Respiratory Infections, Trust Sequences & Traveling Plans

It started with a mild sore throat about a week ago. The next morning it was a slight runny nose. By day 3 I was hacking up radioactive ooze and having prolonged coughing spells when everyone else in the city was fast asleep.

I always want to err on the side of a viral condition- that is, a regular run of the mill cold that neither requires nor benefits from the effects of antibiotics. When the snot turned green though, I figured it might be time to give in.

But then I discovered in the vast world of Internet Medical Consultation that it's not a good idea to take expired antibiotics...so I put off taking them a few more days. Finally- after a really miserable Saturday night and a loooooonnnnnngggg Sunday I was chatting online with a friend back home whose sister is a nurse and together they convinced me to take the medicine. My friend said her sister takes expired Meds overseas on Medical Mission Trips all the time. So...beginning Sunday night I started a 10 day regimen of Cipro. I was feeling better as early as yesterday. Still some coughing and a little congestion, but not as much toxic sludge coming from the lungs.

I spent Saturday afternoon with a couple of friends-an Australian- Hamilton and two Romanians - Adi and Tibi. We went to a Fotbal Game. Soccer to the rest of us. The local team won 1-0. I can see where it would be a lot of fun with a full stadium. The weather was beautiful- reminded me of a nice warm day watching Baseball at Dudy Noble in Starkville. Unfortunately, the Soccer Game itself wasn't much more exciting than a baseball game. Baseball in Starkville was always more about atmosphere and the social aspect than just being exciting from start to finish. But I digress.

This past Sunday was also Orthodox Easter. There are a lot of nice traditions associated with it that don't include bunnies and eggs (mostly). The meals in particular are meaningful. I went to a Midnight Mass with Adi and his parents and fiancee and then we had a breakfast afterwards (at like 1 in the morning). I woke up pretty early with him Sunday morning for another breakfast and then went to Socodor- a small town about an hour from the city. We attended the Bethesda Pentecostal Church where Adi works with the children and youth. I ate lunch with him and his extended family in the village and then I got to spend about 2 hours with most of the teenagers (pictured below).

I gave them some training and encouragement. I was able to go through some Trust Sequence activities with them- one of my favorite "youth group" things to do. They were great! They are the Leadership Team for a community Children's Outreach that takes place about twice a month. They were a fun bunch of teenagers. Most of them are from 2 particularly large families in the village! I had a lot of fun with them. It was like being a youth minister again for a little while.


I was pretty wiped out from the weekend, and like I said, didn't start taking any real medicine until Sunday night. I've been laying pretty low for several days now just trying to recuperate.

I'm leaving Thursday to spend a few days with the International Teams Staff and some other friends for their annual Spiritual Retreat. It's in the mountains I think. That will be a great place for me to start my next leg.

I plan to go to Brasov- that's near the home of Dracula's Castle...Mhua ha ha. I'd like to spend a couple nights in the area and maybe do some hiking. Maybe even camp one night.

I'll leave from there and go to Chisinau, Moldova where I'll meet yet another missionary. I think he'll have a team from the States with him next week working on a church project. I'll only be with him a few days.

I'm flying from Chisinau to Sarajevo on May 9. I'll probably spend at least one night there before going on to Montenegro. I'll fly from Sarajevo back to Kiev, Ukraine on May 15 and then go to the Passion Conference on May 16. On May 17th I'll fly to Venice, Italy and enjoy a day and half there. I'll also get about 12 hours in Rome before getting to Athens for my flight home on May 20th.

Lifea isa Gooda

I've been thinking about my "end run"...how I'm going to get back to Athens for my flight home on May 20th. I was originally thinking of meeting my friend Jonathan back in Greece to climb Mt. Olympus, but the more I thought about it the more it looked like it was going to be kinda hectic to squeeze it in.

So just now, I discovered something. You can search for Multi-Leg flights that are often cheaper than if you searched for 2 or 3 single leg flights. Make sense? In other words, it cost more to book a flight from Kiev to Venice and then Venice to Athens than to book this little side-trip:

• Saturday, May 17- Kiev to Rome (short layover) to Venice. I'll spend 2 nights in Venice and have all day on the 18th to ply the hundreds of waterways and canals of the old city.
• Monday, May 19- Venice to Rome with a 10 hour layover. I'll have enough time to get into the city and see some sights.
• Monday, May 19- late night flight to Athens where I'll probably just sit in the airport until my flight home leaves at 6:00 am the following morning.

Venice and Rome. Sweet!

Now all I have to do is figure out a way to see more of the Balkans, the Romanian Mountains, Moldova and get back to Kiev!

It's All About The Oreo's

O Oreo, Oreo! wherefore art thou Oreo?


















'Tis True, Oreo's are hard to find over here!"

