Back to Ukraine

We haven't made an official announcement on our blog yet (because we're lazy bloggers), so we thought today we should announce that the Lord has brought us back to Ukraine!

We truly didn't know if we would ever be able to come back to Ukraine, but the Lord made the impossible possible, and I'm writing this post from the apartment we're now renting in Kiev, Ukraine. 

However, there were a lot of crazy steps in between us leaving Uganda and us coming back to Ukraine. We feel like the Lord did such an amazing work to get us back to Ukraine, the least we can do is share the story on here so that He can get the glory!

Before we left Colorado (2014) to go to Uganda, Potter's Field booked us roundtrip plane tickets, Colorado to Uganda, and back again. So, as we left for Uganda, we really only knew one thing for sure, we would return to Colorado in April, but after that, we had no idea what we'd do. As our time started coming to a close in Uganda, we began to feel the Lord leading us back to Ukraine. And although we were completely excited and willing to go back, there were some pretty serious roadblocks that could potentially stop us from going back to Ukraine. 

Roadblock #1 - My Health and Medical Supplies. Uganda was a pretty difficult place for me physically, and the frequent power outages had spoiled most, if not all, of the insulin I had taken with me to Uganda. That meant, it all had to be thrown away. My insurance in the US only allows me to refill my prescriptions every 3 months, so knowing I had to throw a bunch of insulin away meant that I might not have enough to bring much with me to Ukraine. Beyond the insulin, I needed to make sure I had enough insulin pump supplies, strips, and an A1C low enough to get my doctor to clear me for another year on the mission field. My blood glucose levels were pretty out of control most of the time in Uganda, so I was really nervous that my A1C would be high and my doctor would say, "Time to call it quits" (I'll explain a bit more about this on my next post).

Roadblock #2 - Visas. Ukraine doesn't require a visa for the first 90 days in the country...usually. But since Byron and I had temporary residency in Ukraine before we had to leave Donetsk, we are no longer eligible for the "free 90 days." In Ukraine, if you have temporary residency, you have to continue renewing the residency for as long as you're in the country. That way, as long as it's not expired, you can come and go from Ukraine as you please. However, if you leave Ukraine and your temporary residency expires while you're gone, without you renewing (which, of course, is what happened to us), you have to legally DE-register, and if you don't do that, you can't come back to Ukrainian soil until you've RE-registered at an embassy outside of Ukraine. 

Roadblock #3 - Passport Pages. Byron and I have traveled a lot over the last ten years, sometimes for pleasure, sometimes out of necessity. We've also had to get various visas over the last few years, which often will take up an entire page in your passport. With all of these things combined, Byron found himself with only one page left in his passport, and to get a new visa, he needs two. 

Roadblock #4 - Time Crunch. As we started praying about when we needed to return to Ukraine, we felt the Lord confirming to us that we needed to make it back to Ukraine in time to attend the National Ukraine Calvary Chapel Conference. We felt like this was important for many reasons, one of the biggest being, we had been away from Ukraine for one year, and we really needed to reconnect with the brothers and sisters serving in Ukraine - to reestablish relationships and to figure out how we could best start serving in Ukraine again. So, we arrived in Colorado on April 8th and we felt like we needed to be in Ukraine by April 30th. The visa process would take 3-4 days, so that mean we needed to be in Europe, filing for our visa by April 27th. All in all, we would only have 18 days in Colorado.

Roadblock #5 - Original Documents. Our visa lawyer in Ukraine emailed us about 1 week before we headed to France, telling us that we had to give the Ukrainian embassy original documents, which meant we needed to find someone to have our visa documents mailed to in Paris. At first, we were in a panic, trying to think of someone that lived in Paris. Then, we thought of Calvary Chapel Paris. We emailed the pastor to see if we could have our documents sent to them, and he agreed. So, that meant, if we needed to file for our visa by April 27th, we'd need to get the documents before then, meaning we needed to leave for France on April 25th - slightly shortening our time in Colorado. We also didn't know if the documents would make it to Calvary Chapel Paris fast enough, so we decided to buy oneway tickets to Paris, and then we would purchase our tickets to Ukraine after we knew we had received the visa - taking some pressure off of our time in Paris. 

These seemed like insurmountable challenges to us, but we knew that if the Lord was really telling us to return to Ukraine, which we believed He was, that He would make all of these things work together perfectly. 

