Settling In

So Colleen posted this picture on our email we sent out regarding the sale of our house.  For those of you who do not know, we are in limbo of our house sale as the prospective buyer is trying to procure financing.  So we wait on the Lord and pray for His will to be done, and hoping it is in His plan for it to sell as it is difficult to be a landlord and a few hours away by plane (oh ya and there is a big ocean between us too!).

Back to the picture, many people have asked if this is a picture of our house in Kiev.  Well, it is not, it is a picture of a landmark in Sumy, Ukraine, where we were helping at camp for a few days with John and Leanne Paetkau.  Those wondering what our place looks like, you can see the picture below.

Although to be fair, the door has been painted in the last couple of days.

On with the title, "Settling In"  Life has become quite normal for us, where things were once new and exciting, they have become commonplace as we live life here. For example, today, Sunday, we went to church.  This means getting up early and out the door at 8:45 so we can catch a marshrutka (bus pictured below) to go to church.

We waited for approximately 30 minutes for the bus to come, which was packed, but thankfully people on the bus give up their seat if you are holding a small child.  Paid our 5 grieven (62.5 cents) and rode the packed bus (35 people or so) 45 minutes to church.  (pictured below)

This church is very interesting as they are building a new building behind this structure.  So to avoid building permits for another structure, they set up a tent and that is where we go to church.  A typical service has singing and 2 sermons and then we had a little rain pouring on us as we walked back to our bus stop to wait another 20 minutes, soaking wet and hop on the bus and travel back 45 minutes home.  We stopped at a restaurant and picked our food, which ended up being 1 chicken dish and 1 fish dish, with a piece of pizza for Ellianna.

Speaking of Ellianna, this is a typical playground in Ukraine.  The buildings form a sort of square around the playground and she goes out to play on swings, slides and see-saws.  

Shopping is quite simple because there are about 100 stores just down the street from our apartment and a market just up the street.  The market is easy as you can tell what you are buying because they have everything in front of you, but the stores, you can't read the writing on the outside so you just have to go to each of them to find out what they are selling.

I guess that is life from this side of the pond for us.  I start at the school next week and am excited and scared as we went to a couple's house who has a grade 8 student I will be teaching me and the first question he asked me "do you believe in predestination or free will?"  Seriously, kid you are in grade 8, you should be asking yourself if girls are still icky or not.  I have my work cut out for me and we definitely are not in Kansas anymore.

God is great and He teaches me everyday I must rely on Him because in my own strength we cannot do this, but in Him, everything is possible.  Thank you for your emails and prayers, it is encouraging to know we are not forgotten as you are all dear to our hearts and are constantly in our thoughts and prayers.