Tim Emerson's Ukrainian Journal

Why I've not been blogging

2009-10-28T11:43:00.003+02:00

Vika left a message asking what's up lately so I figured I should probably post about it all.

A lot has happened recently and I've not been blogging for a couple reasons. First, I've just lost all desire to and second, I just simply don't have the time anymore. I've rationalized this by letting newsletters be the primary medium through which people can read about what is going on.

In September, about the time of my last blog entry, we found out that Christina is pregnant again. However, this pregnancy has been much more difficult than the first and Christina is needing to be lying down very often - at least half the day. I've also started going to a discipleship meeting we're having early mornings with a couple of the guys in the church and also, on the days we're not meeting, I go to an early morning prayer meeting.

So, all told, and including everything else that was already going on, I'm running pretty solidly all day from 6am until 10pm which is just enough time to rest a bit and sleep. That's why I've not been blogging and probably won't continue this blog.

As mentioned earlier, monthly newsletters will be our main medium of communication now so if you'd like to be added to my newsletter list, please leave a comment as it automatically is sent to me via email.

09/04/2009 - Nothing Special

2009-09-05T09:26:00.002+03:00

Thursday and Friday ... what to say? Well, not much unfortunately!

Thursday I spent a majority of the day working on websites. Also, spent 30 minutes trying to write an email in Ukrainian to one of the non-English speaking pastors which was pretty fun. I had guitar class, but only one student came - and she came a half hour late. So yeah, not much to say - just trying to take care of things the best I can.

Friday I did a bunch of walking around taking care of things. Took Leah with me once when I went to the bank. We took the long way and walked until I realized it was her nap time.

Then last night we had a team meeting over dinner and discussed how things were going - normal stuff. Seems that the village outreach will be recheduled because our worship leader won't be getting back until a couple days before and we don't yet have permission. Oh well.

Also, here are some pics from a recent evening walk we took with some friends from the church:

New Leah Pictures

2009-09-02T21:45:00.003+03:00

Use this link and go to the right to see new pictures of Leah.

09/02/2009 - September already?

2009-09-02T20:21:00.002+03:00

It's getting cold here already ... yesterday I was almost uncomfortable in shorts, but today was a bit better. Time flies!

So I got to thinking about stopping the blog again. It's just hard to keep up with and, as if it was an answer to prayer, I got a stats report from my little counter I have on the blog. It tells me that 7-15 people are checking my blog every day so I guess I really shouldn't stop, eh?

So the past week ... pretty much normal stuff. Christina went to a baby shower for a friend and then also has spent some time with the girls so I was with Leah a lot. She's getting so old now it's funny. You can tell from the videos in the post below this one.

We're starting to think about when we'll be going back to the States and so far we're looking at Feb-Apr ... somewhere in there. We've got a couple reasons, but I can't tell you just yet - hah! More suspense.

Really, it's been a rather slow month overall I guess in terms of anything unique happening. We added language lessons into our routine so that took up a bit more of our time.

Not much else to say that I can think of. It's a shame I have such a bad memory and need to post stuff rather soon after it happens or else I'll forget - 100% guaranteed :p

Leah's New Videos

2009-09-02T20:18:00.002+03:00

I had the videos already up since 8/27, but forgot to post about it. Sorry. Here you go!

Day at the Park
Walking
Misc Summer 2009 p1
Misc Summer 2009 p2
Hide n' Seek

08/20/2009 - Leah's first steps!

2009-08-20T21:15:00.002+03:00

Leah took her first steps today - video will come later. We have some guests over right now.

08/14/2009 - A New Place?

2009-08-14T13:49:00.002+03:00

Well, yesterday we had a team meeting and George told us about another place he looked at for a potential church. The previous building we passed on, but this one is both bigger and cheaper and in a better location! Keep it in prayer.

Most of the ministry going on around here the last couple days has been on Christina's end so I've been home with Leah a lot. What that means is I have a whole bunch of nothing to write about!

"Patz!"

(If you don't understand the "Patz" above, you need to read further down)

Newsletters

2009-08-12T11:55:00.001+03:00

I'm not going to be posting to the blog anymore about newsletter updates being available. The last five of our newsletters are always available on the right side of this blog.

