Happy New Year's Eve

well, today is the last day of 2008, we had a pretty good day. We went to see the catacombs in the Pecherska Monastery and the WWII Monuments. The sun was shining every-once-in-a-while...but it still was a cold day. (pictures follow)

New Year's Eve celebration here in Ukraine is much like it is in Russia, it is the night when Grandfather Frost comes with presents for all. All day long the women prepare the delicious dishes that the family will feast on. Families stay up until midnight, when the firework display begins. It is a beautiful show and keeps on going through the night. Many stay up all night long celebrating the new year, dancing and singing.

Our doorbell rang at about 8pm. Our friend Galina, our neighbor, came with a New Year's gift for us, a beautiful tort that she made to welcome our kids here. We gave her and her husband a little German nutcracker and some Christmas cookies.

Our plan is to go to the center tonight before midnight to watch the fireworks from the center! I am really excited!

Happy New Year to all, may God bless you this year!

~kim

on our way to the Catacombs and WWII monument...

Standing outside the Pecherska Lavra, the caves containing the catacombs.

The sun was peeking out from behind a cloud, first time in over 2 weeks!

Jerry and Beki at the monument

WWII monument at Mother Ukraine

close-up of the WWII monument

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year 2009!

We have been enjoying our time with Beki and Parker home! We had a quiet Christmas day, complete with turkey dinner. We missed having Laurel and Trent here with us, but are happy that they were able to celebrate their first Christmas in their own home and with family!

The kids have met our neighbors and the little grandmas that we know. We are hoping to get together with our neighbors sometime while the kids are home. We will see...

We hope that your Christmas was a blessed one, one filled with special times with family and dear ones. And we wish you a wonderful year ahead in 2009!

(The pictures included are of our evening of culture. We enjoyed an evening listening to the beautiful music of Johann Strauss. We sat in the cheapest seats, but enjoyed ourselves.)

We sat in the last row on the 4th balcony, yeah, it was hard to see the musicians, but the sound was fabulous! Yeah, we are some sillies!

the National Academic Theater of Opera and Ballet

the Rundstroms on the way to the Strauss concert

the Christmas tree at Independence Square.

Christmas shopping in Kiev

today we realized that there are only 2 days left before Christmas, so we needed to do a little shopping. We hopped on the metro (subway) to the center of Kiev to shop in one of the many underground malls. Of course we had to stop, regroup and replenish at McDonalds. Then we went on to historical Independence Square to see the large Christmas tree. It was a fun and successful day!

May you have a blessed time together with your family and loved ones. We are loving our time together and yet missing our family and loved ones who are far from us...

~kim

Parker, Kim, Beki and Jerry at Independence Square on December 23, 2008

Parker holding up the monument

Christmas time is here...

Beki and Parker are here! it is so wonderful to have them home...3 glorious weeks.
We enjoyed a delicious spaghetti dinner made by Parker, he is a spaghetti epicure...and he makes yummy sauce too.
I am savoring the moments, cherishing them, finally I am learning that we live each moment of our lives only once.
We are getting snow here, it is looking like Christmas...tomorrow we are going to make some cookies with the chocolate kisses that Beki brought with her. MMMmmm
Christmas cookies!!!! I'll eat some for you.
~kim

click the link

HI all,
Below is a comment that someone made after clicking the link in the post below.
Trust me: click on it, watch it, and think it over...

"wow... interesting! How much do you have to hate someone to not tell them about the amazing gift of eternal life...? Thanks for posting this guys- where in the world did you run across it?! Have fun with Becky and Parker!!!! Hope it's warmer there than it is here :) Hugs to all!!!"

An Athiest speaks out

Check this guy out. This should make it into a Sunday morning service somewhere.

http://www.breitbart.tv/?p=245243

No probs

Hey,
Nevermind the questions about the internet. Started working on its own.

a little help?

Hey,
Does anyone out there know why certain sites (Yahoo is the main one) suddenly won't open on a computer? Can an anti-virus program do that? Why only to some sites? I'm at a coffee shop doing free wireless right now and everything is working fine. At home it's all messed up. Any one ever solved similar problems?
Jerry

"We're freezing!"

Well, it's cold here.
But not as cold as the temps we're seeing in the US. Sorry so many of you are ch-chattttering.
I came back from the store yesterday and saw one of our friends, Pasha, an older woman who, as usual, was selling produce and home-made food out on the sidewalk. "We're freezing out here" she said.

Inside all the apartments and houses in the country it's cold as well as Ukraine tries to keep its debt to Russia for natural gas at a manageable level and so keeps the heat turned down. Russia still promises to cut off supplies on January 1; someone just told us that Ukraine will then steal gas that is going to Europe through pipelines in Ukraine...we'll see.
The current economic crisis (the Ukrainian Griven has lost nearly 50% of it's value against the US dollar since we arrived in October) has only served to highlight problems that run deep in Ukrainian politics: Slavic culture values unity but the evil, flip-side of that positive attribute is that everyone demands that everyone else compromise and so much of government function is at a standstill. This is making coming to workable agreements across party lines or across borders very difficult to achieve.

Well, anyway, to continue that thought, God patiently asked Jonah, when that missionary/prophet was whining about losing his shady little vine, whether he realized that there were 120,000 people in a nearby city who didn't even know right from wrong. I've never thought too deeply about what the point of that story was. Now I'm pretty sure I understand a little better and I think the point is this: "Let the hardships you face keep you aware that other people have it worse".

