Ready to be empty nesters!

Our kids are growing up.  They have found food and are able to feed themselves

Pooping on the potty has begun for Ellianna.  And they have found a place to sleep.

It may be a bit squishy but they will manage!

It has been a hectic week.  I have already given at least one quiz/test/exam in each class.  (it's weird here, a small test is a quiz, a medium one is a test and the big kahuna is an exam, maybe that's the way it was all along and I am the odd one out.)  So Colleen and I were up until midnight marking last night so I didn't get a chance to finish the blog.  Colleen started Russian lessons twice a week and I start next week.  We made pizza and gave some to our neighbours and they in return gave us watermelon

We have Ukrainian friends (one who is a teacher at the school) coming over tonight for a meal and we are making them tacos.  A great canadian dish straight from Mexico!

God is so gracious.  We are encouraged to make friends here in Ukraine and KCA.  You may know that  no one from Canada/States lives around us and it can be quite lonely.  We are encouraged that a few new teachers want to live in our area so please pray for them as they look for a place to stay.  Also, it only has been 1 week at KCA but we are already thinking and praying about our future.  Is this where God would have us?

Thanks for all your encouragement!  God Bless!!!

Greener Grass?

As I was sitting at my desk today filling out my gradebook I began thinking to myself.  "Man I wish I was back as a carpenter, I wouldn't have to do all this paperwork"  I chuckled to myself after I thought this and remembered working as a carpenter and thinking "I would love a desk job, then I wouldn't have to do all this manual labor"  So I began wondering, is the grass greener in Kiev?  Then the kids started filing into my class and the passion that I wrote about last week that God had rekindled fanned into flame and I was home.  Thank's to Jeremy back at GBF youth group in Sexsmith for commenting on my last post, I will miss youth as well but I am excited for what God has planned this year!

So this is where I will be spending the next 10 months.  If you go inside, you get this feeling like you are in a hospital from the 50's.  If you remember the Waltons and when Mary-Ellen became a nurse, that is what it is like inside.

So, my class is right on the first floor and there is nothing like being trapped in a room full of teenagers and having bars over your windows.  No Escape!!!

Thanks for all the prayers, the first day went well.  I had planned lessons for today and tomorrow, but we breezed through all the first day stuff and into the second day that I had to do all my planning again for tomorrow, but I guess there is no time like the present to learn how to make lesson plans and classroom management.

KCA has a huge passion to see Biblical principles integrated into the classroom as well as to see the kids grow in their faith.  We are encouraged to disciple the kids and take them under our wing.  Colleen has already planned on maybe having some of the classes over to our house as we are less than a 5 minute walk away from the school.

Speaking of Colleen, she needs our prayers.  Because, just as I started going to the school full time, Jolen started moving himself around the apartment.

 Oh boy is it busy at our house.

Praise the Lord, we are registered here in Kiev.  This means we can stay for a year and we won't have to wait in long lines until we de-register.  Apparently, you have to get permission to live here, and then when you want to leave, you have to get their permission to leave the country too.  A couple of teammates here forgot to start the process early so they missed their scheduled flights and are sticking around for a couple more weeks.

God is so good and as people ask how we ended up coming here to Ukraine and KCA, I can't help but see God in all of it, from not going to Mozambique, to having 2 kids, to moving 1200 kms to Sexsmith to having all Youth Pastor doors shut, to having the doors swing wide open to Ukraine!  We wouldn't be here without His Great Loving Kindness!

Calm Before the Storm (well sort of!)

Thank you to my Mother who mentioned we were in this state.  However, as of Wednesday, I am now full time at KCA and already feel behind.  But that sort of thing can wait until another post.  We went to the Black Sea, near Odessa Ukraine for the annual SEND Ukraine Conference.

Worship Service

We were very blessed to have a team from St. Marks Missionary Church in Mishawaka, Indiana come and lead worship (in English) and teach the Word (in English) and take our kids to nursery (In English) and bring over tons of stuff from North America we can't get over here (all with English labels!)

Ellianna at Nursery

We had a great time fellowshipping with other team members from all over Ukraine

Drinking Starbucks Coffee late into the night!
(they don;t have Starbucks here, sorry Yuya, no mug for you!)

Going to the Beach

Jolen at the Beach

Swimming in the water (more on this later!)

Avoiding Jellyfish (they sting you know)

Team Building Games

Fun games

Mölkky

and Long Walks up steep hills

All in all, it was a great time of refreshing (Mentally and Spiritually) and exhaustion (Physically)

We personally did not use our phones or the Internet for the entire time there, which was difficult as the sale of our house was supposed to close during our time, (it got extended again, (Starting to sound like a broken record?))

I though went into the week with a lot of intimidation; these are career people who know what they are doing, what can I, a short termer share?  The group made us feel like we were old friends and were warmly welcomed into the fold!  So if you are thinking short term, come to Ukraine!

