Ukraine

Well I never blogged after the trip to Ukraine which was probably my favorite trip out of them all! Here is the photo album on Facebook! hopefully you can see all of these and if not, I'll get Constantin to make it a public album.

http://www.facebook.com/?ref=logo#!/album.php?aid=2055750&id=1103584216

The time we spent in Ukraine was great, we spent most of it in Ternopil at a big church there with their sort of young adult choir. Craig and Brady each gave a lesson every evening for the week and Oksana interpreted into Ukrainian. We sang quite a bit, rehearsing and singing in the streets, and discovered the city. We also got to go out to Zolochiv and visit Constantin's family on Constantin's 20th birthday. We took the night train to Kiev our last day and visited a group just outside of Kiev who are building a camp and facility for the use of all sorts of church events. We also got to see a lot of Kiev during the day. The people in Ukraine reminded me a lot of at home. They ate more than in France, were really hospitable and warm people despite the cold weather.

Le Voyage en Asie

Well I'm back from the trip which was quite an experience. We are still remembering little things that happened everyday, none of which were we used to. We arrived in Thailand and that sort of introduced most of us to the Orient, but that was just the beginning, with the metros and river boat we still felt somewhat at home/not so lost. We didn't know quite the extent of things we would get to see in the other countries...here are a few shots from Thailand. 

 So that was pretty much Thailand. We only stayed for about half a night and had to leave the hotel at about 3AM for our flight to Burma. Burma was really amazing. We got to see the big Pagodas, a sort of Buddhist monument and visit other Christians there. I will show you more very soon but I can't have any pics on here of Burma or talk much about it on here. We then headed to Cambodia after 3 days, through Bangkok to make the change of country, that was my birthday...wooo....hahaha. 
     In Cambodia, we were actually with Bill and Marie-Claire which was better than without them :-) as they weren't able to get their visas for Burma. We got to see a lot in Cambodia, including the Ship of Life medical boat, we went out to a few villages with the nutrition team and saw the Partners in Progress Center and CBI Sunset-like bible school. We also stopped at a school next to a random pagoda and played with them at their recess and sang them "the wise man". 
      The medical boat takes dental patients and patients who need a physician from villages they stop at. At the moment, they are on the Makong River and do about a village a week. In the morning, people come to the shore and take a number to see a doctor and then hang out most of the morning waiting to go on board and be helped out which is when we sang and did a few skits for them. These people don't have doctors so the doctors there are a great help to these people. Every once in a while there are more specialized doctors who stay on board for a few months as well.  The crew was made up of quite a few american doctors and nurses who have kids in college. There were also a few cambodian crew members who weren't christians but had been coming to the church session they have on board. Bill and Marie-Claire and Partners in Progress in general try to stay open to opportunities they can be used to serve and talk to other people about God. 
  The nutrition program goes to about 3 villages a day, 3 days a week, but there are quite a few villages under their support at one time. The team teaches the children about hygiene and God at the same time. They give them Soy milk and peanut butter on bread for a morning snack as 60% of children there are malnourished. They also give them play money for a little store they have with pens, pencils and t-shirts for doing things like wearing shoes and clipping their nails. Here are some pictures from there which will say more than I can in a decent amount of time.

   

 Constantin loves the movie Fightclub.

On top of the PIP center.

 More pictures coming...

Mâcon et la Suisse

well I haven't blogged in a while...I have been pretty busy. I never really mentioned our short weekend in Mâcon, FR and few days in Lausanne, Switzerland. In Switzerland we stayed at the Smith's house and Brady taught a class on 1st, 2nd and 3rd John. One of the nights a group came from the Pepperdine campus there and then we were basically on our way to Mâcon right after that.

We went to Mâcon, kind of central to the Francophone churches, for a church leader conference. It was good to hear how the church planning and sharing worked out whether it was what to do or what not to do. It was great talking to and getting to know the different church leaders. 

Now we are preparing to go to, Thailand for one night as it is required to go to Myanmar(Burma), then we will then be staying in a hotel for a few nights in Burma helping out the church that Bill and Marie-Claire McDonough have and then be traveling to Cambodia for a few nights to help out on the Ship of Life. The girls got their BAFA certifications to be counselors at the camp while Constantin and I did some work around the church. I will have pictures from Burma, Thailand and Cambodia soon! We leave Wednesday the 10th and will be back the 19th.

More Rothenburg Pictures

Rothenburg

Our trip to Rothenburg, Germany for the Euro-American retreat was great. It's basically a retreat for the american missionaries, but there were also just missionaries from many countries who spoke english and were able to come. There were 15 countries represented and a little over a hundred people. There were many interesting speakers and the theme was John 17, the prayer Jesus prays before going to die. The ride was about 12 or 13 hours but we are getting used to it. The lessons were all in our hotel and we were just next to the walls of the little medieval city, so thats where we were when we had free time.

Nov 16th (2) haha

We just had a retreat at the church which was great. We watched "Facing the Giants" which we would consider a simple christian bookstore movie but for them it was deffinitely to see people talk about God in a movie. We had Alexander, Ichem and Ilyes at our appartment on Saturday Night which was great, too. The church spent some good time trying to "Face their Giants" as that was the theme. It was a lot like the retreat Craig spoke at at our church. This Saturday we will be leaving for Rothenburg, Germany for the Euro-American Retreat. So there will be an update after that! and some pictures of the ancient city walls... :-)

Teen Retreat Pics