Fall flew by!

The fall months here were full and fast and here's a taste of how we spent our time...

A small group of us went to spend a day with our friend Vasya for his birthday. It was a beautiful fall day, full of fellowship, food, and a walk in the nearby forest. 

Our crew of strollers and mushrooms hunters

No we didn't visit a pumpkin patch. We just found a pile of pumpkins in the yard near the wagon used to collect them and other vegetables from the garden. Pretty typical sight in a Ukrainian village in fall. 

Letting Vasya know ahead of time that we would bring food did not stop his mom from working well into the night to prepare quite a spread...that's Ukrainian hospitality!!

Enjoying the beauty of God's creation with friends

Their barn is stocked up for winter

We needed to do some winter preparation of our own, so a friend borrowed the chain saw from Agape and cut up all the leftover lumber from Sveta's house construction. It took us a couple of weekends, but it seems like we now have enough wood chopped and stacked to last the winter. 

And we have already had several warm fires in the wood stove!!

Our rehab team grew briefly to nine this fall before dropping back to eight. Alina, a student in the current class at our PT Training Center, joined us full-time in October. She helps with secretarial duties while also functioning as an assistant/student under Sveta's supervision until she completes our program in March. She has expressed a desire to do occupational therapy and we are grateful as we had to bid farewell to Ira in November. Ira was a long-time member of our ministry and our rehab team, but she is now on maternity leave in anticipation of the birth of her first son in January. We are sad to see her go, but excited for her and her husband and look forward to loving on their little boy!

Please join us as we continue to pray for more men to join our rehab team

Night out together in Ira's honor

We continue to have a full schedule of patients and a consistently long waiting list. Most of the patients this fall had recent traumas or strokes and we saw much progress during their rehabilitation. We use the LiteGait/treadmill many hours each day and see that many of our patients benefit from it. We first tried out the device with Evnika (below) and she then continued to use it almost every day for the 7 weeks she underwent rehabilitation at Agape. Evnika is 16 years old and had several strokes as well as brain surgery earlier this year. She was a joy to work with and was willing to try anything we asked of her. She really benefitted from using this device to improve her gait, endurance, balance and confidence. She is now back home, but we continue to hear from her periodically and are excited to see how she continues to improve. And maybe one day she will return to work at Agape as she now has a desire to become an occupational therapist. 

Veeka is our only OT at the moment - she has grown SO much in these past 2 years

With the addition of the LiteGait, I had more opportunities to participate in patient care these past few months. We often need two people to assist a patient with walking properly on the treadmill, so I have been spending most of my time there. I also got to fill in for sick therapists a time or two. I love being out in the therapy gym and not always tucked behind a computer screen! Below is Natasha Bolchuk's mom who fell off a ladder, fracturing her arm and spine. She spent almost 2 months in a horizontal position and this picture was taken the first time she got up on her feet. She is one tough and determined lady! We gave her a few pointers, a bit of assistance and the right equipment, and she took it from there. Before she left she was walking all over the third floor of Agape with only her husband by her side. We are soo thankful for the Lord's mercies, protection, and healing in her life!

Sveta recently took a patient outside while it was snowing for a little "real life" gait training!

We recently completed the third session for the third group of students at the PT Training Center. There were a variety of challenges over the two weeks, but God was gracious to give us wisdom and perseverance and we pray the students will fully understand and retain what they were taught. We will have a chance to find out when they return for their final session in February!

Alina, the newest member of our Agape rehab team

No one has bigger smiles than us on the final day!

We recently held another meeting of the New Opportunities Club at Agape. This is a time for people with disabilities to come together and enjoy fellowship, food, and a program. So many people attended and it was a joy to see friends from camp, former patients, and new friends/patients. Truth from God's Word was shared and we pray it bears fruit in the lives of those present. 

This lady had rehab with Sveta several years ago and then was my roommate at camp that summer. We love her and it was a joy to see her and hug her neck!

It's always a joy to see Ira and her mom

We celebrated Thanksgiving with our Ukrainian family - aka the rehab team - and had a wonderful time! It fell in the middle of the session so the entire team had to pitch in as Sveta and I were teaching until 6:00. Everything was delicious and we enjoyed the both the food and fellowship, as well as many games of Ligretto with the loser rotating out each hand. Vadim was out of town so Pasha was the lone man, but he handled it fine...he's had plenty of practice at work since Vadim is only with us until lunch each day anyway. Again, please be in prayer for more men to join our team!

I'm so thankful for these people!

For those who may be wondering, our region of Ukraine is not under martial law and is largely unaffected by the recent rise in tensions with Russia. Of course, we are praying for peace and remaining attentive, but we are thankful that our region remains safe at this time. We would appreciate your prayers for the nation, leaders, people and churches of Ukraine. Pray that this added conflict will bring more Ukrainians to God and that His people will be bold to proclaim the hope found in Him alone. 

May you all have a blessed season of celebrating the Savior's birth!