The Nelsons in Ukraine

New Blog

2010-10-17T12:20:00.004+03:00

Hello, faithful friends and family!

This post is to let you know that our family has created a new blog. If you've been following us here, we really want you to keep following us on our new blog. Since our family has grown, we decided to start a new blog that would allow us to post on different pages (one for our family, one for just Caleb, one for the mission). Here is the address:

thenelsons.posterous.com

Please click on this link and check out our new blog. Of course, while you're there, please subscribe to it as well so you know every time we post something new!

Thanks for switching with us!

Introducing Caleb!!!

2010-09-14T17:15:00.022+03:00

David and Olivia Nelson are proud to announce the birth of their amazing, wonderful, beautiful, healthy son, Caleb James Nelson!

Caleb James Nelson

Caleb was born Wednesday, September 8, 2010 at 10:35am. He was born weighing 3.95kg and was 55cm long (approx. 8lbs 11oz and 21.5 in).

He is a wonderful child. On average he eats every couple hours, but sometimes he'll give us 3.5-4 hour naps in between feedings. He is able to be loud when he cries, but fortunately this is rare. At night he usually gives us about five minutes of smacking before he even starts to cry for food. I think he takes after his father in that he is strong. Though he is a newborn he can lift his head and look around (briefly). He is gassy, seeming to stink up the vicinity around him frequently (which I think is normal).

He is in a house surrounded by people that love him. We were blessed enough to have Olivia's mother and my parents here for the birth and a little while afterward. They told us they came to help us out, they just neglected to mention the specifics of this help would mainly be helping to hold, hug, kiss, and love on their newest grandson.

If you would like any pictures of Caleb just ask as we have a few thousand of him already. This boy's grandparents should not be referred to as grandparents but grand-paparazzi.

The Delivery and Hospital Stay
After many months of preparing, planning, and praying; it all came down to the final moments. I woke up at 2am to my wife nudging my shoulder telling me that her water had just broken. I cooly and calmly got out of bed and said "Okay, let's go". I was then told we have to wait until the contractions start and get to be about five minutes apart. Being 2am I was thinking, "Okay, I'm going back to sleep it's going to be a long day", but being sensible, I asked, "Okay, what else do we need to do before we go to the hospital?" We then spent about 20 minutes gathering the last of the items together that were on the list the hospital had given us, and put them in Liv's pregnancy bag.

So after everything was gathered we jumped back in bed and were going to sleep as much as we could getting ready for the day ahead. This unfortunately was not going to happen. Almost right away Olivia's contractions started, and they started quickly. The first one came, then six minutes later the second one followed, then 5 minutes later the third came, then 3 minutes later the fourth came. And from that point forward contractions were coming consistently every 2.5 minutes. Needless to say we woke everyone on the house up and got out the door as quick as we could! (Liv going as quickly as she could down the stairs since our elevator was still broken).

All the way to the hospital I was going over in my mind what I had read the day before on how to deliver a baby if you don't make it to the hospital. We were rushing! It was 2:30 am so the roads were clear. And I was looking forward to flying down the road reaching the hospital with a couple police cars in chase. Of course, for a couple reasons that didn't happen. Every light we came to was green, we saw no police, and if you have driven in Ukraine you know that the condition of the roads is not good enough to speed along with a pregnant lady on board.

Once at the hospital though, things slowed down. As most of you know, Olivia and I have been studying the Russian language since we moved here. Unfortunately, despite the progress we have made, we struggled to communicate as well as we would like in a hospital setting with medical terms. This is something that we were expecting when we decided to deliver here, but we felt confident enough that we would be able to handle it. Obviously it all worked out, but at the time with the added stress from a baby about to come and it being very early in the morning it was difficult.

I won't go into a lot of details about the deliveries, but I will share a few things that were significant to us.

The overall attitude of doctors here is that they are the doctors who know what they are doing so we need to let them do whatever they want. I do admit that the doctors here do know more than I do, but it is extremely frustrating for a doctor or nurse to give me an annoyed look and shake her head no as a response to me asking what they were about to inject my wife with. It goes against everything we have have experienced medically in the States and New Zealand. There the doctors inform the patients as to what is going on, what they are doing, and ask what they would like done, leaving the decision in the patients hands. That is not the case here in Ukraine. Here, we the patients do not know what is best for us, therefore there is no need for us to know what is going on.

Delivery was... interesting. Going into this I knew that I did not want to be anywhere except by Liv's head when she was delivering. I had no desire to be anywhere else. I have no problem with blood or anything, I have a problem with smells. I'd like to think I have a very very sharp sense of smell and that is why bad smells really get to me, but really I probably just can't handle bad smells. But when it all started happening, I was there for my wife doing everything that I needed. When she was in too much pain and too tired to even understand what the doctor was saying, I was there telling here when to push, breath, and relax. When the doctor asked her to try delivering standing up, I was under her arm holding her up. When the doctor told her she needed to hold her legs back further, I was there helping her do this. When the doctor needed me to start pushing on Liv's belly to help her out, I was there pushing. Before we went to the hospital, I wasn't interested in being anywhere except by Liv's head, but when the moment came I wanted to do everything I could to help Liv do her job.

Our hospital stay lasted from 2:30am on Wednesday morning to noon on Saturday. And our time there was an eye opener. Usually only the mother and child can stay up there, and visiting hours are from 11am to 6pm. But for us they made an exception. Because we had the hospital's head doctor as our doctor, we were able to have special privileges that others did not have. I was able to stay the whole time with Olivia without leaving. And when we had guests, they did not have to have the required chest x-ray to come and visit us. All throughout the day starting at 6am we had nurses and doctors bursting into the room asking for the temperature of the mother and baby, dropping off water to wash Caleb's eyes, coming in and stabbing Caleb's big toe and taking his blood, checking how Liv is recovering, making her go get an x-ray, making her give blood, telling her how she needs to feed the baby, telling us to open the window to let fresh air in, then another nurse telling us to close one window and open the other one, then another one telling us off for having windows open with a baby in the room, etc. Seems like every time the baby had just started to fall into a deep sleep, the nurse would barge in and mop the floor. All in all I think it was probably pretty close to how hospital stays go worldwide, it was just extra trying for us, because the only English spoken to us was "September 15", and more than half of the staff we dealt with did not exercise much patience with us in our inability to speak/understand Russian fluently.

Probably the most frustrating thing for me though was the very frequent trips to the hospital pharmacy. A few weeks before the due date we met with the Hospital consultant (with an interpreter) and received a run-down on how everything would go as well as a list of everything that we would need at the hospital. Well, come to find out the list they gave us only contained about a tenth of the things that we would need, and almost half of the things mentioned on that list were not necessary at all. When the nurse would come around and tell Olivia to bring her gloves for a blood test and we didn't already have them, we would then be told off for not having gloves when we were supposed to have already gotten them. Same thing with the x-ray paper, for some reason unimaginable to them, we did not realize we were supposed to have brought our own x-ray paper. In the end there were many trips to the pharmacy to buy yet another item that they expected us to have, but no one informed us that we needed.

I hope I am not sounding too negative about our hospital experience. There were a lot of great things about the hospital stay as well. Like I mentioned before, our doctor was the head doctor, and she went out of her way to make sure our stay there was as nice as possible. She was very friendly and accommodating. She was not the only wonderful person there, there was a nurse that would come and spend about ten minutes with us everyday that we got to talk with. She was very nice and complimentary of our language saying we speak very well and with a very good accent. Especially compared to the other foreigners she has met in Ukraine. We know that we will be remembered at that hospital for awhile, and hope that through our contact with the head doctor, we may be able to participate in some sort of ministry there at the hospital.

One last comment about the hospital. The first day there they had no running water. Yes that's right, there was a group of about six nurses that filled up hundreds of buckets and distributed them to all the toilets, and rooms of the hospital. At the six hour mark after delivery, when they have the mothers get up and take a shower to clean up, they brought Olivia a bucket and ladle saying that she needed to hurry and wash up before the water gets cold. Yeah, this is Ukraine, what can I say.

Now that we are home, Olivia is recovering, and Caleb is sleeping and eating well. We look back and laugh at our hospital experience. At times it was frustrating and at times made us regret not leaving the country to give birth, but now we are past it and can laugh about it. And we are extremely happy and proud parents now.

We were blessed by God that nothing went wrong, that there were no complications, and that Caleb was born healthy. We thank God for taking care of us, and we thank all of you who have been praying for us as well.

Thank you God for giving us an amazing son!

Ultrasound Picture of Caleb

2010-09-06T23:02:00.002+03:00

We went to the doctor today to get things checked out with Caleb and walked out with a new ultrasound picture... so, of course, we're sharing. Here's out little one... sleeping away and apparently content inside Olivia.
Olivia is doing great, just getting bigger and more ready every day for him to come out. She's 40 weeks and 2 days today... so just a little past the due date. We're praying he comes soon, preferable this week. If she hasn't delivered by Monday, we go back for a check-up and they'd really like to just put her in the hospital until he comes. Of course, there's nothing wrong, it's just customary for them to put moms in the hospital at 41 weeks. So, be praying with us that he comes soon! We've also got some grandparents around (Olivia's Mom and David's parents) who are here for a limited time and would like to hold their grandbaby! :)

Pregnant... and Living in Ukraine (Part 2)

2010-08-26T11:06:00.031+03:00

As we get closer and closer to our due date (just 5 days away now - see picture), I felt the need to write another post about my experience being pregnant here. (Note: If you missed the first post, you can go back and read it here.) I know once Caleb arrives on the scene, he's going to become the center of attention for a while and I know my time will be even more limited. So, I'm taking a bit of time now to write down things I want to remember as well as things I think you will enjoy hearing about. And don't worry - I have lots of pictures in this post as well! :) Of course, I have no experience of being pregnant in the States or New Zealand to compare my experiences here in Ukraine to, but I'm still very confident they do things really different here. Hopefully you'll enjoy reading about some more of those differences!

My Prenatal Clinic
Depending on the region you live in, you have a specific prenatal hospital you are required to go to. Thankfully, our prenatal hospital is just about 3-4 blocks down the road we live on. (See picture below.) I should have gone to this hospital as soon as I found out I was pregnant, but we didn't know that, so I started my "official" prenatal care late - at 31 weeks. Since then we've been doing a lot of catch up work and tests. Every woman is given a pregnancy passport (see picture to the left) that I take with me every time I go. In this "passport," they record the results from all tests, ultrasounds, and appointments. Medical information is not recorded on computers here, everything is written down, usually in a simple, lined or graphed notebook. In other words - I'd better not lose this passport or I'd be in a heap of trouble.

Every two weeks I walk down the street enter my hospital and wait in line at the elevator that can only hold 4 people. There are actually 3, but 2 have been broken the whole time... I think they might be permanently dead. It's an old elevator, so we have to watch the button until the light goes off (meaning it's not occupied) and push it, just hoping we've beat everyone else on the other floors. :) From there I go see the nurse who enters my new data (from urine tests or blood work, etc.) and writes out a bunch more "prescription papers" for me to do before my next appointment, then I see my prenatal doctor. I've been blessed and haven't had any complications with my pregnancy, so the visits usually go pretty quick. My doctor asks how I'm doing and if I have any questions, then she measures my belly, feels to see how the baby is positioned, then she gets out her little wooden funnel and listens to the baby's heartbeat (see picture).

Errands In Between
Real quick, I'll expand a little more about the "prescription papers." These are little papers (picture provided) I have to take to various other clinics/labs. They've become the things I dread most - having to go to many different places with specific hours to do little things. I have to go certain days between 7-10am to drop off my urine, other days to another place between 9-11am to give blood, another day between 8-11am for something else, etc. And yes, I've showed up several times past time (unknowingly) which means a wasted trip. I am usually given between 3-4 "prescription papers" every two weeks. When I go to give blood, I go to the pharmacy first to buy the syringe they'll use and sometimes gloves as well. Although Ukraine doesn't have the best health care, I have always felt pretty confident that they do their best to stay clean and sanitary. I took a picture of the room where I give blood - the pots just crack me up (some are for clean syringes, others for dirty, some for cotton balls, etc.). These poor nurses and doctors also do not have air conditioning, so this whole last month where the temperatures were over 100F (40-42C), it was HOT with no relief. I also took a picture of the place where I drop my urine off... it's the red bricked building and the picture of the stairs goes along with it. For some reason, the lighting and the condition of the stairs just makes me smile.

Stamps
They also gave me a piece of paper with a list of places I have to go get a wellness stamp, places like the eye doctor, the dentist, the heart doctor, the lung doctor, the nose/ear/throat doctor, and a few others. In my last post I mentioned the fact that I have bad eyesight. Bad eyesight runs in my family, sadly, but it's "unusually bad" for Ukraine. Doctors look at my prescription or my glasses and their first determination is that I should not give birth naturally, I must have a cesarean. Thankfully, I found a great private clinic who would actually examine my eyes to see if I would have any problems giving birth, specifically with my retina. I've been given the "ok" for natural birth and here's the official paper that says just that. (Yes, we had much rejoicing over this!)

Prenatal Personel
Finally, here are a couple photos we took this last week when I went in for my appointment. I wanted pictures of my doctors/nurses who have helped me at the prenatal clinic.
The first picture (to the right) is with Valeria. She is a really great friend of ours who has been a help to us from the beginning. She actually was the delivery doctor when my sister gave birth to Max, and has just become a good friend since then.
The next picture (to the left) is me with the nurse at my prenatal clinic (she's the one who records all my information for me in my passport).
The next picture (to the right) is with my prenatal doctor. Here in Ukraine, your prenatal doctor is different from your delivery doctor.
The last picture (to the right) is with my translator, Julia. She's been a great help to me as I really only understand about 50% of what they are saying on my own.

Hopefully the next time I'll be writing about doctors and my experiences here, I'll be writing about Caleb's delivery. :) Many of you are praying with us now and we're so thankful for your prayers and ask you continue to keep us in your prayers. We are excited and can't wait for him to arrive!!

Busy Summer!

2010-07-10T15:33:00.010+03:00

This summer has been/is flying by fast. So many different things have happened, it's been hard to keep up with blogging. So, I'm going to do my best to do a brief recap with some pictures just to get caught up to this month. Here goes!

Visit from Family
Many of you know Olivia's mom, Nancy, was here for a good part of the summer helping the McDougles, but we were also treated with Olivia's dad coming to visit. It was great having them both here in Kharkov with us. They have both been to Kharkov two times before, but both of those times were in winter months, so they were able to experience the "prettier side" of Kharkov this time!

Pregnancy Paperwork Complications
A major thing that turned our world upside down over the summer was finding out Olivia didn't have the right paperwork needed to deliver here in Ukraine. As we set about getting this paperwork, we encountered many obstacles because she was supposed to have this paperwork early in her pregnancy, not 31 weeks into it. Many of the hospitals did not want to help us because she would be too much of a liability to them since they had not been able to monitor her care from the beginning. Thankfully, things worked out and we found both a prenatal hospital who would take her on (just down the road from where we live), as well as a delivery hospital here in Kharkov. Although our "plan" was to deliver in Kiev at a European hospital there, we ended up having to scratch that and agree to deliver here in Kharkov. We have been praying throughout our whole pregnancy that God would grant us wisdom with where to deliver and the right doctor and we have no doubt that He answered our prayers - just not in the way we were expecting! Caleb is due on September 4th - just a week and a half away!

Budapest
In July we headed to Budapest, Hungary to renew our visas. We are all here as missionaries on one-year visas which come up for renewal at the end of September. At that time we have to leave the country to renew them. Since this date fell so close to Caleb's due date, we decided we needed to renew them early. So, we took a trip to Budapest where we turned in our applications, enjoyed seeing sights, watched movies in English in the theater, and ate some good food. We came back after being there almost a week and David returned the next week to pick them up for us. By the way - yes, we found Dr. Pepper there and it was soooo good! We were even nice teammates and brought some back to surprise our team (see picture below at the team retreat).

Team Retreat
Every six months, our team tries to get out of the city and spend a few days together planning and evaluating. We looked at what God has been doing here through us and the other Christians here, but also dreaming and planning of what lies ahead. We spent this time at a place just about 40 minutes outside of Kharkov. It was very comfortable and also had a pool and a small mini putt-putt that we were able to enjoy.

Experiencing A Ukrainian Dacha

2010-07-05T16:51:00.013+03:00

A couple weeks ago we were able to go spend a day with our friends, Misha and Vera, at their dacha. Dachas are basically little country homes outside the city where most Ukrainians retreat to on the weekends. It is a place to grow a garden, get away from the city noise and pollution, and just relax. We've heard about them many times, but this was our first experience visiting one and I hope it's not our last!

We met Misha and Vera through our first apartment rental here in Kharkov. They managed the place we stayed in when we first arrived in Ukraine. Of course the apartment was great, Vera's English was wonderful, and she offered to help in any way she could as we didn't (and still don't) always know what to do in this culture. We kept in touch with them, we had them over to our house one time, then they had us over to their house. Recently, Vera and I have started meeting on a weekly basis for coffee and conversation. It's been a great help to me, especially in my Russian, because she is patient with my mistakes and explains new words really well. Over one of those meetings, she invited us out to spend the weekend with them at their dacha.

We left late Saturday morning and were able to spend the rest of that day with them, their son Sasha, and Vera's godmother, until the next morning. It was a great experience. We went not knowing what to expect, but excited to experience whatever and ended up being treated like kings! The whole time we were there they served us, it was so humbling. I was hardly allowed to help even with preparing meals and the only reason they let me help was because I could learn how to cook like a Ukrainian. They took us to their nearby pond to swim, pointing out plants along the way, the set us up to bask in the sun and drink tea, it was great. David was also able to play the Russian card game "Durok" with Misha several times (apparently there is a strategy we still don't know because Misha kept winning!).

The meals were traditional Ukrainian meals which was perfect. Of course, Vera knew that I didn't like mayonnaise, so she kindly fixed meals that didn't have mayo in them. (Mayonnaise is a staple in Ukrainian meals... I'm telling you, we were spoiled!) We had cottage cheese, sala, and bread for lunch, borsch for the first course of dinner, pork kabobs for dinner, and finally oatmeal and fruit for breakfast the next morning. On the way out, Vera bought fresh strawberries, cherries, and red currants from some ladies on the road for us to snack on the whole time and they were to die for!

I know all of you are jealous at this point, I think even our teammates were a little jealous we were able to go out there. But we have a new understanding of this tradition - getting away from the city and from the chaos of everyday chores is definitely good medicine! We are so thankful to Vera and Misha for opening up their dacha to us. It was a great Ukrainian experience and a huge blessing!

Connecting Our Worlds

2010-06-22T12:33:00.017+03:00

When our sponsoring church, Legacy, decided to support our family, they made many commitments to us. Not only did they want to ensure we would be taken care of financially, but they also wanted to make sure they were providing us with the emotional support and encouragement we would need from the congregation. They set up liaisons for us from the mission's ministry team who we would communicate directly with while we were in Kharkov on a regular basis. They helped us gather together a liaison team from the whole congregation who would communicate and encourage, as well as communicate what was going on here with the rest of the congregation. They helped us gather together prayer partners from the congregation, people who committed to regularly praying over us and the work God would be doing here in Ukraine. And finally, they
committed to send someone from the congregation to visit us every other year. Yes, we are well taken care of and we are loved. Not a week goes by that we don't feel that love from our family at Legacy.

This month was the designated month for our visitors to come from Legacy. You can write blogs, send monthly newsletters, emails, keep in contact via Facebook and Skype, but nothing compares to having someone personally fly across the Atlantic to see what's going on. David and I met Allan and Carrie-Ann Stanglin at the Kharkov airport late Tuesday night and immediately our worlds collided.

