Day 11- Don’t Worry, Be Happy

This week so far has not been near as jam packed as last week was. Therefore, I don’t have as much to blog. That is not to say nothing happened though. I got up yesterday and did my quiet time then typed some things on the computer to keep up with my blog from the day before. Then Tim told me about some emails that he needed to send out and some phone calls he needed to make. He has another group from Alabama coming over here next week to do another camp. The group next week will be in Lviv and not Ivano-Frankivsk like us. I think Tim said that we are the only group from Alabama doing a camp in Ivano-Frankivsk this summer. Another of Tim’s many responsibilities is he is a team leader for W. Ukraine. Therefore he has other missionaries that report to him and he told me about some of the things he was contacting them about through email or phone. In the afternoon, Tim, Levi, Rostic, and I went for a walk on some trails right near their house. Then we came back and rewarded ourselves by eating ice cream. Tim’s son Shane called and told us what time we needed to pick him up from the train station from youth camp. So, we picked him up, along with 5 other teenagers. We gave the other 5 rides home to their apartment complexes. The Ukrainians have a thing when riding in the car. Most people do not have air condition in their car and they only like to ride with one window open. Each time we have had a group of Ukrainians in our car, we have tried to abide by that. So, when the teenagers got in the car yesterday, I assumed I should keep my window up. But, Tim ask them if he could roll the window down because he told them I had been in Ukraine a week and knew their traditional way of riding in the car. The teenagers started laughing and said oh no don’t worry about that please roll the window down because it was hot. Anyway, kind of funny, but I guess you had to be there.
When we got back to Tim’s house, Donna was preparing for the ladies Bible Study and cooking lesson that she has on Monday night. They were kind of enough to let me sit in on the Bible Study and cooking lesson. Normally they cook first and then have Bible Study. However, right before they were supposed to cook, a guy came to fix one of the faucets that was not working and had to cut off all the water. So, we were sitting there waiting for the water to turn off and Donna apologized a few times to the other ladies. One of the ladies, who does not speak very much English, said very sweetly, “Don’t Worry, Be Happy.” It was very nice and funny. So we went ahead with the Bible Study first. The Bible Study was actually led by another girl from the States and she led it in English with Donna translating to Ukrainian. I made many observations on how this worked and the struggles of trying to translate certain English idioms or terms. Then something I thought was kind of odd happened, but it might be normal with Ukrainian women. As soon as we finished the Bible lesson, one of the women started going into detail about some personal struggles she was having with her husband. Her story probably lasted around 30 min. and it was amazing to see how God was working through her situation. Then the ladies prayed for her and we went into the kitchen for the cooking lesson. Donna had told me earlier that we would be making Subway-like Sandwiches. Then we ate the sandwiches we made and I excused myself to allow the ladies to have more conversation. All together they were over at the house for at least 4 hours. I then went and played play station with one of Tim’s sons and then I watched the Tour De France highlights in French before I went to bed. Below are some pictures from Lviv and the house where I am staying:




A building from a Polytechnical School. The colleges or universities I have seen here don’t have online class registration. Instead you have to wait in line at the school to register. One guy we talked to told us he had to wait from 8 am- 4 pm to register.


This place says “burger, free, burger”. But it means burgers and fries. I thought I found a place that had all you can eat burgers….




Here I am watching the Tour De France highlights in French…cool right?





This is where I am sleeping this week. I know what you are thinking…I am roughing it ha ha.

Thought or lesson from the day: I learned from talking to Tim a very important lesson if I want to go anywhere for missionary work. I learned that it is important to work with the missionary and get him to help you, instead of just coming over here and doing what you want or feel led to do. Also, I learned the importance of being completely honest with the missionary and missionary agency. Tim told me a few stories of people coming over here and not tell about certain sicknesses they had or coming over here and trying to help with something they felt led to help with and then they could not help with it. Tim talked about the struggles of not knowing a person’s background information and not knowing exactly what a person wants to do when they get over here. So, I have learned that if ever I want to go on a mission trip or do a missionary stint by myself, that there are necessary steps and precautions that I need to take and hopefully over the next few days I will learn even more of those. Anyway….

Signing off from Ukraine,
Ben