Winter Wonderland

I’m at my sister, Priscilla’s, for Christmas. I arrived late on Monday afternoon after a relatively uneventful, but eight-hour-long trip. That evening by the time we went to bed there was more than six inches of snow on the ground (there had been a light dusting when I arrived). It continued to snow most of the night and when we got up in the morning, behold, there was no electricity. Not the first time for my sister, so she was prepared with containers of water from the well already made available and Dan turned the furnace up to high (it’s gas, but requires an electric pump to push the water through the pipes); and of course, we lit the logs in the fire place.
Pris and Dan were scheduled to go to Kyiv for a couple of days of Christmas shopping—don’t forget that Christmas here is on January 7th—and I had agreed to watch over the kids for 36 hours while they were gone. I was expecting an adventure, fun with my nephew and nieces, but as it was, I got more than I had bargained for! Pris and Dan were a bit delayed in leaving, but eventually made it out with chains on the tires. The kids went out to play and a friend came over to help me watch the kids. Mid-morning she got a call saying that the electric was most likely going to be off for four days! Priscilla had already started us melting snow for general use water (the well water being saved for drinking and cooking). Thankfully, the stove is gas, so while the oven didn’t work (it’s electric), the stove top did.
It was a fun adventure to set out on. Living life with no running water (or even a well we could draw from since their well is too deep to use a bucket with), keeping warm by the fire and using candles to light our way into the basement. But, thankfully, that adventure came to an end only a few hours later, when just after lunch the electricity popped back on. Most, if not all of the town had been out and when our electric came back on, not everyone else’s did. Several friends here were left without electric for another 24 or more hours! On the other hand, today, we could tell that they were working on it as the electricity kept popping on and off in the morning and early afternoon. Then, mid-afternoon, it went off again and didn’t pop back on. But when we went into the kitchen we noticed that the stove clock was on, a sign that it had electric. We tested out the oven to see if the whole stove was working or if it was just some fluke. It was interesting. When we turned on the oven, all the lights in the house turned on, and when we turned it off, they turned off. After testing it a couple of times we decided to leave it off, and promptly check the rest of the house for the smell of smoke and electrical fire.
I’m writing this on the last of my laptop battery as I wait for Pris and Dan to come home. Hopefully Dan will be able to fix it, although I doubt he will be able to do so tonight—since it is already 10pm and pitch black.
One of the other things about not having electricity—no internet and not too much computer use. In general, I feel fine with that.
If I was at home I would find it harder, but having four other people to give my attention to and play games with and fix meals for rather cuts down on the time I have to spend on the computer anyway. But every once in a while I do feel a little cut off from the world. I wonder what is happening on facebook and if I have any emails and if my friends think I have just dropped off the face of the earth! :)
In a way, I do feel like I have dropped off the face of the earth. This is so different from my normal life, that it almost feels like a fairy tale. It would be more difficult if I had to live like this every day, but somehow curled up with my laptop on the couch in front of the crackling fire with candles casting their light on my part of the room—well, it is very relaxing and alternate reality-like. And I’m enjoying it.

PS. Dan got the electricity on last night when he came home, and only a few sparks came out of the box. I went to bed slightly worried about the house burning down during the night, but woke up this morning still kicking, so...

Quick Prayer Request

I'm still having stomach trouble. I went to a local doctor at a private clinic on Tuesday and she agreed that I have a parasite, but her method of deciding that was...interesting. She attached ran electric currents through me to test for different bacteria. Oh, and I had an ulrasound and that doctor told me that all my health problems would be rectified if I would just get pregnant and have kids. Helpful. Pray that I'll figure things out and be able to get it to settle down. Little things like this just affect and skew my whole body.
Basically, the stomach stuff comes and goes of it's own volition, except that it has been worse at night lately and between that and the pain in my legs from the weather changing I'm not getting much rest. I've been tossing and turning so much that my leg muscles have begun to ache from that too. Please pray that I'll be able to get some sleep over the next few days and catch up on my rest.
I'm also having a lot of pain in my hands from the cold and just in general. I haven't been able to take my normal supplements and vitamins that would help because of the stomach issues. Please pray that I'll figure out how to deal with that so I can continue doing normal things (like typing and using a mouse--thankfully, the pain is always less in my left hand so I can still write and do a lot of things without it interfering).

