Ben and Kristy Blog

A Day in the Life : February 18, 2010

No day looks the same in our lives. The routine we think we have only exists in our minds or on paper. Otherwise it is countless new adventures and experiences. Take just these past few hours, for example.

1:00 AM For some reason our heat turned off automatically. Brrrrr.  Then the internet goes down, just in time for me NOT to submit my essays for our grad class, due “that night”, which technically means midnight California time. I put it off until morning. I didn’t feel stressed about it. Perhaps it was because of the relaxing pedicure and nice haircut I had gotten the night before, a total together of $12. Not a bad price to pay to fight the winter blahs and prepare for the JV Ukraine ladies conference on Friday.

6:30 AM Ben wakes us up. His bus leaves at 7:40am to Lutsk, where he and Svyatoslav are going for the day to do a camp visit. They will meet with two of our camp partners from different churches, who chose not to do English camp last year. It is of course still important to remain connected, because our partnership does not simply hang on English camps. They will be in the bus for 7 hrs. today, so pray for their travel.

7:00 AM Praise God, the internet was up and working, and it was still before midnight in CA. I got the assignments turned in on time. I enjoyed the quiet and productive 2 hours of the morning, since I’m either sleeping or preparing for language lessons. We canceled them b/c it is a big ministry day.

9:00 AM Head out to the city. Twice I had to cross the road because the public “home owners association” workers are out, cutting off giant icicles and shoveling snow off all the Austrian building roofs on the street. It’s fascinating. And dangerous. Sidewalks are covered in sheets of thick ice because of the thaw we had yesterday. There is no salt used here. Only an occasional sand sprinkling. I jump on the bus for some errands for the women’s conference, which has been consuming my mind over the past few days. Both bus drivers were VERY angry today and were driving recklessly. It crossed my mind to report them, but I didn’t have the energy. My cell phone reminded me that it is Lena’s birthday, but I went to text her, to find that there was less than 50 cents on my phone. Oops. Better buy some phone credit in the “vending machine”, since everyone here is “pay as you go”.

10:30 AM Paid my bills at the post office, which is what you do. No check books or Bill-pay here. It was frustrating to see that our heat bill for our new apt. is 1/3 the price of the heat per month we pay at our rented place. That’s what happens when you have ancient radiators and incredibly drafty windows. (That landlord never agreed to a deal to replace the windows while we lived here.)

Then I stopped by the outdoor market. I saw the grossest thing: a dead rabbit for sale, lying on its back on a wooden table, skinned on its stomach, all organs visible, including his private parts. You know, the disgusting chicken feet everywhere don’t even phase me, but that rabbit was nasty. I went to my favorite vegetable table (don’t worry, there is no meat sold in that area), picked out apples, odd garden lettuce, cucumbers, and then was shocked at the price: $5 total. But then I calmed myself down when I realized that it is a miracle that we can get fresh lettuce and Granny Smith green apples. Chill out, I told myself. Look at all the $ you saved on your hair cut last night!

11:30 AM I get home in time to bake a special American cake for Lena’s b-day, which we’ll celebrate with 40 other girls from 10 different churches who will gather Friday and Saturday for our ladies’ leadership conference on Spiritual Gifts and learning how to use them. Thank you for joining us in prayer for this. It is incredible that all the spots were filled. We’re so grateful.

1:00 PM Now I have to run to another meeting at 1pm with our missionary guests from Czech and Slovakia who are also helping with the conference. Here are Laura and Lauree, other Josiah Venture sisters, with Brittney, and also a pic of me and Cameron. These pictures were taken a year ago at our Josiah Venture Missionary Women’s Conference. Now it is time for us to host a retreat for others. It’s exciting to be involved in such ministries!  Pray for the Holy Spirit to really move, and for deep relationships to be formed among the girls, encouraged by what God is doing in youth work around Western Ukraine. We’re not in it alone!

NEVER A DULL MOMENT!