Greetings from Ukraine,

Transcription

1 Greetings from Ukraine, We pray this finds each of you well and established in your fall routine. We sort of lost our summer weather over night when we went from the 80 s to the low 60 s. It was 46 this morning so everyone is dragging out their jackets and getting ready for a long winter. We hit the ground running in August and are still running! Things have not slowed down for us at all through this whole month. The very day Dave Phillips left, Kirk and Lori Ruch arrived from Vancouver, Canada. They were here just in time for my birthday which was on a Sunday and saw the wonderful honoring for me from our church. Then they were present on Monday for chapel where the students gave me a another wonderful honoring. At both occasions I received many flowers, cards and gifts. Lori said to me, Remind me to come here on my birthday!! I told her, You have to live here over 15 years to be spoiled like this. I must admit I was totally humbled and did not feel worthy of such honor but it makes you know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, these people love us and want us here! For our next 3 week term Kirk taught Philippians and Thessalonians and Lori taught Strength for the Journey. This is the third time here for Kirk and Lori and they both just do a super job in their teaching but also in reaching out and relating to the students. I don t know if it is because of Lori s Ukrainian heritage or just their love for the Ukrainian people but they both go the extra mile in helping and reaching out to people s needs.

2 The second Sunday they were here we all went to the Vinagrada congregation where Kirk had been asked to preach. After worship and a tine of fellowship we left and the 4 of us went to Ukraine s former President s PALACE at Mezhyhirya. Before we started our tour we had some sashleek (kebabs), which was chunks of pork, lamb and chicken. It was served on thin plastic plates with plastic forks and knives. Well, their plastic ware is not like ours, it is paper thin and breaks every time you try to cut with it. Between the 4 of us we broke at least 10 or 12 forks!! After lunch we rented a golf cart to drive us around the grounds. They were HUGE and so very beautiful. During his reign Yanukovych had 100 s of swans, birds, cattle, ducks, horses, boats and gardens. He had a meat house, a wine house, a house for the person that tasted all the food he ate in case it was poisoned, a mansion for Putin (and other dignitaries) plus his own ENORMOUS home with tunnels going to his gym, spa and pools. He had to have tunnels going everywhere so, bless his heart, he wouldn t have to go outside and get cold!!! What absolute arrogance must a person have to live like this while thousands of his people starve. He lived there with just his mistress. His wife actually lived in Donetsk next to our former landlady! It is no wonder the Ukrainian people rebelled and threw him out.

3 I had Kirk and Lori for dinner a couple of times and then wanted to dedicate my time and energy to preparing for a ladies lunch. I normally do this as I start teaching Hospitality but wanted to include Lori so I had it early. In a way I couldn t have picked a worse week, as this was the week Jay Don had been scheduled for both eye surgeries (a new lens put in each eye). But in the long run it worked out fine as they don t have waiting rooms and it was a VERY long process just to finally get in to see the surgeon. Then there was a lot of waiting for the doctor to check and recheck the eye to see if all went well, plus driving home from down town Kiev in rush hour. Jay Don did absolutely marvelous through this whole procedure. He said it wasn t actually painful just felt a lot of pressure but he now sees 20/20 both near and far It is an absolute miracle! He has worn glasses since grade 7 and I have known him no other way. I m not quite used to my new husband! The luncheon went off beautifully. I had 18 ladies and it took me 4 days to prepare for it since I could only do so much each day. I prepared tons of food and they ate nearly ate it all!! We honored Lori for her great job of teaching, and I gave each lady a gift bag which included the verse we had gone over many times in our lessons~~~~ You are very special and God has called you for His purpose. I also honored Masha Kolchik. Masha is one of our translators and has been with UBI over 5 years. She is a lovely woman and our adopted daughter. She is single and is the one who always goes with Jay Don and me when we have away weekends to preach at various places. It is a standing joke about the many adventures and fun times we have had with Masha, but alas a sweet American man has snapped her up and she is getting married in October and moving to Tennessee. We are going to miss her soooooo much but are truly very happy for her. (The next day, after the luncheon, I rarely moved from my chair!)

4 The following 2 weeks we had back to back Seminars with Brandon and Katie Price coming from Kharkiv. Brandon taught Exegesis. They are an adorable young couple and have served in Kharkiv over 5 years. They love the work in Ukraine and speak Russian fluently. I told Katie I was a bit jealous of her being able to do this but told her I was too old to learn a new language.

5 Sasha Piletski was also here and I had all of them only once for dinner and then we took them out the rest of the time as I think the luncheon had done me in. During this time we also started the process of interviewing translators to replace Masha. We ended up interviewing 6~~~4 girls and 2 boys. We eventually decided going with a young man, believe it or not, who works where Slavic lives. He has translated for 12 or 13 years for American missioners but now they have gone home and he will be free to move to Kiev. Natasha said his vocabulary is super but we have never had a male translator on staff so this will be new for all of us. He will be on probation for 4 months before a final decision is made. We would appreciate your prayers for us and that this be the right decision. On the weekend of Sept. 9, 10 and 11th we had our annual Seminar that Sasha Prokopchuk does. Of course Jay Don was asked to speak. It was at a camp or retreat center that was about an hour from Kiev. We had around 120 people. This is the Seminar that used to take place in Crimea. It is now on a much smaller scale but it was very good. The theme was Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today and forever. Jay Don did a great job on his lesson and when it was over Sasha announced after lunch Jay Don would be leading a discussion group unbeknownst to Jay Don!!! Sasha does this to him a lot but Jay Don is fine with it and can always handles it wonderfully. When he finished his lesson the second day we figured Sasha would do the same thing and he did!!!! However, as soon as he had said that he also said and Mary Lee Rogers will lead a discussion group for the ladies. I said W H A T????? Now, I need time to prepare for a talk. I just can t talk off the top of my head like Jay Don can. Well, during lunch I prayed and just asked God to speak through me and what would happen, would happen! Well, God is good and we all had a great time. We ended up mostly talking about life s situations. They asked me lots of questions about our family and why and how we came to Ukraine and I can talk for hours on those subjects. We had a few serious questions on marriage and children and things women like to talk about. We did a lot of laughing and Masha, Jay Don s translator, could hear us and later told me she was jealous she couldn t be in our group because it sounded like we were having so much fun. Jay Don was just getting those serious theological questions.