Incidentally, the newest one is there too.

08/12/2009 - Accidents happen

2009-08-12T11:45:00.003+03:00

Before I write in depth, everyone is ok, but there was a car accident a couple days ago involving the car we use for many of our church activities. George, our pastor, and a couple of his brothers were on the way to Hungary for an errand and so Aaron could get back to the college. Praise the Lord there is only a bit of back pain as a result. The other car had 6 people in it too, but they are all ok.

Unfortunately the car is incapacitated now though, but George's mom said we could use her car while she is away. Today George is supposed to hear from the other driver's insurance company so we pray we can get the car fixed quickly.

In other news, evangelism went well on Saturday. We didn't really get to talk to anyone, but a young lady came up expecting us to be there and asked for directions to our church before we could even say hi - that was rather surprising! The next day, she and three others came to the church and appeared to have a great time. We look forward to seeing them again!

Christina and I are continuing our trend with inviting people over to our apartment. We've been having two groups of guests a week so far and it's been awesome just to hang out with them. Next week we plan to have some of the African guys over.

Leah is getting very good at repeating words. He newest one, and by far the cutest is, "patz," which is her way of saying pants. She is becoming so much more aware of things and more interactive - it's GREAT! Yeah, she's more ornery too, but that's ok :)

08/07/2009 - Only a few things to write about

2009-08-07T11:54:00.002+03:00

Been kind of a slow week here as far as extra ministries go. I was planning on going out to an evangelism outing with a team from Ireland on Wednesday, but we got rained out. It is a shame too, they said they had a really good turn out when they did it last Saturday. I'll see if I can get back together with them and maybe go out again.

However, a highlight this week was that Christina and I celebrated our eighth wedding anniversary! We got our babysitter to reschedule to that day (Tuesday) so we went out and spent a few hours together. It was great fun and I am so glad to have been married to the woman of my dreams for that long!

My foot is doing a lot better with the lump about half it's original size and the swelling having gone down a bit. I did some research about achilles tendon pain and the symptons describe what I have for the most part. Unfortunately the recommended treatment is to stay off of it and just wait, using ice to reduce any swelling. That's hard for me because of all the walking I do. Oh well, I'll do what I can.

I guess the only other thing to really write about is that Leah is teething again (we think - no teeth yet) so she has a bit of a cold and cough. She has still been sleeping well for the most part, but been a bit irritable at times with us. I can't imagine what she'll be like when she enters the terrible-twos.

We'll be having house guests this weekend. A family form Kyiv is coming to visit the church so we volunteered to put them up so that will be exciting. They're not coming to visit us though so I assume we'll only see them a little bit.

08/02/2009 - Virginia!

2009-08-02T17:50:00.003+03:00

Last night we decided to try something different with our weekly evangelism. We went out by the main walking area at the lake to see what would happen. We got to talk to a few people, but for the most part people just walked by and weren't really interested in talking.

Today we had church services like normal, but we were packed to the brim and spilling over. We were expecting it though because there was a multi-church Calvary Chapel team from Virginia (and area) visiting the nearby town (2.5 hours away by car) of Rivne and asked if they could come visit us for the day. It was great seeing then and getting to know them. Leah unfortunately has a bit of a temperature and is irritable today so she didn't come to church. We're not sure if she is just starting to get sick or if maybe she is teething again.

After church we we out to lunch/dinner with the visiting team and afterwards I left early because of my foot. I've had some foot pain lately, which I thought could have been bone spurs or something, but at our picnic last week I came home with a large lump on the back of my foot. It has since reduced a lot with icepacks and whatever, but this whole week has been hard on me with my foot hurting so I gave in and asked my friend Zhenya if he could use his connections to find a decent doctor to go to. We'll see :) Pray for me

07/30/2009 - Back and healthy!

2009-07-30T21:55:00.002+03:00

So last I wrote, we were both pretty sick, but I'm happy to report we are well now. It's actually been a few days of good health already, but just wanted to let y'all know.

Been busy around here lately. The last couple days have been almost non-stop with having people over, doing different ministries and whatever. Yesterday we invited a couple Canadians, who are working in the orphanages, over to hangout for the afternoon and evening. We don't know if they are Christians, but it does not appear as such. We had a couple chances to share about what is going on here though so we pray God touches their hearts - especially in these last few days they are here - they leave next Friday.

