September/October 2014 Prayer Letter

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Living in Ukraine

Tuesday will make our 5 month anniversary here in Kharkov.  Wow, I can't believe we have been here 5 months.  I'm not as advanced in the language as I would have liked to been by now.  But we are working on it.  Brian and Briana are way ahead of the boys and I.  Briana read 2 long paragraphs to my mother-in-law the other day on Skype.  I have been praying that God would make it very easy for them to learn the language and that He would open their minds and understanding to Russian.  I have learned enough to speak very simple sentences, but nothing more than that.  When someone talks to me I break out in a nervous sweat.  Does that happen to anyone but me.  I also break out in a nervous sweat when I go to the store, especially in the check out line.  I get nervous riding public transportation also....some people are very nice when they realize you do not speak Russian and help you, but some are very rude and hateful.  But since I have no idea what they are saying....I just smile....

We had some excitement the other week....our first hospital visit here....Orion come in the house and said, "Mom, Zach's OK, I just wanted to tell you that.  But he hurt himself playing football (soccer)."  Ok, it is never good when he says that!  Zach come in the house and said it hurt alittle, but hurt more when he moved it.  It was only alittle swollen, and I couldn't really tell what was wrong with it.  Ms. Cathy O'Brien is a nurse, so I called her about this.  She said we needed to get x-rays to make sure it is not broken and go from there.  So we took a Taxi to Hospital #7 near the church.  After Zach got his x-rays, lo and behold, it is broken.  It broke where the 2 bones meet right at your wrist.  So they had to set the bone because it was not a clean break.  But praise God, the doctor was a good doctor and it did not take that long!  This past Friday we went back for more x-rays, and praise God, the doctor said it is healing very well, and he only has to wear the cast one more week.  Wow, I was shocked, I thought he would have to wear it much longer, but praise God, he doesn't.  He does have to wear a metal, removable brace for several weeks though.  But at least it's not a cast!

 

As for general life in Ukraine, it still takes a lot to get used to.  We're not used to having close neighbors.  We live in a kind of duplex.  We enter in through the front, they enter in through the back but we do enter in through the same front gate. Several of the rooms in our houses are connected.  So we are able to hear what is going on in there home, and I'm sure they can hear us too.  Sometimes, we really don't want to hear what is going on in the other house.  Currently there are about 3 or 4 young college students from Africa.  But their lease is up and I believe they will soon be moving.  My prayer is to have a family move in behind us.  There is also another small apartment (detached) behind us with other couple of African college students.  Praying about maybe trying to find a home with a yard all to ourselves.  We are hoping the Lord will provide just what we need.

PTL!!! God has answered our prayers for a vehicle.  I was hoping for a mini van, but this is better than nothing.  It is a 2007 Russian Lada Seyorka.  The body style of this car has not changed in 20 years!  It's about as basic as basic gets.  We are praying about getting power steering.  It is very hard to drive.  Trying to change gears and turn the steering wheel is very hard!  It has been such a blessing to not have to take a Taxi to church!!!  I had a scary taxi experience last week coming back from the hospital after Zach got his xrays.  The taxi driver decided to stop at an apartment on a dark road at 11:30pm...and left us in the Taxi for 10 minutes.  I called my husband and talked to him the whole time to make sure nothing would happen.  And that is not the first time that has happened!  So praise the Lord for the car!  Still praying that the Lord would provide us a mini-van.  It will be more roomy for our family, plus we would have room for other's too. 

Krakow Poland, Part 2

Bro. Glass took us to the old airstrip...this was remnants of what was there.

 

Our second week in Poland was more laid back and relaxing.  We had already seen everything we wanted, except for the Schindler's museum.  This was a great time for us to spend much more time in our Bible's and in prayer.  We knew when we got back to Ukraine, we will be facing much spiritual opposition.  The oppression in Kharkov is like nothing I have ever experienced.  In Poland, it was like to were released from prison, and we felt almost,...relieved to be there.  Even many of my physical ailments I was dealing with went away, not swollen ankles, no pain.

Briana and Orion enjoying their favorite pastime.

I believe God allowed this down time for us, for it may be the last on we get for a long time! 

