I've just finally finished posting a video tour of our apartment that we're currently living in here in Ukraine. In the video Denyce and I show you where we live, starting in the courtyard outside our building, entering into our apartment, and going through the apartment room by room. Along the way we highlight some of the peculiarities of our living situation and the overall lifestyle in Ukraine. This is something I've been wanting to do for a long time, and finally in June we shot the video with the help of a teammate. It's just taken me this long to finally do the minimal processing I wanted to do and get it uploaded.
Additionally, I had some hesitation about how to make it available. In the end I decided to err on the side of caution for our privacy and do it this way... I'm not embedding it in this blog post; instead, it is available at a different location online. Please simply shoot us a quick email at
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asking for a link to the apartment tour video (or hit us up on Facebook or Skype). As long as you're not a total stranger, we'll send you the link right away (even if we don't know you, tell us who you know that would be a mutual friend and that may suffice). Sorry for the hassle, but I felt this was probably the best way to go about this. I promise your email only needs to be a one-liner, and we'll respond promptly. The address again:
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.
P.S. We'll go ahead and post links on our Facebook walls too, so if we're connected on Facebook, look for it there, no email needed.
We're at our team retreat at a small hotel just outside of Kharkov, and the wireless internet is working. Last time we were here, the internet didn't work all weekend, which was fine. But it's nice to be able to make a little use of it to touch base with the outside world. I won't be on here doing too much, though, because we're trying to make the most of our time here visiting with one another and with our guests who are here with us. We invited Tim and Rebecca Brinley to join us for this retreat and share some lessons and experiences with us, and to be a part of our discussions together as we plan ahead for the months to come. The Brinleys worked for something like 14 years in Moscow, which is how we know them. Both Denyce and Dougle worked with them and the others on their team in Moscow back when they (Denyce and Dougle) were AIM students. Later Lucy and Dougle worked with them in the context of an LST campaign in Moscow, and then in 2007 they helped and hosted Dougle, David, and I in their home when we were in Moscow. Tim has been sharing thoughts and leading discussions with us, looking at lessons and principles from the book of Acts and the life of Paul that are applicable to new missionaries and new mission works. It has been great so far.
The other guests who are here are Tim's parents, who were in Greece visiting Tim and Rebecca (who work with Harding University's branch there) and tagged along to come to Ukraine for this retreat. We've really enjoyed them too. It turns out that in the last month or two they've just happened to visit the congregations in Placerville, CA and Grass Valley, CA that Denyce and I are so connected to, and that several years back they visited Sun Valley, our sponsoring congregation. So even though I had never met or heard of Herb and Virginia before yesterday, we already had a lot in common.
The big event this week in our family has been Malachi's fourth birthday. Thursday evening we, the McDougles, and the Nelsons got together for pizza and the kids played around the fountains in front of the Opera House in Kharkov. Then yesterday, at the end of our first day here at the retreat, he had a party for Malachi. He enjoyed opening an array of presents, including several that his Grandma Billye had sent over ahead of time from California.
Anyway, on the subject of Malachi's birthday, Thursday night Denyce wrote an excellent post that is worth reading, and included pictures from the evening, on her blog. Check it out over at:
Denyce and I woke up this morning excited about the neat day we had planned. We had arranged with some friends of ours, a Ukrainian couple, to have them over for dinner. We had some prep work to do for that. Plus, Denyce had a language lesson scheduled for the afternoon, which is always neat.
Then everything started to change. First, we got a random phone call from an American guy, a Christian, who was in Kharkov visiting for a day and had read about us some time back in the Christian Chronicle. He was wondering if we could meet up. So we quickly made plans for him and his Ukrainian companions to come over to our apartment around the middle of the day. Then, our running water tapered off and completely stopped by 10 or 11 AM. We learned that it was off throughout the whole city center and likely to be off until tomorrow. Considering the prospect of preparing a meal for company without water (not to mention the inability to wash dishes that were already piled up in the sink from breakfast), plus the inability to flush the toilet for the rest of the day, we reluctantly called our friends and rescheduled dinner.
We wondered what to do about our mid-day guests, but decided to hold off and go ahead and have them over. Our plan after that was to vacate and spend the rest of the day at one of the malls in another part of the city. So our guests arrived. It was the American brother I mentioned, whose name is John, along with two local Ukrainian friends of his. This brother adopted a child from Kharkov a few years ago and comes back through town about once a year, as he has become involved in summer camps and orphanage work in Ukraine since the adoption. It's all a very interesting story that wouldn't fit if I tried to tell it here, but it's worth hearing sometime.
