Some of you asked about what church is like and what the spiritual atmosphere is in Ukraine. I thought I would share a bit of what was told me this past week that may shed a little more light.

A friend was sharing how several churches came together for a conference in my town not long ago. A speaker was sharing on unity and was reading from the Bible on the topic when an elder stood up and asked “how can we talk about unity when half the men in this room are wearing short-sleeved shirts?”

Really?!

Another church in the city had a discussion on ‘how to pray.’ This was not about what to say, but how to stand and where your hands should be. They decided your hands should not be in the front nor behind you, they should be at your side with your head tilted slightly.

Seriously?!

My previous roommate visited the church across the street and knowing they were very strict on outer appearances she wore a long skirt, head covering, and no earrings. She thought surely a necklaces would be ok. Nope, the topic of the night was on the evils of jewelry and it was directed at her!

All of these instances are true and are unfortunately common in many churches. Ukraine is still a young country spiritually. They only received religious independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. Prior to this atheism was encouraged and any religion was oppressed by the Soviets. When the Soviet Union fell, many people were not able to receive training on being a pastor. They were able to freely read the Bible now, but without any training it was interpreted however people wanted it to be. For example, several time in the Bible it talks about tucking your garment into your belt (2Kings 4:29, 2Kings 9:1, Acts 12:8), this is taken as you must never have your shirt untucked.

There are many churches that are not as strict as some, many are becoming more relaxed and free. There is a Hillsong church in Kiev and the church I attend is alright with wearing jeans. Even where churches may not be legalistic there is a lack of training or teaching for the congregation. I met a middle aged woman at our English club who had never read the Bible yet considered herself devout Orthodox. She was amazed at some of the verses we told her and wanted to know where they were in the Bible.

Many pastors are looking to connect with other pastors and gain further understanding and training. Biblical teaching is needed in many rural areas and cities where religion has a tight grip. I am grateful for the church I attend and am blessed by the missionaries who come here to plant churches. Continue to pray for eyes to be opened and for spiritual revelation to happen in the people.

Many of you have been concerned and wondering if I was snowed in at my apartment, curled up under 10 blankets, slowing turning into an ice cube. I can safely tell you that is not the case. I actually had no idea that it was such a big deal, I thought this was normal weather and that I just needed to deal with it.

Let me tell you how I deal with it. Every morning as I am preparing to leave, I put on my fleece jacket, then my down jacket, then a long wooly scarf, my ear warmers, gloves, and snow boots. Besides all that, since November I have been wearing long johns, two pairs of socks and an undershirt every day. I open the door and walk the 20 min it takes me to get to the base. That’s how I deal with it.

I can usually tell about how cold it is by how fast of have little snot icicles in my nose. I had no idea what was happening when this first happened. I just thought ‘why is my nose all stiff?’ If I get snot icicles the instant I walk out the door… it’s cold. If not, it’s only kinda cold. That’s all you need to know.

I generally make a point to plow through the deep snow so I get a work out walking to the base, then I’m nice and toasty. That is also another way to gauge the weather. If I get to the base and I’m not hot, it’s really cold. I get some funny looks not walking on the beaten path, but it’s just more fun to make my own trail. (Really though, do I ever follow the beaten path?)

One of our students is from Siberia and absolutely loves this weather. She told me the trick to make the shivers go away. “Just embrace the coldness Megan, and the shivering will go away.” That’s what she told me, so helpful my students are.

Nothing has really effected us too much. A pipe broke at the base so we had to close down the kitchen our last two weeks of school. The kitchen has now been moved into the laundry room and the laundry room has been moved upstairs. Marichka and I’s neighbor upstairs had a pipe break which manifested itself in a waterfall down our kitchen wall. All pipes have been fixed to some extent or another. The only annoying thing is that our heater goes off randomly at the apartment due to air pressure changes, this just means we wake up cold and have to restart the heater. Nothing we can’t handle.

Most things go on as normal here. The buses still run, there are still taxis, businesses are open. There is about a quarter inch of ice on the inside of most bus windows so you really need to pay attention to the stops. Schools close not because of the amount of snow, but because it gets so cold. They close at -4F only because the schools don’t have heating systems that are good enough to heat the buildings. So kids here have missed quite a lot of school.

Yes, it has been cold here. I think the coldest was -24F, that was with low humidity though so I think it has been colder with humidity and wind chill. But really, I have not minded it. It has been fun to have so much snow. I enjoy walking to and from the base every day. I can’t complain.

