1000 Gifts: Thankfulness

Things for which I'm thankful:

#127. The SMTC(Seaside Missionary Training Center) students!
#128. Fall colors finally arriving this wk.(technically I should say color, since I've only seen yellow)
#129. Sunshine. The sun is still here and after several dark, rainy days, it has been wonderful to see it again.
#130. Rainboots! One of those little things that just gets under my skin sometimes is how muddy it is here after it rains. I brought rainboots back from the States and have been loving the fact that my feet stay nice and dry and I'm not getting my shoes all muddy.
#131. Another trivial one, but here it is. I'm thankful for hats, because I like them. =-D



#132. I'm thankful for my trip to the States and that I get to go back for Christmas!
#133. Laughter. This morning one of the girls came up, hugged me and told me(in Russian) that I smelled like bananas(I had just eaten one). But instead of hearing the word "Smell like", I heard "Look like"(they're kind of similar words, but I honestly wasn't listening very well). I very quickly figured out my mistake, but we were laughing about it for a while.
#134. A better bed! My old bed here in the new apt. was just awful and while I was gone, we got a bunkbed in my room. It's kind of funny that I sleep in a bunkbed, but it's so much better than the old bed, plus I actually have floor space in my room now.
#135. My roommates. I haven't had roommates since college, but am really enjoying my roommates, Laura and Michelle.
#136. Getting to talk with my brother, Will, and his kids. It's kind of chaotic, but fun.
#137. Hatchapuri- Georgian bread w/cheese. yum



#138. Rest after a super busy last nine or so days.
#139. Friends coming this week(from the other side of Ukraine)!
#140. Nancy S. sharing her Thankfulness List with me. Thank you, Nancy!!
#141. A great evening in the beauty of the Odessa center with Sylwia.
#142. God's guidance and provision for what I'll be doing next year.
#143. Discipleship meetings- getting to know the girls better.

Saturday Evening Post, 10/23

Weather this week: Cold and rainy, ending with cool and sunny. Morning temps at 34F.


Big celebration of the week: the 2nd anniversary of Living Hope Church.

This is our little room where we meet for church(inside of a former factory). It was a great time of celebration; with lunch, testimonies, songs and lots of fellowship.

Busyness of the week: this was a super busy, but blessed week for me. I had the privilege of getting to take the Kairos Missions Course on "God, the Church and the World." It pretty much blew my mind on what I thought about missions and what God actually says about missions and his command to the church as a whole. I'll write more about it this coming week.

One of the things we did was talk about different religions and how confusing it can be for people when they come to know God, but were taught to pray in one way and are now being told completely different things. As you can see, we were doing our prayer time in a more similar manner to Islam, but praying to God instead of Allah. I thought it was a really interesting, if somewhat painful experience(it hurts to stay on your knees!).

Beautiful walk and fun evening of the week: last night after the course was over, I went into the center of town with one of the training center students to have a relaxing evening. We just wanted to get out after sitting there all day every day.

Premorsky Boulevard- Street Before the Sea

Fun experience of the week: having dinner at a Georgian restaurant with Sylwia(that's Georgia, the country, not Georgia, the State). =-) The Hatchapuri(cheese bread) was yummy, as were our soups and it was a really fun evening.

Really good Georgian fruit sodas: Pear and Grape.

Sylwia and I(she is from Poland and one of the students at the missionary training center).

Grossness of the week: Little black inchworms invading my bedroom. I have no idea why, but I've killed over 20 in the last few days. Yuck.

Slogan of the week(spotted in a bus): Товарищ Всегда Рядом! "A Comrade is Always Nearby!"

A Night at the Ballet

The Odessa Opera House was so beautiful that I had to post pictures for you to see. We got "expensive" tickets so that we could sit in a private box together. Cost per ticket? 100 grivna, which is $12.57. Not too bad for our own private box, huh?

The beautiful inside of the theatre.

Overhead of our box.

The private boxes.

In the grand hall.

The hall which encircles the theatre, with gold detailing everywhere.

