A New Week

(Polina's latest at the left--she's a big one at 4 months) Didn't have much to say about the weekend. It was long and draining, a difficult series of meetings about the future of the church. Those things are always hard, no matter how united people are. But it has been good to see how encouraging many people have been, how many seem to want to do more, be more involved. I hope their words will transform into action.

I am somewhat drained now. I kind of need a break from ministry for a few days but now is not the time. Sometimes I wish I had two very distinct jobs and could sort of bounce back and forth between them. The UEC helps with that some, but since we have such a talented staff there, my presence isn't as needed as it used to be.

I guess I am also a little tired of people not saying exactly what they mean, or not expressing their disagreements openly or directly. Maybe some would accuse me of the same, but I am just a little tired of hearing people say one thing but then later realizing they didn't say what they actually meant. May God help us all just to say what we really think, and may God help our thinking to be at least somewhat like his thinking.

It's getting cooler in Kyiv. All of the leaves have turned yellow and are tumbling down. I am getting in a mood to make some pumpkin bread. I read a blog today about pumpkins. I wish we had a few of the big American-style pumpkins. Ukrainian pumpkins, at least the ones we get in Kyiv, are so small. I guess no one could manage to drag those things from the villages anyway.

I am trying to get back into my class on cross-cultural leadership. Some of the readings I have done have proven very helpful as the church takes its next major step, especially as it's going to learn to relate to Americans.

I just did a spell check on this post with the blogger's spellcheck. Their dictionary didn't have the word blog. Ironic, huh?

We are so excited that Anton and Oleg are coming to Kyiv this weekend.