I have been away from the blog. Not really because I am so busy, just distracted. One theme of the week is disappointment. Several ministry meetings were cancelled or postponed because of various reasons beyond my control, so it ended up being a very, very slow week. Sometimes it’s so slow you just want something—anything—to happen. But ministry often can’t be rushed. We minister in a rapidly changing post-Soviet, urban environment. People have much more to do these days. Working people work long hours, usually until 6 PM or often later. They can arrive to meetings by 7 but need to leave by 9:30, usually no later. Thus, we get some kind of access for less than three hours. And then there are all the business trips, working overtime at the last minute, needing to do something else. Then there are the students. They have also become increasingly busy compared to even 5 years ago. Many have part-time jobs now. About 10 students that we work are going to the States this summer for four months on a Work and Travel program which is more like a Work, Work, Work, Work, and Travel program. The two new people I meet with on Monday are going on this program as well. In other words, our vibrant student has sort of mutated or “transformed” into something that looks quite different than it used to. Then there are the older people. They have parents to care for, grandkids to take care of, meals to cook, work, shopping to do. They to have limited time. Since most people can’t afford a lot of easy-to-prepare food or can’t afford to eat out, a lot of time is spent in shopping and cooking. So we have limited opportunities for ministry. We have to take them when we can and do the best we can when we get a chance to speak. And we have to as creatively as possible create opportunities to speak.

One example is Olya. She’s a student from the Aviation University who has been coming to the Soup Group for about a semester. She has started to be interested in God and now we have offered to teach her and several of her friends English. Hopefully, by finding out about a need and meeting that need, we will be able to get an opportunity to share Christ. Of course, we are already being Christ by meeting a need. But we need to tell the story so that Olya can see her place in God’s grand story.

Pray for us as we adapt to a very different Kyiv than the one I used to know.

We still don’t have a prime minister yet. But Lena did recently buy 2 new fish for the aquarium.

Vitya Yevpak was recently accepted to Central European University for a master’s degree in law. He will be joining another Nivki Church member, Anton, who is in his second year of an economics program. They plan to be roommates! Praise God for this great blessing for Vitya.

By the way, I have begun to survey church planting missionaries in the former Soviet bloc about the relationship between church planting and short-term mission teams. If you know anyone who might fit this category, let me know and I will send them the survey. It doesn't take long to to fill out. Just from the initial results, it's very clear that short-term participants believe their trip are more effective than missions think they are.

Happy Easter for those in the west. We celebrate next week.