The side of the Opera House at night.

Saturday Evening Post, 10/16

Weather this week: sunny and pretty nice, going from fairly cold at the end of last week to mild and sunny today. High temps in the upper 50's.


Visit of the week: Maggie and Linda are here and staying with us! Maggie was our cook at the training center in MT and Linda serves in the IM home office in Clear Lake, IA. It has been great having them here!

Maggie, Laura(one of my roommates), Linda and me

Fun of the week: planning a silly skit for English Club with four of the training center students.

Simon(from Poland) and Vali(from Romania) practicing for the skit

Event of the week: FINALLY getting to go to the Odessa Opera House to see a ballet! I've tried three times before to go and things ended up happening so that I couldn't go. I don't know what ballets we saw, because we didn't have any programs, but they were two short ones that I had never seen before. The Opera House here is called the second most beautiful in all of Europe, so I'm going to devote another post to that in the next couple of days. I was quite impressed with the dancers, but not so much with the musicians. Overall impression- excellent experience for very little money. It was great.

The Wheels on the Bus

The scene: a bus. A posted sign says, "22 sitting places, 23 standing places, 45 in all." Now, when they say 23 standing places, they don't mean 23 people standing comfortable with two feet of personal space in between. They mean 23 people squashed together so closely that not only can you smell what your neighbor had for lunch, you can just about taste it, as well. 23 people can indeed stand in the narrow aisle of the bus. They may have no place to hold on to and may be held upright simply by the other bodies; they may be falling out of the bus when the doors open; they may only have room to stand on one foot, but they can indeed fit in. As a matter of fact, there's always room for one more, plus a dog or cat, no matter how packed it appears. A can of sardines has nothing on a crowded bus here.

I am not a big fan of the aforementioned experience. However...it is a way of life here and it is my daily means of transportation. It is very cheap and extremely efficient. I don't have a clue how to get anywhere in Charlotte by bus and yet here, in a larger city, that's how I get everywhere.

Another fun part of the bus experience is paying. You pay when you get off, not when you get on. You go to the front of the bus, tell the driver the name of the stop, pay and get off. That sounds easy enough, right? Well, what if you don't know the name of the stop? In that case, you can just say, "Next stop." Still not too bad, right? Well, what if there are 45 people on the bus and you're at the very back? Now here is where the fun begins. 1st, you have to know the name of your stop to do this, but... you hand your money to the person in front of you and say the name of the stop, the number of people you're paying for, and which door you want opened. The money passes from person to person all the way up to the driver. If he's giving you change, then the money passes all the way back. Miraculously, it's a very efficient system.

Now we come to my very least favorite part of this, which always keeps the ride exciting for me. when the bus is crowded and money is being passed up, I have to pass the money, as well. The vast majority of the time, I don't know the names of the stops that people want and have to listen extremely carefully to what is being said. Sometimes it's said in Ukrainian and sometimes in Russian. I'm always worried that I'm going to pass on the wrong information and then people will start yelling. Plus, I have to open my mouth and instantly people know that I'm a foreigner by my accent or my mispronunciation of what was just said to me.

I've only been back from the States for a couple of weeks now and having moved before I left, I'm now learning new bus routes everywhere. Last week on my way home from bible study, I passed my money up and quickly realized I had said something wrong. I heard, "Tolbuhino, one, rear door." And then in reply, "Tolbuhino?" "Yes, Tolbuhino." As my money moved up the line, I kept hearing this question and I began to be worried. Why were they all questioning the name of the stop that I had said? So I asked the lady in front of me(to whom I had originally given the money) if Tolbuhino was right after the traffic circle, where I needed to get off. It turns out that I needed to get off at Filatovo, not Tolbuhino, which was quite a ways up the road. The reason they were all questioning it was because no one passes their money up 15 minutes ahead of time. I wasn't quite sure what to do about my mistake and jumped up, hoping that when we got to my stop, someone else would also need to get off. I got off the bus chanting to myself, "Filatova, Filatovo, Filatova."

