I'm Back! Sorry I've been gone so long!

Here is my catching up on my Journal! I am having some problems again with my blog. It's all in Ukrainian langauge and I know very little of Ukrainian and not very good in Russian! So be patient with me please!

Tuesday, September 25, 2007
For the first time in many a year, I have been become very lax as far as my journal is concerned. It is my goal and desires to become regular at this again, for my own record of my life and for those of you who read this. The end of June was really the last time I wrote in my Journal, but now I want to catch up in a general way and then be much more specific from here on out. So we are going to go back in time!
June 28-July 11 – Black Sea Bible Camp
First from my Sept. 17th Newsletter:
Camp was a real struggle and trial this year. A week before camp began, I sprained my ankle very badly (it is much better now, but not yet completely well). At first, the Drs. even thought it was broken and put me in a cast. That was on a Friday and on Monday, we had the x-rays taken to another Dr. and they confirmed it was only a bad sprain, but they wanted me to keep the cast on to immobilize it. Drs. and friends in the states said I should take it off so I could ice it, etc. So we cut it off on Tuesday. I went to camp without crutches on Friday evening.
We took 43 people to camp with us this summer to a “brand new camp.” Well it was brand new and not completely finished and a very dirty place. We got a real bargain on the price – 600 Grievnas or $120 per person for 13 days. The other cheapest place we could have gone was closer to 1000 Grievnas for the same period of time. Another reason that the place was so cheep was because the food was so little and so poor! Everyone lost weight – I guess that is good! Also, the owner/cook of the camp was very much opposed to our Christian teachings and never failed to take the chance to put us and our faith down whenever she could. We had several confrontations with her that were very difficult, to say the least. We were told that we would have a lot of room to play games with our kids. There were some empty fields near by, but they were all filled with thistles and thorns! Then 2 of our oldest campers, one boy and one girl caused us all kind of problems in not following the rules.
So what good came from camp? Really, many things! We had some great Bible lessons and devotionals! We grew together because of the trials and difficulties. We learned that we could depend on others when we had hard times. We very much enjoyed the Black Sea this year. The weather was hot and the sea was a great temperature. We had no baptisms this year at camp, but we have 2 girls that are much more seriously considering this for their lives. God is good! We will learn and grow from this camp! One thing we learned for sure, is that we definitely will not do camp with those same people again!
Second from my Newsletter of September 20th that I write to my young people here in Kremenchuk:
James 1:2-4 “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.”
We all face trials many times in our lives. Someone has said we will always either be coming out of trial, in a trial or getting ready to enter a trial! God isn’t interested as much in our happiness as He is in our Holiness! God want us to try all the time to become like Him! He is always there to help us through the trials we are facing in our lives. 2 Peter 2:9 says, “The Lord knows how to rescue godly men from trials.” Remember that this life is a life that prepares us to become like Jesus so that we can spend eternity with Him in Heaven!
For those of us that went to our Black Sea Bible Camp this year, we know that we had some real trials and struggles there. Did you grow from those experiences? Did you trust God through them and become more faithful and stronger in Christ? What good things happened while you were there? What did you learn? What do you need to learn from it? I am going to share some pictures with you from camp. Think about the good times we did have. Think about what we learned at camp through our Bible lessons. Think about how we can become better people, how we can become more Christ like through our 13 days at camp.
PRESENT TIME: Hopefully these writing will help to give a good perspective on what camp was like this summer.
July 21-August 4
These 2 weeks I spent with my daughter Janessa, her husband BJ and my grandson Gavin in Grand Island, NE. Janessa worked about 6 hours a day and BJ worked long hours. I got to take of Gavin (2 yrs. 4months) some. We went to some movies, swimming together, to a company picnic in Omaha, NE and finally on the Friday before I left, Janessa, Gavin and I went to the Omaha zoo. Omaha was the city I flew out of the next day.
August 4-11
I spent this time in Arkansas with some friends. We went to a lake for a couple of days, spent a couple of days in Branson, MO, and saw some great shows.
August 11-25
I spent this time with my oldest daughter Jenise, her husband Jon and I met my newest grandson, Malachi (5 months) in San Angelo, TX. Jenise is working on her internship as commercial artists and so I took care of Malachi each weekday for 2 to 3 hours! I was a bit worried about it, as I hadn’t taken care of baby by myself for a long time! But all worked out great – with just a little stress! Jenise and went down to San Antonio, TX for a couple of days, visited my sister Margaret in Kerrville, TX. While in San Antonio, we had a good time at some good restaurants and on Saturday, we spent time on the beautiful river walk and visited the Alamo.
August 25-Sept 7
I traveled to Puyallup, WA to spend the rest of my time in the states with my oldest son Butch, his wife Erin, and my two oldest grand daughters, Hannah (5) and Ella (almost 3). My son Butch is a Chiropractor and worked most of the time. Erin is home with the girls and we did a lot of fun things together, shopped together and just had a good time. Part of the time when Butch was free, we went Salmon fishing and I caught 9 about 5 pounds each. This was a lot of fun! Also we to Seattle one day on the fairy (sp?), and went one afternoon to the mountains which was absolutely beautiful! I hadn’t been in the big mountains for a long time and it was great!
Through all of this travel, I had such a wonderful time with my family! I enjoyed all the things that we did, but mostly, I thoroughly enjoyed just being with my family! It was such a blessing from God and I am so very thankful for it!!!
September 7-9
My return to Kremenchuk took 3 days; because of the flights across the country to NY City, then to Paris for a 10 hour lay over. Finally on Sunday the 9th at about 5pm, I returned to Kremenchuk and my spiritual family here. It is good to be back home!
September 10-23
This has been a time of catching up on many things. I have been working at getting all our classes and activities started up again at schools, Universities and of course our regular activities. Our Tuesday night devotional and our Thursday Bible study were kept on going by James and a couple of Ukrainian guys, Artem and Yura. These 2 young men have grown a great deal and are taking on a real leadership roll that is really needed here and I am very proud of them! We are in the process of starting something new this fall that we are calling “English Club.” It will be strictly an English practice time for University and school age students. We are using this as a way to get to know more people and let them know us. I believe that when people really come to know and be friends with us, we will have a greater opportunity to teach them the gospel. Please be praying for the success of this new effort. We are teaching in 5 schools again this fall and will be working with 3 orphanages again. There is always the challenge of lining up translators. We now have many good translators, it is just being able to line up there schedules with mine/ours! That’s kind of my life in a nutshell up to this point in time.
Wednesday, September 26
The main event of the day was going to the village and visiting classes and setting up classes to start next week. All of our classes at the village this fall will be on Thursdays and Fridays. There is a new big class of 5th graders this year, so that should be fun!
Thursday, September 27
I am putting the finishing touches on English Clubs for 2 schools: 1 and 11 and then for the University level, which we are trying to cover at least 3 intuitions of higher learning. They all start next Wed. Our Bible Study night had just 6 people at it tonight. We are studying Hebrews and it is a good study, but where are the people? I know that as our kids are getting older they are very busy. Our 11th form kids (3) are all taking Univ. prep classes besides their School classes that are night classes that keeps them busy every night during the week and others are working now. So please pray for our growth and success and for us to keep our spirits up with our weekly numbers are down.
Friday, September 28
We made extra trips to School 11 today to finalize everything with the Director and to visit classes to invite kids to next week classes beginning. Then at 2:10, Oksana and I went to the village to study with our 4 11th grade girls there and it went so well! They are so open and excited about the Gospel and we are so thankful to be studying with them. They got out earlier than they thought they would and waited for us for about 40 minutes! At 6 we had a party planned to encourage our young people to invite friends to come so we could get to know them better, but they didn’t come – well we had 10 and had a good time, but no visitors.
Saturday, September 29
We had our 2nd week of Bible Clubs this day. In the morning I did my normal Sat. with Bible Clubs coming up of cleaning, shopping, studying in the morning. Then we had 5 at our Univ. Bible Club and 5 at our Teen Club at 6. Next week, the Church will start church discussion time at 4pm. I get real frustrated with them some times because they asked me what time I wanted us to have it at and I said 3 or 3:30 and they said fine and then set the time at 4! Go figure!
Sunday, September 30
We had a good worship service this morning, with more people there than the last couple of weeks. Then we made sandwiches at my house with 6 of us doing that. Afterwards I made hot tuna sandwiches for us for our lunch! Everyone loves those and I hadn’t made them in a long time. This past week, the city has closed the only bridge across the river (about 1/3 or more of the city lives on the other side of the river) until Dec. 31st. Several of young people live on the other side and it is a major difficulty. One of our young women that I hadn’t had time to be with since I came back was Zhenya. It was a beautiful day, 70, no wind, clear and trees turning, so I offered to drive Zhenya home through another city. Well, it was 92 kilometers (about 50 miles) round trip, but it was a very beautiful trip and gave us time to catch up on things. It was great to spend some time with her too! At 6 we had 12 at our evening services. We have been having about 20, but this was a low number for us. I got home about 8, ate, tried to watch a movie on TV, but was soon asleep. I finally got up and went to bed about 10:30!

