Spring Break

We took the train to the Crimea for our break from language school. Our road then became longer than we anticipated and we ended up visiting Mariupal as well. Here are some photos from our trip:

Here's me lying on the train. It's the nicest passenger train we've ever been on without it being first class. Notice the panel next to my head-- it actually had indicator lights telling you whether someone was in the bathroom or not!
Alicia's favorite thing was the vineyards on the way. This picture was taken in motion on a marshrutka, so it's blurry and of course, the pictures never do anything justice anyway. Crimea is aesthetically pleasing with mountains right beside the ocean.

But the weather was the worst ever. Here's us in the rain at Livadia, the place where the Yalta Conference was held toward the end of WW2. There was also a church built for the Romanov Russian royal family. It was the only place that wasn't soaking wet!

At Lavadia

Here's Alicia at the sea in Alushta

We dipped into a little seaside cafe when we were cold and hungry and couldn't take any more steps on foot. We dined just sitting there watching the tide roll in. Our waiter took this picture.

Our wonderful hostess was Shannon. She cooked a meal for us whenever we were there and not catching busses to the sea. There were many more things we wanted to see down there, but the weather said to turn back. So in the middle of the week, we took the train to Mariupal upon the invitation of Andrew Kelly, of Jeremiah's Hope. We had a good time visiting with him, checking out the ministry down there, and doing what you're supposed to do on break-- in Russian we call it отдохнуть, to take a rest.


The Orthodox church has built many buildings across Ukraine in the past few years. This is one of them. They keep to the traditional architecture. When you come over here, one of the major touristy things to do, even in cities big as Kiev is to see the religious buildings. We found this one particularly attractive, in red brick and overlooking the Azov sea.

Here's me and Andrew in front of --- what restaurant is THIS?! Can you read that up there?

This is what they served... really good.. almost like another famous chicken restaurant that I don't want to name... there may be some copyright infringement in comparing! It was quite tasty.

This is the Mariupal Church of Christ building. This is also the place where Jeremiah's Hope has its home. Quite a spacious facility of all churches of Christ we've seen in Ukraine so far. Our brother Sasha Palletski, native of Sumy is the preacher here.

After getting back to Kiev, we met Andrew's wife, Jenny, who had just finished up a week of camp. With the help of "the Harding van" and Rick and Carol Pinchuk, Jenny took us up to Kalinzi, near Ivankiv to walk over the land that they have purchased for a Christian Camp.

Here in this picture are Sasha and Olga Kolosha, Jenny Kelly, Alicia, Carol and Rick Pinchuk. Not Pictured, me.

We had a good time.

A random note: I've been having some internal struggles about what sort of material I should be putting on a public blog. I don't want to preach and I also don't want to parade people that we run with as if they are "our ministry"-- do you know what I'm saying? So please understand that there's a lots more that goes on here without it being part of our blog world. There are many details that you'll just have to know us and ask us to see. Thanks for understanding, and thanks for visiting our blog today.