Calvin teaches at KTS

In October, Calvin taught at Kiev Theological Seminary. He was able to work with 13 church planters from across Ukraine. The pictures are of some of the students and also of Calvin, Joel Ragains (Director of the Church Planting Program at KTS) and Sergei (Joel's translator)

Prague continued

The four ladies are from Virginia. Most of them have been coming for over a decade to provide childcare for CEE personnel. They loved on our children and kept them busy while we were in meetings. After the meeting we took two vacations days to tour the city. Our last night in Prague, we went out to eat some Mexican food! On this same day, I traveled with some girls and we crossed the border over into Poland and visited some pottery shops.

Ebenezer Conference in Prague Czech Republic

We attended our Ebenezer Conference October 4 - 9 in Prague, Czech Republic. This is a conference for missionaries who have been on the field for a year in CEE. We received a wonderful blessing as we laughed, cried, prayed and fellowshiped with our fellow co-laborer from Central and Eastern Europe. Adam had a great time playing with the friends he made while we were in Richmond for training.

Prague is described by many as a fairy tale city. The city which was spared by Hitler in World War II has been well preserved and is very beautiful and clean. For this south Georgia girl, it was a truly incredible experience to walk the centuries old cobblestone streets, visit a castle and view God's beautiful landscape.

How do you say.....?

Ladies, I am sure you will appreciate my little story. For about two weeks, I have been out of finger nail polish remover. So, I have been....dare I say it....scratching it off. You cannot buy nail polish or remover at the grocery store or even at our Mega Market. No, you buy cosmetics at the cosmetics store. So today after we picked Adam up from school I walked over to the cosmetics store. I have shopped there one other time. The store is about 1/5 the size of a CVS store. Now, Ukraine is renowned for having very beautiful women. So, this store had lots and lots of makeup, perfume, facial cremes, hair color, etc. I walked over to the make up area where there were about 6 female clerks just waiting to help someone. I looked and looked trying not to ask for help because I forgot to look up the words nail polish "remover." I am thinking to myself "I can find this." But, I could not. So, I asked for some help. I tried to describe what I wanted to the clerk but she did not understand. So, two other clerks join her in watching me demonstrate what I want. I happened to have sandals on and my toe nails were a mess but I showed them my toe nails. Don't laugh - they didn't understand. I said in english "remover, remover." Yea! A clerk said "remover" in English and showed me a bottle of Sally Hanson finger nail polish remover. The cost was 60 greven which is about $ 12. It was the only bottle of that brand. I asked if she had something less expensive. She showed me her only bottle of a Maybelline remover - $6. Well, I bought it. As Valya would say "welcome to Ukraine!" I am certain there has to be some cheaper polish remover in this city but I don't know where.

I wish I could share with you some spiritual insight that I have learned but for now I'll just say be grateful for all the little things in life. Speaking of being grateful, I did find some hair color with instructions in English. So, the first time in about a year, I will read the instructions before I put the color on my hair :)

Much joy,
Janet

First Day of Kindergarten

Wow! Today, Adam started kindergarten at Kiev Christian Academy. The whole family went to attend the orientation/first day. It was great! Adam has 10 students in his class. Five boys and five girls. His teacher's name is Miss Oakley. She is from Louisville, KY. The school has about 150 students from K-12. We are so grateful for the KCA. While Adam is in school, we will continue our language learning. Thank you for praying with us as we enter this new phase of adventure.

Although we posed with the football, it didn't make it in the backpack :)

Independence Day

Yesterday was the 17th anniversary of Independence in Ukraine. Let freedom ring! Over the weekend, we took Adam to the War Museum and he played on the tanks outside. The picture is of Adam and the "Iron Lady." Like our Statue of Liberty, she represents freedom for Ukraine. We did not make it to the parade on Sunday because we were able to go church. We were so excited that Calvin found a way to get us to the bridge! All the main routes were closed for the parade. It was a blessed day!

Just Us In BUS

"Just Us In BUS" was the theme for our Annual General Meeting held here in Kiev. BUS stands for the Baltic states, Ukraine and Satellites. It was a refreshing time of feeding on God's Word and singing God's Praises - ALL in English!

We were also blessed to have the McPherson's and the Lastinger's here to help with the childcare for AGM. They conducted Vacation Bible School while we were in our meetings. After AGM, they came home with us for a few days. We had a lot of fun and our time together was encouraging for us, too.

Here are few pictures. Because of security reasons, I will not publish the pictures of children in Adam's class. However, there is one of Adam and Jon. Jon and his family serve in Odessa.

The last picture is of Calvin and Adam taking a nap after a busy couple of weeks.