Hot...But Ice Cream!

So, today was super fun!

I woke up and went on an adventure to find a Nazarene church that my friend Vitalik in Ukraine told me about.  The Google Map directions lied.

After a few buses, metro rides, and input from +5 kindly people on the street, I found it!  And it was fantastic.  I was welcomed by the pastor, who I had messaged yesterday, and he introduced me to his English speaking friend, Alexandrina, who then translated for me when I was confused.

There were only about 20 people there.  They sang American 90s worship songs in Russian, so I knew the songs.  And then there was a short sermon and communion and community prayer.  It was just wonderful.  They invited me back again.  I said yes and regretted that I couldn't stay for tea.

I took the metro and met my friends on Nevsky Prospekt.

There we met Maria.  (Yes, everyone here is named Maria/Marina).  She's going to be our guide to all things St. Petersburg.  And thank goodness, because she is so nice and knows everything.  She took us for a very long walk down Nevsky Prospekt (the main street in Peter', if you didn't know) and then to the Peter and Paul Fortress.

It was beautiful there.

Because it was so warm today, many people were out sunbathing.  Naida and I just got ice cream and sat and talked for a bit.  It was nice.

Later, I talked to Marina, my host mom, about my day.  When I tried to explain the church that I went to, she got very worried.  I was quite confused and frustrated because what I could understand was that she thought any church that wasn't a state ordained Russian Orthodox or Catholic church wasn't a good church.  She told me that the church I visited wasn't a church at all, but a sect.  It wasn't until her daughter Maria came home that it was explained to me.

Apparently there were sects that were bringing people in off the streets to a sort of house-church and then hypnotizing them.  Thus, house-churches have been banned in Russia.  Marina and Maria were worried that I'd get hypnotized.  It's kind of funny, but I'm glad they cared.  I reassured them that I have many friends in Ukraine who know this pastor and have been to this church, that they didn't just pull me in off the street, and that it was a legal church.  They were relieved.

Excellent.  Now, perhaps, they won't think I'm a completely incompetent, naïve, and easily-persuaded young traveller, which seems to be the opinion they had after todays excursions.

Whistling

Russians think that if you whistle indoors you will always be poor.  Nobody's here right now, so I'm whistling.  I wasn't planning on being exceedingly rich anyway.

St. Petersburg!

We took a day train from Moscow to Saint Petersburg.  The countryside was stunning.  I want to live there (at least for maybe 73 days).  There were hills and valleys and meadows and lakes and little cottages and so many trees!

The lilacs are blooming in St. Petersburg.  The streets are full of people.  The buildings are antique and every one of them gorgeous.  The people are gorgeous, too.  The women in their dresses and the guys look pretty normal and well dressed, too.  Normal as in not every one of them has a mullet.  Cool.

Anyway,  I was kind of squealing a lot on the van ride to my host family.  Jess hugged me, empathizing with my uncontrollable enthusiasm.  Oh my goodness.  I'm living my dream!  This is so fantastic.

My host family is a mother and daughter: Marina and Maria.  Maria, the daughter, speaks English, and they currently have another lady living with them who is from Mexico and speaks excellent English, Russian, Italian, and Spanish of course.  Marina and Maria went to bed, but she made tea for me, and we sat in the kitchen and got to know each other.  Wow.  This is going to be so cool.

Mrs. Marina will make me breakfast at 8 am, and then I will explore the area until I meet up with the rest of our group at the nearby Metro station.

Tomorrow is exploration day, so there are bound to be pictures!  

Historical Moscow

May 22/23, 2013

Each weekday we have classes, and in the afternoon we go on excursions.  Yesterday, we went to Red Square and saw the sites to see there: St. Basil’s Cathedral, ГУМ (GUM), and the Kremlin.  Today we went back to Red Square and toured the Historical Museum.  Later, we went to the circus, which was absolutely delightful.

 GUM, the "state department store" is an absolutely gorgeous shopping mall commissioned by Catherine the Great.

 St. Basil's Cathedral was built during the reign of Ivan the Terrible, who had just defeated the Kazakhs and had this cathedral built in celebration.  It's absolutely beautiful.  It seems that Ivan agreed, because he had the architect blinded so that he would never make anything so beautiful anywhere else.  Nice.

