cc svitlovodsk video

so i've been meaning to post this video on here for a while. oddly, we have better and more consistent internet connection here in ukraine than we did in the states. this is a video i put together with pictures of people and events in our church as well as interviews with people to let them share how Jesus has worked in their lives since coming to calvary chapel svitlovodsk. the interviews are subtitled in english. enjoy and pray for us!

in addition, be sure to check out our church's website and podcast.

authentic ukrainian cuisine

ok, not so much. my wife decided to use some won-ton skins we had in the freezer for the last i don't know how many months. so she whipped up some egg rolls that could seriously have been from a high-class chinese restaurant. they didn't last long. :) my wife is so talented! here's a shot of the goodness:

in ukraine, the good times never end

so, my family and i were in our neighboring big city, kremenchuk, yesterday doing some shopping at the equivalent of a wal-mart. we were strolling down the office supplies aisle and were looking at the permanent markers when we spotted this:

sharpies? no, look closer. they are "skerples"! yes, that's right, a knock-off sharpie look-alike (even the logo script looks the same). but yes, it is a "skerple". i couldn't stop laughing and thought i'd share the fun with you all. i almost bought them just so i could keep laughing, but then considered it and figured they'd break in a few days, so i passed.

the sordid tale of politics in ukraine

i ran across this brief synopsis of the last dozen or so years of ukraine's political history on radio free europe and thought i'd share. for any who are curious or interested in understanding what it going on over here and how ukraine got to the place it is, this article is a really good start:

Constitutional Instability In Ukraine Leads to Legal Turmoil

d) it is written

so a little while back i watched this year's best picture academy award winner, slumdog millionaire. if you haven't seen it yet, it's definitely well worth the 2 hour run-time. i'll try to summarize the basic plot (this may contain spoilers, so go watch it first before reading the post if you like surprises). a young man from mumbai gets to the final stage of the indian version of "who wants to be a millionaire?". the cops are suspicious when this boy who grew up in the slums and works a lowly job knows the answers to all the questions. the film basically explores his chaotic life and the series of unique circumstances that have given him the answers to the questions. the film opens with words on the screen:

Jamal Malik is one question away from winning 20 million rupees. How did he do it?
(A) He cheated
(B) He's lucky
(C) He's a genius
(D) It is written

the cops think the answer is A at first, but come to see this is not the case. jamal himself admits that it's not C. so basically the audience is left to determine whether it is B or D. another main theme of the movie is jamal's relationship with a girl (latika) he has known since they were both orphaned as little kids and is hopelessly in love with. he will stop at nothing to find her, and is on the game show only because he knows she watches it. the movie ends with jamal winning the game show and 20 million rupees and being reunited with latika, overcoming all impossible circumstances. at this point the answer to the opening question is flashed on the screen: D) it is written.

now, the movie is very well done (as most of danny boyle's films are), the actors are great (especially the little kids who are totally adorable) and it's set in a culture which is very "other" and intriguing for people from the west. but what is it about this movie that set it apart for a full 8 oscars including best picture? what is it that struck a deep enough chord with a wide enough audience to send this small-budget film to fame and $350 milliion box-office revenues worldwide and earned it the praise of "the feel-good film of the decade"? i believe it is the last 5 seconds of the film. no, i don't mean the dance party during the credits, but the answer to the question: D) it is written.

i honestly think that if the answer "B) he is lucky" had flashed at the end, the film would not have enjoyed near the success it did. the message of slumdog is that this young man was able to go through all the suffering in his life and that it had a purpose, that it was not in vain, that it "all worked together for good", if you like. despite overwhelming circumstances, he ends up on top and with the girl he loves, but not simply because he is lucky, but because "it is written". the chord in the movie that i think resonates with so many people (whether they realize it or not) is the desire in every human heart to know that the events of life are not simply chaos, but that they are ordained, destined by a benevolent Someone, and that no matter how bad things get, that Someone has a plan for us for good. it's ironic that the 21st-century, western world seems to value absolute autonomy above all. many people get riled when you try to speak to them about a sovereign, benevolent God from whom they are not independent, who has a plan for their life and that of the world. the idea that they are not free to create their own reality and purpose in life rubs many people the wrong way. yet deep down this is what we all long for: not simply to get lucky in life, but to know that "it is written".