Overwhelming Odessa

Today has been a fun day. William, my missionary host took me with him to the Wednesday morning prayer meeting at the Odessa Baptist Seminary. I ran into one of the guys that was a translator for us back in 2004 when I brought a group of high school and college students to Odessa. Vitaliy is now a New Testament Professor at the seminary.

Later in the day I met up with Maxim. We worked with him back in '04 too. He's a great minister, really well respected by all the missionaries. He has so much going on!


The highlight of my side trip to Odessa though was getting to see Katya and Vika and their little brother Yuri. There are always those kids that you just connect with...that you're drawn to.


Back in '04, those kids more than any others were 13 year old Katya and her 10 year old little sister Vika. We conducted a Backyard Bible Club everyday in a field behind their apartment. Even though we couldn't understand a word the other was saying, they were just precious all week long...always smiling and laughing and hugging. I thought they were two of the prettiest sisters I had ever seen.






When I saw Maxim Tuesday night after I arrived I asked him about the girls. To my wonderful surprise he said they were still involved in his ministry. I hoped I would see them. I hoped they would remember me.

Today Maxim gave me a mini-tour of some of the sites we worked on when I was here 4 years ago. The ministry sites are still happening. There are Bible Studies at the gypsy village. There's a small church near "Field of Wonders". While we were walking in that area I overheard Maxim calling Vika on his cell phone. My first thought was, "no way!" My next thought was more of a prayer, "Lord, I hope she remembers me". When she came out of her apartment building to meet us, I extended my hand for a handshake but she went almost immediately for the neck! A hug that is. It was clear to me that she hadn't forgotten me. She's 14 now and still stunning.












Maxim and I accompanied her to her apartment where I met her Mother and Father and baby sister and little brother Yuri (who had also been a part of our ministry 4 years ago- he's 13 now). In a little while, Katya came home from school and we had a similiar reunion.


















She's 17 now and almost finished with Technical High School. They had photo albums with some pictures from our Bible Clubs. I guess Ron (the missionary that was here back then) had given them copies. Not only did they remember me, but as they showed me the pictures they recalled the names of all of our team- Stacy, Jerry, Justin, Sarah Dale (I think Matt and Ben and Sandy were with us too). I had pictures of Stacy and Sarah Dale on my IPod...they were amazed- especially at Sarah Dale...I told them she won the MS Miss Teen thing- the translation was kinda rough so all they know is that she is/was Miss Mississippi. They are so proud!

Tonight I went to Grace Church (where we stayed 4 years ago) with Sophie (she's a missionary kid here now). She told me Luba would be there for Youth Choir Practice. Four years ago when our team was living at the church Luba would come by everyday and just hang out with us. She was maybe 12 years old then. She played the guitar really well and had a beautiful voice. In fact, we ended up taking her with us to our clubs so she could sing and speak to the younger kids at our clubs. I was really surprised and blessed to run into her again 2 years ago when I was in town for just 1 night for the Radooga Student Conference. Of course, I wasn't going to pass up a chance to get to see her again. I was surprised 2 years ago at how much she had grown; and even more surprised tonight. She's a beautiful young girl and man, can she sing!!



It doesn't get much better than this!

Wrestlemania

After surviving The World Race you'd think I'd know what "missions" is, right? You'd think after praying and "claiming" my inheritance I'd know where God wants me to go and what He wants me to do.

I'm such a knucklehead. Is all of life going to be like this? (And then I read about all the knuckleheads in the Bible...including the ones most closely following Jesus when he walked the earth . . . ) and I figure the answer is . . . yes.

Is Missions going to work for a giant mission organization with a ton of paperwork and orders from "on high" and more authority above me than I want (but likely need)? Or is missions just packing up, moving out and living "life" somewhere that's not my home?

The answer I think is . . .yes.

Is missions going somewhere that's not my home or is it going to work everyday just like you've been doing for 5, 10, 15, 20+ years? The answer I think is . . .yes.

The reality is whether I'm in Ukraine or Moldova or Kosova or Romania or Gulfport . . . none of those places is my home. This earth is not my home.

I think I can "do" missions with the IMB (Lord willing that they invite me to do so). And I think I can "do" missions by just packing up, moving out and living "life" somewhere.

I thought I had it figured out last year on The World Race. I said back then that I wanted to eventually operate a Mission Base. A place that would be a base of operations for short term missionaries, a place that might turn into an orphanage or a center for street kids, a base from which to do "Incidental" Church Planting. The difference between Intentional Church Planting and Incidental Church Planting in my mind is simply that I don't want to be in a position where my performance is based on the number of churches "I" plant. I want to make friends. Build meaningful relationships. Build Community. Disciple Others. Watch it turn into Church. I don't want to go to bed banging my head everyday because I failed again to "plant" a church.