I can't express to you how much their visit meant to David and I, as well as our team and the other friends and Christians they interacted with here. They were able to be with us for eight full days. Needless to say, we crammed as much into those eight days together as we possibly could! They wanted to meet as many people as they could, we wanted to show them around the highlights of Kharkov, and finally they were able to see how our life is here in Ukraine.

We were overjoyed to introduce the Stanglins to our friends - they finally connected faces with names of friends who have been on our prayer lists and in our newsletters for the last year and a half. Not only that, but our Ukrainian friends were able to meet some of our Christian family from America. They met our friends at coffee shops, played in the park with them, met guests we had in our home, played with the kids on the team, and worshiped together with us. It was great.

We saw as much as we could while they were here, especially hitting the highlights of Kharkov. Kharkov isn't that famous, but it does have a lot of history. Andrei took us one day to visit a couple Orthodox cathedrals here in town; it was actually the first time David and I went inside one here in Kharkov. Andrei also took Allan and David to the main square and to the Jewish synagogue here, which happens to be the second largest in Europe. Carrie-Ann and I went to a Russian ballet one night at the Kharkov Opera house and saw Tchaikovsky's famous Swan Lake. Allan and David went to a Russian banya (like a sauna) one night with several other guy friends. If we could stuff it into the schedule, we did... and have pictures to show for it! :)

One of the funnest parts of their visit was showing them how we live here in Ukraine. They were able to see where we go grocery shopping, they went to the outdoor market with us, they ate Ukrainian food, rode the metro and walked around the city; they saw our neighborhood and they rode in our car down the bumpy streets of Kharkov. Basically, they experienced what we experience on a regular basis. In addition to seeing how we live, they also saw the things we do: they sat in on part of our language lesson, met the friends we study with, and participated in Bible studies and worship with us. Allan even spoke at the English service as well as at our Russian service on Sunday. He spoke from the Word and from his heart and we were all extra encouraged.

Not only were we able to connect them with Ukraine and our life here, but they reconnected us with Legacy. The night they arrived, they unloaded their suitcases with a ton of stuff from back home... food, books, cards, etc. They updated us on what was going on at Legacy and how our friends were doing. They delivered hugs and a 25 minute video of our Legacy family saying hello to us.

Even though we were still thousands of miles away, they were our bridge back home and we don't feel as far away now. David and I also got really close to the two

of them while they were here. We talked and talked and talked together. We shared our ups and downs with them, we cried and teared up together, we laughed together until we cried, we played Phase 10 until late in the night. I'm getting emotional writing and remembering all we did together. Most people don't get the chance we had of spending eight days with the preacher and his wife and I wish they did. We can't wait to see them again in November!

Obviously, one blog post doesn't seem efficient to convey to all of you what went on while the Stanglins were with us. But, hopefully this gives you a glimpse. Allan did a great job blogging while they

were here and after they got back. You can check out what he wrote on his blog: www.allanstanglin.com

It just took two people, but our worlds connected and we're still encouraged and living on a "high" from their visit. For all of you who sent hugs, cards, hellos, food, etc. with the Stanglins - thank you so much. We didn't realize how much we needed this visit, but we're thankful for those who made it happen and for all God did to bless us through it!!

What's Been Happening Lately...

2010-05-29T14:37:00.006+03:00

I always hate doing blog posts without pictures, but right now, that's what I'm giving and you're getting. However, there will be pictures soon, especially of our new place. For now, it's a wreck because we're still unpacking and settling in... pictures and/or video tour will come later. Still, there is much to share, so here's just a few things about what has been happening in our lives recently.

New Apartment
Many of you know we and the Hindmans have been looking for a new apartment for a long time now. Well, two weeks ago the Hindmans found a place and moved in about two weeks ago and on the day they moved in, we saw and paid the deposit for our new place. This last Monday we signed the contract for our place and moved in, all the same day. Needless to say, David has been on physical overload the last couple of weeks. He helped the Hindmans move into their place which is on the 4th floor (no elevator), packed up the majority of our stuff, moved us on (6th floor, but thankfully we have an elevator), and has been busy unpacking since. I have been helping, but he has certainly done the lions share of all the work!!

Quick synopsis of our new place: it is a three bedroom apartment on the 6th floor of a 9 story building. It is a fairly new building, so the elevator is great and all the wires and plumbing are all new. Our apartment is all newly remodeled and very tastefully done. The only room we didn't like very much was the kid's room. It was blue with 3 different types of wallpaper, a border, and curtains that all technically matched, but all together was overkill. We have permission to re-decorate that room, so that will be fun. The kitchen is great, it's about double the size of our old kitchen, has lot of cabinet space, and a dishwasher! I'm one happy woman. Plus, it has a nice sized table in it that has the ability to practically double in size. So now, instead of eating in the living room with a plate on your lap and cup on the floor, we have a table large enough to entertain 6 guests with us! We also have two small balconies - one enclosed and one that is not. David's happy about that - he'll have a bit of room for a small garden again! The apartment is just outside the center, so not quite where we were hoping, but it's still really close. We are also just 2 blocks away from the market we use, which is great, especially this summer! We are about 5-7 min from the McDougles and 10-12 minutes from the Hindmans, so not bad at all.

Our landlords seem also to be great people, they were very kind to us and have been helpful if we have any questions. That in itself is a big answer to prayer!

We've only had a few hiccups since we moved in. Every summer, they turn off the hot water in different regions for 2-3 weeks to clean the pipes. A week before we moved, they turned it off in our old place, but we had a water heater we could turn on so it didn't affect us too much. Well, a few days after we moved in our new place, they turned turned the hot water off in this region. We do have a back-up water heater for showers and the sink in the bathroom, but not for the kitchen. So, we have yet to use our dishwasher and have been heating up water on the stove to wash dishes. We also don't have a home phone and to be able to set that up we have to wait until our landlords are back in town (in a couple weeks). Still, we have our cells, so that's not too big of a deal.

We have a new address and that will go out in our next monthly newsletter we send by email, so be watching for that. Our Skype phone number (the local Lubbock number) will stay the same.

Denyce
In the midst of all our moving, actually just two days before we moved into our place, our teammate Denyce started having a miscarriage. She was 12 weeks along in this pregnancy. Many of you know she had a miscarriage after 5-6 weeks back in December as well. There were complications this time, however, and she ended up in the hospital here in Kharkov. It was a really scary time for us all because we knew she needed blood (she lost too much during the night), but none of us feel confident about the hospitals here. We called my doctor in the states on our Sunday morning (the middle of the night in the states) to confirm that she really did need to go, then Rob called the private ambulance service, we found a friend of ours to interpret, and Rob called Lucy's doctor Valeria. Valeria was out of town, but put us in touch with another doctor she trusted who met them at the hospital and took care of Denyce. David and I went with them to the hospital (David was especially needed to help carry Denyce down the 4 flights of stairs, as their ambulance doctors really would have struggled). Denyce was in the hospital about two days, but is back at home right now recovering. Although the hospitals here are very different from what we are used to, she was well taken care of. We know God listened to our fervent prayers and we are so thankful for Him helping her through that situation! Continue to keep the Hindmans in your prayers as Denyce recovers physically, but also as they grieve.

Pregnant... and Living in Ukraine

2010-05-09T17:50:00.010+03:00

Living in a foreign country is a true adventure in a lot of ways. There is always so much new to discover. I remember visiting Mexico when I was in high school and each of those experiences felt foreign. Living in (vs. visiting) a foreign country is quite different. Although where I come from and what I know seems "right" and "comfortable" to me, it feels foreign here... so instead of feeling like the place is foreign, I feel foreign. Of course, foreign isn't always bad, it has it's perks and it's disadvantages, just like everything else. Sometimes we're treated special and like famous people because we're foreigners (especially David since he's a Kiwi--imagine that, not too many people visit Ukraine from New Zealand), but other times we get treated like there's something wrong with us. Still, it's all an adventure.

Since we announced I was pregnant, the adventure has gotten even more interesting. Suddenly total strangers have taken an interest in taking care of me! In the states, one of the most common complaints I heard from pregnant women was that total strangers would come up and touch their bellies. Of course I'm still small, but I can't imagine that happening here. Instead, they come up and tell me what I'm doing wrong or ask questions to make sure I'm doing what they consider right. They thrive on tradition, and there are a bunch of traditions pregnant women should, in their minds, follow carefully. Here are a few examples of them, most of which have come from good friends of ours:

- Don't cut or color your hair. It contains important vitamins your baby needs.
- Don't knit.
- Don't eat meats or produce from the supermarket.
- Green apples are full of iron, one of the best sources you could eat. To get the most iron from it, poke the apple with a knife all around, let that sit out overnight, and eat it in the morning.
- Don't buy milk (and many milk products like butter and tvorog- similar to cottage cheese) from the supermarket, only the market.
- Don't sit near a window or door with a draft.
- Don't sit on any cold surface (especially not concrete).
- Don't fly in an airplane at all, even traveling by train is strongly discouraged.
- The parents aren't supposed to buy anything for the baby before the baby is born, it will bring bad luck. (Other people can, just not the parents)
- While you're pregnant, if you crave sweet things, you're having a girl; if you crave savory and salty things, you're having a boy.
- For the next baby: be sure to look at a lot of pretty things so it will be pretty as well. Of course, this only applies to the second baby.

We were attending a friend's birthday party about two weeks ago (I was only 21 weeks then, so I had just a small little bump), and I got told off by two nurses there for holding my nephew Max who is just over a year old. Apparently the time for me carrying things and holding things has expired. For the most part, we take the "helpful" advice that comes our way graciously, sometimes assuring them that my doctor says it's ok for me to do _____ (whatever I'm getting in trouble for), but most of all, I'm more careful what I do when I'm around Ukrainians. I'm only just half way through my pregnancy now, so I know this is only the beginning!

For me, these pregnancy traditions and tips are just traditions, not medical facts. For them, traditions are just as strong as doctor's advice, and most of the doctors will say the same thing because they grew up under those traditions. Which brings me to my most recent encounter and prayer request. The place we've chosen to deliver at is great, very modern and has what we need medically. Recently, however, we found out that because I don't have 20/20 vision, I have to get my eyes checked. If you wear glasses or contacts, they check your eyes to see if there is a risk of retinal detachment, and if there is, they won't let you deliver naturally, but insist on a c-section. David and I don't want to have a c-section if at all possible, especially because of something we had never even heard about until we moved here. So, be lifting that up in your prayers please. This is one tradition we can't sidestep!

Here's a recent picture of the baby bump at 23 weeks. Our little boy keeps growing and moving around, we're so excited and thankful for him!!

Prague Holiday

2010-04-30T13:37:00.038+03:00

I'm finally getting around to writing a small post about our trip to Prague! We were able to get away from Kharkov and spend a week with the McDougle family in Prague a couple weeks ago. Thankfully for us, we arrived just before the volcano erupted in Ieland, and the flights from Prague to Kiev resumed the day before we were scheduled to return! Of course, David was hoping we might get "stuck" for a few more days, but we were fine in the end. :)

Prague was a really neat city, the streets were just beautiful. The colors of the buildings were pretty each street and sidewalk was made of cobblestones. I think the majority of the rooftops in Prague are red, something you can even pick out as you're flying into the city. Three famous sites we were able to see were Charles Bridge, the Astronomical Clock Tower (in Old Square), and Prague Castle, all very nice. On the right are two pictures from the castle, one of a street called Golden Lane which was formally living quarters and workshops for the workers at the castle, and the other is a little view looking in the castle grounds (including the massive cathedral). I think the clock tower was our favorite (picture to the left). Every hour the clock puts on a show for the tourists and the little windows open up and the twelve apostles move across, two at a time. We were also able to go up into the tower and look out over the town, which was especially fun.

While we were there, our friends from Legacy (Collin, Marissa, and Caden McCormick) who are currently living in Germany, drove in for the weekend to meet up with us and see Prague. It was such a neat surprise and we had a really great time together! It was also our first time to meet their 9 month old son, Caden. (See picture to the left of Caden and David.) Anyway, they came in Friday night and stayed until Sunday afternoon. On Sunday morning, we were able to worship together with the church in Prague, which was really encouraging. Of course their meeting was in Czech, but the preacher there would summarize what he was saying in English for us. It was neat to worship together with another part of the body! We had a great time with the McCormicks... thanks so much for coming!!

Speaking of the language... although Czech is also a Slavic language, we were really only able to catch a word or two every so often that was the same or similar as Russian, so we were really blessed that so many in Prague spoke in English. In fact, we did almost all of our communication in English. For the couple of times when they didn't understand English, we were able to communicate in Russian. It was nice that we were able to fall back on that!

One of the best things about Prague was being able to have what we can't have in Ukraine. For example: Subway, KFC, Starbucks, Mexican food... yumm! (The picture to the left was taken at our favorite Mexican place.) We only have one American chain, McDonalds, in Kharkov, so it was so nice eating our other favorites we don't normally get to enjoy. David and I also were able to go see two movies, in English. In Kharkov, the only option of seeing movies in theaters up until recently has been to view them in Ukrainian (which we don't understand at all). Now, however, we are be able to start seeing shows in Russian, according to the changes made by the new President. Anyway... the food was fabulous and made the trip GREAT!

We also made a day trip to the Prague Zoo which was actually really nice! David went early to start looking around, and the rest of us joined him a little over an hour later. We all looked around, seeing some of the big animals, then the McDougles left and David and I stayed around for a couple more hours to see just a bit more. The grounds were really well laid out, but we especially liked the area they kept the giraffes. They were all indoors at that time, but the glass windows were you could view them were probably about two stories high. You were able to view the giraffes on the same level, so it really showed how massive they are!!

For those interested, we would definitely recommend Prague as a good holiday spot! (But, come see us in Ukraine too, of course!)

A little bit of this... and that.

2010-03-16T22:01:00.004+02:00

Stamp... and it's official.
Several months ago we girls decided it would be a good thing to get a flugraphia, a simple chest x-ray that tells if you have TB or not. Of course, none of us thought we had TB, we just knew the importance of the document saying we didn't have TB. Denyce and I were hoping to get pregnant in the next year and Lucy went ahead and did one as well since she was with us and showing us the way to the clinic. Without this document, you aren't allowed to go swimming in certain gyms here and if you're pregnant or in need of hospitalization, they have the right to put you in the room with other patients who are infected with TB. Lucy's old neighbor was a nurse and explained to Lucy where to go to get it all taken care of. It was such an interesting, yet such a typical Ukrainian experience, I thought I'd share it with you. First we went to the hospital to pay for the exam. We had to wait in line for the elevator and it was basically whoever jumps in first, but only 4 people were allowed at a time. (Yes, there was a nurse there who was yelling insistently "Only 4 people!" when more than 4 would try to get in.) From there we went to a desk where we told the receptionist what we wanted, and we paid for it. It cost us each $2.25! From there we left and went to another building down the street and found the waiting room. Flugraphias are common here, so there were a at least 10 people ahead of us. Most lines here in Ukraine work the same: you show up, ask who's last, and then say, "I'm after you." Then you have to listen for the next person who comes in to be able to say you're last and merely keep up with the person who you said you'd be after. This system works so that you can leave and come back and still have the same place in line. So, we declared our place and waited. They took 5 of us at a time into the back room where we showed them our ID and the lady behind the desk wrote down our names, address, and telephone in a regular notebook. (Of course, no computers anywhere.) From there we had our x-ray. That was a funny experience with our limited Russian. We had to remove our jewelry (which we understood since she pointed to them) and Denyce had to move her hair out of the way. I was first and Lucy had told me beforehand that we'd have to hold our breath during the x-ray, so when she spouted off something in Russian and walked away, I just assumed it was "hold your breath." So, I did... and then a couple seconds later started thinking "For how long?" and "Did she mean now?" Thankfully it didn't take long to hear a click and then hear her tell me we were done. :) Then they gave us a slip of paper with our name and the x-ray number and told us to come back the next day. The next day, we showed up, gave her our paper, she stamped it and that was it. The funny thing was the paper... I'm posting a picture here.
It's torn out of a simple notebook with my name written in Russian and a stamp. After we left, we all looked at the stamp and it contained the word "вeз" which means "without" so we all figured we all tested negative. We all laugh over the fact that stamps make everything official here, and this is prime example of how this simple paper is official, all because of that stamp and our names scribbled on top.

A few things from a Russian History Book
I'm about half-way done with this book a friend of mine from the states sent me. The book, Land of the Firebird, the Beauty of Old Russia by Suxanne Massie is great, I'm thoroughly enjoying it. Here are a few things I've enjoyed learning about this culture that I thought I'd share with you. These are just too accurate not to share and some are really quite interesting:

The Prince of Kiev, Vladimir, back in 987, was responsible for bringing the Eastern Orthodox religion into Russia's lives. He apparently was seeking something that would suite his people and their tastes. In the process, he rejected numerous religions including the Moslem religion because Russians wouldn't be allowed to drink and the Jewish religion because they were cursed to wander the world. Finally he decided to adopt what he found in Greece because it's beauty was captivating. If you've been inside an older Orthodox cathedral, you will agree they certainly are beautiful.
The church fathers who helped create the calendar for Russia, based their dates on when they assumed creation happened. They "argued persuasively that the world had to have been created in September, or else how could there have been apples to tempt Eve?". David and I got a good kick out of that one. From their work, our calendar over here has different dates for many Christian holidays including Easter and Christmas.
The early Tsars had their own terem, or house of women. These women went to great lengths to beautify themselves for the tsar and were not usually seen by the outside world. I found it really interesting that they thought blackening their teeth with mercury made them more beautiful as well as blackening the whites of their eyes. The whites of their eyes! If they got sick, the doctor was allowed to come into a darkened room and diagnosis what was wrong by feeling their pulse on their wrist which was covered with a cloth.
Mikhail Lomonosov wrote this of the Russian language that really does a great job explaining the complexity of Russian: it is "the splendor of Spanish, the vivacity of French, the strength of German, the tenderness of Italian and the power of expression of Latin and Greek." Yep, that about sums it all up!

Exciting News!

2010-02-25T11:41:00.005+02:00

This last Tuesday afternoon I was blessed to experience one of the greatest feelings. I was able to stand in a doctors office and watch, on a monitor, our child moving around inside Olivia. That's right, Olivia is pregnant once again! We have known that she has been pregnant for almost the last 3 months (she's in her 12th week right now), but we wanted to wait until the end of the first trimester as well as check everything out before we announced the pregnancy.

Because of our miscarriage last year, this pregnancy brought with it a lot more fears and worries as to what was happening with the baby. Morning sickness (really all day sickness) has been a big thing in this pregnancy, something that she didn't experience with our first pregnancy. Still, we didn't know how the baby actually was which was difficult. This last week as we went in for the ultrasound, we were filled with relief and joy. It was so great to see and hear the baby's heart beating as well as watch the baby jump around inside Olivia.

We are very excited! And we are more confident now that this time everything will go well. The doctor was able to check the health and development of the baby, looking for any indications that the baby has any birth defects or serious problems. And we are so thankful that as far as the doctor could see, the baby is in perfect health. Right now the baby is about 5cm long (2 inches) from head to bum. In the pictures you are able to see it's hands and feet (10 fingers, and 10 toes), all is well and we are pleased.

Thank you all for your prayers. As of now we are planning on getting all of our prenatal care here in Kharkov, then going to Kiev to deliver. There is a European clinic there we visited in January that we feel will be able to provide anything we need to deliver the baby without any problems. Keep praying for us, and especially for Olivia. She is the one that is dealing with all the sickness and aches, all I have to do is wash a few extra dishes and cook a few more meals.

