Ukraine Invaded by The World Race

The World Race is here.

It started innocently enough about a month ago... three pretty girls passed through for a look see.


















And then a few days ago my old friend Jake arrived and gave me an excuse to go back to TGI Friday's and since he brought some sunny weather with him, then we were able to spend a few days exploring the sights.























But then the dam broke.

Enter 49 World Racers. There's no sneaking around with this bunch!

Upon their arrival they were transported to the village of Kiylov, about an hour outside of Kyiv to rest and prepare for Debrief. We were able to recruit an American Missionary friend to spend a few hours with them for a Cultural Briefing of Ukraine/Eastern Europe.

A staff member from the UN here in Kyiv will give the squad a briefing regarding Sex Trafficking (Ukraine, Moldova and Romania are among the leading "Source Countries" for international sex trafficking).


On Thursday the squad will relocate to a retreat center nearer Kyiv and will be joined by Coaches from the States that will lead their debrief.

It's been fun having them around. It's given me an opportunity to practice my language in an effort to help make arrangements for them and the level of cooperation from ministry friends here in Kyiv has been amazing. God is in this.

Spring Break

I can't believe Spring Break is half-way over already.

Last Saturday was Radooga's youth conference here in Kyiv. They used the exact same theme that StudentLife used this year: LiveLove. As a matter of fact, a couple guys from Birmingham flew over for the weekend and I got to have dinner with them Saturday night after the conference.

The conference was great! I'd say it was everybit as technologically cutting edge as stuff back home; in fact, we even had a live feed connecting us with the StudentLife Conference in Atlanta- and that was pretty cool! And like the conferences back home- it wasn't the band, the lights or the drama-team that made the difference...it was the student leaders investing in the lives of their students and putting them in a place to be able to hear God. The conference was on the campus of the National Aviation University in Kyiv- home of Ukrainian Top Gun!


On Sunday evening I flew one of the regional low-cost airlines (WizzAir) to London where I stayed at the Globetrotter Inn Hostel. It's a turn-of-century hospital turned 370+ bed hostel. Some people live there- like my friend Becky from Gulfport- she's studying this semester in London. Groups as large as 100 stay there for a few days at a time while touring in London. It's a cool environment, with people from all over the world living there. A couple other friends- students from MC are also there this semester.



Of course- London is just a cool city. It's expensive (but not as much as it was a year ago!) but it's easy to get around in and there's so much to do and see. I attended plays at the National Theatre both Monday and Tuesday night. One play, "Burnt by the Sun" was set in post-revolution Russia...just as the "dream" was about to turn bad under Stalin. I really enjoyed it.

The rest of the short time there I spent in Museums. I just barely scratched the surface. My favorite was the Imperial War Museum. It was pretty awesome. I can fly there roundtrip for under $100.00 and the hostel is about $28.00 a night...so maybe I can go back and stay longer.

TOMMORROW: My World Race friend Jake arrives in the morning to take care of the final logistics in preparation for a World Race team of 51 set to arrive here Sunday afternoon.

Spring Break Fever

We started learning "Verbs of Motion" in class this past week. Wow...I never knew saying, "I'm going to....wherever" could be so confusing!

Anyway- to recap the week:

My WR friends went to Lugansk last Wednesday evening. While accompanying them to the train station we ran into their Lugansk host, Shane Duke. I'm hoping to spend some time with him this summer for his summer camps.

Friday night was Pizza Night at my friends, the Hathcocks. I took my playstation with me so their 3 girls could outdrive me on my own Jeep Thrills game!

Saturday night my friend Allyson and I went in search of Dixie Lee Chicken- a family-owned, Canadian fried chicken restaurant that recently opened here in Kyiv. We couldn't find it in the freezing rain and sleet and snow and enjoyed Pizza Express instead. After dinner and good conversation we ran into the chicken place and I picked up a box of wings to-go. Pretty good- kinda tasted like convenience store fried chicken back home, know what I mean?

Today was pretty lazy but I did get to talk with one of my former students on Skype and enjoyed "watching" MSU beat TN in the SEC Tourney Championship Game. (I actually didn't watch the game; I don't have enough bandwidth for that, but I can watch the livestat/scoreboard.

Finally- at the end of this week- Radooga will host their "studentlife like" Student Conference on Saturday (using the same theme- LiveLove- as SL is using) and on Sunday I'm flying to London for a few days for my Spring Break!! Later in the week, my WR friend Jake will arrive in Kyiv.

Thanks to all of you that are faithful to remember me with prayers and encouragement, and don't forget to let me know how I can pray for you too.

The Day That Was

The day is over with now. Yesterday was March 12- it just passed a few minutes ago for me here in Ukraine.

Three years ago yesterday I lost Kim.

I'm not sure what I expected of the day. I approached it earlier this week with a certain sense of ...confusion... not knowing what I would feel. Not knowing how I should feel.

As it turns out, I went through the day just generally numb. No strong emotions. No emotions at all really. I spent some relatively uninspiring time with the Lord to start my day. I finished homework. I went to the bank. I attended class. I bought groceries and cooked and cleaned-up after myself. I just went through the day doing what I needed and was supposed to do.

And now I feel like I missed something.

There are two scenes that bookend the movie, "Saving Private Ryan", where the "now" Ryan is reminiscing about the events that led up to his rescue. He wonders aloud if the sacrifice was worth it. It's certainly not a direct analogy: Kim didn't give her life for me.

But I do want to live up to what I feel would be her expectations of me. I don't want to screw it up! I want my life to count. Her's sure as heck did.

Week in Review

It's late Sunday night and I've had a fairly eventful week. Hmm, where to begin. Well, it was a short week of school since I skipped a day on Thursday. Three friends from The World Race, including one of my fellow WR07 travelers Stephanie Fisk, arrived on Thursday and I skipped school to meet them and get them situated in town.

These are the times when I lament not having transportation of my own or my own apartment...but God is definitely good. My friend Oleg drove me to the airport to pick them up.

A few weeks ago I sent out some emails and Facebook messages asking some of the veteran missionaries where I might be able to put 3 girls for a week. One of my first friends here, a fellow language student named Allyson, came through in unbelievable fashion.

The short of it is that she is house-sitting this month for other missionaries currently on furlough so she allowed the girls to live in her apartment all week. Not only that, but she has exercised her gift of hospitality at every turn- from cooking for us last Thursday, to stocking the apartment with groceries for them, acting as a tour guide and introducing them to far more contacts than I could have. What a champ! She also took the girls to visit AIDS Orphans at one of the hospitals- which is part of her ministry here in Kyiv.

On Friday night we attended a Coffee House ministry that another International Church (Intl Christian Assembly) puts on. On Saturday I met my language helper, Yeagor, for the first time...then I met the girls downtown for some sightseeing (but we didn't see much because it was really cold and wet and ugly). Later we enjoyed dinner at TGI Friday's.


Today after church Oleg again provided transportation, taking us to the village of Kiylov about an hour south of Kiev to look at a Retreat Center that a WR Squad will use in a few weeks for Debriefing and Orientation.

Tomorrow we will meet more of Allyson's friends and visit an orphanage.

Finally, today is Interational Women's Day in the former Soviet Union (and maybe some other countries). Sort of like Mother's Day I guess. LOTS of chocolate and flowers being sold today. We have no classes tomorrow because of it...so, another short week....then one more full week...then a whole week of Spring Break and I have to admit, I'm looking forward to it like a 21 year-old college kid!!