Orphanage Visit

Recently, Brett and I visited an orphanage near our apt. Sergeau, the preacher at the Xarkivska Church of Christ invited us to go with him. He has been visiting this orphanage for the last year. We went into a classroom where there were about 15 kids around the ages of 8-10. Of course Brett and I aren’t sure of everything that was said, but he had a school type lesson with them and he also incorporated Jesus into it. We helped the kids as they made their crafts. We were able to say a few things to them. It was kind of intimidating for me because I’m used to being able to easily have a conversation with children and this time it was a stretch to speak a few sentences like asking them what their name was and how old they were. Some of them knew some Spanish that they had been learning in school at the orphanage, so we counted in Spanish together.

One thing that was especially heart breaking was that they called all adults “mama” or “papa.”

Sergeau said it was because they so desperately wanted to have their own mama and papa. As the class was ending, different men and women came in and out and took a child with them. Sergeau said they worked for the orphanage and did different things with the kids.

After the orphanage visit, Brett and I walked to get on the metro and I noticed a little girl holding a woman’s hand and turning back and smiling at us. I realized it was a little girl that I had talked to at the orphanage. She got on the metro too but I never saw her again. It’s neat the connection that I felt with that little girl although we could barely speak to each other.

I hope to visit as many orphanages as I can to see what all the needs are and to see if this is a ministry that I might get involved in.

DAILY LIFE

Speaking the Russian language, when you only know pieces of it is like playing taboo and charades at the same time. It’s like taboo because we only know so many words and it’s like charades because we do a lot of motions and pointing when we talk to someone.

A few weeks ago, Brett and I were looking for suction cups to hang a strand of Christmas lights, I had no idea how to say suction cups in Russian ( we unfortunately have not learned that word in class yet). I know how to say “I want to buy” and I know the word “window” in Russian. So, we found someone working and I said, “I want to buy this”, and I pointed to a strand of Christmas lights. I then said “window” and made a suction cup noise and asked if they had those. (I hope this makes sense). Any way, he understood and pointed us in the right direction. I was so excited that I got my point across. We have learned that you can’t be afraid and you have to be willing to sound silly, or you will never get anywhere. It helps us with the language the more we practice it and it builds our confidence that we can actually communicate (as funny as it may look and sound).

Today I went to the grocery store and was looking for this stuff called “cmalets” that Grady said I could try in cookies to substitute shortening. I couldn’t find it, so I asked a lady near me. She couldn’t find any, so she asked me to follow her. We went to the meat dept. and didn’t find any. She asked an employee and she told us to go back to the butter section. When we made it back, she asked a random lady and before I knew it, 3 or 4 ladies were discussing where this “foreigner girl” might find some “cmalets.” It was quite an interesting sight. It was neat how helpful they were all trying to be.

In the end, they decided I needed to go to the market to find some.

That’s a tiny glimpse into life here in Kiev.

Winter

As Christmas approaches, I have begun to miss home more and more. (i realize home is a relative word) I have been pleasantly surprised to find that since a few weeks ago, we have started seeing Christmas decorations for sale. Now we are seeing places like McDonalds, some store windows and the malls decorating with trees and lights. I definitely did not expect this; I have been told this has happened within the last couple of years. Brett and I have bought a few ornaments and decorations and hopefully we will buy a tree this week. I realize that things like Christmas decorations don't really matter, but it has helped me to feel more "at home" here during this time of the year. This will be my first Christmas not seeing my family.

Something we have been hearing lately is how "mild" this autumn and fall has been. This morning at church, a lady told us that there is usually snow on the ground by now and that the temperature is much much colder. We did notice ice on tree branches this morning!! We are very thankful for this unusual Ukraine weather, but I know it will change soon.

Something we are struggling to get used to is the thick, overcast skies and the darkness by 4pm. It has been very foggy lately, just about all day. Yesterday the sun came out for the first time in a week. It's difficult to stay active when the weather is like this, but it will be with us for a while and I am sure that God will provide us with plenty of his work this winter. (Alicia)

Since thanksgiving

We had a great Thanksgiving with our classmates and their families, including a missionary family from Moscow.

We visited the Shevchenko Church where Rick and Carol Pinchuk have been working since 1990. They have a nice family atmosphere. There, we met some young Christian women from our section of the city whom Alicia has been visiting with.

I’m going to brag on Alicia: We’re both in the same class, learning the same materials—so she’s not supposed to be more advanced than I am. Yesterday, we were down on Andressky and she was just chatting away with some of the ladies in the booths. I was proud of her skills.