Here is a very short video of the baby. I think it has the hiccups, cause it jumped around like this for ages. I know that it is all blurry, but if you notice the extra blurry bit in the middle of the baby's chest, you are looking at the heart beating. The was the most significant part for me, cause when I saw the heart beating, I knew that my baby was alive!

Getting from here to there... via Russian

2010-02-05T13:54:00.005+02:00

I'm sure many of you are wondering why we still keep talking about learning Russian. We've been here for almost 16 months... and we still aren't fluent? That's right... far from it. Our language has been improving and we are pleased with our progress, but the more we learn the more we realize we have a long way to go still. So, here's what we're doing right now in our language studies:

Going how?
We are currently knee-deep in Глаголы движения (verbs of motion) in our language studies. Basically, verbs of motion are how you get around: whether by walking, running, driving, biking, swimming, flying, etc. It's a big switch for us English speakers because we can no longer simply say "I went to the store," we have to be specific and tell how we went, for example, "I ran to the store" or "I drove to the store."
And, it doesn't just stop there. We're also learning 12 prefixes to go with these specific verbs. Here are the prefixes:
в- - in
вы- - out
до- - as far as, reach
за- - drop in, stop by
об- - around
от- - away
пере- - across
под- - approach
при- - arrival
про- - through, pass
с- - down from
у- - from
So far, we've learned 11 out of these 12 prefixes. So if we want to say we went into the store, we know which prefix to use. If we want to say we walked to the post office, but stopped by the store, we know how to say that too. Our talking basically goes like this: "I.... (really long pause as we try to figure out how to say it all)... ran around the park." (Or through the park, or near the park, or away from the park, etc.) Most of the time, we come up with something, even if it's not perfect, but sometimes, it's just too much thinking and we abandon what were going to say and end our "I..." with "... nevermind!" :)
And it doesn't stop there either. For each verb, we still have to learn the six different ways to conjugate each verb in the present tense, plus the three different ways in past tense, plus the six different ways in the perfect tenses. (I think I wrote that all right?!) Thankfully, our friends are patient people.

Teamwork
On a good day, we understand between 30-60% of conversation. It's a hard place to be... and a dangerous one. We understand quite a bit, but not being able to understand half of what they're saying means we miss a lot as well. We especially feel this when we're in a Bible study or discussion with someone. We think we understand what they're saying, but really, we're just doing our best to guess what their saying. Thankfully, we do our best to work as a team. That means after our conversations, we get together and put together what we understood to make sense of it. So far, it seems to be working... or at least we think it does! Either we are using our teamwork to make sense of it or we're all very creative. :)

Still Getting There...
But, here's the real lesson we're learning and most thankful for: it's not up to us. If it were, we'd all be in trouble and in the wrong line of work. We're learning to do what we can and then leave the rest up to God. I'd love to be able to say we've got that down at least, but... we don't. It's not always easy to leave it up to God. It's frustrating and we're still learning patience. So, like our verbs of motion, we're learning how to get to that point as well... via Russian.

Swimming.... outside... in the winter.

2010-01-10T20:38:00.015+02:00

It's supposed to be beneficial to your health... or so every Russian we've talked to about it says. But, we have yet to figure out what dipping your body into the freezing water in the dead of winter will do to your health. But, regardless of whether it's good for you or not, David took the plunge this last Saturday.

At their weekly guy's meeting at the coffee shop, Rob, Dougle, and David met Kevin. Kevin is a student here in Kharkov, originally from China. He's studying here and having an adventure. One of the things he's taken to is the winter "plunging." There's a park here with fresh water pumped out of the ground where many Kharkovians go to get free drinking water, hang out, or... swim, even in winter. We'd been there once before, but in the summer. It's a popular place for sure. Here are some photos I took on Saturday while we were there, some of people filling up their water bottles and one of two men playing table tennis. It really is a nice little park, even in the winter.

Back to Saturday... Dougle and David joined Kevin and went for their first winter swim. Here are a few pictures of the event. As you can see, it's popular enough they've built this "pool" just for the plunging. While we were there, 3 other people did the "plunge," most of them getting in the water, swimming a bit, then getting out and running around or exercising some, then coming back for another dip. We left before we saw how many times they did this. One man was jogging around in the snow with just his tennis shoes and speedo on. It made for a slightly comical sight, but showed their devotion to it's healthful benefits!

Of course the water was cold, David estimates just above freezing (Brrr!!) But, that wasn't the worst for them, David and Dougle both said the worst part was the changing rooms. There was no bench, just a marble floor that had been iced over, so they stood on ice in their bare feet before and after the swim.

They're crazy, yes. But, maybe they're also all just a little more "Russian" now!

Seminar and Holidays

2010-01-03T21:47:00.013+02:00

Seminar
Many of you prayed with us for the seminar we had this last month. My Dad, Kirt Martin, came in from Texas and gave a great presentation for 3 days on Creation vs. Evolution. Our friend Alyona came in from Donetsk and did a great job translating for him (can you imagine translating hard scientific words into Russian?)!! She was also able to stay with us for the weekend, and we had a wonderful time showing her around Kharkov and getting to know her better.

We only had a few guests come to the seminar, much lower numbers than we were hoping for, but we were still thankful for those who came and the experience it gave us. It was also the coldest week we've had here in Kharkov this winter and the temperature more than likely kept people at home. This was our first big outreach event we have hosted since being here and we learned a lot that will help us with the next one. We also had one guest who isn't a Christian and is interested in studying more about the Bible, so pray that we'll be able to reach out to him more this new year! We also video taped the whole thing and hope to be able to send the dvds to those congregations who are interested and weren't able to come.

Scattered here are several pictures of us all setting up for the seminar as well as the seminar on the first day.

С Новым годом! (Happy New Year!)
Since my parents have been here, we've been able to take some time off. It's been wonderful being able to miss Russian classes and play games with family. It's been really good! We celebrated Christmas together with family on Christmas Eve, then again with the Hindmans Christmas day. We all got lots of presents and had a great time together. Of course, we were the only ones around here celebrating because Ukrainian Christmas has yet to come! We will celebrate Ukrainian Christmas with everyone else here on January 7th. However, their big holiday was New Years. We invited a couple of our friends to join us, but they couldn't make it, so we spent New Years Eve with our family and teammates, playing games!

We are leaving tomorrow to go with the McDougles and my parents to Kiev. We will spend a couple days there sightseeing before my parents fly back to the States. So, keep our travels and their big plane rides home in your prayers, they will be leaving Thursday. It's been great seeing them and being able to have them here for the holidays.

Here are a few pictures we've taken over the last few weeks.
You are in our prayers and we hope your new year is off to a great start! Happy New Year!

A New Brother in Christ and Upcoming Opportunities

2009-12-11T22:04:00.008+02:00

Our New Brother Andrei
This last Sunday marked a very special day here in Kharkov for us, but especially for a good friend of ours, Andrei. Andrei was baptized into Christ this last Sunday here in Kharkov! (Here is a picture of him with the guys on the team and of his baptism into Christ - yes, in the McDougle's tub!) Andrei was introduced to our team about a year ago by our friend Valery. Valery had worked with him in the summer camps here and was trying to share with him a little more about the Good News. Over this last year, our team has been in contact with Andrei, and recently Dougle began meeting with him to discuss the Bible. Andrei has been reading the Word on his own, studying and then discussing various things with all the men on our team. After reading through Acts this last week, he approached Dougle about baptizing him and this Sunday we welcomed a new brother into the body. It was so encouraging to be a part of his new beginning and we pray that you will give thanks to God with us and also keep him in your prayers as he begins his walk of faith.

Upcoming Seminar
As many of you know, my parents, Kirt and Nancy Martin, will be coming this weekend to spend the holidays with us. We are very excited about them coming, and decided to take extra advantage of having my dad around with his expertise. He will be doing a seminar for us on Creation and Evolution, one he has done many times around Lubbock. A good friend of ours from Mariupol, Alyona, has been hard at work translating all the slides for his presentation and will come here to be his translator. Kharkov is a university town and there are around 150,000 students studying at universities and other higher academic schools here. We hope to reach out to those students through this seminar, so we have been advertising it in a local paper here as well as online, and over this next week we will be posting up fliers and handing out information about it. Here is a copy of one of the flyers we will be posting as well as the small fliers of information we'll be handing out. The seminar will be this coming Friday, Saturday, and Sunday and following the last lecture on Sunday, we will invite those who are there to stay and be a part of our worship service. Please be praying for those we invite to come and for their hearts to be open to hearing about how great our Creator is!

Many Reasons to Give Thanks!

2009-11-29T20:05:00.022+02:00

It's been a full year of us being in Kharkov, so this was our second time to celebrate Thanksgiving here in Ukraine. Of course, this year we are a little more experienced, so things went a little more smoothly this time around. For example:
Our Turkey - Last year, we didn't have a turkey because the only size we could find was HUGE (it wouldn't have gotten close to fitting in our oven!). Instead, we had a chicken. This year, we were familiar with the meat market and had our choice of freshly plucked turkeys from various farmers. We were prepared... or so we thought. Before Lucy and I went to the market on Saturday, I carefully measured my oven and checked our oven bags to make sure I would get a turkey that was the right size. We got our turkey home and... it didn't fit in our freezer. Lucy and I both have the largest freezers on the team, but the freezer has three drawers and the turkey just wouldn't fit in any of them. Oops. So, we cooked that turkey early in the week and froze the meat for later. Then Lucy and I went back to the market on Wednesday and picked out our turkey for Thanksgiving day. :)
Cranberries - Last year we couldn't find cranberries. This year, we knew the word for cranberries and had seen them all around the market, they're in season. So, we were set and had wonderful fresh cranberry sauce!
Spices - Last year, it took us so long to find all the spices we needed for stuffing. I think we found them all in the end, but it was a task for sure. This year, we went to the guy we always buy spices from at the market and he had all of them except for sage. Thankfully, he took us to another lady who supplied us with a big bag of sage (it was really a bag of dried sage plants, so we had to take the hard stalks out and use our blender to grind it all up, but it worked)!
French Friend Onion Rings - Last year, Denyce was sweet enough to make her own friend onion rings for the green bean casserole. They were good, but for me, nothing beats the real French's. This year, our sponsoring church sent some to us earlier in the year, so we put them away for Thanksgiving and they were so yummy! Thanks Legacy!
David and I prepared the turkey, dressing, gravy, pumpkin role, and peanut butter pie for the big day. The McDougles and Hindmans made more pies, cranberries, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, and rolls for the big feast. And our friends Eric and Lilia (he is American and she is Ukrainian) brought cooked pumpkin (which tasted a lot like sweet potatoes!) and a beet salad. The food was great and the company was even better.

After lunch we played Mexican Train dominoes and the Wii. David's friend, Nikita, also dropped by with a friend of his, Alina, to see how Americans celebrated Thanksgiving. She played dominoes with us and he played the Wii with whoever wasn't playing dominoes. When they showed up, our conversation changed to more Russian since she didn't understand English. It was a little more of a challenge, but we all did pretty good conversing and even explaining the rules of Mexican Train!

On Saturday we invited a bunch of our friends to come for pie. We planned to have a Bible study after, but our plans got changed, so we just had good conversation with them all. Hopefully we'll be able to have another opportunity soon to invite them back to study the Bible. We had 6 friends show up for that, plus a couple of their kids. It was great! We are so thankful for all our friends we've met over this whole year and grown to love and appreciate!

Hope your Thanksgiving was wonderful as well. We all, thanks to our Lord, have so much to be thankful for!!

Driving in Ukraine

2009-11-27T14:58:00.005+02:00

As I was driving around Kharkov today, I realized that some of the differences in driving might be interesting for you to hear about. So, this post is dedicated to sharing a few of the differences in driving.

First and foremost, I want to state that I love our car and the fact that we can drive everywhere in the city. It is a huge blessing I didn't properly appreciate until this last year when we didn't own a car and were restricted to walking and using public transportation. We are blessed to have wheels!

Which side? As in America, we drive on the right side of the road.
Police. The police stand on the side of the road here to pull cars over. They stand, in uniform, with a stick and if they point the stick at you, you've just been pulled over. For me, every time I see a police officer, I try not to make eye contact or appear to notice them, but at the same time I have to look enough to be prepared to pull over. If you don't pull over when they point their stick at you, they get in their car and chase you down. We have been told to do our best to avoid the police here because they are corrupt, so we're especially careful when we're driving. But, I will say, the experiences our team has had with the police has been good so far.
Horns and honks. Ukrainians love their horns. Many times before the light is officially green, they are honking for you to go. They honk to let you know they aren't stopping, whether you're a pedestrian or another car trying to pull out. Half the time they honk just because they can. Their horns are also very unique. Half of them are "normal" car horns, but other times they are police sirens or fire engine blares (and they're not police or firefighters).
Lights. Our lights here are red, yellow, and green, just like everywhere else. However, to indicate for you to go, the light goes from red to red and yellow and then to green. Then to indicate stopping, it flashes green, then goes to yellow, and then red, but sometimes it just goes from flashing green to red. When sitting at the light and the light goes from yellow to green, cars start going on yellow. (Most of the time if you wait for the green light, you'll get honked at.) But, in doing this, you have to be careful because when it's yellow for you, it's yellow for the other traffic as well, so you have to be careful for those who are speeding through the yellow lights. It sounds confusing, but it's really not.
Trolleys. We have many streets here with trolley buses, so you have to be extra careful with those. The stop at various points on the street, so you have to be careful when going around them to watch out for pedestrians. Their tracks, which run parallel and in them middle of the street, are tricky to drive on as well.
Car Status. Cars have social classes here. The nicer your car, the more you can get away with. So, SUVs and newer/fancier cars are often bullies. They cut off other cars and go around long lines of traffic, sometimes running lights or driving into oncoming traffic to do so. And it's all just accepted.
Taxis. I'm convinced that taxis aren't required to follow rules, and they break just about every one of them if they can!
Lanes. Some roads have lanes, and some don't. But the lane markings don't always mean anything. If there is one line down the center of the road, sometimes there's three lanes or cars driving right in the middle. It seems the lane markings are taken as merely "suggestions" of where they could drive, not where they need to drive.
Road repairs. The road repair vehicles are usually tractors and there is really no warning to their working in the road other than a small orange reflector behind their vehicle. If they completely take up your side of the road, there is no one to direct traffic, you just go into oncoming traffic and you both just deal with it. There's no way to properly explain how they repair roads here... it's all a mess. Last night I almost ran into a big hole in the road on the way home because all that was marking it was three brown sticks sticking out of it. (And remember, it gets dark here at 4:00pm, so a lot of our driving this time of year is in the dark.)

Despite all the differences, it's worth it. Do we feel safe driving here? For the most part, yes. We just have to be very cautious and constantly be aware of our surroundings.

Craft It Forward

2009-11-11T22:20:00.005+02:00

A while ago, a friend of mine from Legacy posted a blog called Craft It Forward. If you've ever heard of saying "pay it forward," the idea is based off of that. Anyway, she offered to make something for the first three commenters on her blog post, but those commenters had to agree to "craft it forward."

Well, I signed up for the challenge, and received my gift about a month ago: this really lovely necklace! Thank you so much, Deanna! Needless to say, it has become one of my favorites and I wear it all the time. :)

In fulfilling my part of the deal, I'm posting the same thing here and hoping for three people to comment and accept the challenge. Since most of our readers are supporters, friends, and partners in our work here in Ukraine, the crafts I make will be something related to Ukraine. (A fun challenge for me and hopefully something different for you!)

The first three commenters to this post will receive something from me, and yes, I'll mail it all the way from Ukraine to you. All you have to do is agree to craft it forward to three other people. And, yes, if you don't feel particularly "crafty," then you can bake something or adapt it to what suites your gifts/talents!

Thanks again, Deanna, for the challenge!

More About Ukraine

2009-11-03T18:58:00.010+02:00

It's been awhile since I've done a "cultural" post, so I thought I would post a few things today for those of you interested in a little bit of our lives here in Ukraine. Hope you enjoy the randomness!

Superstitions/Traditions
We live in a place that thrives on traditions and in their opinion, everyone should think and act according to those traditions. Some are what we would deem superstitions, but from what I can tell, for the most part they accept it all as a part of their culture and the traditional way of doing things here.
Whistling - Today David got in trouble for whistling in our apartment. Our language teacher went on to explain that if you whistle in your apartment, it means your money will go out (meaning we'll go broke) just like the sound goes out of your mouth. This makes me laugh because I remember my Poppop saying, "A whistling girl and a crowing hen always come to no good end."
Breaking dishes - it's apparently good luck when you do this here! (I think it's just when you do it accidentally, but I'm not completely positive about that.)
Buying Flowers - You have to buy an odd number of flowers to give as gifts or for yourself. Even numbers of flowers are only bought for funerals. They will not let you buy an even amount unless you assure them it's for a funeral.
Sitting - We girls continually get in trouble for sitting on the wrong places. So far we know the floor, cold places, concrete, etc. are the wrong places to sit. If you sit in these places, you will apparently lose your fertility.
Shoes - David got smacked in the ballet the other night for having his foot up resting on his knee. It's considered very rude to have the bottom of your shoe facing someone.

Daylight in Kharkov
We enjoy the longer days in the summer, and grieve over the shorter days in the winter. But in Kharkov there's a pretty big difference between the two, much more than we were used to in Texas. In Kharkov, we have daylight from around 4:30am to 8:30pm in the summer, but only from about 6:30am to 4:00pm in the winter.

Washing
When we went back to the states a month ago, I was once again shocked at the size of the washers in the US. I knew they were bigger, but I had forgotten how much bigger they are! Our washers over here (for the most part, you can buy them a little bigger) fit about 1/4-1/3 of the load we would put in our washer in the states. That's a big difference! That means my flannel sheets get washed separately and if I have two pair of jeans in the load, only a couple t-shirts and a few socks can go in with it. We also don't have dryers (they are available, but hard to obtain and you have to get special ones since most apartments aren't hooked up for the ventilation). We have drying racks and it takes about a 1-2 days to dry the clothes (depending on the season). Thankfully, it's winter and the radiators are on, so our clothes are drying in just about a day now!

Market Changes
Grocery stores aren't our primary shopping place here, in a lot of things (but not all by any means), we go to the outdoor market. On my last trip to the market, I realized how much the market has changed since the beginning of the summer. We started off the summer with berries, lettuce, cabbage, many herbs, mushrooms, peaches, etc. As the summer progressed, we lost the berry selection and gained a huge variety of tomatoes, peaches, apricots, melons, potatoes, and onions. Now, tomatoes are getting more scarce (you can always tell when things are going out of season because the price is 2-3x's what it was in season), mushrooms and melons are about gone, surprisingly raspberries are back for a second round, apples and pears are everywhere, and pumpkins have finally arrived. We're very excited about the pumpkins because that means we can finally make pumpkin pies, chocolate chip pumpkin cupcakes, and pumpkin soup-- all in time for the holidays. Granted, the pumpkins will be going out of season by Thanksgiving, so we're cooking and freezing it now for holiday use. If you want to know more about how to cook a pumpkin or want the recipe for the chocolate chip pumpkin cupcakes, check out my sister's blog here. As our winter approaches, we will be depending more on the grocery stores to stock our vegetable and fruit drawers.

Vanilla Update
If you read my post about making my own vanilla (here), I thought I would let you know that my first batch is done and turned out great! I highly recommend making your own, even if you can buy it in the store. It's simple to make, better tasting, and I'm pretty sure it's much cheaper than buying it in the store.

Well, there's a few of the things I had on my mind tonight. By the way... it's snowing outside my window just now. I'm hoping to wake up to a white view tomorrow?! Who knows.

Visit from NZ and New Beginnings!