On the other side, I am working to use this pain as a reminder to pray for a friend of mine who suffers much more pain than I do. And I still have much to be thankful for; like a supportive office and friends and the opportunity to celebrate Christ's birth twice--with friends and then with family.

Happy New Year and a Merry Christmas too!

Enjoy the lovely vision of our New Year's tree that the city puts up every year in the central square. This is the view from the back. Slightly less scary than the view from the front. And you don't want to see it lit up at night! It's the stuff nightmares are made of. Generally, what they do is put a framework together and then attach "branches" to make a huge tree. They then string lights of any and every color, blue and purple and yellow being very popular (which just offends my purist Christmas red, green and white soul). But that's why it is called a New Year's tree and not a Christmas tree. Communism changed that emphasis. To be fair, it does have its pluses. Christmas isn't commercialized, New Year's is. On the down side, most people are so busy with New Year's that Christmas gets the go-by. In religious households it is celebrated, but it is not quite the same festive, joyful occasion that I grew up with. It is much more serious. Which isn't always a bad thing. I just like the balance.

Don't miss the lovely blue bus in the foreground. I can't remember which politician was holding a rally that day, but they bus in "supporters" (you know, like high school students who are paid a small amount to play hooky) to beef up the audience. Elections are in January. Provided we don't have another swine flu incident or other illness that puts the country into quarantine.

Sadly, these pictures are from before the snow came. Hopefully I'll get some snow pictures in the next few days, so that you can see both the prettier and just other realistic side of life in this little city that I call home.

Predestination, Eternal Security, Free Will, Cookies and Christmas Trees

I think I am going to start dreaming about church history soon, with a doctrinal emphasis, of course. Or cookies. I'd rather dream about cookies. I'm living and breathing those two right now. They kind of balance each other out. One is serious and deep and requires lots of mental concentration, the other is fun and relaxing and requires mostly physical effort.
Seriously, I picked out 26 recipes that I wanted to do this year. Some old, some new. I understood that the list was too long, so I narrowed it down to 21. And have been laughing at my insanity ever since. :D I'm nearly half way, but not sure I'll really get to make all of them. However, as those who know me will tell you, I'll certainly do my best!
Actually, the cookies are a really great break for me from my work on doctrine, so that I don't obsess about it and burn myself out over it. I discovered that once I switch into research/writing mode that I am so switched into it that it is hard to turn off. Which has its pluses, esp. since I am still so intimidated by the topic that it takes me, literally, hours to work myself up to working on it. My goal right now is to do a minimum of two hours on it every day. That may not sound like much to you, but at the end of two hours of studying these topics my brain is about fried. I'm hoping that it will be easier to put it down into writing for other people to understand. (insert insane laughter here)
Thankfully, I have a very supportive roommate who is helping me find all sorts of resources. And bake cookies. And decorate for Christmas. Actually, she even made me a new nativity! You can see it in this picture beside the mini-nativity.
Yes, I collect them. That's why there are all these pictures of them up here right now. :P These aren't all of them, but the majority. I love nativities and how they present the Christmas story. They just are a constant reminder of the true meaning of Christmas. I love St. Nicholas too. Not Santa Clause. The real St. Nicholas story. The European St. Nicholas is dressed more like an archbishop, which I like because it keeps the real meaning of the story there.
Anyway, I love Christmas and all the traditions that surround it. I love the cookie making and Christmas shopping, stuffing stockings, lighting the advent candles and reading the familiar readings, singing carols around the tree, setting up all the nativities, hearing all the parts Christmas story--from Isaiah to Simeon and Anna.

My last picture for the day is the Christmas tree. It is truly beautiful, although the picture doesn't do it justice. And yes, there is a nativity underneath. The most important one, that is the nativity that started my whole collection. It was my great grandmothers. It is difficult to see in the picture, but it is actually a collection of two or three nativities, and includes two angels, three or four shepherds, four wise men, and several animals and now two snowmen. I love it!
Happy Christmas, ya'll!

