Journal for Feb 16-28, 2007

Friday, February 16, 2007
For those of you that read this all the time, I will write here what I try to do every day. I try to study the Word, pray, read from a sound scriptural book, listen to encouraging tapes/cds, study Russian, and exercise. So I won’t write that kind of stuff everyday. I will try to write more of the highlights of the day. Like we are still under quarantine today in the schools (not Univ.) and just found out that it will be all next week, too. So no school for another week! We did go to the village for our class and had 8 students and a lot of fun! We had our fun night with 12 kids here and it was a lot of fun.
Saturday, February 17
Every Sat. mornings I go buy groceries for the Bible Clubs, clean up around the house, get set up, work on lessons for the day, etc. We had 7 for our Adult Club, 2 for our Beginners and none for our Teen. There are a lot of circumstances that are causing us to be short here, but we will combine our 2 afternoon Bible Clubs as one – at least for awhile. At 3:30 several of us met with Buddy Baker and Mike (sorry I don’t know his last name) about helping to teach orphans with puppets. That went well and we will go some next week with Buddy to some of the 8 orphanages that they work with in our area.
Sunday, February 18
Max, Ksusha and I went to Komsomolsk to worship with them and I preached. They were glad to have us and we had 9 people all together. We came back and spent the afternoon together, along with some others that came to my house. We had 16 for our evening worship service, with Buddy and Mike attending. They both really liked our service and singing.
Monday, February 19
This day’s activities planned fell flat. We were supposed to go the village to teach my class with my 10th grade girls, but shortly before we left, we got a message saying that their school had been closed for quarantine too. Schools all over central Ukraine are closing. Then the personal Bible study we were supposed to have with the family didn’t work out. When Ksusha and I got there, they were not there because the parents and some of the kids had gone to try and get the money owed them from the Govt. for the last 2 months. They had received no money for 2 months!
Tuesday, February 20
I left the house to pick up 4 of our kids to go with me to go with Buddy, Mike, Nickoli (driver) and Anya (translator) to orphanages in Svetlovodsk, 20 miles from Kremenchuk. We left at 9 and we went to an Orphanage/school for the visually handicapped children from the ages of 1st grade through the 12th. There are about 110 children in this school. They were very happy to receive us and were also welcoming us to come and teach Bible in their school. So Sasha and Valery from Komsomolsk will teach weekly here and we will at least a couple of times a month to teach as well – maybe more. The kids and I left them and got back to Kremenchuk about 12:30 and went out to each pizza together. Then we went to my house for a bit and then picked up Kelli at 2:50 to go another place where Buddy goes to serve. It was a children’s rehabilitation center for handicapped children. It was very touching what they do to help children at this school. It is not an orphanage, but a great place to serve and reach out to children. The director agreed to go to Church with us this coming Sunday and I will go and pick her up and take her! We had 23 for evening devo/singing and Buddy spoke for us. Then he invited all to come and eat pizza with him! 17 of us actually went to eat. We went to a different pizza place than where we went for noon. We all had a wonderful time together!
Wednesday, February 21
This was kind of a catch up on things day. I was pretty tired and didn’t sleep well. I tried to take a nap to no avail as the phone kept ringing and people kept coming by. I gave up spent the day with people – that’s why I am here – for people!
Thursday, February 22
At 11 Kelli and I had lunch with Buddy and Mike before they left. It was good having them here. We saw them off about 1:30pm. At 6, for our Bible Class on Hebrews, we had 14 people present. We had some good fellowship and people left around 9.
Friday, February 23
One of main events is going to the village to teach on Fridays, but no school still, so not so much going on today. I am still not up to par on my bronchitis, so maybe it is not to bad for me. We had hour fun night with 12 people and we had a good time.
Saturday, February 24
We had 2 Bible Clubs today. For the Adult/Univ. Club we had 4, with some regulars not present. I decided to combine our Beginners and Teens for both have been poorly attended at 6. But at 2pm we had our first ever Congregational Leaders meeting with 12 present to talk about the work in an area wide perspective and we can be more effective in outreach and greater fellowship with each other. The meeting went for about an hour and then we decided to meet every last Saturday of the month at 2pm. I felt it was a big success! Then at 6pm, we had 7 present at our Bible Club – nearly all beginner students!
Sunday, February 25
I had a bad coughing bought today during services, and I am worried about my bronchitis. We made our 112 sandwiches today for the boy’s prison work and I fixed apple pancakes for those that wanted it – about 6 people. Because of the flu epidemic, it was decided not to go to the orphans home to teach today. At 6 we had 12 for our evening service.
Monday, February 26
The schools started again today, except for the village and it starts tomorrow. I did a lot of errands in the morning and stopped by the store where Zhenya (our oldest student and Christian of our group, being baptized the summer of 2003) works and invited her for lunch at a restaurant next to where she works. We hadn’t had any time together for a long time, so this was nice. In the evening I started itching real bad and first thought it was dry skin. But it was not.
Tuesday, February 27
I woke up at 1am and 3:30 with bad coughing and terrible itching! I was at a loss to know what to do for it. Finally some foot spray reduced some of the itch, but only a small amount. I had planned to go to the Dr. today for the bronchitis, but now it became imperative to go for the itch and strange rash. At noon, Yulya went with me, translated and helped with the Drs. I got a ton of meds, a shot for the itch – they said it was something I ate on Monday – and went home. A very difficult day. We did have singing/devo at 6 and had 19 people. Then about 8:15pm, I went to health specialist until about 10:30 – boy was that long with translation and all. I bought some things there, too. It was also an expensive day!
Wednesday, February 28
By Drs. orders, mostly a rest day. I did have to make a trip back to the Dr. by bus, for I can’t drive today because of the meds I am on. Just a check up on the allergy reaction. He can speak English pretty good, so we did fine. I stayed in almost all day. I had to go for water and a few other things about 6:30. I am sick and tired of being sick! I am trying to get well and healthy again. Thank you for your prayers!