Are we still in Ukriane?

The culture in Ukraine is very community minded.  For example, we were riding on the subway and a man with about 3 teeth comes up to us and gives us a bag of apples and cookies without saying a word, and then gets off the train.  Colleen and I looked at each other and said, "If we were in Canada, these cookies and apples would go straight to the trash, but because we are in Ukraine, we will eat them."  People in Ukraine give stuff away for free, without anyone thinking suspicious thoughts.  As well, if you have leftover food and it is still good, you put it in a clean bag and place it beside a trash can, signaling it is still good food and whoever wants it can have it.  As we lived in Ukraine, we began to accept free things with gratitude.

Move months later to Canada.  In the past couple of weeks, I have been given things for free, whether it be a service or items.

Our van came with a signal switch that does not cancel, meaning that if I turn on my signal light and turn a corner, it would not turn off.  I bought a used one from the auto-wrecker and installed it.  When we took the van out for a drive to check it, it would not cancel when we turned left.  So, the next day I called the auto-wrecker to inform them that I needed a different switch and was told it was in working order when they sold it to me so there was no problem with the switch and there must be a problem with the driveshaft.  Discouraged, and not knowing a thing about driveshafts, I took the van to the mechanic to check out the problem.  He looked at the steering column and the switch and concluded the switch was at fault and wrote me a note to give to the auto-wrecker.  I asked how much I owe, because I took up his time, and he said it was free of charge.

Nervously, I made my way to the auto-wrecker, expecting a fight.  I went in, made my case and got the switch ordered with no difficulty; they didn't even want the note from the mechanic.  Myself and the partsman walked to the van because we needed a couple more small parts and he put them on order with the new switch I needed.  Wondering how much these other parts would cost, I got a phone call 2 days later that my parts were in and they were free.  No charge.

We were driving on a gravel road a couple of days ago and ran over some gravel that had been piled up by the grader.  Now funny noises were coming from my van.  Begrudgingly, I brought the van in again to the mechanic, wondering the cost of the fix this time.  He looked at it, said there were a couple of pebbles stuck in the serpentine belt, but it would weaken the belt to remove them so they left them in and the noises were normal and he could not see a problem.  Again, no charge.

Coming from a culture where people look out for each other and returning to Canada, I have been blessed to learn that people here still care.  I would challenge you to look for opportunities this week to bless someone else without expecting something in return.  For example, buy the coffee for the person behind you in the drive through, or buy a chocolate bar for the kid in line next to you.  Share God's love as He freely bestows it upon us.

On a separate note, I laugh because the majority of pictures I take of Jolen are of him eating.  Hope you enjoy our cute kids and how they are enjoying being spoiled by everyone here in Canada!

Ellianna is her father's daughter

Felt good to catch some good old Canadian Jackfish

Skinny Diapers and Soup Kitchens - Memories of Kiev Christian Academy

As Thursday was KCA's Graduation, (Congratulations to all of the graduates) I thought I would share a couple of memories from each class I taught.

 Grade 12 - Seniors

I only taught this class the first semester but had a wonderful time teaching Spiritual Formation.

Part of the curriculum is to teach Spiritual Disciplines by Richard Foster.  The time came to teach Service and I thought to myself, why not act out Service instead of just teaching.  So for the class, we went outside and raked the leaves.  Now, you have to understand Ukraine, or maybe just Maple trees in general.  They don't have small leaves that are easy to rake, but huge leaves that take alot of effort.  Me, being from Canada (The Maple Leaf Country) I have never witnessed a Maple tree as we don't' have them very much in Alberta.  Afterwards, I went out to the local coffee shop and bought them coffees and really enjoyed teaching through action and not just standing in front of the class.

Another memory was how I tried to set JooSeok (Pronounced Jew-Sack) up with every girl in the class.  I wasn't successful but I sure had alot of fun trying and someday JooSeok, you will find the girl of your dreams!