Unfortunately none of my pictures from the circus turned out well, but nothing compares to the sight to which we came "home."  The fog settled so beautifully, and the building is lit so magnificently.   

Good night from Moscow!

My first Russian meal

Potato fries with meatballs, bread and tea.  The meatballs were super salty and garlic-y but delicious.  This costed around 110 rubles or about $3.50.  

In the city

May 20/21, 2013

New York City

So, with the curiosities of travelling, only half of May 20^th occurred for me.  David, Stepan, and I saw a smidgeon of New York.  We went to the Cake Boss Café and had coffee and cupcakes.  

After much effort, we got to JFK.  The bus there was kind of messy: we had to transfer to different buses and the drivers were grumpy about it.  But I did enjoy seeing things.  It made me excited for city life.  We met up with Найда at JFK and she, Stepan, and I played a few games of Hearts whilst bantering in the crude manner of college students before boarding our plane, which took off around 2:00 pm.   

The flight wasn’t too bad.  I slept a little bit, but ended up watching two films: Alfred Hitchcock’s “North by Northwest,” and “Hitchcock,” a film about Alfred Hitchcock.  It was divine.  I actually nearly cried watching “Hitchcock”.  Anthony Hopkins acted the part phenomenally, as did the lady who played Alma Hitchcock. Hopkins, especially, became his character.  The screenwriting was witty and captured the spirit of this beloved film director quite well. It was a moving film.

When we got off of the plane, it was 7:45 am in Moscow, which means we just skipped night time all together.   We had to wait quite a long time before we could leave by bus because we had to wait for the arrival of Shane and Dr. Pogacar.  Now we just need David and Jess to arrive, and we shall be a happy party. 

It took probably over an hour to get from the airport to the university.  It was an incredible little bus trip, though.  Moscow is so vast and varies so widely.  Some areas seem old, dilapidated and polluted.   Others seem new, enormous and futuristic.  

Here at the university, everything is just old.  I feel as if I jumped back a century here.  There are huge ballrooms with columns and paintings and statues of soviet leaders.  There are kiosks in the corners and in the halls.  The elevators are spooky and precarious-seeming, but I enjoy every bit of it. 

My room is a sanctuary.  The floor is made of raw wood laid out in chevron style.  There is a window with a straight dandelion-colored curtain and a sill big enough to sit in and watch the outside world romantically. I have little shkoffs (bookshelves/closets) and an old TV that plays cable stations.  It makes fun background noise.  There are two wooden chairs, a desk, and a lamp that inspires me to write 50s crime novels.  Everything is perfect.  For a bed, I have a sort of foam couch.  If I’d let myself, I’d probably sleep for hours, but I have to battle Jet Lag, and giving in to slumber and the forgotten night will not help.

So, here I sit with my sparkling mineral water ready for the group to come together.  I have some things I need: toiletries, really.  The toilet room (outside of my room and my currently non-existent neighbors’ room) did not come with toilet paper, so the luxury of using the bathroom is postponed until paper stuffs can be located, which is easier said than done.

Moscow State University is a wonder of the Communist era, and, in all its glory, this campus is extraordinarily intimidating to me right now.  I don’t understand how it works.  This dorm that I am in is super complicated.  It has 21 floors and myriad hallways and staircases that go around in mazes.  I haven’t even a clue how to find other buildings and stores.  There are swarms of people everywhere, too.  They all speak Russian.  I feel terribly inadequate in that regard.

I can’t say that I am scared.  I am intrigued and I am at peace, but I am in my room.  Some guys laughed at me earlier because I did not understand what they said.  The one guy said to the other, “She’s one that has terrible Russian.”  I confirmed his statement, in Russian, but they shook their heads and laughed.  After successfully purchasing water with 80 rubles, separated from my friends, I got lost in the elevators.  Yes, here even the elevators are fit for a labyrinth.  There are eight elevators on this sector of the building: two sets of four.  I did not realize that one set operates for floors 0-9 and the other for the floors to the 2 and 10-21.  After riding the latter elevators in a disoriented search for the elusive 7^th floor, I realized that I simply had the wrong group of elevators.  I was given funny looks, but it doesn’t matter.  I’ll be unknown here.  We leave in nine days.