Downtown Denver

Our time in Colorado, although very brief, was a huge blessing. We got to spend time with family, a few friends, and reconnect with a few people from church. We even got to see our old missions' pastor, Dave Gordon, who is now serving full-time with his family in Bangkok, Thailand. The Lord also blessed us with the finances to fly to North Carolina to see my sister. Since I had last seen her, she had her third baby, and it was really important to Byron and I to get to spend time with her, her husband, and our niece and nephews. I can't even express how much of a blessing it was to spend a week with my sister! So, after spending 6 days in NC, that cut our time in Colorado down to 11 days total, which is not a lot for doctor visits, packing, refilling prescriptions, and getting more passport pages.

We finally realized that it would be impossible for Byron to get the new passport pages that he needed in time for us to leave for France by April 25th. We also considered just getting a new passport, but our visa lawyer in Ukraine had already drawn up documents for us to give the Embassy in France based on his current passport. Our only hope was to get pages added to the passport in France by the US embassy. 

The day before we left Colorado for France, everything came together, by the grace of God. I somehow had enough insulin, strips, and insulin pump supplies on hand at my parents' house to bring a full year's supply of everything with me to Ukraine - totally a miracle! I also had a great A1C, which encouraged the doctor to clear me to be in Ukraine for one more year (we just take everything one year at a time). And with that, we made it through roadblock #1. 

Right before leaving Colorado, we also received an email from Calvary Chapel Paris, letting us know that they had received our documents and we could pick them up at church Sunday morning (April 26th). And with that, we made it through roadblock #5. 

Calvary Chapel Paris

We had relatively no problems on our way to Paris, arrived on time, all of our luggage made it, and we were able to get to church in time to stay for the whole service and then get our papers. We were so blessed by Calvary Chapel Paris, and how they helped us out, even though they didn't even know us. It made me feel really understand the worldwide community that we have as followers of Jesus. 

After getting our documents, we had a nice, relaxing day in Paris, which was really good for us because things had been pretty taxing over the last year, and our rest had been few and far between. We were also thankful for the rest because we new that the following day, April 27th, we'd be hitting the ground running. 

Waiting for Byron outside
of the US Embassy

April 27th arrives, and the first thing we have to do is get pages for Byron's passport. We weren't able to get an appointment at the US embassy, so we decided we'd just go there early in the morning and beg them to help us. When we first arrived at the embassy, we thought there was no way we'd be helped, mostly because of the sheer number of people waiting in line to enter the embassy. We finally made it to security, which is where you have to prove you have an appointment to enter the embassy. We explained the situation, and the security guard was skeptical. However, the Lord gave us favor! The security guard allowed Byron to enter the embassy, but I had to wait across the street with Byron's backpack because backpacks aren't allowed inside of the embassy. 

Ukrainian Embassy in Paris

After waiting a little over an hour, Byron came out, had his new passport pages, and off we went to the Ukrainian embassy (Roadblock #3 complete!). We arrived there, waiting in line, and then realized, with horror, that the embassy workers only spoke French and Ukrainian, not English. In addition, all of the documents we needed to fill out at location were in French, and we didn't have internet, so we couldn't use Google Translate. But, again, by the grace of God, we figured out the forms, and I was able to speak to the embassy employee in Russian, and he was able to respond in Ukrainian. We paid for our visas, no problems came up, and we were told to return on April 29th to pick them up. 

Boarding our flight to Ukraine

For the next couple days, we had a great little mini vacation, much needed, I might add! And then on April 29th, we went to pick up our visas. We were granted them with no problems, allowing us to legally return to Ukraine! This was a HUGE answer to prayer, and probably our biggest roadblock (#2), but the Lord went before us in the process, and we had no difficulties. 

National Ukraine
Calvary Chapel Conference

And that just brings us to the time crunch. We wanted to make it to Ukraine by April 30th, so that we could attend the conference. However, our visa didn't become valid until May 1st. So, we stayed in Paris an extra day and then flew to Ukraine early in the morning on May 1st. We weren't able to attend the entire conference, but we at least caught the tail end, and we were able to reconnect with many friends. We even were able to reconnect with some friends we had in Donetsk that moved to other cities and are now going to a Calvary in their new city. So, with that, our last and final roadblock (#4) was passed!

All of this to say, we have ABSOLUTELY NO DOUBT that God wants us to be in Ukraine right now. He went before us in all of these areas, and He gave us favor in areas that no man can gain favor on his own. We give God the full glory for everything He did to get us back to Ukraine, and we are so thankful that we have the privilege of serving Him. 

And with that being said, we will now be posting all of our blog posts from Ukraine, our current country or residence :)

Blessings,

Emily