6 After Jay Don s lecture on the first day he was given quite the honor. Iryna Sidanych from The Institute of Management of Education was there. This is the University Jay Don, our Dema and several others have gone to teach on Character. She presented him an Honorary Degree of Academic", which is like the highest degree you could get at any University. He is so well loved and respected here and the influence of UBI is really starting to spread even into the government. Eastern European Missions has also had a lot to do with this University. Well, their President, Bob Burckle, was in Kiev the following week. On the day he was here he spoke in chapel and gave a totally inspirational lesson about his father-in-law being a prisoner of war in Japan and how his Christianity helped him over come such horrors. It was so touching to us all. Later we all had lunch together. While we were eating Jay Don told Bob about his honor and that he was going to be speaking at the University the next week. Bob said perhaps he could request that Ukraine make year 2017, The Year of the Bible. Jay Don took his advice and made the request and they seemed to like it. Sooooooo we will see what happens~~~~~only God knows.

7 This past Monday we both started teaching. Jay Don is teaching the Gospel of John and Special Events Preaching. I am teaching Hospitality. I had given the ladies a choice of Women of the Bible or Hospitality. The majority wanted Hospitality. I was sort of hoping for the other one as the Hospitality class is

8 so much work, mainly dragging out the decor (and finding it after the move to Kiev) and putting it all together. However, we had an awesome first week, they loved all the displays and I bake them a goodie every day which is such fun. I love hearing about their experiences about hospitality in their life. It s such a fun, happy class. We have lectures next week and then they start cooking and decorating for themselves (we are divided in 3 teams) and then for the men and our whole staff. (The men really love this class!) I don t know how it will work as our kitchen facilities are so small but I know they will manage fine. This past week we were extremely blessed to have 3 Americans here from the Oliver Creek church in Memphis, Tenn., Charles Petrey, Tim Wood and Rick Swaim. They came here solely to bring the 4 missionaries they support to Kiev and just encourage them, as they are all stuck in the DNR or are close to it. They are having some very discouraging times but are all remaining faithful. These guys are all dedicated to missions and it was really heart warming to have them all here. All of the guys that they support are UBI graduates except one. On the morning they were leaving Jay Don had asked each of them to speak at chapel. All I can say that it was AWESOME, TOTALLY AWESOME! They each brought greetings from their congregations and told how it was working under the DNR. The preacher from Torez said the army comes in from time to time with their machine guns to see what they are doing and saying. So far the DNR have not taken their building or harmed anyone but they meet never knowing what might happen. One preacher and his family are living in our UBI building in Donetsk because the area he lives in is being so heavily bombed. Tears were flowing because friends, WE WERE THERE! We know what it used to be like and the mess it is now. We or you can t imagine what it is like to live in these circumstance day after day. They all said it is such a depressing way of life. God be praised, we are safe in Kiev but there are thousands and thousands who are living in this constant war zone. It is a tragic, tragic situation and so very sad but each of these men are staying faithful and keep preaching. Everyone of them encouraged and pleaded with our students to study, learn all they can at UBI and stay faithful no matter what. I just can t convey the joy it brought Jay Don and I to hear these words and they all said UBI gave them their strong foundation. Jay Don closed chapel restating the same thing and told our present students, if God wills, they too, in 15 years might come back and encourage the present students of2031!!!!!

9 As I have written this book"we have been on a VERY bumpy train ride to Zaporizhzhya (8 hours). It is our last weekend trip with Masha!! We will visit and Jay Don will preach at 3 congregations and we will also visit Slavic s Rehab Center. It will be a very busy week-end but I know a good one. We get back LATE Sunday night and start another week of teaching Monday~~~as I said to start with, we hit the ground running and are still running! Our hearts overflow with love and gratitude for making all this possible. We love you with the Love of the Lord, Jay Don and Mary Lee PS I just have to add one more thing. We had our worst Masha adventure (nightmare) ever. Our train arrived at the same time a 100 other trains did and before you get in the station you have to go up four flight of stairs. There are only stairs so 100 s of people are pushing on you all the time. The minute we got to the top, Jay Don shouted my billfold is gone. He checked everywhere but the button on his pants had been opened and someone had picked his pocket. We were in panic mode. He had US dollars and Grevna, all his credit cards (US and Canada), driver s license, BC medical card, air mile cards etc. etc. that were gone too. Masha first ran all the way back to the train just to see if it had fallen out but it was gone. Our next thing was to tell the militia. Their reply was that if we gave them some money they felt sure they could find it. Masha said to just give them a small amount so they would come back if they found it. We all knew we would never see the bill fold again but just kept praying they would find it. Sure enough in about 20 minutes they came back and they said they found the billfold in a trash can. All the money was gone but not one card was taken, PRAISE GOD!! (We all felt it could have been a crooked deal but we didn t care at all as we were just so thankful to get all the cards back. I gave the guys more money and they seemed very happy) I wanted to write all about the weekend because it was so great but Jay Don said I had a book already so I must save it for October!!!