Does that make sense?

I also had a pretty strong conviction late last year that I wanted to work with the IMB if they would take me. I figure my first couple of years anywhere is going to be spent learning the culture and the language; why not let them pay me while I do that?

At this point I am committed to going as far as I can with the IMB. If they invite me to the interviews I figure I'll learn a whole lot more about my future with them. I can make a fully informed (and hopefully Spirit led) decision after that.

If I don't come over here with them, then I'm thinking I'll come back anyway. Somewhere. Probably at my own expense for a year, under someone's authority, and then see if I my vision is enough to engage others to support me in the future.

Kiev

I arrived in Kiev last Friday night after a marathon of traveling that started at 4 am that morning. I was met at the airport (about 2 hours after my originally scheduled arrival) by a friend from Smithville, MS- now an IMB Missionary here in Kiev. Darrel and his wife and three precious daughters have only been here a few months since transferring from Belarus late last year. They were there for about 5 years so he's pretty fluent with his Russian language.

It was a treat to have someone pick me up at the airport. Had it not worked out that way, this would have potentially been my most expensive stay from the get-go. Just getting to a decent hotel from the airport would have been plenty!!

Since then they have taken wonderful care of me. Fortunately I don't have much of an agenda so I can just tag along with him everyday. And also fortunate for me, he hasn't had a whole lot to do since his ministry is still in it's early stages. We've talked a lot about what it might look like for me to work here. He has introduced me to as many of the other missionaries as he can; I even met some from Odessa yesterday.

I've forced the oldest daughter to share a room with her two little sisters all week, I've eaten their food, watched their tv and mooched their wireless internet. If that wasn't enough hospitality extended on their part- Darrel has also taken me to the doctor two times this week with another trip coming up tomorrow.

I finally completed my application for service with the International Mission Board; the application is complete and I will be invited to the Missionary Candidate Screening Conference in July PENDING completion of my medical file. Their insurance company requires some follow-up regarding my high cholesterol found earlier this year and some additional information about my history with kidney stones. Thus the visits to the doctor. So far, I've had 2 x-rays, Ultrasound, Lipid Profile and Urinalysis- all for under $500.00. I would guess the same work at home would be about $10,000.00. (I'm not ready for socialized medicine back home, but something is broken and needs to be fixed [and I doubt Hillary is the one that can fix it btw]).

So, it looks like the cholesterol is down a little bit; I don't know yet if it's enough to satisfy the bean counters. And it looks like I might have 3 small stones but not big enough to warrant a procedure and the doctor thinks I'm good to go. I'll have to wait and see what the insurance people say.

I've been able to walk all over some parts of Kiev. It's a city of maybe 8 million or more people. It's more difficult for me to get around in than in most other places I've been too. It's getting more and more westernized, but not to the point where all the transportation options are in English and easy to follow. It can be daunting to get around but doing so on public transportation is probably doable. Prices are sort of high in comparison to a lot of places I've been.

There may be as many as 50 universities, colleges and schools here...I'm not sure though. One guy suggested a nearby University had 50,000 students which is completely believable. There have been several times here when we were just covered up with students. But it's been much more difficult to have meaningful conversations with them. It reiterates one of the burdens of being a lone-ranger in ministry. Unless you're connected with a church (or in the process of starting one), then you don't have a "body" to connect people with if/when you get to that point in a conversation. I want to promote the Passion Conference here in May, but I don't have any material to do so and it would be so much more effective if local churches and ministries were doing that. People that are invited to the conference need to be able to associate it with a local group for follow-up purposes.

I really haven't met missionaries from any other agencies although I tried to get in touch with a Campus Crusade guy. I'm sure there are LOTS of people working here from all sorts of agencies and churches but I get the impression that it's such a big place in comparison to Peja in Kosova that it's really hard for them to get together. There probably needs to be something like a "Passion" in which a lot of these ministries can rally to. I liked it better where all these guys and gals knew one another and were working together for the Kingdom. Here, I feel like there's a lot of turfism and not so much unity in the greater body.

I don't want to leave Kiev until I know for certain that my medical file is complete. Hopefully by Friday. Then I'm headed to Lugansk by overnight train to spend a few days with another missionary, then to Odessa via overnight train where I'll catch a flight to Timisoara, Romania and I'll be there for at least a couple of weeks. I'm also hoping to catch up with one of the guys and maybe a couple students from when I was in Odessa in 2004.

A long day . . . so far. And still going . . . .

