My mom made it to Ukraine! I couldn't be more excited! 

Mom and I at the friendship monument. 

Mom in Kiev! (she's so cute!) 

Amberly and her sweet sisters in front of "the man on the horse" ;o) 

Tyoma came over to see Marsha and the girls. They were SO happy to see him :o) And my amazing roommate did a FABULOUS job interpreting for him, since Pasha wasn't able to come. 

God is moving me to new views of Him lately.  I don’t even know how to express out loud what that means right now.  But, in lots of ways He is showing me that I am dirt and He is beauty.  There have been so many times when I have tried to “love” on my own.  The problem, I think, is that we tend to use this word far too flippantly.   I mean, the Bible says that God is love and if God is love, well, then on my own I have NONE of that in me.  I can’t love people because, well, I’m not God.  But, I want to love people.  I guess to do that means I need to make sure that God is living in and through me.  To do that I need to constantly be seeking Him…reading my Bible, talking to Him, listening to Him, hearing Him through others…otherwise all I’m giving people is a cheap imitation of what could forever change their lives.  I would hate to think that someone missed out on Love because I thought it would be ok to call myself a follower of Christ and still be living on my own strength. 

 

Amberly’s mom and sisters arrive today.  I cannot wait to see Marsha again and to meet Meagan and Sydney.  There is going to be a girl party at our house for the next week!  It will be awesome! 

 

Oleg Magdych just brought me my train ticket for me and mom to Donetsk.  Let me just tell you that I am a bit nervous about that.  The Radooga staff all leave on Thursday and mom and I will go alone on Friday night.  Roma says that it will be a good time for us—even if we encounter some problems.  I know he’s right, but it is still a little scary.  On the way there we will be in an open car room which is not like the 4 person room we were in when we went with Dennis, so it will be a new experience.  On the way home we will be in a 4 person room with Kolya, the speaker, who is pretty much amazing.  So, that will be fun too.  I think it will be good for mom and I on the way there because we will have some time to talk alone, and cool on the way back because mom will be able to spend some of the Ukrainians I know.  By the time we get back to Kiev she will be ready to die…I may have to give her a day off to rest…but, maybe not…I mean, this is a once in a lifetime opportunity—seize the day :o)

 

I don’t know if I’ll be posting while Mom is here…we’ll just have to wait and see. 

 

Peace Out!

Dennis' youth (this is some of their leadership and regulars) invited A and I to come have an "American Style" outreach party with them. It was SUPER AWESOME! 

The youth room (on Saturday nights--The Church on Sunday mornings :o) 

For this game, the kids would pull a peacie of paper out of a hat and read it aloud to everyone and then have to explain to us what it said and get us to respond with (hopfully) the correct answer :o) 

 

After the official party was over we got to spend time just hanging out with the kids. It was amazing! 

Happy Valentine's Day to us! :o) 

Swings are pretty much our favorite. 

I am convinced that you will not ever find cuter kid or a sweeter man. ever.  

Sergey, Marina and Pasha came to our house for dinner for a change :o)  

See, Moms, we can cook... :o)

A weekend away :o)

Dennis, Amberly and I just got home from Tornovka, Dennis’ home: a small town located in the region of Dnipropetrovsk.  Dennis’ youth group was having an outreach party and it was called “American Style.”  Basically, we were invited to be the American freak show :o)  Amberly, unable to remember the Russian word for ‘party,’ was telling her Russian teacher who does not know English about what we were doing the weekend and she said “kak tsirkv”  “like a circus” which her teacher laughed about for a long time.  Maybe we were the freaks for the weekend, but that’s no different than every time we get on a marshootka and speak English and the whole bus is turning around to look at us.  Besides, during this ‘freak show’ we were able to talk to the kids and tell them why we were here and spend time talking to them about life in America versus life in Ukraine which led to a whole other discussion about life in Kiev versus life in a smaller town, like theirs.  They were shocked to hear that our towns in America were not big like Kiev either.  They made us play this game where the kids would pull a paper out of a hat and on the paper were question like “how many brothers do you have” or “how often do you clip you fingernails” only they were written in Russian and the kid who pulled the paper would have to read the question and then help us to understand what it said by actions or drawing or whatever.  Then we would have to communicate back to them the answer.  It was really funny.  Dennis’ fabulous mother fixed us tons and tons of yummy food (I think Dennis must have told her that we live off of frozen pelminni and she felt bad for us)  and lots and lots of tea. I rode on my first overnight train and I felt like I was in the middle of a Harry Potter movie.  I loved it.  Dennis and Amberly and I stayed up talking forever on the way over, but on the way back we all slept basically the whole trip.  Good times.  Have I mentioned lately that I love Ukraine?  It’s true.  I love Ukraine.

Happy Thoughts

We are going with Dennis to his hometown for an outreach party with his youth group.

My mom will be here in 14 days.

I talked to Calyn, if only for a few mins. this morning. That always makes my day.

Sweet SMSs from Syoma.

Coffee with Hazelnut creamer.

Kiev conference next weekend.

Believe it or not, I found the snow to be magical again yesterday.

God continues to reveal the magnitude of His love to me--and I am shocked every time.

Curling up on the couch with what has become known as my 'cloud blanket.'

Late night talks in Amberly's room--sometimes deep, sometimes silly: usually both.

Phone calls from Pasha.

The way our friends always excessively ring our doorbell.

Learning to love.

Moments on ICQ with Toddie.

E-mails from Catie.

And Walker.

Hugs from Roma.

Beginning to understand the meaning behind the Russian songs we sing at NewFormat.

Lunch with the new Americans.

Remembering that "May is tomorrow."