Well, I think that's what God said to me yesterday as I returned from the freezing street to my cool apartment. There are 10s of millions of Ukrainians who are in cold houses and apartments who've never heard God speak at all....Thanks for your prayers to Him that He will use us to be His messengers.

Home for the Holidays...

In our adventurous lives we have many "hellos" and "good-byes". Many of these are pretty major ones...at the end of August we said good-bye to our son as he headed off to BFA, and in the middle of October we said good-bye to our daughters and son-in-law as we headed to Kiev. I don't want to count how long it has actually been, it hurts... But, I can say that we are anxiously waiting to say some pretty glorious "hellos" this week!!! Beki comes on the 18th and Parker comes home on the 20th. Laurel and Trent will be celebrating Christmas together in the States. I am missing them already...but so happy for them.
If you are wondering how our Thanksgiving went with our neighbors, we haven't had it yet, don't worry, we will blog about it after it happens...I just had to write about how excited we are and ask you to pray for safety in all the travels, good weather and smooth connections. Beki tells us that it is snowing in Oregon...please pray for them... thanks.

preparing for Thanksgiving.... December 14th

Today we spent the day getting ready for our Thanksgiving dinner with our neighbors from upstairs. Jerry shopped for last minute food items and cleaned the apartment...I baked an apple/raisin pie, put together green bean casserole, sweet potato casserole and cut up the ingredients for stuffing.
Tomorrow is the big day!
Please be praying with us...
I will let you know how it all goes and hopefully get a few pictures....

today was a goodie day

It all started this morning after we prayed that God would help us find a good sized turkey at a good price. We went on the subway to a market on the other side of the Dnipro River. We found a lady that had turkeys that looked better than ones we had seen in the central market and they were $2 a kilo cheaper than the others. We were so thrilled. We bought this turkey for our dinner date with our neighbors. Did we mention that we have set our Thanksgiving dinner date with them for December 14th? So, we were interested in getting a nice turkey. We have been praying and trusting God, trying follow His lead with how we go about meeting people and all. When we found these really nice turkeys for a really nice price, I felt like God was saying "keep on going with these plans...I am blessing it." That is a great feeling, to know that God is putting things into place.

...So,... when we returned to our apartment building and found that we had a package slip...well, that was it. If you could have seen our faces, you would have seen the biggest, silliest grins. I felt like I was 10 years old again. The Menomonie Alliance Church has blessed us with a Christmas goodie box for many years now and that was what we got today!!!!!! Thank you Menomonie Church! you made our day even more special...we baked a celebration cake just in your honor and yes, it was so yummy!!!

Today was a really good day!

our post office

The goodies...cake mixes, chocolate chips, hot chocolate, jello and puddings!

our American cake mix baking!

Our yummy celebration cake! whoo-hoo!!

crossing paths

Ok, I have been thinking about this ever since we went to Moscow for Thanksgiving and decided that I needed to blog about it. Ever since we have moved here to Kiev, we have been praying that God would bring about divine appointments with people that He has already been working in and that are already seeking to know Him. So, after praying, we go about our business each day, anticipating that God will bring these people into our lives.
Now, instead of seeing people, like those who stop us to ask directions, or the mother pushing her baby in a stroller as only props the scenery of our lives, we are seeing them as the people that God has put into each day for a reason.
I haven't felt this excited about ministry for a long time. I wake up each morning expecting God to bring into our lives folks who need Him.
So, why am I blogging about this?
After pondering this for a week, I began to wonder what our world would look like, if each of us looked at our days and the people that God brings along as divine opportunities.
So, anyway, these are some thoughts...

Geo-politics and a hot bath

So here's the deal: it's getting to be winter; cold and foggy has been the weather for a few days now. In Russia the way you get the chill out is to go to the sauna. It's a big part of the culture there, but not so much in Kiev.

Anyway, a fitting substitute after a day out trying to practice our Ukrainian and meeting new people is a hot bath. Bathtubs here are still generously proportioned so it's a little like having a small hot tub, which can be nice.

But then there's the water.

All of our water is centrally heated. This means that somewhere in our neighborhood is the 'physical plant' where boilers are housed. ALL of the hot water that either goes through our radiators or into our tub is heated there (and so is all the water for all the other buildings in our area).

This system was instituted during Soviet times when it was easier to keep things under central control.

Now, in a return to soviet-like politics, Russia has threatened to shut off the natural gas supplies to Ukraine starting on New Year's Day. Russia says it's because Ukraine won't pay its bill for gas; Ukrainians tell us it's because Ukraine wants to be a NATO member.

I don't know either way. For us the upshot, day to day, is that Ukraine is conserving the natural gas it does have, and this by making sure I don't waste any too-hot bath water. At this point luke-warm showers are still possible so we'll be content with that. We just wanted you to see into our world a little.


(The painting is of a site in Kiev, Andreevski Monastery, by Anatoly Tartakovsky)



Thanks for reading.

Fogged in

Hi Again,

Weather in Kiev- Pea Soup

Seems there is more time to write and more to write about than in our recent past. We're enjoying the work here, and not just because the neighbors invite us up to eat stuffed carp. Every day is a challenge-what to do? who to try to meet? what questions need answers? The fun part is being able to take every day as an opportunity to see God do something special.

