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