On the bus...

May 19, 2013

            We stopped in Pittsburgh for two hours and decided to explore a little.  It was a delightful stretch of the legs.  We walked down Penn Ave., and saw a bunch of cool stores: places I would love to visit on a weekday that they’re open.  Maybe someday I can bike around all of these beautiful cities and take in the sites.  Mmmm.  Delicious culture.

            We ate at a seafood place.  It wasn’t very impressive at all, but the atmosphere was fantastic, and I enjoyed the time passed there anyway.  I delight in a good city street with weather beaten signs and unknown people.  The amount of potential discovery is mouth watering.  Oh, I am ecstatic!

            Pittsburgh was a sufficient mini-adventure.  Tomorrow morning (a few hours away) I get to finally see the beautiful cities of Philadelphia and New York, granted, it will just be a glimpse.  But it’s fine.  I’ll be in Moscow soon.  A whole new world will open up, and I will jump in. 

            These are dreams coming true.  I could cry.

Pittsburgh, PA

Off Adventuring...

Tomorrow marks the start of a new adventure!  I won't promise thorough nor frequent accounts on this blog, but there will be videos! (I'll post links later.)

Here's the general itinerary:

May 19: Join my friends on a bus in Columbus to NYC
May 20: Fly to Moscow, stay in dorms at Moscow State University
June 1-29: Train to St. Petersburg, stay in host homes and study at St. Petersburg University
July 1: Leave my group and fly to Kyiv, Ukraine.
July 2-17: Unplanned excursions throughout Ukraine. (Visiting of friends in Vinnitsa and Uzhgorod for sure.)
July 18: Return to my normal, casual, English-speaking lifestyle.

My fellow adventurers are Renée (Найда), Stephan (Степан), David, Shane,  Jess, and our BGSU Russian professor, Dr. Pogacar.

Good golly, I'm excited.

Christianity and Marriage Equality?

[My opinions on this have changed drastically since I wrote this.  Perhaps look at my entry "Pure of Heart" to get an idea of how I view sexuality in general.  I do not really feel like taking the time to outline every single argument here.  Maybe someday I will.]

So, marriage equality is the topic of the week.  Here are my thoughts in two premises.  Pardon the length and inevitable grammatical mistakes.

My first premise is this: I consider myself a Christian, and therefore strive to follow a “Christ-like” way of life.  It is obvious to me from studying the Bible that God desires his followers, if “they cannot control themselves,” to have sex only between two people after they are married.  (1 Corinthians 7:1-15)  I can’t tell you that it is “immoral” to have sex with someone of the same gender, or even, for that matter, to have sex before marriage.  I simply know that, as a Christian, if I am to have sex, it is to be between a man and me only after we have been married.

This does not mean that I don’t want sex before marriage, because—let’s be honest—of course I want to have sex.  Is God going to condemn me for wanting to have sex?  No, because I am human, and it is natural.  That’s just how we are.   

However, God expects his followers to take control of their bodies: to not submit to “the flesh.”  So, because of my love for God, I will strive to be sexually pure and not give in to lust whether that means abstaining from premarital sex, homosexuality or even masturbation. 

Another way of putting it is this: if God would require Christians to not eat bacon, I would not eat bacon.  Of course I would have an incredibly hard time with this because I love bacon.  Am I a sinner because I love bacon?  No.  And am I damned because sometimes I mess up and have some bacon?  No.  Jesus preaches forgiveness and urges us to strive to perfection.  That doesn’t mean that we’ll instantly be perfect and without struggle.  It means that we have forgiveness as we strive to follow his example.

And then, if you aren’t one who strives to be like Christ, I don’t really see any reason why you should follow these rules, and I apologize for those who have told you otherwise.

My second premise is this: I am, in this political matter, of a libertarian stance.  That is, politically, I think that people should be allowed to make their own decisions as long as they are not harming another person—that is not violating another person’s right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

Also, this nation was founded on the ideas of separation of church and state and freedom of religion.  Of course, the meaning of these can be debated and the “original intent of the Constitution” will be argued, and I don’t mean that I want to keep Christian principles out of the government (I mean, not stealing and killing are primary examples/basic moral laws that should be followed), but when it comes to mandating religious laws in a nation that is living on the principle of freedom of religion, I have serious reservations. 

