Thanksgivings

We had two Thanksgiving Days this year. Back in September our church had one together. There was a special church service, with a focus on thanking God even in the midst of darkness. Also, we wanted to remember and thank the people who are defending us. So, after church we had lunch together, and then we sold deserts to raise money for something Den’s brigade needed.

I made a lot of pumpkin pie for that sale, but our kids said that we still needed turkey, so this year we actually celebrated American Thanksgiving in our family on the same day as people in America did. We woke up that morning to another big attack (hello air defense explosions!) and went from “just two hours without electricity, that’s not bad” to emergency outages and then three hours off and three hours on for the rest of the day and night. Still we pulled together all the special foods. We actually started off with pie for lunch, since Asya had an orthodontist appointment and Bogdan had art class, then we had turkey and everything else late in the evening when they came back. It was a lovely holiday, and we thoroughly enjoyed the good food and time together.

I hope you all had a lovely Thanksgiving (or two).

Concert

Last week Bogdan played in his first concert since... 2019? For our older kids music school concerts were a constant part of life. They probably could have taken part in them in their sleep. Bogdan hasn't had that experience much at all. His music school career was just starting when covid hit, then war. He has kept up with individual lessons, of course, and our Kherson music school does video concerts and contests, but that's a very different experience.

When we first arrived here in Ivano-Frankivsk, the music school that was across the road from our apartment loaned us an old bandura for him. It was all unofficial, and they were so kind to us. This year they have traded out with him to let him use a nicer instrument, and they have also taken him into an ensemble group. He's still officially at Kherson Music School #4, and his regular lessons and theory classes come from there, but he gets to play live every week with a group here now, too. Last week they performed in their first concert as a group.

They played third, about nine minutes into this:

It was very wonderful to be at a concert again, not just because of all the cute little kids and beautiful music, but because it almost feels like normal life. The concert was in honor of the Day of Dignity and Freedom.

I'm editing to add quotes and link here:

Lately, I’ve seen more comments on social media from foreigners doubting the horrors of Russia’s war against Ukraine, looking at photos and videos from Kyiv, Lviv, or Odesa, where dressed-up crowds attend concerts or sit at cafe terraces, appearing so normal.

Sleep or no sleep, makeup or blood and bruises, our reality is never normal. Not in the last 1,000 days. The truth is, the only way for the world to preserve its normalcy is to help us recover ours.

and

The only thing I can count on is how I will try to bring kindness and goodness into the world.

--1,000 days of full-scale war: Reflections from the Kyiv Independent team

 

And for anyone who didn’t recognise Bogdan, this proud mother will help:

11.11

Here we are at the second anniversary of the happiest day I've ever experienced. Remembering that day still brings me great joy. We've turned it into a holiday for our family, and we're remembering with everyone from Kherson.

There is a lot more pain mixed in, as time goes on, though. Kherson is still being terribly bombed. In fact, that just gets worse and worse with more and more weapons added to the mix. And the left bank of the Kherson region is still occupied and suffering greatly. Also, at first I might not have thought as much about the sacrifices made to get the city back, but now we remember the heroes who died, too.

I've been reading Testament of Youth for AmblesideOnline's Year 11, too, and I just actually realized that November 11 is also Armistice Day. Maybe I knew that before? The complicated mix of feelings is that book and at that time is very similar to what we feel here and now, I think: joy, pain, grief, hope.

Today I noticed this sign on the closest store and wrote in our family group, asking if they thought the store was also remembering the occupation of Kherson:

"No eggs"

Anyway, we're celebrating here with good foods we associate with Kherson and our experience of occupation, and with gifts of books to remember how much we read in November 2022 when there was no electricity and (almost) no connection with the outside world. 

 Happy Liberation of Kherson Day! And may all of Ukraine be free very soon!

Still here

I've been meaning to come back and say that it looks like we can stay in this house, thank you for praying. There are still many details to be worked out, though.

We've already moved on to the next problem, too: there is a young couple living above us in this house. They moved in at the same time as we did. Now he's been taken by the army. Please be praying for him, for them, for us. They don't know if she can stay here now; we are trying to help, if we can. 

