Clothes are scattered chaotically across the room. A broken bed totters precariously in the corner, with splinters of wood and nails pointing out like jagged teeth. Belongings once kept neatly in corners are spread beyond what eyes can see.
An explosion.
Chaos.
Disaster.
This is our reality. There really was an explosion. Okay, maybe not the gunpowder kind, or one that brings about true disasters. Really, there has been no disaster, and no real chaos here in Ukraine. While we are here anyways. Unless you count lots of kids and cats as chaos, but years of working in preschool have left me immune to such influences.
But there really are clothes and belongings scattered everywhere. And there really is a broken bed in our room. (That's what happens I guess sleeping on a “kids” bed, whoops!)
Team TUFF, my brand new team that I love and adore, finds itself in Lutugina, Ukraine this month. We are basically on the Russian border, as far east as you can get in this country. We are surrounded by Russian speaking Ukrainians, but are blessed to be living with an incredible American family. Which means, amazing food (AKA TACOS!), beds, hot showers, and toilets that you can actually flush the toilet paper in! (It was a real question when we got here if we could flush the toilet paper. Go to Asia, you'll understand what those waste baskets are really for sooner or later.)
The transition from Asia to Europe has kind of been like an explosion in my mind. Five months in Asia is a long time. That's really almost half of a year. Almost half a year of my life was spent traveling through Asia, being immersed in the Asia culture. A culture full of color, life, humidity, sweat, chopsticks, squattie potties, difficult languages, and amazing people. God truly captured my heart in Asia, something that I never would have imagined, and certainly nothing that I expected.
So coming to Europe has just been plain interesting. I really do love it here, though. My mind is exploding at all the options of fresh bread, REAL cheese, meats, fish, internet access, living in a real home, seeing a language that I can pick up more easily, seeing other white people, and not being stared at constantly. Trust me, after being singled out as the foreigners for 8 months will accustom you to being stared at, and it's strange when it doesn't happen.
Plus add in the new role of team leader on a new team, plus trying to figure out travel arrangements for when I arrive in the states, plus thinking about what in the world I'm going to do when I get home, plus, plus, plus, plus, plus, ahhhh!
My mind feels like it runs at ten million miles an hour sometimes. To the point where I felt that I was only half way here. I was only half-living. I was only half-leading. I was only half-existing. Burying myself in my own thoughts for a few days. The readily available internet access did not help my already busy mind. And one night as I laid in bed, it struck me…this half-life.
And I was not going to have it anymore. I spoke out against it. The anxiety, the fear, the worry, the complacency, the difference of stepping out of Asia into Europe.
Who wants to half live? I sure don't.
So I decided to go on a short two day hiatus from the internet and my screens and technology. And it was exactly what I needed. God brought me to Colossians 3:1-17, which speaks of our life in Christ, and casting off the old, and clothing ourselves in compassion, humility, kindness, and how it is all bound together in love.
It was a moment that my heart desperately needed. I poured into the Word, and God poured into me. He led me through some passages in Daniel and Jeremiah. But Colossians still sticks with me and brings me peace and focus at this point.
Reminds me of the importance of pouring into my team. Of pouring into this place. Of fully investing myself into every day that I am here, and every day that I am alive. Reminds me to use my gifts and talents. Reminds me to allow myself to be inconvenienced, because God works a lot there. Reminds me that love is the reason for it all. And that love is worth it all. HE is worth it all.
I am thrilled about Eastern Europe and Ukraine, and about what God has for TEAM TUFF here in Lutugina, Ukraine for such a time as this. It's going to be good!
Here are a few pictures of us around Ukraine so far. Enjoy!
With a Ukrainian pastor and our contact
Town Square…complete with a statue of Lenin, of course.
Some of the local high school students were showing us around town!
World War II Memorial
Our visit to the hospital to hand out puzzles and Bible to the kids and families. And we got honey from this sweet lady!
LOVE the architecture in the bigger city (Lugansk)
TACO NIGHT!!! As many of you know, I have been desperately craving Mexican food for oh, the past 8 months. Tacos were HEAVENLY!
Just hoeing up some ground for a corn field!
Farmers.
