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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