Created for a Mission

With two slight differences from the movie… : 1) my roommate did not forget me, and 2) more importantly I was not fighting off two robbers who were trying to break in.  But I was living alone in Ukraine for the first time ever.  For a little over one week, my roommate was out of town and I was on my own.  In some ways it felt great because I could have some alone time.  For all those who know me well, you know these times are important for me to experience occasionally.  Ironically, in spite of my desire to be alone, I found that I truly missed the presence of my roommate.  Natasha, my roommate, knows five or six English words and very seldom uses them, so it’s not like we have lengthy conversations when we are both at home.  Nevertheless, I have a feeling of reassurance when she’s around, knowing that someone is there in case I need something.  As I reflect on this experience I know God gave me a snapshot of the future.  This summer I may have another opportunity to be living alone for a few weeks, rehearsing for the eventuality of living solo when I move to Rivne.  I love the way God prepares me for what He knows is to come.  And in the end, I know I am never truly alone, because God says He will never leave me nor forsake me.  I have added some new pictures to Facebook (facebook link) with a few highlights of spring and my life in Ukraine.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=82587&id=550104316&l=5bb6883da2

The sky is blue!  The tulips are up!  The trees are in bloom!  First the apricot trees blossom, next the cherry trees followed by peach!  Soon fruit will abound.  The sun is bright and the days are getting longer!  Under the light of the sun everything looks better!  As I have walked around the city over the past two weeks, I noticed may workers busy applying fresh coats of paint to playground apparatuses, mailboxes, benches.  I also noticed that the white on the base of some of the tress was refreshed too.  I always thought it was curious that they painted the tress here.  Just this week I found out that it is not actually painted but a mixture of chalk and water that is applied to trees to protected then for certain animals and insects that can damage the trees.  I also learned that this is not just don’t in Ukraine but also in most of Eastern Europe it is a natural was for pest control.  Another thing that is fresh and new and indescribable amazing is the sunset here most days.  When the conditions are right and the sky is clear blue, the sun sets as a perfect orange ball of fire.  It is an amazing site!  It is inspiring to me to see the rhythm of life change here in sync with the natural rhythm.  Even in a large city, as the flowers appear so do many people for strolls and picnics in the park.  In the physical I have seen a city transform right before my eyes. With the good also comes evil.  I witness a very violent altercation in the park this week as well as I was watching and taking pictures of the sunset.  It was such a brutal display that it really shook me.  But I know that the Lord is my shield and my strong tower, in Him will I trust.  Please pray for Ukraine that God will transform the hearts of the people the way I have seen the physical transformation of the city.

Over the past two weeks, I’ve warmed up the city and now it’s ready for Obama’s visit.  Today was a beautiful, warm spring day.  You could actually venture outside with a light jacket.  I have not seen a day like this in Europe since arriving.  My trip to Prague and my experience while in Prague have been eventful.  Where should I begin?  Let’s see!  I decided to take the train for the adventure of sleeping on a train and seeing the countryside in Poland.  Well I got more adventure than I could hope for.  When I arrived at the Passport Control stop in Poland, the authorities there could not verify my passport and so I was taken off the train with all my things and was detained for a few hours while they sorted everything out.  I got to see Poland, up close and personal.  I got to ride in a minivan with six Polish Passport Control Officers and one other Ukrainian man who was taken from the train.  I was afraid that I would not make it to Prague at all but God!  He worked everything out and I was able to catch up with the original train I was on during its 6 hour layover in Krakow, Poland.  Here’s a picture at my in between train strain station somewhere near the border of Ukraine and Poland.

I arrived in Prague at my scheduled time and found my way to Talitha’s flat.  I enjoyed a week of touring the city as the uninformed tourist.  I enjoyed this posture because it was stress free, I could just walk around and look at what the tour groups were looking at, at my leisure.  It’s amazing because there were tour groups here from all over the world.  As I walked around I heard many different languages being spoken. 

Here are some pictures from the sites. 

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=71840&id=550104316&l=570d7340a9

I’m heading back to Ukraine tomorrow with many wonderful memories about my first time in Prague.  I also feel more rested than I have in a long time.  Thank you for your continued prayers.  Please pray for an uneventful return trip to Ukraine.

Some Signs I Only Half Understand…Guess Which Half!