December is a big month for the White House (Ukraine)- Our Anniversary (5^th), then Christmas (25^th), Alicia’s Birthday (28^th), New Year’s and our “second” Anniversary (31^st—meaning the anniversary of our WV wedding).

We started the Слова а Воге (Word of God) section of our studies. After three months of studying grammar, finally, we have gotten to the point of our language studies that distinguishes this program from studying at a university.

Well, as you can see, I have discovered how to type “по-русски” (in Russian)— I had to type a model of the Russian keyboard and taped it to the top there so I can remember the home-rows. We are not assuming that our beloveds who check this block will understand it all, so we’ll put in some translation. Like our next prayer we are learning for instance:

Господь!

Влагодаримь Тебя за то что Ты пришёл на землю чтобы спасти и исцелить нас.

Влагодаримь Тебя за Твою заботу, за Твою мудрость, за то что Ты так прекрасно сотврил Твой мир.

Влагодаримь Тебя за то что Ты доверил нам эму землю за то что Ты вознаграждаешь наш труд.

Мы славим Тебя Господь. Амин.

God-

Thank you because you came to earth to save and to heal us

Thank you for your work, for your wisdom, that you created so beautifully in your world

Thank you because you entrusted us to this world so that you may reward our work.

We praise you, God, Amen.

Budapest for visas

The Ukrainian government will not issue visas through their own embassy on their soil. SO we had to travel to the nearest embassy (and one reputed to be easy to work with), which was Budapest. Some friends of ours gave us many travel tips that made our trip easier. We found it to be a wonderful city, we are glad we were "forced" to go there and hope maybe someday in the future something may "force" us to return!

An example of the beautiful region of Buda. This is right behind the bus stop behind the Ukrainian Embassy.

It's always a good picture of the open markets with all the color and interesting people.

This is one of Alicia's favorite shots... ice skating in front of a castle!

Here we stand on the Buda side overlooking Pest

An old church. This photo is more aesthetically pleasing than the Burger King.

Prayer # 5

Отец наш небесный!

Благодаpим Тебя за мир который ты сотворил

Благодаpим Тебя за всё прекрасное что есть в мире

Благодаpим Тебя за етот прекрасный осенний день

Благодаpим Тебя за Твою заботу

Благодаpим Тебя за Твою помощь

Господь! Дай нам мудрость и терпение

Помоги нам хорошо понять урок

Благослови нашу учёбу

Благослови нас, Господь

Помоги нам постоянно прославлять Твоё имя

Во имя Иисуса Христа, Аминь.

Our heavenly Father

Thank you for the peace that you created

Thank you for all the beauty that is in the world

Thank you for this beautiful fall day

Thank you for Your care

Thank you for Your help

God! Give us wisdom and patience

Help us learn the lesson well

Bless us with your teaching

Bless us, God.

Help us continually bless Your name

In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Shole Sneg

(that means that snow comes in Kiev)

Leesh and Me with our new coats. Nice coats, but we are relying on God's mercies to keep us warm this winter! It's just getting started good and it's about as cold as I've ever known it!

This is Lena, Nena, Julia and Alicia waiting on the marshrutka after church Sunday. The church in Sumy are doing well. We were happy to be able to travel there to be with them. If you look closely, you can see the snow falling in the camera's flash.

Lena and Julia are often our hostessess in Sumy because we can all communicate in English. We are learning Russian, but our conversations are long enough for greetings. We're working up to our conversations to be the length of "tea," one day maybe we'll achieve a meal's length of conversation.

This is Brett sitting at home in the "office" talking on Skype. (brett.alicia.white). Note the inside clothes.

WW2 museum

This is Alicia and I in front of one of the bas relief statues at the WW2 museum here in Kiev. Impressive it was! We didn't take pictures inside, you'll have to come visit us and we'll take you there. The stakes were high and many battles were fought on Ukrainian soil-- millions of lives were lost. They have memorialized honorably.

After our museum trip we were invited to the home of Ann Marie, Alan, and Emily. Here I am when dinner is served, Alicia with photo credits.

Here's our group. We were all touristy Americans and we didn't care who knew. We may have been the only people in Kiev who had a picnic in the rain.
Alan, Calyn, Emily, Alicia, Lori, Callie, Harmony, AnnMarie, Jenny, Brett with photo credit.

Here's the silver lady whose image watches over Kiev. She's really big, there's nothing in the picture to give perspective, but let's just say if she and the Statue of Liberty got into a fight, she would probably win. (because of choice of weapons, of course)

Here's me and Leesh in front of the pretty leaves, bound to fall soon.

