french toast and fresh strawberries...

Update from Mike's facebook:

May 26th:
 "Doing last minute preparations for a sermon I'm preaching tomorrow. I'll be talking about the Jewish feast of Shavuot (celebrated in Israel on 26 May this year) and its connections to the Pentecost events described in the Book of Acts, Chapter 2. Keep me in your prayers!"

May 27th:

"Thanks, all! It went well. After some recollecting, I realized that I had preached at this same church in 2006. I think it was actually the first time that I ever preached a Sunday service in Ukraine. Interestingly, I had coffee after today...'s service with some really nice young folks that our friend Valentyna Rudnieva introduced us to. It turns out that one of the guys - Sasha - was there when I preached in 2006 and remembered me and the theme of my sermon! He also remembered that at the end of the sermon, some of the team from our church prayed for people who needed healing. He was one of the ones who got prayed for and his leg was healed on the spot. It was also his first time visiting a church and he took his healing as a sign that this was to be his church. Now, he's a minister to young people in local schools and is very involved in his church. Praise God for amazing "coincidences"! ;-) BTW, if Andrew Dunham is reading this...that sermon in 2006 was when I had you come up and share your testimony. Remember? (It was MAD hot in the Filharmonia auditorium that day)."

*Sorry- no pics to go with this... had to hang with Solomiya in the lobby-area because she was getting loud :)

... is what we had for dinner. yum.

The Lastest Visitors

L -R: Mike Ackerbauer pastor from Changepoint Church, NY; John Dean, minister from Texas; Mary Jill, missionary/pastor in Budapest. Solomiya is entertaining them.

Hanging in our kitchen. We had such a good time with these folks.

John talking with our good friend, Rudy. Rudy has been a Christian for a little over a year and has a passion to serve people.

Mike is a rockstar in Ukraine.

Guess what time this picture was taken? 10pm! That's right, 10pm: night time. *Notice the sun setting in the distance.

Interesting cultural tidbits...

• When you are paying for your groceries at the supermarket, the cashiers want EXACT change. If you do not give it to them, they will ask you for it. If you say you do not have exact change, they will ask you again- this time asking for a certain amount of coins or for smaller bills (as if you must have not heard what they were asking). Again, you say, no- I do not have it. This is followed by the cashier looking at your wallet in disbelief, knowing that you have the exact amount of change hiding in there and angry that you want to keep it all to yourself.
• Also, you must bring your own bags to the grocery store (or to the bazaar) unless you want to purchase plastic bags to bring your food home in.
• It seems that all of the locals here speak AT LEAST 3-4 languages (Ukrainian, Russian, Transcarpathian are the standards) and many speak more than this (Hungarian, English, German, Romainian, Slovakian... to name a few).
• When you order water to drink at a cafe or restaurant, they will always ask you if you want still water or bubbly water.
• Speaking of water, the water is turned off in our apartment building from 11pm to 6am. This seems to be the usual for the area. Actually, we are quite lucky, because other buildings only have the water turned on 3 times a day (6am-8am; 11am-1pm; 6pm-8pm).
• Throughout each month, we receive bills for the apartment utilities in our mailbox (electric, gas, telephone, lift repair...). They come printed on slips of paper and you pay them at the post office. They are due on the 20th of each month. Do not attempt to pay for the bills between 12pm-1pm on the 20th of the month. The post ladies do not like this. (Maybe it was their lunch time? Hmm... not sure.)
• Pharmacies are everywhere. Really. I think we go by 20 of them on route to the center of town. Maybe 25. You can walk into any pharmacy and buy antibiotics, no prescription needed.
• Dark brown sugar is very expensive here. If you can find it, it is around 12 US dollars for a pound, or 96 hryvnya. No, I did not buy any. If you happen to be traveling over, would you stick a bag in your suitcase for us? We will pay you cash money.
• Money: The Ukrainian currency is called hryvnya or grivna. The hryvnia is subdivided into 100 kopiyok. The current exchange rate is 8 hryvnya to 1 US dollar. The bill below is worth a little over 12 US cents.
• From our friends stories we have learned: if you have to go into the hospital for an overnight stay, you must bring with you everything that you will need. This includes: pillows, bedsheets and blankets, food (and also plates, forks, etc...), and an electric tea kettle if you want to have hot water available. You can also expect to share a room with 3 other patients (or more).
• If any of our Ukrainian friends are reading this, please feel free to add corrections in the comment section below.

'Tis the season of kvas...

Expecting a Mike Ack to arrive in Uzhhorod on Monday. Wahoo!

Friday in Pictures

Celebrated our visa victory with coffee. (It was cafe americano, Freddie. Sometimes the espresso is just too much to handle.)

Went back to our room to pack and give S a nap. She wasn't having it- so we gave her some oranges to play with.

Fun at IKEA with Mary Jill! The following pictures involve Mike and Solomiya trying out the merchandise.

You can see they were both having a lot of fun.

S really liked that hammer...

Solomiya was very happy with her first IKEA experience.

The best part: 50 cent ice cream cones.

Solomiya trying a spoonful.

Friday

From Mike's Facebook post:
"Got our visas today, which will allow us to apply for residency within 45 days! Praise God! Next step, is to get registered back in Uzhhorod ASAP. Then, get Solomiya her permit.
Spending the night here in Budapest with our friend Mary Jill Callery tonight, then taking the train back home on Saturday. :-)"

Had an awesome afternoon with Mary Jill; went to IKEA and a HUGE grocery store! Pictures to come!
Taking the 3:23pm train today from Budapest to Zahone, Hungary. Then, hopping on another train from Zahone to Chop, Ukraine. Then, taking a taxi from Chop to Uzhhorod. Should arrive home around 10:30pm (1 hour time difference included).

Thursday

Went to the train station this afternoon with our friend Tanya to purchase our return tickets to Ukraine. Apparently, Monday and Tuesday are holidays, so all of the trains tomorrow are completely full. We were able to purchase tickets for Saturday though.
Even though we really wanted to get back to Ukraine ASAP, we are thankful for:
1. Going to the train station today (instead of tomorrow with all of our luggage and baby and finding out their were no trains available)
2. Getting to hang out and have dinner with the Person family tonight AND Mary Jill who arrived back in Budapest this morning
3. Going on an IKEA adventure with Mary Jill tomorrow
4. Awesome sunny days and warm temperatures
5. Solomiya taking a 2 hour nap this afternoon (she averages about 30-45 minutes)

Tomorrow morning we head back to the Ukrainian Embassy to have the visas placed in our passports.



Szeretem vásárlás IKEA.