Blessed for real

So yes this has been a great week, a very long week, and a blessed week!

English Club and Pilgrims have been great as normal, and I continue to build stronger relationships.
Everyone is so friendly and I love being around everyone but I think that might turn into a problem for me soon. I really hate leaving when people are having a good time and sometimes it leads to me sacrificing sleep, chores, and work that I have to catch up on later. But I am working on that for sure.

This week I simply asked a fellow who is a normal here at the student center if he would like to have some tea. It was a seeming small gesture but this is the most we have be able to interact with each other because my Ukrainian is so poor and he know little English. This was only a few minutes after my grammar lesson and so I was really tired from that but as we sat down and did our best to communicate he decided we should have a language lesson together. He grabs a Bible in Ukrainian and one in English that is the same translation (does this make since?) and we took turns reading the same verse, first he would read a verse 2 times in English and then I would read a verse 2 times in Ukrainian and we would help each other with pronouncing the words. I didn't really learn any Ukrainian but it was great speaking practice and even better bonding time that I had not even planned on having! God is so amazing some time!

Another realization that I came across is how much I love my job here. I knew I liked it but didn't realize that I loved it until I was trying to plan to do something and realized I was extremely busy. How does that make me realize I love my job? I didn't feel busy, I was not stressed over having to get stuff done I was excited about the work I get to do, even entering names into a data base for us to contact. Yes I have been truly blessed with my placement and I am extremely thankful!

No use Crying over spilled spaghetti

What an amazing week!  

I apologize that last weeks blog was a bit on the less informative side, and that the blog for this week is a day late, but I will be better this time I promise.

I have really fallen into a good community here. Last Sunday we had a lot of people over to Erika's and we had sushi and shared stories. It was great sushi an Asian food in eastern europe!!! It was great, I loved it. The rest of the week was amazing, I have created such great friends both Ukrainian and American. During English club we have lost a few people, but it is still great, last week we had game night and it went great!
For Pilgrims we had John Calhounne, a Unite Methdoist Missionary in Kiev come and preach, we shared lunch and had a good talk just discussing ministries and our lives in Ukraine.
Friday night was amazing, we had another gathering with people from the student center. It was great we had spaghetti and pizza, it was such a great night. while preparing the meal the dry spaghetti was dropped out of the bottom of the box, but we picked it up and boiled it and it was all good :). We all stayed late playing apples to apples and various other games and just enjoying being around one another.

Saturday I went out with the feeding program and again it was amazing, we went to the church first and and handed out bags to the older ladies who wait there for us and then we went on our route, sadly there was no one out due to the rain and coldness. Next we walked around and then it started snowing which was awesome!! That was followed by a long round of again apples to apples (such a great game),

Yesterday was Church and church meeting. It was great, I have started working with Kids club during the service since it is in Ukrainian and I love it so much. After church there was a meal and we meet as a leadership team.

I feel so welcomed and at home here. I am use to eating just once a day and here I get told I don't eat enough, as I am writing I have been offered cookies, cake, and tea, just to that I won't starve to death. I love the community I have here and really enjoy watching it grow. God is doing great things here and it is so so wonderful.

Falling into the norm

What a week it has been!

This week has felt like my first "normal" week. There was nothing extremely new, no huge cultural surprises or anything that I felt was abnormal.
Let me start with what the week looked like for me. First Monday: Monday is suppose to be my day off, but after working between 30 and 40 hours a week and classes like I have for the last year almost, and working at summer camps every summer I am still learning what a day off means. This Monday I actually did very little work on my day off, we gathered to play cards and fellowship with some other young adult missionaries we have gotten to know and then we had praise and worship with our Student Center Leadership team.
Tuesday we had English club, it was awesome, we had still 30-40 people, and the English lesson was based off of Numbers 22 with the talking donkey, so we mixed Shrek into it as well.
Wednesday I started my small group we are studying the book of Acts, there were five of us and we had a great discussion on the introduction and the first 11 verses.
Thursday was Pilgrims and it also went great, we had a guest speaker and he did extremely well. Also on Thursday I received a package from home, and it was great, I GOT LITTLE DEBBIE COOKIES!! and peanut butter and lots of other goodies.
Friday was a good day for planning for next week, we discussed the plans for English club this Tuesday and then I worked on getting ready for small group.
Saturday was yet another day off, but like I mentioned I am not good at days off, so to start Saturday we had a meeting to plan the future themes and ideas for Kids Club (Childrens Church). To this meeting I wore my sandals like I have every day almost since I have moved here, I was not expecting that the temperature would decide to stay in the 40's all day long :-(. After our meeting I hurried home and changed into wool socks boots and a nice warm jacket. From there we gathered again as a small group of American Missionaries for a day of relaxing. We did a few photos for one of the missionaries to create a slide show then we went and had coffee and lunch followed by a free concert from a christian band from the states.