Catching Up

Much has happened since my last Blog. First, for some reason I was unable to get onto this blog for some time - it just wouldn't let me get on! Then I kind of gave up on it. But now that I am here I will be trying again. I hope that you have lots of patience as I try to catch you up!

June was a month long VBS style day camp at the church building with 4th-7th grade kids. Our camp was from 8am-4:30pm and we averaged 15 kids at this camp. Then at 4:30 we had a Bible Study with older kids and most of the time, we averaged 11 at these classes.

At the end of June from June 28-July 12, we had our 5th annual Black Sea Bible Camp at the Black Sea in southern Ukraine. 43 people went and shared this experience with us. After the camp, I came to US, where I now am, visiting family and friends.

As of now, I am in San Angelo, TX visiting my daughter Jenise, her husband Jon and 5 month old grandson, Malachi! I have been babysitting Malachi every weekday while Jenise goes to her internship for her university classes. She will graduate from the Univ. in Dec. of this year.

Love in Christ,
Doug

Doug's Journal for May 1-15 2007

Tuesday, May 1, 2007
No Schools again today – holiday until tomorrow. The holiday is like a Veteran’s Day. At 9am I left for Bugkivka to get 4 of our 10th grade girls to come to Kremenchuk and spend the holiday with us. It was a terrible rainy morning with mixed snow in my drive to the village and back. We got back around 11 and went to my house where people began to come, fix food (I cooked sloppy joes for them – I hadn’t fixed this before for most). I end up using over 3 pounds of hamburger to feed 16 people! It was a big hit, along with other good food that others brought. We spent the afternoon together, playing, walking and then at 4:30 5 of us went to Prostor (our Wal-Mart type store) and bought birthday presents for Lera, our 11th grade girl for her birthday party after our devo at 6 at the church building. We had 29 for the devo and most stayed for the party afterwards. As you maybe could imagine, the singing was great and James had a great lesson. Lera, started coming with her mother, Nadya, when she was 5. She is really growing up and is a delight to all of us! I got home about 8:30pm to eat supper.
Wednesday, May 2
Not a lot happening today and it was good because I had a pretty bad sinus headache and cough – yes my cough won’t let go of me! By the afternoon, the headache was gone and I was able to get some studying done for Saturday Bible Clubs and for my Rev. Study tomorrow night.
Thursday, May 3
Again, a strong wind is blowing and my sinuses hurt pretty badly. I know I didn’t mention it before. On Monday of this week, Victor Nikolivna, the preacher for one of the 3 churches of Christ here in Kremenchuk died of a sudden massive stroke. It was a shock to everyone! He was 65 years old and had been a very active and strong preacher. His funeral was today. I went to the funeral. People do it all the time, right? It's never fun. He actually lived longer than the average life span for men in Ukraine which is 63. There was a LOT of people there for a Ukrainian funeral. They meet outside the house (apartment building) where he lives and they bring the body in a wooden casket - very simple - can't afford more I am sure. Everybody gathers around the best they can. Since it was for a member of the Church there is at least no morbid music playing. Several of us from the church sang and then Peter, our preacher, preached a sermon, we sang some more. People were placing flowers on the body as the preaching was going on. Then 4 men put the casket on their shoulders and take him to a large van that is waiting and the immediate family all get into this van with all the wreathes and flowers and take the body to the grave site. The friends that I was with said that the equivalent 1/3 the population of Kremenchuk (250,000) are buried at this cemetery. There is some preaching and praying and then 4 men lower the casket down into the grave after the casket is nailed shut. Then they covered the casket with dirt, with friends and family putting 2 or 3 handfuls of dirt on the casket before leaving. They were to have a dinner, but I didn't stay for that. It was hard. I cried some. Then I went home, ate lunch about 3:30pm, prepared for my evening class and we had 12 for that and 8 stayed after and I fixed hot tuna sandwiches afterwards. We studied Rev. 5 about the Lamb and the throne scene. I made the application of the funeral and having to always be ready to meet our maker! It's now about 9:40 and all have gone home about 30 minutes ago. I just wanted to write about this tonight.
Friday, May 4
I had 4 girls in my 6th grade class at School 1 today and that was good and fun. At 1:15 we went to the village (Oksana, Max and I) and we had 12 in class today. We had 2 boys that were just terrible. There is often little or no discipline in the homes I think and it is seen in the boys more than the girls. We have some good boys in our younger classes at school, but these two! Finally, I was actually getting ready to get the director of the school when they finally settled down some. 8 of us played Frisbee and then 5 came to my house for some snacks, games and a movie until about 9:30.
Saturday, May 5
I had prepared my Bible club materials earlier in the week and James was to teach the Adult – 1 came and thus no class. Artem and Oksana taught my Parent’s Club but just 2 came. I left with Alina and Olya to go to the airport to go and get Kelli, who is returning after being gone for about 6 weeks. She will be here until Dec and then go back home. We got back to Kremenchuk about 3:45 and we had a surprise party planned for Kelli, but she expected it. We had a good time anyway. She and I were both pretty tired and so all were home and gone by 6:30pm.
Sunday, May 6
Worship was good with good attendance today. Afterwards 7 of us made sandwiches for the Boy’s prison work and then fixed and ate spaghetti together. It was good and fun afternoon. Then we watched a movie together, some going home and I worked on my evening lesson. We had 14 for our evening services. I got home about 8 and ate another late supper.
Monday, May 7
I did pretty well about having a day off today until later afternoon when things got busy around my place with different people. In the evening we (Olya, Kelli, Ksusha, and Artem) went to the Bible study at the Orphan’s Home family and I gave them a survey to take about what they believed in God and then we started to discuss it and will work on it more next Monday. I got everybody and me home after 10.
Tuesday, May 8
Had a meeting with James and Kelli about camps from 9-11. At 1:15 Max, Oksana and I went to the village to have our class with the 10th grade girls and that went well. They are so much warmer and friendlier since coming to spend time with us in Kremenchuk! We had a good singing night/devo with 15 people present and the singing and fellowship was good. I got home around 8 for supper.
Wednesday, May 9 – V Day – Victory Day – the End of WWII
Or as they call here, The Great Patriotic War! You would too if your city was completely destroyed except for 6 buildings during WWII, over 95,000 people died during the war from your city and 37,000+ died in a concentration camp right in the rubble of your city. Well there were parades, carnivals, speeches, etc. honoring the vets from this time – there are still quite a few remaining. Mostly just a pretty day to have another holiday for the rest of us – no schools today.
Thursday, May 10
Nadya is Ksusha’s Mom. Her dad was unfaithful to her mom this spring and so they divorced. The income has been very low for them. Nadya started coming to our Parent’s Bible Club as one of our founding students. A few weeks ago, I asked her if she would like to cook for me and of course I would pay her. She said she would love to! (She’s a great cook!) She’s done it for 3 weeks now. Today, through her daughter, I asked to if she would like to have a personal Bible Study and she said yes! So that is my greatest news for today! We went to the orphanage in Svetlovodsk at 3:30 and that went well. We had our Rev. study at 6 with 16 people present and that also went well. People went home after 9:30.
Friday, May 11
Normal study stuff in the morning and errands, etc. At 1:15, Ksusha and I went to the village to have our study with the 5th and 6th grade kids. We had 12. But the exciting part is that several of them are getting really excited about coming to camp with us at the Black Sea! This is such an exciting thing as we have been trying to get them to come with us for 2 years and now finally the parents are trusting us enough for them to come! We got at 4. At our Frisbee tonight only 5 came, but we had a good time.
Saturday, May 12
Today was the last day for our Bible Clubs until fall because of other activities coming up. At 10am, I went out and bought Anya O. (Vaughan – James new wife!) a birthday present, took it over to her and they had a meal fixed at 11 – Max came too! It was nice to celebrate a bit with her. We had 7 for our Adult Bible Club with 2 new people that promised us they would come back in the fall. At 2, I tried for the 3rd time to have an Men’s Leadership Meeting from all the churches in the area and only 2 came. I was terribly disappointed and discouraged. Several told me they would come, but it didn’t happen! At 4pm, we had the first blank with our Parent’s Club – I know some are out of town. At 6pm, we had 9 for our Bible Club and that was good.
Sunday, May 13
Not a great day for me. I was still hurt pretty bad about men not coming to the meeting, so it was hard for me worship. I know that I should have let it go, but I didn’t. I did have lunch with a couple of Missionary couples that are here teaching at the Bible College (they around 70 or so) and they were encouraging to me. We had 12 at our evening service and that helped me some, too.
Monday, May 14
God’s Word and another book I am reading both spoke to what I needed today and it brought me to my knees in repentance for allowing hurt feelings stay in my heart, so I repented, prayed and wrote to some people about being sorry for letting anything like this stand in the way of our relationship to God. Of course today is supposed to be my day off. But from about 10 to 1:30 I worked on a report that I am trying to get ready to send to my Elders. Well, it is my day off and I can do what I want to do on it, right? And I wanted to get this done! At 5:45 we went to the Orphans family again for a Bible Study and it went really well with some really good questions coming up from them! They just found out that the Regional Govt. in charge of their kind of work is going to build them a larger home so that they can reach their goal of 12 orphan home kids! They are doing the blue prints this week and will start immediately to build! That’s so great for them. We were there until nearly 10pm! It was a really nice evening!
Tuesday, May 15
It doesn’t seem like it can be the middle of May! I worked very hard all morning on Black Sea Camp stuff and finished printing it out as I ate lunch. I use old formats, etc. but still you have to figure out who is going to teach what, when and where, who will translate, who will do devo’s etc.! This was just the teaching part! At 1pm, Ksusha, Kelli, Vika and I left for the airport to get Frankie. His flight was supposed to arrive at 4:50 – it did, but he lost a suitcase and he didn’t get out of customs, etc. until 6:30pm! Then we drove home, arriving about 9:50pm and by the time I got everyone home and back again it was 10:45! It’s great having Frankie here again – he worked with us for 20 months with AIM and had returned home in Dec. So, it’s great having him back!

