YL Camp Days 4&5

Yesterday (August 21) was Steve and my 10 year anniversary. We went into the city of Chernigiv for lunch and then had a bit of time to wander before meeting some people. We found a market and a McDonald's, what more could we need? The market:

We met people in Chernigiv to buy groceries for a party for the work team. This party was to thank the work team for....working, I guess...and seeing as how it's the end of the week it seemed like a good time to have it. We were asked to help buy and to prepare the food for shashlik. Now, we've been asked many times to prepare the food for various shashlik parties and it is always really intimidating for me! Ukrainians are the KINGS of shashlik, so why are they asking us - the Canadian, newbie shashlik-ers to do it?! I guess they're hoping for a new spin on an old classic, which is definitely what we provide!! We prepared pork - which is the usual shashlik meat of choice among Ukrainians and we did some beef - which is very uncommon for them.

We made a salad and marinated the meat overnight and then Steve shashlik-ed it up this afternoon.

The comments on the meat were outstanding - I know my marinade is good but it's nothing really out-of-the-box, at least I don't think so! It's just a bought package with a few added ingredients!! But all Ukrainians are always surprised by how good it is so I guess I'll get over the intimidation and just keep on cooking how I cook. Eating inside because it was COLD today:

I did get one comment on my salad - it was a Waldorf-type salad with cabbage, apples, raisins, nuts with a sweet-ish mayonnaise dressing. I was told by one gal that it was very un-Ukrainian and she didn't really enjoy it. Well, that's fine - I can't win them all over, ha ha.

Today was actually a free day - free from games at least - because each group went off together to discuss what it means to really follow Christ and to have any questions they still had, answered. Tonight was "the big one" as far as messages go - Oleg (YL director from Zap and our good friend) preached the Jesus/repentance message and there was time afterwards to spend some time alone before coming back together in small groups and hopefully some people accepted Christ! We are really praying for three guys from supper club that Steve invited to Young Life. They have heard Steve speak on Mondays for the past year and a half, have heard all about what it means to be a Christian and what a godly life looks like and have been involved in Young Life over the last six months or so, so we're really praying for God to move in their lives and for them to accept Him.

Tomorrow is the final day of camp - finally! It's been really good to be here but I miss my home!!