Right now we're trying to kill two rabbits with one bullet (as the old saying here goes): We need to get visas and establish a basis for ministry. Right now we (ok, Jerry mostly) are thinking that a business platform might be a door to establish numerous contacts with people.
We are in pretty close contact with a lawyer who mainly helps westerners with adoptions in the Ukraine but is also knowledgeable about these types of questions.

We could use your prayers, not that visas are so hard to obtain, but so that we have wisdom in how to proceed and if the whole business-to-ministy approach would be best here.

Thanks
Jerry and Kim

p.s. For those of you looking for a World Cup update: Bode came out of his skis in the Super G and was a no-show in the Downhill at Lake Louise. I might have to send him an email and offer some pointers.

Sunday Feast

A belated Happy Thanksgiving to all!

We had a wonderful "family" celebration with our friends in Moscow, hope that you all had a blessed time with your loved ones.

Today was a great day. I am full, and satisfied with the time we spent at dinner with our neighbors. Our hostess told us it was international because she is Ukranian, her husband is Georgian and we are Americans. It was a FEAST! She had obviously been cooking for days. She is a cake maker/decorator by trade, so she made a beautiful cake for dessert. [I included a picture of the cake she prepared] She prepared a stuffed fish, chicken, pork, potatoes, mushrooms, cheese and salami tray, vegetable salad, borsh, pelmeni (similar to tortelini) and strawberry dumplings. We literally ate for 3 1/2 hours. We had course after course. It was delicious. We enjoyed our conversation and are praying that this is the beginning of a wonderful friendship. We will have them over in a few weeks, for a Thanksgiving meal, it will be a bit belated, but that is ok.

Pray for us as this friendship continues to develope, it is our hope and prayer that God uses us in His plan for their lives.

leaving on the overnight express for Thanksgiving!

just a few pictures to give you a look at where I make our food...I am usually standing here at the windowsill, mixing what ever we are going to eat, listening to music and singing at the top of my lungs....can you just picture this?...you can see the apartments across the boulevard? It sometimes crosses my mind that maybe someone can see me?, and then I just don't worry about it...

Talk about inviting yourself over for dinner.....

Jerry and I have been praying, asking God to lead us. And we have been trusting that you are also praying with us, for us. A while ago, we had the idea of inviting some folks that we have met over for a Thanksgiving meal on the 30th of November. We have been praying about this. The people that came into our minds are the older couple here in our building, (the gentleman from our earlier blogs). We were coming home from church yesterday, and who should be outside as we are coming in? our older gentleman friend. He was very happy to see us as usual. We began talking and we told him that this week we would be gone for a few days to Moscow to celebrate our holiday, the Day of Blessings (that is how Thanksgiving is translated here). We told him that when we returned, we wanted to invite him and his wife over to show them how we celebrate this holiday. He said that they would like that but we have to talk about it, and so we followed him up to his apartment to talk to his wife about it. Of course, she wouldn't hear of them coming to our place. We are the guests here in this foreign land, and they needed to invite us over first. So, it is planned, we are going this Sunday to their place for dinner. I really had planned on having them over to our place...but what can I say? I practically invited ourselves to their place.... Pray! we are trusting God that this is His plan and we are quite excited to see this friendship develope!

Ukrainium

Well, here we go.
I've spent the day studying the new lingua here. (You Russian speakers, get this: there are three future forms for every Ukrainian verb, compared to Russian's two.)
Somehow you get cocky after you know another language well enough to buy milk and find the bathroom. After a relatively easy time with Hebrew in seminary I thought about Russian, "This uncircumcised philistine will be like one of them." Reality raised its fang-ed head and dispatched, with dispatch, that bit of pride-based naivete.
Well, Ukrainian is a lot like Russian, even 'very similar'. But after an hour or so of reading about grammar I had that same feeling I used to have learning Russian: "I'm never going to get this."
It's hard to teach an old dog new tricks. I'll be happy to be able to just describe new tricks.

Well, anyway, there's a day in the life. Thanks for reading.

The power of a comment

Well, it is Saturday today. We woke up to a snow storm minus the wind, it was beautiful to watch out our window while drinking coffee. I have been watching the weather turn from snow, to rain, and now back to snow. This means only one thing...it is a baking day. I have a pan of cornbread in the oven as I type and have baked 2 of the little squashes that I bought from our little grandma friend.
Remember our little grandma friend? Her name is Halya. She is the one that we buy sour cream, farmer's cheese and veggies from? Remember also that Jerry gave her a Bible? Well, last friday as I was buying some things from her, of course we were talking and I asked her if she read any of the Bible that Jerry gave her. She said that she didn't have much time for reading. I told her that I read my Bible at least 5-10 minutes each day and that this helps me throughout the day to be calm and have peace.
Now, we are regularly praying for our neighbors and people we have met, and we prayed that Halya would find time to read her Bible that weekend while she was at home. I went out to see her few days ago. We started to talk about life and Ukranian language (as she only speaks Ukranian to us) and (she is very pleased that we are learning her language) and what do you think she said to me...she has read the Bible for 10 minutes each day and has already read 7 pages. I asked her what book she was reading and she answered me, "the new Bible that Jerry gave me!" Silly me! : ) She told me that she was going to write down the questions that she has and we can answer them! Too cool! Keep praying for Halya.
Well, I think the cornbread is finished, and it is just about time for lunch, wish you could join us, really I do...we miss our family and friends. Kiev is starting to feel more and more like home. This is a good thing! Keep praying for us as we continue to meet people and try to meet with people! Pray for the wife of one of our neighbors, she is sick. When she is better, we have already agreed to get together for tea.
~kim

Back in the USSR

HI out there,
Jerry in here.
I had to go back to see that September 10th was the last time I shared the responsibility to update the blog. Kim has turned into The Great Communicator so I know you haven't missed much. We were in Red Lodge, MT, on Sept. 10 and talking about going to Kiev. Now here we are...