Men Fishing on Lake

Women Walking Babies

For additional pictures please click on this link: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=70636&id=550104316&l=0183e5f5f3

I’ve been getting on the same bus almost every day for the past month.  I have become very familiar with the buildings, landmarks and signs that are along my routes so that I can tell where I am, how far I have left to go and when my stop in approaching.  This is a blessing because the first week I was a bit of a wreck being uncertain of my stops.  Also, the Marchutkas don’t have heat in them so the widows get steamed up because the heat from the people inside comes in contact with the glass and the very cold air outside.  When you first get on the bus, you can see perfectly well, but 5 minutes into the ride you can see nothing at all unless you take your hand and clear a space in the window.  Well, this week makes one month since I have been here and so I have become pretty confident about my travels to and from language school.  This morning shattered that confidence.  I decided to read a little while riding.  I looked up periodically to check our progress.  About half way into our journey, I looked up and did not recognize a thing.  I had no idea where I was or where we were going.  At this point I became a little concerned.  I put the book away and tried to check for the bus number to make sure I didn’t get on the wrong bus and was in some other part of the city.  I could not find the number.  I normally ride this Marchutka to the last stop.  At one point the bus stopped and it looked like everyone was getting off and this was not the usual last stop.  It seemed like everyone know where we were and what was going on but me.  I really began to panic inside because it is still difficult for me to ask things that are not simple or scripted in advance.  I was at the edge of my seat so I could jump off the bus and figure out what to do if this was the last stop.  I looked around and there were about four people still sitting down.  I remained seated and began to pray.  The doors close we rode look the street and one turn later we were on a familiar street and on our way to the final stop (where I needed to be).  I was grateful! Now a couple of things could have happened today.  I could have gotten on the bus at a particular time and this was the normal route for that bus at that time, or there could have been an announcement about the route changing (I would not have understood it anyway).  This experience has taught be one huge lesson:  Never be too confident about what you think you know especially in a new culture.

Upon my arrival in Ukraine, I was met by Ivan one of our translators from our short-term journeys.  He was a great help to me and got me oriented to the city for two days. Praise God!  Without him, I know I would have probably been lost every day.  I’ve been getting out each day either in my neighborhood or venturing downtown to explore my new city for the next year. 

Kyiv has a lot in common with many big cities I’ve been in.  It reminds me the most of New York City (NYC), especially the metro (subway) and the extensive bus (Маршрутка - marchutka) systems.  The subway cars are old and very noisy just like NYC.  Unlike NYC, the train stations are very clean and have beautiful architecture. Also, Ukraine does have a trolley system in Kyiv and Rivne.  Advertising is big here.  You will find adds projected over the platforms in the train stations, going up the escalator, on TV screens in the train cars and on the marchutkas, everywhere!   When you get on the marchutka, you pay at the beginning of the ride, but you can get on from the front or rear door.  If you get on and don’t have your money ready, you can take your seat and pass the 2,00 Grihvna up to the front, by simply asking people to pass it forward.  Everyone knows that this happens and the just pass the money up.  If there is change, the driver will pass the change back and everyone will pass the change back.  I’ve had a few opportunities to practice this. J 

I used my first Internet café ever!  It was more like the computer labs I used when I was in college.  For some reason, I thought they would be some swanky place with a café like feel, music playing and coffee being served.  There was a guy outside who assigned you a computer and you paid him when you came out.  Very efficient!  I’m still holding out the find the swanky place. 

I began language school this week.  The ride is about an hour to get from my flat to the church where I have class.  It takes two marchutki to get there.  It’s really cool because I felt like I was back at my training in early January when we started doing phonetic drills.  I’m glad I had the training at MTI. 