Putting these two premises together, I must then ask:  As a nation who claims to have a freedom of religion, and if not everyone in this nation aims to live a Christian lifestyle, then what right do we have to say that certain people may not live out their selected path to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness?

For those who ask, what about churches?  What if a church doesn’t want to marry a homosexual couple?  Here is where I will agree.  I feel like the government should not have restrictions on heterosexual or homosexual marriage, however, churches should have the right to permit the services in their buildings and with their pastors or not. 

So, back to the bacon analogy: the government can’t just outlaw bacon because a religion says that it is immoral (or will bring on great trials/tribulations/curse of the nation/fire/brimstone/anti-Christ—you name it)—especially if it claims to have freedom of religion and separation of church and state. 

So, there is my political stance as of my current level of understanding of theology, philosophy, and politically theory.  If I’m wrong or my premises are faulty, educate me.  Give me solid reasons. 

Change of Heart

At Crucial on Thursday, the talk was about sharing the Gospel.  I was pretty negative, as usual, because I despise typical means of evangelism because they seem so forced.  But, there were things that I really learned from the conversation.

I realized that if I ever have a "spiritual conversation" with someone who isn't a Christian I get really proud about it.  But yesterday, Nick reminded us that it's not us that changes a person's heart.

Dang.

Let's.

You and me.  Let's go climb a mountain.  Let's go play in a freezing cold stream with mossy rocks on the bottom on a hot summer's day.  Let's explore a city with artists and lovers and sky scrapers and geese.  Let's find an old village in a distant country and commune with the people.  Let's walk through tall grass.  Let's feel the air and hear the ocean's voice. Let's go!

Breath

I wish the air were always so breathable as it is tonight.

This was a day of peace.  I let my heart scream a little bit in the chapel today.  Worship has a soothing effect on the soul.

Mmmm.

My soul resonates with this song:

My heart keeps breaking.  For some reason, it takes me back to Uzhgorod in the Transcarpathian Mountains, where I saw broken children.

He had bruises from the fists of his angry and drunk teachers.

She was tossed into the snow by the older children because she was "retarded and didn't know what it meant anyway."

He had wet pants that froze in the cold because he wasn't potty trained at eight years old and he only had one pair of pants that kept falling down anyway because they were too big.

She held my arm and would not let go.

He smiled and sat on my lap.

She pleaded for love with her eyes.

And it was cold.

And I could hold their hands for a moment.

And my soul cries.

Weeping.

Loving People

I try to define myself as a lover of people.

I'm always learning and constantly tested.  I really despise some people.  It's totally the Holy Spirit working through me if I am able to deal with stupid people.  Thanks, God.  You're awesome.  Also, I'm a stupid people, too.  God, thanks for working through other people so that I have friends and partners in this crazy love adventure called life.  Love.

I'm learning this: if you want to be a good friend, don't say "I'll pray for you."  Gosh darn it.  Just pray for them right there.  If you're too busy to pray for someone, then you just lied because you probably won't pray for them anyway, you prideful liar.  (Judging you. Sorry.  Here, let me be honest.)  I suck at remembering to pray for people.  If I say I'll pray for you, I won't because I'm a jerk and have a heart filled with pride and I like the idea of people thinking I'm pious by telling them that I'll pray because it makes me look good, but I don't have to act on it, because--really?--who's going to find out?  So.

I'm going to start to just pray for people when they need it and when God tells me to.

Pride.  GAH.  I HATE IT.  Pride tastes like shit, and it fills hearts, and it is so nasty.  God, take away pride.

Okay.
Love.

The Bitterness Bug

The bitterness bug has bitten BG.

No joke.  So many people are bitter.  Let's pray away the spirit of bitterness and "judgmentalness," and ask for a spirit of love, forgiveness and understanding.

I cried in church today.  There was communion and the dude reminded us that we shouldn't take communion if you have something wrong in your heart, like against God or your brother, you know what I'm saying?  Yeah.

