90 minutes after landing in Kiev I was already doing my first presentation at the Peter Mogila Orthodox Church. Sorry, no time for little things like jet-lag, rest or even a stretch after the 17 hour flight…

Or, maybe, it was a bit of a stretch. Fr. Ioann commented: “Your seminar is opening a new page in our church. This evidence is so powerful! We definitely want to continue on this path”. Katya, in the lower left corner (photo at right) was at first somewhat skeptical but then confessed to me, “As a teacher, I am so delighted by having this material at my disposal!”

An overnight train took me to our long time partners in the Kremenchug Bible College. Again, my class started as soon as I arrived from the train station. The Dean introduced the Discovery seminar to the class as “the one everybody is talking about and you will now see why.”

An hour long walk along the Dnepr River and I was on my way to the next city–Poltava. My Sunday morning presentation in Poltava Baptist Church starts very early tomorrow but I caught a good two hour sleep on the bus.

~200 miles. This was, according to the Delta pilot, by how much a terrible snow storm missed us today–about 200 miles. Praise the Lord for no delays on my trip to Kiev, Ukraine so far!

In route, I am sending e-mails to my Ukrainian and Russian partners to confirm our events. In the US, if you didn’t cancel something–it will happen. In Russia, if you didn’t confirm the event (multiple times)–it is canceled. My M.A. in Cross-Cultural Communications (albeit uncompleted) serves me well.

I will be flying over to Kiev tomorrow morning to spend the next three weeks in Ukraine and in Russia teaching the FaithSearch Discovery curriculum in High School, Churches, Seminaries, Universities and Teachers’ Continuing Education Centers. I want you to be able to travel with me by praying for those teachers, students, seminarians and other folks who will come to these events.
My first presentation will be in Kiev, at the Orthodox Church of Peter Mogila on February 3, at 6.30 pm (local time, which is 8 hours ahead of Minnesota). Please, pray that there will be no delays during my flights and for a quick ride from the Borispol Airport (I am landing at 4.50 pm) to the Church.

Thanks and blessings!

It is called déjà vu in French, but I would call it a “missionary moment.” It happens when I plan an event in some remote city across the globe three months ahead of time; I figure out the transportation and coordinate it with other events, people, locations, etc.; I try to take care of every detail: setting, screen, microphone, coffee break, etc., etc. Yet I keep worrying that something will go wrong, that somebody will mess it up and the event will be canceled. When the day and the time come and I start the presentation–here comes that odd feeling, the “missionary moment”! I stand there in front of these dozens (or even hundreds) of people with an unquestionable confidence that it was absolutely predestined to happen, that I absolutely had to be here and now sharing the Lord’s message with these very people. It absolutely could not, NOT happen! It almost feels like it already had happened even before I ever got here! Déjà vu.

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