Prayer # 4.

Otets nosh nebezniy!

Blagodareem Tebya za novee din

Blagodareem Tebya za xleb

Blagodareem Tebya ze pomosht

Gospoad’! Tiy bcemogootsee!

Tiy meelacerdniy!

Tiy spravedleeviy!

Tiy sovershenniy!

Miy lewbeem Tebya!

Die nam svaio lewboaf

Pamagee nam eezoochat roosky yizik

Pamagee nam cliyshat, Tvoy slova, kogda miy cheetaiem Beebleeyoo

Pamagee nam propovedobat Sloba Tvayo

V’eemya Eesoosa Xreesta, Ameen.

Our heavenly father!

Thank you for this new day

Thank you for the bread

Thank you for your help

God, You are Allmighty!

You are merciful!

You are just!

You are perfect!

We love you!

Give us your love

Help us study Russian language

Help us hear Your Word when we study the Bible

Help us preach Your Word

In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Anniversaries

We have been here for 7 weeks. Just over a week ago, Brett and came upon our first anniversary. That is the anniversary of us meeting at Tammany Oaks Church of Christ, just after Hurricane Katrina hit last year (our prayers are with those in Mandeville La. that are still in the midst of life after the Katrina and Rita). Although we were not directly affected by the storm, we were both very much indirectly affected. Both of our lives are drastically different since the storm. God has directed our paths together and now here to Ukraine.

It is hard to believe that we have almost been married one year. I pray that God will allow us to use every day as a most wonderful gift and opportunity to serve him by serving each other in our marriage and those around us; whether we can speak their language or not. It will be quite a while before we can have conversations with people, but I know God will show us ways to share his love with those around us.

Prayer #3

Maleetva # 3:
Otez nash nebesniy!
Blagadareem Tebya za looboaf Tvayoo.
Blagadareem Tebya za etat den
Blagadareem Tebya za Ceena ee spaseneeya
Blagadareem Tebya za xlep.

Me loobeem Tebya, Gospoad'.
Die nam sealy, zdaroveea, terpinea
Pomogee nam harrashow govareet ee poneemat pa russky
Me clabeet Tebya ee malimcya. Ameen.

**********************
And now in English:

Prayer # 3

Our heavenly Father!
Thank you for your love.
Thank you for this beautiful day
Thank you for your Son and salvation
Thank you for the bread

We love you God
Give us strength, health, patience
Help us to speak and understand Russian well
We praise you and pray. Amen.

(these prayers are numbered because we are learning them in class-- one at a time)

Alicia Visiting with the Babuskas

This week in Kiev

Here's my beautiful wife sniffing some mama-jahambo flowers we got from a little feller down at the Metro.

Don't you wish you could smell this 'nanner pudding?
Thanks Grady (and no doubt Nancy) for the recipe.

Here's Brett buying produce at the outdoor market
Alicia's a good photographer, isn't she? Look at all the colors.

Some friends of ours having tea in our doma.
They were recently evacuated from their mission point--
which is somewhere in the 10/40 window.
There are still missionaries whose lives are still in danger in the field.

Language proficiency

Alicia and I sat in class during our mid week study day to attend a seminar at the language school. It was a primer course on the ENGLISH language, to remind of us those things we should have been listening for during English class long ago. One must know the elements of his/her own language well enough before delving into another tongue-- at least it really helps. Howard Botterill conducted the seminar. One of the interesting pages was the following comparative chart for language proficiency. The goal of the 2 year SEND program is marked there at 2+.

Prayer #2-

Our heavenly Father,

Thank You! For Ukraine.

Thank you for our home.

Thank you for our church.

Thank you for the food.

God! You know and see all things

You know all our troubles

You know that we now are studying Russian language

Help us to speak and understand Russian well

In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

We have been here one month today.

We're into our third week of school, things are going well. Our teacher Nedezhda is back and her husband is recovering well from his brain surgery and stroke.



This is me and Alicia studying hard in class, our substitute teacher Elena.



Kyiv is beautiful this time of year, the fall flowers blooming. Leaves are close to falling as well. We saw them on the ground in Sumy as early as September 10.



This week marks the anniversary of the day that I traveled down to Louisiana to go help with the relief work. Steps of faith always lead to a path you were never expecting.




In the city, on many of the main streets, they block off car traffic to make way for walkers. This is Alicia and I near Contractova Plosha.




Some random things:

When you have a washer without a built in drain, always put the drain hose away before you wash anything.

Fireworks are legal, purchaseable on the street-- and the big ones go off at night.