Grade 11 - Sophomores
(Funny thing, me being Canadian wrote Softmores and had to get it spellchecked)

I taught a class on Ideas and how to achieve great ideas.  If you have ever studied the process of idea-ology, or if you have ever brainstormed, you will know there are three stages of idea creating. 1st - the obvious - the safe answers are thrown out first.  2nd - the crazy ridiculous - Usually this is where the idea creating stops as the more conservative people out there think this is pointless and shut down the frivolousness.   3rd - the Awesome - from the silly and crazy comes a great idea so Please don't stop your brainstorming when things get silly, this just means you are poised for greatness!!!  I asked the class if they had any crazy ideas that had potential to be awesome - THEN - Krash stood up and yelled out "Skinny Diapers" - Diapers that don't look like diapers so you don't have to run to the bathroom all the time between classes - said the man who drinks 2 litres of water each and every class and wonders why he is always late because he has to go to the bathroom!

Another memory was when our class was doing presentations on heroes of the Faith.  One student asked if it had to be someone famous or anyone.  I said anyone, so they told a story in class of a father in Kazakhstan who took his two daughters to school one morning and returned home to find robbers in his house.  His wife was killed but through this the seed of the Gospel spread and the church grew.  And then the student ended the presentation with "And ... I really miss my Mom."  You can read about this stuff in a book or on a blog, but it really hit home that people are out there dying for Jesus every single day.

Grade 9 - Freshmen

I have a couple of projects to show you of book charts they were to do (if you went to PRBI 10 years ago, these should look all too familiar)

 

 

 

We were raising money for a Soup Kitchen ministry that the school supported and I told my grade 9 class that if they raised the most money, I would treat them to Pizza at our apartment one day.  Well, every class I passed around the jar for money and one student confessed to me that she packed a lunch that day but told her mom she needed money to buy food from the school canteen.  Then proceeded to put all of that money into the Soup Kitchen Jar.  (Not an action I condone by the way)  The students gave from their allowances and babysitting money and raised over $100.  Every day they would complain about giving money and what if they didn't win the pizza party.  My answer remained the same "Who is the real winner?"  and they learned to respond in a monotone reply "The Soup Kitchen"  At the end of the campaign, my class won and had a wonderful time eating pizza and watching Veggietales at our apartment.

 

Grade 8

 

I remember trying to explain how God loves us no matter what and that His love is equal for us and it is not dependant on what we do.  So, I married off a couple of students who had 3 kids, also students, who married other students.  At the end of the lesson, one student robbed the bank of his brother-in-laws who confessed to the other brother in law who was a pastor.  I don't know how it got there, but, the question came to the parent "Which child do you love more?  The one who married a pastor?  The one who married a Banker?  Or the one in Jail?"  And the answer came back "All of them equally."  So maybe that was a lesson that hit home.  And the rest of the year we would joke about how Andrew married Ye-Jin and how Fisher robbed Lukas' bank.  Great memories, maybe you just had to be there, but if you have ever met me, this story may make some sense.

 

Study Hall

 

I was the X and O Champion and I challenge anyone to a game - if you dare!

 

French

 

I laugh at this one because, I am Canadian, therefore, I must know French.  Sorry, I speak Spanish and Russian better.

 

 

Overall, Thank you KCA for a great year and a million memories of only a couple I could share with you today because of space!  I Love you all and Miss you tons.

The Downside of Evangelism

As we visited with friends and missionaries in Ukraine, one thing became apparent.  Flash in the pan Evangelism crusades that save thousands of people can cause immense hurt feelings with the local church.  I have been to and a part of these crusades and I even got to talk to a couple of teens who gave their lives to Jesus at the altar call.  I then proceeded to talk with these 2 boys for a couple of minutes, even walked them to the exit door and then, they disappeared out of my life and quite possibly out of the church.  As I was walking with them, I mentioned they needed to go to church and grow in Christ, but I had no relationship with them, my words of wisdom were words from a stranger.