It has been really great being here and I am excited for the future adventures. Everyone keeps warning me that the winters here will be a brand new thing to me because they are so cold, I guess it will be a new experience.
One observation I have made here is the Pigeons. They are everywhere, sometimes even under your feet, literally. This week I have noticed that often I am having to watch where I step when there are pigeons around so that I do not step on them because they have no fear.

Well that is all I can think of to write now thank you for reading and for praying for me. I apologize that this is very simple I have been feeling a bit under the weather due to our temperature change.

So much in 1 month

1 Month Out of the USA. I have been living in Ukraine for a full month now and I still love it. The weather is just starting to get brisk. I have missed a week of blogging and I apologize to all my readers. We have been making adjustments and getting ready for David and Shannon to leave. And they left on Monday Sept. 26.

Since they have left things feel different. Not bad different, not good different just different. I think part of it is because I am now done being trained and I am actually working. English club last week was still at about 45 people, the week before we had 50 (that is a lot for an english club, and almost to many to fit in our student center). This Tuesday I will be leading the discussion in English club about the talking donkey in the Bible (Numbers chapter 22 I promise its there) and then show a small clip from Shrek, I'm kinda excited.
I was a little worried how Pilgrims (Thursday night worship at the student center) would got without David and Shannon, and then I was feeling below the weather. But the students and other leaders did a great job and pilgrims was great.

Yesterday I went out to start looking at a social justice out reach program we hope to get our students involved in. We had met and American Missionary and his family that came about 12 years ago and has since become a freelance missionary. One of the programs their church does is to put together a bag of groceries and every 2 weeks take them around to a few of the beggars (usually old women or disabled persons) they have built relationships with. Sometimes in these bags there are blankets, socks, or gloves as well. Not only do they deliver these bags, but as the ministry grows they have the same bags for other beggars, they do not yet know but are working towards building relationships with, that meet them at a corner near a church.
I had went to help distribute the bags, get to know a few people and to see if it would be a good ministry for our students to help with.
I received a bit more. When I showed up I was greeted warmly by Mark Blessing (the missionary) and his family. Soon others were showing up to help, including a family form Shelby North Carolina (for those of you not familiar this is only an hour or so from my home in the states). Next as we went and delivered these bags we split into groups and headed out. My group delivered 3 bags, one to a pizza shop that makes sure a lady they know needs it gets it, the second to Pani Maria (Pani means ms.) a blind elderly lady who plays the accordion on the streets to survive, and the second to Pani Maria #2 who is another blind elderly lady but she sings on the streets to survive whom we were able to pray with because she was sick. We had 2 more bags to deliver but the recipitants were not out that day.
Also from that experience I made several American friends who live around the city which is great support, it is difficult to live in a city where you are a foreigner.

Again I thank everyone for taking the time time to read this, to pray for me, and to support me in every other way possible.

It's all Ukrainian to me.

Thursday was the mark of being out of the country longer than I have ever been before. I have now been here 2 weeks and 3 days. It is a completely knew yet familiar feeling. In the last few years I have been very nomadic, moving between summer camp, school, and home. I have not been completely settled in one place for more than a few months. Now I am settled into a city, in another country, in an apartment that I share with two new people. And I love it.

In the last week I have started making plans for leading a small group Bible study on the book of Acts. Together Katie and I have lead English club and started planning for future English clubs (Every Tuesday Night). Also I have started to plan a sermon for one Thursday night, and planing out how to give my testimony for another Thursday night.

There is so much here that I just can't put into words. The friendliness and kindness, the fun, the joy. It is all so great. One of the greatest times I keep experiencing here over and over is with my roommates. One speaks very limited English and it is often hard for us to communicate, but some how we manage to get our ideas across and to have fun, between grocery shopping, cooking and just kidding around it has been an amazing experience, even though what he is saying is all Ukrainian to me.

