Author: ba

We did it again. I am almost scared to count how many times we have moved in the last 8 years. Thankfully, we don’t own much here, besides dishes, toys and clothes we only have a table we bought and a few chairs. It took us one hour to move the stuff into three vehicles and an hour to move it into our new apartment.

So why did we move?
Well, now that we have lived here a few months we have come to realize that with two little children, public transportation is pretty difficult. However, buying a car in Ukraine comes with a long list of challenges. After consulting everyone that we know here the common consensus was we will need to buy new (due to road conditions, registrations, etc…). BUY NEW? As if! We have never bought a new car. And so, after much deliberation we figured out that if we moved into a new apartment for less money we could put that money towards a car payment.

The very cool thing is that right when we decided to look for a new place our friends told us that they were moving out of their place. It is one third less in price than the rent from our first place and it has an extra room. So God provides yet again!

Everyone tells us that one of their favorite things on this website is our kid updates. We definitely have fun highlighting some of the things that our kids do. We know that we live far away, but we don’t want people to feel like they missed watching our kids grow up- so today I’m posting a video of just them. Enjoy!

School always starts up again in January after Christmas break. Well its no different here. Ben taught on January 10 in the SBS, 1 John was the book of the Bible. What an incredible opportunity it was to challenge our class to love more fully, live in the light and learn the truth.

There are other people going back to school too. Two years ago we led a team of 6 people to Indonesia where we ran a 2 month intensive Bible training program for over 20 local church leaders and missionaries who had almost no Bible training at all. Well, one couple on our team, David and Sharon, who now have their own little boy JJ, are leading their own team of 7 people back to the same island. Their, they will run a follow up program with some new participants and some from last time. So we have many friends in the jungles of Borneo who will soon be heading back to school too.

If you have a moment, would you please pray that everything would work out, finances would be provided, transportation would be safe and swift, and people would be ready to hear the voice of God speaking into their lives.

What a blessing it is to be educated, something I know I have often taken for granted. Learning is so wonderful and I am so glad people have taught me many things and I am a richer person because of it.

It is 2011- a new year, new goals, big dreams, exciting changes! I love New Years!!!! I love fresh starts and new beginnings. Last night a friend of mine here named Yulia and I went to downtown Kyiv to watch the fireworks! It was super fun and they were beautiful! I’ve posted a little video of them if you scroll down. Poor Ben had to stay home with the kids but I think he was secretly thankful not to be out until 1:30am. Hope you had a great time celebrating New Years too! Any New Years resolutions out there?

Hypocrisy. It is a problem.
We just finished our first quarter of SBS. The students have almost finished studying the New Testament and they have done amazing. I (Angela) taught on the last day of lecture- the book of James.

James is a book that is like going into a room of mirrors. He holds up a mirror at all different angles and allows you to look at yourself from multiple perspectives and topics. It is an awesome book that challenges every believer to really live out his faith in practical ways dealing with issues like perseverance in trials, wisdom, and watching our words to name a few. I love this quote:

Whenever faith does not issue in love, and doctrine, no matter how orthodox, is unrelated to life; whenever Christians are tempted to settle down to a self–centered religion, and become oblivious of the social and material needs of others. Or whenever they deny by their manner of living the creed they profess, and seem more anxious to be friends of the world than friends of God, then the epistle of James has something to say to them which they reject at their own peril.-R.V.G Tasker 1956.

I was challenged as I studied and taught this book written by the brother of Jesus to be open to seeing any areas in my life that are not in alignment with what I profess to believe. I am always open to feedback (given in love of course) so if anytime you see something you would deem ‘hypocrisy’ please let me know.

A picture is worth 1000 words so they say. Instead of a letter, here is our year in 30 pictures. Enjoy!
** To have it play automatically, click play arrow, then “MORE” and then “autoplay”.

A picture is worth 1000 words so they say. Instead of a letter, here is our year in 30 pictures. Enjoy!
** To have it play automatically, click play arrow, then “MORE” and then “autoplay”.

Life in Ukraine is very similar in a lot of ways … but in some, it is just different.

We’ve been in the 0 to -10 degree celcius weather the last couple weeks. Not really cold, but still cold. The ministry we work with has a boat that floats and is basically docked on the shoreline. It’s been there for a long time – not less than 10 years from what I figure. It has an electrical connection to the shore. Here is where it gets different (as quoted by our director):

“We (our electricity) got cut off twice today again because of corrupt crazy mafia dudes who live in England! The transformer is locked inside a building bought by some guy. The transformer is state owned and the building should be. So what happened is some corrupt official sold the building to a private owner with a lot of money, and walla, we get screwed by being dependent on this private owner who doesn’t even live in Ukraine. We have to literally run water constantly through our pipes so they don’t freeze.”

I just can’t see this happening at home in Canada. Somethings here … well, they’re just different.

We have been having a lot of fun with the DTS here in Kyiv! We’ve painted, prayed, played jeapordy, cut up maps, drawn pictures, and all for the purpose of understanding how the bible is one big love story of God pursuing man! This class is unique because it has many people that did not grow up in the church, including some who were orphans and because now they are too old for the orphanage (they are kicked out at 16) are here doing a DTS. That means their knowledge of the bible and God’s love is very small. Thank you to everyone who makes it possible for us to be here in Ukraine teaching. We couldn’t be here without you and 14 DTS students are being trained and discipled because of you!

This last week we had the privilege of getting to know some really great DTS students and staff in Ternopil. We took a night train there (sleeping with kids on a train is definitely an experience!) and then taught every morning. We took them on a journey from the beginning of the bible to the end. It was a lot of fun. In the evenings we played lots of games and they played with our kids. Cassie and Jay sure had a lot of love and attention showered on them. We made a little video and have posted some pictures so don’t forget to scroll down and check them out! In a few weeks those DTS’ers will be heading to India and Ethiopia! Very exciting! We teach next week in the DTS here in Kyiv so that will be lots of fun!

Date night…
Every Tuesday Alla, our babysitter, comes over and we head to our Russian tutor.
Every Friday, she comes again, but this time it is date night.

Last night we went downtown and walked around, people watching. We got on a retro metro (no really, it was a fixed up old metro car – but you’ve got to love my rhyme!) car and rode downtown. We walked past the Gucci store, Louis Vitton and a few other ritzy flipzy types. We strolled through a traditional market and then into the tsum department store (apparently there is one in every post-soviet country). We laughed at how hard it is to read Russian cursive … we’ve got the printing, that’s a piece of cake compared to the handwriting – you should see this stuff (click on pics for a better taste). We found this really cool bakery (still can’t find cinnamon buns though). Did some jeans shopping for Ang – happy birthday present!

Life just changes when the kids come around. Family time is really great .. but it sure is wonderful to hang out with my best friend and have lots of fun with her! So Alla comes every Friday so we can have date night … do you have any suggestions for us?

** This pic of Russian handwriting says “deeshish” which means breathe – thanks to Christine Pierquet for the photo.