Finding the Right Roommates

Please also pray that I will find the right living situation and roommates! I have two possibilities right now. It's hard to say if either will materialize 100% but that also depends on how much interest and commitment I show. One is with two non-Christian guys (one of whom I know) who speak good English. The other is with a guy from the church who speaks a little English and with another guy who I do not know. On the one hand, living with unbelievers could be a good witness and evangelism/relationship opportunity. On the other hand, it could be spiritually weakening and exhausting. These opportunities both came up today so I'm just beginning to pray about them. I will most likely be moving by the end of June. Please help me pray and figure this out!

Soon to Board a Train

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.

Worship Team Going To Be Online

The young adult team that I work with will be leading worship for this week's Wednesday night service at New Life Church. This service begins at 11:30 AM EST / 10:30 AM CST and is viewable live. If you miss the beginning of the service but will be around an hour or so later, I expect that the worship team's closing set will begin around 1:15-1:30 into the service.

http://www.nlc.kiev.ua/105410851083107210811085.html

I also play two weeks per month with one of the adult teams for Wednesday and Sunday services. But the young adult team is the one I am most involved in and encouraged by.

How Things Are Going

This blog is long overdue for an update. I apologize for that. There are a lot of things worth talking about and I will try to get to a few of them here.

First of all, I have started taking Russian lessons. This was the plan from the beginning. The part that wasn't exactly planned was taking them four days a week. But it looks like that's what it's going to take so that's what I'm doing. My teacher is excellent. My head gets foggy in class but she answers as many questions as I need to ask and overall it stays enjoyable. The classes are 2.5 hours per day and the travel time round trip is approximately the same. Add about two hours of homework per lesson and this is eating up some substantial time. The best part: these lessons are costing me about $4/hour. Can you believe that? We're talking about good lessons from a native Russian speaker in a class of exactly two people. Wow.

And the time is worth it. The biggest thing holding me back in the ministries I'm already involved in here is definitely the language barrier. Even when there is someone present who speaks English, it is impossible to translate every prayer and every discussion. Knowing the language will greatly aid my role as the music leader in the young adult worship team. One or two musicians who are able and willing to translate have been an invaluable resource but some Russian language skills will certainly streamline the process and allow me to get more involved on a personal level with my team.

I do have one prayer request in regards to the young adult worship team that I serve as musical director for: I am running into some difficulties with another guitar player. I have not completely negated myself from being part of the problem (ego can be a tricky little bugger) so I am trying to stay open to where I need to grow in this situation. The difficult part is that making him happy detracts from the team spirit and also musical integrity of the band. So far he seems too busy telling me what to do to realize that he could benefit from listening. I don't think he means things personally, but his quickness to become adamant about things without taking time to perceive a situation causes conflict. Anyway, that's some of what I see so far. I need God's help in accurately and patiently perceiving all the ins and outs of this situation and in knowing how to address it.

But aside from that, I am very pleased and encouraged with the way things are going with the worship team. We have some amazing co-leadership happening. One girl is the worship leader and main singer and another guy (a missionary from New Zealand) is overseeing the spiritual development of the team. The youth pastors and people in the congregation have had very supportive feedback and are excited about the atmosphere and sincerity of worship that has been present in the last month. I am very encouraged to be a part of this and it is spurring and motivating challenges for spiritual growth in my own life. God is good to allow me to feel this connection with him and with others in the work here.

And in general, life is going very well here. I enjoy it. I like the city. I am learning to get around from place to place rather than just from my apartment to a couple of church-related locations (separate office and meeting spaces). I still don't see all the reasons, but God has put me where he wants me and is undoubtedly blessing the support of all of you who are supporting me.

Random Kiev Factoid

Crossing the street in Ukraine (even at a crosswalk) is strongly reminiscent of the arcade game Frogger.

In other news, this week has gone well so far. I am filling in on guitar for the teen worship service this Sunday so that has given me more songs to learn and rehearsals to attend and has helped keep me busy. Over the past couple of weeks I have been able to help the teen and young adult teams with running the sound equipment and that has helped make a nice difference in the overall sound of the worship teams and assisted in making the environment more supportive of worship.

I will be attending a training camp Sunday through Tuesday for volunteers working with Radooga this summer. That is the ministry my church partnered with when I came to Ukraine the first time to work with orphans. I will be able to go to the same camp again this year (and it will only cost me about $100 instead of $2400)! I had hoped to also work with one of Radooga's English Language Camps this summer but it looks like New Life's camp schedule will have an overlapping issue.

Well that's the news for the moment. Thanks to all who have helped to put me here.

Update and Prayer Needed for This Week

Things have been going quite well so far. Home here is great. My roommates continue to be amazing and helpful friends. They both just left tonight to go to a nine day conference though so I could use some prayers over the next week or so. I have not been lonely yet but a lot of that has been because of them being around. This week will be harder.

I'm still finding where exactly I fit in here. There are lots of opportunities with the worship teams but I think I need to focus on one or two teams to apply myself the most intentionally with those and to leave time for other opportunities. The English language small group is still taking shape but looks like it will be a valuable thing for missionary kids and others whose English/American parents work in Ukraine. I met one of the teens a week ago and I realized that he has nowhere to fit in. He hasn't lived here long enough to fit it with Ukrainian kids and he doesn't seem to have enough other people like himself. The other intern and I are talking about how we can create a community for him and others in similar situations.

I am at the point where I realize I'm not sure what I'm doing and that's a little scary. But I can fall back on knowing confidently that I was supposed to come here, though I haven't figured out all the reasons yet. I need to apply myself diligently but be patient knowing that I may not see an impact for a good number of months. The other thing I am having to remind myself is that if I don't make this trip be all about God, then it just will not work.

Joel (the American youth pastor) has been very helpful in the process of getting settled and is always available to provide moral support. He had me, the other American intern, and some other people over to his place for Easter dinner. He has also had encouraging things to say about the turn we are making with the young adult worship ministry. Things are moving forward, it's just hard to see the impact so soon.

Video From My Church In Nashville

Here is a video that was shown at my home church in Nashville (Midtown Fellowship) right before I left. It tells a little about what I'm doing and why. The video was done pro bono by a guy named Josh Carter who is also involved with Midtown's missions trips to Ukraine. Check out his website at www.joshbcarter.com. If you need any work done and would like to contact him via phone, let me know and I can provide you with his number.


Meeting Midtown: Josh Ingram from Joshua Ingram on Vimeo.