2009-10-28T14:37:00.012+02:00

Our Visit with David's Mom
We were very blessed to have Mary, David's Mom, visit us from New Zealand these last two weeks! We had a wonderful time with her while she was here, catching up and being able to personally show her a little bit of our lives here in Ukraine. While she was here, we were able to worship with her, introduce her to some of our friends, take her to our market, our grocery store, some of our favorite restaurants, etc.

We also did two new things with her: we went to our first Russian Ballet, Swan Lake, and she and David visited the memorial for the Kharkovians who lost their lives in WW2. For Ukrainians, it's normal to grow up going to ballets and operas. Our language teacher was very surprised to know that we hadn't been to an opera and this was Mary and David's first ballet. So this was a great cultural experience for us all, not to mention great entertainment!! The picture to the right is at the ballet and the one below is one David took at the memorial.

Mary also took time to do a mini-workshop on children's Bible class teaching for us ladies while she was here. She and another lady, Melinda Miller, worked hard for years to arrange a great children's curriculum in NZ. Their curriculum goes through all the major stories in the Bible, and is filled with teacher information, activity ideas, and many other resources for each story. They've taken it and helped train teachers all over the South Pacific and she was kind enough to bring us a part of the goods! Baggage restrictions made it impossible for her to bring it all with her, but she brought enough resources to last us quite a while! Thank you, Mary, for all your help!

New Beginnings
This last Sunday, our team had our very first all Russian service together. All the men on the team took turns leading the service and did a great job! We all have so much to learn, especially in our Christian vocabulary. We've all been reading the Bible more in Russian, struggling with the difficult words, but learning a great deal as well. A couple of us on the team have also started reading the Bible with friends here in the city. It has been a great encouragement to all of us! Keep us in your prayers as especially David and I struggle with the language barrier. We are thankful for how much we've learned this last year, but it will continue to be a slow progress for some time yet. Pray we don't get discouraged, but continue to trust that God's greatness is coming through, especially in our weakness.

One Year in Ukraine

2009-10-15T23:37:00.004+03:00

Wow, time does fly, doesn't it? As I write this, it's hard to put my mind around the fact that we've really been here for a year today. The biggest reminder to me is the fact that we are seeing the same scenes (for the first time) in Kharkov... the beautiful colors of autumn. Up until this point, we experienced everything for the first time, with open eyes eager to know more of what our new home was like. Now, we have a year's worth (still not a lot!) of experience to go on and, in a way, that makes us feel a little more settled here.

As exciting as it is just recognizing the anniversary of the day we came to Kharkov, it's even more exciting for us to think of what is ahead. As many of you know, when we came here we came with the commitment to spend our first year in language learning and cultural adjustment. The hardest part of this commitment was the fact that we were going to try to not engage in any outreach or studies, knowing that if we did that, we would be tempted to get interpreters right away and possibly become bogged down with ministry rather than being able to learn the language. That decision was based on the advice from several missionaries who had come to this part of the world, most of them not making that choice and regretting it later. We also knew, after talking to many Russians and Ukrainians, that not learning the language would hinder our work and their acceptance of us greatly.

So for this last year, we've been doing exactly what we committed to: learning the language and doing our best to adjust to the Ukrainian culture. Language has been a struggle for sure, but we are so thankful we were able to give so much of our time this year to our learning. After a year, we are still just at the beginning and have so much more to learn! Many of you may remember that we had been told that Russian was the language of heaven... because it takes an eternity to learn. In many ways, we see truths to that! :) Still, we are excited about our progress so far and we can get around so much better than we could a year ago.

This next year will be different. Our team has been dreaming since we first formed as a team, but even more as we've been here this last year, of what we might do to reach the lost in our city. We have plans and ideas and we're excited about them. We just ask that you will be in prayer for us as we begin to really reach out and share more of God's love with those around us. We know we are imperfect people, but we know we serve a perfect God and we pray that He is able to work through us, in us, and maybe sometimes in spite of us to reach people here. We know we'll make many mistakes, but we also know that He will grow us and transform us through each and every one.

Continue to keep us in your prayers as we're here. When we came, our dream was to be disciples, make disciples, and send disciples. We pray that God is able to accomplish all of those things and more so that His Name is glorified and praised here in Kharkov, Ukraine.

In the midst of this...

2009-10-10T21:43:00.003+03:00

It has been a long time since our last blog! We've had so much going on in our lives over here, it's been difficult to find time to write a new post. But, I felt it was time to write a little update about how we're doing here.

As many of you know, my grandmother, Betty Curfman, passed away a couple weeks ago. The family was told she would only live for another 2-4 months, so Lucy and I made plans to go see her one last time. The timing seemed to be good as well because we would be able to renew our visas at that time. Two days after we booked our flight, Grandma passed away. We were very sad we weren't able to see her one last time, but were glad we'd still be able to spend time with my mom and my Poppop. Lucy, Canaan, Max, and I all flew to Ohio and were able to see all our family in Ohio, plus spend time with both my parents as my Dad was able to make it for the funeral.

Around the time we left for Ohio, we decided to let everyone know that we were just over 9 weeks pregnant. After being in Ohio a week, I started experiencing signs of a miscarriage, so with a lot of urging from my sister, we went to the ER late Wednesday night. After two sonograms and some examinations, the doctor confirmed that indeed we had lost our baby. I was 11 weeks along in the pregnancy, but the ultrasounds showed that the baby was only 6 weeks developed. At that time David and Dougle were in Budapest, Hungry renewing their visas, so unfortunately, we had to go through it all without one another.

We immediately recognized the blessing of being in the states when all of this happened, I had such wonderful care there. I still don't know what we would have done if we had miscarried over here in Ukraine. Even though David and I were apart, we were able to see each other on Skype every day. Prayers started going up on our behalf from all over. It has now been just over a week since that night, but we have received over 100 emails or notes from friends, family, and strangers telling us that they are thinking of us and praying for us. We know we owe so much to many of your prayers! We are still grieving our loss. David has been a huge support to me and I am so thankful for that. These last couple days have been good for us both, just spending a lot of time together again. I am healing slowly, physically and emotionally. Right now I'm simply clinging to the fact that I will praise Him and trust Him no matter what. I know His timing is perfect and His plan for us is always good. I have difficult moments still, but I know with time I will have complete peace.

Thanks to many of you who have been praying with us and encouraging us during this time. We are blessed to be a part of the family of God. We know that even when situations don't turn out as we imagine, God is still in control and He is blessing us and molding us. Keep us in your prayers as we continue to heal and trust Him to give us His peace "which surpasses all understanding" that will "guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus." Even in this midst of this... we will trust Him.

Kharkov's Independence Day

2009-08-26T15:32:00.020+03:00

Sunday, the 23rd of August, marked Kharkov's Independence Day. This year marked the 66th anniversary of the day when they marched the Nazi fascists out of the city. Kharkov was the largest populated city in the Soviet Union that was taken captive by the Germans during WW2. About 70% of the city was destroyed during that time and tens of thousands Kharkovians were killed. To the left is a monument of this event in Kharkov's history, located on the street "23rd of August" here in the city. Below is a great link our teammate Mike found that takes you to a website that shows pictures of Kharkov while it was under German control:

http://englishrussia.com/?p=3642

Even though our team was on a retreat this last weekend, we scheduled a free day on Sunday to come into the city and enjoy the festivities. Tim and Rebecca Brinley as well as Tim's parents, Herb and Virginia Brinley, were with us for our retreat, so they were able to enjoy the festivities with us. The main square in the center of the city was filled with people and got even more crowded as the evening progressed. (The sign to the left says, "We love you, Kharkov!" and the picture on the right above is of people looking at various pictures of Kharkov while it was under the German rule.) There were many tents set up selling things, the popular item being plants of all sorts and sizes. In the weeks leading up to Sunday, the city was buzzing with construction projects working to make Kharkov look it's best on it's Independence Day. The hard work all paid off and it did look really beautiful. To the left is a picture of David and I in front of the Kharkov coat of arms in the park, just one of many large flower designs in the main park.

While we were in the park, we decided to take some time to play baseball with the younger boys. Thanks to Rebecca, who brought her Nerf ball bat and ball, we had a great time. The boys did pretty good and we had a great time. While we were playing, two other Ukrainian boys came over to watch and we invited them to join. They had a great time and when it was time to wrap up, they asked when we'd be playing next. Now we know to go play baseball in the park and we'll meet the local children! Here are some pictures of the boys from our game together (if you want, you can click on them to see a larger image):

Batter Up, Malachi!

And Canaan!

Silas wasn't so excited.
On the right is a photo of David and Tim playing with the boys we met in the park:

Our Holiday in Italy

2009-08-17T10:17:00.006+03:00

About two weeks ago, we packed our bags and left behind Russian studies for a 12 day holiday in Italy. Earlier this year, some friends of ours from New Zealand asked us if we wanted to join them as they traveled around Italy. After looking at our schedules and flights there, we said yes within just a few days and we're so glad we did! We met Dan and Tarryn Pratt in Bologna, Italy and had a great twelve days together. David grew up in New Zealand with Dan, then I had gotten to know them both when I went there to work with the church. The Pratts are currently working at an international school in Saudi Arabia, so Italy was a great get-away from the norm for them as well. It was so good to see our friends again and tour Italy together! We went to 7 different cities in about 12 days, so we saw a LOT.

Florence
Our first stop was the beautiful city of Florence. We hopped on a tour bus that took us around to the main sites in the city (which was very convenient). We saw streets, Cathedrals, fountains, the Old Bridge, lookouts, etc. For the evenings, we were staying at a campground just outside the city. The place also had a pool, so we went for a swim later as well which was great! (Pictures are of us at Michelangelo's point, looking over Florence and of the Old Bridge in Florence.)

Lucca
Our next stop was Lucca, a small, yet unique city. We were there on a Sunday, so most of the shops were closed down for the day, but it was still great to just walk around. There a huge walls around the city, built to fortify the city, which were very impressive to see and walk around. Another interesting fact we learned was that Lucca was ruled by Napolean's sister for a period of time. In the afternoon, we went out to the coast for a swim in the coastal town of Viareggio. It was so crowded, but the swim was certainly nice. (Pictures are of Olivia in the city of Lucca and David standing on a part of the wall surrounding the city.)

Pisa
From the coast we headed back into the little town of Pisa to check out... the famous leaning tower. We are pleased to announce it is truly does lean and is still leaning even after we left it. Honestly, it was more impressive than I had imagined it to be. It was originally build to accent the church it is built next to (which is very nice), but now it seems the church accents the leaning tower. We stayed at a campground again in Pisa, so after seeing the leaning tower we just headed back to camp and played games together. It was great to have a day together to simply rest and not be too busy sightseeing! (Picture is of us at the leaning tower.)

Pompeii
We made the long drive down the western coast of Italy to our next stop, Pompeii. On our way down, we stopped at a little island on the way, Monte Argentario. We had lunch on the island, went for a swim in the Medditerranean, drove around the island a bit more, then headed back inland and headed to Pompeii. The second day we were in Pompeii, we headed even further down the coast to Sorrento. There we had dinner on the coast while the sun was setting. It was all very pretty! Pompeii was amazing as well. We woke up early and drove to Mt. Vesuvius, the volcano that erupted covering the ancient city of Pompeii. We hiked up to the top and enjoyed the view of the crater, then came back down and got ready to the see the ruins of Pompeii. The ruins themselves were really interesting, one of my highlights on the trip. You can actually walk down the streets, surrounded by the houses and shops that were 2000 years old. Paint on the walls, pottery, and fountains are still visible. The city was very large as well, we didn't get to see it all in one afternoon, but it was incredible! (Pictures are of the western coast, a view of streets in Pompeii, and us with Dan and Tarryn at the top of Mt. Vesuvius.)

Rome
From Pompeii, we drove up to Rome. The first day we spent visiting theVatican, seeing St. Peter's Basilica and visiting the Vatican Museum which housed the famous Sistine Chapel. The Basilica was very impressive, it's amazing how much work has gone into this famous building. The Vatican Museum had plenty of very interesting things as well including artwork, tapestries, Egyptian relics, famous statues, etc. We weren't able to take pictures inside the Sistine Chapel, which was sad, but it was just as good as we had thought it would be. It was neat being up close to the works of famous artists like Michelangelo and Raphael. After the Vatican we went to the Colloseum. Inside the Colloseum was very impressive, it is hard to imagine all the history that happened there. We were able go back and see the Colloseum at night later which was really neat to see it lit up. The next day we visited other famous fountains and historic sites, including the Pantheon. All the work and engineering it took to create the perfectly half circle ceiling in the Pantheon was impressive for sure! We could have spent another day in Rome easily, but our time was running out, so we headed to our final stop. (Pictures are of us at the the Vatican in front of St. Peter's and us inside the Pantheon.)

Venice
From Rome, we took a train to the famous city with streets of water. Our train ride went fast, especially because we played cards for about 4 hours of it! Venice was just beautiful and a perfect end for our adventures in Italy. It was a very clean city and so fun to casually walk around the streets, ride on the boats, and enjoying a little last minute shopping. Venice is famous for their colored glass items and masks. Everything was tempting! There wasn't too much site-seeing there we had to do, so we just took our time and enjoyed Venice. Even in the evenings, we ate like Italians and stayed late, enjoying our time together at the restaurants. (Pictures are Dan and David on a gondola in Venice and David and I on a bridge in Venice.)

Overall, our trip had very few things we could have made better. We had a great time with friends and saw a beautiful and historic country! Hope you enjoy the pictures. Thanks again for your prayers as we were traveling. The holiday was wonderful and we came back with lots of stories and photos, and are refreshed and renewed once again. If you're picture-happy, here is a slideshow of more pictures from our trip:

Freezing the Goods

2009-07-29T10:35:00.013+03:00

It's summer in Ukraine which means lots of fresh fruits and veggies!! It's such a relief because there were many disappointing things about the fruits and veggies in the wintertime. It's nice to have your pick of the freshly grown produce now, sometimes grown just outside of Kharkov!

Since moving here, we've noticed there are many things we think and do differently from Ukrainians. For example, we buy fruit (sometimes frozen) all year round. They wouldn't dream of doing that. In fact, when it comes to almost anything, if it's not made in Kharkov, they turn their nose up at it. I bought lids for the jars I'll be using to can tomatoes and the lady who was selling them said, "These are good... these are bad." When we asked what the difference was between them she simply said (pointing to the good ones) "These were made in Kharkov" and (pointing to the "bad" ones), "These were made in Poltava" (another city in Ukraine). And the list of differences between our cultures just goes on and on.

One thing they do here that I've tried doing this year is freezing produce to have in the winter. You see, they may not buy produce from Poland or anywhere else outside of Kharkov, but they've also thought to plan ahead and can or freeze in the summer. So, in following their example, I have been berry shopping and have myself a little stash of berries for the winter months ahead. Berries are also really cheap right now, which is so wonderful! I flash froze each of them individually, then stuck them in my freezer bags (compliments of Legacy's care packages, thank you!) to store in the freezer.

The season for cherries and raspberries are just about over here, so I'm glad we were able to get them when we did. I'm very proud of my little stash of raspberries, blueberries and cherries!

On a side note: David and I are leaving today to go on holiday in Italy! We are very excited to get away for a little bit and have fun seeing the sights of Italy. We'll be traveling around 7 different cities with our friends from New Zealand, Dan and Tarryn Pratt, in just 12 days. So, keep us in your prayers as we travel and as soon as we get back I'll post some pictures from our adventures!

Life just got a little bit easier!

2009-07-15T15:32:00.010+03:00

After just over 8 months of walking around the city, we are happy to announce we finally have a car! It is a light blue Hyundai Accent, 2008. It's a new car, which is great because it means we have warranty that goes with it, if anything should go wrong. Our friend, Vetali, is a mechanic and helped us find it. Cars are pretty expensive around here, even for used cars. But we were able to find a deal at the Hyundai dealership that we couldn't pass up. After finding the car, he and his wife Galina worked hard to help us get all the paperwork sorted. We are so blessed to have friends like them here!!!

Needless to say, we are now spoiled and are LOVING the convenience. The first night we had our car, we drove to the grocery store. It was so different I felt like I no longer lived in Kharkov. It was just so easy and fast! Imagine this: driving to the grocery store, getting your groceries, packing them in your trunk (or boot), and then driving them home. I'm smiling as I write this because it's so wonderful! No more blisters or sore arms... and energy to spare!

Of course, we won't be driving everywhere like we did in the states. Our teammates apartments are still close enough to walk to and sometimes traffic is bad enough, it's just easier to walk or take the metro instead. The main blessing of having the car will be for when we will have to carry a lot home. It will also be nice in the winter to not have to fight the cold as much.

Several of you have asked about the driving here. It is pretty crazy, yes. For the most part, if it looks like they can get away with it, they'll do it (i.e. driving on the wrong side of the road, running lights, etc.). So, we're learning the rules and then learning how to drive with other cars who don't abide by those rules. Now is the best time of year for us to be learning as the roads are all in pretty good condition. In the winter everything is icy, then when spring comes there are pot holes everywhere. The pot holes are dangerous by themselves, but then there are the cars swerving to avoid the pot holes. Hopefully, come winter, we'll be a little more prepared to deal with "the worst."

I've also posted some pictures of our car. As you can see, we've already had it loaded to the max with our teammates. Even though it's small, Denyce, Malachi, and Silas all fit in the back seat pretty well!

So, for us, life just got a little bit easier and we are very happy about that!

Blessings in Mariupol

2009-06-27T21:58:00.012+03:00

A week ago we traveled with our team down to the city of Mariupol, Ukraine. Our teammates, Brandon and Katie Price, have worked with the church in Mariupol before (he as an AIM student in 2002-2004, then both of them as a couple in 2007-2008), so this was an opportunity for them to introduce us to the church there. It was a great experience.

While we were there, we were invited to 2 youth devotionals where we met and hung out with the youth. Our friend, Sasha (who came up to visit us in Kharkov a couple weeks ago), was there and it was encouraging to see him leading songs among his peers. The congregation is one of the largest in Ukraine with about 80 regular members and many of those are youth. The men on the team were also able to sit down with the preachers in Mariupol to get their advice and thoughts on church planting here in Ukraine. Tim Burrow, former missionary in Mariupol, was also there with us, so it was really good to spend some time with him as well as one of the elders from his sponsoring church, Hal Pendergraft.

On Saturday the ladies on the team joined the ladies from church and learned how to make an Ukrainian dessert. It was wonderful to be with them all and I'm anxious to try the recipe on my own at home. This is a picture of me (below, sitting at the table) trying to take notes while the lady in charge rattled off the recipe in Russian. I even tried cheating by looking at the ladies next to me, but even then I only wrote down "6 eggs - cold, milk, flour, boil"-- basically any word I recognized. I tried, right? When they started cooking, I started writing in English and actually walked away with a recipe. Thank goodness they showed us how to do it! It was a lot of fun. Later on that weekend, the minister's wife, Ira, took us to their women's ministry room upstairs and explained a little more of what they do every week. I really hope we can get something like that going here in Kharkov as well.

We were also able to go down to the sea a couple of times which was really fun for the kids. (Here are a couple pictures, one with Silas on the beach an the other of the two Antys and the kids.)

We had a wonderful time in Mariupol and were doubly blessed by the Christians there. On our way home, we stopped in Donetsk to do some paperwork. On Saturday, Katie and Brandon left us to go back to the states. We had a wonderful month with them here. The next time we'll see them will most likely be next year when they move here. Needless to say, we're glad they joined the team and we're looking forward to having them back here on a permanent basis!

Garden Pictures and "Who's the Kindest Country?"