Doug's Journal for April 16-30 2007

Monday, April 16, 2007
I am feeling better today with a lot more energy! I did make myself take the day of until the early evening, when Olya, Ksusha and I went to the Orphan’s family home for our weekly Bible study that went real well. We started study about the Church in the Bible and being the Church that God wants for today. We had tea and cookies afterwards, like we usually do, and had a great time playing with the kids and visiting! Afterwards I went to Ksusha’s home for a little bit. Her mom, Nadya, is starting to do some cooking for me. I am doing this as much for them (their financial need) as I am in the need of some home cooked food, since I haven’t felt like cooking for me in such a long time, or so it seems. I got home about 8:30 and ate some of my delicious salad and a great bowl of Borsch!
Tuesday, April 17
At 8:30am I picked up the rest of my cooked meal – a delicious chicken dish with lots of vegetables and onions. It proved to be very tasty! I spent the morning studying as I will have tonight’s devo, Sunday’s sermon and Sunday night’s lesson. Olya and I went to the village for a class with 3 of our 10th grade girls that went really well and enjoyable! At 6 we had only 12 for our devo, but it went well and we had a good fellowship. I got home after 8pm, ate supper, watched a little TV and then fell asleep in front of the TV!
Wednesday, April 18
We have been having beautiful spring weather! I started my day, fairly normal about 5am. Much of my study over the last few months have revolved around becoming all that God wants us to be as Christians, with the focus on getting rid of the old self that still lives within us to live a new life filled with life and purpose as we prepare for eternity. It has become a matter of completely taking on God’s purpose for our lives so that we can glorify Him in all that we are and do. I have been studying this from at least 4 different approaches so I am striving to know how to pull it all together so that not only can I best live it but so that I can best teach it! What good is what we learn and study if we can’t live it and teach it to others so that they can benefit from it as well? Another great challenge is in putting it in such words and thoughts that makes it clear and understandable in translation into another language! This has taken up much of my study time the last few days. At 12:20 I had 6 sixth grade girls at school 1 and that was good! We studied, did crafts and played a little bit! I have taught the girls the game rhythm and that is all they want to do, but I said lesson and craft first and they willingly did it! I tried again at School 11 to get an older kids class going and again we had no shows. But at 2:45 as I was getting ready to leave the school, I was invited to a teacher appreciation program for young teachers – mostly young English teachers. It finished at 4:15, so I walked home and left at 4:45 for the internot school with Olya and Yulya where we thought we were going to have a puppet show, but didn’t because they had a concert of some kind for the younger kids, but we did have a class with 6 7th graders. Afterwards Yulya, Olya and I ate pizza together, I took them home and I was home about 7:30pm.
Thursday, April 19
I had another morning of study. I am preparing my Sunday sermon, Sunday night lesson, 3 Bible Clubs, plus trying to be well prepared for the Rev. class I will teach tonight. I left early for School 1 today because I was invited to a concert for the younger kids at school. The kids are just not quiet in things like this – it is not really taught because the older kids and even adults are not respectful of people that are up on the stage speaking or performing – so that is always disturbing to me. Well, I was told that this concert would last from 11:30 to 1:30 after I was in it, so I sent a text message to my translator that she didn’t need to come today at 12:20, the normal time for my class. The concert ended at 12:25 and of course I didn’t have a translator! Then as I prepared to go to the orphanage to do our puppet shows, we only had 1 person that could go – we need at least 2! (As it turned out, it was okay because I had a pretty bad sinus headache developing so I took some meds and slept about 45 minutes and it helped.) As our kids get older, they get busier and busier and it is hard to get people to do the work that we need help for. Nearly everybody would LIKE to do puppets and help, but no time! No Time!! We had 15 for our Rev. Bible Study tonight, with Natasha, our new Christian, bringing 2 of her friends. It was a good class and went well. 2 of our girls, Ksusha and Olya who are studying for Univ. entrance exams and stayed around and studied together until nearly 10pm.
Friday, April 20
My morning again was filled with study! You have study well to teach well. I set up 2 translators for classes today – one at school 1 and at the village. Neither of them came, so I had to cancel both classes! I was so frustrated, angry and disappointed that those kids that SAID they would come to class didn’t have a chance to hear the message of God today!!! One of the translators called to apologize but the other didn’t even call. God please forgive me for not being able to learn this language better! At 5pm, 8 of us gathered to play ultimate Frisbee and that was fun. Then at 6:30 people started to gather at my house to celebrate some more with James and Anya as we looked at wedding pictures and saw a video of their wedding and reception. We ate together and a grand time. There were about 20 people here tonight and the last went home about 9:30pm.
Saturday, April 21
My morning started at 5:10am. I worked on my Bible Club lessons and Sunday morning sermon in the AM. At 12pm we had 7 for our Adult Bible Club, at 4pm we had 8 for our Parents Bible Club and then at 6pm we had 5 for our Teen Bible Club. My day ended about 9pm when the last went home.
Sunday, April 22
I preached on “The Glory of God and Us” in the morning and then in the evening on “Jesus’ Glory from God at the Cross.” After morning services 4 of us made sandwiches for the boy’s prison, finished up my evening sermon preparations and then had a relaxing afternoon with 4 people here.
Monday, April 23
Mostly I had a day off. I had about ½ dozen phone calls and Olya and I went and bought a birthday present for Eloyna (7 year old orphan) at the children’s home where we study with the family on Monday nights. After we had the birthday party, we studied. This night I decided to try and find out how far along each person in the family was with their faith. Inna the mother was the closest (besides the twin 14 year old boys being Christians) with the daughter and dad A LONG WAY to go. Really all the non Christians have a long way to go! I was pretty discouraged, but it is better to know where they are so we can know where to help them. It was late when I got home.
Tuesday, April 24
Studied in the morning – well at least most of it! Oksana can’t go today, so Ksusha went with me to translate for our 10th grade class with the girls. They will come and be with us next week during the holidays (Big holidays on May 1st and 9th and basically everything in between!). Our devo numbers were down to about 12 this week.
Wednesday, April 25
No class today because of lack of translator at School 1. We would have had 2 girls. No classes at the internot school today because of concerts!
Thursday, April 26
1 girl in class at school 1. We had 15 for our Thursday night Bible Study.
Friday, April 27 – congratulations to Jenise and Jon Grottis – my daughter and son-in-law’s 1st yr of marriage!
At the class at School 1 today, we again had 1 person – class conflicts I was told. At the Village today we had 5 kids in class. Again class conflicts! At 5 Artem and I met with a “travel agency” and talked about excursions for our day camp in June and also for our Black Sea Bible Camp. We arranged for 3 excursions and possibly a better camp and price than earlier thought. 6 came for Frisbee and then they cleaned on the beach and came over to my house for chocolate chip cookies afterwards.
Saturday, April 28
Bad attendance continued today for 2 of our 3 Bible Clubs. 2 came for 2 of them. 7 came for our Parent Bible Club. This was a really bad week for attendance in most cases for most things. Rather discouraging.
Sunday, April 29 – Happy birthday to my oldest son, Butch!
4 of us went after Church services to a village called Gradisk where an orphanage is and did puppet shows for over 100 kids and a story afterwards. It was great! Then came home and rested and relaxed in the afternoon from about 3:30 to 5:30 and then evening worship with 14.
Monday, April 30
Because the twin family had illness (I’m not glad they did) we didn’t have that Bible Study and I had a full day off!

April 1-15 Journal

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.

Sunday, April 1, 2007
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.

