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!
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
Thursday, March 1, 2007
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!
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!
Monday, February 26, 2007
Orphan work blooming in Central Ukraine
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!
Friday, February 16, 2007
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!
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!
Sunday, February 4, 2007
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!
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!
Sunday, January 21, 2007
The Greatest Contest on Earth!
The date was September 1, 1999. On November 28, the conestants had to be chosen and to meet for the final selection. On December 1, the contest would begin and had to be concluded by January 1, 2000.The call went out all across the world! Every country had to select their champions. Everyone was invited to participate: young, old, man or woman. The Challenge? They had to select what they thought were the 3 most important books ever written.The countries greatest scholars would determine who the winner in their country would be. The Expense? All must realize that no expense must be spared to fulfill this mission, the completion of this contest. Each contestant must be willing to sacrifice all that they had and all that they are to fulfill this mission. The Reason for the contest? The saving of only one life and the very existence of this one precious soul. Obviously, there was a matter of great urgency about this contest. So within 30 days of the announcement the champions had to be selected. They all met in the capital in the center of the world where all could come. What was considered the greatest minds of all the world were asked to be the judges. They were asked to select 3 people with their three books. They had just 3 days to do it. At the end their was a young man who was 25, a middle age woman who was 41 and an aged man who 74. There were some that feared that this would be an unfair advantage to the young man because he would have greater strength. Some feared that the woman would have the advantage because she would understand life from a woman's point of few and know that her books were best. Finally others felt that the aged man would have the greatest adavantage because of his great wisdom and his experiences in life. However, the contest demanded that they all travel together from beginning to end and more rules would be given them as they proceeded.
The contest began. As many people as could afford to come along were invited. So family and friends, scholars, intillectuals and just interested hangers on traveled with the group. But they had to keep up. They had to pay their own way. They couldn't help the contestants in any way. They couldn't cheer or support by any actions or they would be asked to leave. The only thing they could do was to watch!
Right away the three contestants were amazed that they were asked to work together to figure out where they were going, how they were going to get there and what they should do to save this person that needed them so desperately. They were given 10 days to figure out what country they should travel to. They were told that maybe some of their books should help them to find the way. They traveled to many countries and asking many questions to see if they were on the right track. At the end of the first 10 days, they were told that each of them had to throw away one book. They were told that they were in the right country.
Now they must continue their search and find the city they were to find. They frantically worked together searching for the endanagered person. At the end of the second 10 days, they were told that they were in the right city. Now they were each told to throw away another book, but they could help each other in these choices. Now they must find where the person lived and save this person at all costs. The search became desperate! They worked side by side, hour after hour, day after day.
Finally there was one day left. They had found the right street that the person lived on. Now they had to decide which book to save, to save this person's life, his or her very soul. The book that they chose? The Bible. They had to choose now one person to finally save this lost soul. The three contestants were all exhausted. They finally chose amongst themselves and chose the young man, for he was the only one with enough strength to go on. So on this last day, he began the frantic search from house to house to find the peron that needed to be saved. Finally, he found the 16 year old girl, dieing on her bed. She was given just one hour to live. The young man staggared into her, with the Bible in hand, crying out, "how can I help you?" The girl said that for you to save me, you must answer me but one question, but you must answer me from the Bible so that I can know for sure that my soul will be saved forever. The young man pleaded with her: "Please ask your question!" She looked into his eyes and said, "What must I do to be saved?" The young man fell on his face and burst into tears because he did not know the answer! The one who was controlling the contest, turned to the woman and the old man and asked them to answer the question. They too fell down weeping for they did not know the answer! Then the contestant manager turned to the throng of people for the answer. No one seemed to know. Then the contest manager took off his cloak and his gloves. Everyone gasped! He had holes in His hands and a whole in His side. To everyone that knew the story of the Bible, they realized that this was Jesus Christ who died for the world and had been raised to life, never to die again! Jesus turned to the young woman and said, "For God so loved the world that He sent me into the world save everyone who believes in me." (John 3:16). That you must believe and be baptized to be saved. (Mark 16:16). That when you repent and are baptized into me, your sins will be forgiven and I will give you the Holy Spirit to live in you. (Acts 2:38). Then you will have died to all your sins and have them buried with me as I was buried after my death. I will raise you to walk in new life, just as I was raised from the dead. (Romans 6:1-7). You will live with me for eternity! (John 14:1-6).