2009-06-19T11:00:00.003+03:00

The Garden on Our Balcony

David's garden on our balcony has been taking off. We've been enjoying lettuce these last couple weeks and it's still producing! His green onions are also about ready to be uprooted. He continues to cut off the tops of the cherry tomatoes because they're growing so much and this last week they started flowering, so we'll be seeing little green tomatoes soon! He started 12 cherry tomato plants, thinking they wouldn't all grow, but they did. So the Hindmans and our language teacher, Yelena, got several plants from us that they're continuing to grow. He's also growing cilantro, habanero peppers, and jalapeno peppers. We're so grateful to have our balcony to grow food on, and I'm grateful for a husband who is taking such good care of it all!

"новая Зеландия - страна добряков"

Our language teacher brought us an article from our local Kharkov newspaper Today this last week. The title is "New Zealand - Kindest Country." You can guess why she brought it our way! Just in case you're wondering: the United States was rated #83 in 149 countries, Ukraine was rated #82, and Russia was rated #136. They are pretty happy they are rated "kinder and more loving" than the United States. We were excited New Zealand has a good reputation that maybe we can piggy-back on here in Ukraine!

Dolphins, Friends, and Russian Songs

2009-06-17T15:00:00.012+03:00

Last weekend Brandon and Katie had a friend come up from Mariupol. Sasha came on the train early Saturday morning. He spent all day on Saturday with our team and then left with Brandon and Katie on Sunday evening.

A couple weeks ago a new outdoor dolphinarium opened up in the main park in town. Sasha was a good excuse for all of us to go see the show together. Lucy was still under the weather, so David and I offered to keep Canaan overnight. We picked him up and headed to meet the Hindmans, Prices, and Sasha at the show. It was great and thoroughly entertaining! The show included 4 sea lions, and 4 dolphins performing their best. Two of the dolphins gave up halfway through their routine and their poor trainer left them to swim around, misbehaving, which was quite comical. Who would have guessed we'd have a dolphinarium in Kharkov, Ukraine?!

On Sunday our whole team (minus Lucy and Max since Lucy was still sick) went to XT3 (Hetezay) to worship with the congregation out there. The service is in Russian, so David and I struggle to understand little fragments of what they are saying. Nevertheless, it's encouraging and we're all worshipping the Lord together.

Later in the afternoon, after Dougle and Lucy fed us all enchiladas, we all sang together. Sasha brought songbooks up from Mariupol for us to use and then led us all in singing. It was really good to sing together in Russian, even though we weren't perfect at it, sometimes stumbling over the words and/or tune. In 2002, Brandon met Sasha in Mariupol when he was an AIM student. Brandon worked with him while he was in AIM and Sasha became a Christian. When Brandon and Katie went back to Mariupol again in 2007-2008, they worked with Sasha more, training him to be one of the leaders in the youth group. Today, Sasha is helping "train" us in Russian songs-- what a neat story. We pray stories like Sasha's will come out of the work we'll be a part of here. We know God has amazing plans for the Sashas, Natashas, and Nicolays here in Kharkov!

During our singing together, Brandon and Sasha even taught us the Russian version of "The Sea of Galilee" so I thought I'd share it with you here.

It's Been Awhile!

2009-06-14T18:58:00.017+03:00

June is flying by around here! We are enjoying hotter summer days (especially hot for our teammates who don't have air conditioning), but we're loving the sun and enjoying all the time we're getting outside. There's something about summer that brings the Ukrainians to life and it's wonderful to be a part of it.

Team Time
These last two weeks we've had our teammates, Brandon and Katie Price, here in Kharkov with us. They left yesterday to go down south to visit Mariupol, Ukraine (to the congregation they worked with for several years). On Thursday, our whole team will travel down to Mariupol and spend the weekend with them. It will be good to go see a different part of Ukraine, meet other Christians, and get to know the people who Brandon and Katie call their family. After our time with them, we'll all come back to Kharkov, making a day stop in Donetsk, Ukraine to register visas and inquire about car registration. We hope to get a car pretty soon, we just need to figure out how to put it in our name.

Our Time with the Prices
We were blessed to have Brandon and Katie stay with us for the first week of their visit here. During that time we really got to know each other better. David and I are very excited to have another couple around our age coming here. They also attended our language classes during the week and our teacher Yelena took right to them. Katie also taught me how to make вареники [ver-en-ik-y], a Ukrainian pasta dish. Вареники can be filled with many things, but we filled ours with potatoes and cheese, then another batch with berries. You boil them on the stove for just a few minutes, then serve them warm with sour cream. Even the berry filled ones are served with sour cream (with a little sugar) on top. It was delicious!

Scouting the City
For the last couple weeks we've been walking around different parts of the city. We enjoy where we're living now (the center), but all hope to move to a different part of the city this next year. In the center, we feel like we're in an apartment building that is mostly surrounded by businesses. We hope to find a place that has a "neighborhood" atmosphere where we can become a part of a community. So, our team walked around four different areas of the city we were interested in, and two of them appealed to us all, so that is great. I'm including some pictures from our walk. We wondered how strange we must look to people-- 8 Americans and their kids walking around!

Care Package!
I also wanted to mention we received a care package from Legacy a couple weeks ago!! Denyce and Lucy both came "shopping" in my pantry as well to grab a few goodies. It's so nice to have fun foods around. The box contained food, books, fun toys, lotions, and medicine too. The medicine came just in time as Lucy has been sick with a horrible head cold and I got a minor version of it as well... it was nice to have American medicine we already know and trust on hand!

I'll stop writing so this post doesn't become too long. I still have a few more things to share, so I'll be posting again soon in a couple days. I did want to mention our teammate Brandon's blog. He's posting a picture a day and so far they've all been of their trip to Ukraine. Most of the pictures are common things we see around here, he just does a great job capturing it. His site is: brandonprice.posterous.com

Sharing About Ukraine

2009-05-22T12:53:00.028+03:00

It's been a little while since our last post, so I thought I would write a few things I've been meaning to write for a while now. David still isn't letting me take pictures of his garden until the peppers start to grow. One peaked out of the soil yesterday, so I'm hoping to have pictures for you next week! But here are other random thoughts and bits of information about us or the culture here that I think you'll enjoy reading about.

Wedding Ring Finger
When we moved here in October, David and I switched our wedding rings from our left hand to our right hand. Our teammates had let us know before we came that was where Russians and Ukrainians wear their wedding bands. Last week our teacher enlightened us more. In Ukraine, Russia, and Belarus married couples wear their wedding bands on their right ring finger. If they wear the wedding band on their left hand it means their spouse is deceased, they are separated from their spouse, or they are divorced. Needless to say, I'm happy we had our rings on the right hand and we'll be keeping them there for the next 5 1/2 years!

Homemade Vanilla
As some of you know, we cannot find liquid vanilla extract/flavoring here in Ukraine. Up to this point our friends have brought it to us or sent it to us. Since we make almost everything from scratch, we go through vanilla fast. About a month ago, our friend from Legacy, Kipi, wrote a blog post about how she was making homemade vanilla. Right now I have four 70oml jars of vanilla in-the-making (it takes 3-6 months to diffuse the vanilla beans into the vodka). Here's a picture of how three of them are turning out. Needless to say, I'm very happy we found this recipe and I can't wait to try it out!
The vanilla on the far left is just starting (Day 1), next to it is vanilla on Day 2, and on the far right is the vanilla after 3 weeks. My first batch will be at the 3 month mark on July 31st. But, I'm hoping I'll be able to let it go 6 months. I'll let you know how it goes!

Shopping in the Outdoor Market
In my post about the items in our kitchen, I mentioned we had been talking to our language teacher about where she buys food. She does not trust the meat or milk products at the supermarkets and prefers produce from the outdoor market as well. Well, a couple weeks ago Denyce and I bought some produce and honey from some people on the street who have stands set up almost every day. It was very good in quality and yesterday we ventured out again, this time to a larger outdoor market to pick up some produce. There were numerous stands of people selling their produce. A lot of it was very fresh, we just had to keep your eye out for the best-looking stuff. They even offer samples, so that is good (although sometimes the sampling looks less than sanitary, so I just buy it, hoping it will be good). Sometimes the produce is washed and sometimes it isn't. If it's washed, it's usually more expensive. But if you don't buy it washed your run the risk of the produce being moldy and bad (the dirt covers a multitude of blemishes). Most of the produce is cheaper in the outdoor market and the things that are in season taste much better. Since summer is here, the produce will only get better as well. Our language teacher is keeping us in the loop of when to buy Ukrainian grown products as many of their imported goods aren't very tasty. Because we went yesterday (not on the weekend), they didn't have the meat out, so I'm planning to go back tomorrow (hopefully with our language teacher so she can show me who to buy meat from) to get that. We'll probably stick to buying our milk products at the grocery store, though.

The Russian Keyboard
Here's a picture (click on it to enlarge it) of our keyboard with Russian letter stickers on it. The red letters are Russian, blue are English. Even with the color differences, it's hard to type in Russian, but we're getting better with practice.

A New View
Here are some pictures of what we see out our balcony and windows. The pictures on the left were taken a couple months ago (either February or March) when we were in winter and the pictures on the right were taken today as we're in spring. I chose the prettier pictures of winter (the ones with snow on the ground), but still, we're glad the grey is gone for a while!

Victory Day in Ukraine

2009-05-11T12:14:00.016+03:00

Last Saturday was the 64th Victory Day here in Ukraine. Victory Day is the holiday remembering when the Nazi forces surrendered to the Allies in WWII. Because of Russia's role in capturing Berlin, Victory Day is a proud day for them.

We were excited to be a part of the celebration with them this year. We missed their traditional parade of veterans, but were able to experience some of the excitement and fun that evening. We met the Hindmans for dinner, then headed to the main square to see what was going on.

We met Valeriy and another friend Julie at the square and listened to the concert for a little bit. Then we headed into Shevchenko park to walk around. The park is huge and the trees are all very green (such a contrast to what it looks like in the winter!). The park was very crowded with people celebrating the holiday with friends.

After walking in the park, we decided to head home. They had fireworks scheduled for later, but we didn't feel like waiting over an hour to see them from the square. As you can see, we still had a pretty good view from our balcony!

Happy Victory Day... a great memorial because it marked the end of a horrible time in history worldwide, but especially for those in this part of the world. Statistics today say that the Russian federation lost between 23-27 million during WWII. Sixty-four years later, we should still be celebrating the end to such a horrible genocide!

Borrowing Canaan...

2009-04-27T20:05:00.007+03:00

I just had a really good afternoon today, one that could have been really boring, slightly irritating, and possibly even embarrassing. But, I avoided all those things by borrowing Canaan. That's right, I had an errand to run, so I borrowed Canaan to make my life easier and it ended up being more fun too!
You see, I had to go to the post office. Several of you have heard about my first trip to the post office here in Kharkov. It wasn't pleasant, in fact, it was emotionally difficult on me. I got yelled at by the ladies behind the counter, they yelled at each other and I was frazzled by the end of the experience. I didn't realize it at the time, but looking back, it really left a mark on me emotionally and I avoided going out alone for several months after because I was scared.
But then, I went to the post office with Lucy, Max, and Canaan. Wow, what a difference. Our good experience had nothing to do with Lucy or I... it had everything to do with the kids. Ukrainians take one look at the kids and their sympathies and patience level increase significantly. So I made a mental note: borrow kids next time.
And that's exactly what I did today! Canaan was so excited to get out into the warm weather with me, he practically ran to the post office (a 10 minute walk away). We looked at all sorts of things along the way, marveling at especially the trucks, tractors, and motorcycles that passed us by. Then we got to the post office. We waited in line for about 30 minutes until we were finally helped, then we waited and worked with the ladies behind the counter for another 30 minutes getting the package all sorted to be mailed internationally. (They really are in no hurry to get anything done.) I filled out one form they gave me, then another they gave me. Then they threw the first slip away that I filled out because I didn't need to fill it out. Then they opened my package and weighed each thing inside individually, writing the weight of each object on the customs form. Then I filled out the customs slip again because I had misspelled "magnet" in Russian. After all that and 8 stamps to make everything official, Canaan and I were finally out of the post office. Canaan was incredibly good there, we played together in line, talked about all sorts of things around us, and he even got to flirt with one of the girls we were in line with. Did we get yelled at? Not once! They were actually really kind and patient with my limited Russian!
After the incredibly long time at the post office, we went and got a milkshake at McDonalds for our walk home. He certainly deserved it after being fantastic for such a long time in line!
It was a win-win situation: Canaan got a milkshake, the McDougles got a lot done at their house, and I walked away happy and encouraged from my post office experience! :)
Note to self: keep borrowing kids! :)

Easter in Ukraine

2009-04-20T16:45:00.019+03:00

Our team celebrated Easter yesterday, a week later than most of you around the world, but on the day it's celebrated here in Ukraine. We did a few "traditional" Easter things, but also brought in some of our traditional fun and it turned out to be a great day.

First of all, here's a few snapshots of how Easter is celebrated here: Easter is mainly an Orthodox holiday, celebrating Jesus' resurrection. Next to Christmas, it is one of the most popular holidays here. On Saturday, they go out to the graveyards of their dead relatives. Saturday is also the day they go to the church to get their Easter things (cakes, baskets,eggs, etc.) blessed by the priest. On Sunday, no one works, everyone just celebrates with family. Our language teacher told us it was a sin to work on Easter Sunday. On Sunday, everyone greets one another the traditional way:

First person greets: "Христос воскрес!" ("Christ is Risen!")
Second person replies: "Воистину воскрес!" ("Truly, He is Risen!")
Then they kiss each other 3 times.

They decorate eggs and also have a special Easter bread (see picture above) that is only made for this holiday. Here is a video that gives more info about the Orthodox Easter celebration:

Our team got together on Sunday for a special time together. David and I cooked up a feast: brisket (yes, we found all the ingredients needed to pull it off well!), green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, and homemade rolls. Yummy! To top that off, I made cherry and blackberry cobbler. We all ate and had a great time together. After sharing a meal, we had church (the kids and I studied David and Goliath and David led the other adults in a time focused more around the communion), then the boys were off for naps. After they woke up, we got ready to decorate eggs. We brought out the crayons and all of us decorated at least one, then we stuck them all in dye. The kids were in the middle of it all, so we had a few eggs with more cracks in them and Silas walked away with a pink hand. :) For the most part, the 6 adults managed to keep the dye in the bowls and the messes down to bare minimum. Malachi and Canaan were especially great and followed instructions well! After we dyed our colored eggs, we moved onto these Ukrainian egg decals (see picture below). You basically slip them over the eggs, stick them in hot water and within seconds they are molded to the egg and look fabulous. Some of them were pictures of Ukrainian stories for the kids, some were traditional Ukrainian designs, and others said "Христос воскрес" (Christ is Risen). We were all proud of how it all turned out and had such a great time together! After all that, we ate pizza (thank goodness we found one place open who delivered as most things were shut down for the day), then shared some traditional Easter cake. It was good, not that sweet of a cake and a little dry, but not too bad! :)

We were sent some plastic Easter eggs from the States, so the kids will probably go Easter egg hunting during the retreat this next weekend. The place where we are staying has grass, so we'll be saving the egg hunt until then for that luxury! Which, we'll be leaving on Wednesday for this retreat, so please keep that in your prayers. We hope to have some good time away as a team and get a lot accomplished, specifically looking back at what we've accomplished so far, what we can do better, and planning for starting ministry.

On another note, David also started our garden last week. We have several cherry tomato plants growing, some peppers, strawberries, and lettuce. We're growing them all on our balcony; it's heaps of fun and David is doing a great job. I'll take some pictures and post about that soon. He also surprised me today by bringing home a microwave , so we have that up on top of our fridge now... it's nice to have one again!

Hope you enjoyed the pictures and snapshot into what's happening over here. Our holiday was great and we're excited that Spring is here!

Around My Kitchen

2009-04-08T21:26:00.019+03:00

First of all, I should start by saying it's really not my kitchen. Yes, I feel like I have control of it, but really, I don't. David is in there cooking now-a-days just as much as I am. But, I still can't help but call it my kitchen! David and I are both good cooks, however. I am what you call a Recipe Follower and my husband is what you call an Experimental Cook. We've found we do not do well cooking together, it just causes too much conflict in the kitchen. However, I am appreciative of a husband who can and actually enjoys cooking. Especially here in Ukraine, where you can't always find the ingredients for every recipe, my husband thrives well... and I stand back and make a batch of brownies to go with it. :)

Finding our way around the grocery store and then making those ingredients into a good meal at home has been quite an adjustment since we've moved to Ukraine. Because of that, I thought I'd take a couple minutes to post about our kitchen and some of the foods we buy here.

First of all, this is our kitchen/dining room. It is a small little place, but we've made it work well for us. We do not have a microwave yet, but plan to get one soon. It took some time to come up with a place to put it since there isn't a lot of counter space or plug-ins. (We finally decided to put it on top of the fridge when we do get around to buying one!) Anyway, our kitchen is abnormally nice for kitchens in Ukraine. You may think our oven is small, but really it's bigger than most ovens here. Our fridge is also gigantic... most fridges are about 1/2- 2/3rds this size. We are blessed and love the extra fridge and freezer space!

You may also notice that we have dishes drying in our cabinet above the sink. That's very traditional for over here since dishwashers are extremely rare. They drip dry above the sink and it has a nice little pan at the bottom to catch the water. It's not only convenient for a kitchen with little counter space, but it also hides the mess.
Between that cabinet and the sink there are Ziploc bags drying... my sister taught me that handy trick! Who would have known they'd just stick to the tile by themselves?
In the picture to the right, there is a white thing hanging on the wall next to the window sill. That is our radiator for the kitchen. These are in each room of our apartment, turned on in October and should be turned off sometime soon. There is no regulating the heat that comes from them, so we open windows when it gets too hot (which happens almost every day, even in the winter!).
Also notice the water jug on the floor. Tap water isn't good for drinking, so we refill jugs like these from a water truck that comes to our neighborhood once a week. So far, we've found two good trucks that come not far from our apartment, one on Thursday between 4:30-5:15pm and one on Saturday between 11:30-12:15pm. It's sometimes hard to be home around that time, plus a little bit of a pain to lug all that water up to the third floor, so we're looking into other options right now. Until then, we set our alarms to be home on time and are strengthening our muscles!

Now onto some of the foods we buy here. The first picture to the left is an array of some of the items in my fridge. You can probably pick out the milk, juice, mustard, and hot dogs.

Next to the hot dogs is one of the cheeses we buy. Cheese is not easy to pick out here. It may be labeled "Parmesan," but it will taste nothing like it. Most of the cheeses are white as well, so it's hard to pick out based on color. Honestly, we finally found two we like and have stuck to just those two cheeses. We've tried numerous others and liked some, but when we go and buy the exact same cheese the next time, it tastes completely different. We're happy we at least found two good cheeses! Another interesting thing about cheese here is that it does not melt completely in soups.
Next to the cheese is our butter. Butter doesn't come in "sticks" but rather "slices" that weigh 200g. It's close enough to 2 sticks, so we just round up.
In between the juice and the mustard is our sour cream. I have a funny story with that one. We buy most of our products in the supermarket right now, but here lately we've been getting less and less pleased with the quality of what we're buying. I mentioned this to our language teacher and she started talking to us about where she buys most of her food-- the bizarre (or outdoor market). We'll be looking into that more really soon. But, she buys almost everything there: meat, vegetables, milk, etc. etc. Even her sour cream. She says she brings it home and tests it (especially the sour cream) on her cat. She'll pour some up for her cat and if her cat eats it, she knows it's good. If her cat smells it and walks away, she knows it's bad and will throw the whole lot out. Interesting!

The next picture is items in my cabinet. You can certainly pick out most of the items here. The flour comes in bags like it does at home, potatoes in netting, etc. The sugar is in a little different container (in front of the flour) and the coke bottle looks different, but it's still easily recognized in the store.