New Journal for March 1-15 07

Dear Friends and Family,
This blog sight would not allow me on for a long time - couldn't even sign on for some reason - but now I'm back! If you are a regular reader here, I'm starting with my regular journal. Thank you for being patient with me and Google!
In Christ,
Doug

Thursday, March 1, 2007
I was getting pretty discouraged about my health until I got 2 emails telling me about missionaries in other parts of the world, one an old college friend – Sharla Sikes Markum, that were really ill – dangerously ill. Of course I started praying for them, but it made me realize how fortunate I am. I have this lingering cough and my itching to remind me how much I need the Lord! I said all that to say that I stayed in once again, trying to get well. We did have class here with 13. I did get some pretty exciting news today! 2 of our Moms of our girls want to come to Bible Club! Their English is pretty poor, so I am thinking about starting a VERY simple Bible Club for Moms! I think that I have at least 2 other Moms that will come, too, including 1 Christian Mom! I am very excited about this, because one of the things that we have always wanted to do was to be able to reach parents through our young people! Patience is a virtue!
Friday, March 2
Oksana and I went to the village today and had a class with 4 7th grade girls. Again, the 5th and 6th grades had long gone! The girls were good, but we got to get our timing down better as we are missing so many of our kids. About 30 minutes after we got back, 4 of us (2 students, Kelli and I) headed for the orphanage in Svetlovodsk, about 25 Kilometers the other way. We met Sasha and Valery (preachers from Komsomolsk) there and went and talked to the Assistant director about setting up classes to teach. The Assistant Director was very helpful and we will start on March 15th with a puppet show and then classes for at least most ages in the school of 1st grade through 12th grade. There are about 110 kids in this school. Lord willing, we will be able to use this as a launching grounds to reach out to the city. We got home about 7:30pm. After traveling about 230 miles in rainy weather, I was pretty tired and went sleep about 8:30pm!
Saturday, March 3
I had a very busy morning of preparations for Bible Clubs. Then we had just 2 in our Adult Club. For now, we are combing our 2 and 6pm clubs because of poor attendance at 6pm. I went to the church discussion at 3:30. We had 6 for our evening Bible Club. We did get more good news today! A single individual has agreed to donate money for our Bible Camp this summer that will make it possible for that camp to happen! Isn’t it amazing how God is always at work in His Church and for the lost?!
Sunday, March 4
Everybody gets down from time to time. I didn’t really realize it, but I had been allowing a lot of things to pile up in my life. Well, my daughter Jenise called me early this morning and she did an incredible job of sharing her faith with me and encouraging me in many different ways. After we talked, I fell on my knees in prayer. A part of that prayer was just pouring all my cares out to God and asking Him to take my burdens because I knew He could carry them and I couldn’t! Well, He took them right away and got up from knees to have one of the best days that I had in several months! God is such a powerful and wonderful God, if we will just let Him work in our lives! We had a great worship service and a beautiful day. A young English teacher that I hadn’t seen in a year, Natalie (not the one that moved to the US) brought a friend and met us at the Church building. Her friend is a 3rd year Univ. student that has just transferred to Kremenchuk and wants to come and be apart of our group! I was so excited to see her and them!! We had 13 for our evening service.
Monday, March 5
James left early for the airport to fly to Lubbock, TX for the AIM graduation. On the 15th he will fly to England for his and Anya’s wedding on the 24th and back to Ukraine on April 1st. Another great day! Oh, everything didn’t go like I wanted it to – we didn’t make our trip to the village, but I spent the afternoon with Max and that was good. Then at 4:30 Yulya (she hadn’t eaten all day, been at the Univ. and was starved so I fed her before we went) came to translate for me in a Bible Study with the Orphan Home family and we picked up Ksusha to teach the younger children at 5pm. Again, God was really with us and is working in the hearts of this family. We had a good study on the first part of the Plan of Salvation and then talked about the Church. They asked if they could come to the Church on Sunday. They were afraid that they had to be baptized before they could come to the Church! The misconceptions that people get!!! But the whole family, minus the little kids (2,4,6) will stay home with the grandmother (no room in the small car for all of them). The mother – Inna, father – Victor and three Teens, Liza, Andrey and Alexey will come! The boys were baptized at camp this past summer. Please continue to pray for this family and their souls’ salvation. They are a great family!
Tuesday, March 6
Today was mostly a day off today until our 4pm when I went to a concert for School #11’s woman’s day. Then at 6 I came home to our singing/devotional. We had 16 and a nice evening.
Wednesday, March 7
There were schools today, but because tomorrow is International Woman’s Day (even though most Americans don’t know about this, it is like having Christmas, birthdays and Valentines day all wrapped into one!), they are too busy for us to have classes in any of the schools. So I studied a lot and worked on things around the house.
Thursday, March 8 – Woman’s Day
This is a day to celebrate all females of all ages. It is much cheaper to celebrate Mother’s Day! Of course everybody was busy, the schools and Universities (rarely do they close the Universities) are closed for today and tomorrow. I did take Kelli and Yulya to a movie and fixed dinner for them. We tried to have a Bible Study, but there were only 4 of us guys here, so we did some. Our celebration with and for the girls is tomorrow evening.
Friday, March 9
