Lera is now 11 and has been coming to us, with her Mom for 5 years! She is with my cat Zhenya!
Sasha is a delightful 8th grader who has been a Christian for almost 2 years! We just celebrated her 14th birthday with her. She has a beautiful singing voice, too!
Vika is one of our newest girls. She also is 14 and loves all that we do. She is Ksusha's cousin.
Ksusha is with 3 year old Artem. Every week Ksusha teaches the three orphans in this home while I study with the parents and 3 teens in this family.
One of first Tuesday night singing nights at the church building in our newly remodled room! This is just some of the people that were there that night.
This morning before services began our new Natasha came to me and said she wanted to be baptized. I was really surprised! There is usually some literature on salvation at the Church building and at my home. On some of the walls at the building is the plan of salvation, spelled out pretty well. She read it all and the Bible we gave to her, too. She had brought clothes along to be able to be baptized – even a hair dryer! I was very surprised (as it doesn’t usually happen like that here!) and asked her some questions to see if she knew what she was doing and if she knew what baptism was for. She assured me she knew, even though she realizes she needs much study to be able to grow up in Christ. She assured me that she realizes that this was a very important step in her life and that she was giving her life to Jesus Christ! So after services, we baptized her into Christ!!! After services this morning, Max, Anya’s Mom and I went to the airport in Borispil, 3 ½ hours away to pick up our new married couple in James and Anya Vaughan. There flight was a bit late getting in and we left the airport about 5:30pm, getting back to Kremenchuk about 9.
Monday, April 2
Today turned out to mostly a day off. We did make a trip out to the Orphan family for our Bible Study, but they weren’t there. They had to take care of some business and forgot to call us.
Tuesday, April 3
I worked on lessons and studies in the morning and did some shopping. After being gone most of last week to Kiev and having kids here part of the time at my house, my refrigerator was pretty bare! No surprise there. Do you have teenagers at home? Well I have over 20 that circulate through my house on a regular basis and a lot of times when they come in, they are hungry. Often they don’t eat lunch because the school system really doesn’t give them enough of a break and by the time classes are finished at the school or university they are hungry! The longest break at schools during the day is 15 minutes. We went to Bugkivka in the afternoon, but because of miscommunication, no one was there and a wasted trip. We had our first devotional/singing night at the church building with 20 people and then we celebrated James and Anya’s wedding afterwards and that was fun.
Wednesday, April 4
At 12:20pm I had a 2 5th and 6th grade girls for class at School #1 where Kelli usually teaches. Sasha, older guy and preacher at Komsomolsk translated for me. Then I went to School #11 where I am trying to restart some classes that have been dormant since December when Jared and Frankie left – not enough time or translators to take care of it all. We wanted to have an older class of 8th – 11th grades today, but no one came – 7 said they would and all failed to show! I went and was going to go to the Internot school but I had a bad headache and my cough was bad, so I and we didn’t go.
Thursday, April 5
Yulya and I went to see the Dr. for my cough at the far north part of Kremenchuk and the Dr. wasn’t in! So we made arrangements to go tomorrow. Yulya translating for me at School #1 had 3 kids for class. I spent the rest of the afternoon finishing my preparations of study for Rev. Then at 6 we had 12 for our Thursday night Bible Study and started studying the 2nd chapter of Revelation. Still not feeling well and coughing more than I want!
Friday, April 6
Yulya went with me again to the Clinic on the north of the city, but with Ivanna’s mother’s help (the mother, Sveta, works there) we saw a ear, noses and throat specialists, with x-rays again and it was clearly determined that I have a sinus infection and may have had it for these last 3+ months. This may have been causing my problems all along! Well, I got a handful of meds and headed home. I am feeling better today, maybe it is just knowing what is wrong. We played ultimate Frisbee for an hour on an outdoor basketball court for our fun night at 6 and then I went home to rest. One of the mothers said she didn’t know where I got all the energy I had to keep up with this younger set. Sometimes I wonder about it too!
Saturday, April 7
I spent the morning in preparations for class with writing 3 lessons, buying drinks and snacks, cleaning up around the place, setting up tables, chairs, books, etc. At 12 we had 5 for our Adult Bible Club. At 4 we had 7 for our Parent’s Bible Club and at 6 we had 9 for our Teen Bible Club. After the Teen Club, we had 17 here to celebrate Vika’s birthday. She turned 14 today. This was the first time Vika had celebrated her birthday with us and she was really happy and pleased to do so!
