them. We have enjoyed many powerful times of prayer, worshipping, brainstorming, and planning together, and we can only hope that we have been a big of blessing to them as they have been to us!

While we are returning to the United States for part of the summer, we believe that God wants us to return to Ukraine this fall. Andy and Jaimee are having a child and we want to be in Ukraine, maintaining relationships, working towards the transitional home, and teaching English, while they are in the United States for several months with a newborn child. We cannot express how thankful we are to all of you who have activated you faith towards God and love for orphans by praying and supporting us in our ministry here! We will keep you updated on our plans and our activities this summer. Please pray that we will continue to progress in our Russian skills this summer and be effective for God’s kingdom with our activities. We love you all and look forward to talking to you in person to share the many details of our journey thus far!

Love and peace,


Jared and Amanda

our Hawaiian party -- Ukrainian style!

Hello Family! We hope you’re enjoying your Easter and that you find yourself in good spirits and good company today! This has been a very busy and encouraging week for us here in Ukraine. First of all, a couple of weeks ago, Vanya had the idea to throw a party as a fun event to bring in some of the other orphan kids. So, we all sat down and came up with a theme, decorations, food, music, and the works; Vanya even made a flier to hand out! Subsequently, on Wednesday, our apartment was packed with kids ready for a luau! Our Hawaiian party was a hit—and a lot of work! Jaimee and I were in the kitchen all day making homemade Hawaiian bread, marinating chicken for kabobs, and cracking open coconuts to make coconut cream pie. We decorated with flowers and whimsical cut-outs of palm trees and surfboards that I had painted late into the night. The most exciting thing though, was the turnout! We had seven new kids from the orphanage and they all had a blast! We played limbo, Hawaiian charades, and the boys loved playing a game of American football. Towards the end of the night we sat down as a group and told them a little bit about why we had a Hawaiian party and why we invite orphans over to our house every week. We are SO excited to see how many of these kids return next week! Please keep them in your prayers and be praying that we can show them love in the ways that they need to see it.
The rest of our week has been filled with more cooking lessons from Tanya (this week we made borsch!), teaching English, and fellowshipping with friends. On Monday I met with a 13 year old girl from church who had asked me to help her work on her English. She already speaks pretty well, but needs some help stepping out of her shy exterior. And our Thursday English lesson is becoming more and more fruitful as the kids continue to understand more and more and work really hard on their studies! Friday was a beautiful sunny day, so Andy, Jaimee, Jared and I took the afternoon to do a little bit of local sight-seeing… statue after statue. This city is full of them! We’re still enjoying our time here and look forward to what each day holds. Learning to live in community and live out Christ’s love is our continual joy and challenge. We’re confident that the kids we’re investing in will continue to grow, succeed, and one day turn around to invest in others. So thank you all so much for your prayers and support—you’re playing an integral part in the process too!

For our videos of charades, cracking open coconuts and much more... check out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztafq7mJuFU

Coureetza! : a mean name and a yummy casserole

The last two weeks have been filled with daily language studies, teaching English lessons, family nights with the orphans, gardening, learning to get around on our own, playing with the neighborhood kids, community prayer and worship, a small neighborhood improvement project, and several key moments with some of the orphans Andy and Jaimee have been discipling.

Amanda and I notice our Russian skills improving from week to week, which is encouraging, but it hasn’t come without tremendous effort! Russian is a difficult language, with very few similarities to the English language. Thank you for your prayers in that regard, because they are truly helping. On the same hand, we are also improvising in our understanding of the English language as a result of teaching it. Don’t laugh but for example, this week I learned that the article “an” precedes nouns that start with a vowel, “an apple.” And “a” precedes nouns that start with a consonant, “a cup.” I always knew one sounded right, but I didn’t know why!

Last week, Amanda and I both ventured further into town by ourselves than we ever had before. I went to the market on my moped and bought minutes for my cell-phone and a rake (for a neighborhood project) using all Russian. I was able to communicate on my own and was only insulted one time (apparently I offended a Russian merchant because I didn’t buy his rake and he called me “coureetza,” which means “chicken”). Amanda went thrift store shopping with a couple new Ukrainian friends and rode the bus back on her own. It may not sound like that big of a deal, but we rarely used public transportation in suburban America, so it is a new experience for us, especially since we are still learning how to get around.

Probably the most exciting news revolves around progress with the youth-disciples. The other day, 18-year-old Vanya asked Jared if he had a job. Another boy, Andre replied back to him, “Vanya… he’s here.” Andre understood that they are our jobs; they’re why we’re in Ukraine! Shortly after that, Vanya had a great conversation with Andy and Jaimee, expressing his desire to start inviting orphans from the Dyetski Dom (Children’s House) to come to our Wednesday family night. He is finally starting to internalize the vision to see other orphans succeed in life, and he wants to be part of it! It’s so exciting to see the disciples start to desire to become leaders.

