I was a little lost, I am not going to lie to you. I love to travel, I love basketball and I love sharing my faith and Covid had taken some of that away, internationally anyway. But in the spring of 2021, I could see that Covid was starting to dwindle and it looked like I could maybe go somewhere during the summer. But I did not know where or how I would do it.
Then God stepped in.
One day, I received an email from Todd James, a basketball coach that had been involved with ministry for many years and was now in the guiding part of his career. Guiding coaches to each other.
I had published this book on Amazon and he had come across it and we emailed back and forth and he had contacts. He put me in touch with The Admirals Academy in Vyshneve, Ukraine and God was glorified.
I was given the email of Eugen Pogorelov and I was typing up an email to send him, he emailed me. I responded immediately, shocking him, and just like that a relationship had started because of Coach James, and plans were put into effect.
After a couple of Google meetings with Coach Eugene and his counterpart Leonid Stefanyshyn, the planning of the trip was on. Because Covid-19 was still a thing, and even though I had been vaccinated with the Pfizer shot, I had to show a negative Covid test three days before flying. We had been a part of this pandemic for over a year and I had not felt bad, had not been tested by anyone, but this test was to be administered by me. It was not fun. But it came back negative and I was ready to fly out. I took off from Louisville, Kentucky, landed in Atlanta, then Amsterdam, and finally in Kiev.
There I met the coaches and we got something to eat and I went to sleep ready to begin the next day. Over the course of the next six days, we did basketball seven hours a day with groups aging from probably 7 or 8 to 14-15. The kids were great, the coaches were, too and at the end of each day of practice, I would give a values lesson (to younger kids) or teach part of The Gospel to the older kids. The players were very good, the level of play was high, and they were attentive most days.
My travels around Kiev sort of shocked me though. I was surprised by the amount of western style clothing and cars there were. It was explained to me that it was cheaper to buy a wrecked car from the US and have it sent to Kiev and worked on than to buy a car in Ukraine. As for the clothing...Amazon. I was told by a parent that they see something they like and they can have it bought and sent via Amazon. The restaurants were good. Of course, all of the fast food restaurants are in the capital, but even some of the nicer restaurants had food that tasted similar to ours.
After saying my goodbyes to the players which is harder than you would think, we had one day left. I had told Eugene I wanted to visit Chernobyl which was not far away. His response “Really?” He had never been. And off we went.
I can only explain how surreal it was, but you do not understand unless you were there. I remember when the nuclear reactor in Chernobyl exploded, I was probably 16 at the time in the 1980’s. It was a huge global issue that the former Soviet Union tried to hide, but it was so big they could not. They had to evacuate 160 villages along with the larger towns of Chernobyl and Prypiat. Walking around the larger towns was like walking on a movie set with the abandoned home and buildings. And standing where the explosion occurred so many years before was a weighty experience I will never forget.
The next day, I said my goodbyes and boarded the plane in Kiev for the long trip home. Oh, from Atlanta to Louisville, I sat next to Derek Willis. He’s from the Louisville area, played at The University of Kentucky and is playing professionally in Europe. It was a great hour long flight talking to him about basketball and life.
When I got home and thought about my time in Ukraine, I do not know if it is from my travels, or my not being able to travel over the last year, but this experience was the most “normal” travel I have had. Maybe it’s because of a lot of things, but I think God is moving me, and it didn’t hurt that Leonid and Eugene were so good and helpful.
