Fit for the Race?: Unified

This last week has been super exciting here in Kiev. We learnt in school about the iron curtain that used to separate Western Europe from Eastern Europe and over in Canada we think that it has fallen. While politically this my be true, culturally, this is not. We hear in the news about Russia creating laws limiting homosexual activity while the West is creating laws opposite of this. There is a cultural "curtain" that Ukraine is caught in in the middle of. The very definition of Ukraine is "at the edge;" basically at the edge of Russia. So, culturally, there is this battle between Russia and the rest of Europe. There is an important summit coming up for the European Union boosting free trade between Ukraine and Europe. One of Ukraine's main trading partners is Russia so if this deal gets signed, Russia has threatened to limit trading between the two countries. So, in the wake of this pressure from Russia, Ukraine decided last week to not sign the trade deal. The people of Ukraine have not been to happy and have been protesting since last Saturday. We, had the privilege of seeing the beginning of the protests.

We were in the building right across the street when you see the riot police. I have never seen riot police in person before so this was pretty exciting!

We went in the morning before it got crazy, but by evening there were 100,000 people gathered to protest.

Friday, November 29, they are planning to create a human chain stretching from Kiev to the Poland border, 625 km and involving about 1 million people!

It is interesting living in Kiev with this all going on because where we live, it is life as usual. Everyone still goes out and goes about their business as if nothing is going on.

As neat as this was on Saturday, Colleen and myself were not prepared for Sunday. In the morning, we catch a marshutka (bus) and travel for 30 minutes to church and last Sunday it was raining, so this means walking in the rain and waiting to catch a bus in the rain and sitting in church with wet clothes and grumpy children and well ... you get the picture. We made our way downstairs and went outside and asked "Is it worth it to go to church today?" Boy was it ever. We go to a Russian/Ukrainian church and most Sundays it makes little sense, but this Sunday, we understood! Not that we are not unified with other believers around the globe despite language differences; but this time we felt like active participants in this instead of observers! I pulled out my phone and recorded a bit of the singing. Hopefully you too will sense this unification with other believers 9 time-zones away!

It is so wonderful to be a part of the Universal Church! I can't wait to get to Heaven and celebrate with believers from all nations, languages and centuries!