Tomorrow I will be taking an overnight train to Krakow, Poland. I will be traveling with the other American intern from New Life since it is necessary for us to leave the country in order to apply for our visas. The laws for visas and long stays in the country are very inconsistent and inconvenient. In any case, New Life Church has finally gotten our letters of approval pushed through the Ukrainian Committee of Religious Matters (this was the key to applying for a year-long visa). Even after this, we will still need to leave the country once every 90 days. But with our visa, we will be allowed to return immediately rather than spend another 90 days outside the country before coming back.
The train ride will take about 20 hours. A few hours will be spent stopped at the border crossing and another few hours will be taken for removing and replacing the wheels of the train cars. The countries of the former Soviet Union have a different rail width than the rest of Europe so every trip from post-Soviet Countries into the rest of Europe requires this extensive procedure. It doesn't help the price of tickets any either.
Please pray that things will go smoothly. Honestly, this had been a very frustrating process so far. It all began with my passport problem with the Ukrainian embassy in Washington DC (the reason I had to delay and reschedule my flights by a day). In that case, New Life was not informed that I could not apply for a year-long tourist or cultural visa. That whole hassle could have been avoided. New Life Church was also the organization which had to make the connections with the Committee of Religious matters to get these letters of approval and they got a very late start. There was nothing I could personally do.
The other American intern is actually a few days outside of her 90 day stay now so we are hoping we will get out without any problems. Consistent with the common bribe practice, the officials at the border are probably going to hassle us in order to try to get some money from us, all the while having the passport stamped and ready to go. It's really anyone's guess exactly how this will go.
That said, please pray especially for Jenny (the other intern). This stress has been mostly on her because it is her 90 days which has run out (I still have another month so this will be well inside my window). Plans have been scheduled and delayed and rescheduled and re-promised so many times that it is extremely difficult to keep a clear head and have any energy and time to focus on ministry and long-term goals. The flexibility of our internship here is a blessing but it comes at some cost in the areas of organization and logistics.
To summarize other happenings, ministries continue to develop and go well here. The young adult worship team is continuing to bond and I have been giving plenty of room to the other guitar player (mentioned previously) to come around and not feel threatened. I think this has been helping develop a sense of trust and hopefully will foster a healthy concept of leadership for all of us. I am also getting involved in ministry to unsaved and newly-believing university students who have loose connections with New Life Church. Developing friendships with them is good on so many levels. This approach really is the core of my model of ministry and evangelism at this point and it fills needs in my own life for friendships here in Ukraine.
Thanks for your prayers and support.
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