A few Haikus

On my last train trip we were talking about Haikus and I decided to write one...and then I suddenly had the thought, why don't I try writing one in Russian! So here they are.

Travel on a train,
Returning from a city.
Soon we will be home.

Я спешил домой
и закрывть двери
я буду монго спать

я тебя люблю
япросто надеюсь
ты меня любишь

I hope you enjoy them.

Reasons for Belief.

Remember my video about why I believe? Well my friend Andrew Brims has posted a video with Reasons for Belief. Have a look, leave comments, send a response. Whatever.

A little Update: TV and all that Jazz

The last month or so I have been popping over to English Club T.V. studios to film a pilot program for a possible new series they have come up with. Yesterday we finally actually recorded the pilot and with the exception of a quick sound check on my voice I just have to wait to see it finally come out.

It has been really interesting to see behind the scenes of a TV studio and how they go about making a program. Having make up put on was also quite interesting, although my hair did it's up most to resist the affect of even professional hair products being put in it.

The actually filming for the 3 minute program took 5 hours! Although this was longer than normal due to it being my first time making a program. My first time working with this director, the language barrier and a few slight technical hitches.

As soon as I can I will try to put up a video clip for you to see.

Intervue questionnaire

So I've given this little website a go that I discovered thanks to Nick Peachey's technology learning blog. What you can do on Intervue is make an online video response questionnaire. Obviously there are some great options for teaching with this [especially for some speaking homework practice] but I thought I'd start with a nice simple introduction questionnaire that you can check out here.

Reflection number 2 from The Prodigal God

In case you missed my last post on the subject, I have been reading the wonderful Tim Keller book, The Prodigal God.

Obviously it brought up a lot of questions and reflections and so here is my second one.

Is it better to do something out of duty [but not really want to] that is ultimately good, or to not do something good because you don't want to?

Obviously it is absolutely best to do something good because you desire to but sometimes we don't desire that? How can we be changed to desire to do good things for their own sake more rather than so we can get a moral supriority rush or release the pressure valve on the guilt trip that has been building.

The only firm conclusion I have so far is pray.

[3rd quick reflection, the Prodigal Blog would be a great name for a Blog]

Older and Younger Brothers

Over the last few days I have been reading a lot of Tim Keller's Book "The Prodigal God" Which I whole heartedly recommend.
For those of you who don't know, as I didn't, prodigal originally meant "wasteful, reckless and careless" and yet due to it's association of with the incorrectly named "parable prodigal Son" with "wayward". As Keller points out there are two estranged Son's in the book and from what we read only one of them is reunited with the father. If you haven't read the story you can do so here. If you want to hear Tim Keller talk on it then you can check it out here [sorry it does cost] and if you want to buy the book you can do so here.

There are definitely a few things that I have been meditating on from this so here is my first one.

When the younger brother returns to the father he is setting up a negotiation to earn his way back...the father doesn't accept the negotiation and welcomes him back straight away.

When do I come to God trying to negotiate my way back into his good books?

Some exciting news: summer and next year

This week I have had been very busy making arrangement for the future. By that I am reffering to both the summer and next year.

On Wednesday evening I had an interview with a summer school and have now been offered a job for the summer working in Oxford. It will certainly be very busy during this time there [though what is new with that] and it isn't for the whole summer so I WILL return to sunny New Malden as well.

The other big news is that I have talked with the Director of the school about next year and So I am now planning on returning to the Ukraine next year. Obviously the downside of this means at least another year 2000+ miles away from Family and Friends. However I am glad to have some more clarity about what will happen in the future so I can pursue some longer term goals here.

Of course if you would like to visit the Ukraine [or Oxford whilst I am there] then please do leave a comment bellow.

A normal guy

During my time here in the Ukraine I've had the pleasure of getting to know a few Christians around here and I want to praise a couple of them here. One of the guys is the lead worshipper/band organiser/ musical director at the church I have been attending. He is certainly very talented and is often asked to organise a band at Para church events and for the student mission out reach centre.

However he has started to teach guitar lessons in an orphanage after church on Sundays, at the same time the students mission centre have their regular gathering. 

