Adventures Coming Home

Coming back, all in all, was a good trip.  It started out a little rocky... as I was going out through customs in L'viv, Ukraine, the Ukrainian customs agents informed me that I needed to pay a fine for being in Ukraine longer than was legal.  That confused me quite a bit, because I got instructions from the immigration office and followed them to the letter to stay there legally...  In other words, Ukraine fined me for following its instructions.  Oh well...  (Missionaries be warned - your visas under the old regime don't mean anything legally.  You need a new visa with an extension in order to stay in Ukraine for more than 45 days in a 180-day period... or something like that.)  After gettin' quite frustrated with that, my flight from Ukraine to Germany was very nice.  I sat next to an older Ukrainian woman and helped her order tea and OJ from the cart and stuff.  She's visiting her daughter in New Jersey, so I also gave her some English phrases to practice and use while she's in America.

Please be praying for that whole visa/customs/legal mess.  I have a limited time in America before I can get all of that taken care of.  God knows what he's doing.  :D  We just need to get that figured out before I leave for Ukraine in January.  I may need to change my ticket.

Germany was short 'n' sweet.  After buying a candy bar and some peanut m&m's, I got to talk to another American that was flying to Chicago.  While on the flight to Chicago, I actually sat next to a missionary that serves in Spain.  Please pray for her.  Her daughter-in-law is having a baby and there are some complications with that right now.  That's why she was flying in.  There's nothing wrong with the baby right now, but they might have to do a c-section.  I asked her to pray for my visa/fine/immigration authorities issues.

One more flight and I was in Indianapolis, but, somewhere in between Germany, Chicago, and Indy, my bags got lost.  Right now, I don't have clothes for church tomorrow, but that's ok!  God knows what He's doing.  :)  (Update - the Lockerbies gave me some clothes to wear.)

Me with the Day family at the nursery.  Jessica is taking the picture.

I got to sleep last night at the Day's house and spent the day with them walking around a Christmas tree nursery.  That was a lot of fun.  Their two oldest kids were some of my campers at the summer camp I used to work for here in Indianapolis.  I always have a lot of fun with them playing games and talking about camp 'n' stuff.

It's really interesting to hear and see English all around me, see cars with American-style license plates, eating Mexican food (ye-ah!), and just being in American culture...  I'm really looking forward to going to church tomorrow!  :D  I'm going to be playing on the worship team and speaking about my trip at Horizon Indianapolis.  Please be praying for that.