Our last day in the Carpathians was unique. Allison had gone out for one last walk, Joanne and I were showering and packing. Just as Joanne and I were finished and I had just started to read The Magician’s Nephew out loud to Joanne, Allison burst into the room saying, “Hurry up get your coats on. We’re going to go have breakfast with Armenians.” [If anyone ever says that to you, do it.]

We were a little dazed and confused, but we obeyed. We went out and met with two families from Armenia that had come to Ukraine to vacation for the holidays. Allison had randomly started talking with them and they invited her to breakfast with them at a home down the road which they were renting.

On our way there they explained what we would be having for breakfast. It was a little difficult to figure it out at first, something about a cow that was boiled for days. We had a rough time figuring out what that something was. Was it just the meat? The bones? Some other strange part of the cow? Well it was not until they pointed to their feet that we realized that we were going to be eating cow hooves. Yep, cow’s hooves that have been boiled over several days… yum!

You eat it with a garlic mixture and salt, put a mountain of dried lavash (it’s a type of flat bread, the closest thing to a tortilla here.) And I’m not kidding about that mountain, a big pile of dried lavash, then you mash it all into your cow hoof soup. It’s called hash, the ‘a’ is long.

I don’t know quite how to describe the taste. The lavash created a slimy texture to it, the garlic was a nice touch. The Armenians that we breakfasted with told us that this is their national food and it is only had on special occasions. They look forward to eating it every year.

Some of our Armenian friends

The meal was followed by chatting, laughing, tea, dessert, and dancing. They told us about Armenia, their lives in Ukraine and at home as we shared about our lives. We were so blessed to be welcomed into a family’s meal and experience a bit of Armenia in Ukraine! What other way would you want to spend your last day in the Carpathians?

I wasn't kidding about the dancing.

Our time in the Carpathians was wonderful… we had a great break. No one could ask us grammar questions, we didn’t have to worry about anyone doing their work duties or not, no marking papers, and no writing of lesson plans. It was shear bliss.

Allison hiking away

Climbing the mountains

One student, Dima, came with us just to make sure the hotel was good and that they would not try to cheat us. The hotel was tiny, but it was nice. We arrived on New Year’s eve and were exhausted. We laid down for a bit, watched a movie and then went down to try and order some food. The restaurant was being prepped for the evening’s festivities so we could only order food to be brought up. It was kinda funny since all the hotel staff knew we were foreigners who did not know Russian or Ukrainian and they all knew what rooms we were in. We went up to decipher the menu and a little later the waiter came to our door to take our order.

While we were waiting for our food we played a game, but in the middle of our game the power went out. There were emergency lights in the hallways but not in the rooms. The food came shortly after, but we had to eat in the dark. It was hilarious since I had randomly packed my headlamp and that became our only source of light for about 3 hours.

The hotel was moderately quiet the whole of the night. We watched one more movie, chatted and then fell asleep at about 11. The fireworks woke us and we wished each other happy new year and went back to sleep again with our clothes on. It was quite comical to wake up the next day all in the same bed with our clothes still on.

Our Hotel: El Dorado

Almost to the top…

The rest of our time there was spent wandering the hills (I call them hills because compared to the mountains in Washington that’s what they are.) We explored mountaintops and wound around hills. There was not much snow, but the scenery was beautiful.

(If you came across a mini snowman on a mountain, wouldn’t you want to decapitate it too?)

Just in time for Christmas… a blog on Thanksgiving. Yeah!

This year was similar to last year, the whole base came together to eat, and eat, and eat, and talk, and eat. It is always great to see everyone. We had half a day of class then spent the rest of the time preparing and cleaning.

For the food, yummy mashed potatoes, broccoli salad, stuffing, gravy, and for the meat we had goose. Goose is basically all dark meat, very fatty, not bad though. Doesn’t compare to turkey of course.

There I am, taking my food seriously.

Like last year, I gave a little speech on the history of Thanksgiving day and how Americans celebrate it. Many people have never celebrated Thanksgiving day. Many countries do not have this holiday, but they may have a sort of harvest festival.

The highlight of the evening was my advanced group giving their speech on Thanksfulness. We had been doing a study on famous speeches and for their final project they had to write a speech on Thankfulness. It was great! They are so creative. To see the full written speech, go to the EFM blog!

"My lovely people..."

I ended the night skyping with my family and wishing my mom a happy birthday. It was a full day!

The joys of community living... skyping in the laundry room!