On the far left is our version of canned tomatoes. They come in jars like these, whole and with their peels. So, for most recipes, we have to take the peel off and then cut each tomato up. Just a little extra work.
In front of the tomatoes is a sachet. That's our version of canned cream of mushroom soup. We add water, cook for a bit and it's a pretty good substitute.
Next to the sachet is a bar of chocolate. There are no chocolate chips here, so we buy the bars and chop them up every time we make cookies.
Next to the chocolate is our powdered sugar. It comes in a little different bag, but we were really happy to have found that item. You wouldn't believe how many different bags I would put my finger on (because the powder was on the outside) and then taste trying to find powdered sugar before we ran across this.
The squares next to the powdered sugar are our chicken bullion cubes. :)
Just above the powdered sugar and bullion cubes is potato starch. Another "find" of ours. They don't have corn starch here, but they do have potato starch which works the same. I had to find that the "finger taste" way as well. :)

I'm also including some pictures of a part of my spice rack. The spices come in sachets like the one to the left of this first photo. It's hard to keep those sachets sealed up properly, so I got these little metal containers and then labeled them all. My labeling system has the spice in English, then in Russian, then finally in Ukrainian. (See close up picture.) We are learning the Russian language and everyone here speaks Russian, but everything in the store is in Ukrainian. Sometimes Ukrainian is similar, sometimes it's not even close. So, knowing all three names for the spice is important.

The final picture is of a few frozen goods. You can pick out most of these, but probably not the top two. The long item is pastry dough. We can't buy crescent rolls in a can here, so we buy this, thaw it out, and cut it to suit our needs. It works quite well! The bag next to the pastry is ice cream. This is the way most of the ice cream is packaged here, but we also buy it in the plastic tubs (see just below it) because it's a lot easier to work with--the bags get messy quick. Ice cream is something we miss because it just doesn't taste the same over here, nor do they have many choices (including David's favorite mint chocolate chip). But, we've found one good chocolate we like, so we're happy we at least found that!

We are really pleased with how many things we've found over here in the grocery stores, many things we thought we'd have to bring back with us or do without. Grocery shopping for us has been quite the adventure, sometimes an exciting adventure and sometimes a frustrating adventure. But, almost 6 months later, we know where to go to get what and have adapted quite well. I hope you enjoyed this post about our kitchen and some of our foods... I enjoyed sharing!

A Memorable Day

2009-03-03T21:53:00.008+02:00

Ok, so I really didn't want to write a birthday post just because it seems a little too self-centered. Those who have kids and write about their birthdays... that's great, but to write about your own birthday? Very different. Nevertheless, there were too many people who put a lot of work and time into my birthday to not recognize it. I am so blessed!
I turned 25 on the 25th of February this year in Kharkov. Mom and Lindsay both arranged to stay long enough to be here for my birthday and that was so nice. Mom and David arranged my whole day and it turned out great. We met the team at the bowling alley here in one of the malls and all bowled together. Unfortunately, Dougle was sick, so he missed out on the fun. We all bowled and had the two best cheerleaders anyone could ask for. Malachi and Canaan sat contently on their chairs, watching us bowl, and would yell "Good job! Wow!" and give us high fives almost every time. (Except once... after watching me bowl a nice gutter ball, I came back and Malachi greeted me with "You're supposed to knock them over!" It was too cute.) We had a great time and Denyce beat us all!
After bowling we all order Fajitas. Yes, I said Fajitas... in a bowling alley... in Kharkov, Ukraine! It was amazing and they were great. The fajitas even came with flour tortillas! Who would have thought? After lunch, we all came back to our apartment for cake and presents. David had worked earlier in the morning to make me a cake from scratch, but accidently burnt it. So, when we got back from lunch, he made me another cake (still from scratch). For those of you who haven't had Black Forest Cake, you're missing out. It is my favorite and my husband made me the best one this year. (And he doesn't even like cherries!) As you can see in this picture, it was a masterpiece and so delicious!
I was so blessed by our team and my family that day... we had such a nice time and they really pulled out all the stops. But, it wasn't just them... I've received 11 birthday cards in the mail, several e-cards, numerous Facebook posts, emails, and calls. I am truly humbled by so many of my friends and family and am so grateful.
Thank you for the love and encouragement you poured out on me. What a neat reminder of Who I belong to and how He continually works through His people to bless us here.

New Teammates!

2009-02-09T17:13:00.009+02:00

We have had a very exciting week: Max came early Monday morning, Nancy (Liv's mom) arrived later that afternoon for an extended visit, a package from our liaison team at Legacy came on Tuesday and we felt that our cup was almost over-flowing. Well, Saturday evening our cup reached the brim and ran over with blessings. Brandon and Katie Price called our team to let us know they were accepting the invitation to join our team here in Kharkov!

We had invited Brandon and Katie to join our team earlier last year. They have been prayerfully considering our request. In December, over the holidays, they were able to come to Kharkov to visit the team, spending time with each family and interacting with our whole team. We all got on wonderfully and it was easy to see how they could fit into our team and be a great asset to the work here in Kharkov. The went back home and have spent the last month praying, fasting, and seeking wise counsel about this decision. On Saturday night, they let us know their decision.

Please be praying for the Prices and our team as we all begin to work together. They will continue to work in Lubbock (coordinating and running an after school outreach at Central Lubbock Church of Christ and working as assistants for the Adventures in Missions program at SIBI) while they seek support. Please keep them in your prayers as we are apart, yet grow together as a team, and also as they begin raising support to be with us here in Kharkov.

What a wonderful end to a great week! Here is our latest team picture, including them. If you'd like to check out their blog you click here: http://www.brandonandkatie.com/

What A Week!!

2009-02-03T21:21:00.007+02:00

New Addition
Our week is off to a fabulous start! :) On Sunday evening, David and I got a phone call just before midnight from the McDougles... Lucy was having contractions and they needed to head up to the hospital. So, we quickly put on our snow gear and headed over to their place to stay the night with their two year old, Canaan, while they went to the hospital. They left and within an hour and a half we received another phone call telling us he'd been born! Lucy made it to the hospital just in time, but had a very short labor! So, we have a new nephew and teammember: Maximus Craig McDougle, 8 lbs 2 oz and 53 cm long! I was able to go up and see Max and Lucy on Monday afternoon and David went up today. The hospital here is a huge answer to prayer. They have really treated the McDougles well and gone above and beyond helping them. Hospitals here in Ukraine are much different than in the states. You have to take basically everything you need with you (including drinking water, bed sheets, blankets, cups, plates, silverware, toliet paper, etc. etc.). Visiting is also different because only one person is allowed in the room at a time. So, while one person is up there, the others have to wait in the lobby downstairs! The hospital is also a good distance away, so our visiting has been a little limited because of that. It's all a different experience for sure, but we are really glad they have been so good for the McDougles, making their child's birth in Ukraine a good one! They will hopefully be coming home tomorrow sometime, so keep them all in your prayers!

Mom Visiting
On Monday afternoon David and Rob headed out to the airport to pick up my mom who had flown in for the month. She left on Sunday morning, so was suprised to hear that Max was already here! Fortunately, she made it in safely, on time, and with all her bags. (And boy did she have a lot to carry for Max and the rest of us!) Later on that afternoon Dougle came and picked her, Denyce, and I up to go to the hospital to visit Lucy and Max, so she didn't even miss out on the first visit to the hospital! She will be here for most of the month of February, visiting us and helping the McDougles out as they adjust to life with two kidos. Needless to say, she's been playing heaps with Canaan here and he's loving it! Tonight she went to stay at the hospital with Lucy and Max so Dougle could come home for some rest finally.

Our First Package
As if having Max and Mom around aren't big enough blessings, we received our first package since we have been here in Kharkov. It was sent from our liaison team at Legacy, stuffed full of goodies from peanut butter, salsa, spices, and velveeta to scarfs, ear muffs, and English books-- just to name a few things! We felt like Christmas had come again, it was so wonderful!! We are so excited to eat some of the goodies this week and break in some of our new winter gear. We've been looking forward to some of the items like maple flavoring so we can make maple syrup and have pancakes now. I had also finshed my last English book a while back and was really looking forward to new stuff. The selection of English books we've been able to find here in Kharkov has been slim, so it was nice to receive more-- and books more geared at what we'd like to read.

It's been a great week and we're certainly thanking God for all He's done to pour out blessings on us!

The Holidays in Ukraine!

2009-01-15T15:22:00.019+02:00

Christmas
After we got back from our trip in South Africa, we all got together to celebrate Christmas as a team. We were especially excited to give all the pressies we got for our teammates in South Africa. Since they couldn't see all the animals with us, we brought them back wooden sculptures! We had a great time exchanging gifts with everyone. We also shared some soup that Denyce had prepared along with buckeye balls and peanut butter pie... yumm! It was a great time together. Although we were celebrating Christmas "late," Ukrainians would have considered it early. That's right, Ukraine sees December 25th as just another ordinary day. Their Christmas decorations are just going up around that time because they celebrate New Years, then Orthodox Christmas on January 7th. Hopefully the longer we're here, the more we'll learn about their Christmas traditions! Here are a few pictures from the main square (which is just a couple blocks from our house). There are lights everywhere, a huge Christmas tree, ice sculptures, and ice slides! They certainly went above and beyond to make their square festive for the holidays!

New Years Eve and David's Birthday

On the day we moved into our new place, we had everyone over for a New Years Eve/David's birthday meal and celebration. Our whole team and our two friends, Vetali and Galina came over to celebrate with us. We all ate pizza together, shared some birthday chocolate cheesecake and David opened his presents. He got some nice gifts, including this angel from Galina and Vetali. The angel is our first Ukrainian gift, so it will always be very special to us! Vetali and Galina and the McDougles had to leave before midnight, but the Hindmans stayed and we watched the fireworks together on our balcony at midnight. Our balcony is not heated, so we all were bundled up in our coats and shoes... it was cold! (See pictures) Fireworks went off for the rest of the night as everyone was celebrating around town. New Years is really Ukraine's big holiday of the year. The next day Kharkov was a ghost town. Almost all the shops were closed for New Years Day and the few people who were out were in the square celebrating and enjoying the holiday as families.

Visit from Brandon and Katie Price
Our friends from Lubbock, Brandon and Katie Price, came to see our team over the holidays. We spent quite a bit of time with them while they were here, soaking up every minute we could with them. They were able to stay at our new place for a few days which was heaps of fun. Brandon and Katie have worked here in Ukraine in the past and hope to come back to do mission work here in the future. Right now they are currently living in Lubbock, Texas, working with the AIM program and an after-school outreach program at Central Church of Christ. We really enjoyed hearing their dreams for this country and are excited to see how God will use them to spread His Good News here in Ukraine. Please keep them in your prayers as they will be making decisions over this next year about their future and possible work here in Ukraine.

South Africa Part Two

2009-01-07T23:16:00.030+02:00

Well, this is almost embarrassing it's so late. But, the second week in our South Africa trip must be talked about on our blog, then we will move onto what's been happening in Ukraine recently. We had such a wonderful time with everyone and everything while we were there. Time went fast and we didn't get everything done we wanted to get done (David thinks this is an excuse to go back), but we did A LOT. :) The picture to the right is at Cape Point near Cape Town.

Xhosa Celebration
One Saturday while we were there we were invited to go with the other AIMers and their coordinators to a very special Xhosa celebration. Their housekeeper's son, Cry, was coming back from his rite of passage in the bush... it was a time of celebration as he left boyhood and became a man. He had spent an extremely hard 3 weeks in the bush that included not being able to drink water or eat salty foods for the first whole week. During his time in the bush he was also circumcised, with no anesthetics. We were all invited to the family's celebration, in fact, we were honored guests which was very humbling. We were greeted by all of them coming out and singing and dancing us into their homes... and the singing didn't hardly stop until we left! Cry was given many gifts since all his possesions were burned as a part of his transition. It was amazing to be a part of such an important African celebration.

Safari Trips
We were able to go to several different parks in the Port Elizabeth area and see lots of animals. We saw giraffes, elephants, bok, wildebeest, baboons, monkeys, rhino, buffalo, lions, tigers, warthogs, tortoises, ostriches (baby ostriches in the picture to the left), etc.. etc. It was really amazing to see so many different animals out in the wild... and so close. For most of the animal reserves we were in the car driving through, but on one trip we got on horseback and went to see rhino, wildebeest, buffallo, and zebra. That was a neat experience because we were a lot closer and a little more vulnerable. We were also really blessed because we went at a time when there were baby animals everywhere. David had fun playing with lion cubs. We saw some that were just 3 days old, some that were about 3 weeks old, then played with some that were 9 months old. The 9 month old cubs were pretty big already and David did a good job of getting them excited and playful. So much so, in fact, that one of them bit him in the side and left a pretty good mark. He also had several rips in his shirt and scratches from them. The lion trainer kept warning David that they were wild, they weren't tame. The picture above is him playing with the cubs before they bit him.
Besides the game trips, we also were able to see about 6 whales playing in the water. I also saw dolphins and penguins for the first time, which was thoroughly enjoyable. I had asked to see a whale for Christmas... that's all I wanted and God was nice and gave me my wish! (See the picture of two whales to the right.)

Encouragement from the Christians
David, as we mentioned before, spoke at three different congregations while we were in South Africa. It was really nice to meet so many Christians and be encouraged by them and what they are doing down there. Some even invited us into their homes, fed us, and just took time to get to know us. We knew we could go there and be an encouragement to them, but we really walked away more encouraged by them. It's so neat to see how God is working all over the world, using His servants to be His light.

Christmas in South Africa

The day before we left was Christmas day... so we had Christmas for the first time in South Africa! It was summertime, so we enjoyed a sun-filled day and it felt a little more like home for David. The AIM coordinators, Ken and Judy Kendall-Ball had us and all the AIMers over to their place for Christmas breakfast, a time of opening presents, then later on that night for Christmas dinner. Judy did all the cooking for the day and it was fabulous, plus she sewed each of us a stocking and we all made sure each other's was filled. We had such a good time with each of them and were even able to play some games that evening. All of us were away from our families, but we were together and it was special!

So... moral of our blog post: go to South Africa if you get the chance. Yes, see all the animals, pet sharks, go bungee jumping, and even get mauled by lio n... but make time to get to know the people as well. It was a trip we'll never forget and will cherish for a long time!!!

Part One of Our Holiday in South Africa

2008-12-18T20:47:00.006+02:00

We are having so much fun we have been neglecting our communications with people! :) I know most of you don't mind, though I'm sure a few of you are wondering what is going on with us.
For those that need a quick update here you are. We are currently in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. We were gifted this trip earlier this year, and the earliest we could go was during these Christmas holidays. This situation worked out great for us, because it is cold in Ukraine right now! But here in SA it is warm and sunny. I got a sun burn the first day out here (don't worry mum, I am not forgetting the sun block).
We have had some good time seeing the sights of SA, the uniqueness of the country, and the people. But some of the best parts of the trip are the opportunities we have to be involved in encouraging the workers and Christians here. As we are visiting the AIMers here, we are also getting to tag along with them in some of there work here. I have had opportunities to preach and teach and we both have spent time encouraging our brothers and sisters. We are so grateful that we could meet other Christians here and spend time with them! It's a good reminder of what we will be experiencing together in heaven one day... something we can't have now because of the huge land masses and bodies of water separating us.
But on top of that we have been able to participate in some God's creation here in South Africa. We took a short trip to Cape Town and along the way stopped at a bridge to jump off! I have now jumped off of the World's tallest bungy jump. I have a little certificate to prove it. I have a little video below of the jump as well. (The scream you hear is one of joy and excitement, not fear).

After the jump we continued on to Cape Town where we stayed the night before jumping on a boat the next morning to look for Great White sharks. On this trip we saw hundreds of seals, a whale with her calf , penguins, and .... GREAT WHITE SHARKS!!
My wife was nice enough to brave seasickness and she also allowed me to jump in a cage to watch Great Whites! It was amazing. At first I didn't think the trip would be worth it, but as soon as I jumped in the cage a White Shark showed up and hit the bait right in front of the cage. It came so close that you could touch it! I'm not exagerating it at all, I know it was close enough to touch because after it missed the bait, I reached out and touched it! You might think I'm crazy, but it is probably your jealousy because I touched a 2.5 meter White Shark. This is a short video of the second time it showed up. (I'm in the cage you briefly see.)

There are many things that we can tell you about our trip, but we need to stop for now and get this posted. Thanks to all for your prayers... we've been safe and are really having a wonderful time here. We'll update you again soon on more adventures we're having!

Enjoying Life!

2008-12-11T09:24:00.008+02:00

Hello to you all! It's been awhile... we've been busy! But, it's time for us to update you on what's been happening around here. Life has been good here in Kharkov-- God is so good to us!
It's hard to believe the holidays are already upon us. We went out a couple weekends ago and shopped for a Christmas tree and decorations... it turned out great! I'll have to post a final picture of the tree later, but here's a few pictures of the process. As you can see, our nephew Canaan helped us out. My parents sent us a few decorations from the states as well with the Jarboes, so that helped make things more festive around our place.
Last Saturday we had a bunch of people into our home for Borsch soup. It's a very common Russian soup that's delicious (main ingredients are cabbage and beets -- see picture below). A good friend of ours, Valeri, came over and cooked everything for us! Valeri is a chef (see picture to the left), so it was the best borsh we've had yet! Here are a few pictures of that day. That same weekend, our team was blessed to have a visit from Eileen Ench, a missionary in Rostov, Russia. We were able to visit with her about her work and just encourage one another. She even taught us a few children's songs in Russian, so we look forward to implementing those into our Bible Classes on Sunday morning! Further down are a few more pictures of our guest that day. We had the whole team over, plus Andre (in the picture with Eileen and Dougle) and Luba (in the picture with Eileen). Our house was packed, but we had a wonderful time together. :)
We are also excited to announce that we've found a permanent apartment! It's a very nice place, nicer than we were anticipating, in fact. We signed the agreement and will move in on December 29th. We're so thankful for many of you and the prayers you offered up for all of our apartment searches. Our whole team has now found apartments and are within about 10 min walking distance of one another, plus we're in the center of the city. God truly blessed us with exactly what we were hoping for! Please be praying for us and for our new landlords.
We're leaving today, Thursday, and going on holiday to South Africa! We were gifted this trip back at our graduation and are finally able to go on it. We'll be visiting a friend, Lindsay White, who is working down there with the Adventures in Missions program. While we're there, we'll be doing many touristy/holiday stuff, but we'll also be spending time with the local congregations in Port Elizabeth. David will be speaking at 3 different congregations while we're there. We're excited about going and spending Christmas there. We will return to Kharkov on December 27th.
We hope all of you are doing well. We appreciate all the comments, encouragement, love, and support you send our way. God bless!

Happy Thanksgiving!

2008-11-28T14:22:00.007+02:00

Yesterday was our first Thanksgiving here in Kharkov, Ukraine. This holiday was greatly anticipated by all of us. The girls were all determined to have good food (and plenty of it!), so we searched many stores to find the needed ingredients. In the end... it all came together wonderfully and we had great food and a great day together.
Each of the girls took 1/3 of the cooking responsibility and cooked at home. Our ovens here are pretty small, so we had to divide carefully. Carrying hot food to our place ended up being quite the challenge... it took more than one trip for each family. Fortunately, we were the hosts, so we didn't have to transport anything. :) We set up two tables in our living room and borrowed chairs from a friend. It was a great fit and all worked out well. We ended up finding turkey breasts at a store here, so we ate those as well as a small chicken. The only tradition we missed out on was the sweet potatoes, but it wasn't missed too much with all the other food we had! We also cooked 6 desserts and a cheeseball for the day. Needless to say... we're still enjoying the leftovers! :)
Our whole team was together, plus Branden (see picture to the left), a Canadian we met on the plane ride over to Kharkov from Vienna. (Yes, Thanksgiving is a tradition even in Canada... they just celebrate theirs at a different time.) After eating, we all played a few games together and just enjoyed the day. In the evening we had our small group and our friend Valera came for that. It was a long day, but went by quickly!
We thought of many of you all throughout the day. We each missed being with our families, but thanks to email and Skype, we were able to communicate a little hello! We hope your Thanksgiving was wonderful. We do thank God for blessing us so richly... it was wonderful to spend a day enjoying His blessings and thanking Him for all He has done and continues to do!