Now what?

One month ago today I wrote that we were in the process of moving. Since then, we've really been enjoying this new house. It's so nice here that sometimes I feel like we're on vacation. But now our landlord has died, and we don't know what will be next. Will wrote more....

Praying for Kherson

It has been almost two years since that wonderful day when Kherson was liberated from occupation. Life there has not gotten easier, though. In fact, it has gotten worse. Artillery from across the river pounds the city all the time. Glide bombs and Shahed drones started after liberation, and in recent times little drones have really started terrorizing the people, going on "human safaris" to hunt them down. Still, our part of the city has been relatively safe. Strikes there happen, but not daily. Until recently. Now the city war administration is seriously endangering the people with plain stupidity (or worse). The leadership of our church has asked everyone to fast and pray today for safety, for the church, for the whole city. Please join us in prayer.

The verse the pastor gave today is:

Settling in, birthdays, Kyiv

We've been in this house for two weeks now, and we're loving it. The quiet and the yard and good places to walk (without crowds!) are amazing.

Also, Asya's birthday was a week ago. She actually wasn't here with us on the exact day, but before she left, we celebrated with her, and now she has returned to us. Her Kherson friend who has lived in Poland, then Zhytomyr, and now Kyiv, came to spend her own birthday with Asya. Their birthdays are only a few days apart, and they sometimes celebrated together when they were little. This year they were together again, and we actually did what Asya wanted last year: Papa cooked meat on the grill, and we had dinner outside.

Actual birthday in Kyiv

The plan was that Ira would spend a few days with us, then the girls would go to Lviv together for a day, then Ira would head back to Kyiv. Asya already had a ticket to go to Kyiv on Friday, because she needs a new passport, so they would be seeing each other again soon. However they begged and begged for Asya to go earlier with Ira, and we gave in. That means Asya got to be in Kyiv for the whole week, helping our friends move to another apartment and spending time with Ira and other friends.

Will and Bogdan went to join Asya on Friday-Saturday. We had thought we would take a whole family trip to Kyiv for the passport and to see all our TCI friends, but when we found out that Asya only needed one parent with her at the embassy (little kids are required to have both with them, but big kids don't have to), I stayed back with Leo. Will, Asya, and Bogdan had a busy weekend in Kyiv, and Leo and I had a quiet time here. Mostly we just enjoyed the quiet and saw lots of rain. I also had several Zoom calls and time to think, read, and write.

 

Now we're back together. The travelers are tired, I'm well-rested, and the dog is overjoyed.

Moving!

We are now in the process of moving to the other side of Ivano-Frankivsk. We'll be just outside the city limits in a house.

Here are some still photos from the advertisement video we saw:

The landlord lives in the garage/half-basement level, we’ll be renting the first floor, and a young couple will be above us. This apartment we're in has been what we needed, and it was good to have a place for our small group to meet, but it's been hard for some of us to be right here in the loud, bustling, crowded center of the city, without a yard. We're looking forward to a quieter place, even though it's farther away from everything. Our little dog will get to run around outside! It will be cheaper, too.

This will be the tenth (?) place Will and I have lived in. We hate the moving process, but at least this time we don't have too much stuff to move. Although, we have accumulated some here. It's confusing, too, because we came with almost nothing, and then people gave and loaned us things from several directions. I don't know who brought what and what is actually ours. We'll get it sorted out and move, and then we can let out a big sigh of relief.

New Life Camp

There are two "Kherson churches" in Frankivsk. Both were started or are led now by people from Kherson, and when it came time for official registration, both ended up officially registered in Kherson even though they're located here. We attend one, but we know people at the other. In August the other church asked us to help with their day camp. It was a very good, full four days! Bogdan and I went every day, and Will helped for the second half of the camp and at the parents' program afterwards. With one of our friends, I co-led the second youngest group, and I taught English classes. Each day there was a time for "master classes" or workshops when the kids could sign up for topics that interested them: crafts, painting, hairstyles and makeup, cooking, and English (and more). Bogdan enjoyed being in the little teen group with leaders from Kherson, local friends, and others. Once Will joined us, he was with them and also in my English classes.