Do you have many quesitons about the contest? Where did it start? In your country, in your city! Who were the contestants? Any one in all the world. Where did they go? They went into all the world, seeking the lost. What books did they take? They took all the wisdom and religon of the world with them. Why did they choose the Bible? It was the only answer for all people for all time. Who was the dieing girl? She was you and me, for we are all dieing eternally without Jesus Christ.
Now, some questions for you.
1. Would you know what to do and how to answer the question: "What must I do to be saved?"
2. Would you know where to find the Bible answers for this question and NOT what man has told you they were?
3. Would you be willing to set out on this contest knowing that it could cost you everything that you had, everything that you are so one lost and desperate soul could be saved?
4. If you knew that their were BILLONS of souls in need like this, what would you do? Where would you be willing to go? What time would you give? How much money would you spend? What sacrifices would you make?
5. Jesus Christ made all these sacrifices for you. Will you make them for Him and for the lost?
The contest began. As many people as could afford to come along were invited. So family and friends, scholars, intillectuals and just interested hangers on traveled with the group. But they had to keep up. They had to pay their own way. They couldn't help the contestants in any way. They couldn't cheer or support by any actions or they would be asked to leave. The only thing they could do was to watch!
Right away the three contestants were amazed that they were asked to work together to figure out where they were going, how they were going to get there and what they should do to save this person that needed them so desperately. They were given 10 days to figure out what country they should travel to. They were told that maybe some of their books should help them to find the way. They traveled to many countries and asking many questions to see if they were on the right track. At the end of the first 10 days, they were told that each of them had to throw away one book. They were told that they were in the right country.
Now they must continue their search and find the city they were to find. They frantically worked together searching for the endanagered person. At the end of the second 10 days, they were told that they were in the right city. Now they were each told to throw away another book, but they could help each other in these choices. Now they must find where the person lived and save this person at all costs. The search became desperate! They worked side by side, hour after hour, day after day.
Finally there was one day left. They had found the right street that the person lived on. Now they had to decide which book to save, to save this person's life, his or her very soul. The book that they chose? The Bible. They had to choose now one person to finally save this lost soul. The three contestants were all exhausted. They finally chose amongst themselves and chose the young man, for he was the only one with enough strength to go on. So on this last day, he began the frantic search from house to house to find the peron that needed to be saved. Finally, he found the 16 year old girl, dieing on her bed. She was given just one hour to live. The young man staggared into her, with the Bible in hand, crying out, "how can I help you?" The girl said that for you to save me, you must answer me but one question, but you must answer me from the Bible so that I can know for sure that my soul will be saved forever. The young man pleaded with her: "Please ask your question!" She looked into his eyes and said, "What must I do to be saved?" The young man fell on his face and burst into tears because he did not know the answer! The one who was controlling the contest, turned to the woman and the old man and asked them to answer the question. They too fell down weeping for they did not know the answer! Then the contestant manager turned to the throng of people for the answer. No one seemed to know. Then the contest manager took off his cloak and his gloves. Everyone gasped! He had holes in His hands and a whole in His side. To everyone that knew the story of the Bible, they realized that this was Jesus Christ who died for the world and had been raised to life, never to die again! Jesus turned to the young woman and said, "For God so loved the world that He sent me into the world save everyone who believes in me." (John 3:16). That you must believe and be baptized to be saved. (Mark 16:16). That when you repent and are baptized into me, your sins will be forgiven and I will give you the Holy Spirit to live in you. (Acts 2:38). Then you will have died to all your sins and have them buried with me as I was buried after my death. I will raise you to walk in new life, just as I was raised from the dead. (Romans 6:1-7). You will live with me for eternity! (John 14:1-6).