Sunday, April 8 – Easter both in Ukraine and US at the same time – first time since I have been here!
We really had nothing special today. We were supposed to make sandwiches for the boy’s prison, but everything was closed and we couldn’t get the things we needed to do this. 6 ate lunch with me and then I had 4 to 6 people around all afternoon. Really it was very relaxed and pleasant! Our evening service went with 18 in attendance.
Monday, April 9
I woke up to an allergic reaction on my thumb – the same way that the rash I had a few weeks ago started. The only thing that was the same is anti-biotic that was taking is the same. So I quit the anti-biotic. I would rather have the sinus infection and the cough than that terrible rash! I am still taking my other meds. It was a busy day with people in and out. Sasha guy, student from Hartakov (it’s hard trying to distinguish the different Sasha’s we have, especially since girls and guys all this same name!) and Artem went with Ksusha, Alina and I to the Orphan’s family study. We went late, because the Dad, Victor, didn’t finish working until 8pm. We had another good study and then Ksusha and Alina did a puppet show for the whole family. Sasha and Artem held the blanket for the show! I got around 10:30pm.
Tuesday, April 10
I was going to rest this morning since yesterday was so busy. I had even got back to bed at 9am for a nap! Yea, right! I forgot that I had made an appointment with our Komsomolsk preachers Sasha and Valery at 9 to discuss the work that I forgot. Well they came, I got up and we had a good discussion. Then I got a call about camp from Artem, who is trying to find us a place that we can go to and afford this year at the Black Sea for our July camp. So I ended up working on finance planning the rest of the morning until 12. Then I cleaned up, fixed lunch and went and picked up Ksusha. We went to Bugkivka at 1:30 for our 2:15 study. There were 2 girls waiting for us and we had a good study on how to choose God. As we were starting to leave the school it started to rain really hard, so we took the 2 girls home and saved them a drenching! I am really exhausted today, so got in a ½ hour nap before our Devotional tonight. We had it at 6 at the church building with 15 people present. I got home about 8pm and fixed summer, read a bit and went to bed!
Wednesday, April 11
I had 6 for my 6th grade class at school 1 and we had a good time together today! Then we went to the internot school at 5 and taught 4 classes there. We would have had more, but some of the teachers were ill. The teachers live there with them, too, at least part of the time.
Thursday, April 12
I studied in the morning. I had another 6th grade class at school 1 today, but only one girl. She is reading the Gospels on her own and is a remarkable young girl! I had a quick lunch and then Olya went with me back to the Dr. I had more x-rays of my sinus and I am still infected – I could have told them that! I have had this lingering infection/cough/sore throat etc. for almost 4 months! Well we are working on it. Most of the time, I haven’t been down and out, but some times I just don’t feel good. This afternoon was one of those times I didn’t feel good with a bad headache. We had 11 for our evening Bible Study. People went home about 8:30pm.
Friday, April 13
So what is special about today? The date? How do you look at it? This is the day the Lord has made, I will rejoice and be glad in it! We didn’t go to the village today, because they had a special project going on. I hate to keep saying this, but I’m not feeling good to day with a bad headache and sinus pressure. I am doing all I can to work on this thing. I did go to play ultimate Frisbee with the kids today, but came home early. Later some of the kids came over – about 6:30 and we ate and played some cards together for awhile and they left early, realizing my health needs. About 8, I went to a person that I know that works with natural health products and I got several to start using. I got home about 10.
Saturday, April 14 – Happy Birthday Jared Kendall!
As usual, I spent the morning getting ready for the rest of the day. By 12:15 no one had come for the adult Bible Club and I figured we wouldn’t have class. By 12:30, we had 4 and by 1 we had 2 more! So we got a late start, but it was fine. The 2 that came late were old and new. One was one that used to come to me all the time, maybe 2 years ago. He is from a denomination and by his own admittance he has been away from God and is trying to find the way back. The other young man, is minister in the same church where he goes, but has had a lot of influence from the Church in an other city. Well we talked for about 1 ½ hours and I felt that it was very good and open conversation and study. At 4pm, in the Parent Bible Club, we had 6, with 2 new people and 2 regulars were not there. At 6pm, we had 6.
Sunday, April 15
Unfortunately to say, I am still not doing well. Same conditions. I went to worship and then came home, ate and rested for the afternoon. By evening I was feeling better and went to evening services. I was going to speak, but James spoke for me because I hadn’t been feeling good earlier in the day. He did a good job. We had 20 for our evening services.
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