Also, we have been encouraging several of the youth to get jobs; without work, the kids have little to no money and we wonder where they get money to eat, and how often they do eat. Helping them find good jobs, and teaching them to be on time, save their money, and stick with it is the first step in helping them set goals for their lives. So, this week, they have been making significant progress! After a minimal amount of encouragement, Nastia had a job several days later. And with some more encouraging, Vanya made phone calls in our kitchen and was able to set-up four interviews for the next day. We’re also currently working on helping Andre make connections with some friends who own a restaurant, to see if he could work for them. He’s talented in that area and we would love to see him go to culinary school for a license to be a chef!

I have spent some of my spare time gardening and currently have two tomato plants, eight corn plants, and several heads of lettuce growing. I also began a small neighborhood improvement project. A small, fenced-in, soccer field in our apartment complex was overtaken by weeds and trash. In the last week I have pulled most of the weeds and picked up the trash. I hope to christen the field with a neighborhood game of “futbol,” and several of the neighbor kids have been already been asking me when we are going to play. “Kogda mwi siberayamsa egrat vfutbol?”

Amanda & Jaimee have been spending time figuring out how to cook everyday meals from scratch. Today they even had the opportunity to learn how to make a traditional Ukrainian dish from a friend, Tanya. She taught them how to make “bleenchicky,” a potato pancake-like food, which tastes excellent with sour cream. They also learned how to make a casserole with chicken (coureetza!), potatoes, dried apricots, prunes, onions, and an assortment of various spices.

We have been learning so much in the last couple of weeks and are really enjoying living here. Definitely one of the greatest blessings is having time to spend with our Father on a daily basis in community with Andy and Jaimee. Please let us know if you have any prayer requests. It is difficult to write all of you individually, but we sincerely do want to hear what has been going on in your life. You are not out of sight out of mind! We love you and can’t wait to hear from you!

English Teaching, Women's Day, and other fun stuff...

This last week has been so busy! We started the weekend with some friends our age, who invited us over for tea. Andy and Jaimee met them through local believers, and they are both professional interpreters. (It’s a blessing to have friends who speak English!) We ended up spending all evening with them, discussing theological issues, playing card games, and eating pizza. Of note, it was on our way to their apartment that we saw recycling in Ukraine for first time—there were containers constructed of chicken-wire on the sidewalks for depositing glass and plastic bottles (Yay!!).

Sunday, the 8th, was Women’s Day, and Jaimee and I woke up to flowers and chocolates from our wonderful husbands! Later, we participated in worship services with a local church, which all of our kids were eager to join us for. In fact, several of them called Andy about six times double checking that we were meeting them at McDonald’s so we could all walk to the worship service together. We’re so blessed that the kids have a desire to come with us on Sundays; they’ve never been asked to come, they just want to. In fact, on Wednesday night, Vanya told us that his goal is to feel like he feels during worship services all the time. While our kids are rough around the edges, they want to know God more personally and desire genuine relationships, they just don’t quite know how to obtain either. Even Nastya, who came to worship service this week with the distinct smell of booze on her breath, impatiently waits for us at McDonald’s every Sunday.

Monday is our Sabbath—we take the day to rest and be rejuvenated in the Lord. And since this Monday was the day observed for Women’s Day, Jaimee and I were invited to a ladies’ luncheon at the home of a local believer. This was my first introduction to “sala.” I saw this unusual looking dish on the table and asked our friend Tanya what it was. She replied with a laugh, “If I tell you, you won’t eat it!” She was right. “Sala” is seasoned pig fat, with the skin left on. I didn’t even try it—suddenly I realized the value of a kosher meal! Aside from the sala, the rest of the afternoon was lovely. These ladies are so great—they’re filled with JOY! Even with a huge language barrier, they’re more than happy to welcome me into their circle and laugh with me about my terrible Russian accent and their broken English. When there are no words, a smile and sign language will get you a long way!

Wednesday night we had our second family night of the year and Jared made it a big hit with a bilingual game of charades! It was actually a good way to help us with our Russian! How do you say “human contortionist?” We had an awesome time, and after all the craziness, got an opportunity to sit down with our four main disciples and talk with them about how they want to grow spiritually. (One of our bilingual friends, Tanya, interpreted for us.) This conversation was a blessing, not only because Tanya was there to help, but also because we have been seeking the Lord about how to effectively help these kids grow in their relationship with God. They are all new believers, and they’re bombarded everyday with the temptations of sex, materialism, drugs, and alcohol. While they can’t be protected from everything and need healing in some huge ways, we believe they will grow in the freedom of Christ, and we are praying for the wisdom to help guide them there.

