Munsons in Ukraine

Wrapping Things Up

2008-12-31T07:06:00.000-08:00

We are on the ground in Arizona. The last month has been a whirlwind. The closer we got to leaving, the more hectic. We spent time with many good friends.

Bill spent the majority of his time with his good friend Roman who because of cancer is now paralyzed from the waist down. During the last week he was especially desirous of giving him messages that would shore up his courage, trust, and joy in the Lord.

We have taken turns teaching English. One favorite memory is of an 18 year old in our class who was excited for the opportunity to work in Alaska this summer and asked what a processing job was. I came up with several options (loan processor,etc.) and then he said he thought it was a fish processorJ. In November, we shared pumpkin pie and the history of Thanksgiving with these students. And one of our favorite students surprised us with a turkey for the evening. In addition to teaching grammar, idioms, etc. we have shared Christ with these students through videos and passages in the Bible. Our students have been eager high school kids, college kids and grandmothers. Some were unbelievers. Pray for high school age Nastia, Christina, 18 year old Stac(Alaska), Bogdan and his brother Ruslan and others who may have been impacted.

Ann had the privilege of speaking to a women’s group in a large church – through a translator, of course. After describing God’s faithfulness in my life, the women had many questions. Pray for these women many of whom have very difficult situations at home.

Our Saturday morning kid’s club will continue after we are gone with Lena, Christina, and Sasha leading. We have had fun with these kids. Although it was designed originally for grade school children, one 15 year old boy has been bringing different friends every week. Last week was the best because our friend Darryl, a former cowboy and rodeo rider, came in all his gear and taught the boys how to lasso. The little girls in our group were the targets. He gave a great message regarding his past life and how Christ can help these kids with the choices they will be making. Of course, pray for these kids – that they will believe and grow.

Our last night was a surprise party and a lot of goodbyes. We have been so impressed with the maturity of many of our Ukranian friends. In addition to a crazy political situation, Ukraine is looking at a financial crisis that may dwarf ours and we know that our friends will be affected in one way or the other. Pray for these believers, that God will see them through, that many of the believers in Ukraine will rise to the challenge, and that the church will be inspired to evangelize and minister to its countrymen during the upcoming years. We are uncertain regarding our future involvement in Ukraine but have a real love for this country.

God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, even though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea. Psalm 46: 1-2

Past Persecutions

2008-11-13T09:20:00.000-08:00

Last month Bill went with our friend, Pasha to a conference at the largest Baptist Church in Kiev. The purpose of the conference was to honor the men and women from Soviet times who had been publicly faithful to their beliefs and did not retreat when faced with intimidation. At that time the Soviet solution for this “problem” was imprisonment.

At the conference a number of stories were told about life under enforced atheism. One elderly woman explained how during her imprisonment she used the bags from her small portion of daily rations to write children’s Bible stories. Someone was able to copy and distribute them to families whose Bibles had been confiscated and destroyed.

Another older German spoke of how his business frequently brought him from Germany to the Soviet Union on trips. When his wife, a believer, asked him to take Bibles with him to distribute, he quickly replied “No.” But, on a subsequent trip she placed a few in his valise anyway, along with the name and number of a contact. When he got to Moscow and found them he was angry, but nevertheless made the contact. After witnessing the recipients’ tears of joy in receiving them, some actually kissing their new possession, he himself believed. Through the rest of his business career, he made it a priority to bring Bibles to places where they were illegal. When the Ukrainian pastor asked him if he was ever afraid, he replied “Da.”

One of our friends, Oleg, is the Director of the Bible College here in Kiev. He is in his 30’s and tells of being a 10 year old boy growing up in a typical Ukrainian village. He was different because he was a Christian. When his teacher discovered this, she made it a point to single him out. He was moved to the front of the class, called a “fool” and repeatedly ridiculed.

God has given the people of Ukraine a window of freedom but who knows what the future holds for this country and the believers here?

“What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?

He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?

Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us.

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written: ‘For Your sake we are killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.’

Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.