Do you have many quesitons about the contest? Where did it start? In your country, in your city! Who were the contestants? Any one in all the world. Where did they go? They went into all the world, seeking the lost. What books did they take? They took all the wisdom and religon of the world with them. Why did they choose the Bible? It was the only answer for all people for all time. Who was the dieing girl? She was you and me, for we are all dieing eternally without Jesus Christ.
Now, some questions for you.
1. Would you know what to do and how to answer the question: "What must I do to be saved?"
2. Would you know where to find the Bible answers for this question and NOT what man has told you they were?
3. Would you be willing to set out on this contest knowing that it could cost you everything that you had, everything that you are so one lost and desperate soul could be saved?
4. If you knew that their were BILLONS of souls in need like this, what would you do? Where would you be willing to go? What time would you give? How much money would you spend? What sacrifices would you make?
5. Jesus Christ made all these sacrifices for you. Will you make them for Him and for the lost?
Monday, January 15, 2007
Journal Updates
4 year old Katya, 2 yr old Artem and older sister Liza - part of the family opening gifts.
Katya and older family brother, Alexy in the back ground.
6 yr. old Eloyna in the back ground, Liza and the twins, Alexey and Andrey with new jackets!
The kids and Momma Inna helping them out! She said that they never had so many New Year's (Ukrainian way of Christmas gifts) before!
2 boxes of Christmas presents were sent to us from "His Kids Too" for the orphan home family that we work with. Here I am with little 2 year old Artem.Some of this you have seen some of this before if you have read this blog, but this is more detail. I have sent it out as my journal. The last section from Jan.7th should be new to all!
Thursday, December 14, 2006 – January 12, 2007
Thursday morning Ksusha and her mother picked me up at my house at 5:40am to go to the mini-bus to take me to the airport in Borispil, near Kiev. Ivanna came too. Ksusha also came all the way to the airport with me and saw me off. My flight was 2 ½ hours late taking off – an omen of things to come! When we got to NY, JFK airport, the flights to go on were delayed and then canceled. I had to stay the night in NY and got to Janessa’s 24 hours later than expected. I had a God blessed stay with Janessa, BJ and Gavin. Being there for her at this difficult time in her life, seemed to be really good for her. As well as for BJ as well. I know that I was greatly blessed to be able to spend 8 days with them. The last day, the 23rd, we celebrated Christmas together.
Dec.24th
From there on the 24th, I took a 15 hour bus ride to Pierre, SD and spent about 2 days with my sister, Ida and some of lovely family. Of course we spent the 25th, my 2nd Christmas together. It was very gracious of them to allow me to come and spend some time with them. On the 26th, my cousin Paul drove me to Rapid City, SD where I spent the evening with my cousin Randy (Paul’s son) and his wife.
Dec.27th
They took me to the airport the next morning and I flew out to Seattle, WA. This was the first transportation where I had no problems – the only one! About 35 minutes after I arrived there, I met my oldest Butch, Erin and their girls Hannah and Ella at the airport as they flew in from Iowa. We went to their home in Puyallup, WA, where we had 3 full, but wonderful days together. We celebrated Christmas together (my 3rd). We also has a wonderful, laugh filled time with some of Butch and Erin’s Christian friends! That was a really good time!
Dec.31st
Here we spent my 3rd Christmas together and again had a great time! On the 31st, I flew to San Angelo, TX by the way of DFW airport in Dallas. I got to spend an extra 2 ½ hours (magical number!) in this airport than planned. I got to San Angelo at 7:30pm and since it was Sunday and since it was New Year’s Eve, I went with Jenise and Jon to worship – a long one until midnight with a few extra’s like food thrown in! Jon spoke and did a wonderful job. Jenise is now 31 weeks pregnant and doing well. I got to go with her and Jon to see Jenise’s sonogram see the baby boy! It was so cool to see and hear the baby! I spent another 3 full days with them. I am so truly blessed to have wonderful Christian children that love and serve the Lord in such a dedicated way!! I am so proud of Jenise and Jon and their new Christian family together!!! We celebrated Christmas together, (my 4th!) and then left for Ukraine, or so I thought on Jan. 4th!
