A week with Laura Ingalls Wilder...

Okay, for those who were on the Sept. 2004 Ukraine outreach – Torben and I have at last experienced "real" outreach.

We spent the last week and a half in a tiny tiny tiny little Ukrainian village called Mozhevaya. 3 hours train ride from the nearest city, we entered into the 1800s. Some people travel in cars (very few) but most get around on WWII style motorcycles, you know, the ones with the compartment to the side so people can ride in it. Others just get around on horse-drawn carts.
Our 8 person team stayed with a family of 11, so we were a bit packed. To our surprise, there was electricity, but no plumbing. A good old fashioned well complete with rope and bucket. And of course, an outhouse. Yeah, an outhouse. So on the way from the house to the outhouse, we had to walk by a killer dog, shoo away the chickens and geese running all over the yard, try to avoid all of the animal poo (it was all over the place so we gave up on avoiding it after a day or so...yeah, our shoes need washed badly), and finally reach the incredibly smelly hole in the ground. The farm was complete with geese, ducks, chickens, pigs, cows, dogs, cats, and an adorable puppy named Rex who really liked to chew on feet.

The church where we helped with a kids camp was a 20 minute walk from where we lived. We joined up with a Ukrainian Baptist organization that runs 8 weeks of kids camps in villages all over Ukraine every summer. The group we worked with was very cool and welcomed us into the camp and were eager to work with us. There were fewer kids than they had hoped for - only 15 - but it was still a good week. We shared the gospel and did lots of skits and games with them. It was an action packed, fun week.

The only bad part for me is that I got a pretty bad chest cold toward the end of the week. Being sick in the countryside is definitely no fun. You know, that's when you want some comforts around you. Oh and the other bad part was the food...oh my gosh. I knew before I came that I don't like Ukrainian food very much, but this sealed the deal. I still don't know what kind of meat it was that we ate, but I don't think I want to know. The worst was the incredible amount of oil that is in everything. Eating soup was like eating oil...and they eat a lot of soup. Torben and I were both very eager to get back to just our team because even though some of them make some very unfamiliar food, at least it is edible.

But this experience has given me an entirely new view of Ukrainian culture. Up until now I have only experienced Ukrainian city life and frankly, I haven't been too excited about it. But to experience the hospitality and great kindness of the Ukrainians we lived with as well as getting to know an older lady (babushka) who was not pushing me off the bus or yelling at me for not understanding Russian was just great. I really enjoyed our week of country living, though I am glad I don't have to use an outhouse all the time.

Right now we are back in Dnipropetrovsk and our bus for Moldova leaves in about6 hours! It will be a 14 hour bus ride so please pray for us as we go over bumpy Ukrainian roads and pass through the Moldovan border at 7am tomorrow. I hate borders and get very nervous, but we all have our visas and papers, so it should be fine. Just please pray. I'll update more from Moldova!