This was from awhile ago, but it keeps reoccurring. My wonderful roommate will often tell me at night “I go shower my teeth.” I laugh every time. Yesterday she said she was going to shower her face too. That’s a funny mental image…

This past weekend, Marichka’s mom came to visit. I tried to put my Russian to use, but I failed miserably. I was telling her “I like verenky, semki, borsch, and boys.” Boys? She sort of raised her eyebrows a little when I said this. Of course I did not mean to say boys, I was trying to say holoptsie which are the cabbage rolls. The difference between the word for boys and the word for cabbage rolls comes down to a hard ‘h’ or a soft ‘h’. Small things that make a big difference.

So our first two week of English for Missions are finished and we still have all 12 students! It has been quite a packed two weeks, but God was in all of it. I am so amazed at God’s faithfulness and seeing His hand in everything.

The School

Our first week was mostly spent in assessing where the students where in their language ability. This put a few people in tears, but we have been reassuring students that we simply need to know what they know. There is no way around it. Tough love.

We explained most of the procedures and expectations, gave lots of handouts, and just spent time together. Joanne started out our first week with several lessons on who God is. It was fun learning English while also learning about who God is. The students did lots of activities to bring out their expectations of the school and teachers and what their dreams and nightmares were about learning English.

I also taught a lesson on different learning styles and Allison did a lesson on devotions. We had a class picnic on Wednesday, did a craft on Thursday, and had a game night on Friday, we like to do fun stuff through out the week. Our week ended with a class covenant. We went over what we felt were important points to cover and put into practice, and ended with students signing a poster together agreeing that they would follow the covenant to the best of their ability. And week one was finished, and it was good.

Week two went much the same, except that we put students into groups based on their abilities. This allows us to focus more on what they need, they are also in multilevel groups, and then there are also writing groups. Lots of groups. We also implemented a fasting day on Wednesday. Every Wednesday we will be fasting breakfast and lunch together, instead of eating we are going to be praying and worshiping as one group! I love spending time with God with others who enjoy the same thing. Week 2 finished, and it was good.

Who knows what next week will hold!

First day of teaching!

Family, Friends, and Supporters,

This post is marking my year-long absence from the states and it seems fitting to give a full report on my goings ons. I will try and cover everything as best I can.

Health Care
Physically
God has blessed me in the last year with good health. I only had a small cold last fall. My glasses broke in the spring and I had to have them repaired, they are still not fully functioning but are at least useful now.
Mentally/Emotionally
I have not had need to visit any sanitoriums or “head doctors,” so I guess I am doing good. With the English school a little over a week away, there has been some added stress, but nothing overwhelming. When I first came here, I experienced the usual homesickness feelings (and still do from time to time,) but God has given me a great family here. Ternopil is now my home away from home.
Spiritually
This past year in my personal devotions, I studied such topics as Moses, steadfastness, the heart and purity of heart, and humility. God has certainly been challenging me to trust Him completely. I am truly coming to the realization that God’s will is freedom and His burden is light. I believe that I will be coming into a new level of trusting in God as the English for Missions school begins.

Foreign Policy
My travels this past year, have taken me from Ukraine to Turkey, Ethiopia, Moldova, Poland, and home. I will still have to be making border runs, so I may be frequenting Poland and Moldova. My relations with people here have also been growing. It is an important policy to build and keep relationships with the people of Ukraine. Since being here, I have helped in weekly English cafes, English classes, and English clubs. I have also helped set up team building events for youth groups and other church groups. I have assisted in hosting various teams and individuals through out the summer. In this next year, I plan to the majority of my attention to the English for Missions school. This means that I will not be committed to any of the previous English activities. I will continue to foster relationships with those that attended the English club I ran. This will mostly be done on weekends.

Education
In this past year, I graduated from the Discipleship Training School in Ternopil, Ukraine. Here I learned valuable lessons such as servant leadership, the Father heart of God, grace, the heart of worship, and missional lifestyle. I was able to put this all into practice on our 2.5 month outreach. After graduation, I set myself to designing and setting up the English for Missions school. In the first week of September, I was able to attend the University of the Nations workshop to learn more about the U of N and about other English schools. This was a wonderful experience for me to simply connect and gain a bigger perspective of Youth With A Mission.

Economy
Allow me to brief you on the economic side of my life. The money that is given to me goes towards, food, normal personal items, my apartment, traveling expenses, visas, staff fees and functions (conferences and workshops.) I have also designated a portion to go towards the English for Missions school. School supplies, registration fees, student scholarships are included in this sum. There is another portion that goes toward fellowshipping. Building relationships are important, this is often done over tea and cookies or with a meal in a restaurant. I want to be able to easily build those relationships and bless those that I am in contact with. I am also sure to put some money towards savings and tithings. In the next year, I see a need for increase support for the school. I would like to find support specifically for student scholarships, if you would love to be a part of this school and help and student attend, let me know!!

