July 16th

I am laying on my bed at the Mir Hotel in Kharkiv, Ukraine!

The flight to Vienna was okay, I guess I slept a lot but it certainly didn't feel like it! The plane was set up: 2 seats, aisle, 3 seats, aisle, 2 seats. And I got the lucky ticket and got to sit in the middle of the middle!!! I sat next to one of the girls on our team (Jacque) and a stranger so it was a little hard to sleep. It was also a very very warm flight. I watched the end of Toy Story 2 and tried to sleep.
I get motion sickeness, but it only showed up on my flight from St. Louis to Chicago and the final landing in Kharkiv, so God was gracious in that area for me!

We went to dinner at the Garza's a family with IBJM who are from Mexico. They are so sweet! They spoke limited English though, so Mariia who speaks at least Russian, English and Spanish, translated for us.

We sang our Russian Songs for them, they sang "Blessed Assurance" and another song in Russian for us.

The story of how they got their apartment is very cool!
(Their son's name is Israel) The Landlady asked why they were in Ukraine. They told her they were Christians and she asked them "What kind?" They answered "Baptist"
It turns out that she is a Jewish believer who had been praying that she could rent to a Christian family. When she found out they were missionaries to the Jews she began to cry.
God is so good!

Okay so it was a bit warm in Kharkiv but we got a fan in our hotel room so that was an amazing blessing.

So, that night we found out "How Ukrainians can tell the difference between Americans and Ukrainians" (other than the language of course) its like this:

American = :D Ukrainian= :

According to Mariia, you tell the difference because Americans are "happy."
This very much is an overflow of their culture. You don't smile, say hi or nod at anyone you don't know. If a girl makes eye contact and smiles at a guy, he'll think she likes him. If she smiles at a girl, the girl would think she was "weird" according to Mariia.
That was a bit of a challenge since I'm so used to just smiling at people...oh well. Tomorrow we'll be handing out tracts and invitations to the "Why Christians Should Love the Jews" conference.


Go ye therefore and teach all nations... Matthew 28:19