Walking through Fluff

Spring has been beautiful here. Lots of lilacs in bloom. Margaret, one of the translators for the college, is a wonderful saint who is always giving gifts to people. She spent her birthday taking me to the botanical gardens on the other side of the Dnieper River. They were full of lilacs and it is a Kiev tradition to visit there at least once during lilac season. Ukraine is very green and similar to Illinois with all of the big trees and similar plants.

An interesting springtime phenomenon in Kiev is fluff. It is everywhere, lining the sidewalks, stuck on plants, coming in at the open windows and piling up in the corners of our living room. Friends told us that when the left bank was in its building stage after WW2, cottonwood trees were planted along all the streets. Cottonwood trees can be male or female, and in order to avoid the fluff fall out the city planners planted mostly male trees. Guess what gender the fluff comes from – somebody made a mistake!

We are currently on a plane on our way to Asia. Our first destination is Bangkok where we will meet with our team of four people from the states for planning and education. Then on to a nearby country where we will be working in a hospital, teaching English and doing service projects to help improve the conditions there. This will be a six week trip with a debriefing at the end in Bangkok. We are thrilled to have this opportunity and the people in the hospital are very anxious for us to come as this will be part of a program to allow them to raise the standards of the medical care at this facility. Education in English will give them the opportunity to read English medical materials and consult with English speaking Drs. who will come at a later time. We will update about this trip later but may have limited internet access while we are there.


“Every man is a missionary, now and forever, for good or for evil, whether he intends or designs it or not. He may be a blot radiating his dark influence outward to the very circumference of society, or he may be a blessing spreading benediction over the length and breadth of the world.” -Thomas Chalmers