A Full Week

The Day of Europe: Sunday we went downtown with our friend Roman to visit the different booths representing various European countries. Roman talked a local TV channel into interviewing Bill about how he felt about the European Union and Ukraine. He exercised great diplomacy as he was to be on the news that evening. We finished the day with a walking tour of famous monuments and cathedrals.

(With Roman at the "Arch of Friendship")

The Moldovans: A group of students and graduates from a Bible College in Moldova are in town and we had the privilege of having them for dinner last night and helping provide a place for them to stay. We had a great time and because they learn English throughout their time in Bible College there was no difficulty in communicating. We learned all about Moldova, the poorest country in Europe. Their problems are many but these young people are involved already in working with their countrymen to bring them the truth. Some had just graduated last week and this was a celebration trip and a chance to attend an American concert that was in town.

Passion World Tour: What a great evening. We cancelled English teaching for the opportunity to attend the concert with several of the younger people from our church and English class. The concert was free and put on by several well-known Christian bands from the states in the downtown Palats Sportu. Everyone enjoyed the music and the message. This group is touring the major cities of the world and Kiev was the first stop. If anyone is interested in their music or more information their website is www.passionworldtour.com

Good Fathers: Earlier in the week we had the privilege of attending a conference put on by Josh McDowell with a message for the fathers of Ukraine. He had some excellent things to say about a problem that is creating multiple issues for the generations to come here.

Theological Discussions: There are multiple pastors who visit here to teach two week sessions at our Bible College. We usually try to get together with them at least once while they are here. It’s not unusual to spend the evening talking theology and all things related. This week we had Pastor Mark Perkins over and we were talking about atheism. He made an interesting comment that it’s not that people don’t believe in God, even the staunchest atheist believes in God. Anyone who is able to thoughtfully observe our world; the amazing variety; the way that all things works together to provide for the cycles of life; or who has even a limited knowledge of the intricacies of molecular structures has proof enough that a creator exists. To quote from Romans “….what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power…” Mark went on to say the real question for an atheist is not “why don’t you believe in God?” but “what has happened in your life to cause you to hate God?”

Prayer Requests: Pray for our upcoming trip to southeast Asia, that this trip will be a benefit to those people we will be serving. We will be gone all of June and half of July and are preparing for that trip now. Also for guidance when we return. We will continue to focus on learning the language and on determining the best ministries to be involved in here in Ukraine.

Superstitions and Religion

We continue to focus on language learning. That and teaching English consumes most of our time. Our English classes are now meeting twice weekly. We have a good group and they are mostly high school or twenty somethings. Last week we had a movie night and showed “Sahara” in English with English subtitles as well. A reference to Chernobyl caused a lot of laughter. Someone said “they know about us.”

Next week a contemporary Christian band from the states will be performing at a local soccer stadium and we plan to go with our classes. There are also some young people coming from Moldova for this concert and a few will be staying with us. We don’t know if they are able to speak English so it should be fun.

Our Ukrainian friends continue to educate us about the culture. Ukrainian life is affected by many superstitions. I have listed a few below:

Don’t give a clock as a present for someone’s birthday. (I think it’s because you might be saying their time is short.)

Don’t give an even number of flowers to a person. An even number is only given for funerals.

Don’t hand things through a doorway. Go inside to give the item or have the owner come outside to receive it. (I don’t know why.)

A newborn is typically not taken out of the house for the first month. Visitors other than immediate family are not even received and phone calls are typically not answered. There is a fear that someone will give the child the “evil eye” and cause its death. The baby is baptized at the end of the month and then visitors are allowed.

People here typically attend church twice a year, Christmas and Easter. Easter is a very big holiday and many go to church with a basket of food to have their Easter dinner blessed by the Orthodox priest. Then they return home and have a day of feasting and excessive drinking.

It is interesting to think about the difference between religion and a relationship with the living God. Religion involves the adherence to a number of rules and/or ceremonies in order to make oneself acceptable to God. It is interesting that the Lord does not require any of these things. He simply says “Believe”. Jesus came with condemnation for the religious leaders of his day who had developed an intricate system of traditions for people to follow in order to attain Heaven. That continues to happen today. Jesus did not condone religion but relationship.

John 6:29 Then they asked him, “What must we do to do the works God requires?” Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one He has sent.”