I did.  I was bitter.  I was proud.  I was bitter toward the dear brother beside me, so I wrote a note.

"I have been proud and living in a spirit of bitterness towards you.  Will you forgive me?"

Heartbreaking. 

Also, fruits of the Spirit, man.  Is your life bearing that holy, righteous fruit?  Mine isn't.  My wrinkly fruits are gross and moldy: bitterness--pride.  The "I'm better than you" fruit.  Fruit is to be delicious.  That stuff is just nasty.

God, renew me!  Bring a change in my heart.  Help me live Your love.  Purify my heart.

Love.

Gatlinburg, TN

This was unpublished.  Must have forgotten it.  I'll post it for the heck of it.  This was written in June 2011:

I haven't updated since the beginning weeks of my travels in Ukraine. But I am back now and on to a new adventure, albeit a family vacation. Presently I am in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, minutes away from the over commercialized Pigeon Forge and nested in the glorious, peaceful Smoky Mountains. The scenery is gorgeous and the company is swell. With hikes in the morning and relaxation in the evening, good cooking by all, and a comfy cabin, we are all enjoying our stay, and it's a good escape from cleaning hotel rooms.


[This was written during my good 'ol hotel housekeeper days, by the way.]

Alright, so, hello blog.  Thought I'd post something for a change. 

I was feeling down and mediocre.  Kind of not happy with life.  I'm not using complete sentences, but I don't care. 

I wrote this on the back of a handout the other day.  I guess I'm trying to inspire myself.  I hope you're inspired, too.

      Okay.  Be strong & courageous in God & His love.
      He has wonderful plans.
      Be dependent only on the Lord who gives you strength.
      You are going places--and He's going to take you places
        that you never would have gone in your own plans.
      Trust Him and grow.
      Stand tall, but be gentle.

Blog Entries for October 8-12

So, I have either forgotten to post the entries or haven't had internets. Here are some entries from the past couple days, though. :D

Blog Entry for October 8, 2010

This week, we had a guy named Al Akimoff come and talk to us. He was phenomenal! I haven’t taken so many notes on a lecture for a really long time. I learned quite a lot. He has a super fun speaking style: tell a bunch of amazing, miraculous stories and then draw excellent conclusions (remind you of parables, hmm?) He has had many adventures and spoke of the crazy amazing outreaches of Brother Andrew and Corrie ten Boom.

But he and his wife Carolyn left today. They’re going to Latvia, I believe. They will be missed.

Since the conference, we also were hosting the DTS team from Ternopil, Ukraine, so our DTS had been doubled this and last week. Some left today and more are leaving tomorrow. They were a bunch of fun. Last night, Allison, from their team, and I lead worship. We had Marta on bass guitar and singing in Ukrainian and Russian and Senya was on the drums. We played for over an hour, and it was AMAZING. I lost my voice in the middle of it, though. It was weird. It has happened in youth group before, but I don’t know why. Maybe I was singing in a strange way that made my vocal chords rebel.

So, that was a fabulous experience. I learned a lot through that. I’m learning in other areas, too. Like, on Wednesday, we walked around our “island” and evangelized. I was pretty skeptical of the whole thing and didn’t feel very comfortable about walking up to people and telling them the gospel. It didn’t feel very personal and kind of seemed to be ineffective, especially since I had to be translated. But, it was good. Three people came to Christ. That was pretty cool, but I was still kind of wishing that it would have happened a little bit differently. I would rather we have an event and develop relationships rather than just have a brief ten minute conversation. I think it would be more effective and more helpful to people. I’m sure we’ll do stuff like that, but this time, I just kind of felt like I was out campaigning for another politician…only in a Jesus-y kind of way. But, yeah. I learned some stuff.

My group of three people only talked to three people while we were evangelizing. The first person was a girl in her late twenties, I’m guessing. She was agnostic and pretty postmodern in view. It was great. I wish I could have sat and talked to her for an hour or two, but I couldn’t. *needs to learn Russian* The second and third people we met were two babushkas (grandmas). The one was mostly silent while the other cried her eyes out and poured her heart out to us. She told us that her son had recently died and that she felt like she was alone. She also said that she new the entire gospel of Matthew by heart, but in the end, she was angry at God and didn’t really want to pray or anything. She let us pray and comfort her, though. And I promised to come visit her some time. (I think she lives pretty close to me. I’ll have to get the address translated.)

