Back in the U.S.S.R.

 I realized I never actually wrote a blog about my time in Ukraine, and figured I should probably explain what we did for the month of November.  I had been to Ukraine before back in the summer of 2007, and quite honestly was not all that excited about going back.  I think I was really just anxious to go home, so I wasn’t really thinking that our last month was going to be that great. Well, I ended up being very pleasantly surprised, because I actually really enjoyed the last month. It ended up being a very short ministry month, because we had to leave for Kiev for final debrief on the 14th.  We spent a couple of weeks in a small town called Saki located on the Crimean peninsula.  Our team stayed in a church and spent a lot of our time with an incredible family who was very musically gifted. Every night we had English club, where we would teach them English, and they would return the favor by serenading us, harmonies and all.  It was awesome!  We became quite close with this family and there were even a few tears shed when it came time to say goodbye.  Other things we did in Ukraine included cleaning up an elderly widow’s yard, preaching and singing at church, making a couple of house visits to pray with people, cleaning out closets and storage rooms in the church, and making our final team video.  We even got to take a day-trip to the beautiful Yalta which is right on the Black Sea.  Overall, it was an excellent way to end our World Race.  I think our whole team ended up really enjoying the month. There was a lot of fun and laughter that went on, which made it a very pleasant experience.  Here are a few pictures from our time in Saki!