Today

Today was a good day. I got to be reminded of some of the reasons I was here this year. Got to hear words that remind me to be confident I was here for a reason and you were supporting me for a reason. God worked through me and others felt the impact. I saw a few tears and heard about others. There is a lot I am leaving behind here and I'll probably add my own tears to the pool as soon as I have time to slow down and digest the last few days and the past year. There is also a lot to return to if God calls me back in this direction after a time.

Just wanted to share the joy of seeing God's work and use of His tools and vessels. It's a great thing to be a part of.

Saying Goodbye

Every goodbye here in Ukaine gets a bit harder. Leaving here is not easy. I feel a lot of emotional stress and pressure to get things ready in order to leave. Also, I am up against some strong personal and relational challenges right now. Please pray for me.

Thanks,

Josh

The News

I am moving back to the US on April 18th! It has been quite a process to come to this decision. To summarize in one paragraph I would say God spent some time stripping me of things I thought were relevant towards a decision to stay in Ukraine but in fact were distractions. There were emotions, fears, comfort zones, and assumptions about remaining tied to ministry I have been a part of. I feel God is calling me to go the place I had become a bit afraid to go: Nashville. I was worried it was the easy out, for one. And worried about the "unknown" of returning to Nashville and finding God's calling there. I had a pretty good idea what His calling would be if it was in Ukraine and what my life here would have looked like for the next year. I have developed roots here in Ukraine and they will be hard to give up. But I believe God is calling me to put down roots in Nashville in a way I never did before.

The main thing is that I cannot return to the life I used to have in Nashville. Well, on some levels it will look the same. But I really need to incorporate the lessons God has taught me and experiences He has brought me through during my year in Ukraine. I think God will lead me, if I am willing, to new ministry to be involved in. I recognized this year how satisfying it was to be a part of a team that was doing something great for the kingdom of God. I learned to hold less back from God and this greatly increased my understanding of being satisfied in Him. Seeing two of my brothers working in churches in the US helped me understand that what I experienced this year is not limited to Ukraine. Ukraine was certainly God's kickstarting point for me. But He has shown me that what is most important is to go where He leads and to take an attitude of being open to what He says to do, letting go of the "I won't like doing that" idea that has often been on my mind. He is freeing me.

To all of you who supported me, thank you! This year has been irreplaceable in my life. Even though I am moving back to the States, maybe forever, I have absolutely no doubt that Ukraine is where He wanted me this year. He used your support in the lives of students, worship teams, and friends. And He used it in my life in the areas of trusting Him, learning first-hand that His ways are the ones that satisfy, and teaching me to be willing to expand the circumference of opportunities and situations I will give a "yes, God" response to. And lastly, He has been teaching me a lot recently about pride, having an accurate view of myself, acting out of love, and the need to rely on Christ's love and redemption.

God knew what He was doing with me this year. That only keeps becoming more clear, and I imagine it will become even clearer as more of life passes and He continues to guide me, teach me, rebuke me, and be faithful to me.

So thank you to all my friends for your support of all kinds. I will be back with you soon!

I'm Coming Home For A Visit!

Itinerary:

4:09 PM Thursday, March 22 - Arrival in Nashville
 - lots of time with friends, maybe a birthday celebration on the 30th :)

12:15 AM Saturday, March 31 - Greyhound departure to Dayton, OH
 - two days with my brothers Caleb and Joel who attend Cedarville University
 - visit the church where Caleb serves at worship leader

9:25 PM Monday, April 2 - Arrival in Manchester, NH
 - time with New England family and friends
 - possibly a visit to the church where my brother Jake is a youth pastor

12:22 PM Thursday, April 12 - Depart Manchester en route to Ukraine.
 - return in time for Ukrainian Orthodox Easter (April 15)

All along the journey - much prayer about the future

I very much hope to see anyone who has the time to catch up with me. If you have a tight schedule, please let me know what might work for you. I need you guys. This has been a great year in Ukraine but a very difficult one. Things right now are at the hardest point and amidst what's going on I need a lot of prayer and support to understand and be ready to tackle God's plan for the future.

I appreciate you all and I am looking forward to being with you soon!

Josh

Videos of Worship Team

Since I have been speaking about the college/young adult ministry's worship team, now seems a good time to share some videos of worship services. Our usual meetings are Saturday evenings in the basement of the church. We do not have video of those, but we do have video from some Wednesday night services where this team led worship for the main church.

