Back in 2009...

When I was in high school, I went to Ukraine a bunch of times. Over Christmas break my sophomore year of college, I got to go back during the winter with a small team. We lived in an orphanage and played in the snow and led Bible studies and had our hair done a thousand times each day by little girls. It was such a special time and a sweet trip. Well, I recently discovered videos of the trip that Jillian made right after we returned, and I thought why not? I'll share them!

Here's the video Jillian compiled from our trip to Ukraine. 

Interesting things about our time there:

I'd never shoveled snow before and we did that for so long that we were incredibly thirsty and  drained a couple pots of tea trying to quench our thirst, and eventually walked to a nearby store for water. Best water ever. 

I'd never been sledding before either. 

We took the kids ice skating and while I LOVE ice skating, it was the best time I've ever had on the ice. Kids falling everywhere and hanging on to us and having so much fun. Loved it. 

At night when the kids went to bed, we'd hang out and play games (the sort of "embarrassing" games we played in high school youth group) with the older Ukrainians and translators. 

And on our way back, we stopped in the Netherlands for a couple of days. We visited the Corrie ten Boom house right down the street from where we stayed in Haarlem, outside Amsterdam, and went in to Amsterdam to tour the Anne Frank House. Both great experiences, and although not the most savory city I've visited, the trip itself was a lot of fun and I loved the quirks about the town we actually stayed in. 

Interesting things about this trip I was reminded of when watching the video: 

We stole Caleb's belt for no apparent reason and wrote ransom notes for it. 

I had an ear infection and had to get powerful ear drops put in. 

There's a narrative at the end where I'm scared about a mouse in our room. 

My dad found a webcam that was facing the square our hotel was on, so Jillian and I went outside with umbrellas when it wasn't raining to make sure he could see us (there's a clip of us talking about it).

Jillian and Stephanie flew separately from the rest of us, and missed out on flying international business class, which was the best flight experience ever. It's a whole different world, with real silverware, tasty food, and seats that recline. I slept for 6 hours.

More Ukraine Pictures

All of these pictures and SO MANY more can be found by clicking this link.

Kiev

Last Sunday morning, the team left Vinnitsa. We drove five hours to Kiev. A good portion of the team is new this year and hadn't toured the city, so we spent the afternoon in the city, exploring and souvenir shopping. 

We celebrated Kristine's 25th birthday on the bus. Yes, candles on a bus! Masha and Eunice were so thoughtful and also brought the things to make Kristine's favorite coffee drink while on the bus. 

Rainy Kiev. It rained the whole drive there, but stopped almost as soon as the bus parked. After that the day was sunny, hot and humid!

This is a public bathroom in a mall in Kiev. I had to pay 2 grievna to use this and it smells worse than it looks.

Euro Cup things are EVERYWHERE. Ukraine and Poland are hosting right now.

Russian Orthodox Church

 We went to a famine museum, there in memory of three forced famines during Ukraine's history during the 1930s-40s. 

We lit candles in honor of those who died in the famine (25% of Ukraine's population during one of the famines!)

All around the museum, names of people who had died scrolled on the walls. There were little platforms all around the room with huge books on them that listed every person who died and their cause of death (they had about 900 pages of names)

 A view of Kiev from the steps of the museum

My very first Ukraine roommate, Kristine, seven years later.

We arrived at our hotel after the famine museum, hot and tired. Everyone changed and cooled off and then we met for a worship service. 

After our service, we had a Georgian meal. We mistakenly thought that the food on the tables when we arrived was the meal in its entirety, so we consumed meats, cheeses, fruits and bread before realizing that it was the appetizer. Oops. I think there were four courses after that. 

On Monday, we saw the team off to Paris. It was SO strange hugging them goodbye, leaving them at the airport, and riding in the huge coach bus with only four of us as passengers.

Where Am I?

I thought that it might be helpful to see where in the world I am staying. Kiev is near the top, centered on the Dnipro River that runs through the country. Vinnytsya, where I'm staying, is to the SouthWest of Kiev (just to the left of the word "UKRAINE" on the map). The spellings vary, which is why you'll see me spell it differently in posts than it is on the map. 

(via)

Ukraine, Week One

Hard to believe that we landed in Kiev just over a week ago, and we're already to the end of the Beaufort team's stay in Ukraine. Today, they'll fly off to Paris and leave Chloe and I here alone.

