This is an example of the Ukrainian language, and why it is difficult to learn. Below are listed the ways you can say the verb “to go” (By foot) in past (Perfect/imperfect), present, and future (Perfect/imperfect) tenses. All English verbs have a similar process, which is why they call Slavic countries “cлов’яни” which means “Words nations”.

This is in no way all the forms of the verb “To go”, but is all I know at the moment. There are more forms I have not yet been taught. In case you did not want to try to read all of it, there are 7 English forms, and 91 Ukrainian forms (To be fair, there is a slight difference between these words that I do not understand. To a Ukrainian, these are not interchangeable, but I do not really understand the difference between them, because I would just say “Go” in all of the places these words are used.)

A lot has happened since I last posted. The past few weeks have been fast moving, and busy ones. Today, after I write this post I will head out the door and go to English club. It is truly one of the highlights of my week. I absolutely love teaching there. We have been averaging 5-6 students for the past weeks. This last week, we had 3 new students, but only one of our regular students. This was because Easter was celebrated here this last week, so many were on holiday.

Two weeks ago I bumped my lessons up to 4 a week. I am really hoping to have a better knowledge of the Ukrainian language before I go. I do not want to lose all this hard work I put in while I am in the states.  I am discussing the possibility of having lessons via Skype with my teacher while I am in the states. I hope it works out well.

I am starting to prepare to head back. I think it is a little early, still having 7 weeks left, but it is getting closer. I am already sorting through my stuff and seeing what to bring home, and what to leave here. It is exciting to go back.

Please keep me and the team in your prayers. Thank you.

In the last two weeks, I have been helping the Steeles move into their new apartment, and helping the Beals pack up and put all their stuff in storage. I think by the time I am done helping people move in and out, that it will be my turn to start packing. I officially have 10 more weeks here. I am going to be sad to leave, but I do know that I am excited to get home to my family and friends.

Last Tuesday I taught our organizations English club for the first time. I think it went well, but was a little awkward at first, because they are not used to me being the teacher. Jessie Beal sat through the last lesson, and because they are used to him being the teacher, were asking him for everything they needed. It was funny, but they’ll get used to it. Tomorrow I teach for the second time. Please pray that the Lord will give me wisdom in where to take this group of students, in learning English, and his word.

Everybody keeps asking me how my language learning is coming along. That is a difficult question to answer, but I will try my best. My teacher says that my pronunciation is good, but I am “…a little lazy learning new words.” All this to say, that if I am walking down the street, and someone asks me the time, for directions, or how the weather is, I can answer them. I am able to converse about simple things we might call small talk. When it comes to hard topics like politics, I am blank. The Ukrainian Language is a very interesting one, and is case based. That means that depending on who is saying it, what they are saying it about, or when they are saying it changes the word. Some words change so much, that they are nothing like the original word. It is a very fun language to learn.

Please keep our team in your prayers. Please pray for wisdom in the English club, and all that. Thank you.

The English club has come and gone. Thank you for your prayers. We had an average of 15 or so students throughout the whole club, and it went very well. We are hoping to funnel these students into our English club. I am excited to see how it goes.

Because the Beals are going back to the United States, I have asked to take over English club till the end of May. I am very excited for this, and hope to see it grow, and people come to know the Lord through it. I only have it for two months, so pray that the Lord will give me wisdom in the way to take it.

Please keep our team in your prayers, especially the Steeles, as we move them into their new apartment this week. We will all be working together to move them in, in a timely manner. These next few months will be interesting.

These past few weeks have been some of the most busy of my time spent here. While learning a new language, learning to create web applications, packaging literature, and helping in out English club is a fair amount to keep me busy through the week, this past week I was asked to help teach in a three week English program, geared toward getting people to know God.

The English club has been going great so far. As one of the two native speakers teaching, I have a whole class to myself. Each lesson gives a grammar and vocabulary section, followed by a break, than another lesson based on apologetic. The main I idea is to get them to study what we are talking about, so they can talk about it in English. Every secession they get a lesson on English, and a lesson on God.  It is working great, and we already have students saying that they don’t know where they stand on the whole subject, and that they would like to have more info.