We did have to switch apartments mid-stay.  The apartments we were in were reserved for other people, but the apartment manager was awesome and helped us as much as she could.  She even gave us a huge is discount on the 2 times we had to extend our stay there.  Praise God!! The second apartment we got was a 2 bedroom apartment, so we were all able to fit in one.  It also had 1 1/2 bath, which is great with 4 kids!!!!

We very much enjoyed our time with the Glass family and their church there in Poland.  Sweet people, many of them knew english, so we were able to fellowship!

 

Here is Briana and their youngest daughter :) She is the same age as Corey.

 

We were invited twice to their BBQ Bible Study. Great Kielbasa and fellowship!

 

 

Briana was able to spend some time with the Glasses teenage daughter.  Briana really needed this time to fellowship with someone of like faith her same age!

The Schindler factory steps made famous by the movie "Schindler's List"

During that last week, we went to the Schindler museum.  It was one of the nicest museums I have seen in a long time.  It takes you on a journey of German occupation during WWII in Krakow.  Many of you may have seen the Schindler list (I have not) but we seen the list on his office wall.  What scary time's that was.  I know God blessed that man for helping the Jews like he did! 

Finally, on Sept. 3, we received the paperwork we needed to get our Visa's.  Bro. Glass drove us to the embassy and took us wherever we needed to go, what a blessing.  We went to the embassy on Wednesday afternoon to see if they could start our paperwork, they said they did not take paperwork for visas but in the morning, but they did allow us to go ahead and pay for our insurance.  So we walked to the bank, paid for the insurance, and walked back to the embassy with our receipts.  The next morning, we went to the embassy again with all our paperwork...they said they could process it in one hour.  Praise God.  Normally it take the whole day, but God allowed us to find favor, and they processed it very quickly!  Bro. Glass helps many missionaries from Ukraine that come to renew their visa's, and he said he has never seen them process visas so fast before.  Praise God!!!  Now we have our Visas, the next step is to get our residency.  The University will take care of most of that for us!!!  Now with Visa's in hand, it was time to get back to Kharkov....

Bro. Peterson took us to McDonalds for supper!  This had to have been the fanciest McDonalds I have ever been in.  The boys really like the tablets they had set up for the kids :)

Trip to Warsaw from Krakow by train....Bro. Peterson, a missionary there in Warsaw, let us stay the night with him since our train got in late!  What a blessing, he also took us to the airport the next morning so we could fly to Kiev!  The only thing I was dreading was that 8 hour bus ride to Kharkov....but....at 1am....we were finally home after 2 1/2 weeks!!! 



Only 234 Kilometers left till we get to Kharkov....

Pictures from our trip to Krakow, Poland

July/August 2014 Prayer Letter

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Krakow Poland Part 1

Today I am coming to you LIVE from Krakow, Poland.  This city is over 1000 years old and has a ton of history.  But tourism is not the reason we are here.  In order to get our Visas, we had to leave Ukraine and come to Poland.  Since Brian and Briana are going to the University we are getting student Visas.  They will be studying Russian.  

 

We are having to stay here a little longer than we intended to stay.  We had to leave Ukraine on August 21 because our 90 days to stay in the country without a Visa where expired.  But because of circumstances beyond our control, the paperwork that we needed from the University are a little late getting to us.  So now we are waiting for that paperwork to turn in with all of our Visa paperwork.  As soon as we get our Visa stamp, we will have 72 hours to get back to Ukraine to start our Residency paperwork.  (Lots of paperwork :))

 

 

 

We started our trip on a bus from Kharkov to Kiev Boryspil Airport.  It takes about 8 hours to get there.  We took the overnight bus, so it didn't seem quite so long.  Afterwards, we flew to Warsaw then on to Krakow by train.  It was a new experience taking the train.  I've rode on a train before (we took an Amtrak train from NC to PA and Brian I & took an overnight train from Kharkov to Kiev), but it was nice having our own personal cabin to ride in.  It make the 3 1/2 hours trip more bearable! :)

 

 

 

 My favorite things was getting a taste of home.  Some of the restaurants that they had in Poland, we do not have in Ukraine, such as....Subway, Pizza Hut, and KFC.  We didn't realize how much we missed these little things from the states so much!

