WOW! I want to start this blog off with saying that I am sorry for the length of time it has been since my last post. I will try to inform you what is going on what I have been doing and how life is, and I will try to make it not super long...So here Goes!!!!
First I want to start with a financial report! GOD PROVIDES!!! We are asked to raise $2500 a year to help cover some of the over head cost and salaries of ourselves and other missionaries. I have had trouble raising that money for some different reasons, (Before I left I was so busy leaving I couldn't raise money, I have been raising money for rent, ect. ect.) well the other day I checked my advance account and had a donation from a church that I have never heard of and it more than covered the amount I was to raise.
As for my rent we have raised enough money so far to cover the missing $25 that we will need each month and the first little bit of fees and unexpected monies. And money is still coming in! Thank you for all the support!
VISAS!!!! AHHHHH!!
So we made it to Poland and back safe and sound with very little problems. We are very thankful for all the prayers. We left at midnight on Monday night and arrived early Tuesday morning. We experienced a little change in the time problem. They opened at 9 and we thought it was 9 but didn't know there was a time change of 1 hour so we had an extra hour to wait. Next we went to the bank and had just a small hiccup that we were able to resolve with little frustration. Later that day we received our visas and had planned to leave the next night and do some site seeing but it turned out that we only could get a train the next day at noon. So no site seeing for us :(.
Unfortunately that is not the worst part of the process. The visas we received are only 45 day visas and we now have to register here in L'viv. That means we have lots more paper work and more fees to pay. However the 45days is kind of a joke. The holiday season starts for New Years and everything is closed for nearly 2 weeks and we have to be registered by January 14th. SO PRAY FOR US PLEASE!!!!!
SPEAKING OF HOLIDAYS!!!!
So yesterday was St. Nicholas day! Holidays are a bit different here because they use the orthodox calendar. So my parents sent a box that contained a gift for me and then a gift for each of my roommates, and we decided to wait until yesterday to open them. So I was awaken with my roommates sneaking into my room to deliver a St. Nick gift and then we opened the gift from my parents. It was NERF GUNS which is a tradition in my family and at 7am me and my roommates enjoyed a NERF war!
Other holiday plans! So for western Christmas we are have been invited to celebrate with and American Family on Sunday night and Monday and it is very exciting!
And the last big plan for Holidays. On December 29th we will be joined by Michael another missionary!
ADVENT!
Okay I know I said I would try and write blog to reflect on Advent. However I noticed a few things as I started to think about what I would write. First, I realized that I really don't know much about what is going on because church is in Ukrainian and I don't know Ukrainian. Second, even if I did understand Ukrainian I am not sure I have ever truly appreciated Advent enough to write about differences between advent here and advent in the states.
RABBIT!!!
Last piece of big news. I have always loved having a pet, usually in my life it has been a dog. Living in the City though I would prefer not to have a pet that big (and I don't think my landlord would let me). I was really thinking of getting a pet rat, but my roommate was really not accepting of that so we came to a compromise and got a rabbit. In my creative mind and as a missionary sticking to the religion theme I named him RABBI!!!
THERE YOU HAVE IT!
Thank you all so much for your support and prayer and I would love to hear some of your thoughts and updates from all of you!
GOD BLESS