Missionary friends in Ukraine mentioned a similar story where a group came in and had hundreds of converts in the local villages, and then told the church in the big city of all these people that needed churches in their villages and the church worked overtime to see these churches flourish, but again, they didn't really have trained leaders who had relationship with the locals and the churches folded.  Often we focus on the immediate impact of the gospel instead of how to fan the immediate spark into a burning flame.

Up until this last week, I have always thought that when Jesus called His disciples, it was sudden and immediate.  Then I was reading through the Gospel of Luke.  Each Gospel writer had a different reason for writing and Luke's is quite obvious.  Reading through Luke and Acts, the reader sees the process of Jesus coming to Earth, teaching the disciples, dying on the cross, the Resurrection and the Gospel, through the disciples, spreading to the entire Roman world.

Reading Luke 4:38-5:11 one cannot help but see the process in the calling of Peter (Simon).

First, Jesus already was teaching, healing and had crowds following Him.  We gather from this that Jesus was a known person.  Second, Jesus personally went to Peter's home and healed his mother-in-law.  Third, Jesus got into Peter's boat and taught the large crowds from the boat.  Fourth, Jesus met Peter where he was at, by physically bringing in a large catch of fish.  Lastly, we see Peter's heart moved and Peter realizes his sin and from that point Peter left everything and followed Jesus.

I encourage you to read the passage yourself and see this progression.

I guess what I am trying to say is, we often focus on the immediate impact of the Gospel and forget the process and buildup of the relationship with the Almighty.  Remembering that God is concerned with the process as well as the product.

We Bought a Van!!!

So it isn't new by any means, but it is fully paid for and alot more room than the Jeep Patriot we used to own.  We are travelling around the country (From Vancouver Island to Dauphin, Manitoba and many stops in between) so living out of your suitcase can be cumbersome but having more room makes travel much easier!

I know I have mentioned this before, but seeing how God works is amazing and how we ended up with this van seems ordinary, yet totally God moving and working!  It all started about 3 years ago when we found out we were pregnant and not going to Mozambique.  We had just sold our Mazda 3 and we needed a family vehicle and preferably one that we would not have to bend over to put in a car seat.  "Why not a van?"  "No!  They are UGLY!"  so, we didn't buy a van but an suv.

Then, right before we were going to go to Ukraine, we hit a deer.  Fortunately, we had rental insurance (if you do not have rental insurance, I would strongly recommend you get it) and our insurance company rented us a van.  Well, because we had no choice, we drove a van (by this time we had 2 kids) and we could carry more people than our family!  (If you know Emily from Grassy Lake, ask her about our trip from PRBI to Bow Island in our Jeep!).

We sold our Jeep to go to Ukraine and there was no looking back.  So when we returned, a van was on the docket.  We thought we would take out a loan at a dealer and talked to our agent, Glen, at Bluesky's in Vegreville.  He helped us buy our Jeep and we

would recommend him to anyone wanting to buy Chrysler, Dodge or Jeep.  Well, in the time of waiting for Glen to get back to us, we went to Dauphin.  There, we found a house we really loved.

It is an old 1914 manse - the house occupied by a minister of a Presbyterian church (thank you google.ca for the definition).  A beautiful brick house with lots of room on the main floor for youth and an upstairs that will fit our family without disturbing guests downstairs.  From our earthly perspective, looking at ministry, this house is perfect.  But, of course would be out of our price range if we had a loan for a van.  We are praying hard about this house, that God would provide the place He would have for us (even if it isn't this house).

 

 

So, keeping the story moving, we began looking at lower priced vans, but only at dealerships at my dad's advice.  We found a van we liked and talked to my dad about it.  He then proceeded to go to Kijiji and found a newer van that had a few more bells and whistles for $ 500 dollars less.  The key to this is it was posted 15 hours ago.  We would have never seen this van if we hadn't gone through the whole process as it was a new listing.  We saw the van and offered $1000 less and got ourselves a van for $7500 less than we were hoping to spend on a van one month ago.  The great part about it is it is equity and not debt so maybe we can afford a house in Dauphin?