So, Kiev? My impression is that it's like Moscow, Lite. Subway the same, but smaller. 2/5 as populous. Pace, slower and people 2/5 as gruff. Language the same, sort of.

We're doing Ukranian lessons now. We'd planned starting to study for several weeks, even bought books. Today I got to see how important it would be when at a big supermarket the clerk only spoke to me in Ukranian. Hey, you want some survival Ukranian gleaned from our first language lesson? "U mene nemai roochki. (I don't have a pen)" Now, get out there and survive.

Snowed today. First of the season and not enough to actually SKI on, not to mention that the nearest real mountain to the whole country is in Slovakia, but nice to see. I feel bad for all the commuters who jam up on our block every night; this can't be a help to them.

Kim and I have started some earnest prayer for direction. We've pretty much determined that all of our efforts, these 31 days, have been about our own good ideas. We prayed yesterday, asking God for direction. When we debriefed after our prayer we both thought we heard God say, "Keep building relationships with your neighbors and RELAX A LITTLE." Wish I'd thought of praying for concrete direction before putting up all the "English Conversation" ads, meeting the director of a university language program to offer our services AND putting up more ads.

Well, we'll see where it all goes. Thanks for reading along and for your prayers.

Lesson re-learned.You can never outgive anyone here!

Ok, how many years have we lived in Russia? and now we live in the Ukraine? too many to count and I have already learned this lesson many times. I should have known by now, but have forgotten in my enthusiasm about giving gifts.
We have a little grandma friend that lives outside the city, 100km. She comes into the city 4 days a week to sell home made sour cream, farmer's cheese, and various vegetable things she grows in her garden. We have made friends with her, remember her from our other blogs? Well, a few weeks ago, Jerry gave her a Bible in modern Russian and a pair of reading glasses (our girls found them at Target in the $1 bins!) Well, a few days later, she gave us some apples that she grew in her yard. Jerry reminded me that this is a good thing, that our friendship is developing. I thought that this made us even in the gift giving. Then the next week, she gave us some walnuts that were from her yard as well. They are very delicious and I am enjoying them.
So, I was baking some pumpkin (for using in recipes this winter) these past few days and decided that I would bake a loaf of pumpkin bread for our little grandma. Today, I went down to give it to her and buy some sour cream from her. Guess what? She gave me more walnuts, I was trying to graciously say that we still have some from before and then she also insisted that I take some cabbage! Oh my! when will I learn? Sometimes the more you try to refuse, the more they give you. I thought that I already knew all of that, yikes, old habits die hard, don't they?
A while ago, I had an idea of asking her to come up to our place for lunch some day, the weather will become wintry soon and it may be really nice to have a warm bowl of soup in a warm place. Please pray about this, I would love to be her friend. I know that if it is God's plan, it will work out and we won't have to worry about who owes somebody something. We will just be friends. Her name is Galya. Maybe sometime she will let me take her picture? maybe not.
~Kim

How to celebrate a birthday

Today we got a call from our friend Dima, who just happens to look like Owen Wilson. He called to invite us to celebrate his daughter's 14th birthday with the family and some friends. (If you are not sure who this friend is, he is a Ukranian friend who lives here in Kiev and is starting a work with youth.) So, we continued on with our plans for the day, waiting for his call at 4pm with the details.

4pm came and Dima called. We would meet the family in the center of town at 5:30pm, and hang out together and proceed on to a McDonalds for a birthday dinner.

Now, we just love the fact that we are getting around town on public transportation. At this time of day, "Chas peak" rush hour, you basically stand next to the subway and you are literally pushed into the wagon just by standing near the door. Your body is squished by people on all sides, so, you don't have to worry about hanging on to the handrails, you can't reach them anyway, you stand supported without fear of falling.

We met our friends, and waited for the others to arrive. It was a chilly night, right about 32*F. Dasha, the birthday girl really wants a skateboard for her birthday. Her parents wanted to search the center of town to find one at a good price. So, our party proceeded to search for it. In the process, I found a whole new world of stores, I never knew were there! There is a network of underground mall under the center of town. What fun it was walking around, looking at all the places that I can spend the cold winter days!

We finally found the store that sold skateboards. We found that the cost was too much for the family at the moment. A little knowledge for you who like me, don't know anything about skateboarding....you have to buy skateboards, the wheels, and the axels all sepatately. But, we all had fun in the process.

We all got on the subway and rode the train to a special McDonalds, where there was a 3 story fun-land for Dasha's little brother. We got there at about 7:30pm, we waited and waited for a table big enough for 8 people. We finally got 2 tables close to each other. We sat around and talked and told funny stories about Dasha and ourselves.

All in all, it was a very fun night out, and we enjoyed ourselves and enjoyed celebrating Dasha's birthday too.

So. happy birthday Dasha!

Happy night!

