I hope you had a Happy Thanksgiving. While I missed out on pumpkin pie and such, a bunch of Americans (and some non-Americans) had a late night Thanksgiving feast at McDonalds. None of us particularly like McDonalds, but it’s jokingly described here as “The American Embassy.” By the way, turkey costs about $2 a pound here.
Dan, from California, ordered Chicken McNuggets because they’re the closest thing to turkey. I ordered a Happy Meal. The McDonalds workers can speak English quite well. If you squint when you read the menu, you can almost imagine you’re really in America. You might also have to hold your ears.
I’ve been asked about what my normal schedule is like. I’m only forming a “normal” schedule now. I’ve started Russian lessons twice a week and I usually study language at least an hour a day. Nurlan and Jorun, our team leaders, want to be careful not to burn us out. But I’m a chronic volunteer. Here’s a prototype of my schedule.

Sunday – 8:30 am Church on Sunday morning (Hillsong Kyiv)
Monday – 9:00 am Base Intercession Time
11:00 am Team prayer with Key of Hope and Mother’s Care
4:00 pm Street Kids Rehabilitation Center
Tuesday - Orphanage in Makarov
Wednesday - 8:30 am Mother’s Care at Orphanage
3-5 pm Russian Lessons
Thursday 10:00 am Team Planning Meeting
6:30 Family Night at the Missions Base
Friday 3-5 Russian Lessons
Evening: Youth Gathering (ministry to teenagers)

By far, my favorite time of the week is the orphanage at Makarov. While my language is still in pre-school stages, I’m working with kids only a few years older than that. They also teach me important words like “снежок” (snowball) and “шар” (balloon) and “Не деритесь друг с другом.” (Don’t hurt each other). Really, I’ve taught myself that last one. It’s also important to make sure they don’t hurt me.
Today (Monday) was my first time at the Street Kids Rehab Center. I’ve been “encouraged” to head up this ministry, but I’ve made no promises. New laws have changed the way YWAM Kyiv ministers to street kids. Police pick up street kids and place them in centers to live temporarily, usually 3 t0 9 months. Instead of looking for kids in sewers and subways, we’re to go to the rehab centers. This is considerably safer for all. No concerns about used syringes lying around or crime. Plus, I’m told that when you give things to kids on the street, they sell them to buy glue (for sniffing) and cigarettes. They have routes set up. “There they’ll give us food, and over there money. We can get warm clothes here and sell them there.” Ministries that provide care for these kids find them wearing the same old ratty clothes from before.
This Rehab center is known as “The Music Orphanage.” It was called that because we teach music there to reach kids. I intended to “just meet kids” today, but I was given two students and placed in a room with an out-of-tune piano. I taught what I could without knowing any Russian music vocabulary. Now I know that “нота” is note and “аккорд” is chord. The kids were surprisingly respectful, and we prayed with them at the end. We’ll be picking them up for a youth service on Friday.

¶ 3:56 PM

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