NOTE: For those of you reading this in an e-mail, please click "Josh In Ukraine" at the top of the e-mail to transfer you to my blog page where these videos will be viewable.

Acoustic Worship From January



Points of Interest:

• 6:00 - Music starts
• 22:00 - One of my favorites (“Center” by Charlie Hall)
• 59:00 - Band plays song between first and second block of sermon
• 1:38:00 - Last block of worship starts with another of my favorites (“None But Jesus” by Hillsong)

Worship From Last Spring



I am not sure why the fast forward/rewind feature is disabled on the embedded version of this video. But if you go to the original here you will have the benefit of that feature.

Things Are Happening!

God may be leading me to one of my callings for my second year here! The situation that I asked for prayer for is developing in a good way with a lot of unity from the leadership team. I could use some prayers to make sure I am supposed to step up and participate in the future in some ways that have been proposed to me. I see a lot of wisdom coming into play in how the leadership is planning to address this situation and provide healthy structure and flow of authority in the team for the future.

Please keep praying that this will be an opportunity for one of our servants to not push herself away but to grow inward instead. The plan that is forming has this as one of its very strong goals and I highly respect the ideas and desires our leadership is putting forward. The follow-through will be challenging, but please pray that the individual who stands to gain or lose the most from this will allow God to work and show His love and consideration for her.

Immediate Prayer Request

Guys, there is a situation happening right now that really needs prayer. I will try to explain it in a short version and a long version. Take your pick, but please pray :)

The Short Version

Please pray for spiritual guidance for our leadership team and for myself as we come together to figure out the best way to approach a delicate situation on our young adult worship team. God's work is being inhibited by one individual's tight grip on her reigns of power and inflexibility to accept some changes that are needed in order to foster a spirit of worship and the ability of this team to lead worship. This situation is on the point of eruption. Because it has been so delicate, it has been avoided at all cost in the past. But a few members of the leadership are really struggling under the reality that one individual is allowed to retain an unhealthy role which does not encourage worship but rather stands in the way of it. As a whole, the leadership team discussed this issue in our meeting on Tuesday and now something has come up that steps up the urgency even further.

The Longer Version

There is a situation on the young adult worship team where the woman who has the most authority is making some poor choices in her leadership decisions, ones that do not reflect an understanding of our primary goal being to lead worship or an understanding of how to create an environment in which to encourage the most from the musicians. This situation has been years in the making. But as she has felt threatened by the presence and experience of a few new people who have been involved in worship this year, things have possibly gotten even worse.

This is the woman who's place I helped fill while she was gone a few months at the beginning of my time here. This leader, unfortunately, wants to lead everything except worship because she is uncomfortable leading spiritually. Rehearsals have gone steadily downhill since her re-involvement in the fall. The band is fighting to maintain a sense of their true desire to worship and lead worship for others. Individual members of the team do truly have that as their primary desire. I have spoken to her privately and also made suggestions in front of the entire team in order to help us take steps to have an environment where we are free to worship rather than distracted by stress. Lately she has been making us do too much new material (two new songs per week in some cases) and she makes changes to the songs that are very abstract and make remembering them more difficult. She is unwilling to see that her ways of running things are not encouraging a healthy atmosphere and are not positive for worship. But my suggestions are met with the response, "Am I the leader, or are you the leader?"

There are a lot of things that come into play in all of this on a spiritual and personal level. She has done the church a great service and is a steadfast and dedicated servant. She stepped up a few years ago in a time when nobody else did. She has great qualities as a leader if she is willing to understand that part of that role involves taking all assets of the team and making something truly great out of them by combining ideas and experience that can compliment and add to her own.

I have talked about things recently with the leadership of the young adult ministry and two of the three are completely on the same page. They see the same things and have seen them even before the time that I arrived. It would have been nice to have the luxury of some more time for us to all come to a better understanding of how to approach this and to all be completely of the same vision.