Saturday Market

Oh, today was a good day.
We have discovered that every other Saturday is Saturday Market day. We walk just a block to a parking lot that is converted into a market for the day. We have found very good prices on food here. I am thankful as food is quite a bit more expensive here in the capital city.
Those of you who know me, know how I love making food with dried beans, and guess what? I finally found them here at the market! So, guess how many kilos I bought? 5kgs (that is more than 10 lbs). Ok, I know that is alot of beans, but....I don't know if I will find them next time.
We also found some cornmeal. Maybe these sound like really common foodstuffs, but I am finding the food here in Kiev is diferent from what was available in Krasnodar.
We have found that at this market we can get fish and chicken at a good price.
Buckwheat is also a staple food here rather than rice. As it happens, Jerry and I love buckwheat, and I googled it and found that it is very good for us.
While waiting in line and buying food, it is easy to start conversations with people, especially when they hear our accents, people are quite friendly and want to know where we are from.
So, pray for us in 2 weeks when we go back, the people that are buying food at this Saturday market are our neighbors and we are trying to meet them!
Please pray for us, we are going on Monday to find out about enrolling in a Ukranian Language course. We want to learn the basics of the language and make some contacts for the future.
Pray that we meet the folks who will be the start of our ministry here.
Pray that we don't get too discouraged, we really don't know anyone here, yet.
Pray that we meet people here in our neighborhood, they are noticing that we are not just visiting, but are actually living here.
We will have some friends some time.....

A Historical Week

This has been a week!

A historical week. The US has elected it's first Afro-American president! Wow!

We talked with our kids, I just love our kids, they are the best...I miss them terribly. They are doing well. Praise God for skype!!!

We got tickets this week for Beki to come here for Christmas. Both Beki and Parker will be here. Laurel and Trent will celebrate Christmas with family in Oregon. It will be the first time that we are not all together over the holidays. But, it is a good thing...

Some of our things made their way here! We are so excited, but, sad to say, we didn't ask for the box that our winter coats were in...oh, no! Thankfully, it isn't freezing cold outside yet, we will see about getting the rest of our things sometime soon-ish. When I packed up our things, I never really thought that we would get our things in installments, so...

We are still praying and trying to meet people. This is proving to be tougher than I had thought. Would you please join us in prayer? God has a plan, He knows the end of the story, we can trust Him.

We had the opportunity to spend a whole day with our landlady, waiting for some work to be done on our place. It was a great time of talking, laughing and drinking tea. We have really good landlords and we have had the opportunity to get to know them more this past week.

We talk daily with one of the little grandmas that sells food outside our building. Jerry gave her a Bible last week, she gave us some walnuts and apples in return. She speaks Ukranian, I am thinking of asking her to show me how to make some Ukranian food and teach me some Ukranian too. We will see if this would be something that she would be interested in?

We have hung up ads for conversational English help with our phone number. So far no one has called.

Please pray for us as we try to meet our neighbors and make some friends. Our home is a bit more homey now, I am ready to invite new friends over...we just need to make some. We are not discouraged yet. We need to pray more.

Thanks for reading our blog, it is fun to hear from you too, thanks for writing and encouraging us. Thanks for praying with us too. This is most important!

(This picture is of us on Jerry's birthday, last Friday. We went to see the Mother Ukraine park. Did you know that there are catacombs in Kiev? We went to see them as well. It is really fascinating.)

~Kim

Drinking tea while we wait...

Well, Jerry and I have been praying that God would use whatever means He wanted to have us meet people. So, maybe in answer to that request, this afternoon at about 2:50pm our electricity went out. I didn't think much about it cuz in Russia that is a common occurance. I was just settling down to read a book, when I thought that I could go outside, find a bench to sit on and hopefully strike up a conversation.
So, I went outside. And as I came out the door, a little grandma came over to me and asked me if our radiators were warm. We talked for about 10 minutes, she said that she noticed that we were walking around before. Her name is Emma. You can pray that we will meet again.
There were no other conversations for the next 1/2 hour, so I came back home. Once it started getting dark and I noticed that others had lights, and we still didn't have ours. So, when Jerry came home, he called our landlady. Our landlord came over on his way home from work. He couldn't find out what the problem was. He said that he would call the electician and have him come over in the morning.
So,... we were home in the dark and it was only 7pm. There isn't much to do in your home in the dark with only 2 candles, no games, and no electricity! So, we decided to get on the metro and go downtown and see the city at night all lit up. So, we went...
We just got up top from the subway when our phone rang, it was our landlord. He told us that he was back at our apartment waiting for the electrician to show up. So, we hurried back home and sat in our kitchen drinking tea with our landlord for almost 2 hours waiting and talking.
The electrician came and turned on our lights with nearly a snap of his fingers and said that he would be back on monday to finish updating the electrical system which was dated from 1963.
It was such a great time talking with him. Maybe this is part of His plan for us? dah, do you think?
So, would you please keep praying for us to meet people? Would you pray for our landlords, and Emma? And would you pray that God keeps arranging for us to meet the people He has in mind for us to meet?

A look at our place!

Ok, I am so excited! I have made a very simple video tour of our apartment here in Kiev. Remember that I am a novice at video-ing. And remember that we don't have our things yet, so it is quite empty. But, we really love our place. It is beginning to feel like home. I will make some more videos from time to time so you can see glimpses of our life! ~Kim

A look at Kiev!

Yesterday we decided to go to the Hillsong church here in Kiev. What a great, exciting young church.! They did a great skit on the prodigal son.

The pastor spoke on how we need to think of our city, Kiev, as our home and that we need to reach out to all of the people around us as if they were our close friends and relatives and tell them about the hope they can have in Christ! Wow! great inspiring words!

