Gifts from God

Over the past few months I have really been overwhelmed by the wonderful things God has gifted me with. None of them are needs really and I would be willing to leave them in a day if He asked, but they are such blessings!
Some of them are things that have already passed, like being able to visit my family--all of them! over this summer, as well as being able to visit many of my friends again. Beyond that there are things like the protection He placed over me while I was traveling this summer, that I had no accidents or break-downs on the road, even though the car was old.
And of course one of the blessings that I am most aware of presently and very grateful for is my apartment. I'm uploading a few pictures so that you can see it again. You may want to go into my blog archives and look at the old pics to see the difference, it really is huge! I really love my apartment. I've liked many of the places that I've lived before, but this one I do love! And just about every week I discover another store or something that makes the location even more convenient than I had any way of knowing when I first rented it.

Here is the much updated kitchen! The washer is still to be fixed, but hopefully soon...

And here is the living room. Also looking significantly better than the last picture I posted. You can see I still need to do the curtains and what not, but it is coming along quite well. Hopefully next month I'll be able to get a rug for in front of the couch as well.











You can see a little of the hallway in this picture of the living room. And the last pic is of my sewing room since I didn't include any last time. You can see the balcony door there. I have such a spacious balcony on that side it is really lovely. I'm hoping to put plants out there eventually.
Anyway, it is really just a perfect apartment for me--not too big, not too little. So PTL!

Journeys

I think I titled this blog well. I have been on the road basically since I started it! I've also discovered some new things about myself through it. Like, I am definitely a writer. I can write and write and write. I have to set cut off times for myself! But it is a great way to express some of what is going on in my life and what God is doing.
While I was traveling to and from the conference this weekend I saw a number of these types of "vehicles" on the road and in the fields and all abouts. Hay season is actually over, but it was not unusual to see people driving their wagons someplace or dropping off potatoes (these last two weekends most people have been out digging them up and bringing them in).
What amazes me is that you there are still so many horses and wagons in use here! I mean on the one hand we have Mercedes and whatnot all over the place and then driving down the main highway there are also horses and wagons!?
To me it just represents the contrast that is Ukraine. When we moved here 17 years ago it was like stepping back to the 30's or 40's in a lot of ways. Now the major cities are similar to a lot of other European cities, but obviously there is still a gap in between the cities and the villages. It's a fascinating phenomenon and one that I find a trifle disturbing as well. How long can Ukraine "hold it together" before these gaps make it all fall apart?
Well, you can pray for Ukraine, esp. this week as we have very, very important parliamentary elections coming up on Sunday. These elections will have a significant effect on whether or not Ukraine ends up with the EU or with Russia (bad).

Conference Connections

It was lovely to be away for the weekend and get to hang out with some other people again. Other Christians I should say. I went to a multi-church conference, or as they would prefer me to say: a church conference made up of many different local fellowships. The teaching was on unity and how we are all one church and one body; not different churches.
I got called on it several times as I kept referring to "church" either as a building or using it in reference to local fellowships. It was kind of fun actually because it was a good reminder and really made the message sink in for me. So: Thanks guys!
I'm hoping to share about it later this week with our office, so you can pray for that. Division among believers here is just as big of an issue as it is in the States and many other countries. But really unity is what Christ wants for us. Not that we would all be identical, but that we would all be brothers and sisters.

It was also good just to go and meet some new people and reactivate old relationships. Hopefully friendships will come out of those. I don't have a lot of opportunity to develop friendships with people my ageish here because most of them are married with families and either don't have the time or the desire to reach to some foreigner. That and the fact that I am not just "some foreigner" here, my family has a name which brings with it certain expectations. Anyway, I was happy to go and just meet some new people again and plant the seeds of friendships that may later grow.

It's all fun and games...

until somebody gets hurt!
And that somebody is going to be me! Aaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. :D I have a dental appointment tomorrow. Follow up from my root canal last week, have to get a replacement filling, I mean a real one as I only have a temp one at the moment.
But things should get significantly better after that as I'll be heading off to a church conference for a couple of days.

It is hard to believe that the office has been going for three weeks already. I feel like I am barely beginning to get my feet on the ground work-wise. New Testament Survey 1 & 2 are coming along beautifully. Part 1 has already been sent off to the translator and we're hoping to have it by the end of the month by which time we are planning on having Part 2 ready to send off. It's hard to believe that I've been working on this project for four years (not full-time, mind you) and harder still to think that the end might be close, relatively speaking. Well, the end for me, once it is translated the rest of the office will just be beginning to work on it!
It'll be odd to see the books in print after these four years of little steps. What a gift from God! I mean really, there is no way that I could have even imagined doing this kind of work and yet here I am, by His grace and in His power, completing the task that He has set before me.
He is truly a great God.
The last four years of my life have really not been ideal for this kind of work. Between being sick and hurting my back; traveling to India and moving to the States and now back to Ukraine... Well, circumstances just haven't lent themselves to the work, but God has in His omnipotence seen fit to ignore that and make it possible anyway.
He just amazes me sometimes.