Jan.4th
I got to Dallas and on to Charlotte, NC just fine and no problems with connections. But the plane we were going to take from there was 2 ½ hours late getting to Charlotte. When we got to NY we sat on the runway for 45 minutes and I missed my plane to Ukraine! So, I got the privilege of staying in the same expensive hotel by the JFK airport again! With many trials and yet blessings, I got the next flight to Ukraine 24 hours later and got into Borispil and then Kremenchuk just fine. I arrived on January 6th to my house at 7pm and was met by 6 of my friends! This was special, because it is Christmas eve for Ukrainians (their Christmas is Jan.7th) and so most were with their families.
Jan.7th
Thursday, December 14, 2006 – January 12, 2007
Thursday morning Ksusha and her mother picked me up at my house at 5:40am to go to the mini-bus to take me to the airport in Borispil, near Kiev. Ivanna came too. Ksusha also came all the way to the airport with me and saw me off. My flight was 2 ½ hours late taking off – an omen of things to come! When we got to NY, JFK airport, the flights to go on were delayed and then canceled. I had to stay the night in NY and got to Janessa’s 24 hours later than expected. I had a God blessed stay with Janessa, BJ and Gavin. Being there for her at this difficult time in her life, seemed to be really good for her. As well as for BJ as well. I know that I was greatly blessed to be able to spend 8 days with them. The last day, the 23rd, we celebrated Christmas together.
Dec.24th
From there on the 24th, I took a 15 hour bus ride to Pierre, SD and spent about 2 days with my sister, Ida and some of lovely family. Of course we spent the 25th, my 2nd Christmas together. It was very gracious of them to allow me to come and spend some time with them. On the 26th, my cousin Paul drove me to Rapid City, SD where I spent the evening with my cousin Randy (Paul’s son) and his wife.
Dec.27th
They took me to the airport the next morning and I flew out to Seattle, WA. This was the first transportation where I had no problems – the only one! About 35 minutes after I arrived there, I met my oldest Butch, Erin and their girls Hannah and Ella at the airport as they flew in from Iowa. We went to their home in Puyallup, WA, where we had 3 full, but wonderful days together. We celebrated Christmas together (my 3rd). We also has a wonderful, laugh filled time with some of Butch and Erin’s Christian friends! That was a really good time!
Dec.31st
Here we spent my 3rd Christmas together and again had a great time! On the 31st, I flew to San Angelo, TX by the way of DFW airport in Dallas. I got to spend an extra 2 ½ hours (magical number!) in this airport than planned. I got to San Angelo at 7:30pm and since it was Sunday and since it was New Year’s Eve, I went with Jenise and Jon to worship – a long one until midnight with a few extra’s like food thrown in! Jon spoke and did a wonderful job. Jenise is now 31 weeks pregnant and doing well. I got to go with her and Jon to see Jenise’s sonogram see the baby boy! It was so cool to see and hear the baby! I spent another 3 full days with them. I am so truly blessed to have wonderful Christian children that love and serve the Lord in such a dedicated way!! I am so proud of Jenise and Jon and their new Christian family together!!! We celebrated Christmas together, (my 4th!) and then left for Ukraine, or so I thought on Jan. 4th!
Jan.4th
I got to Dallas and on to Charlotte, NC just fine and no problems with connections. But the plane we were going to take from there was 2 ½ hours late getting to Charlotte. When we got to NY we sat on the runway for 45 minutes and I missed my plane to Ukraine! So, I got the privilege of staying in the same expensive hotel by the JFK airport again! With many trials and yet blessings, I got the next flight to Ukraine 24 hours later and got into Borispil and then Kremenchuk just fine. I arrived on January 6th to my house at 7pm and was met by 6 of my friends! This was special, because it is Christmas eve for Ukrainians (their Christmas is Jan.7th) and so most were with their families.
