Cernauti, Ukraine

      Well we just got back from our trip to Ukraine yesterday, and I wanted to blog about it asap so I don't forget anything about this totally new experience and our great weekend!  But be warned, this may be even longer than usual (I know they're usually long anyways)...


      So I got picked up on Friday morning at about 8:30 am, and we were on our way out of the city soon after.  Although I've only gotten the pleasure of meeting Hillary (the van, of course) once, when I was picked up from the airport 2 months ago, we had plenty of time to bond on this trip.  And yes, Hillary has quite the personality, which we all create for her.  So probably about 2 hours into our trip, we got pulled over by one of the about 20 police cars we saw that day.  Andrew was speeding, but who doesn't here, and of course forgot his Michigan drivers license at home.  We warned him to play dumb and only speak English to him, but I think he forgot and thus got a 280 lei ticket instead of probably a warning.  To entertain ourselves on the rest of the trip, we listened to music, which is new to Hillary, sang along to Disney songs, played catch phrase, and at every stop collected rocks for a prayer station.  We didn't have any more troubles until we reached the long line at the border, where we waited for 2.5 hours, and they interrogated Tom about his antique Bible he was smuggling in.  

      We finally arrived at the conference center in Cernauti where we stayed at about 8 pm.  Cernauti is part of the area of Ukraine that used to be part of Romanian until after World War 2, so thus most of the people in the region also speak Romanian at home.  We were greeted by Sandu & Pavel, our hosts for the weekend, and they had prepared a typical eastern European dinner for us of pieces of bread with butter, cheese, salami, and cucumber on them.  After discussing the logistics of the weekend, we all prayed together, and then pretty much went directly to bed.  


      The next morning, we had a breakfast of exactly what we'd eaten the night before, and then got to preparing for the conference.  We had about 50 teens show up, all dressed up in skirts and heels.  We had an icebreaker game, worship, and then Tom preached on Luke 6.  The theme for the weekend was "Listen, Watch out and allow yourself to be Transformed.  We then had games which involved a person blindfolded with a partner leading them and others distracting them, which illustrated that we need to be careful which voices we are listening to in life.  We then had lunch, and then came back together for a team drawing game, worship, and Tom's preaching from Luke 11, which is about changing your life from the inside out.  Then we allowed them to go around to the 8 different prayer stations to dwell on what they had be taught and to make any decisions in their hearts.  Some of the prayer stations included washing rocks which they could keep as a reminder, dwelling on the attributes of God, and writing areas in their life they needed to give to God and tearing it up and throwing it in a heart shaped box.  The whole program went very well and I think that the teens did some heart searching to evaluate what was really on the inside.  It was kind of out of their comfort zone, because these teens aren't used to playing games and such in church, because their churches are super conservative.  For me, it was encouraging once again to see the global church in action and to see more young people who love the Lord.

Tom preaching

Games

Telling their teammates what to draw

      After the conference, we had a meeting with Sandu and Pavel to discuss camp there this summer, and I did by best to try to listen even though my brain was tired of thinking in Romanian.  We then changed into jeans and headed out to a grocery store where we all bought vanilla coke and various chocolates!  Everything there is super cheap compared to the prices in Romania, but of course it wasn't cheap for Ukrainians because they have much lower salaries.  Then we went to a restaurant called Smile where we got pizzas with Sandu, his wife Marta, and Pavel.  Back at the conference center, we enjoyed our vanilla coke and played a hilarious game of apples to apples before we crashed.

