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7 Days in Ukraine


When I sit down to type my stories, I still cannot believe that my experience was real. It feels like a dream. Months of planning and fundraising and hoping and praying and quickly moving towards an unknown destination. A 20 day whirlwind of traveling, with Ukraine at the center, and I'm left trying to put into words everything that got cram packed into my heart and mind in such a short amount of time.

My biggest take away just might be that when God stirs your heart, make sure you leap. The unknown is not as terrifying as a life unlived.

Yesterday I ran into the man who originally inspired my trip by sharing his own stories on his social media. After his return from Romania and Ukraine, he and I had somehow independently planned back to back trips to the same area, leaving within a day of each other. He planned personal travel before his return to serving, and I had planned personal travel after my initial trip to Romania and Ukraine. Without knowing, we almost took the same flight to Europe, but ended up missing each other in Ukraine by a week.

Next time, John, next time.

After a quick chat yesterday with this man, I realized that it is finally time to start digesting and writing about my own experiences. There is so much to unpack and jet lag is an awful creature. Culture shock, reentry to America, a crash landing back into parenthood, and a quick return to work left me with little time to fully appreciate my three weeks of adventuring, but it happened... it wasn't just a dream.

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