100 grieven challenge - Day #2

Today my normal market was closed due to sanitation concerns. So, I had to purchase my vegetables at a supermarket this week.



Vegetables are a little more expensive at the supermarket - but it's easier to guess how much your total bill will be. In the supermarkets they have two styles of most vegetables: washed and unwashed. Unwashed carrots cost half as much as the washed variety - which is a real puzzle to me because I assume that people still peal the washed carrots.

The day old tomatoes are much cheaper - but there was a throng of little old ladies six women deep and I simply couldn't get to them to see if there were any quality fruits left. Apparently I wasn't the only shopper a little upset by the hasty closing of our market.

I managed to squeak out of the store with a bill of only 19 UAH. This is no small miracle as the entire store is designed to lure shoppers into spending more money than they originally intended.

Money Spent: 19 UAH
Money Remaining: 71 UAH
Steps Taken: 4,092

100 grieven challenge - Day #1

Ukrainians always want to know how to translate the word “grechka.” I explain that we don’t eat it in America and thus we don’t really have a translation. This answer has yet to satisfy anyone. Usually the student runs to a corner store to buy a bag of it to show me what they mean. After assuring them that I have understood, I continue on in explanation that we feed it to chickens sometimes – so maybe a farmer would know what to call it.

Buckwheat groats are a staple in Ukraine. That's really the right translation.





It's entirely fiber and absolutely indigestible. Your body would get more nutrients by boiling up a pair of old sneakers. But, it's cheap and plentiful. With enough salt it's also tasty. today I boiled up some gretchka and used up the end of my groceries from last week.

I gave 10 UAH at church and didn't spend any money on myself. I walked to church and home - 5 miles round trip.

I plan to stay at home and relax for the rest of the day - so I'll go ahead and log my totals.

Money Spent: 10 UAH
Money Remaining: 90 UAH
Steps Taken: 10,120

100 grieven challenge

This is what 100UAH (UkrainiAn gHrieven) looks like. Currently it is worth $12.55 in US currency.

My goal this week is to only spend 100UAH. I've been in a celebratory mood recently and have plunked down a 100 note on a few occasions for a single meal. (Honestly, it's exciting to live in a place where steak for two - plus sides! - comes to less than $15 ... but I digress) So, this week I am going to challenge myself to be thriftier.

So, I can spend just over 14UAH a day. I need to buy a secret santa gift this week, so unless I get crafty, I'll have a little less to spend on food.

Also, I'll try to save money by walking to and from city center, weather permitting. It's 2-3 miles - so I'll also post my daily step counter.

So, check back each day to see how much money I spent, how I spent it, how many steps I took, and creative things I did to save money. ... or ... check back in to see how miserably I failed and how much I went over budget.

November

So, for the last 6 years I have participated in No Shave November. Usually at the end of the month I just keep the beard - but this year I can't wait to get rid of it. Here are some photos from the Thanksgiving party ... and my beard in its final days.



Jesse Goran loves my beard.



This is Dale and Olya. They're a really fun couple who are super helpful around the student center. Dale teaches our guitar course and Olya is on the leadership team. I just love them.



Here is the first food crew at the Thanksgiving celebration. We never dropped below 30 people at the party - even though there was huge turnover. We don't actually know how many people we fed ... but it was a huge number.

As a missionary, I am constantly attempting to not offend people.

Not the little things - I mean, I know that I offend people when I stand in front of a window (in slavic cultures all sickness is derived from being in the way of a draft. Even in 100 degree weather train windows are kept closed because the draft will kill people.) I know that when I eat, I eat like an American and this sometimes offends people...

No, I'm talking about the big things. I prolong the conversation and save the bad news for last. When I'm preaching the gospel I slam down the parts that they can accept and I push back the parts that they might reject. I'm so afraid of losing people.

In small group we're talking about the rich young ruler. It's beyond my imagination that Jesus just lets this guy walk away. He's charismatic, connected, and faithful. You could sprout up 10 churches around this kid. But after their encounter, Jesus just watches him walk away.

I wonder what things would look like if I were to be fully honest. If we greeted people at the door and said, "Welcome, you have to be willing to die in order to come here." "Hi, my name's Michael - are you ready to drink the Kool-Aide?"

What if our membership policies actually demanded radical faithfulness? My mentor believes that a church's average attendance should be much higher than the membership number. There should always be a couple of dozen regular attenders that just aren't ready to commit to the level required to be a member. I don't know how I feel about that.

