Dear Friends and Supporters,
Happy Thanksgiving!
Steve and I will be traveling to Kiev, Ukraine, for the week of Thanksgiving (Nov 20th through Nov 29th). We would appreciate your prayers specifically for this trip in the following ways:
Before the trip (now until November 20th) please pray for:
- Successful planning and working with the Ukraine Team to prepare
- Space on the flights we will be taking to get to Ukraine (We are traveling on a pass, the passes are cheaper so they allow us to make a more affordable trip to Ukraine but there is risk of getting bumped from a flight.)
During the Trip (November 20th through November 30th)
- Safe travel
- That we will have good conversations with the Ukraine Team, church and friends
- That Dawn is able to work out a schedule with the team for next year’s administrative tasks
- Safety in Ukraine for us as we travel in Kiev and possibly to another city
The Trip Home (November 29th and November 30th)
- Safe travel (We won’t get to our home until about 1 am on Nov 30th after traveling for over 24 hours)
- That we make all the planned flights.
- Wisdom as we process things learned on this trip and as we continue to seek God’s guidance for our future
While we have no formal activity such as a “camp” planned for this trip, the purpose is to connect with team members, work on future plans, and to allow me to work with the Country Director as needed concerning budgets and work activities for the next year.
Thank you for your prayers for us. This past month has been hectic with a lot of travel for me. However, we continue to see God narrowing our options little by little and we think this trip to Ukraine will help in that process.
With grateful hearts,
Dawn & Steve Sparks
Steve and I are looking forward to a visit to Kiev over Thanksgiving. We have been breaking out our winter coats and scarves and getting them aired out for our trip to the cold weather of Ukraine!
We are actually leaving Austin on November 20 and we’ll arrive in Kiev on Saturday, November 22. We are looking forward to reconnecting with friends – both American and Ukrainian – and to further discussions and experiences that will help show us where God may be leading. It will also be nice to have the chance in person to talk about the financial things I’ve been doing for the team from here and to adjust or correct anything that might need adjusting or correcting 
.
Steve visited me in Kiev last year for Thanksgiving so it is nice to be able to return this year as husband and wife and celebrate with everyone again.
Wow, this last month or so has been really busy! I’ve been doing quite a bit of traveling and got behind on posting about it, so I’ll catch you up on everything in this post.
I arrived home from the missions conference in Roanoke on Monday afternoon and enjoyed one night at home before heading to Fort Worth Presbyterian Church. I gave a report to the missions committee on Tuesday evening. This church has sent a number of people on trips to Ukraine so I’ve gotten to meet many of them as they came through or to Kiev.
From Fort Worth, I drove to Tyler, Texas, to speak at my home church, Fifth Street Presbyterian. Fifth Street has a Wednesday evening meeting and I was invited to speak there. The fun bonus for me was staying with my parents for a couple of days! The people at Fifth Street are always a great audience for me. They saw me go to Ukraine as a two-year missionary and then they saw me during the two and a half years it took to transition to return to Ukraine as a long term missionary. Many of them remain very interested in what I am doing and look forward to my reports, so it is a joy to speak to them.
My most recent trip was to Wildwood Presbyterian Church in Tallahassee, Florida. I was in Tallahassee last weekend, November 8-10, and had the opportunity to speak a few minutes in the church service and then take part of a Sunday School class time. I met some interesting people and enjoyed hearing about how God has led a number of people in their church to minister in Berlin. It is interesting to hear about life in Berlin and compare and contrast it to life in Ukraine. There are so many exciting things going on all around the world!
