I know there have been rumors, questions asked, and eyebrows raised over the topic of a boy in my life. It is always the dreaded question for me, “So, ya got a boyfriend yet?” Such a tactless question.

So I am writing to tell you,  yes the rumors are true. There is a guy in my life, his name is Lance.

Lance works at the YWAM base in Kiev, Ukraine. He has been there for the last 5 years and has directed the DTS there. He is originally from central Oregon though. He is the middle child of three boys, no sisters- funny isn’t it? He has a great family who all love him.

Lance is a deep thinker. He loves to ponder the meaning of life and talk about heart issues. It does  not excite me to talk about the meaning of life. He is a huge visionary, can easily see the big picture. I focus more on the details, the little practical things in front of me. I am what people often call a dream killer. I’m too practical sometimes. Lance is not so organized, I organize to relax. He’s a feeler, I’m a judge. We are quite different, but have similarities as well.

We both love the outdoors, we love to hike, go to the beach. We both love to encourage and challenge people. We both enjoying discipling and empowering others. We both love our families and value time with them. We are both pretty easy going and simple, we just love to fellowship and be with people. I am so glad to have someone like Lance to challenge me and give me a new perspective.

We met at various YWAM events in the last year and kept in sporadic contact. The climax actually came at the YWAM Ukraine conference in Lutsk this past September. He simply asked if he could get to know me with the intention of courtship. I said yes, obviously. Thanksgiving weekend we made it “official.”

Since September, we have been chatting via phone calls. Unfortunately those phone calls have turned to skype calls since he went home for Christmas and will not return until mid February. Yes, our relationship will depend mostly on phone calls and skype (praise the Lord for skype!) for awhile.

So there ya go, I only wanted to lay out the info for you. You can come up with your own questions and comments later. Just know, he’s pretty much amazing.

Lance and I

And just to avoid the other dreaded question, “why haven’t you changed your profile status?” My answer to that: my life does not revolve around facebook.

This video is for all the different English ministries that happen here at the base in Ternopil. We made it for the YWAM Ukraine conference in Lutsk a couple weeks ago. I’m just now getting around to posting it…

Family, Friends, and Supporters,

This post is marking my year-long absence from the states and it seems fitting to give a full report on my goings ons. I will try and cover everything as best I can.

Health Care
Physically
God has blessed me in the last year with good health. I only had a small cold last fall. My glasses broke in the spring and I had to have them repaired, they are still not fully functioning but are at least useful now.
Mentally/Emotionally
I have not had need to visit any sanitoriums or “head doctors,” so I guess I am doing good. With the English school a little over a week away, there has been some added stress, but nothing overwhelming. When I first came here, I experienced the usual homesickness feelings (and still do from time to time,) but God has given me a great family here. Ternopil is now my home away from home.
Spiritually
This past year in my personal devotions, I studied such topics as Moses, steadfastness, the heart and purity of heart, and humility. God has certainly been challenging me to trust Him completely. I am truly coming to the realization that God’s will is freedom and His burden is light. I believe that I will be coming into a new level of trusting in God as the English for Missions school begins.

Foreign Policy
My travels this past year, have taken me from Ukraine to Turkey, Ethiopia, Moldova, Poland, and home. I will still have to be making border runs, so I may be frequenting Poland and Moldova. My relations with people here have also been growing. It is an important policy to build and keep relationships with the people of Ukraine. Since being here, I have helped in weekly English cafes, English classes, and English clubs. I have also helped set up team building events for youth groups and other church groups. I have assisted in hosting various teams and individuals through out the summer. In this next year, I plan to the majority of my attention to the English for Missions school. This means that I will not be committed to any of the previous English activities. I will continue to foster relationships with those that attended the English club I ran. This will mostly be done on weekends.

Education
In this past year, I graduated from the Discipleship Training School in Ternopil, Ukraine. Here I learned valuable lessons such as servant leadership, the Father heart of God, grace, the heart of worship, and missional lifestyle. I was able to put this all into practice on our 2.5 month outreach. After graduation, I set myself to designing and setting up the English for Missions school. In the first week of September, I was able to attend the University of the Nations workshop to learn more about the U of N and about other English schools. This was a wonderful experience for me to simply connect and gain a bigger perspective of Youth With A Mission.

Economy
Allow me to brief you on the economic side of my life. The money that is given to me goes towards, food, normal personal items, my apartment, traveling expenses, visas, staff fees and functions (conferences and workshops.) I have also designated a portion to go towards the English for Missions school. School supplies, registration fees, student scholarships are included in this sum. There is another portion that goes toward fellowshipping. Building relationships are important, this is often done over tea and cookies or with a meal in a restaurant. I want to be able to easily build those relationships and bless those that I am in contact with. I am also sure to put some money towards savings and tithings. In the next year, I see a need for increase support for the school. I would like to find support specifically for student scholarships, if you would love to be a part of this school and help and student attend, let me know!!

Thank you again and may God bless you all.

Actually she’s already been to town and left. I just haven’t told you about it yet. This was in the beginning of August.

Yep, my little sis came to visit me! What an honor it was to have my sister here to see where I live and work. She came in on a Wednesday, we got home that night after a bumpy ride home. The next day we just relaxed together mostly. Alison met some of my buds, I took her to the park, showed her where I spend most of my time. That night, we went to a concert in the park of which we left early and went to a Ukrainian style restaurant with some other friends. There was some live music and good food. We went to the Ternopil museum, chatted, had wraps, saw some churches, chatted, ate ice cream and chatted in the park. What else are sister supposed to do?

The bathroom stalls in an old restaurant

On Saturday, we went to Lviv with my roommate Marichka who is from Lviv. Marichka knew all the sites, she was our tour guide for the day. We went to a little outdoor market, visited several beautiful churches and buildings. Since it was Saturday, there seemed to be a wedding going on in every church. This didn’t stop us from going in or going right on up to the front to get pictures. I discovered a great Ukrainian wedding tradition that day, when the wedding ceremony is over and the bride and groom step out of the church, the bride throws candy out to the crowd waiting. We just happened to be nearby and candy just seemed to fall right at our feet. It would have been a shame to not pick it up.

On the way to Lviv

Old city gates in Lviv

Lviv is a beautiful city that also happens to have chocolate factories. Gotta stock up on that! We ended the day back at the market and hopped back on the train home. Once home we still had time to go to another outdoor concert and left early again for pizza.

In front of the Lviv theatre

Sunday, Alison got to see where I go to church and meet my family there. I took her secondhand shopping and chocolate shopping before we had some friends over to play games and have tea. We made our trip back to Kiev on Monday and said our goodbyes until we see each other again. It was such a blessing!

Yes I am still alive, contrary to what it may seem according to my blog.

Just to set the record straight about why I am so late in blogging… When you have to pay by the minute and every computer you sit at moves slower than a glacier, and after you have already been at the computer an hour responding to the kind people who spent time to email you (and letting your family know who were still alive) and you have a team of people waiting for you to finish, the blog had to take a back seat. Sorry, that’s life.

Now that I have that off my chest, I can update you on just about everything! I will try to ease you back into my blog, but I have a lot to update you on so take a deep breath. I will put up posts based on topics with a few random things to break it up. This is just the post to give you a head’s up.

And… I leave for Moldova for a week just to relax, so my posts may have to actually wait a week. I know, suspense!! I have to build the excitement! I will try to put one more post up tonight, maybe two if I feel like it. 🙂 There is just so much, where do I begin?!