[Membership is something from a by-gone era to people of my generation. If we're there every week and we're giving our tithe; we are a member. We don't need a piece of paper to prove that. If the United Methodist church is radically successful in reaching my generation - average attendance will increase while membership continues its downward spiral.]

What if we genuinely asked our people to make the hard sacrifices required of the Gospel?
1. I bet that more poor people than wealthy would be willing to take this challenge.
2. I bet that there would be a huge domino effect.
3. I bet that there would be huge internal division and eventually a split resulting from this.

Sunday School

 

L'viv UMC began a Sunday School program this semester. Erika Pushkarova, in the maroon sweater, leads the class.


 

Jesse Brian Goran, in his Easter outfit which will no longer fit by Easter, is the youngest and most adorable member of the Sunday School class.

 

Erika does an excellent job planning a weekly lesson, recruiting kids, finding volunteers, and making sure that everyone has a great time will learning a lot.

 

Here's the group shot of all of the students (Minus Jesse who was probably eating or napping by this point!)

Vacation

I spent a few days in Warsaw. Oddly, I never once thought to pull out my camera. I was having such a good time that I didn't have time to stop and take pictures!

 

Riga, Latvia basically looks like a city in a fairy tale. It's big, but absolutely beautiful. I stayed with friends and they were very excited to show me their city.

 

Bill and Helen Lovelace hosted me in Kaunas, Lithuania and we had a great time just strolling through the city.

 

The hill of crosses in Siauliai, Lithuania sends an enduring message of hope to Christians being persecuted. The Soviet government bulldozed the hill and removed the crosses at least 3 times ... but the people continued to come back and bring crosses.

 

This picture isn't from my vacation ... but it should be. These are two of my roommates. I live with three Ukrainians and I'm the only meat-eater and the only non-artist. In this picture, my roommates are conducting a photo session. A good time was had by all!

Vacation

Hi friends,

I wanted to update everyone. I'm currently on a ten day vacation. While it would have been really enjoyable to outline every detail of the trip - that tends to confuse people. It seems that people have a hard enough time remembering that I'm in Ukraine and not Uganda without me writing the names of dozens of cities every day. Here's a brief look at my vacation.

I spent a weekend with a friend in Warsaw, Poland. He had a break from school and we saw literally everything worth seeing in Warsaw. I met a lot of his friends, and in general it was a perfect weekend. I walked more than 20,000 steps every day!

I spent a few days in Riga, Latvia with some friends there. I rested a bit more and did a bit less touring. My Latvian friends are quite keen on theatre, so we did a lot of artsy stuff.

Right now, and for the next few days, I am enjoying Kaunas, Lithuania. My friends Bill and Helen Lovelace work here (as well as in Kiev, Ukraine) and I'm with them. I might tour one or two buildings - but the rest of my time will be spent just sitting around, resting, and enjoying good company.

It's been wonderful to recharge a little bit in Europe. It's been a huge blessing spending some time with old friends and depending on the hospitality of others.

Love, Michael.

More photographic evidence that I really live in Ukraine.

So, I'm in Warsaw visiting some friends, and I found some great photos on one of their computers.



This might be the best picture I've ever seen of the Opera House.



As a general rule; when I look good in a picture, everyone else doesn't. Michal Kurek (pronounced Mikow, and he's my host in Warsaw) is on the right. And Gosha is on the left.



I think this picture just sums up my life in so many ways.

Riot.

Our hands fold around mugs of hot tea. With only three days until the city turns the heat on for the year, these final days are cold and sometimes painful. I'm nursing an old back injury, brought back by lifting too many heavy things these last few weeks.

After a morning of conversation with the students around the center, my numb fingers try to peck out a sermon. Maybe my mind is frozen, too. I just can't get my thoughts across. As with any writer's block - the key is to not panic. Just accept that today probably won't produce a hum-dinger, but hope that something foundational can be created.

The chanting is always distant at first. Some days it seems that a riot is inevitable. The Minister of Education will be imposing a fine of 50 UAH for each lesson missed by every student. My friends who have managed to find employment generally make about 5 UAH an hour. Yes, it would take 10 hours of work to pay the fine for missing a SINGLE class.

We work with University students. That's our ministry here. We pray them through the bi-annual seasons of finals where they labor over tests for more than a month at the end of each semester. We teach conversational English to supplement their grammar-intense English courses. And we march beside them in opposition to unfair laws which attempt to place the blame for the poor education system in the laps of students.

A few more days and the heat will return to our apartments. That minor gripe will disappear. How long until the students are given a quality education which supports their desire to learn and to grow?