However, this person really played her power hand this evening by putting three new songs on the setlist. We will not have our usual Thursday evening rehearsal this week, but rather only rehearse on Saturday before the service. I have great respect for our musicians and what they are able to do, but I recognize when too much is too much. These are not professional musicians and they have busy lives. I can also put myself in their shoes and remember what it feels like to struggle to wrap my mind around too much new material and have it ready to "perform." And approaching new songs this way does turn it into a performance. The musicians have to try very hard to focus on what they are doing, not in the sense of worship but simply just to get through the music.

I have addressed these issues personally with this woman over the last few weeks, but she has stepped things up a notch rather than cooling off and accepting reality and remembering the pinnacle goal of the team. Since the ultimate cost of these desicions is worship, the very thing we are supposed to be doing, I sent her an e-mail in response to the setlist. I readdressed the issues I have spoken with her on in the past and asked her if she is willing to try some new things and to view leadership as a responsibility to "benefit from your own experience and from other people's experience and put it all together for something really great and very powerful."

This situation needs prayer. There are many of us involved and we need wisdom. We need to know what God is saying for right now and what maybe needs to wait. He knows how He wants to work, and we don't until He tells us or guides us with the right words to say at the right time. That's what we need at this point.

This individual also needs your prayer. She needs to know she is being held tightly in God's arms at every moment and that He loves her. To understand that this love does not call for fear or protection of oneself but rather enables open eyes and a responsive heart.

I hope to be able to meet with this person tomorrow to discuss things that have been coming up. I guess I will find out tomorrow whether or not that is a possibility for her. That conversation is another specific aspect to keep in prayer.

Thanks for helping. God can really use this situation for His glory. He can do great things and I know that He finds great pleasure in seeing them through.

Couldn't View The Videos In Yesterday's E-mail?

If any of you received the e-mail version of my blog post yesterday and were disappointed to find that you couldn't view the videos, just visit the blog page (http://joshinukraine.blogspot.com/). The "Josh In Ukraine" text at the top of the e-mail or the blue text just under that will always provide you links directly to that page. I will post some more videos soon. By clicking on the links at the top of the e-mail you receive, you will be able to visit my page where the videos are viewable!

Media!

I want to give you guys a chance to see what this year has been about and know what you have been a part of over here. I can't think of any better way than "showing" you some specific moments!

From His Holy Hill



This first video is of a song I helped one of the guys in my Bible study and guitar group finish writing and add music to. He is the one sitting in the video next to me. He started his relationship with Jesus this summer at our church camp and it has been a joy to be involved in his fresh new life. His friend shot this video on a phone so that they could remember how the song goes and learn it with their new worship band.

First Sermon!

This year has been a year of many firsts for me. I had a chance to give preaching a try. There is lots of room for improvement but I felt that the most important thing was to let God speak through the message He gave me and leave the presentation--with its strengths and weaknesses--to Him!

The sermon is on Ehud as part of a series for our college and young adult ministry: Heroes, or "Герои" in Russian (watch the "trailer" for this series here). I felt very fortunate that the man I was assigned to preach about was one whose story defines the things God had been putting on my heart for the month previous--how it is important to truly be willing to be God's tools, to give Him every situation in our lives 100% rather that to count on our strengths. We often want God to fix just the part we can't seem to get right on our own and leave the rest in our control. But God's plans are unexpected and, if we follow them, much much better!

I wanted to communicate that the first thing we need saving from is ourselves. Once we give God ourselves, we can truly give Him our situations. Our goal must be to have God's goal in mind, to seek it and be ready to follow through on it no matter how different it turns out to be from our own goals. It was interesting how God has been showing me these things in my life and then provided an outlet to share them. I need to continue living by these words daily as I figure out what lies in store for me soon!



The lovely lady teaming up to translate for me is my talented girlfriend Lesya. She has done this translating thing many times before but she couldn't help but get a bit nervous for me. Oh and yes, I think I did make her job a little harder by mixing up my left and my right at some point in the sermon.

What I Know and What I Don't

Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few.  Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”

Matthew 9:35-38

Looking Back

I would have to mark this year as a year of confidence. I have learned to trust God more than ever before. I have been reminded of and forced to take upon myself the experiential reality that my satisfaction and purpose come ultimately from God. Sometimes He sends the memos of His love in the form of suppressed levee waters blasting into open caverns at their first chance of freedom; other times as gentle outlets trickling into commonplace situations, carried on through the underestimated blessings of friendships and relationship where time and familiarity carry off years of unnecessary sediment to form clear channels for fulfilling life’s work and calling.

