Jodi Speaks Her Mind

Past meets present 8/19/2004

Georgie’s comment reminded me that I hadn’t yet taken any time to explain my connection to Ukraine and why it is such a perfect match for us. Here is a brief history of my wanderings in Eastern Europe.

Back in college I became friends with several Russian exchange students who were in my Education Core classes with me. They were planning to return to St. Petersburg to teach in the Kindergarten’s there once done with school. They were really fun and they introduced me to a lot of their culture and language (turns out I had a knack for it!). I became close friends with one girl in particular named Anya. After my junior year, they returned home but a new set of students from the same University came and I found them and befriended them as well. It seems I was just drawn to them for some reason. I also decided to use one of my senior year electives and study Russian in my final semester.

When I graduated, my parents gave me a graduation gift that was a trip to St. Petersburg for 3 weeks! I went during white nights and stayed with Anya and her family in their flat. We traveled to Moscow; Riga, the capital of Latvia; and to several suburbs of St. Petersburg. It was an awesome trip and was my first time outside the U.S. I experienced everything from the Russian point-of-view since we never even stepped into the inside of a Western style hotel. We always stayed with family or friends, used public transportation, etc. Anya’s parents didn’t speak a word of English, but she and her teenage sister made excellent translators, and her parents were very welcoming to me.

I returned home and proceeded to start my adult life. I got a job, started working, paying bills, and generally living the typical american life. But I never forgot that trip and I really wanted to return. Five years passed, and I started to get restless. I was burning out in my job (classroom teacher in a public school in a low-income area), and I decided to explore the possibilities of foreign travel and missionary work. I went to a missions conference and felt while I was there that this was definitely something I was interested in. I’ve always had quite a sense of adventure!

While I was at the conference, I got an e-mail out of the blue from an old College friend who wondered if I might be interested in participating in a summer mission trip sponsored by IFES (the international umbrella organization of which InterVarsity is a part). I knew within seconds that I was going to be going on this trip, especially when I heard where they were going: Moldova and Ukraine!

That wasn’t enough for crazy Jodi, though. No, I planned to spend 6 weeks in Moldova and Ukraine and then return the states for a mere month before leaving again to return to St. Petersburg to do my DTS with YWAM.

So I did it! My time in St. Petersburg was around 6 months, though part of the time we were in Cyprus on outreach. I won’t go into the details of each trip here, but the point is that I have spent significant amounts of time in and around Ukraine and Russia, and I have such a love for the slavic people. To be where we are now and realize that I will be blessed with a toddler-sized gift from such a wonderful place and representing such a beautiful people is just incredible to me.

Things really do often come full circle round. I can’t wait to go back to Ukraine because it is a place I love. But to get to return home with the most awesome present we could ever be given us beyond my wildest dreams.

God rocks!!