For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 8: 31-39

Masha and Pasha

2008-09-23T06:55:00.000-07:00

Bill describes nine year old Masha as a cross between Little Orphan Annie and Helen Keller. She is an orphan who our friends adopted this last month. Because they encountered some bureaucratic difficulties in trying to take her home, she lived with us for a few weeks while her new passport was being processed. Masha was always happy and eager to go to America, very excited about her new cat, dog, swing in the backyard and the 2 brothers and sister that awaited her. She was always singing and doing cartwheels – really irrepressible – you might expect her to break out into “Tomorrow, tomorrow” in Russian at any moment. Like Helen Keller before Anne Sullivan got her under control, Masha was somewhat uncivilized. She didn’t want to brush her teeth, insisted on making her own eggs (some cracked on the floor), didn’t know about washing hands after the bathroom, explored everything, pushed all buttons (including mine) and was quite stubborn and defiant at times. As most of the orphans in Ukraine, she had had few rules and likely had even less with her mother before being abandoned by her a year ago.

Our weeks with Masha were quite a challenge and I will admit the first morning when I woke up knowing that we were in charge, I was scared. Here was a little girl who did not hesitate to fold her arms and say “Nyet!” and had a tendency to run wild in public. I kept repeating Philippians 4:13 over and over to myself. With the Lord’s help, we made it and grew attached to her in the process. She went home a few days ago and we just saw her on Skype. We were happy to hear that she is adjusting well in California. And we have one more grandchild, but this one calls us Babucya and Deducya.

Pasha is a godly young man who has moved into our apartment to tutor us in Ukrainian. We are trying to have a Ukrainian speaking household this fall, although it is difficult as he also speaks very good English. The temptation when we want to speak about anything important is to go to English to get our point across.

Fall ministries are starting up. Outreach English classes start next week, we are involved in helping with a kid’s club on Saturday mornings, and Bill is preparing to teach a class at the Bible College here. Nona, our landlord and a young Dr., has also requested to have English instruction at our home. Please keep these ministries in your prayers.

Psalm 28:7 The Lord is my strength and my shield;
My heart trusted in Him, and I am helped;
Therefore my heart greatly rejoices,
And with my song I will praise Him.

Police and Angry Babushkas

2008-08-19T09:27:00.000-07:00

The last three weeks have been action-packed. We held Vacation Bible School for two weeks in local neighborhoods. Jake, our son, came for a visit and helped with the last week of VBS. During Jake’s second week here we toured the city and got together often with the young people in our church for fun.

Vacation Bible School is done differently here than in the states. We determined the two neighborhoods we wanted to target. The first day of camp we hand out flyers to any children we see in the neighborhood and issue personal invitations. Then an hour before camp starts, we begin playing games. The children join in and also run and get their friends to come. The first day we typically had eight children in both neighborhoods and by the end of the week we were up to eighteen by word of mouth. Our team was made up of mostly Ukrainian young people from our church with a few Americans.

Because we had the camp outside and not in a church building, we encountered some opposition from the older people who live in the area. Some are angry because they are Orthodox and are concerned that any form of Christianity outside of orthodoxy is a cult and trying to change the faith. Others agree with former Communist atheistic teachings and believe that we are stupid, have been brainwashed, and are trying to brainwash the children.

We had one man who accused us of this and called the police. A police jeep with several officers in it pulled up to see who the trouble makers were. When one officer saw that the children were playing, doing arts and crafts, and having fun he made a sarcastic comment that “this kind person called to tell us there was some trouble here.” He got names and numbers just so that something official was done and left. The older man came back later and tried to attack one of our workers with his cane. The same day we had three neighborhood babushkas (grandmothers) come and yell at us. Their complaints were that we were ruining the grass (50% weeds), making too much noise (laughing children), and, sadly, that there were dark-skinned children there (Armenians). We moved to a basketball court the next day so as not to be accused of ruining grass. We just had to sweep the court first to clear off the broken glass (drunks break bottles for fun most nights).

We reached several children and many seemed to have an understanding of Christ by the end of the week. We are hoping to be able to follow up through a weekly Saturday morning club but as yet have no Ukrainians who are able to lead it on a regular basis because of work schedules.

Matthew 19:14 …Jesus said “Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them, for of such is the kingdom of heaven.”

Prayer requests: Pray for follow up with the children that came to VBS.
Pray for the current political situation with Russia and how it will affect
the spiritual future of Ukrainian believer and unbelievers.

Back from SE Asia

2008-07-23T01:09:00.000-07:00

I am trying to think how best to describe our six weeks in Vientiane, Laos.

It is a poor country, the people are small, generous, kind, polite, always smiling. They consider us fat which is a good thing in their eyes. They are entrenched in Buddhism and there are idols everywhere.

We took a trip to Luang Prabang one weekend with a family who have become good friends. Memories of that trip include villages clinging to jungle-covered mountainsides, wondering how they don’t lose their children over the sides, babies tied onto the backs of sisters and mothers. People always selling things. In Luang Prabang we saw beautiful waterfalls, sat in a van for an hour waiting for a monsoon downpour to stop and watching naked children playing in the rain.