Ah, the joys of living and experiencing life in another country. Anyone want to come visit? I promise I won't put you on the bus by yourself!

The Saturday Evening Post

Mexican dinner at my apartment with some of the IM training center students

Ok, once again, I'm going to borrow an idea from my SIL, Phyllis. She has started doing a summation of the week on her blog, http://www.willphyl.com. I really like the idea, because though I write a lot of silly things and observations on here, I would like to give more regular accounts of the ministry in which I'm involved. This one is going to be a little more detailed since it's the first and then I'll just give highlights after this. So, the following is a week in review:

Sat.: church worship practice, the first wedding ever at our little church followed by lunch and fellowship time, English club(I gave the presentation on "Strange and Unusual Hobbies"), discipleship meeting with one of the girls from church.

Sun.: prayer meeting, church, lunch with my roommate and two of the orphans that she serves. It was interesting for me to get to see her interact with these two teenage boys and to get to talk with them a little myself. After that I baked cinnamon chip scones for the training center students and had a quiet night with my roommates.

Mon.: went to the morning session at the training center(Systematic Theology), had lunch with the students and teachers, went and bought some beautiful yarn to start a new crocheting project, spent the afternoon working on thank you notes for supporters.

Tues.: spent the morning shopping for supplies for a Mexican dinner for the training center students the next day, baked brownies for one of their birthdays(also the next day), went to the center of town with them to hand out flyers for English Club at a language school and went over to the Christian University for the seeker Bible Study that our team leads.

Wed.: went to the training center again for class and lunch, spent the afternoon cooking for the Mexican dinner(chicken enchiladas, fresh salsa, guacamole, chips-you have to make them, also, and Spanish rice), met with two of the girls from the training center, then dinner and games with the training center students. Lots of fun.

Thurs.: cleaned up from the night before, met with Kim to talk and pray, went to the Christian Univ. for English Club(topic- Unexplained Mysteries)

Fri.: met with Kim and Patti for prayer time and planning, team meeting to plan everything for this coming week, lunch at the training center, talked with mom, met with one one of the girls from church. This ended up being kind of funny, because she said she wanted me to teach her how to make salsa and that she could stay. I just thought she meant she didn't have to be home early. So after making the salsa, cleaning up, heating up the enchilada, having dinner, watching a movie, talking, searching for stuff online, I began to wonder when she was going home. At about 9pm(she had been there several hours already) my question was answered when she said, "So, what time are we getting up in the morning?" =-D So Friday night I also had a sleepover. Actually, it was a lot of fun and a really great time. I've never spent one on one time with this girl before and it was just a really special time of fellowship. She's already invited me over to her home in the next couple of weeks, so I'm hoping that will work out, as those invitations have been few and far between for us.

Trip to the States

Goodness, I feel so neglectful! I didn't even write about my trip to the States, though I fully intended to. So, this is a brief synopsis: Abby's wedding was beautiful(no, I don't have any pictures. As soon as I get some-hopefully the professional ones-I'll post them); I had a wonderful time visiting with friends and family in Charlotte; I spoke several places and that went very well; I received a tremendous amount of encouragement through meetings with supporters; I had a great time in Texas with my best friend; and I relaxed and was refreshed at the GBC Ladies' Retreat. It was a very, very busy, yet wonderful month. Thanks to all who made it so!

Me and Tapley with the family that we met while walking to the Butterfly Museum.

At the Butterfly Museum. I wish I could show you all of the pictures, but this is probably my favorite.

A visit home wouldn't be complete without some one on one time with my poor, abandoned puppy, Georgie. Thankfully, his loving grandparents are taking good care of him. He wasn't so interested in taking part in the picture taking.

GBC Ladies' Retreat at Ocean Isle. This was by far my favorite out of the ones I've been to. Thanks, ladies! I did have some fun tricks planned for you, but one of them(jello in the toilet) didn't work and then I forgot to do the others. Sigh. My cohorts abandoned me this year and look what happened. I failed to bring extra fun to the party.