Ukraine Update 2 -- 9th July 2006

Hi there again...

We are still alive and survived the week marooned on the island! It was definitely a different type of camping than what we are used to in New Zealand, but none the less enjoyable and in such a beautiful spot! The pit toilets were a challenge; I still haven't yet mastered 'the squat'! The food also was an interesting experience, and I think we were all glad to get back to a big lasagna I made the first night back. We meet heaps of very cool people there, and the hunger for God is something completely unmatched in the western world. Most, if not all, of these Christians are first generation believers and often the only one in there family. There have been lots of things that we are much more thankful for now that we used to take for granted, and some things we didn't even realize we took for granted, but were just a part of our lives.

Since the camp we have spent 2 days in Kiev, the first day was a tour of the city and souvenir shopping, and yesterday we went to some clothes markets. This has all been with a mission team from Pacific Hills Christian School in Sydney who have been here for the past 2 and a half weeks. We saw them off at the airport yesterday, and as Jono had been leading the team here it has been a busy past 3 weeks! We will slow down a bit for awhile and get a few things sorted, and then hope to travel maybe next week to Poland or somewhere.

You can pray for us as we feel we have come to a crossroads in our travels, Jon has been offered a job in England that is primary school music teaching, we haven't heard back from the Kiev school, and we could also come home. So with these 3 options and many others we could consider we feel a bit confused and need prayer for direction and guidance.

So hope this keeps you up to date....

Jon’s corner...

Language learning again is awesome but much more difficult than Spanish, although it is said once you have learned a second language it is much easier to learn a third. And though I would not claim to have 'learned' Spanish in its entirety I certainly feel like it has opened my mind to some different dynamics within language. I guess more than all this though in seeing many different ways of existing on this earth from the obscene amounts of money that circulate in England to the very miniscule dirty pieces of paper that are exchanged between paupers in the main streets, we are left a little confused as to where God wants us in this picture. On one hand there is the freedom from the rat-race and the promise of discovering deep relationships but on the other hand there is the reality of earning the elusive but necessary dollar to maintain this standard of living we call 'normal'. I really do wonder about the possibility of having the best of both worlds but highly doubt my ability to live consistently with what I believe whilst being part of the rat-race. As for the concept of financial independence, I don't buy it mainly because all the people I know who are trying to achieve this goal seem to have lost sight of the important things in life. Anyway, please pray that God would give us a conviction about our next moves.

Until next time