Lessons Learned in Ukraine by Parker

Lessons Learned in Ukraine by Parker - October 2013 Scholarship Essay

Ukraine, the "bread basket" of the Soviet Union, is a very special land to me. For two years I spent all my time serving an ecclesiastical mission for my church on the Eastern part of this great land. This experience was a time of service, a time of learning, a time to destroy cultural prejudices, a time of friendships, a time of trial, a time of growth. Regularly in my weekly contact with my parents back home I would write of this growth. In one such letter I wrote of how particularly challenging the week before had seemed, "it appeared to me, more than in the past, like I was digressing. It seemed like new weaknesses of mine were being exposed and ones I was already aware of bothered me more than in the past."

The difficult missionary lifestyle that I lived demanded the very best of everything that I was. The struggle with the Russian language, the minimal contact with family and friends, the 24/7 work schedule, all of it wore on me that week. It was at this moment that I discovered something magical about life. "I was beating myself up over this a couple of days ago when I realized that I was absolutely wrong and that the opposite was actually true. This last week I grew....what happened? Nothing too special really. Just went about being a missionary...I realized that the reason these weaknesses of mine seemed to weigh me down so much was because I was growing. It's kind of like video games. You can absolutely destroy whatever game you're playing when you're at easy, but when you move to a hard setting, you all of a sudden appear terrible. It's not that you've gotten worse, you just can't get away with how you approached problems at this new difficulty level. That's the beauty of life! There's never an end to the ever increasing of difficulty levels. There's always another mountain, a bigger hurdle, a new challenge. It's awesome! The road does get hard yes, but we with Christ are also getting stronger. Sometimes when the mountains we're tackling seem too much I think it's ok to stop, take a breather, turn around, and see how far we've come."

That cold week in Ukraine I learned a lesson that changed my life. I learned how to find strength to face life when it seems to get the better of me. I learned of the power of perspective and attitude. My circumstances didn't change, but how I dealt with them did. That is a lesson that has/will benefit me for the rest of my life.