Last night George, John, and I went to a home group to speak about grace at the invitation of the group leader. These guys all go to one church (and a couple to ours every now and then) and find grace to be an intriguing subject - something they are desiring to know more about. The churches here are very much lacking in grace and specialize in control so a lot of questions were about our church and how it is even possible to have a church without the need to "order" people what to do. It sure is amazing that every need in our church (aside from a >>full<< children's ministry team) is filled by people who desire to serve out of love and willingness rather than obligation! Praise the Lord!

Today we went to look at a possible new church building. The owner is open to renting or buying, but we've pretty much decided that we're not into renting it. If God provides the funds, then we might buy the place - we're not going to limit what God can do. It is a 3-story building that is either new or newly remodeled (I think the latter) which currently has a meeting room to seat 60 people comfortably, but could cram in about 100 if needed. If we were to buy the place, we'd likely clear out an entire floor for a meeting hall. It'd function as a church office too and the top floor could be a parsonage for the Ukrainian pastor who eventually gets raised up to lead the church. It has a lot of potential and we're praying about it to see what God wants to do. When we went to see it today, the guy knew how much he would rent it for, but not how much he would sell it for so we'll see. This is pretty exciting as we are already overflowing our meeting room at the train station complex. God is building his church!!

Worship has been going well and I'm very much enjoying playing bass. It is a hard instrument to improve upon by yourself though (self taught) because it is so simple to play at its base level. To learn to improvise and do melodies and embellishments is difficult. I can hear them in my head, but to bring them out of my mind and into my fingers is hard :) I need a bass teacher! :P

On that note (HAH!), guitar lessons is going good too. I lost a student, but picked up another one so right now I'm struggling with trying to get everyone on the same page.

Not sure if I've said this, but Leah is already walking with only holding one hand. She can walk on her own if she had the courage, but that one hand is her safety net of sorts. She's got about 8 or so works in her vocabulary too. She's getting so big too (I can compare her now to Katie).

Pray for us on the 22nd of August because we are planing to have a small lakeside concert and evangelism that evening. We are still seeking permission and having a hard time obtaining it. Please pray we get the permission and that the organization comes together for the actual event.

Also, please pray tonight for George, our pastor. He's sick with either food poisoning (from the village food he ate during his village outreach today) or picked up the flu bug which has been going around - a nasty one at that!

07/20/2009 - Flu

2009-07-20T21:45:00.002+03:00

Christina and I are both very sick. Christina was doing bad yesterday and is a bit better today, but today is my bad day so this'll be short. Please pray for us.

Forgot to mention that Leah is ok :)

07/17/2009 - Been awhile

2009-07-17T10:11:00.002+03:00

Yeah, been awhile. There are two reasons, but only one of which I can say freely and that I'm lazy. I'll tell you guys the other reason later when it is safer :) Nothing bad, but you'll understand when I tell you :)

Life has been fairly normal lately and there hasn't been much for me to write about.

The biggest news is that Jon and Steph had their baby yesterday, Katie Rose Markey, and everything is going fine as far as I know. Everyone is healthy except for Jon's mom who got very sick. Still waiting for some more concrete details than from second hand.

Leah is now exercising her will to be defiant and is quite adept at it. The potty and eating times are our greatest challenges right now, but otherwise she is an awesome baby! We went out to the park the other day and had a great time looking at doggies (her word), birdies (not her word), and swinging at a playground. She really loves to swing and does so now by herself.

Here are some pictures. Start at the linked picture and go to the right.

The church is growing and for the last few weeks we've been at or near capacity. Last week I had to leave the front to take care of a broken guitar string and when I came back, there wasn't much to sit on, so I sat on my guitar case :) God is good and giving us His daily mercies. With Katie coming, we kinda held off the last couple weeks with evangelism so we'll see what is up n' coming.

06/30/2009 - Back in Ukraine

2009-06-30T10:57:00.002+03:00

Well we're back and we had no problems at the border at all! Praise the Lord! Marilyn, who came back the day after us, also says she didn't have problems! I wish the same could be said for friend of mine in Kyrgystan - pray for him if you think about it because some suspicious KGB guy changed the expiration date on his visa ... with white out?

