8:25am We are in the plane in route to Kiev for the Hillsong Conference. Half our team missed their flights out of Simferopol (yet again) as there was some mix up from their flight over. We are praying that British Air can fix the mistake caused by that first delayed flight out of Vancouver. It's hard to believe our time in KM has come and gone! It seems to have almost caught us off guard and we remark on the many people we weren't able to say goodbye t...

1:30 pm So I haven't blogged in four days, giving you a bit of an idea of the full schedule as of late. Today is our last day in KM, and everyone is feeling the full week AND the different diet. Three of our team were too sick with the stomach flu to do much of anything last night. We think it was something we ate. The weekend was definitely a success. Saturday evening became a culmination of the week with a mini Party in the Park - all the fixin's! Pr...

3:19pm I find it is sometimes difficult to break in a new idea to the people here. Say a hike for the fun of it, or a public BBQ like we do at Party in the Park. So it's a bit like Russian roulette (no pun intended), push the envelope a little, than back off, push a little, then back off. So tonight we do a sausage (hotdog) BBQ. Had a great morning with the kids of KM. We included in the program some singing, like Jesus is My Superhero with all the acti...

In some ways doing missional work in KM is a lot like doing missional work in Fort St. John. Let me spell it out for you: 1. 1. Most people have heard about Jesus - albeit through a very religious system (Russian Orthodox). So they think they understand religion, but they don't know the real person of Jesus. 2. 2. Aggressive pushing of religious ideas is a good way to push people away. 3. 3. Bringing the life of God to the community really has to ...

6:50pm We've just come back from an afternoon excursion to the ruins of Mangoop (about 20 minutes away). To get there, it requires hiring a special jeep that can navigate the steep mountain road. Think of the Indiana Jones ride at Disneyland and you have a small frame of reference for the experience. Mangoop is a mountain top fortress that dates back to the time of Christ, with many various groups occupying over the last two millennium. After the swelterin...