This year has been crowded with daily lessons to grasp myself for who God sees me to be, to love and appreciate other people for who they are, and to help them do the same for themselves. For my own part, this is a struggle and often goes against my nature.

Going to a different nation—and one that still lives and breathes palpably under the domineering hand of generations of Soviet lack of accountability and intolerance for dissimilar ideas—stretches my understanding and acceptance of God’s vision to see the crowds, have compassion on them, and help the harassed and the helpless. But this is what Jesus preached in the Gospels, and this is what it means to give the “good news” feet—to spread the light God has shown me in my Christian life, my socioeconomic life, and in my cultural life, and to share all of those experiences of God’s love with people in the gentle voice that will touch them through their differences. I was learning to do this in the US before I left, and now I have to practice new methods and break through language barriers in learning to do it in a strange place amidst foreign philosophies.

So it has been a big year and a good year. In the end of my last blog post I explained a little of how God is pushing me into ministries and friendships that push forward His kingdom. I will begin uploading some media soon that will help show God’s gospel feet in motion.

Looking Forward To…?

Now I am scared. Coming here ten months ago was not very difficult compared to this. I knew I had God’s calling and I knew things would be okay because of that. I knew I was supposed to bring God’s hands and feet here. But I don’t know what I have and what I’m called to after the next two months, when my first year here ends.

And without knowing God’s plans, every option and idea has an element that frightens me. To stay in Ukraine, to go back to Nashville, to teach English, to teach third graders in a missionary school, to be in ministry through worship or through countless other ways—all of these are possibilities but all of them would be empty if they are not the right one.

Last night I had to push through some emotions while I sorted through what I’ve left behind. I left friends in Nashville that I still go to when I’m in trouble and need to talk. But it’s not the same being here. I miss spending time around the game table or the TV or the fire pit with them. I miss my church where sermons and worship are in my language. I miss impromptu lunch meetings and casual evenings out. I miss my work. I miss knowing what I’m doing. I miss being good at it. I miss things being easy. And maybe what it comes down to is I miss being in control. And the greatest lesson of all may be to learn to not miss that.

Not Just About Me

And the other fact is, I can't make a huge decision—such as what country to live in—without taking into account the most precious person in my life. Those of you who are married or dating, you know what I'm talking about. We don't live in a vacuum. Our decisions change the lives of people around us, and the closer those people are, the greater the impact.

Thankfully, I believe I serve a God who knows His plans and is big enough to put the pieces together. If His plan is for me to be with Lesya for the rest of my life, then His plan is to include her in my ministry and mesh the two into one. He is not a God who will say, "Lesya was the perfect girl for you. But too bad, because you'll never see her again." God doesn't have the limitations that we face and His plans have been in order for thousands of years. He has "known" us since before our planet was set orbiting around the sun and before we were sent scurrying around it.

Prayers, Please Please Please!

I do not know what the rest of this year holds after March. I don’t know my calling, my place, my ministry. I’m not sure I even know the gifts that are at God’s disposal, although this has been a year of cultivating some and realizing new light in others. Many of you know how this uncertainty feels, and I would appreciate your help in not going through it alone.

I would also like prayers specifically regarding my relationship with Lesya. As I've said, everything is intertwined. She is a marvelous helper, encourager and friend. She has been the single most steadfast source of my sanity through many trials here. Just this evening she reminded me again of the ways things are changing, the work she sees being done, and the impact I am having here. Also, the ways in which she is trusting God and learning to see herself will unite contagiously with her heart for others and carry on into every job or friendship or ministry she participates in, whether I am around to see it or not. I like to think I will be around. However, we both realize that this relationship works only as long as God says it does and we are both recognize we are deficient of His final "yes" at the moment. That said, this is an area we would both appreciate prayer for knowing God's direction.

To summarize, I don’t want to run away from anything. I want to run into it… I just need to know what “it” is and I need the open-mindedness to accept it when it comes and the courage to follow God’s path where it leads, how it leads.

This is a verse that both Lesya and I have been making the most of over the last months as we have each made steps to give up everyday security in favor of God’s eternal security:

"For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

Jeremiah 29:11

Winter Greetings!

Hello! Winter greetings to you all. Weather here in Kiev is "brisk." The recent snow at least makes it feel more fitting! So far I am enjoying winter, though I think I am together with most of the city in anticipating spring already!