Finally, we had our first English lesson today, and it went great! We had three students today, and they all worked hard. Their desire to learn makes teaching that much easier! We’re taking an approach of submersion, meaning we’re trying to use as little Russian as possible to communicate. They did an awesome job, and by the end of the lesson we had them all pronouncing “th” like pros (The “th” sound doesn’t exist in Russian or Ukrainian). Andy & Jaimee had some ESL books & materials donated, so we’re using those to teach the kids. We even have workbooks for them to do homework! It feels good to be on the giving rather than receiving end of homework!

Watch Amanda teach English at the following link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dd0kQGJB7G8

Thank you for reading our blogs and for all your previous feedback! We value your prayers and encouragement. Please seek the Lord with us for wisdom on how to help the kids grow spiritually. The language barrier limits our conversation, but we know that God is bigger than our Russian vocabulary! “May the grace of our Lord Jesus, the Liberating King, infuse your life with His Spirit, brothers and sisters!” (Galatians 6:18)

If you want to watch more videos of life in Ukraine, you can visit our YouTube page at the following link:

http://www.youtube.com/user/TeamWhite

Our First Family Night

Wednesdays nights here in Sevastopol are family nights. By 5:30 the first kid is shouting to us from outside the window, asking to be let in. They trickle in, and by 6 pm we have seven Ukrainian teenagers around our kitchen table scarfing down Jaimee's awesome spaghetti off of yellow plastic plates. I can't understand but a few words of what anyone's saying, but between a couple of people who speak a little Russian and a little English, we can all communicate well enough. Besides, who needs translators to tickle, to wrestle, to surf the internet, and to take silly pictures? Teens are teens no matter what country they live in!

From the moment Nastia walked in and threw her arms around Jaimee, then Andy, and then me, I fell in love with her. She is clearly one of the more troubled girls, and begs for attention through drinking, smoking, and the stories she tells. She is eager to learn English—every time someone says something in English she demands that Andy interprets for her. I am excited to develop a relationship with her, to begin teaching her English, and to show her the grace and freedom of her heavenly Father.

One of the boys, Vanya, seemed to take a special liking to Jared. Vanya’s accent is so thick that even other Ukrainians have a hard time understanding him; in fact, he can barely say Jared’s name. But Vanya didn’t need anyone to understand his Russian to get Jared to wrestle with him! Some friendly punches and noogies are just what bonded Jared & Vanya last night. In fact, the 11 year old girl from across the hall, Anya, was excited to get in on the wrestling action too. She was jumping on Jared like she was a monkey in a tree!

Most importantly, as we watched Andy & Jaimee interact with the kids they’ve been discipling for the last 18 months, we realized how hungry the orphans are for family, for mothers and fathers, even for discipline. We’re here to hang out with them, to give them a safe and homey environment, to take them to the pharmacy to get cold medicine, to walk them to the bus stop, to be their family—to show them the love of Christ! Jared and I are eager to see the ways in which God has for us to minister to these kids. Also, the more we get to know them the more motivated we become to help Andy and Jaimee work on projects such as transitional housing, summer camps, and starting a youth center. Thank you for being a part of this journey we’re on to love the orphans of Ukraine! We need each of you, your prayers, and your encouragement more than ever!

In Sevastopol!