Please keep praying for us as we try to meet people around our neighborhood. It is getting colder out and the time of just hanging around outside will be coming to an end soon, so time is valuable.

We took the long way home as we are still trying to orient ourselves around town.

I am including a couple of pictures, as we finally have our internet connection here in our place!

Just hanging out

So, how does one go about meeting neighbors? That is the question of the day for us. We are praying each day for God to give us "divine appointments".
We go out each day for various reasons expecting something. Keep praying for us as we meet store clerks and market people. This is a start...
We sat outside yesterday hoping that we would meet someone. I have noticed through the years that if one has a baby, young child or a cute dog that complete strangers will have the courage to strike up a conversation with you. Well, after some discussion, we decided that these were not the options that would work for us... So, what to do? Jerry said that maybe we should be the complete strangers that strike up the conversations with the folks who have a baby, young child or cute dog. So....that is our plan for now. Will you pray for us as we go about meeting our neighbors? All we need is a couple or two.

So, for now the plan is to hang out and meet people.
~Kim

Kiev the beautiful!

Yesterday was a great day!

We woke up quite early, (still getting over the time difference) and were able to get on line and check our mail. Do you realize how wonderful it is to read letters from your family and friends? I am so thankful for all the encouragement and love you send us!!!



We are so thankful for this apartment! We were able to move in with only our suitcases, there is an assortment of dishes, pans and utensils. I am reminded again that God is a God of tiny details too, He made sure that there was a Turkish coffee pot! If you know us, you know that we LOVE our coffee. And, we didn't have a coffee pot in our suitcases. This place even has bedding.



Ok, back to yesterday... We decided to get aquainted with our new city. We walked 3 minutes to the corner and got on the subway. It reminds me of the Moscow metro, only more crowded and deeper!!!! I have to tell you, downtown Kiev is a beautiful old european looking city. We had such fun, I felt like a tourist taking a ton of picutres that I will be sharing soon.



Yesterday I was also reminded that we live in a city where other faiths are trying to find disciples too, we saw a group of Hari Krishnas singing right at our subway entrance.



What can you pray for?

~ opportunities to meet our neighbors, it is colder than I thought it would be and folks are not just hanging outside in the evenings

~pray that our bodies will adjust to local time

~pray that we will be keen observers of the needs of the folks here in Kiev

~pray that we will adapt to the culture here

Thanks for your prayers! we need them!!!!!

~Kim

Trains, automobiles and walking sticks!

We are here in Kiev!!!!!
We arrived by the overnight train at 8am. We were met there by a friend, Dima (who looks like Owen Wilson's twin). The 3 of us, the driver and 6 suitcases crunched into a small taxi. Jerry and Dima sat in the back seat with 2 of the suitcases on their laps. After we arrived at our new place, we sat in our new apartment kitchen enjoying some Russian conversation and a cup of tea with our friend.

After Dima left, we were free to explore our new apartment. We have a entryway with a coat closet and glass doored bookcases and cupboards. There are wooden parquet floors all throughout the place! The room to the right of the entryway/hallway is our bedroom, to the left is Parker's bedroom, straight ahead is the living room and farther back and down the hall is the kitchen, toilet room and bathroom. We have 2 balconies! what fun!!!
I will post some pictures when we finally get our internet hooked up. Jerry was able to find a card that allows us to do dial-up from our phone line, but this is really too slow for pictures.

After discovering that we didn't have any TP, we decided to take a stroll around our place and look for the shopping places. We didn't have much success (but, we did find TP), so we came back and Jerry decided to look at the city map! He found a market and supermarket only 3 blocks in the other direction from where we had explored. We have been shopping several times now, as we buy food and necessities here. I have forgotten how heavy grocery bags can get. We sold our car when we left Krasnodar, Russia. Now we are urbanites and think that we will not buy a car. We will see.....

I am not sure how much to write before you may get tired of reading, so I will stop for now, in hopes that you will want to read more the next time you check. The saga will continue...but I will leave you with some prayer items....

~we are hoping to have a wireless connection, this week if possible! please pray about this...

~my shopping list now includes a Russian/Ukrainian dictionary, we realize that we will need more than shopping terms for everyday language. Pray that we can find some language helpers for Ukrainian language learning.

~please pray that we have divine meetings with our neighbors, and that we understand clearly what God wants to do here with us.

~pray for us as we continue to trust God for all the aspects of our lives.

~pray that we will adjust to this time here, we are 10 hours ahead of pacific time, US. We keep waking up at about 2am.

I think that should cover it for now...we are pretty excited about all that the future holds,
~Kim

Survivor China in Moscow!

Wow, we are in Moscow! I thought that I had sent a new posting and looked and found out that it didn't go through.

We made it here without any big hitches or glitches. I could tell that you were praying for us, my tears were not as many as I had thought. I saw that our girls and son in law were doing quite well and that they would continue to do well with or without us. We will be calling to see how our son Parker is doing tomorrow. He is at a class party tonight.

We slept pretty well, until about 4am. We decided to watch a couple of episodes of survivor in China. OK, we are survivor junkies. We really like that show and the whole socialogical implications of it all. Have you watched it?

We also went on a mad goose chase for a computer plug for the Russian outlets. I think all in all it will make for better sleeping tonight.

Please pray for us as we leave for Kiev tomorrow night, we go by express overnight train. It will be nice to finally get to our apartment and unpack! It has been a long time since we have had somewhere to actually put our things. We saw pictures tonight of our new place. It looks really nice and we already know that we will like it.! thanks Bob! We will post pictures of it as soon as we can.
Please pray that we will meet our neighbors. We are really excited to begin our ministry there, and we are waiting on God to know what that is and how to do it.

