For those who don't know... I was gone June 1-14 2001, to Odessa, Ukraine.
Former USSR right above the Black Sea.
We had a wonderful trip. I can't even start to tell all the things that happened. Our goal was to start several small bible studies where we were that will hopefully grow into a church in the future. Mission Accomplished. Each of our four groups started some sort of study in their area. The area we covered spanned just about 5 miles square and housed 60,000 people. I have never seen anything like it. All around me where these huge buildings. They were mostly built during the communist era. There are usually several families to an apartment so in one small area there are several thousand people.
The people there are like us in many ways. Culturally there are lots of differences. As a whole it is a very hopeless society. Government is corrupted and always changing. There laws can change completely in an instant. We had problems when we were there because it became impossible for us to register and legally be in the country (all this after we were already there). So we did our best and made it out with no problems. God answered our prayers directly.
Our prayer chain prayed some specific things :
1. That the guard wouldn't even check our papers. (We didn't have the right documentation so they legally could have held us until we bribed them to be let go. The guard waved us through without even glancing at any of our papers. 14 of us and he didn't even look at our passports.)
2. That we would pass completely through customs with none of the guards paying any attention to us. (None of the guards even looked up at us. We walked right through)
Customs was interesting in the airport there. Much more intimidating than it was in London or the US. We did a bit of sightseeing in Ukraine (Odessa and Kiev) and in London. I got to see the Black Sea and the Chernobyl Museum. The seaport in Odessa is beautiful. After all the work of the week our last few days of sightseeing meant so much more to us. We had a love and understanding of the people where we were. AND we knew a little Russian which made it easier to get around!
Public transportation was fun. We rode around in buses most of the time. They don't consider a bus full. . . ever. So some of the time we were packed in so tight you couldn't really even breath. And you had to push your way up front to pay and get off. It was an adventure. We also spent 10 hours on a train coming and going. That was very strange. Picture a WWII train and you pretty much have it.
London was awesome. We were only there for a day and two nights. I sprained my ankle the morning of our sightseeing day there so most of the time I spent on top of a tour bus taking pictures. We only got off to see the changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace and to eat fish and chips at Sherlock Holmes Pub. We did get to go to see Les Miserables that night. It was incredible. That day was such a blessing for all of us. Icing on the cake of the whole trip.
I think that's about all I can say right now. Maybe I can put more up here later. : )
Gina