Here are a few pictures taken during this incredibly busy week.

Maxamovicha Church, our home base.

Where I'm staying (it reminds me of a house from Lord of the Rings)

My room (I'll be moving in with Chloe now that the team has left)

Dental clinic - they put in SO much work this week! 11 hour days with virtually no breaks. They got all the kids' teeth cleaned, checked and fixed. It would have cost thousands of dollars and it was about a month's worth of work. Wow, God is good!

I got my teeth cleaned too...

Two friends at the orphanage

Dental team with the completed list of kids

My roomies, Ale and Chloe

The team, both American and Ukrainian, at a barbecue we had Saturday night (plus kids from orphanage)

The light/fountain show we went to at the Roshen candy factory on Saturday - impressive! 

So Far

That Place

Seven years ago, I boarded a plane for the very first time. It was the longest travel time ever taken (thanks to bad weather and cancelled flights), but resulted in a wonderful trip. 

That trip was to Ukraine, and the very first day that I was there, bouncing down a bumpy road to a little village, I was sold. I wanted to come back already, and I hadn't even left. 

For some reason, God has brought me back there a total of five times, which I can't believe even now. Each time has felt like the last, but for whatever reason, part of my heart is there and I guess I just can't stay gone. 

Year one - a wheatfield on the way to Borkiv (our first camp) with the lovely Kristine. July 2005.

And the last time I was there... January 2009.

It's been three years since I've been back, and I really didn't think I'd be going to Ukraine again. 

But here I am. 

Why am I going? 

My degree is in Intercultural Ministries. Because I'm in the World Missions department at Moody, my internship has to be overseas for at least six weeks. I was originally planning on teaching English in Asia, but then an opportunity to do my internship in Ukraine came up, and I knew it was God. I'm sure I'd love Asia (I really liked China), but Ukraine had my heart first. 

So for the next six weeks, that's where I'll be. I plan to post as often as I can while I'm away and give updates on things that are going on over there, but wanted to give a heads up. 

Pray for my flights over there and for reliance to be on the Lord during this trip. Pray also for Carson, who won't be joining me. He'll be working extra hours and gearing up for our move. 

See you in July!

a $400 bad decision

Nearly three years ago, I was in Ukraine, in the back of a van that didn't have seats.

We thought it would be a really bright idea to stand up and "surf", making a competition over who would be the last to be standing without touching the walls. So we surfed, the entire time we were there.

I think something gets in our brain flow during mission trips to make stupid things happen. Like bus surfing.

Anyway, on this day, I was not surfing. I was sitting in the back, right on the front lines of the surfing. As we were riding along, the van moved a little too fast and someone came down on the right side of my face, really hard. I hard a "pop" and it hurt a bit but my only real thought was "How big will this bruise be?"

As the morning progressed, so did my face. My left cheek gave me an attractive chipmunk look, and I began to realize that my teeth no longer touched in the back. Problem.

Later that day, it popped back into place, after having people try to pop it back in and trying to eat bread to make it work. Since then, my jaw makes super loud popping noises when chewing and has occasional pain. Nothing horrible, just reminders of the "incident".

After our honeymoon in June, I got an ear infection due to sand in my ear (from violent waves that kept throwing me to the ground. I am a wimp.). My jaw began to ache on the side where my infection was, and I thought it was related. A dull ache that brought headaches (that are maybe migraines? I'm not sure... again, I'm a wimp). And the occasional lock of the jaw. Not so normal. So we shopped around for doctors that do that kind of thing.

At the beginning of March, we realized that the ear and the jaw weren't related, so I went to an orthodontist who diagnosed it as TMJ, which is a jaw-joint thing. A slipped disk, like in your back (but not that bad) in my jaw. Not a big thing now, but it could be.

So he referred me to a specialist to get a nightguard. I had the impressions made for it this week and will get it in a couple weeks. It's supposed to help and I'm hoping it will!

So $400 later, I'm regretting that whole bus surfing thing. It was fun while it lasted but it looks like I'll be constantly reminded of it for a long, long time!

favorite places

china. 

the great wall. sharing the GOSPEL in a place like Beijing. 

old sheldon church. 

south carolina. old. pretty. place where we got engaged.

ukraine. 

place where missions captured my heart. gorgeous. one of my favorite places.

washington. 

mountains. evergreens. place we started life together.