the other element that put this movie over the top is two fold: that jamal will stop at nothing to be with the girl he loves. even when she has written him off, moved on with life, thinks it is impossile to ever be with him, he comes for her. finally, she escapes from her hollow marriage to a gangster who is basically just her sugar daddy and goes to find jamal. additionally, jamal's older brother (who had been working for the gangster and helped to hold latika prisoner to him) repents of his ways, and gives his life in helping her to escape. these moments also call out to another desire of every human heart: to be relentlessly pursued by One who will not give up, even when we write Him off, and the understanding that for the good plan to be accomplished, someone must give their life.

of course, these longings of the human heart, these desires that slumdog resonated to, are ultimately fulfilled in Jesus. the message of the Gospel is that there is Someone who is sovereign and benevolent, that He is the one who ordains the happenings of life. and this same God happens to also be the One who relentlessly pursues us with His love, who does not give up on finding us, even when we have given up on Him, and who Himself laid down His life to see that we should find the ultimate happy ending. maybe it's just coincidence that danny boyle was at one point planning on becoming a priest. who knows. but it is the truth that "it is written" and written by a God who loves us, who can turn the worst tragedy to good (as ultimately evidenced in the Resurrection of Jesus), which i believe propelled this movie to the list of the top-grossing 150 movies of all time. as king david wrote in Psalm 139,

"And in Your book they all were written, The days fashioned for me, When as yet there were none of them."

d) it is written.

why ukraine's problems cannot be solved by any amount of money

so, i was reading the headlines and stumbled across the latest reason why ukraine's problems will not be solved by any amount of imf loans. as it turns out, yuri lutsenko, ukraine's internal affairs minister (over all the police and generally charged with "maintaining social order and safety"... incidentally probably one of the better ministers in the cabinet) got into a drunken brawl with some german police officers in the frankfurt airport and has officially offered his resignation from the cabinet of ministers. he is rejecting the claims of the german officers, but for some reason resigned anyway.

this reminded me of one time last year when my wife and i happend to be visiting her mother and she had the news on. and much to our amusement and simultaneous discouragement, we saw video coverage of the Verkhovna Rada (ukraine's parliament). took me a while to find it on youtube (archive of everything embarrassing that people wish could be erased), but here it is:



but maybe that is a faster way to decide politics: throw two senators in a UFC cage and whoever remains alive gets their legislation passed. :) of course, the sad part is THESE are the people ruling the country. no wonder we are in such a mess (despite any global crises). at least we know the only way anything positive is gonna happen is by praying for them. ;)

an interesting debate on torture

just watched this on the daily show and thought it was well done on both sides. thoughts? (preferably AFTER watching the debate :)

disclaimer: the interview contains some uncensored language, so if you don't want to hear it, don't listen.

(the embed tags were broken, so you can see the debate by clicking on the links below)

part 1

part 2

part 3

some good news for crisis-wracked ukraine?

i found this article the other day to be very interesting. it is probably the first article on the economic crisis in ukraine that i've read that is optimistic. though the assessments on the political part may not be entirely accurate, it is interesting to get an overview of the situation here. here are some highlights.

Together with the international financial institutions, the Central Bank has examined all of Ukraine's banks and quantified their bad debt. Compared to the West, Ukraine's share of toxic debt is small.

Seventeen Western banks have committed themselves to recapitalizing their subsidiaries in Ukraine with $2 billion this year. In addition, it is estimated that two-thirds of the country's refinancing needs this year will be met.

Thanks to early and resolute anti-crisis actions, international reserves remain reassuring at $25 billion, or eight months of imports. Industrial production increased in both February and March over the preceding month, suggesting that Ukraine might already have turned the corner (although GDP will probably still decrease by 8 percent to 10 percent this year). Even the bond and stock markets have soared in the last month.

charles darwin vs. good friday

recently i've run across a number of Christian authors and teachers who, in discussing the intersection of faith and science, seem at least open to if not supportive of the idea that God somehow used evolution to create the universe and the various species. this concept, theistic evolution, is far from new. in fact, it's been around since the Origin of Species. many of my favorite authors actually hold this view. their argument typically centers around how Genesis 1 (or 1-11 depending on who you ask) is not literal but allegorical, symbolic, poetic, etc. don't worry, i'm not about to attempt to prove how scientifically, mathematically and biologically absurd darwin's evolution theory really is in this blog post (there are plenty of good books to do that). but what recently made me, let's say, concerned is the apparent disconnect in these brilliant Christian writers' minds between evolution and the gospel.