We are learning a little bit at a time, having a little more conversation at stores, on the street, at the doma (home). God bless ya'll and thanks for your prayers and looking in on us from time to time.

Weekend in Sumy

These are pictures from school Friday-- most of our classmates eating.

This room serves as our classroom from 9-11:30, our dining room from 11:30-noon. Alicia and I are on the right there and that's the director Howard Botterill in the foreground.



We rode the train to Sumy for the weekend. It was our first "solo" experience without Grady helping. We learned that 1- we need to leave more than an hour and half early to get there close to on time. 2- packing light is a good thing when you must drag your luggage through the streets of Kiev (and we are wondering how long the wheels are goin 3- that they actually put your seat number/car number on your ticket but they always write it in Russian!


I was reading in a book called CULTURE SHOCK UKRAINE by Meredith Dalton that said if you share a cabin with a Ukrainian, they will offer you food. Here is Brett and Luda eating some Ukrainian corn on the cob she offered us-- this was the second course after the chocolates, kleb (bread) and kilbasa (sausage).

I had never ridden in a train car like this before, but I have seen them in the Beatles movies.

IN SUMY:

Alicia, Lilly, Julia, Lena, and Nena in the guest room at the Sumy Church building where we stayed. They were vistiting us Saturday evening.

The Church was doing well; we had a good service conducted by brother Vova (right) and several of the ladies saw us off with tea and a snack before our Marshrutka ride back to Kiev. (This part Alicia DID NOT like. We both prefer the train now that we know the difference)

One of our lessons for the week was 1- not to buy a cutting board because it is cheapest and
2- do not try to wash said cheap cutting board in the dishwasher heat.

And lastly, our companion Lilly. She's been a point of contact for so many people-- and an added motivation to learn the language so we can talk to people! Alicia said at McDonald's tonight that the trash guy was trying to talk to Lilly-- and she said if she had known Russian, she would have sat him right down and started a conversation like, "Do you know who made this dog? ... well, he made you too..." and "I would have told him about Jesus!"

Lilly is fine... and so are we. Ya'll have a wonderful week-- thanks for checking in on us.

September 7,2006

School is going well so far. We are enjoying getting to know other students. There are many couples around our age; several of the ones we have met have small children. We plan on having people over often for fellowship. Once I get the grocery shopping and cooking down a little more, I will start cooking for others. Brett and I feel this is one way we want to serve others.

Speaking of shopping, Brett and I find it interesting how many varieties of ketchup there are. They are Ukrainian brands and when we choose one, we basically have to go by the picture on the package until we learn food words. The bad thing though is some foods have Ukranian writing instead of Russian, so we'll have to wing it. (We did find Heinz at a grocery store nearby, so we picked that up too :) I am getting good ideas from classmates. We are eating lunch at the school every day, so we get to hang out with people that are in other time slots and some are second year students, so they have lots of good advice. Today we found out which store has burritos and tacos and we also found out there is a movie theater that plays movies in English once a week. It's not too far from us; even if it is it will probably be worth it. I don't know if they are new movies, but we will definitely check into it.

Today, we had to combine classes with another first year class because our teacher's husband had to have emergency surgery. He apparently had a stroke a while ago and whatever happened yesterday has caused him to need brain surgery. I don't remember his name, but please pray for him and our teacher.

It's so weird to live in another country. I think we are slowly getting accumstomed to it. I think about my life a year ago and it strikes me as pretty amazing that I live across the world now. I know God has led us here to join Him in His work here in Ukraine. I miss my family, my friends, and my state, but He gives me strength to be here and not become overwhelmed by these longings.

I hope as we blog, it keeps you connected to us, despite the miles between us. We pray for our family and friends daily.
Love, Alicia

First week of school

This is the view from our apartment... actually it's the beautiul September sky-- the well worn football field (soccer field) is not this pretty!

That there is Russian language books on my lap.

This is Joel-- besides being the first guest in our flat, he is one of our classmates.

After we were back at the apartment after school the first day, we heard the most beautiful music coming outside. It was defiinitely real time horns, so we peeked out to investigate. The door beside our door on the same building were obviously having a wake of some sort... playing music, mourners, and all. Part of our view was obstructed by a tree for most of the time, but when the procession started moving, we saw a few women carrying what looked like a coffin away toward a Marshrutka looking bus. We thought it strange that there were so many able bodied men and the babushkas were carrying the coffin. When the next wave of the procession passed, we saw that what the ladies were carrying was the coffin lid, because there was the deceased lying open air in front of everybody!

It was an interesting thing to see.

School Day

Today we started class at SEND. It was a really good day.

