Mark and Donna McDonnel

News from the past week

2008-08-03T15:31:59Z

I have been meaning to write but just haven’t done it. I don’t have anything earth shattering, just thought I would write about a few things from the past week. On Tuesday the 29th, Donna and I celebrated our 19th wedding anniversary. Praise the Lord for the wonderful gift of grace he ash given, and how [...]...(read more)

Touched by Music

2008-07-29T12:41:40Z

A couple of days ago at church I was so blessed. Our Kiev church has had, for a few years now, a gifted ensemble of singers. In fine Ukrainian custom, they periodically travel to other churches and this Sunday before they were to leave on a longer such trip, they sang several songs from their [...]...(read more)

Learning

2008-07-17T05:48:02Z

Well learning never stops, but we knew that, right? As we get back into life here, it’s easy to want to focus on doing what I want to have happen first. But I realized (again) that I need to just seek the Lord in my agenda and I’ll have a much more peaceful heart. So although other [...]...(read more)

First Things

2008-07-07T19:17:58Z

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We Are in Kiev!

2008-07-03T17:07:48Z

Just wanted to write a little something here. Thank you for your prayers. We got on the big plane (two actually) and we are now safe and sound in our apartment in Kiev. We made it! Thank the Lord. Thank you too for your prayers. The flights went smoothly. My folks and Donna’s dad and [...]...(read more)

We’re okay to go!

2008-06-24T00:24:53Z

We have been crazy busy the last few weeks, but all in preparation for our July 2nd departure date. We are looking forward to leaving next Wednesday for Kiev. Please pray for us during these last days that Christ would be honored by all we say and do. We have bee talking to people about [...]...(read more)

Handicapped Ministry Video

2008-05-28T16:02:39Z

Before we left Kiev to return to the States last summer, I helped narrate a video for the handicapped ministry at our church. Because I didn’t know much about video formatting, I haven’t been able to use it as much as I would have liked. The filming and script was done by my fellow-laborers at [...]...(read more)

Currency changes

2008-05-23T12:38:54Z

Just to keep you up to date with current conditions in Ukraine, I wanted to mention the situation with the Ukrainian currency. I was reading the blog of a friend of ours, fellow missionary in Ukraine Josie, and she mentioned seeing the exchange rate from Hryvnia to the dollar go in one day from 4.63 [...]...(read more)

Priorities . . . and the Flu

2008-05-15T21:13:27Z

Well, we are getting closer to our time to return to Ukraine, the kids are getting close to the end of the semester, etc. So I (Mark) decided this week to carve out a space in my schedule to get the flu. Now I feel like I have already paid my dues on this thing [...]...(read more)

Old Donna’s Page content

2008-05-08T22:29:33Z

Today I am adding some new content to Donna’s Page, but since it’s a page and not a post, the old content will go away when I put in the new. So, for posterity or whatever, I’m putting the old content here as a post, and you can click on Donna’s Page for the new [...]...(read more)

Handicapped Ministry

2008-04-30T23:32:11Z

As we prepare to return to Ukraine, we are so glad to be in touch with our friends there. Sasha sent us some recent photos from the handicapped ministry that I wanted to share with you. These pictures are from the conclusion of a service and they are giving some things to take home with them. [...]...(read more)

Where we are

2008-04-25T14:40:26Z

I have not posted in a while, but this week I have been under the weather. Thankfully I am on the rebound from a cold that had sort of gotten out of hand. This weekend (April 26-27) we will be traveling to be with one of our supporting churches near Mobile, Alabama. We are so [...]...(read more)

April Prayer Calendar

2008-04-01T14:21:15Z

It is time again for our monthly prayer calendar. If you are interested in knowing how in more detail you can pray for us, you can just click on the link below to open up or download a PDF copy of the prayer letter. We send this out to many people by E-mail at the [...]...(read more)

President Bush will visit Ukraine

2008-03-31T16:43:57Z

President Bush is traveling to the NATO conference in Bucharest and on his way he will stop in Ukraine from March 31 to April 1. I found out about his when we received a warning from the US embassy that there could be violent demonstrations during his arrival. We are on the US embassy mailing [...]...(read more)

A Few New Things on the Blog

2008-03-14T00:27:45Z

I put a few new things on the right side of the page. First, I wanted to point out under “Interesting Links”, there is a link to “Live Camera View of Downtown Kiev.” Click on that link or the one in the last sentence to see the central square of Kiev called Independence Square in [...]...(read more)