I went to bed at 11 and woke up at 3. Went to the bathroom and back to bed, but got up at 3:30 - couldn't go back to sleep. Actually it is too hot in my room - about 80 - we have no way of regulating the heat - it comes through the pipes and is a battery - hot water. So when the weather warms up like this, the temp stays the same and the house gets hot. It's too cold outside at night, 32, to leave the window open, as the window is right by my bed. Fun dilemma! I walked to our market in the morning - about 1/2 mile away and bought 2 large sacks of food for our Woman's Day Dinner Celebration! We made 4 LARGE pizzas - all from scratch - (I really do have a good Betty Crocker pizza crust recipe!). At 3pm, 5 of our guys came and helped. We had ham & pineapple pizza, ham, red (not hot) peppers, mushroom pizza, hamburger and pineapple pizza, and hamburger, pepper, mushroom pizza all topped with lots of great cheese! Then the guys also cut up into medium size bowls grapes, oranges, apples, bananas and kiwis. After the pizza was eaten, we served this fruit on ice cream. The ice cream is really good here - tastes a lot like homemade. We served 27 people tonight. Also, we/I bought flowers for all the girls! They guys thought we can't celebrate Woman's Day without giving the girls flowers!!! I told you they go all for this day of celebration! A NOTE: Katya came back to us tonight – she was baptized at camp and we hadn’t seen her for a long time. We were all full of joy! About 8pm there were still 15 people here, so we got the song books out and sang together for about an hour. It was great! They the last people left at 10:30pm! I was all in and thought I would sleep really well, but I didn't!
Saturday, March 10
Normal preparation for Bible Clubs, but we had 2 for the Adult and 6 for the Teen Bible Clubs. But one of the people that came was Natasha, that came new to Church services last Sunday. It was just one of those days!
Sunday, March 11
Today was a great day – see I told you they would get better! Natasha was again at Church services today as well as many of our other young people and good attendance. Also, Victor and Inna came to services for the first time!!! We that know them were all so excited to see them! The older kids that were going to come couldn’t, but they will come in the future! 4 of us made sandwiches for the boy’s prison today. Then at 3, 4 of us went to the bigger orphanage in Patoki – I don’t think I ever told you the name of this village before. Personally, I had been making excuses for not going – I am not sure why – but it was so good to go and be with the kids to teach them, play with them and to love them. They need all of it soooo much! At our 6pm service, people came in slowly and it didn’t look like we were going to have many, but ended up with 19, including a new lady and her 6 year old daughter. So God blessed us with a GREAT day!
Monday, March 12
I never have a complete day off unless I leave the city and give someone else some of my responsibilities. Today, I went to a class at School 10 that Kelli is teaching, as she is leaving next Tuesday for about 6 weeks in the US. I met the girls there and then left so Kelli to teach her class. Then at 8pm (we waited this late, so Victor could be home from work) and actually started our study about 8:30pm. Again we had a great study with Victor, Inna and there 3 teenage kids on the plan of salvation. We will study Baptism in detail, Lord willing, next week. The 3 little orphans were absolutely adorable tonight. We, Ksusha, Alina and I, just love them to pieces and they feel the same about us!
Tuesday, March 13
I studied early and hard until about 9am, when I took Max to a village about 45 kilometers away to get some paper work done. Then at 1:15 Max and I picked up Oksana and went to the village Bugkivka where we have a lesson with 10th grade girls. There were 4 girls there today and we had a great study with them! They are so nice and seem like sponges that just soak up the truth. At 6pm, we had 19 for our singing/devo. Natasha came to her first singing tonight. We did a split devo. First we sing for about a ½ hour and tonight, Kelli taught the girls and Artem taught us guys. Our study went great and I understand that the girls did too! The girls went over to Kelli’s for a bridal shower for Anya O. who is getting married to James in England on the 24th, but leaves for England on the 15th. They had a lot of fun! The guys stayed at my place until after 9.
Wednesday, March 14
Well, the Bible College FINALLY moved out of the church building and into their new building about a week ago. We thought that they were going to do this last Sept.!!! So, Max was out of school again today and so we went shopping for things we want for the church building to make it more of a Learning Center/Family Center during the week when it is not being used for other things. We spent nearly all day shopping and buying a carpet for the family room and a davenport and 2 arm chairs and waiting for the furniture to be delivered. We also cleaned out and up the room where all this is going to take place. Squeezed around this was lunch at a pizza place, visiting school #1 where I will teach while Kelli is gone to the US for 6 weeks and going to the internot school in the evening. I was sooooo exhausted! A lot of lifting and I hurt my low back again. I don’t know if I mentioned in this journal or not, but we are starting a Bible Club for Mom’s (really older adults) that will be much more a beginner’s beginner’s Bible Club. But it is a dream come true, because 3 Mom’s for sure have said that they would come – Mom’s of our kids. We have long had as one of our main goals was to reach families through the kids! Now the Lord’s blessings and patience is paying dividends. We will start this on this coming Sunday. Please pray for it’s success!
Thursday, March 15
I was supposed to meet the guy who would put our new furniture together (it came in parts!) at the church building at 10am. In a very Ukrainian way, he got there at 10:45. Patience, Doug, patience! Isn’t it amazing how I can be patience for souls but little things like this is very frustrating for me!? He finished about 12, but not completely, so I have to meet him at 7:30 in the evening. I went home and ate a quick lunch. I am digging to find kids to come and do the puppets show for the orphanage today in Svetlovodsk. I found Zhenya and Ksusha. Zhenya needed some running around before we left, so I did that for about 45 minutes. Then as the girls were reading the scripts in the car, we just got the translated scripts yesterday afternoon, they found out we needed some props. So we went to 3 stores before we found a flashlight and a toy gun for the play. We were 30 minutes late getting to the Orphanage, but no one seemed to mind. I think that 90%+ things start late in this country and I’m still not used to it! Well, we had about 40 kids for our show and Bible Studies afterwards. It was a good beginning and the kids were all excited about our coming back next week! We then went back home and in about an hour we had our Bible Study with only 11 people tonight – where is everybody??? But then I had to leave early to SUPPOSEDLY meet the man at the Church building to finish the couch. Of course he came at 7:45 and so I didn’t get back home and to my supper until after 8:30. So it is with life in Ukraine! Many, many god things, but with a few frustration thrown in to keep me humble and realizing that I have to totally rely upon the Lord for everything!