Our teacher's name is Deszhenda, we have two fellow students, Joel and Tom. We started slow with the alphabet and will be moving on more quickly since all of us are ready to roll more steady.
The school has a family atmosphere-- we shared a meal with many of the students and teachers after class this morning.

We will be studying this afternoon, I'm glad we had the weekend to get the apartment more in order (still a little bit of settling to go). We are excited about hosting people very soon.

Thanks for checking up on us... we love ya'll back home.

Brett, with Alicia by my side.

Well, we settled on an apartment today-- finally. We had to pay more than we were expecting to, but it has all we need and doesn’t have anything we didn’t like. It’s seems safe and is aesthetically pleasing. It is big enough for us to host people coming in from USA (whosoever will). It is a short walk to our school. It’s an answer to our prayers and we are anxious only for the ways that God will be able to use this new space he has blessed us with.

Grady helped us more than we can express our thanks to him, putting in hours and hours on the phone and traveling with us from apartment to apartment, spending his last precious few days of freedom from work (before school starts) helping us when he could have been spending the time with his family enjoying final days of vacation. We’ve thanked him but we wanted to mention him to honor him!

High of 78 today, sunny weather.

Went to this big ole mall yesterday with the Bryans (just in case we start getting culturally mall-deprived)

Good morning from Kiev-- We are taking a short trip to Sumy this afternoon, will be there for Sunday.

Still looking for the apartment to be in. If we don't find something by the beginning of the week, we will go ahead and choose from what we have already seen.

Love to all

We're Back

We are back in Ukraine! We arrived around 1:30 or 2:00pm Ukraine time (7am Eastern time) on Friday the 18th after a slight plane delay. We were tired but glad to arrive safely and glad to see the Bryan family again. The jet lag does not seem to be as bad this time; I think it is because it is summer and it is daylight longer.

Saturday we went looking for apts near the school we will attend and we went to the forest for a cookout with the Bryan family and Larissa and Max's family. They are staying with Grady and Lena with their twin girls for a few days because they are possibly moving to Kiev from Sumy if they can get jobs. She was our translator before so we know them pretty well.

Today we went to church at Nievky; the building was full. At the end of the service they share prayer requests and then spend time in prayer together. Lena was telling me that before church some of the members stood outside the building and also walked around this morning to tell people about Jesus and to pass out New Testament Bibles. It is so refreshing to know this church is so active in evangelizing.

It was strange when I heard Russian in the airport and it sounded familiar. It was also strange that Kiev does not seem as foreign; in the spring it was difficult because it was so new and different and awkward and all other adjectives to describe the feelings of being in a foreign country. Words we learned in the spring are coming back to us; we are recognizing them in speech. I think being with the Bryans and hearing it constantly helps us.

I don't know how to describe what it feels like to be back. I know I am excited to find a place of our own and start learing Russian. Max and Larissa's girls do not know english and it is hard for me to deal with the language barrier with them. They come up to me and say things and I want to talk back so badly.

The other day I took Lilly outside and she started running around in circles as she loves to do; a lady came out of the library by the apt building and began laughing and I wanted to talk to her. Lilly has already done what I knew she would; connect me to strangers in ways that crosses language barriers. People immediately smile and assume conversation with me because of her; this is a wonderful thing and I am ready to start learning the language so I can connect much deeper with people.

Alicia

Valdosta

We're back in V-town for a few weeks before we head back to Ukraine. It was good to be at Central Church of Christ, my most recent home congregation before my adventures to Louisiana, Alicia, and Ukraine. It was great to see everyone-- sorta sad to see the Moffetts go. Thanks to everyone who said they have been reading up on us. We've not been posting much since we've been back, but thanks for checking in on us. We will start more postings when we get back to Kiev. Love all ya'll, Brett and Alicia

Three and a Half Weeks To Go

We are back in Georgia For our last few weeks;

Had a wonderful beach vacation with Brett's family last week;

Continuing to work on all the last minute details;

We love all of our family and friends;

Above all, we praise God who has given us life.

Update

We have been in Wv visiting my family for the last 3 1/2 weeks. It's been wonderful to be here so long and visit my family and friends. We are visiting some of my extended family today and tomorrow and we are then headed back to GA. Please pray for us as we continue to prepare to leave. There is still a lot to do and I can get easily stressed out. God has recently given me peace about our health insurance we will be purchasing, so that was a huge blessing and relief. Thank you for checking our blog and keeping up with us. Please email us or call us; just continue to keep in touch so we can pray for you and what God is doing in your lives.

Ukraine Mission Work