My biggest renewal of Spirit related to the water

 At first (Monday), the water was ice cold.  Now I am from Canada and when I say the water was ICE cold, I mean it.  you could stand in the water for maybe a minute and then your legs turned red, you lost feeling and it hurt to be in the water.

That is what I have been feeling in regards to ministry, especially with youth aged kids.  I was blessed to help out will the youth at Bow Island Evangelical Free church, and then we moved to Sexsmith to pursue Youth pastor training at Peace River Bible Institute and I helped with youth at Grace Bible Fellowship.  I applied to KCA to teach Bible to Jr/Sr High.  I was living out my God given passion to see youth take hold of the Faith and make it their own.  Then Jolen was born.

Don't get me wrong, I love him and wouldn't change a thing but through this God taught me about limitations.  The reality was that I was a part time student, a part time carpenter, the college team soccer coach, and a full time Dad of 2 kids under 1 1/2 years.  My time and energy was limited to these things.  I had to choose to take myself out of youth ministry after Christmas and only aid at a very limited capacity.  I learned a ton of things and I know I learned more about God and myself in the last Semester of school (Jan-April) than I had in the last 10 years of life, but somewhere along the way my passion for youth got lost in the shuffle.

As the water warmed, (it was like bathwater by the end of the week!) so did the fire in my heart for passion towards Youth!

Cooking Smores one Night!
they don't have marshmallows over here so this was quite a treat! 

By the end of the week God had renewed a blazing fire within towards my Jr/Sr High students this coming school year.  And it came at the right time as work started Yesterday and Classes start 1 week today!

Again, we thank you for your prayers, your support and your Love.  We know we are surrounded by such a great network in Christ and are looking forward to the coming school year!

2 Years Yesterday!

It is hard to believe that that Big Girl now is 2 years old.  Only 2 years 2 days before today we had 0 children born to us (and the other guy in the picture was in his 20's).  Now we have 2.

The last couple of days it has hit me pretty hard that they are growing up (and that I can't be in my 20's again).  It hit me in the wierdest way.  We had to travel to the SEND office area today, a 1 1/2 hour trip one way, and I had Jolen with me in the baby carrier.  Our marchutca (bus) came and we got onto a crowded bus and 2 people gave up their seats for us, even though there it was a 30 minute ride.  And I was thinking, "wow, I am so thankful I have small children, because they get treated like gold, and us the parents get to go along for the ride, This won't happen for long so I better enjoy it while I can."

The truth is that little girl who is scared of the train machine, which I paid $1 for her to get off and watch it chug along, won't be little for long.  We were just watching a Family Matters episode where Steve and Eddie move out of their respective houses, while still in high school, and get an apartment of their own.  "What if Ellianna wants to move out?  How will I handle it?  What if this little innocent girl grows up and realizes the word is not so innocent?"  It breaks my heart.

What if she stumbles and falls?  Will I be at the bottom to catch her?  What if I can't?  All I can do is bow my head and put her in God's hands.  I have heard the analogy of placing everything in an open hand, and give it to God.  But I want to hold on so tight.  I can't let my child be free, I have to hold on to her tight so she never gets hurt again.  I know I can't do this, but I try so hard.

I would love to post here every Thursday about victories in my life, or great things happening (and there were good things like the great birthday party we had for Ellianna.) but it doesn't feel like the battle is being won as a parent.

Ellianna has realized that she can't just see all of our loved ones.  We can't hop on a plane and go see Grandma and Grandpa or the Lovrod family, who we visited 2-3 times a week in Sexsmith, or Emily who we saw all the time at PRBI.  We ask her what she wants to do today and she replies "go in a airplane."  She misses home.

We thank you for your prayers as living so far away from everyone is tough.  We know God has called us here, but, why couldn't he have called everyone else here as well?

I can't make everything better for her, and I want to do that with every fibre in my being.

I wonder if God longs for us to be home in heaven with Him?  If it pains Him that we live with this epic battle between Sin and Holiness in our lives everyday?  If He just wants to rid us of our Earthly struggles?  I know it pains Him to see us stumble and fall, but does He have to hold Himself back from just taking us away into eternity with Him?

I don't have the answers to those questions, but I am so glad that I am only given the privilege to look after 2 little ones, and not a whole world.  The pain and sorrow, and joy and laughter God must go through each and every day as our Heavenly Father.

10 minutes old to 2 years.  Happiness and Heartache, Joy and Sorrow.  We pray our little ones put their faith in "Him who is able to to do more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever.  Amen." (Ephesians 3:20-21)

For those who read faithfully, there will be no post next Thursday as it is SEND conference and they have asked us to retreat from technology for the week and relax in Him.  So until 2 weeks from now!  God Bless!