Visa Status 

Challenges don't come and go with the weather.  It is time to begin tackling Visa issues again. The temporary solution that enabled me to return from Poland to Ukraine at the end of December will reach its end in late March. $250 of traveling, $150 of visa application, $75 for required paperwork to present with this application, and two week's worth of hostel stay and food doesn't make for a cheap three month's stay!

Hopefully by now the government has sorted out the new laws (Visa laws have gone through three revisions since August) and will be ready to accept the religious paperwork that they could not be bothered with in December. A missionary couple that I had become friends with had to give up ministry after seven years here and leave the country on Wednesday because of many complications that arose out of the government's lack of information and consistency on how to apply the new laws. After one agency granted them extended stay while they sorted things out, another found an issue with the extension and deemed them illegal in the country unless they payed $2500 to turn eyes the other way.

Prayer Requests Regarding My Future

There are some big questions I am facing and would greatly appreciate prayer over. For those of you who don't know, I came to Ukraine on a one year commitment but with the knowledge that I might stay here long past the first twelve months. God has shown me that anything I do requires a calling. The calling is what gives the location or job or ministry purpose and value and success. I came to understand about six months into my time here that returning to Nashville would require a calling. My ministry is here for the time being. God can change that in an instant, but it is here for now. I can't go until He says go. So where will He call me to next?

Through partnership with New Life Church and with an established self-supported missionary who also volunteers with the church, I have gotten to have a unique place in shaping the lives of students. I get to help create the environments and activities that lead young people into relationships with Jesus and then keep them connected and growing with other believers. The main "faces" this ministry has taken so far are camps, English discussion groups, church services, Bible studies, guitar playing and hanging out. One of the biggest encouragements I experience is to have someone approach me and say, "Can we find time this week to meet and talk and hang out?"

What forms will ministry take place in when my initial year here comes to an end after March? I really don't know yet. And that's where I need lots of prayer. I know I have the tendency to write lots of words and drop lots of information all at once, so I think I'll save something for later in the weekend. I am looking forward to "discussing" the openings and options I have and I ask for your prayer through all of the decisions that are coming up.

Wrapping Up For Now 

As always, thank you for your support and vision for me and for God's kingdom around the world--that is truly what has gotten me this far. God's work has been going on in Ukraine through many dedicated individuals. Of course, it will go on if my time here ends. But I tell you with confidence that your support has played a close role in the salvation of multiple students this summer and in their growth this winter. These guys are standing up in church and sharing their testimonies, writing songs and forming worship bands in the church, and witnessing to friends and family who don't yet understand their desire for Christ.

God is with them powerfully and their lives are a reminder of how powerfully God is with us. Be blessed in that knowledge!

We're Going Home!

We have our visas and we are leaving for Ukraine this evening! This is a very great news for us and I appreciate all of your prayers. There was actually a different official working at the window today and he let everything go through just fine. He even helped us improve what we were applying for (pointing out that we could ask for multi-entry visas that will allow us to leave the country during our 90 day stay without canceling the remaining part of our visa).

We will take a 9:00 PM train to the western Ukrainian city of Lviv and try to make a 30 minute connection for an express train to Kiev. Due to a very clumsy ticketing website and finally the discovery that the booking system will only accept Ukrainian credit cards, we were not able to get any of this process taken care of beforehand. But we'll do our best to quickly navigate the train station and the Ukrainian language and see if we can get back to Kiev around 1 PM. If not, we have a backup option that should get us there by evening.

Thanks again for hanging in there with us. It was nice to know we were not alone!

What's All The Commotion Been About?

Well, hopefully, just these little documents that are being held by a joyful Jenny. Each one is just half the size of an 8.5x11 sheet of paper. But for now they are our one chance of getting out of Poland and back home to Ukraine! Thanks to our special people back in Kiev who have made these documents a reality!

These are stamps of approval from the immigrations services office in Kiev, Ukraine. We will be taking them to the Ukrainian consulate here in Krakow, Poland tomorrow morning. For those of you in the US, this will happen during the wee hours of the morning on Wednesday. For those of you receiving this as an automated e-mail from Google/Blogger, the event has probably already happened.