He has given up the activity which is most likely to bring him fame and instead is bringing God's kingdom to kids in an orphanage.

He has never mentioned that he can no longer take part in the band on Sunday, but just gotten on with it.

Perhaps there is someone you admire for similar reasons. If so please share their story bellow. 

Monsoons and Tidal Waves

Homesickness can be a strange beast, sometimes it can feel like the monsoon season. Day in day out the sky is covered by thick black clouds and the constant rain weights heavy on your mind. The constant little reminders that you aren't at home land on your shoulders and drench your clothes, following you around the rest of the day until, and then it all begins again tomorrow.

However sometimes, like today, it comes in a different form. The last few days have felt like spring days with the warm after glow of last weeks wedding. Safe in the knowledge that I am in the last stretch of this academic year and the knowledge that the next time I returned to the UK would be at least for the summer holiday.

But then it struck. A tidal wave of emotion fell down on top of me this morning and all because I started to think about having to take the marshrutka and the hassle attached to that. Moments later whilst on a phone call talking to someone about the plans for the day I burst into tears.

Having thought more about it since that moment I can see some other things that lead to this tidal wave. I had been thinking a lot about the idea of home [like this scene in Garden state]

The future and where I'll be next year and I had heard about some exciting things that my friends had been up to recently.

Still it came very unexpectedly...still at least I got a blog post out of it...

It's all Russian to me

I recently heard the story about a former local missionary to Dnipropetrovsk who has since moved to Lviv. When he first came to Dnipropetrovsk he put a great deal of effort into learning Russian to be able to speak to people here, after all it is the most commonly spoken language [although Ukrainian is fully understood and most people can speak it] but it made sense to learn the language that is more commonly spoken, is more widespread around the world and has more teaching resources based around it.

After a few years having set up a church here in Dnipropetrovsk he set of for pastures new, Lviv. For those who don't know Lviv is very far to the west of the Ukraine and was the base of the Ukrainian resistance during the sovet era. what therefore happen to our missionary is no surprise really.

A chart showing how common Ukrainian is as a first language. [from 2001 census]

When he started to preach to people in Lviv no one was listening. When he asked them why they replied that they didn't want to know about the Russian Jesus, they wanted to know about the Ukrainian Jesus. The simple fact that the preacher was speaking in a language that although all his listeners understood and could even speak in it, wasn't their language created a barrier that stopped them listening to the gospel.

In the end he did learn Ukrainian as well and has now seen a church plant established in Lviv and even knows people who insist that Jesus was Ukrainian!

There are so many things that can be taken out of this story, the dividing factors of language in the Ukraine, about how important it is to choose the words we say when we are speaking to different audiences...etc

However I think the biggest thing to take out of this story is how everyone wants God/Jesus who applies to them and not the standard happy meal Jesus with the free toy/salvation.

Thank God that we have a real God who does relate to us as individuals. 

National Poetry Month in America

Youtube has, in support of national poetry month featured Sarah Kay on it's homepage and her spoken word poetry playlist.

Why not follow her advice, check out some of her poems and comment bellow on what your favourite ones are.

[P.S. I know the British one is in October but who needs an excuse for Poetry!]

March 2011 in review

So another month down and it's time to review.

March had more page views than any previous month [bar one and that was when the blog was on the Lib Dem Blog aggregator.]

The top viewed post was "is that not the type fast I require?" where I explained my reasons for fasting in Lent and also gave some insights into Ukrainian Lent.

The top country for visits was...THE UKRAINE! that's a new number one, clearly I have a new fan who hasn't said anything yet.
[Please do comment on the Blog.]

My favourite Blog post that I wrote was my post about fasting.

My favourite Blog post that someone else wrote were Nat GIllets Tag team on singing in the church/the well.

I asked the question: what is your favourite poem...and have so far received no replies on the blog.

I also uploaded a video about Why I believe in Christianity.

I was heavily involved in a discussion about singing on Andrew Brims' blog.

Best video of the month


Apologies for the lateness of this post, it was mainly due to being back in England briefly for a wedding.