PS.

I am feeling much better, thank you very much!
My cold is nearly gone and I'm sure that the only reason it passed so quickly was because of your prayers.
Blessings!

Of Wars and Weddings

I have the most frustrating time with men here! Some days it just makes me SO angry. The other day I popped into the grocery store on the way home and was followed in by two men who had the nerve to try to proposition me. Unfortunately, I have had similar experiences in the past so I knew what they were up to before we ever got into the store and was able to put an end to it before they got too far. If we hadn't been in the grocery store I think I would have hit him! (which wouldn't be a first) Those kind of things make me so extremely angry and the more so because there is very little that I can do to prevent them. Other than never go anywhere without a man by my side and since that is not at all practical...
But, you can pray for me and pray for God's protection on me. This is already the second incident in the month that I've been back in Ukraine and it is very frustrating to me, to say nothing of what it does to my peace of mind.

But on to bigger and better things: an American friend of mine here got married yesterday. Weddings here are very different than in America! (and the better for it in my opinion) First off, many people don't have a church ceremony at all, but just have the legal ceremony which is performed at ZAKs (I have no idea what that abbreviation stands for and really don't care). If you do want a church ceremony that is performed either before or after your legal ceremony. The legal ceremonies are typically very ceremonious, really a secular version of a church ceremony.
It is common in many of the churches here to have the wedding ceremony in conjunction with the Sunday morning service. The bride and groom come down the aisle at the beginning of the service with their attendants and are seated at the front of the auditorium for the first half of the service with the second half being their wedding. Keep in mind that services here are typically two hours long. This gives the entire congregation ample time to watch the happy, and usually nervous, couple. It also ensures that the whole church partakes in the ceremony and knows who is married to whom. It is really much more family of Christ oriented than our exclusive Western ceremonies.
After church and the wedding, which yesterday ended at 1pm, the bridal party and their invited friends rush off to the legal ceremony and then the reception. The reception is remarkable. For example, yesterday's reception was quite typical in most aspects except that since it was a Christian wedding it didn't include alcohol. We walked into the restaurant to find the tables already laden with food and drinks. For every six to eight people there were a couple different kinds of juice as well as mineral water and some pop. There was bread, a bowl of cookies/sweets, a chicken salad, crab salad, stuffed fish (comes whole including the head and tail and is really a sight to see), fried fish, holodyets (a very Ukrainian dish of meat in unflavored gelatin), tomato salad, fried cauliflower, a fruit platter, black olives, green olives, marinated mushrooms, and at least two or three other dishes which I can't remember at the moment! This was just the start. After we had indulged ourselves on these things they brought out mashed potatoes with mushroom stuffed meat and about 45 minutes later fish and chicken shish-kabobs. The reception started at 3pm and was still going at full force around 7:30pm when I took my leave. There was a variety of entertainment ranging from live music to skits to games, we were even given a 30 minute break at one point! The food kept coming with a new dish appearing every 30-45mins. When they began serving the cake (after we had already been eating all afternoon) I was given a piece that was at least two or three times what I was expecting. I decided to just enjoy it, but had to laugh when I discovered that was only the first of three cakes that were being served! I quit after the second cake and decided to make good my escape before I burst at the seams!
All in all it was a beautiful wedding and a good start for Vova and Laura's marriage. It was wonderful to see how relaxed they were when things didn't go perfectly, they just went with the flow. I have a feeling that they will continue to have that accepting and easy attitude in the future as well.
I wish I had pictures for you, but unfortunately I left my camera at home-twice! :(
Oh well, hopefully you will be able to picture it well, the bride truly looked like a princess (I don't think I've ever seen a more princess-like bride before) and both weddings and the reception were quite enjoyable to be at!

Prayer Please

Hey, just a real quickie prayer request. I have a brutal cold and I do mean BRUTAL. Sore throat, stuffy nose, earaches (yes, plural), sinus headache, horribly achy body and all! And that's after I loaded up on medicine and caffeine. Aren't you jealous?! :D --that would be the meds and caffeine speaking
This is my second cold in a month and I am not impressed. I have been under a lot of stress, some bad and some good. Tonight I need to be up-and-at-em as my dad and a couple of other people are coming over to my apartment to continue working on it and cleaning it. It'll be great to have the work done, but right now all I want to do is collapse under a blanket and never come out!

What I did last weekend...