Jan.7th
We had a great worship on Sunday morning and then I went shopping to replace my empty house with food and prepare for our Christmas party (yes you are counting right – the 5th) at my house at 4:30! We cooked food, we hung 35 stockings (29 came) and had a wonderful American Christmas on Ukrainian Christmas day. Basically on Monday I rested. Oksana’s Mom has been in England for 2 months, so she and her brother asked me to go to the airport and pick her up – they paid for the gas. We left at 1pm and got back at 9. On Wednesday (2 big boxes for the Orphan’s home family had come while I was gone) we took these things out to them at 9:30 and got back around 1pm. I am still very tired at this point. I spent much of Wednesday and Thursday cleaning my bedroom/office and unpacking. On Thursday at 11am, Max came over and helped to measure and go and order a new bookcase for my house that is VERY badly needed. It will cost me about $120 to have made as I want it. Then we went looking for me a new bed. I have been waking up every morning with excruciating back pain. I have been sleeping on this very soft double mattress of mine for 3 years and it is enough! So we shopped for about 4 hours and finally settled on a bed/divan for a little less than $400. I have now slept on it 2 nights and I believe that it is going to be pretty good. It is much firmer than the other, but I believe it will be better! We had our devotional on Thursday night with 17 people here. I really missed this time together, so it was a real blessing to be sharing this time together. We had 6 people here on Friday night for our fun night. I talked a lot about special my time was with my physical family in the US (who are also my spiritual family – thank God!). But it is really great to be back in Ukraine with Christian family here and with the work that I am doing here. I am so blessed to have this work and these Christians and non-Christians to be working with in sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ! I am so thankful that God has given me this very valuable and important work to do!
Wednesday, January 10, 2007
Christmas Pictures from Jan 7 Ukrainian Christmas!
We in Ukraine were going to celebrate American Christmas on Dec. 25th, but because I was called to the US on the 14th, my friends in Ukraine waited for me to celebrate with them when I got back! So on Sunday afternoon, I hung 35 stockings and did some of my own stuffing of American and Ukrainian candies and started preparing food shortly after morning Church services. At 4:30pm we met to first exchange 1 gift from each other (presents were bought for cost under $2 and names were drawn to see who would go first). Then we ate our Christmas supper. Following that we had our evening worship service at my house. Following that, each person drew 5 names and put 5 small gifts in 5 different stockings. Then we came into the living room and everybody found their stocking and opened them up! (We actually had 29 present for the party.) It was a wonderful evening with a lot of fun! I wish you could have been here to share it with us!Tuesday, January 9, 2007
Back in Ukraine!
My daughters Janessa, Jenise and Jenise's husband Jon's, sister Janice
Ella and Gavin: 2 of my Grandchildren
Gavin and JeniseAfter traveling for 23 days, missed flights, long delayed flights and wonderful times with family I am back to my beloved Ukraine! I had a truly blessed time with family in 4 different states. It took 8 days of travel all together, but it was worth it. I love my family very, very much and it was hard to leave them again! But now I am HOME with my wonderful Christian family here in Ukraine and I am back to my work that means the world to me as I share the Gospel with people here that need it so badly!
Friday, December 29, 2006
Traveling
As you know, if you read this blog, I am traveling in the US right now to visit family. I was with Janessa, my youngest daughter from Dec. 16 to the 23rd. Real early on the 24th, I left and went to Pierre, SD on a 15 hour bus trip, arriving there at 5:10am. We celebrated Christmas eve dinner with family and then Christmas day and had a wonderful time. On the 26th, I traveled to Rapid City, SD and stayed with a cousin, who the next morning took me to the airport and I flew out to Seatle, WA to be with my oldest son Butch, Erin and graddaughters Hannah and Ella. I have now been here a little over 1 day and it has been very good so far! We also celebrated Christmas last night. So, I have had 3 Christmas celebrations and will have 2 more to go! I will explain more later. Make your life a great day!
Here's a quote for you that I just read: “Even with language training, Russian is so difficult,” he said. “There’s a local saying, ‘Russian will be the only language spoken in heaven because it takes an eternity to understand it.’”
Here's a quote for you that I just read: “Even with language training, Russian is so difficult,” he said. “There’s a local saying, ‘Russian will be the only language spoken in heaven because it takes an eternity to understand it.’”
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