 

God is moving in ways we would have never thought of and, in some-ways, ways we would not have even seen if we had not been looking.  It is a very similar way we ended up in Dauphin.

 

I have taken my wife to Vegreville (a Ukrainian town) numerous times and the end result is a resounding "I would never move to a Ukrainian town!" (smells like garlic or something like that).  Then God moves us to Ukraine to show us that is not where He would have us but calls us to Dauphin (another Ukrainian town) and we would have never considered moving to a place with a bunch of Ukrainians had we not gone to Ukraine.  Again God's had is in all of this and we would not have seen this had we not been looking.

 

Where is God moving in your life?  Look back the last couple of years before you need to make a decision and usually the answer is pretty clear.  God isn't playing hide and seek with your future, but carefully directing each step He has for you!

 

I have a feeling where God is directing Jolen's future!

 



One Month Ago Today

One moth ago today, I was super ecstatic to be back blogging again.  I think I have mentioned before how important it is to be recording your life in a journal, or something to be able to look back and remember the lessons God has taught you throughout your life.  For me, it is this blog.  It was difficult when SEND asked us to keep our electronic footprint extremely small as we were unsure of the government keeping tabs on us and if we would harm the ministry over there.  But now we are in Canada, the ban is lifted and I can get back to regular blogging; or so I thought as without everything going on in Ukraine it would be easy to keep up a blog.

Take our last Tuesday for instance.  We woke up, had breakfast, left the kids in Vegreville and went to Edmonton.  There, we went to Carters/OshKosh, the bank, a bookstore, we looked at vans, went out for lunch, went grocery shopping, got some coffee, drove back to Vegreville, made homemade pizza, went out to the playground (more on playgrounds later) put the kids to bed, watched a hockey game and finally went to bed only to wake up the next morning to have another "typical" day in Canada.

Now this may seem pretty normal, this is far from a day that we would have in Ukraine.  In Kiev, if you can get one thing accomplished in a day you have done well that day, if two things, you are talented and most likely very tired.  Now, if we count the many things we do in a day here in Canada, it usually adds up to 10 or so.  That is a huge difference that we were not prepared for or that we have not even adjusted to.  At the end of each day, we are very tired.  So, with all the busyness of life, I have not gotten a chance in the last moth to sit down and reflect and record my thoughts here on this blog.

God has really been teaching me alot out on the playgrounds lately.

 

 

One thing has been about Joy.  How God has created us to not only live life, but to enjoy it as well.  Although the playgrounds are no longer just outside our door, the smiles our kids have every time we visit one, is a nice reminder of how we work and work and work to provide for your family, but you go to a playground with your kids and it all is worth it to play with them on those joyous grounds.

 

Another humourous lesson for me was: you don't touch another person's kids.  In Ukraine, no one thought anything of picking up a kid that was not yours and moving them out of the way.  In Canada, a different story.  We were out at a playground and a small kid who was not walking went down the slide with her older sister and afterwards, the kid was sitting at the bottom of the slide.  Ellianna, seeing their fun climbed up to the top of the slide and was ready to go.  The kid was still at the bottom, so being the kind, caring and concerned person on the playground that Ellianna was going to go down the slide and run over this child, picked her up and moved her.  No sooner had I done this, the mother screamed "Don't touch my kid!"  I was caught off-guard.  We would rather our children come to harm than have a stranger move them out of the way.  It to me still seem s quite backwards thinking that we would like to know the harm that will come than the safety from the unknown.

 

Do we not do this in our Christian life too?  As a church body, we are content to stagnate and not grow (we may not say this, but our actions speak otherwise) than to welcome newcomers or even "god-forbid" invite someone to church.  We have become so scared to let others in because things might change?  Weird how God takes simple events in life to teach such great lessons.  The Frozen Disney movie song "Let it Go" is quite a good line and maybe the North American Church could take a few hints.

 

So, until next time (which hopefully is next week) keep stepping outside your box and getting uncomfortable in your faith, it may lead to healing instead of harm.

 

PS - a few more pictures of Easter