Reflections and Updates

I think the way things will work with my blogging/updating is I will write a blog every night at around dinner time your time, midnight here.

Then I will upload it to my blog when we get our momentary internet access around 2:00 here, 7AM at home.
So each blog post will have been from the night before and will be more of a sort of reflection theme than an update theme.

For updates on general happenings with the trip like videos and other blogs, type in the faceless address (www.facelessinternational.com) Before you get to the website a Ukraine Trip page will pop up on your window and you can check out everything there.

It’s being updated regularly with blogs and videos, so look at it often! (Even though we only have a certain amount of time with the internet, they’ve set up timed blog postings so it sends later than when it’s actually posted and able to be seen online.)

Thanks for reading! (Hi mom.) ☺

Weeping

I just got access to the internet! I'll probably only get for a few hours in the afternoon each day, and even that might be limited. (I have no idea what time that is at home, check when this blog was posted.)

I thought for this brief post I would give you some bits of my journal so far: : )

Monday, May 25, 2009
We’ve arrived in the Ukraine. I like traveling a lot and I can see myself staying here for a long time. I’m not sure I like the capacity in which I’m here yet, but I can definitely see myself molding this experience into a job down the road.
…
There are Russian/Ukrainian boys outside my room laughing.

Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Today a guy in my group (who is a photographer and taking some hopefully awesome pictures) said during our morning debriefing that “when you travel, you have the opportunity to see God in/as a new face.”
I really love that. And I think it’s so true. God is here. But he seems really different.

Eric, another guy from Kansas City, talked about how he was studying John with his friends at home and how he had found a new meaning to the story of Jesus going to heal Lazarus and weeping because Mary and the others thought he had arrived too late to save him.
“Jesus wept.” I only knew the verse because it is the shortest one in the Bible and it was funny to quote to people. I never thought about how meaningful it is though. In a simple sentence, we see how Jesus sees the world. He weeps at how much we don’t get it. How much we don’t trust him. How much we think we’re in control.
Jesus weeps for the world. I’m weeping for these kids. (I’ve certainly been the only one to weep in our discussions so far.) : )

Jesus wept. I hope sometime you weep too.