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!

Orphan work blooming in Central Ukraine

We visited a new orphanage for us - for those visual handicaps in a near by town of Svetlavoldsk.

Above is Sasha, Olya and Ksusha getting ready to hand out some candy that was bought by Buddy Baker (An American) who helps these kids all the time.
Same girls as above, me and Max behind me at the home. Smile Max!
On our way home from Svetlavoldsk we stopped at this Kosak monument to take some fun pictures!
Later in the day, we went to a rehabilitian center that Buddy also helps out. It was a really touching place to be and see the great work that they are doing!

I had more pictures here, of the orphans, but then I remembered that we were asked by the orphanages, NOT to put pictures on the internet of them, because unscrupulous people use the pictures in a wrong way! Terrible, right?

Last week on Tuesday, Feb.20th, we visited the above places. Buddy Baker has been helping orphans and children in Ukraine for at least 6 years. There are 8 facilities that he serves in a 30 mile radius of Kremenchuk. Locally, the work is done through the Church of Christ that I attend. So we visited a couple of these homes with him. There are over 1400 kids in these 8 facilities. 6 years ago, none of them would let Bible be taught in them and now 6 are open to allowing the Bible to be taught because of the love and sharing that has been brought to them by this great brother and his work! We were already working with one of the orphanages and now will take part in teaching in a second one - the one in Svetlavoldsk. Our young people are very excited about having the opportunity to teach these kids and share with them the gospel of Christ! The 4 that are pictured above are just a few of our young people that love to teach others and I am sure we will have a very successful ministry here!

Journal for Feb 1-15 2007 and some pictures

Tishik's 10th Birthday - Natalie's 16th birthday below.
Brother and sister!

Last night, Feb. 15, I put my had through this window as I was trying to close it! I just one cut on my wrist and not too bad!