With him was a young man named Sergei who is sort of his translator, but also a close friend and by now almost surrogate son. The other gentleman was an older fellow named Leonid who John is also close to and stays with while in Kharkov. We had a good visit over tea and coffee. I split my time about evenly between getting to know John and talking with the other two guys (99% in Russian, which was a great challenge). Sergei whipped out a laptop and talked me through hundreds of photos of the recent summer camps he's been involved in, including the ones John was a part of the last couple weeks.
As the time approached for them to leave, Leonid proposed that our family join him, his wife, and John for the evening at his house (which is near the edge of the city, where the water supply is not affected right now). This not only sounded great on its own merit, but also fit our circumstances marvelously. Our guests left and we let the boys rest some in the afternoon. We left our apartment just after 4:00 for the journey to the outskirts.
The metro station that Leonid and Lyuba live near is actually the last one on its line, and coincidentally it was also the only remaining metro station of the Kharkov metro system's 28 stations that I had never had occasion to visit. So I can now rest in peace. I've seen the whole Kharkov metro. From there it was about a 15 or 20 minute walk and we found the house.
We had a great evening there. Leonid and Lyuba were supremely hospitable and gracious to us. We enjoyed seeing their unique home and learning about how they've used it to bless many, many people. Leonid and Lyuba are long-time believers and have hosted many a traveling missionary as they pass through. Lyuba served a wonderful dinner of Ukrainian borsch and several other delicious things. The highlight was probably a sort of Ukrainian twist on a Mexican burrito, inspired by a visit she made to America (specifically, Sacramento of all places, where she has family). After dinner John and I listened to Leonid recount some of the risks he took on account of his faith while he was a soldier stationed in Moscow during Soviet times. Absolutely fascinating, but I'd do it injustice if I tried to squeeze that into this blog post.
Denyce and Lyuba took the boys outside, where they swam in a sort of hybrid fountain/small swimming pool that they have. They both loved it. Although the water was cold, Malachi got in and didn't want to ever get out, while Silas was content to just stay out and play in it with his hands and feet. Around the fountain was the rest of Leonid and Lyuba's yard, a spacious, lush area filled with plants, flowers, berries, and fruit trees. Leonid calls it his "wild garden;" he doesn't like it to be too groomed and manicured. It was beautiful, peaceful, almost therapeutic to explore and enjoy. Later Leonid also gave us a tour of their personal banya (Russian sauna), a whole separate structure behind their house. Assuming I find time and don't forget, the banya really will be a post of its own.
Here are a few photos from the evening, specifically, from the time outside in the garden.
Just wanted to share a quick update on here about what we've been up to. We're wrapping up a long weekend in Sumy, Ukraine (pronounced Soo-mee). This is a smaller city a few hours' train ride northeast of Kharkov, near the northernmost part of Ukraine. We're here visiting some friends and fellow missionaries, Brett and Alicia White and their baby daughter Bella. Yesterday I (Rob) got to meet with the church here that the Whites work with (Denyce stayed home with Silas, who was running a fever at the time).
We've enjoyed our time here, visiting with these new friends, whom we just met a few weeks ago when they came and visited our team in Kharkov a few weeks ago. We have a lot in common and it's great to have each others' company and fellowship.
In a couple hours we'll be on a train back to Kharkov, where we'll resume our routine of language study for the rest of the week. Our team is currently scattered all around, which was part of the reason this was such a good weekend for us to come spend in Sumy. The McDougles are in Kiev, where Dougle is beginning the last week of a three-week intensive Russian language seminar. The Nelsons are in Italy on vacation. The Prices, of course, are in the States where they have just kicked off their last year of working with the AIM program as they prepare to join us next year.
We'll be focusing on continued language study for the rest of the month, except for a few days we and our teammates will spend on a retreat outside the city. We plan to do a retreat like this once or twice a year throughout our time here. We already had our first one this year earlier this year. In addition to a time of rest and play, this coming retreat will also be a time of reflection and focusing on the next stage of our work that we are soon to be transitioning into. To encourage us and offer insights into our planning, we have invited Tim and Rebecca Brinley to join us. The Brinleys worked as missionaries for over a decade in Moscow, and have a lot of experience and insight related to working in this culture. They are currently living in Athens, Greece, where Tim is director of Harding University's study-abroad program there.
In the Bible classes that we have for our kids here on our Sundays together, Olivia's been teaching about Jesus calling the 12 disciples and how they helped him and followed him. Today's craft that they did together involved headwear and these cone things to amplify their message. Silas had his own gear too, and when they first finished Bible class he came trotting in with the other two boys to show off, except his headpiece had fallen down around his face, becoming a mask of sorts. He wasn't willing to keep it on his head for long, so by the time I took this shot he was back in his normal civilian attire.
