Since I’ve been (back) in Ukraine…

Since I’ve been in Ukraine, I have…

• swam in a “pond” that has to be vacated when the cows come home…literally.


• Been woken up by the warning, “Jenny, wake up, you’re being puked on.”


• Walked 10 kilometers from the nearest town back to camp just for the adventure of it.


• Been reminded by metro tokens that I indeed have already been in Kiev before (yes, even if it was just over 48 hours).


• Decided that the flies in Ukraine are equivalent to bus 122 in Romania. Both present to teach Team Jubilee…something. I think we’ve accepted that patience was learned from bus 122. If we can make it through the month without a mental breakdown from the flies, we’ll figure out current lesson then.


• Run on sandy trails through forest that looks like a mixture of North Carolina and “the Twilight forest”, as one of the boys here termed it.


• Seen cars that look eerily identical to the one in “Everything Is Illuminated”.


• Had the desire to re-watch “Everything Is Illuminated”, re-figure out the current name of that local, and hear more about family history from there (hi mom).


• Shared “my story” all the way through to a group of, let’s admit it, total strangers who now happen to be family. And there wasn’t any pulling of teeth or breaking down of walls in the process. Although plenty of questions later.


• Stepped into mud up to mid-calf after a joking directive from a teammate to “stick your foot in there and find out how deep it is for us”. Yes, I did have running shoes on. Yes, we were in the middle of a park in the nearest town. And, yes, this was directly before the 10 kilometer hike back to camp.


• Played in a fountain in downtown Kiev.


• Filled up dozens of water balloons and been carried into a hose spraydown on a volleyball court (slightly reminiscent of training camp).


• Fallen asleep in a twin bed with Nastia, Sparky and bear-whose-name-I-do-not-know-but-it’s-probably-Russian.


• Realized that I should not have mocked the statement “world racers drink coffee”.


• Decided that my thoughts of the Ukrainian/Russian languages will always have a slight Dutch twist to them, since our first week here there was a Dutch team heading up ministry.


• Eaten meals prepared by moms from Texas and Oklahoma. YAY!!!!!


• a stronger desire to be totally immersed in whatever in the world God has for me than I ever remember.


• slept underneath a teammates bed


• read “The Supernatural Ways of Royalty” a second time.


• Spent an absolutely amazing day taking shifts with team members for 24 hours of prayer in cabin 5.


• Done more dishes than I have since catering jobs in eighth grade.


• Decided it’s absolutely normal to hang clothes to dry on a line. Who needs dryers? Ironing was thrown out post-nursing school, dryers are now gone. Glad washers are still a part of my life.


• Had seriously honest and open conversations about the Holy Spirit, gifts of the Spirit and all of that in real life.


• Been amazed at how God is at work, moving in Team Jubilee…but, seriously. (Blog to come on some of the lifestyle “norms” that are going on no matter what country we’re in…Nutella is one of those norms).


• Found out that our next ministry contact will be in Galway, Ireland. Our flight leaves Kiev on August 3^{rd and we’re meeting up with the rest of O squad early morning August 4th before traveling to our ministry site with 3 other teams. First time we’re going to be in the same country as the rest of the squad, first time we’ll be working with another team at ministry site (shout out, Cheetahs!!) and first time we’ll be camping (Teams Jubilee, Cheetahs, Umoja and Koinonea will be taking over a campground). Now as I say all of this, please note that we are fluid, not flexible (because flexible stuff can still break), and are maintaining that nothing is certain in this lifestyle. Yay for growing up with a spontaneous and crazy family!}

^{Internet connection limited, won’t be posting any pics til Ireland. And there will be lots of catch up blogs soon. Lots of love!!}