It is hard not to hear news coming from the nation we are serving in these days.  Since the fall of the Soviet Union, Ukraine has been the rope in a tug-o-war between Western Europe and the Post Soviet power house, Russia.  It is a very strategic location economically and let’s not forget militarily. Ukraine is pretty much split in half in terms of loyalties (from my estimate).  Half would like to create strong ties with Russia and the other half I would consider anti-Russia. This second group is actually a couple groups in it’s own right. The EU lovers and the Ukrainian nationalists wanting to get away from Russia with the EU the most convenient route.

So when the president, who is seen as a puppet of Moscow by many, backed out of signing a highly anticipated agreement with the EU at the last minute, people got angry.  What started as a peaceful protest has now turned into a seemingly global move to oust the president…again. (Click HERE for more on the Orange Revolution) An interesting twist has been that a lot of pro-president regions have now had enough and have turned on the president as well.

There is no doubt that the Ukrainian government is receiving pressure from both east and west. Recent history shows us that Russia is not afraid of shutting off gas to Ukraine in these kinds of situation, resulting in people freezing to death, just to prove a point.  Recent history also shows us that Europe has no bite to it’s bark in dealing with issues in Ukraine.  Take for example the imprisonment of opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko due to selective justice… aka being the opposition leader that almost won. With all the threats and complaining, nothing has really changed in the former prime minister’s situation. So now it is left to the Ukrainian People.  The government and police force have stirred up the hornet’s nest.  All across the country people are peacefully protesting.  Of course, there are some that try to use force.  Many protests in recent years have ended with nothing accomplished, but this one has teeth.  It is a sign that the Ukrainian people are once again fed up with way the nation has been led. Please pray for the nation of Ukraine. It is in dire need of some godly people who will be counter cultural in the way they do politics.

 

Big thanks to Josh Walker for the photos.  He works with YWAM in Kyiv.

After missing the last three Thanksgivings, the last seven for Lance, we finally got to spend it in the States with family.

We spent Thanksgiving in Oregon with Lance’s family in Culver. It was wonderful weather and us girls went for a walk while the boys… well let me show you a picture of what they found.

Yep, the old Nintendo was located and removed from it’s hiding place. The brothers instantly jumped into a war of NBA Hangtime & NFL Blitz 2000 with a Mario Cart chaser. We lost all three of the guys for several hours.

Once we peeled their hands away from the controllers we managed to sit down to the long-awaited yummy Thanksgiving meal. We are all thankful for family and for a time to be together. Everyone was thankful for multiplication in family, I have gained a second set of parents, brothers, another sister, a nephew and a niece very soon!

Since many of our friends in Ukraine were not able to attend our wedding, they sent a video in their place. This video is from people in Ternopil, Ukraine. You get to see some of our dear friends that we are privileged to work with. You also get to see a bit of the building where we work!  

Lance and I decided to use just one site for our blog, mine. Lance’s previous blog is still floating about in the cyber world though so those of you who may have never had the opportunity to visit his site there is still a chance!

Visit the Life and Work of Lance by clicking HERE!!

Lance has been in Ukraine for over 7 years and therefore has many more tales and stories to tell than I do. He also has lots of photos for you to peruse at your leisure.

You will get to know Lance in a whole new way!

So I have lots to catch up on, like a major wedding for example! Yeah, nothing big or anything.

Lance and I were married October 12th, 2013 in Auburn, Washington at 4 in the afternoon. It was a glorious wedding!

What else should I say? It was glorious.

Lance and I are pretty laid back people so wanted our wedding to feel as calm and relaxed as we can be. We wanted people to sit at tables, we wanted there to be opportunities to chat with those at the tables; we wanted people to enjoy their time together with us. It was to be a party, a big fun ole party.

We incorporated little bits of our personalities and what was important to us. We love the outdoors, wood and things that are natural. Lance loves to work with wood, so we had lots of wood and nature in our décor. I love lots of bright colors, so we had bright fun colors everywhere we could add them. We both love games and breakfast, so we had games and breakfast food. We didn’t want to get bogged down in tradition but to simply have what was us in the wedding.

 

 

We also wanted to incorporate a few other things from Ukraine. In Ukraine, the parents give a blessing to their children before they are given away so we did our version of that. A parent’s blessing is a beautiful and powerful thing and we believe our families play an important role in our lives. This was a time to honor them and make room for them to speak into our lives; both Lance and I were blessed by our parents. Another tradition is to throw candy to your guests as you leave the church, so we did just that. Instead of everyone pelting us with rice, bubbles, or confetti, we bombarded everyone with candy. We thought it was fun.

 

We loved hearing each toast, we loved giving an understanding of missions to people, and we loved being blessed by friends and family.