Anyways, we're back and finally about recovered. Leah is still acting strange though - she won't eat hardly anything. I've read a few places that it is normal, but that still doesn't make it pleasant.

We're currently in the midst of trying to figure out if we are going to move (change apartments) or not. Our rent is way above average so I gave my landlord an ultimatum to lower it or we move out. We're paid through August 20 though so we'll see what happens - he said he might lower it, but if we find something else during that time (and there are a few nice places available) we might move anyways, I dunno.

I got to have a morning accountability/prayer meeting with Zhenya today. He's going on vacation so might start giving Christina and I language lessons as a secondary income during his time off. It would be nice to begin studies again!

So far today I've been working on websites and taking care of stuff so not much else to say. The conference was awesome, but I can't really add much to what I've already said the last time.

06/23/2009 - From Hungary with Love

2009-06-23T22:35:00.002+03:00

Christina and I are in Hungary. Tonight was the first time we turned the computer on since leaving Sunday and lo and behold we have full internet access for whatever reason. Most people have to pay, but I turned the computer on and "whammo" it works. I think the reason is that I am suffering from heightened allergies and planned to watch the service from our room so I'll take advantage of something that might be short lived and post a little about our trip.

So our trip went ok. If you've not known, we were a bit perturbed about crossing the borders and the possibilities of trouble with immigration, but it seems that I was correct in my assumption of how they would interpret the law and we had no problems at all which should hopefully mean entry into Ukraine will likewise be without trouble. There is still the threat of not being allowed back into Ukraine, but I would think if that was the case we would have been fined trying to leave.

The conference is great so far and we've enjoyed meeting with old friends and superb worship and great teaching. Leah's sickness has made it hard sometimes, but we've got medication for her now so hopefully it will pass. Please pray for her recovery.

I was checking out something in 2 Peter today and hope it might encourage you. Cool verses:

But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love. For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For he who lacks these things is shortsighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins. Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble; for so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. 2 Peter 1:5-11

06/17/2009 - A week in review

2009-06-17T10:47:00.004+03:00

Wow, been a week ... someone slap me! Bad Tim!

We've had such a fluster of activity, I'm not sure where to start. We finally got a handle on our tickets to Hungary and I thought there was a possibility we wouldn't have been able to go. A friend of ours went to L'viv (which is the major city on this side of the country) and was able to buy tickets for us there so on Sunday we'll be going to the conference. We're still not 100% sure we'll be allowed back in the country, but 90% sure - it all depends on their interpretation of the laws and such. Pray for us.

Wednesday through Saturday is kinda fuzzy and I don't remember quite what happened - helped someone with internet setup, did a few guitar lessons - pretty normal stuff that I tend to overlook since it is something I do every week. I do know, however, my allergies are causing me some problems all this week so you could pray for that.

Sunday we did an outreach which was ... unique. During the first part of the day we AGAIN had a stormy day and thought it was going to ruin our plans again for the 6th time in a row, but the weather cleared up. Mid-day we had a baptism and then immediately after we went to the square. My friend later wrote a prayer request which really sounds a lot better than anything I could write so I will just quote him:

We did an outreach last night downtown. It was the first time we were able to go out in a few weeks due to rain over the last few weekends. Praise the Lord it really cleared up yesterday and we were able to go play in the center. It was definitely a more trying time than the previous outreaches. Let alone that not many seemed interested, it seemed there was much more resistance. A few guys came and sat on a bench next to us. They were completely drunk and became quite a distraction. After a little while one of them stood up and started to scream to the people saying things about us trying to bring people under bondage and stuff like that, he became really hot about everything and might have physically caused some damage to us had his friends not tried to restrain him. Praise the Lord for His protection, but it was quite a scene, this guy continually tried to make his way towards us even when his friends dragged him away from the scene. This was all while we were singing "Light of the world". I was doing my best to ignore what was going on and to just play and sing the song. Those guys did finally leave and a few people stayed around to listen more. Towards the end of our time out there 4 young guys came up and urged us to keep playing saying that they really enjoyed it. After awhile they were the only people left watching so we got to talk with them for awhile. They really want to come to the service next Sunday and one of them left a cell phone # for us to call him whenever we are out playing. Their names are Andriy, Oleg, Vitalik and Kolya. Please keep them in prayer. I really want to be able to build a relationship with these guys. It was a difficult evening and we could definitely sense the spiritual battle going on, but if for nothing else, perhaps the Lord just wanted us to meet these four guys. I pray for their salvation!

