Keep Up with Chelsey

Whoever keeps his mouth and his tongue keeps  himself out of trouble.Proverbs 20:23 When I was in 6th grade, I had this science teacher, that was fantastic! He was an older gentleman, with many years experience, and a passion for science and a desire to make young minds grasp life lesson. Suffering polio as a child, he walked with a cane, but he taught from a rolling desk chair. There are many moments from his class that I remember, but one moment in particular, he is sitting in his rolling chair, and spins around, and ask the class, " Do you know what happens when you assume?" Me being me, I am pondering this question, trying to come up with some scientific sounding answer, when the teacher continued..." When you assume, it makes an ass out of you and me." ... I think that might have been the first time I had heard a teacher use a bad word, but I still think about that moment to this day, and because of it I rarely use the word assume. But it is funny how I s...

I started to feel guilty this morning, as I made the final decision not to leave today, I took a walk in the sunshine with Muffin, our pit-bull. Warmth and sunshine, flowers budding everywhere, and while I was enjoying the beauty of nature, I thought, what are my friends seeing now? What would I be seeing had I not canceled my ticket. It would be a very different story. And of course my thought process continued to feeling guilty that I was bailing ship first. Ukraine has been my home since 2005. Even when I was in the states for a couple years, I still considered Ukraine home. I have a friends, a boyfriend, ministry, church, and a life to live there. What right do I have to call Ukraine my home, but not be there to stand shoulder to shoulder and support my country in its fight for democracy? As I am contemplating these thoughts, God popped into my head, as he likes to do, and this is what I felt- It isn't your fight to fight. And that was hard to hear. Another year of classes ...

So yesterday as I was packing, I just felt ill. And I thought, I'm just stressed about the unknown. But I woke up today, and I just had no peace. L'viv has no police force right now. Molotov cocktails are being thrown at cars, buildings are on fire, and violence is still happening in Kiev. What this means- Today I am not getting on a plane. It does not mean I won't go to Ukraine in the future, it just means not today. I will continue to post things as the situation progresses in Ukraine, so I hope you will still earnestly pray for the people of Ukraine and continue to urge your representatives to support the fight for Ukrainian's freedom. I will keep you all posted when I have a new date set. And as you watch the news, know that those are my friends you see, those are real people in Ukraine, dying, fighting, and living life. Don't be numb to the realness of what is going on there. Also, we've begun raising funds to get my dad home. So if you can help ...

As many of you are now aware- since November, Ukraine has been in a revolutionary state of mind. And in the last few weeks, what was meant for peace, has turned into violence, with the death toll rising. Most of the focus has been in Kiev, which is in central Ukraine. L'viv had been relatively quiet, but as of this week, there has been a lot of protest movements, to include the take over of most government buildings, as well as the police headquarters. If you are unaware of all that is going on there, a google search of Ukraine News, will bring up article links to BBC and other news outlets. I hope you will take the time to read up on the situation there, and to be in earnest prayer for this country. Ukraine is a beautiful country filled with beautiful people. And those beautiful people deserve a country that has hope for the future. They are fighting against their corrupted government, and want the world to hear them roar, as they fight for a democratic nation that stands for the ...