Thursday, March 31, 2011
An Item to Pray About
The Ukrainian Embassy currently has my passport and I really Really REALLY need it back soon! I have been trying to call all week to ask them to return my visa application and passport (read the March 15 post for more information on my visa status). New Life Church is working out the visa details on their end. But I need to have my passport to get into the country. So far today I have made about twenty phone calls. Please pray that I will be able to contact them. Thank you.
Friday, March 25, 2011
Home For A Bit
I am flying to New Hampshire tomorrow to see my family for a few days before leaving the country. I am looking forward to sharing with my church there about what is going on in my life and what is about to happen. It is a challenge for me to really unpack what events have led to today and where things are going from here. There's not really a beginning or end to the journeys we take because there are influences that exist before a journey and there is an impact a journey makes on us that lives on to affect us after. But I can hope to share what is going on today, in this part of the journey. Thank you New Hope Fellowship for your amazing support!
Follow By Email
If you would like to be notified by e-mail when I post updates on this blog, you can enter your e-mail address in the "FOLLOW BY EMAIL" box on the right hand side of the page. This will be the best way to hear day-to-day or week-to-week news and prayer requests once I am in Ukraine!
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Visa Complications
Not an immediate concern but something that could use a little prayer.
The Ukrainian embassy is quite difficult to attain information from. The website is very confusing (with broken links and a copy/pasted mishmash of material) and someone picks up the phone more often to tell you "We are closed" than they do during the four hour period of the day in which they will answer questions. Another intern and I have learned the hard way that getting a Ukrainian Visa for a year will be more complicated than it used to be. But not impossible.
I can spend three months in Ukraine on my Passport, before even needing a visa. This gives New Life Church time to work out how to get me and Jenny (another American intern) one-year religious visas. Unfortunately, they do not have any connections in the Ukrainian State Committee of Religious Matters, which tends to be much more congenial to Eastern Orthodox churches. But since this appears to be the only option, they will pursue that and see what can be done. Once I am in the country and this is taken care of, New Life Church will send Jenny and me across the border to Poland to reapply for our visas.
Please keep this in prayer. Ukrainian government pretty much works on a basis of knowing who to pay to get something done. Otherwise, nothing happens. It's a sad reality but it is reality nonetheless. The whole visa experience thus far has been only a foreshadowing of some of the bumps and aggravation I will run across once I am actually in the country. But that will be part of the experience and growing process!
The Ukrainian embassy is quite difficult to attain information from. The website is very confusing (with broken links and a copy/pasted mishmash of material) and someone picks up the phone more often to tell you "We are closed" than they do during the four hour period of the day in which they will answer questions. Another intern and I have learned the hard way that getting a Ukrainian Visa for a year will be more complicated than it used to be. But not impossible.
I can spend three months in Ukraine on my Passport, before even needing a visa. This gives New Life Church time to work out how to get me and Jenny (another American intern) one-year religious visas. Unfortunately, they do not have any connections in the Ukrainian State Committee of Religious Matters, which tends to be much more congenial to Eastern Orthodox churches. But since this appears to be the only option, they will pursue that and see what can be done. Once I am in the country and this is taken care of, New Life Church will send Jenny and me across the border to Poland to reapply for our visas.
Please keep this in prayer. Ukrainian government pretty much works on a basis of knowing who to pay to get something done. Otherwise, nothing happens. It's a sad reality but it is reality nonetheless. The whole visa experience thus far has been only a foreshadowing of some of the bumps and aggravation I will run across once I am actually in the country. But that will be part of the experience and growing process!
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Good Things Happening!
I will try my best to keep you updated in Ukraine via this blog with information on what I am learning and what things I see God doing. I do have a couple things to share with you right now. Dennis, the teen I mentioned in my first letter, is doing well. He posted videos of his dance team on Russian facebook as promised so I was able to watch him work at something he loves. He and his sister also made the best student board at their orphanage school in January!
I have another story to share that demonstrates how powerfully God is at work among the orphans in Ukraine. There is one girl named Julia that I met at the orphan camp during the summer. She sent me a letter last fall that read:
I am getting sad because of different reasons, for example I have been in Georgia, America in one family. And when they offered me to stay, I refused and now I regret it. But I hope that there will be one family that will take me to them at least for one vacation!
She has now been adopted! And just in time. In fact, the US Embassy in Ukraine first turned denied her adoption on the understanding that the paperwork for a child’s adoption cannot be initiated once the child turns 16. Julia’s records contained a typo that indicated her birthday to be May 6, putting her current age at 15. However, further into the adoption process it was determined that the actual birth date was January 6. At the appeal of the American family and friends and connections who advocated their case, the US government clarified that the law could allow an exception in cases such as this where the family was approved by the US for adoption before the child turned 16, even though none of the paperwork filed had pertained specifically to Julia!
If you would like to read more, you can read the family’s blog at http://claypeck.com/adoption-journey/. The blog is also very informative of the environment and difficulties these children face. The posts for Feb 13th through Feb 24th give Julia’s story and describe her situation at the orphanage. You can also go to the blog page of my Nashville church’s Ukraine missions team for more information on how to pray for these orphans: http://midtowninukraine.blogspot.com/. My prayer request for them should be posted there any day now.
I have another story to share that demonstrates how powerfully God is at work among the orphans in Ukraine. There is one girl named Julia that I met at the orphan camp during the summer. She sent me a letter last fall that read:
I am getting sad because of different reasons, for example I have been in Georgia, America in one family. And when they offered me to stay, I refused and now I regret it. But I hope that there will be one family that will take me to them at least for one vacation!
She has now been adopted! And just in time. In fact, the US Embassy in Ukraine first turned denied her adoption on the understanding that the paperwork for a child’s adoption cannot be initiated once the child turns 16. Julia’s records contained a typo that indicated her birthday to be May 6, putting her current age at 15. However, further into the adoption process it was determined that the actual birth date was January 6. At the appeal of the American family and friends and connections who advocated their case, the US government clarified that the law could allow an exception in cases such as this where the family was approved by the US for adoption before the child turned 16, even though none of the paperwork filed had pertained specifically to Julia!
If you would like to read more, you can read the family’s blog at http://claypeck.com/adoption-journey/. The blog is also very informative of the environment and difficulties these children face. The posts for Feb 13th through Feb 24th give Julia’s story and describe her situation at the orphanage. You can also go to the blog page of my Nashville church’s Ukraine missions team for more information on how to pray for these orphans: http://midtowninukraine.blogspot.com/. My prayer request for them should be posted there any day now.
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