6 Months In

Today marks the 6th month since arriving in Ukraine. It is surprising how quickly the time has passed...

This past week Dave and I have been on quite an adventure. Just this morning around 6:00 am we returned from a week-long trip to the Crimean Mountains and the Black Sea. This trip held a lot of Ukraine "firsts" for us-- swimming in the Black Sea, buying delicious meat and vegetable wraps called "Shawrma" from friendly people in road-side stands (no, we didn't get food poisoning!), seeing two castles in one day, using a "squatty toilet" in the wilderness, seeing dolphins swimming in the sea, and traveling by ourselves by train without a translator. By the end of the week, we were starting to dream of cold drinking water, a shower (even if that would be cold too!), a normal toilet, our bed, etc... It is rather poetic that when we arrived back at our home here we quickly discovered that we have no water at all, and have no idea when we will. Apparently while we were away, a water main broke in our neighborhood, and we will have to wait until it is repaired before we have cold water again. We haven't had hot water for almost two months.


Our trip to Crimea was part of a larger event that Shelter has organized for the past two summers. They go on two week-long extreme hiking trips with the youth, each week with a different age group. Each person on the hike carries about 25 kg and walks for about 25 km each day for 4 days through very rough terrain, literally up and down mountains. They tell us that at one point during the first hike as they climbed fog settled around them, and when they got to the peak, they could see it was raining below them and were actually above a rainbow. After their four day hike, they make it to the Black Sea where they camp, swim and rest for two and a half days. The Shelter team sees this as a great opportunity to go deeper in their relationships with the youth and to share the gospel with them, and for the youth to see the beauty of their country and especially of God's creation.

When Dave and I first arrived in Ukraine we had every intention of participating in this event. We even started running three times a week and working out in the gym so that we would be physically ready for the challenge. Unfortunately, at the beginning of the summer while I was participating in the Social March through the city, an old knee injury from my childhood came back. Dave and I were concerned that if walking on concrete, carrying nothing, for only 2 days could do that to my knees, there was no way I would make it through the mountains. The Shelter team kindly welcomed us to join them by train and meet them at the Sea for the second half of their trip. We gladly accepted this invitation and decided to come a day earlier with two other volunteers from the team. This way we were able to do a little bit of sightseeing in Crimea before joining the group. We toured a castle near the southern tip of Crimea and took a 3 hour boat ride along the coast where we were able to see another castle and many other interesting sights. After a very hot and tiring day in the sun, the sea air was very refreshing.

When the team arrived at the sea, Dave and I were very happy to get to talk to many of the youth who we had started getting to know earlier in the year. Some of these people we haven't seen since the summer started, so it was great to get to see them again. Others, who we hadn't met before, or hadn't talked to because of the language barrier, we got to know and practice our Russian on too. It is wonderful that many of the youth want to practice their English with us, and are patient with us as we practice our Russian. It was great to get to ask them about their experiences in the mountains, what was the best part, what was most difficult, etc... It was really meaningful for me to have some deeper discussions with a few of the youth, besides just about the weather and other more surface things. I look forward to this continuing as I spend more time with them at Shelter this coming year. One night around the fire Dave and I got to share with the whole team more about how we ended up in Ukraine and how God provided for all of our needs in coming here.

Dave and I were so amazed at everyone's strength, endurance and depth of character on this trip. Our respect for the people here continues to grow and they continue to amaze us. We are very humbled by them and hope to learn from their example. It is very clear to us that the leaders here have a sincere love for God, for their country and are burdened for the youth here. They truly desire to be salt and light here, and to share Christ's love and hope with those around them. We feel very privileged and are so thankful that we get to be here working with this group.

Our train ride home was great. We were a little worried about who we might have to share our cabin with (ie. would they be patient with our lack of Russian? would they be nice/mean? would they keep us up late talking or drinking? etc...). Well, God provided two very kind people. One was very quiet and kept to himself, and the other was a very friendly, talkative, inquisitive professor of music at the local music college. She had many questions for us, and was especially interested to know why we would leave behind our country, family, friends, language, to come to Ukraine, while many in Ukraine are trying to leave the country to get the things that we left behind. I am glad that we know at least enough Russian to be able to tell her that we are Christians and that we love God, and that He is enough for us even without all of those things. A verse I have been thinking about a lot lately is Psalm 16:11 which says, "In your presence there is fullness of joy; in your right hand are pleasures forevermore." We exchanged phone numbers with her and she promised to phone us to invite us to concerts at her college and to the mime theater.

A few other exciting things that we are looking forward to:
-my parents (Bethany's) are coming to visit us at the end of September for just over a week. We look forward to touring the city of Lviv a bit with them, spending time showing them around Krivoy Rog, and trying to find some of the Mennonite villages where my mom's side has a lot of history. It will be a lot of fun to host them and introduce them to our new surroundings and friends.
-in the next week or so we expect studio construction to get underway. Dave plans to be doing construction daily with the guys, and is excited to start seeing things taking shape.
-Dave and I are really looking forward to when the Shelter drop-in will re-open and Children's Shelter starting up again. We have missed the youth and children a lot over the summer, and really look forward to seeing them and talking to them again more regularly.
-We will be spending Canadian Christmas with my brother and his wife in Oxford, England! When we found out they wouldn't be flying to Canada for Christmas this year, we decided that this would be great timing for us to go visit them, which we had planned to do sometime while we were in Ukraine. Well, we found some pretty good flights out of Kiev and will be able to return to Ukraine in time for New Year's and Ukrainian Christmas, so our plans are set.

Thanks to each of you who read our blog, think about us, pray for us, support us,etc... We love you all, miss you all, and think of you often.

Bethany