I admit I got a little scared too, but it was cool to see God's protection over it all and the blessing at the end was awesome. We're praying heavily that those 4 guys (or even some of them) would come to church on Sunday :)

Yesterday, our friend Slava invited our team out for a picnic and though it rained, the trees provided enough protection. It was a fun time and I got to throw a baseball around for the first time in a long time - definitely can't throw as far, but my aim was still good :) Had prayer meeting last night too which was the perfect end of the day.

Tonight we are going to go see a jazz vocal group called, Mansound. You can read about them here.

06/09/2009 - Weekend recovery

2009-06-09T14:23:00.002+03:00

It's been a whirlwind of activity the last few days with the service and stuff. We just had mom's meeting and I helped with the childcare. I think I scared one little boy by making him stay in the room because he ran away from me later. It's interesting to see how American and Ukrainian children react differently in a childcare situation.

Anyways ... what to write about the last few days. We *tried* to do a lot of stuff, but it seems we were cut off at every turn. Twice we tried to go out and do evangelism and twice it was called on account of rain. The few times I tried doing some of my website work, I got pulled away as soon as I sat down so I didn't get anything done there either. Living in an interrupt driven lifestyle can be frustrating, but only when you are so fixed on your own goals and stuff. When you try to look at things through others' eyes it makes so much sense and you see the situation in a whole new way.

I guess that is what God has been teaching me lately - to work on truly loving other people and placing their own interests above my own. Kind of a combination of the ten times we are commanded (actually eleven, but this also includes quotes) to love our neighbors and Phil 2:4 which says to put others' interests above you own. By doing this, God also says you will be a good witness because that is how others know we are His disciples - if we love one another.

So, not much in the "here is what has happened" news, but a bit more of a "here is what God is doing" news.

Prayers needed

2009-06-06T22:31:00.002+03:00

It's already late and I still need to begin working on the bulletins for tomorrow so no post today. However, we would like to ask everyone to pray. Here is what was sent to me earlier:

Members of the Kyiv church were on their way to a village outside of Kyiv to do an outreach. They were passing a car on a two-lane road and as they did so, that car started to veer towards them. This forced Yulia (pastor's wife in Kyiv) to go off of the road, and the van ended up turning completely over a couple of times, finally landing on it's side. Praise the Lord no one is in critical condition. There are a couple of girls who need to remain in the hospital for a few days as their injuries are more serious. Please pray for their healing and for the entire situation. There is a long procedure ahead for Yulia as she was driving the van; in fact the matter will most likely go to court. Pray for peace for her, for wisdom in dealing with the authorities and for the Lord to use the entire situation for His glory!

Other than the above, we know very little. One person broke a collar bone. Another broke a rib. Another has some type of head injury. Pray for this situation please.

06/04/2009 - Never made it to register ...

2009-06-05T13:52:00.003+03:00

So yeah we never made it to Zbarazh to register. During the rest of Wednesday it became apparent that we don't need to and currently are in Ukraine under the old 180 day rule as opposed to the new 90 day rule. This all has to do with our entry date, but at least right now everything seems ok and we should have immigration issues until September when we'll have to register again.

Yesterday we just had a team meeting and Christina went grocery shopping so I stayed home with Leah and played with her most of the day. I've started teaching her the alphabet ... or at least I've started talking AT her about the alphabet. She doesn't really express interest yet :)

06/03/2009 - Newsletter

2009-06-03T09:58:00.002+03:00

So I finished the newsletter this morning. I actually had it done yesterday, but didn't have a picture of the family so I needed to wait until Leah woke up. So here it is.

