Kyrie Eleison...

     ...down the road I must travel. And what a road it's been. I'll probably miss the 25th of this month again like I have most of the past nearly-ten months. So this is a little note on it before I move on to the meat of the post. I'VE BEEN HERE TEN MONTHS!?!! It really doesn't feel like it until I start thinking of how far I've come and how much I've grown (personally, not weight-wise). If the plan holds out, I'll be here for about another three months before returning home. Also, the blog recently had it's 6000th visitor! Very cool.  
     It's actually been an interesting week since the last post. The schedule has been normal however the spices of the week were...varied. A wedding, getting sick, planning at the Liberty meeting, worship with the MTW team. Just thinking about it, there's a lot I could write about today. And I wouldn't even have time to make a video of food.


     I want to start the recap with an addendum to Friday's video. Never use meat that is at or past it's expiration date. Trust it even less if it's close to expiration. After I finished the video and ate the chili, it wasn't long before I started feeling like I had a stomach virus. All the regular symptoms came with it too. I won't share the gory details. Lets just say, I was lucky to go to the wedding on Saturday. By that time, I was feeling well (and brave) enough to venture outside.

     Speaking of the wedding, it was really interesting. I was surprised to see that it was almost identical to the American weddings I've been to over the past few years. Besides everything being in Russian, it all felt very familiar. Thanks to the disagreement with my stomach, I didn't stay for the party afterward. But I did hear there were some interesting things to come from it.
     About a month ago, the then bride-to-be asked me to make some things for the wedding as decorations. She wanted the word "love" cut out of wood in two different sizes. That was an interesting project. Not having even basic tools, I had to buy or borrow a lot just to finish them. It ended up being more expensive than I though thanks to breaking a borrowed jigsaw. But they were finished in time and they looked great after a coat of paint.
     After the wedding, I had to go back to my apartment and relax. It was supposed to be for the whole evening. But plans changed again. The students of KCA were performing "The Curious Savage" last weekend for three nights and I got roped into going. It felt a bit like a guilt-trip before I arrived. But in the end I was glad I went. They did a great job. Since it was the last night of the performance, I got to see what I expect was the best performance. It was a lot of fun.
     Sunday was more normal. I still wasn't feeling 100% but I was doing better. I think by that time, my stomach was mostly empty and the discomfort was just it saying "FEED ME!" After church, the local MTW team was planning on a team lunch and worship time and they invited me. It was fun and enlightening too. I got to have a great meal with some fun people and then worship with them afterward. I especially enjoyed singing the classic hymns in English. Unfortunately, I had to leave early for English club.
     Since it was a rainy Sunday, I thought we'd have a small group. Turns out we had over thirty people split across three groups. The advanced was smallest but David's visiting guest took care of them. He actually stayed and talked with the students for almost an hour after English ended. I couldn't stay to see it because of a Skype chat with my church in the evening (lunch time for them).
     Monday and Tuesday were basically normal.
     The weather though has been interesting. We've gotten rain almost every day for the past two weeks. It's making everything very green. Today wind is mixing with the rain and making for some nasty weather outside. I'm glad I'm in here making videos and eating lunch instead of being outside.

     Wednesday I had my usual meeting with David. Afterward, I went shopping. I'm glad I took the big grocery bags with me then. I needed it for all the heavy stuff I got. The picture on the right is what $30 worth of Ukrainian groceries looks like. Admittedly, I didn't buy the cheapest things but it's still an indication of how much farther a dollar will go here than in the States. That's one thing I've actually gotten used to. When I was in Iowa in March, I was surprised, no, shocked at how much food costs there.
     That evening, I went to the Liberty team meeting. We're finally starting to plan for the summer English camp in August. I have been wondering for the past few weeks, with all the cancellations and non-meeting nights when we'd do that. It's still in the preliminary stages. However it feels good to finally be talking about it. I don't like planning at the last minute. That's what this was starting to feel like.
     After three weeks, the Thursday night Bible study has been going well. We had the first rough evening last night. I'm certain it was a failure to properly prepare for the lesson. I worked on the questions ahead of time. But any time you're dealing with Ephesians 5:21-33 and a group of unknown backgrounds, there are likely to be some awkward moments. As people continued to arrive, I was wondering what I'd be able to effectively communicate to a group of mostly women. Fortunately, I'm still here. No one attacked me with cries of "Sexist!" or "Misogynist!" I think I was (with lots of help) finally able to convey my point by the end.
     In short, if you look at the passage, it's talking about a two-way relationship. The submission is also not only for women. Men too must submit by giving up their wants and needs in self-sacrificial love.
     In reality, the study has been going well. I've managed to take a lot of the lessons I learned last year (leadership, planning, and personal confidence) and put them into practice for this session. I may have said it before but, this session we are studying Biblical relationships. Not simply between men and women, but also between enemies as well as friends and between us and God. It's been interesting so far. There is a very different group this time. We've had some cross-over from last year but not much.
     As has become my custom, here is the latest video I've uploaded to Youtube. This one is about another of my customary dishes. I've been making it in one form or another since probably August of last year. But I still don't have a name for it. It's probable that it already has a name and I just stumbled onto this recipe by accident and experimentation. It's super-simple and tastes good. Just substitute ingredients as necessary for the ones you can't find.

     Now on to the more title-relevant part of the post. Any Greek scholars among my readers might recognize the title of this post. Others may recognize it as part of a traditional prayer in the Orthodox and Catholic churches. Everyone else probably remembers it as one of Mr Mister's biggest hits before they fell off the radar. Speaking of which, when you're done with this post, look over on the right side of the page for the link to "The Music of Brian and Ukraine." It's been up for a while. I wanted to make a page of all the music references I've made in the post titles.
     But in the vein of this post, the title is actually closer to the prayer definition. I haven't shared any prayer requests lately. Mainly because I haven't had anything major come up that I needed prayer for. As I'm starting to think of the three camps I'll be involved in this summer as well as the future after the camps, I'm starting to realize how much I really rely on God. This will be a busy summer right up until the day I leave Ukraine. It still feels like a long time off. But I know it'll be here before I know it.
     So I'm asking that you keep me in your prayers for strength, perseverance, and trust. The trust part is mainly for the future after Ukraine. I have some ideas about it but it's still not certain yet. Also, please pray for continued health too. I've been fortunate so far to not have any major health problems here. I'd rather not spend any time in a Ukrainian hospital or medical clinic if at all possible.
     Alright, I'm out of ideas for things to write about now. I know I haven't been writing as much as I used to. I hope to change that soon. Maybe as the summer heats up, that'll change. I'll talk to you again (hopefully) soon.