Ornate temples were everywhere with orange clad monks who appeared to be anywhere from eight years old to aged. Took a ride on the muddy Mekong in a narrow boat with no life preservers. We missed out on riding elephants because they were angry after the major rainfall.

Our work was to build friendships while coming alongside staff in a hospital to help improve conditions by cleaning and teaching English. The English was to prepare the staff for doctors coming to consult, furthering education, and helping them to do business in an English speaking world. English classes were held daily and the students were eager despite being shy to practice.

We worked with a team of three twenty something kids. Jake is a medical student from Kansas and will be a wonderful Dr. someday. Dorcas is a Chinese American who is waiting to be accepted to med school. She was our great tech support and constantly confused for being Lao. And Emily, a college student from Colorado with a very big heart. Our team worked hard to clean the walls of a pediatric ward – tough to do in a hospital that rarely has running water.

When we left it was emotional – we had made good friends, some who called us brother, father, and mother. We were overwhelmed by their generosity and statements of appreciation. Constant requests were made for us to come back.

Pray for the Lao.

Pray for us as we go back to Kiev and will be involved with two weeks of Vacation Bible School in different neighborhoods in our area.

Colossians 4:3 …praying also for us, that God would open to us a door for the word, to speak the mystery of Christ …

Walking through Fluff

2008-06-05T07:44:00.000-07:00

Spring has been beautiful here. Lots of lilacs in bloom. Margaret, one of the translators for the college, is a wonderful saint who is always giving gifts to people. She spent her birthday taking me to the botanical gardens on the other side of the Dnieper River. They were full of lilacs and it is a Kiev tradition to visit there at least once during lilac season. Ukraine is very green and similar to Illinois with all of the big trees and similar plants.

An interesting springtime phenomenon in Kiev is fluff. It is everywhere, lining the sidewalks, stuck on plants, coming in at the open windows and piling up in the corners of our living room. Friends told us that when the left bank was in its building stage after WW2, cottonwood trees were planted along all the streets. Cottonwood trees can be male or female, and in order to avoid the fluff fall out the city planners planted mostly male trees. Guess what gender the fluff comes from – somebody made a mistake!

We are currently on a plane on our way to Asia. Our first destination is Bangkok where we will meet with our team of four people from the states for planning and education. Then on to a nearby country where we will be working in a hospital, teaching English and doing service projects to help improve the conditions there. This will be a six week trip with a debriefing at the end in Bangkok. We are thrilled to have this opportunity and the people in the hospital are very anxious for us to come as this will be part of a program to allow them to raise the standards of the medical care at this facility. Education in English will give them the opportunity to read English medical materials and consult with English speaking Drs. who will come at a later time. We will update about this trip later but may have limited internet access while we are there.

“Every man is a missionary, now and forever, for good or for evil, whether he intends or designs it or not. He may be a blot radiating his dark influence outward to the very circumference of society, or he may be a blessing spreading benediction over the length and breadth of the world.” -Thomas Chalmers

A Full Week

2008-05-17T09:33:00.000-07:00

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

2008-05-10T03:41:00.000-07:00

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.”

Observations at 5 Months

2008-04-13T11:10:00.000-07:00

Bill and I have just returned from spending March at home seeing the kids, and helping with Sarah’s newborn.

As we come back here are some thoughts:

With a focus on language learning, we have been forced to sit back and observe and not jump into ministry, although the temptation to do so has been strong. Every month we have been here has been a learning experience. We have been exposed to more and more of the culture and problems that are experienced by the people here.

As is often the case some of our initial impressions and conclusions have been proven false over time. At first we thought that the people as a whole were somewhat unfriendly. When we greeted people in Kiev as we were out walking they frequently avoided eye contact and did not return our greetings. However, what we have found is that in our building, the people we have met on the landings and sitting out front on park benches have been very warm and smile at our attempts to use the language. They greet us by name and are quite friendly. And of course the people in our church have always been welcoming. What some have explained to us is that Ukrainians have very strong relationships within their families and close friends. It seems as if there is a definite wariness regarding strangers and one wonders how much of this is leftover from Soviet times.

Also, it seems that people have enough of their own problems that they don’t attempt to get involved with others. Our friend Farri, told us that in the bazaar someone had died on the sidewalk and for at least an hour people just stepped over the body and went on their way. One icy day a man fell on the ice and was unable to get up because he had broken his arm. People continued to pass him by until Bill stopped and helped him up and on to where he was going.