Religious Freedom in Russia

8 December 2009
RUSSIA: 34 JEHOVAH'S WITNESS PUBLICATIONS AND ONE CONGREGATION BANNED
http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=1385
Russia's Supreme Court has today (8 December) upheld a Rostov-on-Don
Regional Court ruling finding 34 Jehovah's Witness publications
"extremist", ensuring that their distribution will be banned nationwide.
The Supreme Court also upheld, as part of the ruling, the liquidation of
the Taganrog Jehovah's Witness congregation as extremist. The
congregation's property will now be confiscated, and it will be banned from
meeting as a community. Asked why the Supreme Court upheld the lower court
decision, the secretary for the Supreme Court's Civil Cases Division, who
would not give her name, told Forum 18 News Service: "The Jehovah's
Witnesses are extremist." Asked if they have for example killed anyone, she
responded: "To a certain extent, yes." The court ruling opens the way for
the distribution of all Jehovah's Witness literature in Russia to be banned
in future. Grigory Martynov of the Jehovah's Witnesses expressed
disappointment, telling Forum 18 that "the decision was taken very quickly
and they gave no explanation as to why they upheld the Rostov decision." He
also stated that they will consider whether to take their case to the
European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg.

This may seem innocuous or even good, however the force behind it is evil. Religious freedom is at stake. They will attack at the weakest point or where they think people will not care but move steadily on.

The Fickleness of Emotions

On Tuesday I went to our women's prayer that we have about once a month. It is just all of us foreignors/missionaries who are serving here in Rivne. It is a time for us to fellowship and pray together in English, both of which are things that we miss often in our daily lives.
I was surprised and touched by the warmth of greeting for me on my return from a month away. Everyone was so happy to see me and it made me feel like I had come home or that I had been away much longer than just that one month.
I had already been surprised on Monday by how happy the office was to see me--considering that they are going along just fine and really don't "need" me to be there.
So, on Tuesday night I went to bed feeling incredibly blessed to have these friends here. It helped immensly with my adjustments back.
On Wednesday, I woke up feeling sick and a little feverish. I knew I had a cold, but somehow overnight it had turned into a monster. I spent all of Wednesday laying on the couch and whining at my poor roommate (I didn't know it could be so much fun to whine! :D ). But by evening I was feeling very low and down. Useless. A little worthless. Here it is my first week back and I had already missed a day of work from being sick. My poor roommate is having to do all the work around the apartment and fix the meals and do the shopping and put up the Christmas tree by herself.
As I was laying there thinking that passing into oblivion would be much preferable to this misery I was praying about my attitude and God reminded me of how valued I had felt just the day before. How I went to bed thanking Him for these wonderful people that He brought into my life. And there I was, not 24 hours later, whining away and feeling useless and worthless because I had been stuck in bed for a few hours and not able to do the things I wanted with my day.
I can't say that it miraculously changed my attitude and I suddenly felt cheerful and happy. It did help me put things into perspective a little and remember that this was temporary, but those friends are not. I realized that I could in the least pray for them while I was laying there. Many of my friends are going through other hard things in their lives and I figured I might as well use my time on the couch to benefit them a little.
Just changing my focus from inward to outward made such a difference. I think I used to be much better at keeping the outward focus, but I have grown lax recently. I must remember to practice it more. That and counting my blessings. :| How appropriate for this season!

