Just a quick note to those who have followed this blog for more than a year. Normally this time of year, Megan wrote a State of Megan Address. Since being married and moving back to Ukraine, we will postpone the official State of the Roberts Address until January (which is more appropriate in many ways!)

Just know we are super happy here, loving life and will have lots to share in our official report. We celebrate one year of marriage on Sunday!! Yeah!

It was a beautiful Sunday afternoon, it had been raining the day before but the clouds took a rest for a bit on Sunday to watch the wedding of Marichka and Sasha.

Marichka was Megan’s first roommate in Ukraine. They shared a bed for a year in their homey apartment before Marichka moved out for a bit before going to Russia. They went to Ethiopia together and Marichka was also a student in the first English For Missions school.

Lance and I had the privilege to be a part of our first Ukrainian wedding. The ceremony was simple, short and sweet, no extra fluff. Mini sermon, exchange of vows, exchange of rings and the kiss! I was happy to see that they threw candy after Sasha carried Marichka over the threshold of the church! Lance and I were only able to nab one piece each since it was such a free-for-all!

There was some time in between the ceremony and the reception which was at another location. When everyone arrived at the location, Sasha and Marichka greeted their parents by bowing three times before they accepted the gift of bread and salt given by their parents. A sign of blessing. We all filed in and found our places at the tables and sat down to a feast!

Now many of you may think you have a feast at Thanksgiving or Christmas but I can assure you, you have no idea what a feast is until you come to a Slavik wedding. Lance and I had some idea since attending Ruslan‘s wedding in Moldova. The cold course of the meal consisted of sliced meat and cheese, pickles, salads, various sorts of fish dishes including stuffed herring (where you take out all the insides, blend it, stuff it back in, and cook it. There was rolled eggplant, fried chicken, sliced veggies and of course holodets, (meat jelly.)

The cold course

There were hot courses that came out as the evening progressed. There was borscht, stuffed crepes, cabbage rolls, and shashlik with grilled veggies. Everything was so yummy! We really stuffed ourselves before we even had dessert!

There were many blessings given at the wedding by parents and family. Sasha and Marichka also gave a gift to their parents to honor them for raising them. There was a fun slideshow and a few songs were sung. They evening began to wrap up with a few games. One game was quite simple, it was like mad libs. A few contestants were chosen and asked to write 10 animals, the emcee then came to the first person and said “When Marichka/Sasha wakes up she is like a _______.” They then have to read the first animal that they wrote. Some of them were quite hilarious! The other game was a different story.

This is where Lance and I made our mark. They wonderful newlyweds went around the room and picked married couples to participate in this new game. Lance and I were chosen naturally. The girls lined up on one side of the room and the guys on the other. When some music began to play the first girl had to dance down to her husband, give him a kiss and dance back. The guy then had to do the same thing. This doesn’t sound too bad except for two things. #1 You had to dance solo, completely by yourself in front of a mob of wedding guests who may or may nor know you. #2 You had no idea what the music was going to be, it was different for each person. Sasha and Marichka went first and had some Ukrainian folk song. Then the next couple had Indian music, the next had some kind of Asian sounding music, there was a sort of Gypsy song and then Lance and I were the last ones and we were blessed to dance to the tango. Yes, we danced the tango… solo. Neither of us profess to be dancers but somehow we hammed it up enough that everyone loved us and thought that we knew what we were doing. The photographer at one point while Lance was dancing his way toward me handed him a flower which he promptly put into his mouth and was the perfect prop. We didn’t do a simple kiss but a dip kiss seemed most appropriate for the tango. We were told later that someone wondered if we forgot others were in the room! We had quite a few complements on our apparent dance skills. As much fun as it was faking it, I would not recommend the game to most people.

Lance turned the big 30 this year! For many years in Ukraine, he hasn’t been able to really celebrate his birthday, so I wanted to make sure that he had some kind of celebration this year.

I could not wait to give him his birthday present, I got him an ukelele! My sisters brought it over when they came to visit. He got to play with Kathryn’s ukelele when we were home last and enjoyed it so I thought he would probably love to have his own. He pretty much plays it every day now.

In the afternoon, a small group of us went bowling. No one was nice on the birthday boy, he lost. Actually, to be exact, I beat him. 🙂 Doesn’t matter who won though, we just had a good time together.

