Just thought I would add a short video of the YWAM Ternopil staff singing happy birthday to me, a few days early! I was surprised that they had a cake for me! It was so yummy… carrot cake with cream cheese frosting. (Cream cheese is quite the treat here!)

On my birthday, I was served homemade bagels for breakfast, with Philadelphia cream cheese (you can’t buy bagels here and the only kind of real cream cheese is Philadelphia which is quite expensive.) I was surprised by this cake at our base intercession time. My friends made me dinner and dessert on my birthday and gave me some wonderful gifts! I was more than blessed to be with my dear friends!

I went to a Moldovan wedding, that is a wedding in the quaint little country of Moldova. My dear friend, Ruslan, was getting married. (Ruslan was staff here in Ternopil, you can read my staff bio on him here.)

I met Lance the day before and together we attended our first Moldovan wedding. It all started at the church, actually the festivities started at 6 in the morning when Ruslan’s mom and sister got up to do the kids hair and then go and have theirs done, but I was asleep for all that. The church service was at 10 and was part of the normal Sunday morning service. The church had their worship time and then as soon as the music ended they brought out the arbor and flowers. It was really much like a typical church wedding just set in the middle of the church service. They said their vows, had communion, were prayed over by the pastor and the church and that was that. Nothing huge, beautifully simple.

The happy couple

Exchanging vows

The real party began later at the reception which began at 6. Moldovans like to dance… a lot. Everyone dances, no excuses, there’s no reason good enough to not dance. You started the night by giving a blessing, flowers, or gift to the happy couple and then get your picture taken with them. Then you dance while you wait for everyone else to do the same thing. We finally sat down to eat at 7ish. Moldovans like to eat… a lot, especially at weddings. There was so much food.

Food on the horizon

Fellowship and food

There were multiple meat platters, chicken with mushrooms, sardines, veggies, salads, salted fish, holodets (meat jelly), bread, zucchini rolls, cabbage rolls, mamaliga (a Moldovan dish), fruit, candy, cake, crepes, canned mushrooms, stuffed chicken… it just never ended! This all came out in stages through out the night, stacking up plate upon plate. The cake was finally cut around midnight and then more desserts came out around 1 in the morning.

Dancing the food away!

And then we danced so we could keep eating more and keep ourselves awake. Moldovans have several traditional dances, one is similar to a waltz/salsa, the other pictured above is a circle dance that is a basic grapevine step. Easy to learn and enjoy. All of Ruslan’s friends and family were out dancing, I danced with his dad, his uncle kept calling me out onto the floor, his sisters danced every dance… there was nothing weird about it. You must dance at a wedding. I even got Lance to dance 🙂

Couples dance

Some unique things about the evening were that many people had prepared a song to sing for the couple. It is normal to prepare something to present the couple at the reception. His sisters also prepared a little dance to show everyone. There were games to be played by everyone. We had to spell out their names using separate letters that people were holding, they played a game with the couple asking questions on who would be responsible for what. They had their backs to each other and held up the corresponding shoe for you was responsible for something. Really funny.

Playing games

The night ended with everyone in attendance standing up and saying a blessing or wish for the couple. They did this as they gave them a money laden envelope. It was a great way to end the night and hear what everyone had to say. The couple got to hear from everyone. This would be a great tradition to have in the states.

The wedding began to break up around 2ish. Lance and I stayed to help clean up and gather the food up in bags. The couple was there until the end too. I finally fell into bed at 3 in the morning, having been thoroughly exhausted from my first Moldovan wedding. It was a wonderful experience and I’m so glad I made the trip. Ruslan was glad we made it as well.

Lance and I at the wedding

My crazy family decided to just get a little bit more crazy and do a mud run together. I really don’t know how we ended up dong this together. I think it started with my sisters wanting to do it, then my dad thought he would too, then my mom thought ‘hey I don’t want to get left out,’ then it was ‘oh Megan will be home in time for it’ and finally we all realized lance would be around too. So we all crammed into one car packed with water, plastic bags and old grubby blankets.

This Survivor Mud Run was at Remlinger Farms in Carnation. It was 3.47 miles filled with crazy obstacles. To see some of the obstacles you can go to the official website and look at Florida’s race, which is set up the same as the one in WA. Our wave left at 10, but we snuck in earlier 🙂

Only the tough survive

I had no idea what to really expect, would there be a bunch of mud or was it just a fake out? I am not a runner contrary to how I look. I survived just like it advertises! At first it wasn’t too bad, run through a little pit of mud, then we had to get down on our hands and knees and crawl through a pipe! I thought “seriously?” It was all down hill from there. My favorites were running through a drainage ditch, sliding down hills of mud and wallowing through mud pits.

What a fine mud mohawk you have!

We all stuck together and finished as one family. Lance enjoyed sliding through the finish line on his stomach. There was a freezing cold shower available, I think the water was pumped from the snow fed river… We could only get semi-clean before we piled back into the car and drove home for a hot shower!

One happy muddy family

Here is a video a friend made about the destruction of our little building at the YWAM base in Ukraine. This little building was our kitchen, dining room, and office. It was getting really old, moldy, musty, and the water broke this winter… so it was time for it to go. We are making way for a new building project that will house more bedrooms and classrooms! Yeah!

FYI- I am returning to Ukraine in a week!

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.