Hello friends and family! Greetings from the Ukraine. I am now in Europe, the third and final continent of our trip. It’s Hard to believe we are here, so often talking about Europe seemed so far in the distance and now we are nearly done with our first month of work here and heading on to Romania soon( with a 5 day stop in Budapest with whole squad in between)It really is going to be hard to say good bye to this place.
I have absolutely loved my time here in the Ukraine. It felt like home right away with the weather being colder then other places I have been and the overall terrain and culture is more similar to America. This month we have been running an English school for free at a Church. We are staying in a mid size city called Ternopil. The month started off with us passing out flyers to get people to go to school and then have now been teaching 8 hours a day.
The turn out has been incredible. Sometimes we can’t fit all the students in our classes. Many people are eager to learn English. I was very surprised at how strong the language barrier is here. Just about everywhere else we have been has had a lot of people who are able to speak some English(or a lot) as a second language and have English signs and words in public everywhere.
But there isn’t even English words anywhere. In order to order a cup of coffee we sometimes take out our phones and use google translate, which by the way has a feature where you hold your camera up to a word and have it translate it into the word in your language before your very eyes, almost like something from a Harry Potter film.
All the people have been so welcoming and eager to have us around, whether it’s the Church family, students, or whoever. It has also been a great way to share our faith with people and invite them to Church or get connected with the Church family. People of all ages and walks of life have been attending this school.
We did not expect to be teaching this much, and don’t really have a lesson plan. Honestly I have looked up on google ” how to teach English as a second language” on my phone at times 30 mins before class for ideas and rolled with it. But it has gone super well(I’ve even learned a few things myself ha) and the most important aspect of the school has been the conversations with people between classes about all sorts of things.
I have learned about myself on this trip that I love talking to people. People from all walks of life, and get to know them. Talk about our wants, needs, struggles, sports, movies, faith, food, whatever.
As many places as I have been over the last 8 months and all the different people, cultures etc we have come across, people are still pretty similar. Yes there are a ton of differences between Europe and Africa and Africa and Asia. But at the core people are people. We want to be loved, have friends, purpose, do things we enjoy…
Yet all around the globe unfortunately they’re many things that burden us and rob us of that. Perhaps most of all from putting our hope in something that isn’t Christ.
A verse I have been thinking about a lot lately is Ephesians 2:14 “For he himself is our peace” Regardless of all the unpredictability in life, Gods word is telling us that our peace is found in Christ. Easier said then done but I encourage all of us to pray about that and take another step further into discovering what that really means.
