Week 5 Recap

It has officially been a whole week since the last time I have posted. I am sorry.

And I am also not sorry. The time that has been allotted to me, I have needed to use for other things. Time management is a skill that will take me some time to master. I am reminded of a plaque that my grandmother used to have, it reads:

Grant me patience Lord, but hurry.

In one sense, I have loads of free time. By my rough calculations, I have 89 hours a week that I am not in class, in church, or sleeping. And no, those activities do not overlap. 89 hours of “discretionary time” but it is hardly free. The more I realize that this concept of “free time” is an illusion, the more guilty I feel that I have not been more responsible with that time.

Today, for instance, I intended to complete 2 writing assignments, begin a separate writing project, in addition to writing a blog post and a letter. I have only finished 1 of these, plus this blog post.

My infrequency in writing is in part because I really don’t want to write a short post that only says “Sorry this is so short”. I would rather take the time to write something more substantial, even if that means I post less often.

As always, I hope to improve.

State of the Blog

3 days ago I passed my first monthiversary in Ukraine. During the past month, I have made 12 posts on this blog. At a minimum I will attempt to duplicate this over the next month, and hopefully a few more.
I also intend to write a more general “This is how my first month has been” article that I am told might appear in the Austin Bible Church newsletter. If I find use the time in the next day or two, you will see it here shortly after.
In addition to the required writing assignments for the college, I have been inspired to take on my own study and write my own essay. When I complete this, it will also appear on the blog. Expect to see more Bible-study oriented posts and less “this is what I did this week”.

On a different topic, this is what I did this week:

Tuesday

Tuesday marked the beginning of a new 2-week module at the college, the Life of Christ taught by Pastor Mark Musser of Grace Redeemer Bible Church in Olympia, Washington.
My homework included reading the Gospels of Luke and John, as well as portions of The Words and Works of Jesus Christ by J. Dwight Pentecost.
I spent Tuesday afternoon/evening reading the four gospels.

Wednesday

I went to college. I went to the store. I went to church. Next.

Thursday

Choir practice was interesting. I’m starting to wonder if Lena (choir director Lena) complains about Sasha’s singing all the time just because she doesn’t know how to complain at me in English. Either way, Sasha seems to take a lot of heat. I hope it’s not for my sake, but I don’t know enough Russian to know.

Friday

Finished reading Pentecost.

Saturday

I knew very few details about the event that was to happen on Saturday before it happened, but this is what I knew: “There is going to be a gathering of men on Saturday”
Details were very sketchy.
As it turned out, we met at the church office at 9:30am. I learned this detail at 11pm Friday night.
After meeting at 9:30, we took a bus to the Myers’ place outside of Kiev, the same place we had the students’ picnic last month.
And there were men there.
We started with a Bible study, Pastor Jim emphasized the important of always being ready for ministry, and not making excuses. He brought up the example of Moses, whose excuse was “but I can’t speak well!”
Doh!
Talk about convicting. When God leads us somewhere, and opens a door for ministry, of course He will also provide everything we need to fulfill that ministry, if we are faithful.
My not knowing Russian should not be an excuse anymore, but it should be encouragement to be all the more diligent in my studies.

After the Bible study, we had meat. And potatoes. And огурец. And (amazing!) apple pie. We threw horseshoes and frisbees.
Awesome day.

It’s bedtime for me, I’ve gotta get up early for class tomorrow.
HTOITA!
-Bob