Thank you again and may God bless you all.

Alright, I am going to start with the most recent activities and work my way backwards.

So the most recent exciting thing I have done…. spelunking in Ukraine! How cool is that?! Yep, a group of us went to explore a nearby cave last Saturday. I have seen some pretty cool caves in my day, Lewis & Clark Caverns, Mammoth Cave…, so I was just expecting some little lighted path with a guide give a speech now and then. I had no idea what I had agreed to.

All ready to go!

We arrived at a run-down building with a small sign marking it as the caving location. We piled out and our guide began to find us caving gear. This included a suit to protect us from dirt, mud and anything else in the cave, as well as a head lamp and gloves if desired. Right away, I knew this was not going to be just a little walking tour.

What?! There might be bats! Nobody told me that!

Once everyone had donned their caving gear, we headed out to the entrance of the cave. It seemed pretty unexciting at first, dark cave, big rocks, nothing new. Then we came to a little hole, our guide proceeded to get down on her hands and knees, then her belly. She just wiggled her way through this little hole in the solid rock. Yee haw! I like adventure, crawling around in a dark cave in Ukraine with nothing but a headlamp, yes please!!

Scaling the walls like Spiderman

I love adventure!!

The whole three-hour tour involved, crawling, wiggling, shimmying, inching, shuffling, and contorting. There were a few moments where I was not quite sure how I was going to get through this rock and I am a small girl! We were diving in and out of crevices, over and under boulders, through mud and clay, exploring every inch of one of the largest gypsum caves in Europe.

I think I can, I think I can, I think I can

Allison is about to disappear down a hole... and we're happy about it!

We managed to make it back to the same entrance that we had entered through just three hours prior. It was certainly an adventure! My body is still reminding me about that adventure…

The Caving Team

The adventure just continued that day. On our way back from spelunking, we stopped at an old castle that had originally been built in 1097! It was mostly just the outer wall, but the city has recently begun to make some small restorations. Apparently, Genghis Khan, Turks, and Poles had attacked the castle and had to turn away in defeat. It is quaintly situated on a hill over looking a green valley. I have heard that the region in which I live, has the most castles in all of Ukraine. I think we will definitely be visiting more castles in the future.

The Tower

Joanne inside the castle

Me in a window... I think it was a window.

Looking inside one of the towers

Finally getting to relax on the castle wall

The Girls outside the wall

This last week in English class we looked at ailments and remedies. Remedies in America are pretty straight forward. See the doctor, take some aspirin, drink lots of water, rest, maybe use a humidifier, and drink hot chamomile tea. We don’t get too exotic in our remedies.

In Ukraine though, when someone is sick it is everyone’s job to inform them on what they should do. Really. Ukraine is considered a warm culture so it is sort of a community event if there is someone sick, it is your JOB to share advice on what your mother did to you when you were young.

In English class, we asked the question ‘What do you do for _____ in Ukraine?’ We got some intersting answers that I thought I would share with you.

For backaches- take some bee poison

For a cut- grab some kind of leafy thing outside (there is a specific plant that I do not know the name of in English) You spit on it and then put it on your cut

For burns (this is my favorite)- whale brain. I have no idea how this is applied, but I guess you can get it in the stores. It’s really expensive though, go figure.

Coughs & colds- drink hot milk with butter and honey

Toothache- some other kind of bee product. It is not honey or wax, but something else they produce

Dizziness- medical spirits (aka vodka or some other form of alcohol)

Headache- Vietnam balm (I don’t know what this is, but it sounds scary)

Fever- wrap up in a hot blanket and drink hot Whiskey

These were just a few of the interesting remedies my class came up with. They thought it was really funny to see my reaction to some of these. Everyone has their own way of doing things, some people would argue over what was the best remedy. Ukrainians always seem to be obsessed with health. If I so much as give a little cough, I am always met with “Are you sick? Are you alright?” The smallest clearing of the throat is seen as the start of a cold. ‘I just had a crumb in my throat!’ I would say, but no matter, here is some hot tea just in case.

Earlier this year, there was a guy who came and only brought one pair of shoes of which you do not wear socks with. (They were called 5 Fingers, I don’t know how to describe them.) Anyways, he got sick, and all the Ukrainians believed it was because he did not wear socks. Gotta keep those feety toasty warm if you want to stay healthy!

It is always interesting talking about health with Ukrainians!