It’s been a long three days…and we are still yet to be settled. After 50 hours of various modes of travel, we have arrived in Kiev, Ukraine. We stayed at a Retreat Center out of town for a few days, but are now living in an apartment on Friday with BLING, the other all girls team!
The Squad – minus the Squad leaders – left Brasov, Romania Monday afternoon and travelled 10 hours by bus across the Romanian/Moldovian Border (God blessed us crossing this border, as we heard it could take hours…it didn’t take long at all, and we didn’t even need to have our bags searched) to 
Chisinau, Moldova…arriving Tuesday morning at 2:30am – tired, hungry, exhausted and yet ready to get going! We were at a stand still. What we thought was to happen upon our arrival – teams beginning to depart at 6:20am, was no longer the plan…so, after many phone calls, laughter and prayers, we camped out on the bus until the morning when we could unload and make our way into the Train station to wait yet another 10 hours for our train to take us to the Ukraine!
Being with the entire Squad for the past month was amazing…so having to bit farewell to 4 teams was not fun, nor easy…especially since some of them left in a rush! The noise dwindled and reality set in…we are not all going to be together forever…but we have to be okay, content and satisfied knowing that God knows best and to continue to choose in to what
God has in store for us – no matter where we are going or who we will be with!
We were ecstatic when we found out we had a few hours to explore the city and get “real food” rather than just snack food, before needing to board the 8pm train! Jerkins, Chaps and I headed out…camera in hand and on a mission. Capture the city and eat McDonald’s! We had no idea where McDonald’s was, but knew that that one word was the same in every language, and was quickly pointed in the right direction. It’s amazing how far you’ll walk for food…even McDonald’s! Signs were there to guide us as we walked throughout the city. People were everywhere. Sidewalks were also used for vehicles to park. The city felt more Americanized than I would have imagined…from the stores, to the places to eat! It was a busy place, with protests, street vendors and bustling energy!
We were so excited when we reached McDonald’s! As we sat eating our food and being able to quickly get online one last time, we noticed a man in a Jesus Saves shirt! Curious, Chaps went over to talk to him. Kim and I continued to eat and all of a sudden heard a few people talking English. Usually, we wouldn’t think anything of it, but this time, we were curious. It wasn’t broken English – meaning, it wasn’t a second language they were speaking! I got up and approached this group of people, to find out they are American, from Georgia and have been in Moldova the last few weeks on a missions trip! Kim came and joined the conversation as we stood in the middle of McDonald’s talking about God and what he has called us to do – telling them about the World Race. It was such a blessing and a divine appointment
. We were tired from our trip and needed the encouragement, and they were leaving the following morning to fly back to the states! What a blessing it was to meet these amazing men and women of God and to even be able to pray with them!
Being filled with food, being blessed by God and excited about our adventure through an unknown city, we headed back to get ready for the train ride, and made it back before the rain came! It was a glorious sound…and we sat and listened to it hitting the tin roof! We had no idea what train to board, but were thankful for our tickets to show the destination. We eventually got pointed in the right direction and boarded our first train experience of the race (and for some, it was their first EVER train ride).
What a crowded and cramped place. It was dark. We lugged our luggage down the narrow corridor trying to find our beds, which became a guessing game. It was sketchy. We weren’t all together, but spread out between three different cars…22 women and 4 men! We tried to hide our frustration as the Europeans watched in disbelief “Americans” take over the caboose! I
was thankful for being able to change beds with other Squad mates, otherwise I would have been in a “room” with 5 men…yikes!
Let’s just say, it didn’t take long to pass out! I don’t remember what time it was or how long we had been heading down the tracks, but I knew I couldn’t keep my eyes open anymore, and there also was no place to sit once we got our beds set up, as it’s a sleeper cart! We were woken up abruptly at least three times to fill out border forms and get our passports stamped– some people 4, as they had to switch beds since they accidently took someone else’s! We were all so exhausted that it didn’t take us much effort to fall asleep again!
Wednesday morning came and were wondered how we would know when we were in Kiev. The trains final destination was Moskba (Moscow, Russia) and we had many passengers on the train trying to convince us to just continue on and go to Russia! Once again, we were reminded of trying to communicate without speaking their language…but within minutes, had the guys pointing at food, cards and objects for us to join them! It was sure an adventure and entertaining ride…for the few short hours we were awake!
We did manage to know when to get off the train – in Kiev, although we still had no idea where we would be going or what we would be doing! We just knew we needed to meet our contact at the train station – which was huge! Blair was handed a note as we departed the train for further directions! We laughed and worked together to carry all our bags to meet our contact. Waiting outside in the freezing cold, we ran into some YWAM’ers, which was another huge encouragement! They gave us a little insight into Ukraine, as well as met a girl who we will be working with as a translator! God is good!
This was not the end of our journey…after waiting a few hours at the train station, we once again carried our packs through the metro system – two subways, a bus, and a lot of walking! Finally, a few days and many hours later, we arrived at a place to rest and recoup for a few days! We are out of the city. We are tired. We are dirty – as once again it’s been a few days of wearing the same clothes and not being able to shower. We also realized that we carried our packs more in one day than we had the entire race.