One day a little girl in our group had to leave mid-day to go with her father to meet her new baby sister and bring her home from the hospital. She protested greatly and said that she could see the baby later, she wanted to stay at camp! She was very excited to be a big sister, she just didn't want to miss any of the fun.

Here are some camp videos.

Also, the church provided funds for a fun event for each team after camp ended. Bogdan went bowling with his friends, and this weekend Tanya and I took our group to a movie.

Den

The Kherson (and Ivano-Frankivsk) Christian community was hit hard last week when Den Malov died of the wounds he sustained while defending Ukraine. Den was active in leading various ministries before the war, and he kept helping people when the invasion came. He could have gotten out of military service, but when he was called, he went. We didn't know him very closely, although we saw him off and on throughout the years. Our closest contact came not with him, but with his parents. When we unexpectedly evacuated from Kherson in November 2022, we ended up at a camp in Odesa that first night. Den's parents had also found refuge there earlier and stayed on to help. They took care of us, fed us, played with our bunny (Den must have directly inherited his love of animals), and treated us like family. Now we pray for God to comfort them in the loss of their son. Since Den's death his father has had a stroke and is in the hospital. Please pray with us for Den's father and for everyone who is grieving now.

P.S. to prayer letter

When I sent out a short prayer letter with a list, chart, and graphics, I didn't think to make a map to go with it. Here's what I should have included:

Locations of the camps our family participated in this summer:

1. Klaipeda: LCC English camp

2. Near Vorokhta: Capernaum and Young Life teens

3. Kherson

4. New Life Church in Ivano-Frankivsk

Extra photos

We have so many good photos from camp! The photographer was really good, and of course we and others were taking our own photos, too. As I wrote our prayer letter this week (did you read it? do you want to?), I was also sorting through and choosing photos. These are some good ones that didn't make it into the letter.

Will and Vladik, with Vladik's mother and sister:

The team I was on at camp:

Another kite photo:

Another picture from our family photo session (half our family):

 Bogdan with Sergei:

I didn't include anything from the other half of our family. Here is Asya with our Kherson neighbor girls when they visited us recently:

 And Raia and Jaan in Lithuania:

A beautiful butterfly I saw today:

That’s probably enough photos for now.

Capernaum camp videos

 The videos from the camp we were at the first week of June are online!

 

  

  

  

 

A wonderful camp

We're back from camp. It was absolutely wonderful, and we didn't get half enough sleep. I think we'll need a few days to recover.

There should be plenty of photos and videos and stories to share soon. First, above here, I have a post by the camp director, talking about the wonderful "work team." Do you see Bogdan in there? We heard so many compliments about him and his friends. Some of the adults weren't sure that young teens could really keep up with everything that needed to be done, but they exceeded everyone's expectations. We were really impressed with how the camp was organized and how well the system works.

Hopefully there will be more soon, both from me on here and from the Capernaum club....

Raia is starting into her first Lithuanian camp tomorrow.

Volunteer program

 

 

Last weekend Asya and I attended the final set of lectures in TCI's volunteer program and graduated from that. All together we took four intensive weekend courses on different topics related to volunteering in wartime Ukraine. The picture above shows most of our group at the tactical medical weekend. We also learned about psychology, PTSD, missionary skills, and ethics at other sessions. Asya’s favorite subject was tactical medicine, and I especially loved ethics with a visiting professor from Estonia. It was all great, though. We’re very thankful that we had this opportunity to learn and be with so many wonderful people who are working to help others, especially those who are in Kherson region. 

Graduation night was also a time for local churches to say goodbye to TCI, the Christian institute from Kherson that we followed to Ivano-Frankivsk. They have had two years here, and now that's coming to an end. The campus in Kherson is completely destroyed, so they're moving in a different direction now, instead of planning to go back. We’re really going to miss all our TCI friends as they move on to Kyiv.

Summer of camps

We're getting ready to jump into a summer of camps. 