So I am going to send a copy out right now to every e-mail address that I have connected with my mission in Ukraine. Here's the prayer request:

We have the documents we need to apply for visas but we still need the consulate to approve our visas. Our previous visas were religious. Because the government has made it temporarily impossible to get the supporting documents for new religious visas, we have had to find a loophole. We are applying now for 90 day private visas, and the documents we just received are government-approved letters of invitation from Jenny's fiance.

The problem: even these documents do not mean the consulate official has to approve our visas. It is his decision. If he doesn't like the fact that we were previously in on religious visas and now are applying for private visas, we will have an issue. In speaking to him last week, we realized that he is rather suspicious of our inability to provide documents for a religious visa. What he didn't know and doesn't particularly care about is the fact that the government has made this task literally impossible for the time being. So please, PLEASE pray that he either understands the situation tomorrow or doesn't care about the change of visa type.

Thank you!

Christmas "Letter"

A "Gift"

It would be virtually impossible for me to handle sending Christmas gifts to all of my supporters, so I have decided instead to give you all some fun at my expense. These links will take you to two videos that were recorded a few weeks ago. If you want a glimpse at what I've been doing in Ukraine, check them out. haha. But these really did happen... let's just say that not being fluent in Russian doesn't guarantee me exemption from audience participation.

Merry Christmas Part 1
Merry Christmas Part 2

I have prepared this "gift" from Krakow, Poland, where I am currently waiting for new visa documents. Changes occurring right now in the Ukrainian government have postponed the processing of my paperwork in Kiev and landed me here over the holidays, locked out of the country I am trying to serve. Fortunately for me, Ukrainians don't celebrate Christmas on the 25th but rather on Orthodox Christmas, January 7th. So I've got a second chance at celebrating with my Ukrainian friends and girlfriend!

Why I Am Thankful

Putting together a list of all of you who have supported me in one way or another (or in many and multi-faceted ways) has really put a bright spot in my day. I appreciate all of your help to make my ministry and life in Ukraine possible this year. I also appreciate this chance to look at each name in a substantial list of supporters and remember that you cared enough about me and about God's work in a place far away to give me the chance to be doing what I am doing.

You are having an impact on the young generation of Ukraine. Just as in any country, this is the generation that has the chance to displace rampant corruption, cheating, and fear with grace, service to others, and hearts that long for Christ above all other gain. I get the chance to share the most precious thing in your hearts with young adults on a weekly basis through worship, music and Bible study. I have also recently made a start at preaching, and there will probably be more occasions to follow. To the older generations, you serve with me in worship to heal brokenness of all kinds, to express joy to our Maker, and to assist God's followers in remembering the strength of the One they follow.

God Bless

So Merry Christmas to you all, my wonderful friends, family and family-by-choice (for all of you supporters who are connected in other ways)! I appreciate every one of you and I hope you experience some of God's goodness in a special flavor this Christmas. The family of God in Ukraine is growing and benefiting from your help.

Josh

Another update

I am definitely having to learn the arts of patience and helplessness. DHL International does not deliver on Saturdays and Monday is a Polish holiday. That means our documents will arrive Tuesday and we can apply for our visas Wednesday. We MIGHT make it home Thursday but that would involve some more complications to transportation, so it may very well end up being Friday.

The first couple days were fun. It was a little scary to have things very open-ended regarding the time frame for being able to return, but we made the most of it. It's a nice city. But after staying in hostels over a week the initial desire to return to Kiev grows stronger and more overpowering. But there is nothing I can do to follow through on that desire at this very moment.

Thanks for praying for this situation. I wish you all a Merry Christmas and sincerely hope you find enjoyment in God's goodness this weekend, however that looks for you.

Still In Poland

That's the bad news. We're still here. The good news is we have a backup plan in the works.

Visa laws in Ukraine changed about three months ago. On December 25th (of all days) they will change again. Earlier this week, the Ukrainian government decided to inform us that they will not do anything for our visas until the new law passes. We had done everything they asked. My girlfriend and two of our church pastors had spent two weeks running around collecting the documents they had requested and then the government decided to disregard it all. They will not even give new information about how we will need to change the documents that we will submit under the new law.