Visitors and Turkey Hunting!

2008-11-22T22:41:00.011+02:00

Hello! We know, it's been too long since our last update and we're very sorry! So, we thought we'd take a moment now to update you on a few highlights of this last week!
Visitors from Lubbock!
This last week brought a wonderful treat our way from the states. Our good friends and mentors from Lubbock, Jay and Sherry Jarboe, came to Kharkov for a 3 day visit on their way to Germany. They were able to stay at our apartment, then hang out with the whole team during the day. It was such a good visit! We were truly blessed and encouraged by their presence here. Each family took a day to have everyone over for a meal, plus each family was able to have alone time visiting with the Jarboes about how things are going, etc. The Jarboes worked in Mexico City for many years doing mission work there, so they were familiar with what we would/might be experiencing and were able to really spur us on. They have also been working with all of us since before our team formed, so they have an intimate knowledge of who we are. During their stay, we were also able to get out and see a couple sites in Kharkov, but in doing this, we realized we really don't know that many places to take people to yet! We've only been here a little over a month, so we barely know the sites ourselves! Guess we have some homework to do before our next visitors come! :) The first two pictures are of the guys and girls at the statue of Lenin. This one to the left shows Sherry reading to Malachi and Canaan. Both Jay and Sherry were wonderful with the kids, becoming their adopted grandparents for the time they were here!
Turkey Hunting

Well, like many of you, we are also currently trying to prepare for the holidays just around the corner! Thanksgiving is next week and we are all really excited about having our first one here in Kharkov. We really do have so much to be thankful for and are excited to spend it together as a team, even though we're all apart from our families. In preparation for the day of feasting, we've been shopping (for spices, bran, turkey, etc.)! David and I happened to see a turkey in the grocery store near our house about a week ago. Neither of our teammates believed us when we tried to convey the size of this big bird, and two days later it was gone. The Hindmans questioned whether it was actually a turkey because they seem to be so rare here and asked, "Are you sure it was a turkey, not just a big chicken?" David's response to that was "It was either a big turkey or a small emu!" Since that first spotting, we've been keeping our eyes open for another. Today, Lucy and I ventured out for the pure purpose of finding a turkey. We also picked a rainy day to do this, so that made it even more interesting! We were successful-- sort of. The same store David and I had seen the first turkey at had another... and it was big, just like the first one we saw. Too big, in fact! This time, however, we looked at the price tag and weight. This fowl weighed 14.7 kg (about 32 lbs!) and was going to cost about $65USD. First, we weren't sure if we could justify all that money put into one turkey. But, it was also so big it would only fit in Rob and Denyce's freezer and they would have to clear out everything else to make it fit. Then we had to consider whether our ovens were big enough to cook it in... and that didn't seem very likely. So, we did find a turkey... just didn't find the "right" turkey. All the other stores didn't have any and we weren't even able to find turkey parts. We'll keep our eyes peeled the rest of the week, but a small chicken might be the main course this Thanksgiving! We were blessed by another missionary couple we know here who kindly cooked and pureed some pumpkin for us to use. Since we cannot find canned pumpkin here, we were going to have to do this chore ourselves, but they saved us a lot of work! We're still searching for bran and have found the majority of the spices, but are still looking for a few. Shopping can be complicated when you have to translate everything from Ukrainian. (Yes, for those of you who are wondering about that, we are learning Russian because it is what everyone speaks here, but all the signs, items in the grocery store, etc. are in Ukrainian... it just makes it more of a challenge!)
Regardless of what we find or do not find, we will have a great Thanksgiving together next week and we're excited about it!!

Our Sunday morning

2008-11-09T16:59:00.006+02:00

One of the joys of being here in Kharkov is our Sunday morning assemblies. Our team has been meeting together each week as a church here in Kharkov. We have a total membership of nine people (ten if you include Maximus). If you have ever visited or are currently worshiping with a smaller group of believers, you understand how exciting the little things can be. The smallest voice of a child is heard throughout the whole auditorium, if one person sings a note off key everyone knows it, if you doze off in the sermon the preacher isn't the only one who notices, or (my favorite) if you show up a little late - church service doesn't start without you.

Meeting with a smaller group also demands that every member is involved in every Sunday morning. All of the men have an active role in some portion of the service. Prayers, preaching, reading scripture, song leading, and communion thoughts keep all the men active in worship and never a spectator. Preparation of the Lord's Supper, teaching the children in Bible class, hosting the assembly in your living room, and keeping the children involved keeps all of our women active in participating in our church services too.

Every Sunday is a blessing to each one of us. We are excited to come together as the body of Christ. And we are especially excited as our team's Sunday morning assembly will be reproduced next year as we start to plant churches throughout the city! What we are doing now as a team we will be doing again next year with people we have met and helped bring into a saving relationship with Jesus. We are excited to see how things transform amongst us and how God prepares us further for the great works He will do in Kharkov, Ukraine, and all throughout Eastern Europe.

We wanted to share some our Sunday morning with you as well. For this year at least we will be meeting in English, but as we start working amongst the people here we will be worshiping in Russian. To start us in that direction we have been learning songs in Russian and singing them on Sunday mornings. Here is a song from last Sunday, see if you recognize it. You might also hear the children of the team joining in (or getting distracted) as we sing.

Ups and Downs!

2008-10-30T12:15:00.011+02:00

We’re slowly settling into life here in Kharkov, enjoying it all very much! On our way to language school, we took some pictures, so here they are. The leaves are really nice right now and we’re enjoying all the fall colors around us. Tuesday seemed to be the popular “rake leaves” day because we saw people everywhere raking leaves. There was even a machine (see picture below) that was out in the big park in the center picking up the leaves. It’s nice when the leaves are raked up because walking can be tricky if there are leaves everywhere. As you can see (in picture further down), their sidewalks aren’t always nice and smooth… there are plenty of drop offs to trip you up. The leaves do a good job of hiding those particularly from me. I seem to find the uneven surfaces all the time… and I walk with my eyes on the ground! I just laugh and then remember that snow isn’t going to be much better... I will then have to account for ice as well! :)

Last week I had a head cold which I kindly passed onto David. Oops! Just as I think we’re both finally about over that, David took a turn for the worse last night. The McDougles also got the bug, and they are currently all passing it around their house, so keep them in your prayers as they get well and also pray that we don’t pass our bug onto the Hindmans! The weather has been a pretty steady temperature of 40-50˚F, but we’re still waiting for the heaters to be turned on inside our apartments. That means most evenings my toes freeze, reminding me I need to bring the heater in whichever room I’m in and turn it on! :) The heater was definitely a good investment!

This week we’ve been having a bit of trouble with our electricity in our apartment. Since we moved in, we’ve kicked the breaker off several times just getting used to how much power we can have on at one time (for example you can only have one electric thing running in the kitchen at a time... I found that out the hard way when I turned the oven and our electric kettle on at the same time). But, when we go to flip the breaker back on, it sparks and sizzles a lot at us. David has started using a wooden spoon to do this now because it looks pretty scary. Well, Wednesday something popped while we were cooking in the kitchen and we can no longer get power to one wall of the kitchen. So, that means the oven is inoperable at the moment. Fortunately, we were able to buy matches and we can still use the stove! Hopefully that will be taken care of soon, but we’re not holding our breath for it to be done quickly. As of yesterday, the Hindmans had become our internet and oven resource! But then late Wednesday evening, the electricity went out in our whole apartment (we think for our neighbors as well)... and it's still out this morning. So, I made my little trip to the Hindmans to cook up a little something for David, bringing with me the stuff in our fridge that had a potential to go bad quickly. As of today, the Hindmans have become our internet, oven, fridge, and electrical resource! Please be praying we can get all of this sorted soon!
These two pictures are of our apartment building and the courtyard across from it. We live on the second floor.

Language classes are going well… we’ve had two full classes now and have learned quite a bit! It all seems very basic and is very basic, but we’ve begun! It’s pretty comical to hear us try to repeat what our language teacher says. Our tongues aren’t used to the letter combinations they use yet! We are happy with the teacher we found at the International House (she does speak pretty good English which is great), and we have another one trading off with her throughout the week. Should be good! Rob Hindman is also taking Russian with us, so that is nice to have an extra person in there learning at the same time!

Thanks again to you all for your prayers and encouragement. We’ve been so blessed by the comments you’ve been leaving on our blog, the emails you’ve sent, etc. etc. It keeps us excited knowing you’re excited about what we’re doing. Keep them coming!

These last two pictures are inside our apartment building and our apartment door. Hopefully we’ll get a video up soon of the inside of our apartment! Be watching for it!

First Week in Kharkov

2008-10-23T21:40:00.003+03:00

Today marks one week for us in Kharkov, Ukraine! It has gone by so fast but we feel that we are settling so well. We both are starting to feel at home here as we learn and settle in to our apartment. Everyday something exciting happens or we discover something new.

This picture is of our team together on Sunday. The Hindmans are on the left and the McDougles are on the right.

A favorite event for David now is grocery shopping; the grocery stores and the little shops remind him of the supermarkets and dairies back in New Zealand (even though he can't read any of the product labels). David came to the Ukraine with the impression that they didn't have any of the same foods, so when he goes and finds something he recognizes, it is like finding a lost treasure and he gets so excited he tells everyone about his find.

Olivia has loved being close to the other families on the team. We are all within 5 minutes walking distance (if you have no kids to slow you down) of our teammates! When our team moved apart from each other at the beginning of the year, we didn't realize how hard it would be to be a team, but not together. Now that we are together again it is a lot easier to function together, as a team. It has been great to become reacquainted with each other, and a close team once again.

For the first time this last Sunday, our team met as a church in Kharkov, Ukraine. It was a great time of praise, communion, and worship. As we worshiped together, the reality of what we were a part of became clear and we all got excited. We were sent here, partnering with many of you, to be the Body of Christ in a city filled with people who have yet to know the Good News. This Sunday was only the beginning of what God is doing and will do through his people here!

This picture is of Malachi Hindman (back) and Canaan McDougle (front) playing at our house in the train tent we brought with us.

Of course over this last week we have discovered many things which remind us that we are not in heaven yet. There have been some good things and bad things. To our blessing though we have been able to view everything with a humorous attitude. Once we hit culture shock that attitude will probably become scarce, but for now, we are loving even the difficulties.
I'll share some of the good and bad sides of the things we have come across:

There are supermarkets with everything we need... but we can't read what any of the products are.
The apartments all have radiators in every room... but for some reason the heat hasn't been turned on yet.
Our apartment has indoor plumbing... but the bathroom floods if we use a lot of water.
The kids on the team are together again... but one of them is sick, so they can't play together.
The people smile and look friendly... but we can't talk to them.
I was able to bring my computer here from USA... but I blew it up when I plugged it in.
Computer stores sell replacement parts... (no bad side, it is all good! My computer is fixed.)
Our apartment is all set up for internet... but the building is not; no internet (for now)
We have been able to meet with a Russian language tutor... but she spoke no English
There are many things that are different we will need to get used to as we make Kharkov our home. With time, those differences will fade and we will hardly notice what really stands out right now, but until then, we doing our best to enjoy it all!

Thank you all for your prayers. From all the horror stories you hear about people moving to other countries and having so many difficulties in the move, we expected it to be tough. But, because of your help in prayers and supplications we have had one of the easiest moves possible. Thanks be to God and to His Body!

Love you all!

We're Off!!!

2008-10-15T06:49:00.003+03:00

We just wanted to write a quick post to let everyone know that today is the big day! We move to Kharkov, Ukraine this morning around noon from Dallas/Fort Worth. We fly from Dallas to Washington DC, then to Vienna, and finally arrive tomorrow in Kharkov. So, please keep us in your prayers as we travel and start this new adventure in our life!
We're also saying goodbye to friends and family this morning, so keep that in your thoughts as well. Jacob (David's brother) and my mom were able to come to Dallas with us, so please keep them in your prayers as they travel back today to Lubbock.
We'll let you know as soon as we can that we made it there! Thanks for all your support and prayers and we'll talk to you again soon!!

Just A Few Days Now

2008-10-12T01:52:00.010+03:00

It has been a good couple weeks since we've posted. Needless to say, we've been busy getting ready to leave! For the last two weeks we were able to be in Lubbock with Olivia's parents, mostly getting ready to go, but also seeing a few friends and supporters there.

Sunset's Missions Sunday
Last Sunday, October 5th, was Sunset's missions Sunday. We were so happy we were able to be there for that day. Sunset is very mission minded and the whole weekend was centered around missions-- all over the world as well as in their neighborhood in Lubbock. The elders at Sunset also did a send off for us and the Hindman family that Sunday. The McDougles skyped in later and had a short interview with the rest of the congregation, which was a big success! By the way, Sunset exceeded their goal they had set for missions, so please join us in praising God for what he is doing through the Christians there!
No More Wisdom
Olivia was scheduled to have her bottom wisdom teeth out in the first week we were in Lubbock. They came out great, thankfully, which we are so thankful for. But, while she was getting those out, David had his teeth checked and found out he needed all his out as well. So, the following week (this last Tuesday), David headed in to get all four wisdom teeth pulled. Olivia was worried because we weren't finished packing and still had a lot to do! Thankfully, David's teeth came out easily. Olivia dropped David off at the dentist then started to go run errands, but those plans were quickly changed when David texted for us to go home and grab the video camera! We made it just in time for the last tooth to be pulled, which was also the hardest to pull. Only David would not only watch the dentist do all the work in his mouth, but ask to have it taped! This picture of the teeth are of Olivia and David's wisdom teeth together. David's are the red ones, and Olivia's are the "cleaner" looking ones. The dentist had saved hers because they had such a big crook on the end. We found out later that it was amazing they came out so easily without breaking... we feel sure it was because of all the prayers offered up!
Packing and Re-packing
In the last 2 1/2 years we have been married, we have moved a total of 7 times. This move to Kharkov will be our 8th move, and the first apartment we move into will only be a temporary apartment for a couple months until we find a permanent apartment in the area of the city we'll be working in. This means by the end of this year, we will have moved a total of 9 times in less than 3 years! You would think it would be easy for us to move now, with so much practice, but this move has definitely been the hardest yet! As many of you travelers know, there is a new baggage weight limit for international traveling. In years past, we have been able to have up to 70 lbs per bag, but they recently changed that policy to 50 lbs per bag. That twenty pounds really made a difference, and needless to say, it has been quite the feat to pack it all up to go with us. We are very fortunate to have heard of a good shipping company to ship boxes to us. They are very reasonably priced and will deliver to our door in Ukraine in just 6 weeks. So, after packing and re-packing, we have it down to 8 boxes being shipped over to Ukraine and 6 bags we are checking in on the plane to take with us! We are looking forward to being able to settle into an apartment we can stay in and not move from for a few years!!

Ten Things!

2008-09-24T01:24:00.000+03:00

One of our good friends has a blog that she writes 10 things she's thankful for every Tuesday. I love going there and reading it and I felt inspired by her to do the same this week. We have had so much going on the last few weeks, and it seems like every day we're getting busier. Time is flying by, but we are enjoying every minute of it! Ok, enough chit-chat and onto how God has blessed our lives recently:

I am so thankful for the last few months we have had with Legacy and the new friendships we have started that will continue even after we leave. There are many who have gone above and beyond to encourage us and find ways to continue encouraging us while we're on the field.
I am thankful for family. It was so good to have time with a few of them this weekend (and yes, even the ones we've adopted!). I'm also thankful for having family on both sides who are so supportive of our moving to Ukraine! And I'm really thankful to be going to the field with my sister and her family as well.
I'm thankful for our nephews (this includes our teammates boys). Canaan, who is almost two, pretended to talk on the phone for the first time this last week... and of all people, he pretended to talk to me! :) For being so far away, this really fills my heart with joy! We were also able to enjoy Malachi and Silas who were here over the weekend. We're thankful to be going with all of them to (as Malachi would say) the "U-train!"
I am thankful for the beautiful house we've been blessed with while we've been here in Fort Worth. It has especially been perfect for all the company we've had!
I am thankful that we have all our support we need to go now. What a huge blessing from the sacrifices of so many.
I am thankful for being able to bargain shop in these last few weeks before we leave. I'm not sure how many "deals" we'll come across in Ukraine... and since I only know how to count to 8 in Russian, it might be awhile before I could even recognize them!
I am thankful for a wonderful husband who is letting me pack almost whatever I want so I will be comfortable in Ukraine. He's a wonderful support to me and I'm so thankful for all he does!
I am thankful for both our liaison team and prayer team that has just been formed at Legacy. These people are going to be a huge blessing for us while we're on the field!
I am thankful for the time we'll have in Lubbock with friends and family the next couple weeks.
I am thankful this new work we're about to embark on is not up to us.... We are truly thankful to simply be servants of a mighty God who will use our feeble efforts to accomplish His will in Kharkov. It is a great task ahead of us, but we have an even GREATER God who is behind us, beside us, in us, and working before us.

Wow, this list could go on and on. But, those are some of the top few that came to my mind. I'm also posting some pictures of the last few weeks we've had with friends and family. Keep us in your prayers as this Wednesday will be three weeks until we move to Ukraine. We still have visas we're waiting on and we're trying to find temporary housing right now.

Those Christian Missionary Daredevils

2008-09-15T06:18:00.011+03:00

This last week Olivia and I had the opportunity to do a little shopping at a half-price book store. Liv needed a cookbook as well as a couple other books to take to the Ukraine so we went shopping. On our way out Liv spotted a book that I wanted to add to my library, it is called "The Daredevil's Manual" by Ben Ikenson. By the title I could tell this was a marvelous book that would make a giant contribution to my library and even add a little (more) excitement to our marriage and also our ministry in Ukraine. It is obvious that I could not pass up this amazing resource. Just imagine the wonderful outreach I could do while balancing a running lawnmower on my chin in a city square! I couldn't not buy it!

As I took this treasure home to read and study I came across something that was very amusing to me and I wanted to share it with you. I know (because I have heard comments) that some people are shocked that I am going into missions. Most of those people are shocked because they know some of the life experiences I have had. Not the bad life experiences, but the seemingly reckless and crazy life experiences, the adventures I have been on, and the dangerous situations I have put myself into. How could I, who enjoys a touch of adrenaline, go to the mission field?

I guess that is a valid question. I mean, what is a person like me going to do? The mission field is obviously a place where boredom is prevalent, the uneventful is consistent, the commonplace is commonplace, where life is normal, and nothing exciting ever happens... Not from what I understand. I'm thinking that a little bit of the daredevil mindset has to be present in the heart of every missionary.

In the introduction to this book it explains how the daredevils have been around for ages. They are the men and women who do things which amaze and awe the crowds, how they dare to go to the edge and teeter over to what seems the impossible. To many, it is a liberation as they break the restraints of the physical and cross over into the "spiritual".

