I suppose I wanted to write a much more lighthearted blog. Something
that will update you more on what the heck it is that I am doing on
this Race, instead of the constant internal struggles that I have
been experiencing.
This month (actually only this week, but I’ll get to that later) my
team and I are in Odessa, Ukraine. It’s a beautiful little city
choc-full of history. As I said in my previous blog, I have never
been to Europe, so I’m not used to seeing such magnificent
architecture and walking down streets that are just lined with
history.
We went to a Orthodox Monastery yesterday and the walls were covered
with mosaics that looked like they came straight out of my art
history books.
While we’re in Odessa we have partnered up with a church plant of a
missions program called “International Messengers” (ironic name)
and we are helping out with their English classes. We spend our
mornings passing out fliers and our evenings hanging out with
Ukrainians teaching them English and if possible, sharing about our
relationship with Jesus.
It’s kind of funny being back in a culture where it’s not okay to
just start sharing about Christianity. I’ve spend about five months
doing door-to-door evangelism everyday, and now I’m back to doing
relational evangelism. It’s an interesting switch and another
culture shock that I am glad I am encountering now instead of when I
get home.
We, however, are only here for a couple more days and we will be
traveling back into a village. I’m not entirely sure what that
entails or what European villages look like, but I’ll keep you
updated.
This month we are actually moving around quite a lot. I believe we
go in and out of villages three times (that number may be off a
little), coming back to Odessa in between our stays.
It’s never easy when we have to move around that much during our
months. It’s pretty hard to get settled when you’re one place for
the entire month, but this month the opportunity to get settled will
not even arrive.
Regardless our stay in Odessa has so far been incredible. The church
that we’re working with is full of Americans and everyone has been so
welcoming. In fact, yesterday one couple from the church had us over
for lunch and then another church member had us over for dinner. If
there is one thing that World Racers LOVE-it’s home cooked meals,
so, you can imagine, we were in heaven.
So yes, this is my life right now. Living in a rustic hostel in
Odessa…just two minutes from the Black Sea. : )
I think I forgot to mention that…we live on the beach this week.
It’s lovely.
I’ll be sure to write more from the villages.
Until then–