I didn't sleep last night. I dozed off for a few minutes here and there. I was really worried about not waking up for my taxi ride to the airport at 4 am. So I pretty much just stayed awake all night. And then, at 3:30 am or so I double checked my itinerary on my email and realized my flight was at 5:05 and not 6:30 or whatever I thought it was. The taxi driver was right on time though and we got to the airport by 4:30. I was watching his meter click off the cost in Macedonian Dinars. It was up to 1700 or so as we pulled into the airport (about $45.00). As I was pulling the money out he pushed a button and it jumped to over 6000 Dinar ($150.00). He said that was the "total". Needless to say, we had words. I think he ended up with about $80.00...still probably $30-$50.00 more than he should have gotten.

Arrived in Slovenia at 7:15ish am. My guidebook said there were busses to and from the city but I let a taxi driver nab me again. It cost about $60.00 to get into the city...probably double what it should have cost. We'll call it "the american tax".

He wanted to pick me up to bring me back to the airport but I ditched him and figured out which bus to take...it cost about $7.00! You'd think I'd know better by now.

To top it all off, I ended up getting back to the airport like 4 hours too early. I thought my plane to Ukraine left at 3 and it leaves at 6 almost. Oh well. At least I get to update the blog and my facebook pictures.


The Capital of Slovenia is Ljubljana (Lyoobli ahna). It is the smallest Capital in Europe. It's also the greenest. So far in my limited experience I'd say Vienna is the only city I've been to that's prettier. It is stunning here. You can see snow capped Julian Alps to the north. There are trees and parks and daffodils everywhere. The architecture is wonderfully European. Most of it dating to the middle ages and after. Unlike the other cities I've seen so far on this trip, there is very little Ottoman/Muslim influence. It really makes a difference in the look of the city.

It's very clean. It's just beautiful. The Ski resorts are an hour away. Their are Medieval Castles throughout the land. The hiking is supposed to be amazing in the summer. Lots of people speak English. Yeah, I want to come back here.

Kosova

I'm back in Skopje, Macedonia for a couple nights after spending 5 days in Peja, Kosova. Peja is the 2nd largest city in Kosova with about 100,000 people. The city is just on the edge of the mountains separating NW Kosova and Montenegro.


It is beautiful country. I know the latitude is about the same as northern Nebraska and lower South Dakota and some of the country looks similar. The lower parts of the mountains reminded me of the Black Hills and some of the lower country is rolling, hilly farmland with lots of rocks which I all looks like it was formed by glaciers I guess.

In a huge nutshell, the people are about 90% Albanian Kosovars...Kosavars that speak Albanian and have been here for hundreds of years. But before the middle ages and conquest by the Turks, they were probably Christians...remember Paul's vision, "hey, come over the Macedonia and help us!". Technically the country is 90+% Muslim now; but in reality less than 10% are devout, most are completely secularist.

The people I met were all friendly and social. I was told that during the winter, it gets dark at 4 pm and it's just plain ugly for 3 months or so. And then comes the promise of Spring (right NOW) and people start coming out in droves. There are lots and LOTS of little sidewalk cafe's and they are just covered up with people.

There are lots of young people. There was a baby boom after the War in the 90's and I guess 60-70% of the population is under 30.
(A couple of the missionary kids- Elyse and Kevin invited me to join them and their friends for a hike and picnic. We walked about a mile and half into the hills/mountains behind their house and the Kosovar guys cooked Chufta and Chewbaba (like hamburger and sausage) on a grill. A pretty sweet deal.)





I met almost a dozen international missionaries, about half American and the others from all over. I stayed with a family of 5 that I met through an online contact with International Teams. Randy and Linda Pyle and their kids (Elyse, Kevin and Evonne) have been here 8 years after serving about that long in nearby Albania. They could write a book! They ministered to Kosovar refugees in Albania during the War and then came here pretty much as soon as they could afterwards.

There is still a pretty large contingent of UN/NATO/EU Peacekeeping forces here. I wanted to ask the Italian Guards at the checkpoint on the edge of town to let me take a picture with them...or to get a picture holding one of their really big guns...but I chickened out. Randy told me later that I should have since they are probably pretty bored and it would have been entertaining for them!

The poeple here love Bill Clinton and they even like GW. In short, they like Americans. It's pretty funny to see all these little stores named after American icons. There's a brand of beer advertised on billboards with an American Flag in the background. You see US Flags flying pretty regularly.

The international missionary community here is fairly close knit. They at least all know one another and they care for and work with one another at least as well as I've ever seen anywhere else. The ones I met were from at least 4 organizations. They all pretty much said they'd pray for me and hope I can go wherever the Lord leads...but that they all hope I end up back in Peja. I met 2 girls from IMB; one of them is from Alabama.

If you've heard about recent fighting or anything, mostly it's overblown. It's very sporadic and limited to one or two locations. There is hope here. There is opportunity. But it's a window that isn't guaranteed to remain open. Pray for the Pyle's and other missionaries in Peja.