"Part showman, part shaman, the daredevil is as old as the devil himself. Many of the exploits featured in this book originate in ancient India and the Middle East, where elite spiritualists performed mind-boggling feats that spoke to the strength of the Human will and a seemingly supernatural mental acumen. Some of the oldest stunts include sword swallowing, walking over hot coals, hammering nails into one's own face, incredible displays that are still performed today.
The modern descendants of these early spiritualists are today's biker babes and madmen motorcyclists, brick-breaking and karate chopping Christian missionaries, knife chucking reverends, ... " (The Daredevil's Manual, pg. 12)

That's right, according to this manual, modern day missionaries are our daredevil's. Along with other slightly crazy people, they are the ones who venture to the edge of what is comfortable, what is normal, and teeter over the edge to what may seemingly be impossible. Through their courage and daring nature, people are awed and in wonder at the amazing feats and accomplishments.

To become a missionary, to do something of this magnitude, to pursue a life with this stress and pressure, "daring" is a pre-requisite. Some may call us foolish, some may call us crazy, but to them I would quote my sister-in-law and say "Of course I'm crazy, I'm a missionary!"

"We are daredevils of Christ" - 2 David 5:20a

Good Luck Missionaries!

2008-09-09T05:38:00.006+03:00

Recently Olivia and I were privileged to go to Club 56. We had a blast!

Club 56 is what Legacy calls their 5th and 6th grade bible class. We were invited to share with this class some info on the city of Kharkov, more about us, as well as our plans for church planting there. It was our first time to present to a bible class on the city of Kharkov, and we enjoyed every minute of it! For the last few years Olivia and I have done various presentations on New Zealand to children's Bible classes and we love it, but this time we got to share about a place we will soon be living in rather than a place we have been.

It was fun to laugh with the kids about some of the differences in the Russian language (soon we will be crying because of these differences). We shared pictures and stories, and even some chocolate we had brought back with us from Ukraine. We shared our dreams of establishing churches in Kharkov, and helping people to know the God who created them.

It was truly a blessing for Olivia and I to share these things with the Club 56. We were blessed even more this last week as we received from one of the teachers a stack of cards and letters written by the class wishing us good luck, encouraging us, and letting us know that they are praying for us!!

We have been blessed to have so many people around us who encourage us, and especially lift us up in prayer daily. Thank you club 56 and thank you to all the rest who are supporting us as we get ready to go!

God's Building at Legacy

2008-08-21T02:05:00.007+03:00

Olivia and I were able to celebrate a huge milestone with the congregation here in Forth Worth. God has blessed the Legacy church of Christ with abundant growth and fruitfulness. Over the past 50 years this congregation has been growing and growing! This growth has forced them to add onto buildings, move locations, and build bigger facilities. Legacy was even forced to go to two services because it could not accommodate the whole congregation. This last Sunday morning was a change-- at the completion of its new auditorium, the whole congregation was able to meet together in its entirety.
If you venture down to 8801 Mid-Cities Blvd, you will see an enormous auditorium, a building filled with classrooms, offices, kitchens, storage, and all the other facilities that make a congregation function in its day to day ministries. But, even though there is beautiful lighting or the color schemes are dazzling, even if you notice the sound system or the heated baptistery . . . the building is just an empty shell. When we look at these amazing features and cool modern facilities, we have to remember that in the grand scheme of things this building is insignificant compared to the real building God created.
Now , if you venture down to 8801 Mid-Cities Blvd. on Sunday morning, you will notice the truly beautiful building we call the church. Scripture refers to each member of the church as a living stone which is built up to be a spiritual house, a place where worship and service and spiritual sacrifice is offered up to God. It is not the physical attributes and upgrades which make a church amazing, it is the body of believers who serve and worship there. Without them you only have an empty, useless shell of a building.
That is the beauty of the church God created! Many people around the world are not able to meet in a beautiful building of wood, brick, or stone. Many people do not even have a property set aside for the use of the church; nevertheless, everywhere throughout the entire world the beautiful spiritual building of Christ can be seen and experienced as each of his living stones is fitted into place to create the most amazing, exciting, glorious building that has ever been built.
In the Old Testament we read that Mount Zion (the church) will be established high above all mountains and it will be exalted, and all the nations will flow into it. They will not only flow into it, they will also invite others to come to this place as well. We may build the beautiful auditoriums and facilities, but it is the glory of God seen on his mountain and in his church that makes the nations flow into it. All glory and honor is due to our God who has created such a place that we can come encourage, worship, serve, and truly feel closer to our Creator . . . a place where we can be built up into what we were created to be.
We invite you to one day attend a Sunday morning assembly at the Legacy church of Christ. When you go you will find a building of people who love and care about each other, people who are seeking to grow in their faith and obedience to God, a people set apart to proclaim-- throughout the world-- the excellencies of Him who saves. It is a building of people that will amaze you and encourage you as they express the love they have received to everyone they meet.
We have been greatly blessed to be a part of this congregation. And look forward to spending more and more time with our brothers and sisters here. Below is a short video of our time together in worship and fellowship as we celebrated the completion of another resource given to Legacy as we serve the living God.

A Few Highlights of Our Week

2008-08-06T21:34:00.012+03:00

Well, it's about time for us to write another update here on our blog. We've had several things that have happened, so we thought we would share a couple highlights with you!
First of all, David and I have now both had the opportunity to speak at Legacy. David taught one of the adult classes this last Wednesday night and Sunday morning. I was also able to share a little about myself and our plans at a lady's function Tuesday night. Usually, after we open up a little about ourselves, others feel more welcome and share their own similar stories. It's a blessing and the more we get to know this congregation, the more excited we become because they are so encouraging and have really worked to make us feel a part of the family.
Another highlight was last Saturday. We were invited to spend a day at Possum Kingdom lake with Dale and Tina Bankhead (see picture to the left) from church. We had a great day with them-- wake boarding, tubing, playing on the jet ski, and just enjoying the fellowship. They were even kind enough to take us out to Hell's Gate which is a really nice area of the lake. There are cliffs on either side of the lake with very nice houses all around. We just stopped and had dinner there, it was the perfect spot! That whole day was a well needed break, and so good to get in the water again! I must say, though, the next day we were both really sore. But, it was worth it!!
And finally, if you didn't know, our family seems to attract brown recluse spiders, this is great for David, but not so for me. We came to the conclusion that we were finding more than the normal amount of these little guys in our house so we decided to go ahead and get some professionals to come and get rid of them for us. But before we did David wanted to have a little fun with it. I hope you enjoy his video.

Exciting Week!

2008-07-22T19:54:00.009+03:00

This past Wednesday evening, Legacy Church of Christ put on an "Old Fashioned Pounding" for us and the other missionary couple here, Corey and Emily Mullins. Now, I must let you know that when David first heard they were giving us a "pounding," he thought we had done something wrong. I suppose that's what you think when you grow up most of your life in New Zealand. :) Well, after our "pounding" Wednesday night, we drove away with a trunk full of groceries! We were amazed at how much food we received, it was such a blessing. Our pantry is stocked now (especially with peanut butter, jelly, canned corn, beans, and spaghetti sauce!) and we also received several gift cards to buy perishables. I can't tell you how overwhelmed we have been with Legacy's generosity. Now, if we can only find a night to cook with the food-- members keep signing up to have us over!! We are really excited to be here and be a part of such a great congregation.
Today is our last day of preparation before the Global Missions Conference here in Fort Worth. We are fortunate to be here in the area for the conference this year. Over the last few days we've been working to put together a booth for our team and we hope it attracts others who are interested in spreading the gospel to that part of the world. David is also facilitating a Ukraine Mission Team interest group on Thursday night. During that time we plan to share more information about our team, but also promote the other cities that we visited for our survey trip. Because we were able to visit the locals in those areas, we want to voice their plea for more mission workers to come and aid them. We've spent a lot of time getting it all together, but we're close to the end. As most of you know, we already had a booth, team brochure, personal brochure, business card, website, etc. for Moscow, Russia. But, now that we are going to Kharkov, everything must change!! This new endeavor has been really good for us and we feel that we are not only learning a little more about Kharkov, but it is becoming "our own." Soon we'll be able to share our excitement with others.
If you are planning on going to the conference this week, we hope to run into you, but please stop by our booth or come to our interest group on Thursday! For more information about the Global Missions Conference you can visit: http://www.globalmissionsconference.org/
Finally, if you haven't subscribed to our blog, please enter your email address in the top right corner of this page. This will email you every time we post a new thing on our blog! Thanks for all your comments and visits, they greatly encourage us on our journey as we prepare for Kharkov!

Kharkov Slideshow

2008-07-18T08:13:00.001+03:00

We've Made A Decision!

2008-07-17T00:35:00.007+03:00

Yeah!!!!! It is our pleasure to share with all of you the decision we have been working on for the last couple months.
After our extensive survey trip, much prayer, discussion within the team, and seeking counsel and approval from our sponsoring congregations, we have made the decision. We are moving to... (drumroll) Kharkov, Ukraine!
It was a hard decision to make because we saw a big need in all the cities we visited. But, we are all happy about the decision and the new location we are headed.

Here are some facts about Kharkov we thought we would share with you all:

Kharkov is also spelled Kharkiv (Russian: Харьков). (The English spelling -ov is the Russian pronunciation and -iv is the Ukrainian pronunciation.)
Kharkov is pronounced something like (but not exactly, of course): "HARkov."
There are about 1.6 million people in Kharkov with 4 churches of Christ that we know of with around 100 members combined.
It is the second largest city in Ukraine.
Kharkov is known for it's universities-- there are 250,000+ students in Kharkov.
The city is primarily Russian speaking.
Kharkov is near the Russian border.
The city was a former capital of Ukraine.
Kharkov has a metro system with 28 stops and is continuing to build more.
The climate is nice: average temperature in Jan: 44⁰ F and in June: 68⁰ F

As we find out more information, we'll try to let you know! Thank you all again for your prayers and support as we looked for another city after Moscow. We have truly been overwhelmed with the encouragement we have received. We are very excited about this new location and know we will grow to love it more and more. We are now officially the Kharkov Team!

We made it back!

2008-07-01T02:46:00.002+03:00

The rest of our stay in the Ukraine was very exhausting! The rest of our time in Odessa was rushed, but long enough to get what we needed. Like Kharkov, we were able to drive around the city and see a few neighborhoods as well as the city center. We went to a language school and inquired about their classes they offer, and it was very impressive. Odessa is a very beautiful city, full of life and abundant ministry opportunities. It is a tourist city with a vibrant night life along the beach front.
On a side note: While in Odessa we met an interesting fellow from America, who was over their hunting... for a wife. When we met him, he thought Olivia was a local Ukrainian and asked if she had any friends that would like to get married. It was an eye opener to see a lack of surprise in the face of Nana (a local Christian that was showing us around). Apparently there have been a few girls in the church that have left over the past years because they have married Americans and moved to the states with them. Odessa has two marriage organizations, which is very different.
From Odessa, we went to Simferopol where we met two members of the church there. The full-time worker and his daughter picked us up and took wonderful care of us while we were with them. His daughter did the majority of the translating for us while we were there-- a good and needed break for Dougle. (Dougle did a tremendous job on the trip translating for us. We wouldn't have been able to do even a fourth of what we did without his help!) The minister was able to visit with us about their city and the work he saw that needed to be done there. A large part of their work their is working with the local orphanages. It was very exciting to hear how well this ministry was going. The following day, the daughter cooked us a 4-course Ukrainian meal-- it was so nice! They also took us to the Crimea American College where were were able to visit with the director about the city and we also drove around Simferopol. The city itself was located in a river valley, which enabled us to drive to various locations and see the whole city at one time. There is also a large Tatar population in Simferopol, which was interesting for us all.
Sevastopol was our next and final stop. We took a taxi from Simeropol to Sevastopol which took just over an hour. It was a nice drive, and as we approached Sevastopol, we saw the beautiful Black Sea. Before we let our taxi go back, we had him take us around the city, which was... interesting. A large number of their roads there were dirt roads! Olivia got a little sick as we drove around (she gets car sick pretty easily and the bumpy roads didn't help). We had him drop us off in the city center which was vastly different than the rest of the city. It was very nice and well taken care of. You see, this city has been destroyed about 3 times in war and was almost completely rebuilt about 40 years ago. The city was filled with a lot of military, both Russian and Ukrainian, and we saw the different countries flags grouped together throughout the city. (If you get a chance look up online some of what is going on in Sevastopol between Ukraine and Russia, it is interesting to see a tension between the two countries over this strategic port city). Although we had just under two days in this city, we weren't able to accomplish as much as we would have liked there. The two church workers were out of town, and we weren't even able to meet with the language school we found. This was sad for us, but we were also so exhausted, we were able to take a nap before we all started heading back home. It ended up being a blessing! The lack of local help in Sevastopol made us appreciate further the blessing we had in the other cities with Christians who were able to help us in our survey.
After we got back to Simferopol, we all went our different ways. Phil and the two of us went to Kiev to fly out. We were able to spend most of the day looking around that city and just enjoying the sights. It was a nice treat after our trip, we really enjoyed our day there. The next morning at five-thirty, we left for the airport. After all the trouble we had getting to Ukraine, we were a bit worried as to whether we would have similar trouble on the way back. Fortunately, we had no real problems which caused any missed flights or delays. It was a long day (23 hours of traveling... and for almost all of it we were awake), but we made it in late Sunday evening!
Well , now is a good time to end this post, but we will be writing brief note about each city and a slideshow of pictures, so look forward to that. Thanks to all of you for your prayers as we went on this adventure! God truly blessed our trip and we all feel like it was a success-- we are now more encouraged about moving to Ukraine and are getting closer to deciding on a city!

Kharkov and Odessa

2008-06-22T23:11:00.006+03:00

Hello and yes, we finally made it here ty Ukraine!! We had no problems on our flight from Vienna to Kiev, thank goodness. After we made it to Kiev, we took a taxi to the train station and after about 1 hour and 15 minutes of trying to communicate in Russian and try to find the right place to buy tickets to Kharkov, we finally had our tickets. We left Kiev about midnight and arrived in Kharkov that next morning around ten. It was such a blessing to finally be there!
Rob and Dougle were there waiting for us, along with two men from the church. We hit the ground running and for the next couple days, we flew around the city. We were so blessed to have two Christian brothers (Valerie and Robert) helping us around the city!
The city itself was big with some nice looking parks, but funny enough we only noticed one mowed lawn in the whole city. The city is not known for its beauty, but the people there we thought were friendly and there were lots of them. Kharkov had a small, but good metro system, which was very convinient.
During our stay, we were able to meet with an American baptist missionary couple who had been living in Kharkov around 8 years. From them we found out some useful information about the city. Things like the fact that there aren't many expats in Kharkov (so being forign will be a novelty that may be an advantage if we work there). We also learned from them that the university population in Kharkov, which is a very large population (250,000), has not been reached by any church group they know of. Dougle and Rob were able to meet with a realestate agent who was able to recommend significant areas of interest in Kharkov to the team. We were able to visit each part of the city that was mentioned, which was great-- we videoed and took lots of pictures!
We were especially pleased to come across a supermarket called Target, it was great to find out that we would have access to a lot of the foods we were halfway expecting to do weithout. David was excited to even find New Zealand Green Lipped mussels in the frozen food section. The city of Kharkov that was a really good size, it is the second largest city in Ukraine and doesn't look like it will be losing its position any time soon. There is lots of growth as more apartments are being built and Metro stops keep geting added on, spreading further and further.
Overall, we were a little disappointed that Kharkov wasn't as aesthetically appealing as we had imagined. There were a lot of dirt roads and run down looking apartment buildings everywhere. They also do not mow their grass, so most of the city is overgrown. It did have really lovely trees everywhere, so that was nice. There is a lot of potential for it to look nice, and who knows maybe part of our service to the lost could include caring for a park where their children run around playing. Though the city was ugly, it was pleasing to the eyes to see the mothers out with their children and the people out everywhere going to and fro, maybe searching for their creator.
After spending those three days in Kharkov, we left on Saturday evening to go to Odessa by train. We left around 6pm and arrived at 8am this morning. So far, we have been able to meet with a group from the church of Christ we attended this morning, plus a lady from another church of Christ here in town. She was a big blessing and has helped us most of this afternoon. It has been so good to meet with so many people at all our stops. We hope to get a better view of the city tomorrow and hopefully meet with a man from the Christian church here in town who can hopefully give us more information about the city here. We will post more about Odessa in the future.
God has been good to us all on this trip! We have met so many different people and have really been able to get good looks at the places we are interested in. On the train ride to Odessa, our team came up with a "Likes and Dislikes" list about Kharkov. We have been able to have really good discussion and prayer time together. Please continue to keep us in your prayers as we travel. Also, please pray that our bag gets to Ukraine soon. It was for Lucy and it still has not arrived-- so we hope it is found soon and doesn't end up back in Dallas with us! Thank you to all for the comments and encouragement. It was a shot in the arm and we are so thankful for all the prayers and support behind us. Please know we thank God for you! We'll post more when we get a chance-- most likely at the next stop... Simferopol, Ukraine!

Kharkov or Bust!

2008-06-18T16:11:00.005+03:00

Hello from the airport in Vienna! Yes, it has been about 2 days since we left Lubbock and we have yet to make it to Ukraine. As you can guess, we've had a few problems with our flights! We started in Dallas and in our flight to Washington DC we were re-routed to Richmond, VA due to bad weather before we finally made it to Washington DC, 3 1/2 hours late. Needless to say, we missed our flight out. After waiting hours in line, we finally got booked for Boston where it looked hopeful that we could get a flight out the next day. We reached Boston, but didn't get into the hotel room until 2:30am due to re-arranging our flights out of Boston. (And do I dare mention that we didn't eat for 22 hours due to all these delays?) At 5:30pm the next day (Tuesday), we left Boston for Paris. The flight into Paris was 10 minutes late, and even though we ran all through the airport to get to our flight, we missed it. We actually watched them take the boarding tunnel off the plane. We were so close! From Paris, we flew out to Vienna, but upon arriving in Vienna (after 2 hours of talking to frustrated ticket agents), we have come to the conclusion that we were not going to get to Kharkov today. Right now, our plan is to fly instead to Kiev, Ukraine and then take an overnight train to Kharkov. We should arrive there in the morning-- 2 days later than expected. (That means we will have been traveling for a good 72 hours!) We are exhausted and all of us have about 10 different tickets in our hands from re-booked flights! David is just reading his book at the table and keeps waking himself in time to keep his head from slamming into the table. :) Lessons learned: 1) Next time we go to Ukraine, get the most direct flight possible and 2) Next time we're in these really neat cities, make time to actually leave the airport to enjoy them! Please keep us in your prayers as we still try to make it to Kharkov. Thank you all for your prayers this far-- we know it has helped us keep in good spirits! We will make it to Kharkov... or bust!

Survey Trip to Ukraine

2008-06-16T14:05:00.004+03:00

Well, we have finally joined the many other missionaries in creating a blog page to try tohelp us keep all of our friends and families informed as to what is going on with us. We hope that this page will make you feel like you are experiencing everything with us.
This morning we are experiencing a few different feelings. The main one is exhaustion! Right now we are packing our last minute things and getting ready to rush out the door before we board the plane to go to the Ukraine.
As some of you may know, our team (well, part of it at least) is going to go to Ukraine for the next two weeks and scout out the land before we move there. We hope that seeing these places first hand will help us to make a more educated decision forwhere our team will move to and work. This trip has spurred us on to get going on this page so we can share what we find with all of you.
Our aim is to post information about the four different places that we will be traveling to, sharing some of what we discover so that you can comment and be a part of this process with us. Let us know what you think!
Finally, please keep us all in your prayers as we travel around. Mike McDougle, Rob Hindman, Phil Jackson (from Missions Resource Network), and the two of us will be going on this trip together for the next two weeks. Thanks so much!