Thursday, February 1, 2007
I picked up Anya D. at her house at 8:30am and went to the clinic for exam about my coughing. We spent until 12 there seeing 3 Drs., ekg and getting 2 x-rays. Then we went and bought meds. Yes, I have bronchitis again – I had it this time of year 3 years ago. Everything cost me about $32. In the US without insurance this would have cost maybe $700 plus. Here it cost about ¼ months income for the average worker. I was told I may be contagious so I need to stay in, rest and not have anyone around me for 4 days at least. Great! Canceling and moving classes again!! The Thursday Bible study was held at Kelli’s house tonight and James started teaching on Hebrews.
Friday, February 2 – Sunday, February 4 – Janessa’s (my youngest daughter) Birthday!
Stayed in and tried to get well – pretty sick Friday and Saturday. Sunday I was feeling better. Called Janessa a couple of times and wished her happy birthday! My internet is used up and I haven’t been able to put money on it – frustrating! People have brought me food and cooked for me. I am well loved and cared for! I worked on things like newsletters, Bible studies – personal studies, etc. But it has been hard to do a lot of deep thinking – I just don’t feel good. By Sunday evening I decided to go out to evening services. We had 14 for this service. Afterwards Kelli and I went out and ate together. Overall, I felt I did pretty good, but when I got home, I had nearly a continuous coughing spell and didn’t get to sleep until almost midnight.
Monday, February 05
I woke up at 4am coughing. I got some hot tea and that helped, but couldn’t go back to sleep. I am writing this journal now and will try to work on a Bible study today for my class in the village. I don’t know if I should go or not. Oh, I need to go! But physically, I just don’t know!?!?! I continued to cough badly, so canceled the classes again today. I just know that if I was the teachers, parents, etc. I would not want someone coming to my child’s class and coughing like I am. I studied all morning and rested much of the rest of the day. I am tired or resting – I want to be well! Is there any impatience in that? Yes, I am afraid so. Kelli and Gregory ran some errands for me today of which I am VERY thankful for!
Tuesday, February 6
Personal study, reading, studying, trying to be still and recover. People did come here for singing and we had 19. We did a split devo tonight with Alina leading the girl’s study and I the guys. We sang for about a ½ and studied for about ½ hour. After singing we had meeting about reviewing what we are doing and planning for the future. That lasted until about 8:30pm.
Wed. and Thurs. 7 & 8
Mostly just trying to get well. We did have our Thursday night study with 11 people and James led it. We studied Heb. 1:2,3 and James did a real good job. I am feeling better and I am going to get out tomorrow! I am going stir crazy!
Friday, February 9
I spent much of the morning in study and preparation for the village and other things. Artem went with Oksana and I to the village for our class with the 5-7th graders. Again, the classes were out really early at 12 and we got there at 2:30 – our scheduled time! Still 8 kids waited for us and we had a good class! We had a good study and a lot of fun! At 6 back in Kremenchuk it was our Fun Night and we had 2 come plus me! We have several ill and 6 went to Kiev for the weekend. But still, more should have come!
Saturday, February 10
Bible Clubs again today – we missed last week because I was ill. We had 8 for our Adult/Univ. Bible Club. Then the other 2 were pitiful as far as numbers are concerned. We had 1 for our Beginners Club, but that allowed Angelina, 9th grade, and I to start again our personal Bible study. We are studying the plan of salvation for her life. Then I went to the Church discussion and back to the last Bible Club at 6pm. Just 2 girls came, both long time comers, but not Christians, even though 1 thinks she is. We talked a lot and then played a couple of card games together. It was time well spent!
Sunday, February 11
Attendance at church was ok, but only a few of our young people. We had only 5 help us make sandwiches afterwards. Again, several were ill and out of town. Then I fixed hot tuna sandwiches, which even Kelli liked – she doesn’t normally like fish of any kind! We had 14 for our evening service at the Church building. I spoke on the Blood of Christ and what’s purpose is and what it does for us.
Monday, February 12
In the morning we (Yulya to translate) went once more to school #9 to talk to the Director. No change, so we got our books, talked to the 9th graders and 6th graders. We asked the 6th graders if we could find a room at the Palace of Culture, would they come. About 10 said that they would. So we went to the Palace of Culture in that part of town (there are about 5 of them in Kremenchuk) and talked to their director and we can rent a fair sized room for 2 hours, 2 days a week for 250 Grievnas a month. Then I tried to write an sms to a brother at the church that can help me get the necessary papers to finish this up and it wouldn’t go through. Oksana is ill and I couldn’t get a translator, so we postponed going to the village until Wed. We were going to go to school 11 today to visit classes, but it was too late and we didn’t get to go. Ksusha, Alina and I went to study with the Orphan family and had a really good study and we got home around 9pm.
Tuesday, February 13
We found out last night at the Bible Study that all schools in Kremenchuk have been put under quarantine through the rest of this week and no school at classes until maybe next Monday. They might extend it more next week. They do that often. We had 16 for singing/devo tonight and then we celebrated Natalie and her brother Tishik’s birthday tonight. Their birthdays were both last week, but this was the first time we had to come and celebrate them.
Wednesday, February 14
The main highlight of this day is that Serge and I (Oksana is still ill, but better) went to the village in the afternoon and had a real good study with all 5 of our girls there. They seem so interested and it is fun to be with them and they seem to think that this is mutual. We studied about how to make a choice between God and the world/Satan. It is the 2nd of such studies and they really seemed to appreciate it. It is a good study to prepare and will be useful for studying with others in the future. I got home a little after 5 and spent the rest of this day of love by myself.
Thursday, February 15
I did a lot of personal study and some shopping. I am really enjoying reading an excellent book called, “God’s Love Bank” by Dr. Tony Roach, a preacher in the Church. It takes a lot of thought, but is well written, well scriptural documented and a wonderful approach of how we as Christians should leave our old selves of sin and walk and live in the new self that Jesus intended for us to do. I bought a new headset for the computer that has a mike on it that makes it a lot easier to hear on the computer when talking by phone/internet. I tried it yesterday and it was a big help. We had a good Bible Study in Hebrews in the evening with 14 there and 10 stayed to share in our valentine’s party afterwards. It was a nice evening! I should take a moment to note that my bronchitis is better, but I am still coughing some – more than I want, but I do believe I am improving. Thank you for those of you that had been praying for me!

Journal Time!

Making Sandwiches for the boy's prion work in my kitchen.
All wrapped and ready to go!
The hard workers this Sunday afternoon!

There has been problems with this blog sight - I couldn't get on, but now that I can, here is my latest journal for the 2nd half of January. Also, I have bronchitis right now and ask for your prayers. Thanks!