 

Pizza Hut :)

We were able to get an apartment near the Old Town, which was a huge blessing.  We had to walk most everywhere we went, so being close to the embassy and town was a must.  We originally reserved a 2 bedroom apartment that all of us could stay in, but when we got here, we found out there was a glitch in the website in which we reserved our room, and that room was not available for several more days.  But PTL!  They offered us 2 apartments for the price of one!  So Brian and I stayed in the 2 person apartment while Briana and the boys stayed in the 4 person apartment one floor up.  It has been soooo nice, it's almost like a mini honeymoon for Brian and I :)  The picture below is the view from one of our windows :)

 

The day after we arrived, we just started exploring the Old Town.  In the picture below is a Catholic building.  The story behind the two towers is very interesting.  The legend tells of 2 brothers who were assigned to build the tower for the building.  The older brother finished first and was praised to the heavens for the great job he had done.  But soon after, they noticed that the younger brother had exceeded his brothers work in making his tower taller and more elaborate.  The younger brother was praised and honored even more that the older brother.  The story goes on to tell of the envy of the older brother, and how envy turned to anger, and that anger led the older brother to kill his younger brother in one of the towers, then went to the other tower and killed himself.  They say that the murder weapon still hangs in the tower as a reminder of what happened.

 

 

 

Here we are at the Wawel Castle.  Beautiful place to see.  We were not able to go inside, for the all the indoor exhibits you had to pay for.  And we are trying to site see as cheap as we can. :)

 

 

We also went and explored the Jewish Quarter in Krakow.  It made me think of what happened during WWII, and all the Jewish families that were taken and separated from each other on those very streets. Below is a picture of an old Jewish Temple/Synagogue.  It was used for this purpose prior to the war, but during the war, the Germans used it as a horse stable.  Now it is just a museum with pictures and quotes from Jews during the war.  There are not many Jews living in Krakow anymore.  Most of the ones who survived, left after the war.

 

See more pictures of our trip to Krakow Here!

 

 

 

Krakow Poland -Part 2

 

Culture Shock Part 1

 

Culture Shock....

In our April/May prayer letter, we included all the different stages of culture shock.  Phase 1 has already dissipated.... and phase 2 has appeared with a vengeance.... 

If you don't remember the stages of culture shock...Phase 1 is....

Honeymoon stage: This is usually during the first few weeks or months. People experience emotions like excitement, anticipation, and eagerness. Everything and everyone is new and exciting.

And how true that was.  I was ready to take Kharkov by storm.  Learned the public transportation routes pretty quickly.  I was learning everything I could learn and take in everything as fast as I could. God gave us a mission, and I was going to go full force with everything I had in me. 

But Phase 2 has slapped me in the face as hard as it could....

Negotiation Stage: After some time (usually around three months, depending on the individual), differences between the old and new culture become apparent and may create anxiety. Excitement may eventually give way to unpleasant feelings of frustration and anger as one continues to experience unfavorable events that may be perceived as strange and offensive to one's cultural attitude. Language barriers, stark differences in public hygiene, traffic safety, food accessibility and quality may heighten the sense of disconnection from the surroundings. This may lead to difficulty sleeping, sadness, homesickness, exhaustion, increased worry, a desire to withdraw, unexplained crying, or overeating.

We have been in Ukraine not quite 3 months, and I have experienced all of the above....it made me laugh for just one second, for I hadn't read this article on culture shock since we put it in our prayer letter many months ago, and to have experienced all this...who ever wrote this article sure knew what they were talking about. 

I haven't blogged for several weeks because of this very reason, I knew everything that come out would sound very negative or have a negative twist to it.  I try really hard not to give in to these feelings of frustration when everyone and everything seems to defy the very basic code of morality and basic common decency we expect.  Just the very mind set of the people we interact with on a daily basic troubles me exceedingly.  I know that this is how they have been taught their whole lives, but for me to have to turn my world upside-down so I can intergrade into their society is so very difficult! 

It's not just the frailty of our mortal flesh that has a hard time dealing with the cultural differences, but it's also the spiritual battles we face on a daily basis!  Spiritual warfare!  A very wise women counseled me this.... Eph. 6:10-12 Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.  I feel so weak, but the scripture says, be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might by putting on the whole armour of God.  This is my goal, to daily put on the armour of God, for without it, I will not make it!

God has been so good to me, His kindness, grace, and mercy has exceeded my expectations!  Which He always does!!!  It truly humbles me, and helps me on this journey, and on this path He has placed me on. 

 

Continue reading...

 

Culture Shock - Part 2

 

Culture Shock - Part 3

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