New Stuff

LIFE'S TWISTS & TURNS

I got in a car accident this week. It sucked. I cried a lot. Everyone's ok...just sore. I've been laying down a lot, trying to nurse my soreness to a point when I can walk normally and not like an 80-year-old woman. I'm almost there! Anyway, I say all this to applaud my great friends and loving family. Seriously. I am super blessed. My parents have called me every day since then to check and see how I'm doing. Wednesday night (day of the accident), my sister called me every two hours (until she went to bed) to make sure I was ok and not suffering from a fatal concussion or something. The Hughes are fantastic; I feel completely loved by them. The Ukrainians I have talked to have pleaded for me to go to the doctor--which I didn't do, cause I'm fine really--to make sure I'm completely fine. My friend Yulia especially. She came over on Thursday and tried to help me out with anything I needed, though I didn't need anything. She was happy to find that I needed to take out my trash, so she made me say yes to her doing it.

So, "who is Yulia?", you may ask. Yulia is a 19-year-old girl whom I have been meeting with weekly. She is the sweetest thing! I met her at the church I formerly attended here in Lviv, and now she actually goes to the church I moved to. There is such a spirit in Yulia that immediately drew me in. She has such a beautiful heart for God and for youth ministry, though she is a youth herself. She continues to become more and more involved with our "youth group" (not technically a youth group in the typical sense, as 98% of the students are not Christians). She has such leadership potential! I can totally see her leading it all one day. When we get together it's such a sweet time of getting to know each other better--both in English and in Ukrainian. It's so fun to sit back afterwards and reflect on how in the world we were able to communicate on the level we did. I'm getting to know her deeper, beyond the "what are you studying" and "do you like Lviv" shallow questions. It's nice. It's good to have someone to connect with and feel like I'm pouring into. It's been a while. Yulia is soaking it all in. As am I.

CHANGE OF PLANS

This weekend our team was planning on going to Ternopil (one of the cities we do camps with). However, now this has happened:

http://www.ukranews.com/eng/article/227980.html.

The city has officially been quarantined, and the churches we were going to meet with have canceled their services and other activities. Even people here in Lviv are walking around wearing surgical masks! This is crazy! Forget the swine flu; we get pneumonia! PRAY that none of us gets sick.

WHAT THE WHAT?!?!

SNOW IN OCTOBER!

I am a big fan of Fall. This put a bit of a damper on this lovely time of year, though it was pretty. Thankfully it only lasted about a week. We are now walking straight into winter, or so it feels. Three pretty yellow and red leaves are hanging on for dear life! Persevere! Don't give up! Not yet! Keep Fall here just a little bit longer! PLEASE!

MY PRETTY APARTMENT - A PICTURE STORY

The occurrences from September 24 - October 16

New project which started yesterday Yep.

A DATING CONFERENCE?

Our youth leaders at church decided we needed to have a dating conference. It is fantastic how organized and prepared our group is! They've been planning this for over a month. However, when it comes to promotion, creativity is sometimes lacking. So when they asked me for some ideas of how we can more creatively promote the Dating Conference, I let 'em have it! At first they laughed off my idea, but when they saw I was serious they gave me the reigns. Here was my suggestion: This is Max (one of my students) and I playing the parts of boyfriend and girlfriend. My idea was to make a scene while passing out flyers. Rather than just going to one of Lviv's universities and passing out flyers that they will throw away minutes later, I thought let's give them something they will remember and make them look twice at that flyer! So Max and I (more so I, as you can tell) got all dressed up and situated ourselves right in the middle of a large group of students at Lviv Polytechnical University. We then proceeded to act out a fight scene. It started with him giving me some flowers then escalated to us yelling at each other...me yelling in English and him in Ukrainian--this was to show how men and women sometimes seem like they're speaking different languages and just don't understand each other. The fight ended with me yelling "Men!", Max yelling "Women!" (in Ukrainian), and standing arms folded facing away from each other in frustration. Igor then came out, made an announcement, and others passed out flyers. So many students just stood there starring, shocked at what was going on. Alot of students laughed, and everyone got a flyer. Not sure how affective it was, but we sure had a great time! We'll see who shows up!

I KNOW, I KNOW

Again, it's been a while. I know this. I wasn't home & didn't have access to internet most of the month of August. I do, however, appreciate all the requests to update my blog. It's nice to hear people are reading it. SO...here are some more pictures, cause I know you all love pictures. What I did in August/beginning of September: End of the summer trip to Poland - U2 Concert!! (JV team + summer intern Collin)

My Beauties at JV Kids Camp (Gwyneth, Jillian, Kendra, & Daci)

JV Kids Camp - Wild & Crazy Day

VACATION in ITALY!! (in Riomaggiore, Cinque Terre Area)

"New Year" Party with our Students

I got to be in a skit! I was the stupid American student, who knew no Ukrainian. Nice.

Posed with some other hot models for my birthday!

JV Fall Leadership Conference - 2009 Theme: "Passing the Baton". Fall Conference is the JV conference which all JV countries invite some of their national youth leaders to come to and learn about leadership, discipleship, evangelism, etc. It's such a unique opportunity not only for us all to grow in ministry knowledge, but also to bond as JV and National (Ukrainian) Church teams.

Our Ukraine group - This is the most people we have ever brought to conference! It is so exciting to see how the Lord is blessing our ministries and growing our youth leaders to reach this country. Such a great group! There ya go! This is what I've been up to the past month and a half. I hope these pictures suffice for right now. As I am staying put for a while (until November), I will have more time and opportunities to get back to consistent blogging. Also, don't forget to check out the "Life Snapshots" photo links in the right-hand column to see more pictures from this summer and..well..life!