Back to School

After a summer spent with family, we are back to school this week

Sep 05, 2024

Dear friends and family,

It’s been a while since we’ve sent a family update. We’ve missed sharing photos and more personal takes on our work and our lives here. It’s been a busy season. (For those of you who only subscribe to this family newsletter, you have missed hearing about several events, and I encourage you to read the last few updates from the UBI newsletter here.)

We hope you all enjoyed your summer and are feeling blessed as you transition back into the rhythm of fall.

Summer

Our summer went well, but it was not filled with the usual visit of sponsors around the United States. After our exhausting 2023 summer tour, we decided we would let Eliana get a little older before attempting that again.

We did travel to the States, however. We spent June and July with our families on the west coast. Often it feels as though we have to speed through those visits with family, so it was nice to spend extended time with each side. Justus and Eliana very much enjoyed the extra special time with cousins, aunties, grandmas, and grandpas.

We did visit three of our partnering churches in the area, and it was good to spend time with brothers and sisters we don’t see often.

Staying Connected

During our typical summer travels, it is a challenge for me to stay connected to Ukraine and the work at UBI because of the travel and meetings on the U.S. side. This year, I was able to stay more focused on the ministries in Ukraine, regularly meeting with our staff as we tied up loose ends from last school year and planned for the next. (Planning UBI’s schedule is definitely one of the hardest parts of my job.) And even though our students were on summer break, the humanitarian aid arm of UBI never stops, so there were always things to discuss regarding those projects. Even though we weren’t constantly on the road, it was a challenge to try and be in two continents at once.

Back to School

UBI returned to the classroom this Monday. We welcomed 15 new students, which was the exact number I had been praying for. This new group brings UBI’s total student body to about 30, and we are enjoying getting to know one another.

A screenshot from our opening chapel on Monday. Unfortunately several students could not be with us due to electricity outages in their cities.

I began teaching Introduction to Preaching this week, and next week I will add Introduction to Exegesis. Even though I have been teaching this particular course for ten years or so, this year’s class will be the first at UBI that I’ll attempt to teach on my own in Russian. Though this will add many more hours to the preparation, it’s a challenge I’ve wanted to take on for years and I think now is a good time for it.

The Family

Katie, Justus, and Eliana are doing well. Ellie will be two in October and she is a babbling busy body.

She adores her brother and it is beautiful to watch the two of them play with one another. She’s also learning how to stand up for herself and fight back which Justus is not a fan of.

She is talking more and more, but her most used word is, without a doubt, “Me!” It can be a question, it can be a statement, it’s often a command, and it used to be cute. She also initiated potty training all by herself, which was great. But she’s shown she’s only interested in taking the skill so far, which is not so great.

Justus began second grade on Monday. He and Katie are making good changes to his schedule that we think will help things flow smoother this year. (The kid is growing up. We recently read Sign of the Beaver together which he declared to be his absolute favorite book, so we definitely recommend the read.)

He got interested in baseball over the summer, and we were shocked to discover a tiny baseball league here in Košice. The trainer even speaks English fluently and Justus has been hyped to go every Tuesday and Friday. It’s been fun watching him get into it, and he is quickly excelling in his skills.

Looking Forward

Lord willing I will be making another week-long trip to Kyiv mid-October to host a UBI retreat and another Serving Those Who Serve event with the ministry partners in our humanitarian aid network. However, as always, that will depend on how the situation in Ukraine is at the time. Things have been especially tough these last few weeks with a sharp increase of attacks around Ukraine.

Katie and I are planning to attend a spiritual formations seminar in Germany in October, and we are excited that Katie’s mom will be flying over to meet us to watch the kids while we participate in the event.

We look forward to having the Hindman family back with us in Slovakia at the end of October. Denyce gave birth to their newest boy in August, and so they are in the States for a couple more months.

Until next time...

We thank you all for your love and support of our work. It was disappointing not getting to see many of you on our trip to the States. We are looking forward to making it happen next year.

As always, we would love to hear from you if you have a few minutes to spare. You are special to us and we miss you.

Thank you for your continual prayers for us and our work. We couldn’t do it without you.

Sincerely,

Brandon (and Katie)