Saturday, January 13, 2007 – Zhenya’s 22 birthday!
We started our Bible Clubs up again and they went real well. People were excited to be back again and studying again – and that is pretty good when you think about kids – they are not always excited about studying! The Church discussion went well and we had a good fellowship too! We had a good time celebrating Zhenya’s birthday today.
Sunday, January 14 – Old Ukrainian New Year
Actually this is the last of the holiday season’s celebration. This went by the old Orthodox calendar and is when their new year used to be centuries ago. We made sandwiches for the boy’s prison today. We still haven’t started back to the Orphanages yet as most of the kids aren’t back. Some stay, of course, all the time. We had 8 on our Sunday evening service. Yura’s 19th birthday was last Thursday, but we celebrated it tonight.
Monday, January 15
We will start back to the village next Monday. It’s a rainy day, but Gregory and I had planned this day to go and look at villages for the possibility of buying land cheep to build our own Bible Camp closer to home. Kelli, Max and Olya went with us too. We did go one village about 25 miles away and looked at a little land. We could buy a house (old and small probably) and land – about 1 ½ acres or so for about $500 to $600. If we did this, we would want to try and buy 2 – 4 such places that would be side by side. Then later in the day, Max told us that his family has a place in another village. So we went and looked at this. It was a 3 story house in not a bad location. We wouldn’t buy this one, just clean it up, furnish it and use it for 5 to 7 years, rent free. There would still be some money in fixing it up. I don’t think we would want to use as summer camp, but it would be good for retreats – maybe even year around! By the end of the day, we were all real tired!
Tuesday, January 16
When we went to School 9 today, we were told we couldn’t have classes and that we needed to talk to the new Director tomorrow. We had 17 for singing tonight. We celebrated the twins birthday tonight after singing. They were 14 last Dec. 30th, but we didn’t know about it, so we wanted to celebrate with them today.
Wednesday, January 17
Veronika and I went to talk to the Director at #9. Basically she told us, politely, that we couldn’t teach there any more. She told us that we had to go and get permission through the school board. I went to our Director and long time supporter at #11 for advice. She told us that if went to the school board we would probably not be allowed in any schools, because they would ask us for a teaching certificate, which of course we don’t have. She said that we can stay at her school and others that allow us by exchange type programs, but not teaching. It was good advice, but really hard to take because we had been at school #9 for over 3 years! Later in the day we went to the private school at 5pm and taught a couple of classes. They WANT us to come!
Thursday, January 18
I’m not really talking about much the other classes at schools that we have going on that I personally am not teaching. Kelli is getting her 5-7th grade classes going again at School #1 and #10 and of course doing a great job! Kelli is also doing a good job of working with our young women and building some strong ties with them. We started our evening Bible classes again tonight and had 22 present! We also celebrated Veronika’s 19th birthday tonight which was on the 10th, but she had no time to celebrate it earlier. Many birthdays this month!
Friday, January 19
We started our classes in Bugkivka with the younger kids today and had 4. The 5th and 6th grades got really early today and waited for us for 2 hours, but finally went home. We were scheduled to come at 2:30, which we did and found only 4 7th grade girls waiting for us, so we had a class with them. We had a good fun night. James Vaughn returned to Kremenchuk tonight with his fiancé Anya. Anya had left on the 5th to go and be with James in England the last 2 weeks before he returned. They will get married in England on March 24th!
Saturday, January 20
Bible Clubs continue to go well and we had 25 in our 3 Clubs today. James and Anya are resting up and we are looking forward to seeing them tomorrow at church services!
Sunday, January 21
Attendance was good today. I preached. 7 of us had breakfast burritos at my house for lunch time as I had gotten some burritos from Patty from West Fayetteville in a package. Thanks Patty! I also got a package this week from Ben and Erica! Thanks to you 2, too! We had 22 at our evening worship service tonight.
Monday, January 22
Finally we got to go to our older class at the village and we had 3 girls – ½ of what is normal. Yulya also went with us. We studied on making choices. The girls said that they didn’t have enough information about how to make a choice for God we will study in more detail next week.
Tuesday, January 23
It was a hard day as this is the day we usually have classes at #9. I did compensate in a physical way by having a new bookcase delivered and set up today! With the help of Max, we had ordered the bookcase a week ago – we had it made to what we wanted. We had 17 at singing tonight.
Wednesday, January 24
Had a real good meeting with James and Kelli this morning on the future plans of the work including the present classes at schools, at home, at church. About the future of moving all classes to the church building, about a month long VBS in June and summer camp the first 2 weeks in July at the Sea. We realize that taking kids to the Black Sea is a real draw for us. It has always created a great way to teach and reach kids that we would never have had to the chance to do any other way! It does look like the Bible College will be moving into their new facilities in Feb. and we will be able to incorporate all our classes and work more directly through the work of the local church. Our classes will be more specifically a work of the Church. They always have been, but now more directly since we won’t be working very much out of an apartment.
Thursday, January 25
I had most of the day off. I spent the afternoon in study and preparations for the evening class. We had 14 for our class tonight. The weather started turning colder today. Down below the freezing line for the first time in a long time. We had a new student brought to us by her father. She is in the 5th grade. He speaks some English, too. They both like our class tonight. Her name is Sasha and his is Oleg.
Friday, January 26
We were all set to go to the village this afternoon, but we were called and told that no kids would be there because they are practicing for a program they will have in the evening. We had our fun night with 10. Sasha and Oleg were with us again. I started coming down with cold and am fighting it!
Saturday, January 27
My Mom would have had her birthday today. She has been gone almost 2 years. I miss her a lot! Well we had good clubs again today – 27 all together and a good church discussion. It was hard for me, though because my cold has greatly worsened and I didn’t sleep much last night. By 8 or 8:30 I was really crashing! Sasha and Oleg were in our classes again today.
Sunday, January 28
I stayed in all day – first time I have missed services in a long time. Ksusha and Sasha guy came, got money and went and bought stuff for sandwiches. 7 came and made sandwiches. I mostly closed myself off in the living room and let them have the rest of the house. It is really a lot colder today and snowing. 4 of young friends brought me communion and shared with me after the Sunday evening services. I am pretty sick today, with a cough developing in my chest – I fear bronchitis that I had 3 years ago.
Monday, January 29
I am still quiet ill with the cough worse. Kelli brought me some of her movies and that helped pass the time. I talked and chatted with my son Ben, from Japan, for awhile in the evening. He called and then we chatted on the Yahoo Messenger. I had a really bad headache all day.
Tuesday, January 30
I woke up early feeling some better. Ben and I made an appointment at 7:30am to chat again on Yahoo. No headache today and I spent time catching up on this journal. It is now 8:45 and I am pretty tired and weak and starting to cough again, so I think I will stop for awhile. I need to work on my Feb. newsletter, but I don’t think that I am up to it right now. My health continues to be questionable right now. I am still taking it pretty easy. We did have singing night here with 17, but I couldn’t really sing. When I tried to sing, I would start coughing.
Wednesday, January 31
I am supposed to be well today, but I am not! I am coughing more and when I try to sleep (slept 4 hours last night) the wheeze and rattle in my chest keeps me awake. I did finish my bi-monthly newsletter and emailed it out and finished up my local weekly newsletter as well. In the afternoon, I got hold of a friend, one of my former students, and she helped me get a Dr.’s appointment tomorrow morning at 9 at a good clinic here in town. I did go to the internot private school today and teach 2 classes with Nastya translating. Olya and Kelli also taught 2 classes. We had pizza afterwards. By the time I got home, I was all in. It is really hard to get the things done that you want to do when you are ill! I know you will pray for me. Thanks!