So basically, there has been a three or four week window in which it has been impossible to apply for a religious visa. We submitted documents at the beginning of the month and nothing has come of it. At this point, we are back to square one, just waiting to find out what documents they will want us to submit once they're willing to start processing stuff again. And it is really difficult to say how long it will take them to sort things out with the new law and decide how to deal with things. When the law changed a few months ago, the first month or so was very rough for applicants. Also, there are a lot of other people in the same situation as us (sitting and waiting) so the work load is going to be pretty heavy at first. On top of that, the government has a couple holidays coming up over the first week of January.

The backup plan is in motion

Jenny's fiance Vova has been doing everything he can to get letters of invitation for us to come in on 90 day private visas. Thankfully he has friends at his local immigration services office and has managed to speed up the process. He went to that office four days in a row and was able to get the initial "it will take ten days" answer cut down to just a few days. He picked up the completed documents this morning and they should arrive here tomorrow. Then we will go to the Ukrainian consulate here in Poland on Monday, apply for our visas, and hopefully have permission to reenter Ukraine!

The part that needs prayer now

There is still one part of this that is a little uncertain. We need to pray that the consulate will approve our private visas. We already have religious visas showing in our passports. If the official at the consulate wants to give us a hard time, he'll say "Why are you going in on private visas now? Your intentions are religious and I will only approve religious visas." We already tried to describe our situation to him earlier this week, explaining that the Ministry of Culture is not willing to look at religious documents at this time. But that got us nowhere. He would not accept visa applications for a 90 day tourist visa.

So please pray that the consulate approves our private visas and that we can return to Ukraine next week! Thank you.

Regarding e-mail updates...

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Update on Visa

Well, I'm still here in Poland of course. The paperwork in Kiev, Ukraine is going a bit crazy. One department sends the paperwork to another. The second says no, we don't want it. Sends it back to the first. The first says, okay did we mention we want another document? The department for the extra document forgets to mention they want a scan of EVERY page of our passports (including covers, blank pages, and backs). The funny thing is that while this is frustrating, none of it surprises me in the least.

Thankfully, Lesya and the two youth pastors I work under are trying to keep on top of things and make sure that they don't take more time than they have to. The extra document should be ready Monday morning. Lesya has assurance from the first department that they should be able to approve things in about an hour once they receive this document. Then the question is, how long will it take the second department to approve things? Hopefully, only one or two days!

So here are the parts to be praying for especially, please:

• That the documents will go very speedily from the first department to the second.
• That this second department, the Ministry of Culture, will look at our documents immediately and process them efficiently. 
• That the documents will make it to an overnight shipping service or onto an overnight train in time to arrive here Thursday, giving us a chance to apply for visas Friday and get out of here in time for Christmas with loved ones and friends!

In the meantime I am hanging tight, doing lots of walking and examining lots of choices for Christmas gifts. Krakow is a beautiful city and quite inexpensive. I am staying in a hostel for $11/night and that includes breakfast and occasional free food in the evening. There are lots of sights within walking distance. Today I went to a theater to watch a matinee showing of Moneyball. Well done movie about the season the Cleveland Athletics made a record-breaking winning streak of 20 games despite being one of the lowest budget teams in the American League. I can't say I'm a baseball fan, but it was good.

Subway! Not in Ukraine

Lots of beautiful cathedrals here

Market Square

Getting A New Visa Isn't Easy

What to say? I am on a train to leave the country and apply for a new visa to replace the one that expires tomorrow. The good news is I am leaving the country on time in order to not get blacklisted (shut out of the country for a year). The bad news is that I do not yet have the documents I will need from the Ukrainian government in order to apply for a new visa.

The Problem

Mr. President (Viktor Yanukovych) decided to disband the Committee of Religious Affairs a couple weeks before we tried to submit our documents. So where do our documents go now? Most people, even lawyers, had no clue. Thankfully, my wonderful girlfriend Lesya started making phone calls, going from one number to another and piecing together clues about how to make the process work now. Someone along the chain of phone calls gave her the personal number of one government official who was able to direct her to the temporarily correct place for our type of documents to be submitted.

As things stand right now, our documents appear to be in the right hands. The biggest problem is that those hands are swamped with work, partially due to the disbanding of the Religious Committee. They say it could take up to 30 days to get approval. We pray it will be much less!

