City Girl

Where in the world has Emily been?

No, I did not fall off the face of the earth, but things have been a little chaotic since I arrived back in the States. Within a week of coming back to the U.S., I'd come down with a nasty cold, moved into a new apartment in Chicago, begun my fall classes and started working again. So needless to say, it was a little bit like crash landing back into an "old" new routine. I'm finally feeling a little more like myself, and it's been almost four weeks!

However, the world did not stop for me, amazingly enough, and so I've been enjoying the pace in the big city. I love being back in Chicago; it's official--Emily is a city girl. We have been having wonderful autumn weather, too, which has helped with the transition. It has been wonderful to see so many friends from school again and to be back in the classroom.

I did move into a new apartment, and that has been a real blessing for me. I now have three roommates instead of two, but one of those roommates is the same as last year. The other two new roommates were friends of mine last year, and I'm enjoying getting to know them better now that we are living together. Our apartment is not too far away from school, so I can still walk there without any issues. Now let's see if I'll still be able to say that in February.

The members of my graduate school just took a weekend retreat with each other, students and faculty included. It was a great time to get to know people better, relax and have fun with each other, while also being challenged spiritually on the topic of unity and brotherly love. It was a wonderful time, especially since we were blessing with gorgeous weather and a great location on Lake Geneva.

As the season begins to change, and as I continue to process all the new and challenging things I experienced this summer, it brings me great comfort to know that my God never changes. He is my constant source of hope and the One who is trustworthy. It is only through His power and for His glory that I am able to complete the tasks of my day. The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; His mercies never come to an end, they are new every morning--great is Your faithfulness, my Lord.

She Landed!!

Well, I made it back to the States, but it was not without an adventure! Someone sent me something not that long ago that holds a lot of truth—it’s just a little saying, but it’s been very appropriate for my life. It says, “I’m sure that on some mountain somewhere is written ‘Emily shall not have a normal day’”.

It is true that I like adventures, but the one I had on the way home from Ukraine was almost too much for me. It included being rerouted through Paris (for only 45 minutes—that’s not even fair!) and taking the long way through Atlanta to Detroit. My baggage (surprisingly) did not make the long trek with me and arrived a day and a half later. But God was gracious to give me safety in my travels and may have protected me from further delays that appeared to take place in Kiev. (Sorry, I did not think to take any photos of me looking grumpy in the airports...just use your imagination.)

Before I left Ukraine, I spent about five days in a very different part of the country. The whole SEND Ukraine team descended upon the city of L’viv (L’vov in Russian), which is in the Western part of the country. It was very different than the more Russified Eastern half of the country—the Western part was under more European occupation, and therefore has more Polish and Czech-like architecture.

It is also a wonderful place because it was not destroyed during World War 2, so many of the streets are still cobble stone and the buildings look like what you might see in Prague. It was so much fun to walk around—my camera was very busy! Many people there now choose not to speak Russian, only Ukrainian, so it was a little challenging for me and others of us who only speak Russian.

Besides the wonderful things to see in the city, there were also wonderful people for me to meet. The SEND missionaries were gracious enough to allow me to attend their “family conference”, a four-day time of teaching, worship, reflection, prayer, sharing and laughter. Each of the cities where SEND has missionaries shared what God has been doing there and what they see in the future of that ministry.

We also had updates from other parts of Eurasia and had lots of time to pray for each other. A team from the States came to minister to the missionaries by teaching, leading worship (all in English!) and they also led a VBS for the missionary kids. I really enjoyed hearing what God is doing through SEND people and putting faces and real stories with names I’d been hearing all summer.

After my exciting trip back to the States, I spent parts of two days in Detroit with the people who helped me prepare for and progress through my Ukraine trip. They listened to any story I would tell them and they had lots of questions for me. Then they spoiled me by feeding me my favorite foods that I’d been craving for a few weeks. It was a good transition time for me.

But I’m still working on the transition back from my experiences in Ukraine to my next semester at Moody. Yes, we have begun classes already, and I feel like I’m partially still back in Ukraine. I’m planning a personal reflection day this Saturday, to continue processing everything from the past three months--I need some time to stop and smell the roses, or in my case, these gorgeous sunflowers I found in L'viv.

I can’t believe that we are to this point in the adventure already, but here we are! Thanks for coming along. There will still be more updates of the activities of Miss Emily, but they will be of a different sort for now.

Trust me…unless I’m in bed with some horrible sickness, Emily will still be on the go.

Arrg, Matey, Where Be the Treasure?

That was the big question last week as we did a VBS with the children at church. The theme was Treasure Island and our lessons were centered around treasure that we find in the Bible and in our relationship with God. We had three locations with simultaneous VBS sessions going on. It was pretty incredible and very exhausting.

The photo above is the whole Ukraine team...yes, I'm part of the Ukraine team (interesting). Everyone is there, from the director to the sound tech to the kitchen helpers and the musicians.

