Hope for Ukraine?

For all you interested in the current situation in Ukraine, it's not good, but it's not horrific, yet.
Ukraine's biggest problem is that the people put up with way too much crap from their goverment. The government of Ukraine are a bunch of liars, they don't do anything for the country because they are too busy jockeying for power. Because with power comes riches. Whoever is in power can take more land, more factories and more of everything. And that is what is happening right now.

Inflation is at 25% or so, so the economy is taking a hit just like the rest of the world. When we came to Ukraine, we could change 1$ for about 4.50grv. (hryvnia is the Ukrainian currency). Now we can change 1$ for 5.80grv. Huge change. This is good for us because we are supported in $'s. But it's not good for the middle class Ukrainians who are payed in hryvnia.
See the prices are escalating while the hryvnia is falling creating the wild inflation and making it a little crazy over here. People are worried and th president's latest moves haven't helped that worry. Here's the scoop.

Victor Yushenko, the president of Ukraine, for the 3rd time in 3 years fired the parlaiment. What does this mean, was it the right thing to do, I'm not sure. What it does mean though is that there is no working government right now in the country, which in turn means nothing is getting done. The president and the prime minister (Yulia Tymoshenko) just cant seem to get along. There are alot of underlying factors involved in this. The main one I see is that Yulia is trying to buy votes and get the president out so that she can run for power in 2010, thus making her the president of Ukraine. The lower Yushenkos rating, the better chance she has to become president. Yushenko has ratings in the single digits right now, so i don't see him having a chance to win presidency anyway.

Another reason for Yushenko and Yulia's fighting is Russia. Yulia didn't back Georgia during the conflict and the president did, as a matter of fact, Yulia remained completely silent during the whole conflict. Yushenko saw this and accused her of treason because she is siding with Russia, which i think is partly true. Yulia used to be against Russia even moreso than Yushenko a few years back, and now all of a sudden she is for building closer ties with Russia? Seems kind of fishy to me.
I personally think that Russia is backing Yulia for president in 2010 and will do anything to get her in. Remember the 2004 revolution in Ukraine, that was Russia who picked Yanukovych (the guy who got in because of corrupt voting). Mr. Putin even came to Ukraine to stand with him several months before the elections, where does that happen anywhere else in the world?
So you see there is a conflict of interest. Yushenko wants to break away from Russia, he wants the Russian Navy to leave the Crimean penninsula (i'll explain later) and he wants to join NATO. Yulia wants to build closer ties with Russia and seems quiet about the NATO issue. In my mind, Yushenko is the better choice here, Yulia seems to nuts and power-crazy to run this country.

So with the Russian Navy in Crimea. In 2017 Russia's Navy contract with Ukraine will expire. The contract will either be extended or the Russian Navy will have to leave. The president and the prime minister do agree that the Russians have to leave, Praise God they agree on this, so far anyway. That is why many people are concerned about another war in this region, much like in Georgia. They think that Russia will stop at nothing to get Crimea back. Crimea is a republic of Ukraine that Krushev gave to Ukraine during the Soviet Union, I think in the 60's maybe, not sure, but anyway he gave it to Ukraine as a sign of good faith. Russia doesn't consider that gift legal, they say Crimea will always be Russia's. They have even gone so far as to start handing our passports to Ukrainian citizens living there. This is the exact same thing they did in Georgia, and then they had justification to start the war with Georgia, "we are protecting our citizens". Mark my words, Ukraine will be the next Georgia, sooner or later. 90% of the people living in the Crimea want to be with Russia. On independence day in Ukraine the Russian ships returned to the Crimean port after the war with Georgia. Instead of celebrating Ukraine's independence day, certain Ukrainians in Crimea had a celebration welcoming back the Russian ships. The ships pulled into Ukrainian territory to the sight of Ukrainian citizens waving Russian flags, praising them for the war with Georgia, that's sick. I understand them in a sense. I mean afterall the media is controlled by Russia there. There are no Ukrainian channels in Crimea, at leat very few. My friend told me that all they show on TV every night is how great Putin is in the news and then it is followed by war movies, showing Russia's might as a superpower. If I watched that crap and lies every night I'd think Russia is great to. So why don't they just go to Russia? Good question. It's the territory they want, same as in Georgia. Russia is expanding it's territory once again and Crimea is key to it's greater plan for world recognition as a the only superpower. Afterall even Mr. Putin told Mr. Bush, "Ukraine is merely a territory". Pretty strong signal there from the Russian Czar. So i think your going to see more and more Russian agression to take back the Crimea.
And I think we are going to see that politically before we see it militarily. Russia is meddling in Ukrainian politics, Mr. Putin is going to make sure that his man or woman gets into power so that somehow he can work a deal to get Crimea back. Afterall he controls all the natural gas up North and he controls 70% of Ukraines gas. That's a pretty big bargaining chip for Big Bad Brother Russia. Where is Europe in all this, they are just pawns, chickens who can't stand up to Russia because they are afraid that that precious natural gas that heats their big homes, will be cut off. I don't know what's going to happen, but I do know that God is in control and that Russia is playing a very dangerous game with Ukraine and the West.

