That’s right, I finally graduated from Youth With A Mission’s Discipleship Training School in Ternopil, Ukraine! Wahooooo!!! We had agreat last week debriefing what we have learned from DTS and what we will be doing in the coming months.

The graduation ceremony was held at a restaurant that overlooks the Ternopil lake. It was naturally a dress up occasion which meant I had to wear make-up and look nice. :p

I hate make-up!!

Each outreach team, (Ukraine, Ethiopia and India) shared about their time together and showed pictures for all the family and friends that came.  We ate a yummy meal that seemed to come in spurts between the presentations.

Ukraine team

India team

Ethiopia team

Everybody!

After the presentations were made, we finally were presented with our certificates of completion! And then a million photos were taken.

I've got it!! I finally got it!

It was such a great time to spend together before everyone left for their homes. Many students left that night, so it was time well spent together!

What was church like in Ethiopia?

Hot, loud, crowded, fun, loud, athletic, stinky, very loud, interactive, alive, passionate, and loud.

That pretty much describes the majority of churches in Ethiopia. We attended an international church on Sunday mornings and a true Ethiopian church on Sunday and Friday nights.

How we got connected to the Ethiopian church is kinda funny. On Ruslan’s birthday, Marichka took him to the center and they went walking around. They heard some loud music and thought they would check it out. They walked into a church, listened for a little bit and left thinking they would have to come back next week. When we did come back the church was so welcoming, they sat us up in the front, gave us a translator, met with us after the service and asked if they could take us out to dinner the next day. This was all before they really knew our names.

Once we got to know them, we found out the went evangelizing on Fridays before church. We joined with them in this and continued to get to know them. The people there became some of our closest friends in Ethiopia.

Marichka loves her coffee, and me... not so much.

Lounging for a coffee ceremony

We had coffee ceremony with them, they helped celebrate my birthday, they did hair for some, and we went to a lot of cafes together. They were so happy to have us there, they had never had any foreigners come to their church before.

Our last week in Ethiopia we invited them to our place for dinner. We made Ukrainian food, Moldovan food, and I made fried chicken!

It was a fun experience for everyone. We played some games afterwards and spent a lot of time fellowshipping. We always had fun with our friends!

My last posts were about getting our visas in Turkey and all the adventures we had there. Way too many adventures, so this post will mostly be made up of pictures! Hooray!

In front of the Hagia Sofia

Rise and shine in the Istanbul airport

In Ankara

Spending time with Riza's sister's family

Beautiful Ankara

Visas. It is almost like a bad word now, it’s hard to not say the v word without cringing. I am happy to say we have overcome our fears and received our visas for Ethiopia!… almost.

We went to the Ethiopian embassy here in Ankara on Monday which proved to be a much more difficult process than originally thought. We wandered around trying to tfind the building and when we did find it, it was empty. A neighbor said that they had moved. By chance, Yulia pushed the intercom/doorbell and someone answered! They informed us that yes, the embassy had moved locations and she was able to give us the new address!

So off we went, and since it was snowy and cold and we had already been wandering about in the snow for almost an hour, we took a taxi. Upon arrival, we were met with friendly staff who seemed eager to help us. After we explained our situation, I was asked to go back and answer a few questions. I got a little nervous remembering all the trouble the India team had the interrogations they ahd to go through. The man at the desk was quite friendlt though, we shook hands talked business and then he said ‘wait here.’

The words ‘wait here’ can be so scary. What does that really mean? Is he trying to help us, is he asking for advice from soneone else, is he going to get the visa forms for us? Who knows!!! So I waited. It really was not all that bad, it just was so uncertain.

He did come back though, and said with a smile, ‘ok we can help you out!’ Hooray, hooray!!! He told me that normally people from Ukraine and Moldova are under the jurisdiction of the Ethiopian embassy in Moscow and he only needed to check and see if you could actually give us visas. Everything was fine. We shook hands again and he told me to come back on Wednesday afternoon.

We filled out our forms, paid the money and away we went. Simple as that!

All is good, we came back Wednesday to pick up our passports and visas as planned. I was again, called back into the room. ‘Ah, man what could this mean? Did he discover that he could not give us our visas? Was there a problem with someone’s? What???’

This man was so friendly and nice, he greeted me with another smile and hand shake. It can’t be that bad if he is smilling. He said everyone was able to receive their visas except for me. Me? Didn’t see that one coming. He said that apparently America and Ethiopia have a special deal. Americans MUST apply for a 2 year visa, which he is not authorized to give. No problem though, I can still get mine in the airport in Ethiopia. I can handle that problem.

So we walked away with our visas and passports in hand! We are ready to go to Ethiopia on Tuesday the 21st. We have been going to the local universities here and talking with students as well as seeing some of the history and culture of Turkey. We are enjoying our last few days here with Riza’s sister and family.

Whew! What a whirlwind of a time we have had! We are not in Ethiopia like some of you might be expecting. We are currrently in Turkey, Ankara to be exact. Let me tell you how we came to be in Turkey.

Things started out a little crazy in Ukraine, they almost did not let me go on the flight since I had apparently overstayed *we are still not sure how this worked out.) Anyways, I had to pay a fine.

Our flight was delayed so we missed our connecting flight in Istanbul. We ran around with this man who was trying to help us find our plane, but it had already left. So, luckily the airlines put us up for the night in a nice hotel with yummy food!! We got to see some of the city, take some photos, and buy a few things. We changed our flight, went through security, were about to board and just as we were handing our tickets they told us Ukrainians could not go to Ethiopia. WHAT?!?! We were completely confused. The man we talked to did not speak perfect English nor was he very helpful. All we understood was that Ukrainians and Moldovans needed a visa before boarding a plane to Ethiopia.

So the man led us back through the passport checkpoint and told us we simply could not go. We stood there dumbfounded for awhile, not sure of what to do next. So we went to change our tickets again and explained to the man our situation. This man was a bit more helpful. He told us about some visa database that said Ukrainians could only go on business visas. He helped us change our tickets to Tuesday since we were hoping to go to the Ethiopian embassy on Monday.

After asking about hotels, we found that hotels in the big city of Istanbul are very very expensive. So after waiting for almost 2 hours for our bags, we sprawled out claiming a chunk of benches as our home for the night. We ate kielbasa, mandarin oranges, and chocolate for dinner. We slept alright except for the 3:30 cleaning crew and a few other loud stranded passengers looking for a place to sleep.

The next day we went in search of information. We borrowed a computer, and were able to skype with Riza, a fellow DTS student back in Ukraine who is conveniently from Turkey. He told us many great things. The Ethiopian emabssy in Istanbul does not give visas, but the one in Ankara does. It takes about 5 days to process a visa so that meant we needed to change our tickets again. Where should we stay in Ankara? With Riza’a family of course!!

Riza quickly explained how to get from the airport, to the metro, to the bus station, buy a ticket, and go to Ankara. It is still a miracle to me how a group that does not speak much English get from one city to another that is 7 hours away!! Oh the Lord is so faithful!!

So now we are staying with Riza’s sister and enjoying Turkish hospitality. His family is Muslim, but not devout Muslim. The do not speak English or Russian so our conversations have been very interesting to say the least! Hopefully I will be able to give you more details soon!