What I learned (and Mr. Akimoff said this, too) is that people need relationships. Just throwing religion in someone’s face is ridiculous. A relationship is what is needed anyway. Most people don’t connect with a random person who comes up to them with a pamphlet. More people are influenced by friends and people whom they trust. Those kind of relationships are very highly valued, and why shouldn’t it be a sort of evangelism? That’s how the Church works and that’s the whole essence of being a Christian anyway: having a relationship with God and loving Him and loving people.

So, yeah. Missions rant there. And now I’m ready for some sleep. There isn’t any heat in this apartment building quite yet, so I’m bundling up: tights, legwarmers, socks, tank top, giant t-shirt of doom, and a hoodie. All is happy, and today is Friday. I will sleep well AND sleep in. Yay! Six o’clock AM, I will NOT be seeing you today. HAH.

Blog Entry for October 9, 2010

Yay! Saturday! For breakfast I made scrambled eggs on bread and cheese. The bread, cheese, and eggs is a typical Ukrainian breakfast, only they aren’t quite familiar with this scrambled egg. Marsa (I’m still not sure how to spell her name) came up and pointed to my eggs and said, “Amerikanka?” She wanted American eggs, too.

So, now I’m listening to some Billy Joel and drinking some chai. (Not real chai, mind you. The Russian word for tea IS chai.) Today shall be relaxing, for sure.

Blog Entry for October 12, 2010

The apartment is quite crazy right now. We have all of the DTS girls except Ksenya and Jessica here to make supper for thirteen people. We invited our leaders to come over and have a meal with all of us girls. It’s quite interesting that we’re cooking here considering that we have a cutting board the size of a flip-flop and one dull knife. And along with the cheese grater and a couple pots, there’s not much more to offer by way of culinary utensils. Ah well. It’ll turn out fine.

We have a new speaker for the week. His name is Sergei something or other. Apparently he’s pretty famous around these parts. I don’t know, that’s just what I’m told. He does speak very well. He is pretty funny and has excellent things to say about having a relationship with God.

It’s warm today! Not short sleeved shirt weather of course. But I could walk around with only three shirts, tights and jeans and two pairs of socks! Heh…I’m not really being sarcastic. It is warmer, I promise. I didn’t have to wear leg warmers or my jacket! *nods* Things are looking up!—sort of. The awesome thing is that in four days they’ll turn our heat on in the apartment building. Woohoo!

I thought that maybe I’d show you some stuff that I did for my assignments this week and last week. Here are a couple pictures:

Last week we had to write a letter to God, and we had to be creative. Here’s what I made:

This week we had to answer a bunch of questions, and if we wanted we could do something that reflected what we learned from last week’s lectures. I just made a page of reminders:

Granted, it’s not the best thing or most original thing ever, but it is something, and I enjoyed doing it. :D

Blog Entry for October 2, 2010

We just got back from the YWAM Jubilee Celebration: a conference to celebrate the 50 years of YWAM. It was quite awesome. We went to a place called a sanatorium. It’s really hard to explain what a sanatorium is because we don’t have them in the US. But, basically it’s a camp with dorm-like buildings. There are swing-sets and playgrounds and a soccer field. Loren and Carol(?) Cunningham, the founders of YWAM spoke quite a bit, but we also got to hear from the YWAM base leaders from all over Eastern Europe. It was very exciting to hear what all is getting done in other nations. Mr. Cunningham also spoke about the future of YWAM. There was some awesome technological stuff that YWAM has. Apparently YWAM is on the same level as the US military when it comes to technology. Impressive, eh? He talked about this one video conferencing system that is specific to YWAM. Using this system, people from all over the world work together to make a movie. It could be filmed in the US, directed in Australia, and edited in South Africa. It’s really quite incredible.

So, everything was completely awesome, but most of us were exhausted. We had a hard time staying awake during some the long sessions, but it was all good.