I'll post new events as they occur.

Favorites

The Family is doing great. The girls are getting so big it's unbelievable. Bianca is doing so well with her alphabet and numbers, her mom is a great teacher of course. Denae is well, Denae. She wakes up every morning with some sort of song, usually its the National Anthem, it's hillarious. She only really says "America, America". They are both doing great and are getting more social time in now with other American kids, so that is great. Bianca is speaking Russian great. Kids are so amazing. She will go up and ask if you speak English, if they answer no in Russian, she will start speaking Russian to them.
The people that she knows well that speak Russian she will automatically switch to Russian. So they recently got a care package, well Anya did too, she loves those rice krispy treats, thanks Berta. Some of you have asked before what we like and stuff so im posting a list of our Favorite stuff from America. If you want to send a care package that would be awesome and the kids would be very grateful. If you need our address just email me.



Foods: Mac N Cheese, Brown Sugar, Vanilla Extract, Chocolate Chips, Ranch Dressing (powder mix), JIF peanut butter, Rice Krispy Treats, Oreo cookies, Shaker cheese (parmesean), any kind of spices, anything little debbie (nutty bars especially), baking powder, cap n crunch (crunch berries), hershey's syrup



Toys, games, etc: my little pony, winnie the pooh, princess stuff, play make-up, coloring books, crayons, baby dolls and barbies, animal toys of any kind, play-doh, any DVD's used or new (comedy, action,
kids love anything not violent or scary), cards (playing cards for nerts).



Misc: disenfectant wipes, spatulas, worship music of any kind, nyquil, whitening stips, ibuprofen, vitamins, echynasia, pens (ask Jason Stephens what kind Kyle likes :).

Kyle the Dentist

Yes, that's right in Ukraine you can be a dentist without the schooling, well almost. Anyway, Kyle has had the opportunity of joining the YWAM Mercy Truck, which specializes in Dentistry. The truck is really a full-blown Dental office on wheels.
The ministry started some time ago after the YWAM base in England donated the truck to YWAM Kyiv, and ever since the ministry has been going strong. Basically what they do is go out to a orphanage, sometimes a small village and do an outreach, by fixing kid's teeth. It is really an amazing and rewarding ministry. They have two dentists, one is a retired American dentist and the other is a Ukrainian dentist. They are always looking for dentists from the States to come over short term and serve, so if you know of anyone who would like to do something like this, have them email me.



So Kyle has joined them in order to build relationship with the kids and the orphanage directors. It has been such a joy to get to know the kids and to see them smiling and getting good dental work done. Most kids dont even get anything done with their teeth so you can imagine what we run into inside their tiny little mouths. Many of them have never had an anisthetic (dont know if that's the right spellin) before. So they usually are reluctant to get the shot but once they do it's pain free, something they have never had before. They are used to getting fillings and extractions by the local village dentist who doesn't have the money to give them a number. But the kids are just amazing and are so open to God. We pray with them, tell them stories from the Bible, but I realize they have a long way to go. There has to be someone to teach them character. And that is the reason I am going out there to be with them.



Both trips I have taken the directors have been open to receiving the program we have. As a matter of fact the last trip I took the local school told us to bring it to them as soon as possible. So it is such a blessing to us to see God opening doors for this program. We have been invited by 3 public schools so far and that is totally God, because they haven't even seen the program yet.



Please pray for Kyle as he goes on these dental trips, he has another one coming up in November if he can squeeze it in. These trips are great for him and for the kids he's serving. Also please pray for more opportunity to serve for this ministry.

Fundamentals

Well it's been awhile I know. I knew when I started this blog it would be difficult for me to keep up with it, becuase I know my personality. Anyway now that I'm updating it I should tell you what's going on with the Schlegel Family in Ukraine.

Fundamentos is nearly finished. Anya has been working hard to finish it and the translation portion of it is completed, hoorah!!!! Tuesday we are meeting with a friend of ours to help us put in heroes for each principle and then we will be on to editing. We are both so excited about it's near completion.



We have two conferences coming up, one is very soon. We are doing a LaRed/business conference for the Nazarene church in Vinnitsa, it's a city about 3 hours from Kyiv. It will be 3 days in November and will have around 100 pastors from the
Nazarene church in attendance. Our friend and colleague, Chet Marshall will be traveling over to do the main part of the conference. Chet is a gifted teacher who will be sharing on some great topics. Anya and I will be doing the LaRed part of it,
by holding a facillitator training. We will be exposing them to LaRed, training them to be facillitators and then giving them the materials. Should be an excellent time, keep us in your prayers for that one. Then in March/April we will be organizing a trip for the Business As Missions organization. Anya and I have been asked to be the host missionaries for this trip. This will be a week long trip and will require and immense amount of organizing and planning. Please pray for Kyle as many of you know it's not his gift to organize :) But anyway we look forward to serving this ministry here in Ukraine.

The first week of December Kyle is travelling back to Uzgorod to spend some Christmas time with the orphans he was with this summer. It should be a great trip. Please pray that Kyle will make more of a relationship with the right people, so that
Fundamentos can get in out there and impact the kids.

The End.