The weather here has been amazing, we have had a little rain but mostly warm sunny days, though the temperature is starting to drop. It has been a great ally in this change. I have also fallen into what to me feels more like and adult pattern of life than I am use to. No more classes, I cook, I clean, I actually do work (even though work is something I greatly enjoy). Doing laundry is different, everything hang dries, and the washer is smaller so it takes smaller loads. Cooking is becoming fun, everything is cooked from scratch mostly, and over a gas stove. To even have coffee we light the stove to heat up the water in a kettle, it is awesome.

Thank you again everyone who is praying for me during this amazing experience and journey God has sent me on. God Bless.

September 11, 2011. It is the ten year anniversary of that day that will always be remembered.

I have been in Ukraine for a little over a week now. I just moved into my apartment last night and it is amazing. My roommates are really awesome, and the place is great. I only have a 10 minute walk to the student center. Right now we don't have internet, but that will get ironed out in the next week or so.

I really love it here. The students are great and David and Shannon have been amazing at helping us to adjust. I still struggle with the time difference a little. I have free time in the mornings, which of course is the middle of the night for everyone back in the states, so it makes talking with them a little difficult. Another challenge is getting use to the idea that this is not the USA, holidays and days of rememberance are not the same. I have now been here through labor day, everyone here was working, and now one at home was, and now today is September 11 and it is the 10th anniversary of that day in 2001 when the towers fell. I can imagine sermons preached on this topic, flags being flown at half mass and people having a cook out or family gatherings, I can see the news coverage all day long replaying the footage of that day and memorial services. But here, it is Sunday, just like any other Sunday. It is slightly disheartening but life does go on.

I have really started to be able to get around the city using reference points to know where I am and where I need to go. I have also started seriously studying Ukrainian. I spent 3 hours in a cafe yesterday immersed in the alphabet...but I still have some work to do with it before I feel 100% on it, but reading has gotten better. I have also started finishing up all my paper work from the last few weeks that need to be turned in. When all of it is done and has been approved that will be a huge burden off my chest. This week is our first week of actually being involved and not observing. Tuesday we will help with English club, and as the rest of the week goes on we will start being more intentional about building relationships and doing research for social justices projects.

A huge highlight in my week last week was that I was able to connect with a fellow Tekoan (a fellow who worked at Camp Tekoa, but on the year that I was not there). Me and Woody have exchanged emails a few times and discussed a few things that way, but on Friday we had a phone conversation about different projects, history, and a little about ourselves. It was great to know there is not only fellow Americans here in Ukraine but a fellow North Carolinian, and it was also good to hear a voice that was some how unfamiliar because we have never spoke before and yet familiar  at the same time.

God is doing great things here in Ukraine. It is such a joy to be a part of his plan here and work along side others who are passionate about his plan.

God bless.

Safe and sound

Yesterday I finally arrived in Lviv safe and sound. It was a very exciting trip. I was originally scheduled to fly out of Charlotte on Saturday the 27th. Due to hurricane Irene we changed that to leave on Thursday the 24th so that we could be in NY and be ahead of the hurricane. All did not go as planned. New York decided to shut down on Saturday, which meant our flight was canceled. This was a let down but at the same time exciting, for the first time I would have a few free days in NYC and I would have a great story to tell about surviving the hurricane. Unfortunately the hurricane turned out to be not much more than a thunderstorm no bigger than what I was use to at home. On Saturday the city that never sleeps took a nap so there was not much to do but on Monday we were able to get out and walk up to central park. Our flight was rescheduled to Wednesday.

So Wednesday finally arrived and after a small debate with the shuttle driver that I was actually scheduled to be on the shuttle as well we headed to the airport. We got through check in, the flight had a 45min delay, then we  boarded the plane and we were off to Istanbul Turkey. It was about an 8.5 hour flight and I only got an hours worth of sleep. After we arrived it was a little confusing but we made our way to our next flight. Two hours later we were landing in Lviv. Going through customs was a breeze, although they searched on piece of luggage to see a binder I had.

Since we arrived it has been great. We arrived and showered and then headed off to worship at the student center. It was great. Everyone is extremely friendly and many speak very good English. I met one of my roommates and am excited to get to know the other. Culture shock has not been to terrible yet. The hardest part so far was bringing up this page to type my blog, it is in Ukrainian.
http://new.gbgm-umc.org/advanc​e/missionaries/biographies/ind​ex.cfm?action=details&code=302​1336