From Liubeshiv to Kiev

We left Liubeshiv Thursday afternoon and spent the night in L'viv. Our flight left early Friday morning and the rest of the team left around noon heading back to the states. We landed in Kiev around 9am. We spent some time exploring the city while we waited to be checked into our apartment. That evening was our first attempt at ordering food without a translator...didn't go so well:). We finally got our food, although not quite what we thought we were getting, but it was good.

Paul & Lori Babb, IMB missionaries in Kiev, spent their Saturday with us. They took us to the IMB office and told us all about the different jobs going on around Ukraine. Then they took us to most of the major sights in downtown Kiev. We greatly appreciate them and their willingness to share their knowledge with us.

On Sunday, we took the Metro across the river and joined them for church. They attend at Ukrainian Baptist Church that is mostly done in Russian. We didn't understand much, but it was amazing to see people on the other side of the world worshiping and praising the same God in their own language.

We flew out of Kiev early Monday morning headed for Bucharest. That was an adventure that I will save for another post...

Meanwhile, here are some pictures:

Ukrainian countryside on our way from Liubeshiv to L'viv


This is the hotel we spent the night in L'viv. We were right in the "old town" part of L'viv, so we enjoyed walking around a bit that evening.


Independence Square in Kiev - This is where we hung out waiting to check in to our apartment. If you look closely you can see the McDonald's in one of the buildings. This was a favorite spot, not just for the cheeseburgers, but they also had free Wi-Fi.


Saint Michael's Cathedral - this is a working church and monastery. It was destroyed during the wars, but was recently rebuilt. It's one of the three big cathedrals in Kiev. It was neat to go in and admire all the ornate decorations, but also very sad to watch the people relying on their rituals and hoping that will save them.


"Andriyivsky Uzviz" - This street starts at the top of a big hill and winds itself down. It's filled with local venders, mostly selling souvenirs.


We had lunch with Paul & Lori at "Puzata Hata", which roughly translates to "Fat Belly Hut":). It was a Ukrainian cafeteria style restaurant. Because of our time in Liubeshiv, we actually felt like we knew what most of the dishes were and also knew what would like or not like. We actually returned there Sunday night for our last Ukrainian meal.


Here we are overlooking the city and the river Dnipro. It was a beautiful view.


Paul & Lori Babb