I was with the group that met at the church, and we had around 100 children show up each day. We were divided into 10 groups by age and I was assisting my friend Lilia with a group of thirteen 11-year-olds. We were about half boys and girls, which I thought could be very challenging, but they were a fun, energetic (they liked to participate), and were starving for attention. So we tried to give them some.
These photos are of my small group; we got to know each other really well! Above, our group leader, Lilia is giving the Bible lesson. Below the group is lined up (from the back): Igor, Sofa, Jenya, Dima, Dasha, Nastia, Nastia, Marina, Anton, Dennis, and Julia.
Our VBS was six hours long—yes, 6 hours, from 9:00 am to 3:00 pm. We had a big group meeting time when they first arrived, then we split off into our small groups to have the lesson time. We then did games, had a small snack, crafts, more small group time, and a closing assembly. It’s still amazing to me that we kept them busy that long. When they left for the day, everyone, including the kids were super tired. Bobbing for apples...so funny to watch! And below is the infamous balloon toss.
Yes, they asked us to dump buckets of water on them...they love it.
The VBS was especially interesting, since it was a joint venture between the Ukrainian believers at the church and a short-term team that came from the States for two weeks. We were blessed to have translators with us most of the time, and they made the whole week possible.
The American team is leading "My God is So Big" in both Russian and English.

This is Sasha, one of our amazing interpreters--we really enjoyed getting to know each other.

One of the greatest treasures of the week were the friendships we were able to establish. I met some wonderful children, that captured my heart right away. But I also met two wonderful Ukrainians that week and was blessed with their friendship. I hope that God continues to allow me to learn from my precious new Ukrainian sisters. This is Anya, one of the other VBS workers...so sweet!

And this is Sofa, one of the girls in my group. Her sweet smile says it all.

We also had lots of people praying for the health and communication issues that would arise, and I believe those prayers were answered. We were not sure how this was going to turn out, but I believe the kids had fun, they heard the gospel, and the Ukrainian and American leadership teams were blessed by each other.

So really only one question remains…

I still don’t know what Russian pirates say.

The Hugo Boss Mystery…Officially Solved

Funny story…
When I first arrived in Kremenchuk, I noticed something very interesting—many people walked around town carrying black, plastic Hugo Boss shopping bags. Now I’m not entirely sure what I was thinking, but my first thought was what were all these people doing buying things from Hugo Boss? It was so random, and yet the bags were everywhere...everyone had one! What was the deal with the handled, medium-sized, plastic shopping bags? Well, it didn’t take long to learn what the deal was—this is just so good.

When you go to the market to buy food or shoes or any of the little odds and ends that they sell there, you can either bring your own bag for your purchase, or you can buy a bag at the market. (This would be the outdoor market, not a store.) They sell all kinds of plastic shopping bags there, and the most popular, by far, are the black Hugo Boss bags. In fact, you can buy the bags in bulk at office supply stores…go figure.

So the funniest part of the story is that I have now crossed over to the other side. I not only travel with a plastic bag in my purse all the time so I don’t have to buy one each time, but the bag I usually keep with me is a black, Hugo Boss. Truse me, I blend right in. I tell ya, these short term trips are amazing. Ten weeks just doesn’t sound like that long, but look at the damage they can do…

Other than that, Jayne and I have been busy preparing for a Vacation Bible School to be held at her church this week. We’ve been making the decorations and helping with the last minute details. The theme of the VBS is finding hidden treasure (in God’s Word) so we have an underlying and not so subtle pirate theme with the idea of searching for treasure in a sea that is not always calm or easy. I’m a fan of the pirate idea!

Here are a few photos of Jayne and me getting our little pirates ready to liven up the church. We created them from scratch, so a lot of hours have gone into them. But we’re really happy with how they’ve turned out, and I know the kids will have a blast! The two little girl pirates we are holding are supposed to be the little Jayne and little Emily pirates...hehehe.

Orphanage Camp

Покажите мне! (Pa-ka-zheet mne!) --That means "Show me!" That's what I heard a lot of this week. Everytime I took a photo of one of the children (or the adults for that matter) they wanted to see how they looked and if I should take the photo again. It was a long week, but it was eventful.

A group of about 10 people from Jayne's church helped to do a Christian Camp (kinda like VBS) for some children at an orphanage in town. This is not a full-system orphanage, but a little more like a large, foster care center.

The children can remain here from 6 weeks to 6 months while the government tried to get the child back into the home. If that doesn't work, then the child is placed in a regular orphanage. Some of the children were taken from their families for domestic issues, while others were put in the home by the families. The facility was well-kept and the children seemed to have very good care.

We had children ages 3-20, so it was a challenging but very exciting experience. We spent time with them each morning as a large group—we did songs and other activities with them.Then we divided into 5 small groups by age, where they did a Bible lesson and a discussion.
Then we did games as a group outside. This was always a big hit, but was especially exciting on the last day when we did games with water balloons (I think those are the universal "have a great time" item).

We finished the day with a craft, one for the older kids and a different craft for the little guys.

Because my language skills are still limited, I self-designated myself as the photographer--I had lots of fun! And as I said earlier, it was a great connection to have with the students, since I could not talk with them a whole lot. It was a joy to show them them photos. Here are some of my favorites.

The biggest highlight of my week was meeting Dima. He does not live at the orphanage, but he came with his grandmother to help. We tried to keep each other busy when the others were planning things that I couldn’t understand and he didn’t care about. He was very fascinated that I could speak English but not very much Russian. Everyday he asked me, “Do you speak English?” I said yes. “Fluently?” I told him of course. He would then look very impressed and say, “Klas-na” (which is like saying “very good” or “cool”). Yep, somebody thinks I’m cool.

До свидания! (Da cvee-dan-ya)