Thank you for your prayers, I knew that people were praying for us yesterday, it was tough, but God is really good and he gave us a great day of travel.

We will let you know what is happening all around us as soon as we can!
our love to you, ~Kim

Bittersweet Symphony

Well, we are sitting at the Eugene Airport waiting for our delayed plane to land. The fog is just beginning to burn out, so our flight will be leaving only about 45 minutes late. This ws nice. it gave us more time for goodbye-ing!
I have been trying not to think too far into the future about saying goodbye to our dearly loved ones, and about our new adventure in Kiev and now I find that I am not very prepared for the day ahead...tears are ready to pop out of my eyes.
Yesterday went by too quickly. It was Trent's 21st birthday! We are so happy that we could be there to help celebrate with the Wagners! It was such fun to stay at Laurel and Trent's place along with Beki too. Life can be really sweet when extra little joys are given when you aren't expecting them. We were able to spend time all together with Jerry's mom and step-dad, and had a birthday feast of roasted veggies, and steaks with Jerry's sister and husband! We were able to talk to all of my family too on the phone, thanks for calling!!!!!!!
We are so blessed, and I am remembering that God has a plan for each of us, one that He has already written out even before we were knit together in our mother's womb, and that I can trust Him because He knows the end of this story of our lives and it is all for the good for those of us who love Him. This is what God has been teaching me for many many years and I still am learning.
Pray for us as we begin these days of adventure. Pray for our kids in Eugene, OR and BFA, Germany. Pray for us!
Thanks! ~Kim~

Out in the cold

Hi all,
I'm finding that my wife has an elife all her own. When I begin stories people are often telling me, "I know, I read your blog" to which I reply, "I need to start reading that!"

Well, Kim's doing a good job of updating things so I won't go into too much detail about our tour. We are now in Missoula, on our way to Hamilton, Montana, it's 37f outside and the forecast is for snow. We realize that in only a few days we'll be packing up all of our summer clothes in Eugene and then in a few more days, moving to Kiev for winter. We'll be wearing fur hats with our shorts. That's a pretty classic tourist look.

Our friend and colleague, Bob Merrill, found and rented an apartment for us. He writes that it "is located ONE MINUTE from metro [subway station] Pecherskaya. It is three rooms [livingroom and two bedrooms] on the 7th floor. It has taller ceiling then a normal apartment. I tried to write down things to tell you---metal door, 2 balconies, plastic windows, wood floor, tiled bathroom/toilet room, Samsung washing machine, refrigerator, microwave, Sony TV, lots of storage, couch, table, beds--all just what you need. There is a McDonalds at the metro stop and a Coffee House in front of your building."

So there, you know what we know. In the next months we will be working to get residence visas. When that happens we can have all of our stuff shipped from Russia. We'll need to find an unfurnished apartment then.

Now people can tell Kim they read it already in the blog.

In God's Country!

This week has found us in Helena and Great Falls, Montana. I think that this is some of the most beautiful country in the states. Wow! The birch trees have turned brilliant yellow, some bushes are firey red and the pines give the green and browns. Autumn has always been my favorite time of the year. I am loving it!
We have been able to catch up with some old friends that have been a part of our lives for many years and have had the opportunity to meet new friends that will be a part of our lives from now on , for this we are very thankful.
Jerry has had plenty of exercise this week, playing raquetball, hiking mountains and fishing. I have enjoyed many conversations with women over coffee and tea.
We have felt so loved and welcomed into your churches and homes. Thank you for joining us in prayer. We are relying on your prayers as we leave for the Ukraine, now in just a week!
We just received word that they found an apartment for us! We are really excited! We don't know anything about it yet, but we will let you know.
We are at a conference right now for ministry people. We are feeling pampered and have had time to relax and rest. This is just what we needed. It has been a busy, full summer with almost no down time.
Thank you Rocky Mountain District for asking us to come to your TLC conference.!
Kim

A day of rest

Well, here I am again after only writing a few days ago. We are enjoying a day of quiet together while on this mini-tour, yes, together! It is really nice.

We have really enjoyed the opportunity to connect with so many great people here in Montana and Idaho. We would love to squeeze you all in our suitcases and take you with us. It is so good to be back home here in the West!

This day has been quiet and I have had time to be still and think. It is becoming real to me that we are moving to Kiev in just a short while. (we leave on October 15) It is a bit overwhelming when I think of all the changes that will happen very soon. And so, I am asking you all to help by praying for us. We are ready to do whatever God has for us. We want to know what that is and how He wants us to do it. Would you please pray that He makes it clear to us? When we first get to Kiev, we will be meeting neighbors, making friends, filling out paperwork and all that goes with moving. We need your prayers.

Would you pray for our family too, this is also on my mind as I think about moving. We will be spread all around the globe. This will be a time of growth for us all, and it will be good.

thanks for checking our blogspot!

we rely on your prayers and are encouraged by you!

serving Him together,

Kim for us

Planes, Buses, different cities....

Well, this week has been a good one. We were able to travel through YellowStone on our way to the next place. I have to say, it was so beautiful. I took pictures just like any tourist, and I used to live in Wyoming.

We were on our way to Idaho Falls. I joined Jerry for a few days of his tour, we had a really good time with our hosts, talking with the kids club and each of the adult groups.

