Journal for April 16-30, 2008

Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Normal work day in the morning. In the afternoon, Ksusha and I went to the village and had a real good study with our 4 11th grade girls there. Because of exams and future Univ. plans, they don’t know if they will be able to come to camp with us this summer. I really want them to come! We had 10 for our English Club tonight and that was fun and went well finishing about 7:30.
Thursday, April 17
Our big extra thing to do is to go to the town of Svetlovodsk to the Orphanage. We had probably 50 kids in the 4th, 5th and 6th grade classes. We did a puppet show for them, then classes with lessons and crafts and games. It was a beautiful day and we stopped and took pictures on a hillside. I love spring! Did I say that before?!? We got back in around 5. Artem asked me to take him for a driver’s lesson and I did for about an hour then he took me out to eat and I got home around 8:30pm. Nice day.
Friday, April 18
Today was the last day for some of our American friends and teachers at the Bible College to be here, so they invited me to come to a party for their classes and that was fun. Then I went to my house and got Frisbees and water and walked to our playing field. We had 15 tonight, but I didn’t play so the teams were even. My low back has been bothering me and more today, so I didn’t play. Ksusha brought 6 of her non-Christian friends and that went well and they had a blast! We finished up around 8.
Saturday, April 19
Bible Clubs went well – we had 5 in each. At the Church discussion there was no translator, but a couple of young people that knew a little English and with my little Russian we did ok – but rather frustrating!
Sunday, April 20
We cleaned the church building after services and then we went to my house and made sandwiches for the prison. We have roughly made 30,800 sandwiches for the boys over the last 5 ½ + years! I believe that it has been a very worthy work and I thank all those who have given money for this work! A husband and wife Dr. team that I had seen maybe a couple years ago for a rash, called me and wanted to meet with me. They are wanting to immigrate to the US and wanted my help with English and learning more about America. We had about an hour visit and he will come to my English Club meetings. In the evening worship service we had 3 adult visitors and some good discussion afterwards about Church and worship and prayer. However one lady got very obnoxious and that kind of spoiled it all.
Monday, April 21
I had about 2/3 of a day off and so that was good. At 5, Olya and I went shopping for Elona’s birthday In the evening we went to the twins home (orphan family) and studied some OT characters and talked a lot about faith and how we have to act on our faith for it to really be worth anything! We also celebrated the oldest orphan’s girl birthday (Elona) who turned 8 and that was a lot of fun, too! After taking everyone home, I got home around 9. On a sad note, my cat had at least 7 seizures today and they are getting worse.
Tuesday, April 22
I spent quite a bit of time on the internet today with contacts for future churches, but definitely nothing fixed or really close as of yet. I also studied about being ready for the second coming and accepting the fact that we have to watch and be ready at all times. My cat had one more seizure today and I thought he was going to die with that one, but he pulled through. We had 12 for our devo tonight and the lesson went well.
Wednesday, April 23
Natasha was my translator today for the village and we had 3 girls and a good study – I decided to study with them on the 2nd coming too and the study went well. We had 4 for English Club tonight – rainy day all day that may have kept people away – who knows!
Thursday, April 24
Artem wasn’t working today, so he went with Natasha, Olya and Yulya and I to the Orphanage in Svetlovodsk. It is about 15 to 20 miles away. It is a town of about 60,000 and he had never been there before. We did puppets and classes again, but not so many students today. Sunday is Easter here and then Ukraine has 3 holidays in early May, so we won’t be back here for 3 weeks! No schools next week at all! I haven’t felt good all day – felt really stressed – for unknown reasons – really! – and a headache, so I just went home and crashed afterwards and went to bed early!
Friday, April 25
We had a birthday celebration for Sasha guy (hey, how am I going to keep them separate?! I can’t pronounce many of the last names – sorry to say!) who just turned 20. Our celebration started at 5 and we had a great evening together.
Saturday, April 26
Today is the day before Ukrainian or Orthodox Easter or as they call it, Paska (Same word as Passover.) There are no Bible Clubs today because most are busy with family on this 2nd biggest holiday of the year (New Year’s is 1st). 9 of us did gather to play Frisbee and I played without hurting my back! God has really answered my prayers about my back!
Sunday, April 27 – Ukrainian Easter
Good attendance today – of course! Just Kidding! Peter preached about Easter and some thought it was good and some thought he attacked the traditions too much. Me, I got most of the ideas through a translator. Several ate together and spent the afternoon together. I preached in the evening and we had 9.
Monday, April 28
Spent more time this morning in Internet communications and study. We had 15 over to my house at 6:30 – people started coming at 5. By request from my kids – my young people – I cooked chili and chocolate chip cookies! Good combination, huh? Also, I made home made biscuits and we had 15 people for dinner and a movie. Igor, a brother from Kiev, brought a Christian movie in English and we watched it with English subtitles and most got it just fine. It was a really good movie about anything is possible with God and that we should not fear. Both lessons that we all needed! Then people hung around until 10:30. This is really a holiday week for most with no school or University because it is between Easter and May 1st, another big holiday here. No schools, no orphanages and just free time.
Tuesday, April 29 – Happy Birthday to my oldest son, Butch!
We said good by to Bill, an American who has been here with us (not a member of the church) for about 3 years. He is going to the states until Sept. We had 16 for our devo tonight. It was raining so I took a carload home and got home around 11pm.
Wednesday, April 30
Not much going on above the normal today except English Club and we had 8.