here in ukraine the church holidays are celebrated by the old julian calendar, which means that this friday will be good friday. as i've been reflecting on this beautiful tragedy the last few days, i found myself looking at the ramifications of theistic evolution for the gospel. one of the first and classic points of the opponents of theistic evolution is that if God used evolution for creating the world and the species before the fall of man, that makes Him the author of death (since the gears of the evolutionary machine grind the weak to bits and only the "fittest" survive). but what struck me was a much more specific problem.

on good friday all Christians celebrate the death of Jesus Christ, the Godman, who hung on the Cross in our stead, for our sins. we believe that His death there was a substitutionary atonement for our sin before God. but this begs the question: what in the world does the death of Christ have to do with my sin? this is where the necessary Biblical tie comes in. Scripture says that "sin entered the world though one man, and death through sin, so that death passed to all mankind." the connection between sin and death is direct and undeniable according to the Bible. it is because of this connection that Christ's death in our place was tantamount to bearing the penalty of our sin. likewise, it is also upon this connection that the significance of the resurrection of Jesus becomes clear: His triumph over death was a triumph not merely over biological decomposition, but over the power and effect of sin. these points are orthodox, Christian doctrine and nothing new.

but what is striking then is that the same men who accept these truths could turn around and say that God used evolution to create the different species. what this implies is a total disconnect between man's sin and the presence of death in the world. this raises the question: if death has nothing to do with sin, then why did Christ have to die? if darwin was right about the appearance of life, then what is it about this friday that is good?

now, i realize that these Christian authors promulgating theistic evolution are certainly NOT claiming that the death of Christ did nothing to cleanse our sin. on the contrary, i believe they are great men of God who deeply love Jesus. like i said, many of my favorite authors fall into this group. however, i think they probably got caught up in the snowstorm of scientific pseudo-evidence for evolution while not really thinking through the theological implications that such a theory puts to the meaning of the Cross. i'm thankful as we approach good friday that, though sin did enter the world through one man and death through that sin, that,

"as sin reigned in death, even so now grace reigns through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ." -Rom. 5:21

what do you think, are theistic evolution and the gospel compatible? if so, why?

desperation and fascism in ukraine

(the above poster is from soviet days and translates: "beat the fascist scum!")

this article published by the Telegraph just a couple days ago tells a horrifying tale, especially in light of the destruction caused by nazi fascism in ukraine not all that long ago:

On March 15, voters in the Ternopil region of western Ukraine elected a new regional assembly. This was an Orange Revolution bastion, a region that has long sought to embrace the West and shun Russia.

But it is also has Ukraine's highest unemployment. In a crowded field, the previously little-known Freedom Party won 50 of the regional assembly's 120 seats as voters embraced its hard Right leader, Oleg Tyagnibok, who has urged the expulsion of all Jews and Russians from Ukraine. (emphasis mine)

"The problem is less the popularity of the nationalists than the universal disappointment with mainstream parties," said Viktor Chumak, a political scientist in Ukraine's capital, Kiev. "Voters are sympathising with radicals more and more as a result of the crisis."

it's pretty sad when political infighting among the powers that be is so bad that people are ready to vote in a little hitler. there might be many underlying problems causing the friction between the president and prime minister now, but the main one seems to be this: there is absolutely no concept that the goverment is enstated to serve the people. it still seems very much to be a left over sentiment of soviet times that the people exist for the state and not the state for the people. or as good old william wallace put it, "You think the people of this country exist to provide you with position. I think your position exists to provide those people with freedom."

this result is unlikely to repeat itself in the eastern and southern parts of the country where there are many ethnic russians and the majority of the jewish population reside, but still, its shameful that people anywhere would be driven to such desperate choices by the indifference of their leaders. then again, it often seems that in desperate times people are willing to accept solutions that normally they would be appalled at. perhaps pragmatism is the ultimate moral vacuum.