We had enchiladas for dinner together and then other friends came over for dessert later. We had everyone share their favorite memories of Lance. There were some funny memories, many people remembered Lance’s 5-fingered shoes and his yummy sourdough bread. Lance got a guitar stand as well as a Ukrainian shirt.

Lance really likes gooey brownies, I do not. So I told Lance I will make him gooey brownies once a year, on his birthday. He got gooey, chocolate chip, peanut butter M&M brownies for his birthday “cake.”

It was a fun evening together celebrating thirty years of Lance!

During the Equip school, we had a special guest speaker for one day. Coach Tim Powers came to Ternopil to run a short Fit to Serve seminar. What a fun day we had!!

Ready to learn, AND move!

The day started out with some simple teaching but quickly went into some practical elements. We did not just learn about how to keep our bodies fit but we actually practiced! We started out with some simple calisthenics outside in our courtyard.

Stretch!!!

Then we went back to the classroom for some more teaching but it was only a short teaching because we soon headed right back outside to the local track stadium for some running exercises. The day was PERFECT for fitness; not too hot, there was a nice breeze to cool us down.

Skipping backwards is no simple task!

Sweaty but happy together!

As the day wore on, we became increasingly more stinky, sweaty and tired. A strange foul smell began to take up residence in the classroom but we only noticed it occasionally. After lunch, we had a short break but jumped right back into some teaching and then some more fitness.

The only piece of equipment Coach Powers brought and had us use was the ladders. We all thought it would be easy but let me tell you- THAT IS A LIE!! Try to imagine doing brain exercises with your feet, it took a lot of concentration! We ended the whole day with running sprints, not my favorite thing in the whole world but I know its good for me.

Trying to skip through the ladders

And for the record, I was very, very, very sore the next day, Lance was only a little sore.

Lance and I got to have one day off during the Equip school. We thought about just staying home, which can be nice some days, but we decided that we would go out and explore some of the sights around Ternopil. We packed a lunch, grabbed our cameras, and jumped into the car!

First stop, Kremenets, a city about an hour away from Ternopil. We often pass this way as we go to other major cities and we often look up and see this castle on a hill. We usually say to ourselves “We should stop there someday.” Well today was that day. It was a lovely stormy day, sunny for almost all day but very windy with dark clouds rolling in. The castle is only in ruins now with most of the wall remaining and one tower but it is always so fun to see such history!

Next stop was Pochaiv, a city about 30 min away from Kremenets. We had heard that there was a lavra here (Lavra: a type of monastery consisting of a cluster of cells or caves for hermits, with a church and sometimes a refectory at the center.) There was a huge lavra in Pochaiv and is considered a spiritual center for Orthodox. They believe that Mary, the mother of Jesus, came to the monks there and left her footprint in the rock. Now all the waters the come from a spring in the rock are considered holy and to have medicinal properties.

It was an interesting experience for us, not being Orthodox. Many times these spiritual centers leave us feeling empty and lost. So many people come looking for answers or looking for God but they are only led to something else, in this case, Mary and her footprint. We had lunch in Pochaiv and then planned to head home but discovered something else…

We went home a different way and as we were driving I looked up and saw what looked almost like another castle on a hill. We thought we would pull off the main road and try to find this place whatever it was. Why not? It was an adventure day!

We managed to find it after a few turn arounds and discovered it to be an old monastery. Built in the 17th century by monks who escaped from Mongol attack in Kyiv. Over the years it served as a jail, psychiatric hospital, a stable, and an artillery warehouse. The ancient chapel is being rebuilt at the moment from damage down by water damage as well as remaining artillery fire from World War 1.

When we reached the monastery, we were able to see on the next hill over a huge lone rock surrounded by stone crosses. Would you drive away and not explore such a sight? I didn’t think so. We hiked down and over to the wondrous sight. This area is so quiet and serene, to stand amongst 17th century tombs during a growing storm in front of a mountainous rock was surreal to say the least.

The rock is called Devil’s Rock because as the story goes, the devil broke off a rock from the Carpathians and threw it at the monastery intending to destroy the monks and their monastery but the rock fell short and the monastery remains to this day.

We walked all about the rock and discovered foot & hand holds that led to the top. Again, would you walk away without trying to get to the top? I didn’t think so. We made it to the top just as the rain drops were beginning to fall and the thunder and lightning became fierce. We enjoyed the moment and sight from the top but then quickly realized that standing on top of a rock in the middle of a storm was probably not the best idea.

We made it back to our car before the torrent of rain came and continued our trek home to end our fun adventure-filled day off.