I can't remember. I think I'm still recuperating. Let's see...
Friday I stayed up till all hours trying to get ready to go to my sister's and finish sewing my niece's birthday gift (I'll post a pic later--it was a dress).
Saturday I left at the crack of dawn (defined as 6:30am) to go to Kyiv on the "bus". It is a four hour drive, usually they play really nasty movies, but this time I got to sit in the front seat which was great! In Kyiv I switched to a different "bus" at a different bus station and traveled for another hour and half to Rzhshiv (pronounced Rizhishiv--if you can!) where my sister and her family live. I managed to make it there before 2pm and spent the rest of the day hanging out with their family and some friends.
We celebrated Marie's (my niece) birthday on Sunday. It was her tenth which is a special celebration in our fam. They had a huge party and it was a blast to be there and see people that I haven't seen for five years or more! The church there meets in the evening and it was good to again been in a house church and fellowship with the believers there.
Priscilla and I returned to Kyiv on Monday, both of us with appointments for our teeth. Hers went rather quicker than mine since I ended up having a root canal. It went very well. They told me I might be in pain today or over the next week or so, but so far it is all good, which is a blessing! It was good to find a dentist that I feel I can trust to do good quality work on me. I'll have to return in a couple of weeks to get a permanent filling and to find out what they can do for my TMJ. Pris left me at the dentist's and when I was done there I returned to Rivne and was home in bed before midnight!

It is so odd, here I don't really mind the time spent in travel. It takes me about eight hours to get to my sister's from here, but I don't really think that much about it or find it that big of a deal. So different from in the States where I hated having to drive for more than a half hour anywhere, even fifteen minutes was a stretch sometimes!

CAR SOLD!! PTL

So, Melissa wrote a day or two ago (it all gets confusing with time change and all) and said that they had just sold my car! Because of some emergency repairs that we had to do on it, I didn't come out with as much profit as I had hoped, but it is still a blessing and relief to have that done. I'm sure Sam and Melissa feel that way all the more (they're my brother and sister-in-law, in case you weren't aware).
Even though I didn't make as much on it as I had hoped, the sale of the car will nevertheless cover almost all of the costs for setting up my apartment that I have incurred this month! I just sat down and tallied up how much that is and tried to project how much more I'll need to spend before the deed is done and just about fell of my chair! Aside from buying a computer or my car or airline tickets I've never spent this much in my life! :P So far it adds up to about $750 US, which to me is exorbitant, even though I know that in the west this same amount of work would be hugely more expensive.
But it is a blessing all around to have it all done and to have had the money to do it. God has certainly been overseeing that. So Praise the Lord!

Long Promised Pictures!

So here are a few pictures of my apartment. It already looks significantly different than this, though. I have a couch now and hopefully this week the kitchen cupboards will be installed and maybe I will even get a bed! :)



This is my kitchen. When you walk into my apartment it is immediately to the left.















The next door, again on the left is the living room, which you can see here from the doorway...














And here from the opposite side of the room.











Then there is my bedroom, which looks positively atrocious here, but is already much improved.








I don't have a picture of my sewing room yet, but it is directly opposite my bedroom. My bedroom being on the left at the end of my hall and the sewing room on the right.






Oh ya, and at the very end of my hallway is the toilet and bathroom (separate as is standard in Ukraine).


I can hardly wait until next week to show you the "after" pictures on all of these rooms!
Oh, and I also have two balconies, one outside my bedroom (accessed from the living room) and a large one outside my sewing room! They are both enclosed which is exactly what I wanted as I am hoping to have plants out there someday (can't have them inside because of my allergies). :)

PS. Sorry about the problems with layout, still working on that.

Yipee!! Pictures!

So, this was our campground last week. You can see a few of the tents clustered around the main building. There were about 40 tents all up with 3-4 people in each one.
On the upper right is a picture of our cafeteria. :) Apparently our cooks had backed out at the last minute, but some of the ladies who had come along for other purposes graciously volunteered to do the cooking for us. They did a great job too!

The picture on the right is my English group on our first day. It ended up being a little warm in the sun, so we moved to a shadier spot the next day. Most of the people in this picture are not Christians, but a number evinced sincere interest and have even come to church since, so please pray for them all, that God would draw them into His fold.

This last picture for today is of our evening meeting tent. It was also used for one of the English groups and a Bible study as well. All of the benches were carried to and from all over the place every day. We used them for our English groups for each of the meals and for other activities as well as the Bible studies and morning and evening meetings! It was very makeshift, but I think over all a ton of fun!

I'll try to post some pics of my apartment tomorrow! I'm hoping to get a kitchen in tonight and maybe my couch later this week! It's a great apartment and I'm enjoying putting it together!

Oh, PS. please pray that my car sells in Oregon. That hasn't been going well for my brother and sister-in-law who graciously agreed to help me with it. Naturally they would like to get it off their hands and for me I could use the extra funds as I am repairing and furnishing my apartment, that and having to pay the insurance on a car that I can't use, etc...is a royal pain and a waste of money.