Then, I took a shuttle bus for a few hours drive to the next city in my tour, Boise, Idaho. I got to ride through Twin Falls, Idaho. What unique beauty they have in that area of the world.

Boise had many good events planned, one was a cultural night of learning all about Russia, the foods, music, dress and games. A few men of the church invited their friend who is from the Ukraine to come to church. Peter and his son came to the meeting and we were able to speak Russian together! I discovered that the church in Boise has opened their church to immigrants who move to the area to have orientation classes which are held there at the church and at Thanksgiving time, they invite all of these immigrants to a Thanksgiving dinner. I was quite impressed at their community service. Another event this week was a dinner at a Russian Cafe with real Russian food. It was fun.

God has richly blessed me in my travels, I have found such kindred hearts everywhere I have gone. And, everyone is interested in what is going on in Russia, of course I just can't stop talking.

Today I got on a plane and flew to Great Falls, Idaho. I am looking forward to what God is going to do this week, Thanks for praying for us and loving us and supporting us.

Would you remember to pray for me this Sunday as I speak twice. Yes, I am a bit nervous, but that is ok. Posted by Kim

Red Lodge

This week has found us in Red Lodge, MT. I have been really glad that Jerry told me to be sure to pack clothes for cooler weather. As usual, he was correct. It has been refreshing to sleep with the windows open at night and enjoy the cool night air in the 40's. And then to have the sun shine toasty on our long sleeves during the day.

We have enjoyed a few days of rest and renewal here as well as time with Jerry's dad and family.

I had the priviledge (for the first time) of attending a Beth Moore conference in Billings!!!! No not a telecast, but real life. The Red Lodge Alliance gals invited me to go with them. It was such fun to get to know each other as we spent quite intensive time together and the conference was very good too. I would recommend one to everyone. Thank you to Pastor Bryan and Tammy and all of you in Red Lodge, you welcomed us, made us feel like one of you and we just loved hanging out with you. We will keep you in our prayers and ask you to keep us in yours!

Happy Birthday to Beki!

Yesterday was our daughter Beki's birthday. We are far away talking to groups about our lives and ministry...and our daughter celebrated her birthday with sister, Laurel and brother-in-law, Trent. As we were talking, I discovered that they were making cinnamon buns. It made me so happy, [this is a Rundstrom family tradition to have cinnamon buns (usually as breakfast in bed with the whole family) on your birthday]. I was homesick for our family. But somehow knowing that they were eating the buns, made me feel a bit better.

I was eating lunch with a group of women in Missoula, MT, who have been meeting together for 7 years to pray for each other and the needs that they have and for others. They were meeting to celebrate the answers to prayer and praise items that God has blessed them with. It was wonderful to witness how great our God is and how He is able to do mriaculous things in our lives and that He lovingly teaches us all through our lives.

It was a really good day all around. Happy Birthday to you Beki! We love you!!!!

Red lodging

HI again,
Kim and I made it to Red Lodge. It's nice here, next to the mountains and it's rainy and cool so maybe the ski run will open early...too bad we won't be around to find out.

If we haven't said already, we're returning, not to Russia but to Kiev, Ukraine, to begin the work of planting a new church. Whew!, I hope we're ready for that. Anyway, as we get around to churches we hope to advertise our new blog so at least some of you reading this will be reading it as old news while we blog about our travels around Montana and Idaho.

Don't worry!- I have a fly rod along for emergency trout fishing. Hopefully I'll find an emergency situation that requres a #10 Joe's Hopper.

That's it for now
Jerry

Say something profound

Hi out there,

We're new to blogging here and so the challenge to wow you, our valued reader, daunteth.

But here goes:

We're at the airport in Eugene, Oregon, waiting for a flight. I'm looking out the window and I see airplanes parked on the grass in front of a building. They've obviously been placed there as monuments of some kind. It reminds me of Russia, where every community seems to have its own MIG-on-a-Stick; a remnant of some past war in which that particular model fought, I guess.

But I wonder, Isn't that plane worth more in scrap than its value as landscaping? Aluminium isn't so cheap these days.

Yet for some reason we humans like monuments and are willing to forego possible benefits so that we can hang on to some past glory...

Apply those words to our work of reaching a lost world with the message that God, with huge gladness, accepts those who come to him in Christ's name and you get the profoundness I was going for.

Well, that said, we are on our way to Montana and Idaho for a tour of churches. We get to spend some time, just Kim and I, in Red Lodge, MT, getting ready for our speaking dates. We're going to attempt to do the job, not in the style of Missions-as-it-was-in-the-50s but to take into account the great involvement of local churches as they send their own members to do the work which they used to leave to the professionals. It will help that during one of those speaking dates I'll be in the hometown (Lewiston, Montana)of one of the 5 guys killed by Auca indians in Equador, in the '50s. They were some of the first missionaries to use that innovative tool, the airplane, to get the job done.

That's kind of dedication which led to innovation is more than a monument; it represents a living example of us at our best.

That's it for the first one. Thanks for reading.

Jerry

Our very first entry!

Well, this has been quite a summer for us! We moved from Russia to the states for the summer. Our daughter, Beki, graduated from Black Forest Academy. Our daughter, Laurel, married her high school sweetheart. Our son, Parker, is a junior and back at BFA. Jerry and I are going to the Rocky Mountains to tell folks about our adventurous life and what God is doing in Russia and what we hope He will do in the Ukraine. ~Kim