Finally, the sun doesn’t shine in Ukraine much during the winter months.  .  I learned that cloudy days are great for taking pictures, but not really that great for keeping warm and staying energized.  There has been a total of one sunny day since I arrived.  On this day, I did not have language school but I wanted to work on some language.  I got up leisurely, not realizing it was sunny outside.  I got ready, aet breakfast and sat at the table in the living room.  I was going over my vocabulary works and a the same time trying to identify the object associated with them.  When I got to ( ) the word for sun, I looked out the window and realized it was actually very sunny.  I quickly put all my books away and grabbed my booths and coat and headed outside.  I found my way down to the lake near where I live and walked along there for a while.  I even sat on a bench to observe all the people.  Now, please note even though it was sunny, it was still cold but there were a lot of people outside.  Ukrainians apparently love the outdoors no matter what time of year it is.  Especially mothers pushing their babies in carriages.  It seems like this is a built in social activity.  The mothers will stop and talk with each other.  Another activity I’ve never seen before in person is ice skating and ice fishing and a frozen lake.  The men are sometimes alone when they fish bit I have seen one man fishing and two men standing there talking to him.  People even walk across the lake to get from one place to the next.    I’ll post some pictures when I get once I have access to better internet service.

That’s right, Wednesday, January 28, 2009 is departure day (D-Day).  Praise God!  I will be off to Ukraine to begin language and culture learning.  Thank you so much to those of you who have been faithfully praying for me.  I truly appreciate you.  Stay tuned…most likely my next post will be from Ukraine.

While in Colorado I’ve been exercising three times a week.  Today was the day to exercise and the facility is about a half a mile away from our building.  Larissa (my workout partner) and I walked out the building this morning to find about 2-3 inches of snow on the ground and the snow coming down very heavy.  It was 6:15am and therefore still dark outside.  Also, the wind was blowing extremely hard.  We had a decision to make. My first inclination was to turn around, go inside and go back to my room.  I’m not that committed so I would have to say I was crazy and decided to take the walk.  Above is a picture of the distance.  As we started walking the snow was blowing into our eyes, so we couldn’t see.  At some points we had to walk backwards.  Yet, we never thought to turn back.  We made it to the building and worked out.  On our way back, the wind died down a bit but it was still snowing.  As we walked we realized we couldn’t even see our foot prints from our walk up to the Inn. 

Overall, my time here has been great! We have had lots of opportunity to exercise our mouth.  We have been doing all kinds of drills to practice different phonetics sounds.  By the end of the day we are usually spent. I know that this training will be very helpful for language acquisition.  I will leave here with a plan for numerous activities to acquire the language.

This weekend, we went on a hike up the Reservoir Trail in Palmer Lake.  It was 4.5 miles round trip.  The scenery was absolutely beautiful.  Here are some pictures.

As soon as I got home from Colorado in December, I began to look forward to my trip in January.  I looked over my itinerary to make sure everything was in order.  “Oh no!  I’m going through Chicago O’Hare in January,” I thought.  That’s the worst possible scenario if I want to arrive where I’m going and get there on time.  I immediately began to pray because on the last day of our program in December Chicago O’Hare cancelled at least 300 flights due to the weather.  It’s funny because when you pray, you never know how God will answer your prayer.  Typically, if there is a change in your schedule with the airlines, they send you an email notification.  I do not recall receiving an email but the night before leaving (January4th), the Lord prompted me to check the flight status.  So, I went to the United website, typed the date and flight number.  The message came back that flight number 630 in not scheduled for that day.  I got a little panic. “What, they cancelled my flight and didn’t tell me?”  This is more grievous than changing the flight time.  I decided to check my itinerary.  I had been rescheduled for three different flights on January 5^th.  None of them went through O’Hare.  I flew from NYC to Washington DC, to Denver then to Colorado Springs.  As of the first part of this post, I’m on the second flight and so far there have been no delays for weather, water or mechanical issues.  God does answer prayers, we just have to be prepared that it is not always going to be the way we expect.  Oh, and by the way, my first flight departed LaGuardia at 6:00am, one and a half hours earlier than my initial flight. 

Well, I was able to get on a earlier flight for my last flight so that I can get to Colorado Springs earlier.  As it turned out we got slightly delayed because they could not reconcile the passenger manifest tot eh number of passenger physically on the plane.  That’s a good one, right?  We I arrived earlier than scheduled so I am grateful for that.

It is marvelous in our eyes!  During the past few months I have been engaged in Ministry Partnership Discovery (discovering churches and individuals to partner with me in ministry to Ukraine).   Today, the last day of the year I am praising God because He has done a great work!  God has provided all my needs according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.  I now have 100% of the funds I need for my one time startup costs, 100% of the monthly support needed for the time I will be in Ukraine and I received the final approval to depart for Ukraine.  All I need now are some administrative details to be worked out, including my visa.