Wow, okay so I’ve really dropped the blogging ball this month- I feel bad and I’m very sorry! For those of you who dedicatedly keep up with my blog and nothing else, I figured I’d give a quick recap!
At the beginning of every month we all enter each country saying “I just KNOW God has awesome plans for us this month, I can’t wait! God’s gonna do something great!”, which is the truth. But this month I knew it would be different. We were entering a “warzone”, quite literally. It was no secret that the country we were entering was a dangerous one. The country was on our original route that I signed up for. Then it got removed. Then they put it back on. Then all this crazy stuff went down and rumors were flying, and were assumed, that we’d once again switch countries and go someplace else. Yet in the end despite it all, we ended up going. So for that fact alone I knew we were still in the Lord’s will to minister to these people, especially during this unstable, critical time.
Ukraine was awesome. I just don’t even know what to say. We lived in the city of Rivne, which was a very nice town, right next to the center. So everything we needed was right there. Everyone’s name is Tania (we literally had about 5 close friends named Tania). The culture of the people is all about community and sharing. Something that opposes American culture where, as a whole, we like to be more independent and selfish. Teatime and cookies are the norm.
Everyone was very excited to have us come because during this unrest for them, many people have ended up leaving the country. But for us, we still came. And they were just so thankful.
We spent the first half of the month in a daily, focused routine of meetings and planning for our English Camp, which was held the last week of the month. We would Skype in with our American contact, Tania, with our Ukrainian Tania in the room. We’d discuss plans, ideas, prayer focus, and overall how to organize and advertise for camp. After that, the team and I would spend a few hours planning and prepping for our Bible/English lessons.
The week before camp we handed our fliers and advertised all around town.
The next week (camp) we had around 75 people show us. Students (all adults) were organized by English comprehension level from Beginner to Advanced (5 different classes). I taught the Advanced class so all of my students could read, speak, and understand English fluently with minor grammatical or pronunciation errors. We had a blast together. Each night of “camp” I would lead everyone in a new song I’d teach. We’d have one person give an introduction to the night and share their testimony. Then we’d split up into classes for an hour before we’d convene back together for some final words.
I absolutely LOVED my class. I got to teach them English and about Jesus through stories of the Bible. We had really great conversations together, discussing the scriptures, applying it to our lives, and just talking real talk and asking/answering questions.
After our weeklong camp we had a weekend getaway at a retreat center. About 30 minutes outside of town we spent the weekend with some of our students having English class, talking more personally about our personal lives and The World Race, playing games, and just having fun! I LOVE people and building relationships, so this was perfect. We closed out each of our 2 nights there with a bonfire, in which the last night we showed them how to cook hotdogs and s’mores- ‘MERICA!
My biggest takeaway from this month will be the people, for sure. With our “Ukrainian team” and just having a blast with them and hearing their story and getting to worship and serve alongside them. And with the new people we met through the camps who were super interested in our story AND the good news of Jesus (which they don’t particularly learn in the Orthodox church)!!
I will miss everyone for sure. We were so blessed by our time there. As we close out this month and say goodbye, I can say with absolute certainty that God really did have us here for such a special reason and no opposing powers could stop us!! Praise be to God and His good plan!!
And now, perhaps you have gotten to the end of this long and uneventful “recap” blog and would rather see a visual. (Side note: my team changed at the beginning of this month and we switched out 2 members and gained 2 new ones: Will Boggs and Vallory Moss! Vallory is also a very talented monthly video maker 🙂 ) So here is Vallory’s Ukraine recap! Be warned, we can be weird 😛
Goodbye Europe. Africa, I’ll see you Sunday!