Yesterday I bought my tickets back to the states, although my actual departure date is 14 weeks awake. Those 14 weeks will fly by faster than I will notice, so please remember to pray for me as I finish up here, that I may be able to finish what I came here for.

Also, please keep the rest of this English club in your prayers, that it might prove fruitful. Please pray for each of my students that do not know their way.

Thank you.

Nathan Day and I have complete the first tutorial, and are now starting to work on the minor things that we will use on the project, and Josh Steele returns to Ukraine in a couple week, and that is when we will start full blown work on the project. I wish I could say I understood more of it than I do, but I guess that it where trial and error come in.

Things have been normal, except the extreme increase of literature requests. Last week, I went in on Wednesday and packaged  30 books, and invitations. On Friday, they were all gone, and I had to do 30 more. This is a huge blessing.

Today, I got a care package from my family, packed full of fattening, carbohydrate filled, delicious american food. Don’t get me wrong, I love Ukrainian food (My favorite is Virenyki. It is like a ravioli, except filled with mashed potatoes, and the only sauce is sour cream. It is amazing.), but I miss some American goodies. This ought to last me till June.

Thank you for your support and prayers. Please keep me and the team in your prayers, and especially the Steele family, as the prepare to come back in a couple weeks.

The contents of my package.

I am getting much better in the language, and have noticed my progress. That’s about the biggest thing to come out of January. Nathan Day and I are still working on this coding project, and we also have another one lined up for when we finish this one. We are still getting plenty of requests for literature, but over all, this is probably the slowest time of the year for the work here.

A few of us have come down with a bad cold, so please keep that in your prayers, so it won’t hit the entire team.

Thank you for your prayers.

Although a little homesick because of the holidays, I have been quite busy. Recently I have doubled my language lessons. With this, I had to stop helping at the private school, at least until I could speak enough Ukrainian to actually be a help. I’ll miss working there though, as the kids were an encouragement to me every week.

The kids in music class.

40 packaged books.

After a couple weeks of slow requests for literature, we checked to see why, and found most of the emails were being routed to the spam folded. We had 40 unanswered requests for literature, and Good & Evil books. I spent the day packaging those books, and readying them for shipping.

As for the coding, we are still going through a lesson a week, and will soon be finished with the course, at which point we will start working on the main project I am here for.

Any questions or comments will gladly be answered by me if emailed to: [email protected]. Please keep me and my team in your prayers as we go through these winter months. Thank you for taking time to read this post, and praying for me.

Christmas was a little difficult, being the first Christmas I have spent away from my family, but I would love to thank the Beals, for taking me in and treating me like family for Christmas. They had me over for Christmas, and ever bought me a gift (Reese’s Peanut Butter cups) that is super hard to come by. But over all, I have had a great holiday season.

I am still working every week with the private school, and I am now going to be leading a song in their Christmas performance. Please keep me in prayer, as I work with these kids. As I am not even conversational in Ukrainian, it is a little hard to teach them.

On the subject of language learning, I will be starting one more Ukrainian lesson per week, and also Serhii has promised that on January 1st, he will no longer understand/reply to my speaking to him in English.  I am hoping to be conversational in Ukrainian by the 1st of March, as that will be my 6 month mark here. Please keep me and my studies in prayer, so I may be more effective.

Snow! This week we got our first real snow, and I am a bit excited. I was promised a harsh winter here, but everyone is telling me this is one of the warmest winters in years.  So, I am hoping (I am probably the only one hoping for this) that this is the start to a long and harsh winter.

Please keep me, and all the members of the team I work with in your prayers.

Thank you.

Things are starting to get cold here. The average temperature is now around 25°F, but I am told that it is still pretty warm. I am excited to have my first real winter. These past few weeks have been mostly slow, with the normal coding and studying Ukrainian, but a sudden pickup in literature requests. These past two weeks have seen nearly 40 new requests, which is quite a bit more than normal.

I spent Thanksgiving at the Beals house for our team Thanksgiving, and I had a blast. I guess this is about the time I start getting homesick. Thankfully the team a=has taken me in, and treated me like family.

This week I have come down with a terrible cold, that its just now starting to go away.

Thank you for your prayers. Please keep our team in your prayers, and also pray for me, too get over this cold quickly, so I can get out of this stuffy apartment.