A "Praise the Lord" Experience!

This Friday night I definitely had a “Praise the Lord” kind of experience. Usually when it is late, and I am coming home from somewhere I call a taxi. Well on Friday night I had quite the taxi experience. Usually taxi drivers aren’t normally super conversant, but this night the driver was. He, detecting my “exotic” accent, asked where I was from. I replied that I was from America, at first he didn’t believe me, for I was only the second American that he had met in his entire life. Of course he asked me what I was doing here, and my answer is always “I am teaching English at a church.” This night that response opened the door wide open for a spiritual conversation. He then proceeded to ask me if I were a Believer, which I replied that I was. Because he was unusually pleasant I asked him if he was also a Believer, to which he replied yes, in the sense that he believed that there is a God and a devil, but to one specific school of thought he was not allied with. Come to find out later in our conversation that earlier in the week he had driven another young woman who was also a Christian and with whom he had also had a spiritual conversation. He recognized the significance of this immediately and vowed he would never forget that day. Our conversation continued long after we arrived at my house, and included the topic of sin, and whether he believed in Jesus. I could not believe it! The entire experience was a complete miracle! How God had set up our meeting, and how He has loosened my tongue and allowed me to communicate freely with this man on this subject. Following the experience I was needless to say wired and completely OVERJOYED! PRAISE THE LORD!

Amusing Cultural Happenings

During our time in Kyiv, I did become the cheap source of entertainment for the boys. At first they taught me a useful greeting «Здaров брoдяги! Как житуха?», which is translated is essentially “Hey dudes, what’s up?” Next they thought they would teach me “Ukrainian.”
“Sarafan,” which I have now been dubbed, “we are in Kyiv now, you need to learn Ukrainian.” And of course they proceeded to introduce to me new “Ukrainian” words. Needless to say, I was hesitant to believe their legitimacy, and as it turns out they were in fact bad words. I felt like that poor fiancé on “My Big Fat Greek Wedding”!

The second quite hilarious cultural happening also occurred while we were in Kyiv. Often times people joke about saying things wrong in a different language and accidentally offending someone. Well before a couple of weeks ago I thought that was more of a joke than reality. One night while walking with our group in Kyiv I was talking with some of the boys about sports, and eventually started talking about ping-pong. To further enhance the conversation and to illustrate a point I began to act out playing ping-pong, which also included sound effects. Anyway, I guess one of the “sound effects” that I used was actually a profanity, and quite a bad one at that! I didn’t know! I was just trying to talk about ping-pong!

Political Turmoil

For those of you who may not be aware, this has also been the month for political crisis in Ukraine. Earlier this month, President Viktor Yushenko, the hero of the 2004 Orange Revolution, disbanded parliament in an attempt to hold on to power. His rival Viktor Yanukovich had been alledgedly illegally recruiting members of Yushenko’s party to switch to his own party, which had shifted the balance of parliament and essentially robbed the President of any political power. In order to make a move at asserting his Presidential power, Yushenko disbanded Rada, the parliamentary body, and called for new elections. The case of course was appealed by Yanukovich and taken to the country’s highest court. Recently the courts came to their decision that the disbandment was constitutional and that elections could take place on June 27th. Given my major in international relations and minor in international politics, this is a very interesting time for me to be in Ukraine!

Пасха (Easter)

It was quite refreshing to see how Easter is celebrated amongst the people of Ukraine. Both Believers and non-Believers alike celebrate, and like the other major holidays, it is a day to spend with family and, of course, eat. What made this Easter special was the time following church. I was invited to my friend’s home to have lunch with them after church, and together we all went to the center of town where the evangelical community in Berdyansk had put together a parade and concert for the afternoon. The venue of the concert was the main square in the city by the sea, which is also home to the city’s statue of Lenin.
It was amazing to contrast this crowd of Believers gathered in a time of worship with the statue of Lenin in the background, a wonderful indication of how times have changed in Ukraine.

* Sign reads "Jesus is the Savior of Ukraine"

Youth Conference

At the end of March I also had the opportunity to accompany the youth group to a conference in Donetsk, one of the larger cities in Ukraine about a three-hour bus ride from Berdyansk. Every year the church takes a group, this year the group consisted of thirty-two teens and adult leaders. The theme of the conference this year was missions, and it was quite surprising as well as refreshing to hear the youth of Ukraine being challenged with the call of world missions!

Весной Отпуск

The spring holiday to Kyiv was a much needed break. It gave me the chance to get better acquainted with some of my friends at the church as well as an opportunity to live completely with Ukrainians and experience village life first hand. Several boys from the youth center also decided to accompany us on this adventure. They were surprisingly well behaved and the trip also gave me an opportunity to get better acquainted with them, as they took to teaching me Russian slang.

The sights in the city are breathtaking and filled with such amazing history. I am always amazed when I see such beautiful architecture and culture, because nothing that we have in the United States really comes close to the splendor of the old world. One of the sights we went to was the Pecherska Lavra, home to one of Kyiv’s ornate churches as well as a monastery that is still operational today. While there, looking upon the ornate architecture, I was reminded of the description of the throne room of Heaven in Revelations chapter 4:

“Immediately I was in the Spirit; and behold, a throne set in heaven, and One sat on the throne. And He who sat there was like a jasper and sardius stone in appearance; and there was a rainbow all around the throne, in appearance like an emerald. Around the throne were twenty-four thrones, and on the thrones I saw twenty-four elders sitting clothed in white robes; and they had crowns of gold on their heads. And from the throne proceeded lightenings, thunderings, and voices. Seven lamps of fire were burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God. Before the throne there was a sea of glass, like crystal. And in the midst of the throne, and around the throne, were four living creatures full of eyes in front and in back…and they did not rest day or night, saying: ‘Holy, holy, holy Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!’”

Київ!!!

This past week I had the opportunity to travel to Kyiv with some good friends from the youth center, and boy was it a blast!!!


Kyiv is such a beautiful city. This is St. Andrew's, and it actually looks like the postcards! It was so breathtaking!


My girls in Independence Square at the heart of Kyiv.


This is the Pecherska Lavra, a famous monastery in Kyiv which still operates today, also amazing and breathtaking. Here you can go down into catacombs and see the tombs of early monks. It was amazing to me to see these priests, men and women of God who were completely committed to His service, to the death.


And of course we had to stop at McDonalds.