As for the events of yesterday, did the newsletter as you know and spent quite a bit of time trying to figure out what we're doing about registration. Tomorrow (Thursday) we are going to be going to Zbarazh in an attempt to register without having to pay the monstronimous (I made that word up, I know it should be monstrous) fee. Please pray for us as we make this attempt because we're thinking this may even be the first time a foreigner has tried to register there which is always fun:

1) For favor in the official's eyes.
2) For completion of the registration.
3) For getting it done on a singe day so I don't have to drag Christina/Leah and a friend out there a second or third time.

At the end of the day, we had prayer meeting and someone actually came this time! It is a shame really to get excited about something like that, however I am hehe. I got to walk home with my good friends Slava (fellow computer geek) and his wife Natalia and we talked a bit.

06/01/2009 - Photo update

2009-06-02T14:38:00.003+03:00

One of the byproducts of a newsletter is that I have to get pictures to put on it so ... picture update!

Basketball camp & tournament

and ...

LEAH ATTACK!

06/01/2009 - It's already June?

2009-06-02T11:20:00.003+03:00

So it's already June ... guess that means half of the year is already gone - crazy. I'm in the process of writing our monthly newsletter right now and looked at the events of May. Hard to believe that Leah is already 1 year old and change.

So Saturday was more basketball tournament stuff. I stayed home again with Leah and Christina went to go help. She again had a great time and said that they even had a small chance right before the final game to do a small bit of evangelism. Some kids seemed interested, but then again no one came to church Sunday.

Sunday I had the day off from playing guitar so that was cool. It's hard to worship while you play because you are so preoccupied with chords and words and trying to stay on the right beat. Service was good though - kept going through 2 Corinthians 10 with a focus on how God Himself is our credentials when preaching the gospel. We may be lowly in physical presence, but in spiritual things God is our presence.

Sunday night and Monday were spent as family time without too much to say. It's just good to unplug and spend time together (which is why I've not written!).

So ... back to the newsletter. Once it is done I'll link it up here.

05/29/2009 - Dinner woohoo!

2009-05-29T21:26:00.002+03:00

Lets see ... last few days have been fairly typical. Except for Wednesday's mid-week Bible study, I've mostly been either taking care of the family or working on the websites so nothing really to write about.

Christina went out yesterday and helped with the basketball camp which I hear went really good (both yesterday and today) and I stayed home with Leah. Leah popped in a new tooth so she's been a bit irritable, but that is ok. I heard that during the basketball camp today, David put on a slam-dunk show and let the kids tell him how to dunk the ball which I'm sure was impressive. I don't know too much about David's NCAA carrier, but I do know that he won a competition for dunking.

The conference photos are now up. I'm just going to link to them on Sasha's own Picasa instead of copying them to my own - http://picasaweb.google.com/XanderPetrov. I am going to shamelessly steal the pics of our band playing though!

05/26/2009 - Satan buffets

2009-05-27T10:12:00.004+03:00

Mondays are our normal day off and so we really don't plan anything except our date night. For whatever reason though, none of us slept well the night before, but I think it was because I was coughing and keeping Christina up. We went to a new cafe though which was pretty nice and a welcome change.

Yesterday started off as a fairly low-key day, but that changed as things came up. Didn't sleep good again (pray about this if you think about it) as personally, I went to bed at 10pm, initially woke up at 2am, and then got out of bed at 4am due to boredom.

Then things just started getting busy and complicated as I was asked to help print and put out fliers for the basketball tournament this weekend. First we wanted some colored paper, but I couldn't find any after checking 6 or 7 shops all across town so I gave up and we printed them in white instead hehe.

Of course though, my printer stalled out after only printing 17 so that was annoying. Satan just was messing with me yesterday or something - meanie. Eventually though we got them printed up and some of the Africans came over to help put them up and we had a chance to talk with a few people while walking around. We pray people will come!

At end the day, we had prayer meeting.

David, another Markey brother and former NCAA basketball player, and a friend of his are arriving today to help us with the basketball camp/tournament so it'll be GREAT to see him again. Since the last time we saw them in college, he and his wife have had a baby so that's exciting too!

God seems to be allowing many difficulties to happen to us while we get ready for this tournament and camp so we are excited to see what will happen. I personally won't be too directly involved as Christina is the basketball player in our family so I'll get some good quality time with my daughter. However, even through Satan should buffet us, God is with us and we trust in him for the greater result.

PS - still working on getting the other conference photos.