With Pavel, Sandu, and Marta at Smile for Pizza

      Sunday morning, after we once again got all dressed up in skirts and such, we also enjoyed the same breakfast food again.  We split up into 3 teams for the day:  Tom, Boing, and myself; Kristie, Anca, and Andrew; and Dave and Felix.  Dave and Felix split up in the morning and between the 8 of us, we went to 8 different churches that day!  Tom, Boing and I were picked up in a Russian Lada by a member of the village church we went to that morning.  And by village I mean large houses in the countryside not near any shopping centers, not like straw huts.  It was beautiful driving out there and it snowed on and off all day.  Sandu is the pastor of that church so it helped us feel a little more comfortable having already met him and talked with him.  There were about 15 people in attendance, mostly old people and the pastor's 4 kids.  The women all wore head scarves and sat on the right side, while the men sat on the left.  Sandu played guitar and led us in a couple songs from their hymnal, and then Boing shared a testimony.  I then was pretty much put on the spot and shared my testimony about the importance of your personal relationship with God over the "stuff" we do for Him.  I shared a little bit about how I got saved, and my favorite verse that I want to be the story of my life, Psalms 118:14.  I wasn't really that nervous, but of course I turned bright red and everyone noticed haha.  Sandu thought it was because he was asking me questions about why I was here and that he had scared me or something.  Then Tom preached his classic sermon about Priscilla and Aquilla while Boing translated and Nati, Sandu's 2 year old son, ran all over the stage.  

Thankfully we didn't have to wear our head scarves like this, although some of the old women did!

Loving the head scarf

Sandu's church

Countryside where the village we visited was

      After church, everyone went downstairs where some of the women had prepared a meal for everyone.  I had my first sarmale, or cabbage roll, since being in Romania, some pork and potatoes, and of course bread.  There was also this jelly meat soup stuff that Boing had warned us about which is apparently a special dish, but knowing that the Romanian didn't like it, I wasn't brave enough to try it.  After lunch, we were driven to Sandu's house, where we met up with Felix and Dave and hung out with Sandu's 4 kids for a couple hours.  Tom had a great time practicing his Romanian with the kids and teaching them some English.  

Lunch.  On the left is the sarmale (cabbage rolls) and on the right is the jelly meat soup stuff

Tom teaching English to the kids

      We then got picked up from the house by the pastor of the 2nd church we went to, which was the largest church in the area.  They usually have around 150 in attendance on a Sunday morning, but for that evening service there were only about 50 people there.  Once again, I had to wear a head scarf and the women sat on one side while the men sat on the other.  I also wasn't allowed to wear any jewelry or excessive makeup, their churches are that conservative.  An American girl named Anna who I'd met at the conference on Saturday sat with me on the front row and translated for me.  We sang a couple songs, this time the words were on a projector, and Anna sang a solo.  Once again, Boing gave a testimony, I shared the same thing and probably still turned red, and Tom preached about Priscilla and Aquilla.  

The 2nd church and the biggest in the area

      The pastor and his wife then had us over to their house for dinner, and Anna was there too because she lives with them.  We had chicken and pasta, this Ukrainian carrot salad that Boing devoured, bread, and some cake for dessert.  We were probably talking with them for about 2 hours at the table and we all learned a lot about Ukrainian culture and the problems in the churches there.  Tom was very encouraging and gave the young pastor lots of advice and insight in how to bridge the gap between the old people and the young people in the church, and how to have a church focused on evangelism.  He brought us back to the conference center, and after swapping our interesting stories of the day, we went to bed.  

Dinner 

      We woke up bright and early at around 6am on Monday morning to get Kristie to the airport to fly to Kiev to visit some teammates.  We spend a total of about 20 minutes at the border this time, because thanks to Felix's smooth talking, we got to skip the line and go through the diplomat's line.  The trip home was pretty uneventful and involved lots of napping and staring out the window.  As we came back into the city, I was happy to be "home" and it felt like my home in a new way this time.  After looking at Ukrainian/Russian symbols and signs all weekend, I am especially thankful that Romanian uses "normal" letters and the foreign language I'm learning doesn't seem so foreign anymore.  At least if I don't know what something means, I can at least be able to try to pronounce it!  

Page with John 3:16 in the Ukrainian Bible

     Overall it was a great trip ministering to the body of Christ in Ukraine, building relationships there for camp this summer, getting out of my comfort zone and speaking in front of others while wearing a head scarf, and getting to know the summer camp team.  I really enjoyed working/hanging out with our team and I can't wait to continue to serve with them this summer at camp!  :]