Our first week of VBS children!
Culture Shock
I thought the idea of being in shock would happen after eleven months, but in fact it happened after nine. I am now in month ten in Eastern Europe, Ukraine to be exact, and have been for three weeks. Pryor to that I lived in five Southeast Asian countries and three east African countries amongst dirt roads, naked children and long pants/skirts. I’m not sure where in the mix of all of those this happened, but I began to LOVE the poorest places and the dirtiest living conditions and the thought that the people around me had nothing to depend on besides the hope of Jesus Christ. I found not matching outfits, rice and beans for lunch and dinner, Muslim prayer calls at five in the morning, and children who desperately want to climb all over my lap and “speak” to me to be quite comforting and I felt at home. Yes, Africa and Asia felt like home and I don’t know how to explain that other than God.
Now I am in a country where everyone wears speedos and bikinis to the beach (so much for everyone being fully clothed like the last six months). We have different food for breakfast, lunch and dinner and it tastes delicious. We eat meat that is not goat or mutton and can identify the parts of the chicken we are eating (not once have they been feet or the head). We take a bus to ministry that is not BLARING music and we do not have to duck our heads in order to get on. We have HOT showers…not just hot water, but it actually comes out of something called a showerhead in a bathtub. No more flooding the floor and immediately having dirty feet the moment you rinse the soap off. You think my showers would be quicker since the water is indoor plumbing, but actually the combination of clean, hot water and a bathtub makes me never want to get out! Cold bucket showers just aren’t as inviting. My teammates and I do insanity outside in SHORTS and a TANK TOP without causing a ruckus in the community. I wear shorts to play with kids and it is actually ok. We have wireless Internet in our home that works. I can have an actual conversation on Skype, how odd. I have only checked my facebook messages and email for so manymonths that I sometimes stare at my computer screen knowing there is more on it to do, but forgetting all the other things I “needed” my iphone for.
I think I can say after three weeks I am getting used to the change. I definitely cannot complain one ounce as I LOVE the family we are blessed to live with. For Heaven’s sake, we do ministry ON the Black Sea beach and get to have English teaching conversations every day! We are blessed. I am blessed, I just don’t know how to take it all in. The fact is, I miss the dirty children with malnutrition bellies and shredded clothing, but this is my reality now and I am called just as much to love the children we do VBS for here. The children are precious and struggling in their own difficult circumstances.
I miss the challenge to faith of NEEDING Jesus to pull me through difficult circumstances. In the Western world I can again depend on other things, which is sad because so many distractions makes pursuing a relationship with Him that much more effort, but it’s worth it. I am being challenged. Continue to pray for perseverance in this “easy” lifestyle.
Picture Album:
Black Sea mud "heals" all kinds of ailments…I'm in!
Our beautiful host family! They are better than the Von Trap family!
Sweet Babushka (grandma) and grand daughter I made friends with on a 16 hour train ride!
I was blessed to go to a very good Ukranian friend's wedding while in Ukraine! We met three years ago when she came to America to work at the YMCA in Colorado. God is so cool in how He orchestrates things!
