Welcome to feministry. This is the lesser talked about month for the ladies only. While the men are off doing "manistry", whatever that even means, we will be digging deep into the kinds of things that no man wants to hear about much less know about.
This month I am serving with the women of Holy Fire (Angela, Abby, and Erin) as well as the ladies from Dry Bones (Ashli, Amy, Lauren, AP, and Erin Smith). You can call us Holy Bones this month if you like.
I can confidently say that I think this is going to be my favorite month. We have the best of all worlds. We have a quaint (i.e. very cramped) apartment in the biggest city of Ukraine, Kiev. This means we have a full kitchen and I live with 3 amazing cooks. Thanks to Ashli, Abby, and Erin Shepherd we will be eating well all month with lots of vegetables and protein for once. Not only do we live like queens by race standards this month but our “ministry” is speaking english with college students. It’s almost like Jesus hand picked this month for me.
This is my third day in the city and I’ve met about 75 students and made about 10 friends. These girls are planning on showing us around the city on Saturday after we have a Ukrainian party Friday night. I spend my days at the different universities in the city and hang out.
Ukraine is similar to the US in that a lot of these students were brought up knowing about church but have rarely made a personal commitment to living according to Jesus. AS we build relationships with them we have opportunities to share about our travels and why we have decided to live out of a backpack for a year. What an amazing doorway to share about Jesus.
Some interesting cultural differences I’ve noticed in the few days that I’ve been here are that women are beautiful. The women dress up everyday no matter what and wear ridiculously high heels. Personally I think those shoes are a safety hazard while all this snow is melting. Maybe that is because I haven’t even had a heel on my shoes for 8 months though. The crowds also a fairly quiet. Our group draws attention because we speak louder or laugh more than the Ukrainians.
The city has a lot of hills which will hopefully tighten and firm those areas that have grown softer since being on the race. A girl can dream right? But really we do walk much more here than I have on any of the previous months, including Africa.
As we begin this month Holy Bones would love your prayers. Pray that God goes before us and prepares hearts and minds to receive Jesus. Pray for smooth, God lead conversations with these students. I would love to know which student God has been really working in so that I can focus my attention to really invest in them.
One more thing. My teammate Erin Shepherd is still about $2,000 away from being fully funded. I remember how stressful and worried I was before being fully funded so if you can help you in any way she would be so so so grateful. Even gifts of $10 add up quickly so any amount you can give matters. If you can help click her link above and then click on the support me link to the left of her blog. You all know where that is by now right?