Next week Will, Bogdan, and I are going to help at a camp for kids with special needs and their parents. Each kid is teamed with a leader for the week. I was invited to be one of those leaders a while ago, and we were just planning that I would go by myself. However, yesterday they decided that they need Will, too. Very few of the men who have helped in the past are available now because of the war. So, Will and I will be paired with campers, and Bogdan is going to be in the "working team" who run the camp program.

Raia has a job for June working in LCC's English camps. She'll be putting all these years of experience volunteering in camps to use to earn some money now.

Then at the beginning of July Bogdan will probably go to the summer version of the Young Life camps he's enjoyed so much.

And we also hope to be able to help with camp at our church in Kherson.

Blackouts

After many warnings and lots of partial blackouts that didn't reach us personally, we're now back to electricity scheduling. So far, it's only a few hours off in the mornings and evenings. I think it will be much easier to handle this time around than in the winter of 2022-2023, since it's not dark and cold now. 

Yesterday was "exciting" and frustrating as they got started. Exciting, because there were several explosions in our courtyard when they tried to turn the power on around 6:00. (Explosions are not good for people who actually know the sounds of war.) Apparently some transformers went out. Bogdan and I got to watch firetrucks and police and electric brigades and were amazed that we did get electricity after several tries, even though they continued work throughout the rest of the day. And I was frustrated because none of the announced schedules matched up and nothing went according to any of the schedules anyway. Like I kept saying last time, I would rather have less hours on, but know when they're coming, than the chaos that we sometimes end up with! But today has been exactly on the dot with the schedule so far, so I'm fine.

Overall we're thankful to the electric workers and all the people working so hard to give us comfort, relative safely... and freedom! I remember how amazing it was when we first got here to Ivano-Frankivsk and the electricity actually did come on. Even if it was off sometimes, after those last few weeks at home in Kherson, it was a treat to have it at all.

Please keep praying for and supporting victory in Ukraine!

Spring Break and Bogdan's birthday

I want to have a summary of our wonderful Lithuania trip here. Will wrote about most of it and posted photos on Facebook, so I'll mostly just collect that here; click through on the links.

Saturday, March 9: Travel on two trains from Ivano-Frankivsk to Warsaw, overnight there

Sunday, March 10: Travel from Warsaw to Kaunas on two more trains, bus to Klaipeda

Monday, March 11: Curonian Spit

Tuesday, March 12: Bogdan's 13th birthday! Tour postponed for weather. Amber store, coffee shop, LCC, presents, pizza instead.

Wednesday, March 13: The amber tour

Thursday, March 14: Apparently Will didn't post any more about the trip? On Thursday everyone was tired, and the weather wasn't great for being outside. Bogdan and I couldn't stay in, though, so we headed down to the ferry and went across to the spit relatively early. It was so foggy that we could barely see the ferry, much less where it was taking us. We hunted for amber, and since we were pretty much the first and only people on the beach, we got some bigger pieces right away. Then we were frozen. We went back to the ferry landing, to see if we could figure out the coffee/hot chocolate machine there. I consulted with Jaan, who was at work in the city, and he made it "magically" dispense hot drinks for us. Well, he did it with an app on his phone, but it certainly felt like magic, in the midst of a cold, foggy forest scene with no people anywhere around us, when the machine just started talking and making treats for us. Will and Raia joined us a little later, and we went back to a good spot we had found on the beach for more amber. Bogdan and Raia camped out in cold water and collected quite a bit. Then we ate lunch that Will had brought, they saw deer, and went back for a little more amber. After that we went back to the city, joined the rest of the family, visited bookstores (wow). That evening we went out for dinner, one last time all together. I'll put a bunch of photos from this day below:

"Magic" hot chocolate

 

 

Pieces with holes are special.

See the deer?

 

 

Friday, March 15: Bus from Klaipeda to Kaunas, one train to Polish border, another further on to Warsaw, overnight in Warsaw

Goodbye, Jaan!

New book from used book store

Saturday, March 16: Bus all day from Warsaw to Ivano-Frankivsk, reunion with Leo, end of amazing trip

Quick and easy border crossing

The whole trip was so wonderful that I can't even express it in words. I had a great time looking back through the photos and what Will wrote to pull this together today, too. Thank you for reading!