Here is one of our few guys- Genadi or Gena for short.

Here is the perfect picture of Gena, in front of the world with a Bible in his hand.

Age: 38

From: Kiev (Capitol of Ukraine)

Gena basically enjoys preaching. He is always sharing something that he has learned in the Bible. He also enjoys fishing, sports, music and mushrooms.

Gena has one of those stories to tell that you simply think “wow.” Gena has gone through Teen Challenge in Kiev. He came from a life of drugs, alcohol, and sickness. While in prison, he was forsaken by his family and friends. God was certainly looking out for Gena; Gena will tell you he should really be dead now, but by God’s grace he is still alive. God has restored his relationship with his family now as well.

One of my favorite quotes from Gena this week happened in the kitchen. Dima our cook, saw Gena throwing away some bread. In a chastising cook sort of tone, Dima says “Gena, why you throwing away the bread?” Gena, who does not know English hears the word bread and simply replies “bread, yes bread” as he leaves the kitchen. We could only laugh. Gena usually likes to say “wow,” it must be one of his favorite words.

I am glad that Gena is coming to Ethiopia with us. He has such a passion to preach the Gospel and save the lost, it can almost be overwhelming!

P.S. Gena broke his arm while we were ice skating (at an indoor rink) in October. He is a trooper though and has a great attitude!

Yulia!! Or Yulchick* or poopsika. Her real name is Yuliana but these are all names of endearment.

Age: 17- Yulia is the youngest member of our team

From: Yulia will tell you she is from India, but she was born in Russia spent some years there, then spent some years in Ukraine where her family is actually from and now her family is living in India as missionaries.

Yulia is one of those people that just seems to be talented at many things. She enjoys playing the guitar and singing. She also just finished knitting a matching set of mittens, a scarf, and a hat. She loves to go out with her friends and loves to laugh.

As you may have guessed, Yulia was the one that came a week late. We are so glad that she did come, she is full of joy and laughter. Her family remains in India at this moment except for her younger brother who is finishing school here in Ukraine. Her parents are running an orphanage in Goa.

Yulia loves her family very much and is crushed she will not be able to spend Christmas or her birthday with them. She loves India and cannot wait to go back. She hopes to return there to help run the orphanage after DTS. In the mean time, she will be coming with me and the rest of the gang to Ethiopia where she will celebrate her birthday along with Christmas. Only good times are to be had in Ethiopia!

* A cultural note about nicknames. People like to add ‘chick/a’ or ‘ka’ to the end of your name to show love and friendship. It sorta translates to ‘dear.’ So Yulia becomes Yulchick, Dima becomes Dimka, Lena becomes Lenachicka, and Megan becomes Megchick. Doesn’t matter if you’re boy or girl. There’s no rhyme or reason to it. Just throw a ‘chick’ on the end of someone’s name and you got a friend!

I have mentioned multiple times about my team this and my team that. But just who is “my team?” You saw a few miniscule pictures of random people that I seemed happy to be with. So I thought it might be nice to introduce you to the people that I have been living with and who I will be traveling with. So without further adieu, it gives me great pleasure and honor to introduce you to Inna!!

Inna supporting the India team

Age: 19

Born: She is from Berdyansk in Ukraine.

She enjoys crafts, cleaning, singing, writing, and being with people she loves.

Inna has an amazing story. Her father died when she was young and thou her mother loved her very much she simply could not provide for her kids and so they were sent to an orphanage. She has 2 brothers who have epilepsy. Inna grew up in an orphanage until her mother was able to take her back. Even then times were hard.

Inna’s mother is her hero for always putting her kids first. Inna also loves to work with other orphans simply because she understands them. She is always looking for an opportunity to go to the local youth shelter.

One of Inna’s amazing talents is writing poetry. Even though she writes her poetry in Ukrainian, it sounds beautiful. The few that have been translated for me are deep, moving, and full of inspiration. My jaw literally drops when I hear her poems!

Inna is one of my favs. I know I should not have favorites, but I can’t help but love her! She always wants a hug and is always happy to give them away. I am so excited that she will be coming to Ethiopia with me!

The title would imply that I have had caviar and that yes, I am still alive. For all you North Americans, I would like to say that… cough, cough… mumble, mumble… cough… caviar is kinda… good. Whew, there I said it, I would have a second helping of caviar if it was offered to me. Allow me to tell you the tale of how I came to eat my first helping of caviar.

It was a bright sunny day, fairly warm out, and Joanne and I were on our way to have lunch with Liliya’s uncle and his family. Liliya is a fellow student who is from Ternopil. We were informed that he likes to fish in his free time like many other men like to do around the world. He was going to grill the fish on the barbeque which would be a rare treat for us! Mmmmm, just the thought of grilled fish made us salivate.

Learning from the master

We arrived at his house in Ternopil on the far side of the lake just as the barbeque was ready. His wife had already prepared the fish in a yummy marinade and they sizzled as he laid them on the grill. Now, what should we do while we wait for the fish to cook? Gut the catch of the day! He had just returned from fishing that morning and had a whole new batch to prepare.

Here I am gutting the little fishy.

Vova (Liliya’s uncle) offered to teach me a quick and easy way to gut the fish. I thought, why not? So we started to slice and dice the little fishies so juicy sweet! As the guts came out, (sorry for those with weak constitutions, I don’t know how else to put that) he spied the precious cargo and gently picked up the little sack of fish eggs. He smiled at me and simply said “caviar.” It had not occurred to me that we might be eating fresh caviar, I never even thought about looking for fish eggs. To tell you the truth I probably would not even know what to look for had he not picked them out first.

Ok, I guess I will be eating caviar. We finished gutting about half of the Pike, when the grilled Perch were finished to perfection. [Technical note: yes, you can argue that I did not eat “real” caviar since we did not eat sturgeon roe, but either way, I ate fish eggs and the locals called it caviar.]

Nice and fresh and so juicy sweet

We scooped up the caviar and headed into the house to enjoy our grilled fish and caviar. Now I am sure you are picturing a big pile of raw red fish eggs in a little dish with a fancy spoon. Luckily, there is more than one way to eat caviar. They rolled the little sack of eggs in some flour and fried them. Pretty much anything is good with flour and fried in oil and I can say that would be true of caviar.
Later that evening after fellowship and good food, we headed out. Vova gave us the rest of the fish he had caught that morning, so when we arrived at home we finished ripping out the guts and uncovering more caviar. Liliya then took all the caviar and blended them in the blender and mixed some mayonnaise in with it to make a paste, this was then put over toast. I like it better fried, just for the record.

If you think that anyone would like caviar fried, Joanne will tell you otherwise. She was not a fan of caviar in either form. So I will tell you that if you are ever in a situation where you might have to eat caviar, politely suggest that it be fried, it is really good that way! And if you just can’t wait to try some, I recently discovered that there is a caviar house in Seattle. Yep, The Seattle Caviar Company can help you out.

Jesus pulled a coin out of a fish, I pulled out caviar!