Adjustments

I'm back in Ukraine. Alive. Not quite well. But definitely alive.
As I was flying out of Ukraine (literally), my stomach started to get upset and continued with that off and on throughout my stay in the US. Finally, just before Thanksgiving I decided it must be parasites and began taking some herbal stuff for that. Parasites it was. I'm still recuperating, and hoping I got all of the little buggers. Definitely would appreciate prayer for that. My stomach is still upset, but hard to tell if that is from the meds or just still recuperating or what.
Managed to catch a cold on my way back to Ukraine. *rolls eyes But thankfully, other than that, had a good trip and arrived intact with all my luggage in tow. My flying-traveling time was about 17 hours with layovers, but the rest of the trip from Kyiv to Rivne took me about another eight hours by the time I went through immigration and caught a bus to Kyiv and then from Kyiv to Rivne.
Arriving in Rivne, I jumped in a taxi and we took off down the street and I glanced up and there was a red neon sign. My mind said, "Arby's." There is no Arby's in Ukraine. Anywhere. I realized that I had forgotten to mentally prepare myself for my return here. Normally, I take time on the plane over or even before that to begin to prepare myself for whichever country I am traveling to. I think about what it will look like, sound like, smell/stink like, who I will see there, how I will travel there, etc. I didn't do that coming back this trip. I think I was still too caught up in the festivities and trip to visit my sister in VA and was still processing that. So, I arrived back to a little more culture shock than I have been used too. It was a novel, although not totally pleasant experience.
It has left me feeling caught between two worlds. Trying to figure out where I belong. I realize that I was in the States longer this time, so I actually "lived" there, rather than just being "on vacation" there, as I have been the last couple of times. As you know, "living" is a totally different mentality than "vacationing". When you live someplace you buy groceries for living there, you get to know your way around, you meet neighbors and develop a routine. When you "vacation", you buy vacation groceries and take time out to do whatever the heck you feel like doing and don't worry about staying up too late or getting to meet all the people around you. Unfortunately, I didn't realize that I had switched into "living" mentality while I was in the States until I came back here. :-P Consequently, I am still adjusting to the fact that I do in actuality live here.
It is not comfortable, this being caught between two worlds. I am at home to a degree in both of them, but belong to neither. Ukrainians know that I am not Ukrainian and are always looking to know where I am from, which leaves me with a sense of "not fitting in" here. In America, on the other hand, most Americans assume I am Canadian or at least not local because of my accent, but they accept me as being "from" there. Unfortunately, my mind and upbringing are very European, so I mess up with American culture a lot, but don't have the grace that might be given to a foreigner because only I see myself as one. And internally/mentally it is even more confusing for me as I try to navigate now in this world when I was just in that one. It is so easy to adapt to convenience. Things that I don't think about here--like being able to get all your grocery items in one store; I went today to three different stores looking for cream and didn't find it in any of them. We often notice things much more when they are absent, than when they are present. People here dress differently. Sometimes I feel like two different people when I think about how I am in the States vs. here. Here I tend to dress up, partly because of my office work, but partly because that is just the style here. In the States I tend to wear jeans much more. It is amazing how that little thing can affect how you perceive yourself. I feel more confident here, which is probably because I am also more used to living here. But I felt more relaxed in the States.
I'm also trying to slide back into my office life. Started off my week by telling one of our part-time employees that we are running out of work for her (she was asking to come back full-time) and that she would do better looking for another job. Now I'm trying to work something out for an office computer for me (I gave mine up right before I left because of an urgent need and the replacement is not sufficient for what I need to do). Once I get that sorted out, I'll be working hard on Doctrine for which I would GREATLY appreciate your prayers. I'm feeling intimidated by it--justifiably so, if I do say so myself. It is a higher level course and, of course, a very important topic. The part that I specifically need to rewrite are the lessons on predestination and free will. I shake in my boots or socks or whatever I am wearing on my feet! I know that I need to just bite the bullet and start writing, but am having trouble doing so.

Korochi (anyway), I'm doing a lot of adjusting just at the moment. Cultures, family, friends, work, illness, holidays (Happy Thought--Christmas!!). Hopefully, I'll sort out which way is up and which way is down soon. :)

On the upside. My roommate cleaned the apartment before I got home and fixed food. Totally pampered me the day after I got home so that I could just unpack and rest. Then on Sunday we got out the Christmas decorations (translate that to mean "nativities", which I collect), and decorated the apartment. The office was also very happy to have me back and in general I feel very welcomed "home". I'm looking forward to getting together with more friends tomorrow too. Happiness all around!

Travel Prayer Requests

I'm heading back to Ukraine tomorrow. It's been a good, full trip here in the States. I've been so busy I can hardly believe that in two days I'll be back home.
I think I accomplished everything here that I came to accomplish. Got my shopping done. Visited friends and family. Rested a little. Actually, on that last one: I've been sick the whole time I've been here. Seems that I picked up a bug--literally--in Ukraine before I left. Oh the joys of missionary life. Do pray that I am able to get rid of it and that I don't have any troubles while I am traveling. I've been taking some stuff for it (or against it) for about a week now and it does seem to be helping, but I still end up with terrible stomach aches occasionally.
Beyond that they keep reducing the amount of luggage that we are allowed to travel with for "free". Normally, this wouldn't be a problem, but I am trying to bring stuff back for my brother's wedding and Christmas and am feeling rather stressed about the limitations. Please pray that things go smoothly for me as I check-in tomorrow and that I don't have any hassles about my luggage and carry-on items.
Oh, and do continue to pray for my headaches. I realized today that I've been taking an average of 2 ibuprofen a day for the last several weeks (normally in clumps though), and I don't consider myself to be having a bad time with migraines right now. I did have one this morning and am really hoping I don't have one tomorrow as I travel.
Thanks for praying.