The worship services were wonderful! The singers would alternate between Russian and English and the lyrics were in both languages. It reminded me of Costa Rica a bit, when we sang in both Spanish and English. It’s super cool when you can hear many voices and different languages worship the same God. It makes me happy. :D

There were a couple downsides. There were horrible squatty-potties. Ick. I can’t stand the things. But, ah well. I’ll just have to get used to it. Apparently when we’re on outreach, it’s the only toilet we’ll be able to access. But let me tell you, we were quite thankful when we got back to the apartment. We actually came in and sighed, “We’re home!” It’s neat.

It was also very cold. We hadn’t quite prepared for the chilliness. The weather required a jacket, but we all just took hoodies. Bad plan. But we had hot tea all the time, and Lance brought us nice warm sleeping bags, so it was good.

I got to talk to a lady who is running the YWAM Hope here in Kyiv. (YWAM Hope is an orphanage ministry). She and her husband were from Germany, so that was cool. We talked about the spirituality in Germany. It’s very postmodern, and the church has not grown very much there. THAT made me sad. But this whole conference has been showing me stuff like that. There are SO many needs, but there is progress! And that’s awesome. There just needs to be people to go.

So, yeah. I have a bunch of friends. :D They’re great. Yesterday, I walked around with Petya and Nikolay. They are pretttty great. Petya doesn’t speak much English, but he know a bit. Nikolay is usually the translator. He’s from Kyrgyzstan and, like Svinge, which is actually spelled Sevinch :D, he speaks multiple languages very well. On the way to the sanatorium, Sevinch, Nikolay, and I played word games. I won all the time because I knew more words in English, but they still did pretty well.

Pretty much the entire DTS group is becoming great friends already. We’re made of mostly Ukrainians, but there are four Americans: Jessica, Erin, me, and Mr. Ed. Ed is 48 and is the only other American who can’t speak much Russian. AND it just so happens that it was him and me who got lost when we all played the “run around the city and answer some questions about places you see” game. Heh…yeah. I COULDN’T FIND THAT BLASTED ROAD. Maps can be deceiving, you know? :D From Ukraine, we have Oksana, Elvira (Eilla), Ksenya, Marsa, Marta, Petya, Ruslan, and Rustam. Then Sevinch and Nikolay are from other countries. Our leaders are from a variety of countries, too. Andrew and Oksana Ford are from Australia (Australian accents, ftw!) and Ukraine. Lance is from Oregon, and Kate is from Michigan. Tanya is from Russia and Senya is from Ukraine. And they are all awesome. :D

So, little Oksana is here now. She doesn’t really understand everything I type. ;) But she is AWESOME. I love my Oksana. :D (She just squealed and gave me a hug. Haha!)

But, yeah, so there are some awesome relationships and I’m learning a bunch. So, obviously, this is awesome. I wake up every morning at 6:00 or 6:30 and walk a mile or so to get to the base. While we were at the camp thing I just walked around the camp. It’s gorgeous here. And I’m kind of falling in love with Kyiv. Even when we get lost, it’s a great city. It’s so different, but a good sort of different. On the side of the road, people sell food from their gardens or farms. There are stray dogs EVERYWHERE, but they’re all nice. Sah-bah-ka. That’s dog. :D I can read more, too! Yay! Now if only I can understand what some of those words mean…

Alright. I better go work on that homework…lol. Procrastination is THE BEST.

…And the homework is coming along. Let me tell you, this is the best homework EVER. It’s all creative artsy stuff if you so choose to do it that way…so….Yay!! This makes for happy Arielles. :D So, yeah, I’ll show you all my projects when I’m finished. They shall be B-E-A-utiful!

I also started laundry today. Heh…yay, right? So, we have laundry detergent and a bathtub. That’s how we do it. I almost feel like a regular pioneer woman (this said while typing on a Macbook. Oh, the irony!) And it’s getting late and I’m getting ridiculous (and I love the fact that the clock says 0:18 right now.)

Tomorrow is church! I’ll be going to the international church that is in English and serves tea and cookies. The worship is phenomenal and the sermon related extremely well to things we talked about in DTS. So, yay! Good night, everybody! I hope you enjoyed this extraordinarily long post.

So, yeah...that was a couple days ago. I'll get something better soon!