The more immediate problem is that they want one additional document with information regarding the church. Honestly, this shouldn't be a huge problem but every day counts right now. We sincerely hope our youth pastor will have the time to get this document turned in tomorrow. This could be the difference between spending Christmas in Ukraine or in Poland.

What To Pray For (Please!)

Please pray for quick document processing and approval. Please also pray for government employees to be attentive to their jobs and quickly inform us of any additional details or information they decide they will need. We have already lost time because of this. Things are very much at the whim of human nature. Thankfully God is ultimately in control of everybody involved.

Once the documents are done they will be sent to us in Poland. "Us" is me and the other New Life intern, Jenny. We have hostel booked for eight nights and hope that will be enough time to get the documents done and overnighted to Ukraine. If so, we will make it back on Christmas Eve!

What I Will Be Doing In The Meantime

I will try to make the most of this time that is out of my hands. This will be a time for extra talks with God and asking Him to line up all aspects of my life in order with His plan. I will be seeking out that plan and the next step of His vision for me. I can get through some piles of Russian homework. I will do some Skyping with friends from the US. I'll have opportunities to enjoy not-so-everyday things like going to the movie theater because most movies here are shown in English with Polish subtitles. I will take pleasure from a few Mountain Dews and some peanut butter sandwiches (cheap solution to food but a delicacy after eight months in a country that lives without peanut butter). During all of this, I will be missing my amazing Lesya. But I know God uses different times for different purposes and brings the most out of each.

Then

After we get our visas there will still be a lot of work to be done. Under the new visa law (which has been extremely confusing and which trickles down to different government agencies months after going into effect), we get 45 days in the country. Within that window we need to get temporary residency in Ukraine. This means we need to find someone who will let us register at their apartment. The problem is, this means someone accepts that we will have a say in matters such as the sale of the apartment during that time and that this person can become liable for our actions. So more prayer requests may follow soon!

As things become clearer or confirmed in my understanding of God's vision for me, I will post to this blog and let you know what will be coming up. Thank you as always for all different kinds of support. These have been essential and I appreciate the ways they have enabled and guided the circumstances that have helped me grow over the last eight months.

Contact Me

If you want me to give you a call and want to hear personally what has been going on in Ukraine, let me know! I have a Skype account that allows me to call your phone number with no long distance charges. You receive the call from a US phone number. Send me an email at joshuaingram@gmail.com if you would like to find a time that coordinates over our seven to eight hour time difference. I'd like to tell you about my life and hear about what I've missed in yours.

Some Quick Updates

Wednesday Service Online

First, I would like to inform you that the young adult worship team will be leading worship for the Wednesday evening service this week. We will be doing a couple of acoustic sets, which I have not seen done before for the Wednesday or Sunday services. It is great that our team is given the freedom to introduce new styles of worship and, hopefully, communicate that worship is not as much about familiarity with the music as it is about familiarity with God. There will be a live broadcast streaming here at 11:30am EST (10:30am CST).

Me, Preaching!

Secondly, I will most likely be preaching for our young adult service on Saturday the 26th! This will certainly be a first for me. It is also coming sooner than I ever thought I would be ready. But I believe that God has been teaching me a lot of truth about my relationship with Him in the seven months that I have been here, and I am eager for opportunities to share some of this. I also feel that if God asks me to speak and gives me the words, then my presentation and lack of practice are His concern, not mine. Of course, I do need prayer. I may be speaking on one of the judges, but I don't know yet which one we will land on in our series for that particular week. I suspect though that this will be a relevant topic for me as I am growing to understand how decisions to trust and obey God wholeheartedly parallel the triumphs and consequences of Israel's actions. The main thought and experience that comes to mind: following God with one foot in His world and another in our own is a rather inconvenient and disagreeable form of service, but jumping in with little reservation is a joy beyond possibility of obtaining on our natural terms.

ATM Fraud

Lastly, to round out prayer requests... my debit card was duplicated and was used at a couple of ATM machines in Moscow, Russia. Thankfully, I caught it on the second day because this was causing problems as I tried to withdraw funds to pay for my Russian lessons. I called my bank and I think that in the end, things will be sorted out. However, I would still appreciate prayer that the bank agrees to credit the withdrawals and that I am able to find the best way to take care of the paperwork from over here. When I spoke on the phone with them they were not sure they would be able to send the paperwork I need to sign by e-mail, and that could cause a bit of a problem.