As our time here rapidly comes to a close, we have the opportunity to do some hosting of friends and family. Last week we spent some time, in Kiev and in Donetsk, with two of our friends. Both have been friends of ours since college and, even though our paths haven’t crossed many times since then, we have remained close. Presently, Kendra is a speech/journalism professor at Hesston College (in KS) and Marc is an associate pastor at a Mennonite church in Fresno, CA. We showed them some of the sites and introduced them to a bunch of people we have gotten to know here; but the highlight for me was the down time. This usually occurred in the evenings, when we sat around and told stories. Stories from college as well as what has happened since then. It is amazing how many stories we each have from our relatively short college experiences and how many of them make us all laugh. It is also amazing how much has happened in the short time we have been here. The important events that we have “missed” as well as the many opportunities we have been given.
Even before they headed up the escalators to passport control in the Kiev Borispol airport, I started missing our friends. We will probably see them again not too long after we return to North America in August, but we were again reminded that being so far from friends and family really makes us appreciate the short times we are able to spend with loved ones.
Dave
As our time here rapidly comes to a close, we have the opportunity to do some hosting of friends and family. Last week we spent some time, in 