Well, we finally made it to Sevastopol, Ukraine and are loving it! The past week has been filled with lots of traveling, language learning, taxi cabs, marshrutkas, meeting new people, Ukrainian food, Ukrainian versions of American food, moped rides, apartment searching, jet lag, sleep, lots of laughter, and even more prayer! All of our travels went well, and we made it without any delays. We got lots of sleep on the flight from New York to Kiev, and our flight on the Ukrainian air carrier, AeroSvit, from Kiev to Simferopol was safer and smoother than we expected. We picked our baggage up from an outdoor baggage claim with its conveyor belt covered with snow, then crammed into a large van with Andy and Jaimee and a total of 8 large bags and 8 carrier-on bags.
The first two night in Ukraine we stayed in Simferopol, which is in the heart of the Crimean Peninsula, with Andy and Jaimee's good friend Tanya. Tanya lives in a soviet style house (one sink in the whole house, no dish washer, sporadic hot water, and no kitchen) with a spunky old babushka. We soon learned that sour cream (smyetana) is added to everything and that the local meal of choice is borsch. The borsch that Tanya made for us was quite delicious, and was made of potatoes, shredded cabbage, beet root, and an assortment of spices.
After staying in Simferopol for two nights we took another taxi-van to Sevastopol, where Andy and Jaimee operate their outreach to local orphans. We stayed for two nights in a decent apartment/hotel while looking for an apartment. After struggling to get the local apartment agency to give us more than one or two listings at a time, and after checking out several apartments that were not worth their price in Grivnas or American Dollars, God blessed us with a great apartment in a nice location. While it does not have the luxuries of a standard apartment in the United States it is spacious and clean. We have since been meeting the orphans Andy and Jaimee have "adopted," learning how to get around on the local public transportation system, learning Russian, catching up on sleep, getting used to the new food, and trying to understand the culture.
The City of Sevastopol is a tapestry of graffiti on every wall, cement telephone poles, Russian and Ukrainian Sailors, crazy taxi-cab drivers, colorful city markets, strolling vodka drinkers, national monuments, traffic circles, soviet style apartment buildings, and thousands of God's beautiful people walking the streets. We are so excited to be here. Our hearts are growing in the love of God, our understanding of the world is changing, our friendships are being strengthened, and we are excited about life. Being here has only increased our desire to learn Russian, and we are experiencing new things on a daily basis. We are looking forward to developing relationships with the orphans and beginning to implements and pursue ideas that will help provide hope for the 100,000 orphans of Ukraine!
Thank you everyone for your continued prayer and support! Please send us any prayer request you may have, post comments on our blog, and feel free to ask us about anything that may peak your curiosity about Ukraine! We will be posting more pictures and updates later this week - stay tuned!

Ticket to Ride!!

Hey everyone, this is Amanda, letting YOU know that we have an official leave date!  We booked our tickets and our plane leaves from San Francisco on February 23rd.  And with our skymiles, they only cost us less than $800 each, which is a huge blessing.  WOOHOO!! We're so excited!  This makes our dreams more of a reality!  Thank you so much for your prayers and support--we could not go and do this without our family.  You are such an important part of our lives and our vision. :) 

We recently met with Andy & Jaimee, our amazing friends that we'll be living with in Ukraine, and worked out some details and plans for our trip, as well as encouraged each other in our dreams.  We feel a little more prepared now that we know what specific things we'll need to bring and how things will look when we get to Ukraine.  But God is always throwing new things at us, so we're prepared mostly for adventure!

 Please be praying for our packing and praying and planning now in these last few days.  This is our last week at our jobs and then we'll be able to focus our time on practical and spiritual preparation.  We'll keep you updated on the next steps of our adventure! If you have any questions or encouragement, email us at thewhitesinukraine@gmail.com. 

Getting ready to leave.

Thank you for showing interest in our upcoming adventure to Ukraine! Amanda and I have been so blessed by all of the encouragement and support we have received from everyone we have shared our plans with! Almost everyone has encouraged us to take advantage of the opportunity to travel and have an adventure while we are free from obligations such as debt or familial responsibilities. But more than going on an adventure or enjoying the excitement of travel, Amanda and I are most looking forward to developing new relationships with the orphans of Sevastopol, Ukraine, doing whatever we can to show them love, bring them into family, and provide them opportunities for developing new skills and education to help them succeed as adults. As many of you already know, the statistics are currently rather bleak: Only 10% of the teenagers that leave the orphanages after they turn 18-years-old will successfully transition into adulthood. We want to help change these statistics and will be working with our good friends Andy and Jaimee Langeland in their ministry, Operation Lazarus, to do so.

In preparation for our journey, I recently gave notice of resignation from my excellent job with Shasta County as a probation officer and Amanda is soon giving her notice at Starbucks. We are taking a leap of faith in order to embark upon this journey, but we know God is taking care of us. The great outpouring of encouragement and commitments to support us financially by our friends and family has reaffirmed God's provision in our lives. We have been doing what we can to live below our means to save for this journey and believe that investing in the lives of orphans is more than a worthwhile investment of our time, energy, and money. If you feel the same, all words of encouragement, prayers and monetary donations are greatly appreciated!

As we continue to prepare for the journey, and once we make it to Ukraine, we will continue to provide updates and pictures on this blog website. Please subscribe to our blog if you are interested in receiving ongoing updates! If you are interested in supporting us financially, you can click the "donate" button on the bottom of this page. All donations, no matter what the size are a huge blessing! I can also e-mail or mail you a donation form if you would prefer to write a check. If you want to send your thoughts our way, you can post comments on this blog or e-mail us at: thewhitesinukraine@gmail.com. Many thanks for all of the encouragement we have already received and thanks to those who have already begun to support us financially. We cannot express how grateful we are for your support. Peace and many blessings upon you and your family!

Love,

Jared and Amanda