Over time we have realized the severity of the problems here. There are two classes of people, wealthy and scraping by. Rents and inflation are high and people typically share apartments with family members of different generations, with each family occupying a different room. Alcoholism is a huge problem. One young man in our church stated that among men over 40 he believed it to be over 90%. As a result most marriages end in divorce and fathers moves on to new wives, leaving mothers with the responsibility of the children. Most children are being raised by mothers or grandmothers. Young men do not have any kind of role models in their families for how to be a good husband or father and the cycle continues.

Among young people, there are approximately 100,000 children in orphanages. When they graduate at 18, they are out and nothing else is provided for them. Many live on the street and turn to drugs and prostitution. Ukraine has one of the most rapidly increasing rates of AIDS in Europe.

The problems are huge and we continue to look for direction regarding where we would be best used.

Matthew 10:18-19 “The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.”

Village Life

2008-02-26T08:21:00.000-08:00

Last week Bill and I went with our friend, Farri, to a small country village. The majority of the day was spent in getting there and getting home on a variety of buses and taxis. We met Farri at one of the metro stations at 7:30 in the morning to catch a bus and arrived at his mother-in-law’s cottage at 1:30 in the afternoon. The countryside that we traveled through reminded me of the Midwest, rolling snow-covered fields (probably wheat) with rows of large trees marking the borders of each field. The last part of our trip was by taxi and we were dropped off on a road in the village and walked the rest of the way. In Kiev, as in our large cities, people do not generally greet passing strangers but in the village all of the schoolchildren we passed said “Dobridyen”.

The home where we spent the next couple of hours is Tonia’s girlhood home (Farri’s wife). Like all of the homes in the village it was very small, painted white with blue trimmed shutters. There was no indoor plumbing but a rustic outhouse with no seat, just a hole in the floor. Thankfully, there were walls and a door. Water was heated on a stove and when we came in after a trip to the outhouse, our hostess gave us a bar of soap and poured warm water over our hands into a basin as we washed. The house was chilly as there was no central heat, just a small space heater that was not working. Despite the lack of modern conveniences, our hostess had prepared a great number of interesting Ukrainian dishes for us. The most interesting was called Salt Cake. It resembled Baklavah in appearance with what looked like icing on top. However, it tasted as if it might have had pureed fish as one of its layers. When people come for a visit, it is normal to treat them like royalty and this was their best. I was not allowed to help with the setting of the table or clearing of plates.

After an hour the birthday boy (Roman) woke up from his nap. He had turned two that day and was happy to sit on his father’s lap and a little nervous about the strangers. It helped that we had brought a gift. Roman had many layers of clothing on in order to keep him warm.

Unless you might think that Olia (Farri’s mother-in-law) is an uneducated peasant woman, she is not. She is a teacher of history for the 5th through 12th grades. In response to a question from Bill about Soviet times, she responded that a person does not have a heart if they do not have some emotional attachment to having been under the Soviet Union but they do not have a brain if they wish to return to that life. I need to mention that she was born in Russia and has some lingering loyalty there as most of the true Russians we have met. Olia said there were many shortages and they typically waited in long lines to receive a loaf of bread or milk. At that time they were not permitted to leave their villages and had no ability to improve their circumstances.

Because of continuing economic difficulties in Ukraine, villagers continue to live without most modern improvements. We were surprised by the primitive living conditions in this village and when reporting this to our friends in Kiev, several confirmed that this was typical of most villages throughout the country. For this reason, many people are immigrating to Kiev and other cities and abandoning rural life.

On the way home we had missed a bus connection and needed to take a taxi for a few hours. Farri instructed us not to say a word during the trip as he wanted to get the best rate and if the taxi driver realized we were Americans that wouldn’t be possible. So, we sat quietly for a very long time while Farri chatted away with the driver in Russian. When we got to the end of the taxi ride, I asked if the driver didn’t think it was odd that we didn’t speak the whole trip. Farri said he had told him that we were his parents from India and did not know the language. It was amusing to think that we had passed as Indians but this young driver probably had little world experience. We eventually arrived in Kiev at 10:30 that night and walked the half mile home in a snowstorm. We were so appreciative of our warm little apartment with a toilet.

In addition to experiencing another facet of life in Ukraine, the day allowed Farri to open up to us about many of his struggles and we told him that we would be praying. We will give more of his history at a later time. But we find it interesting that during this time when we are somewhat limited in communicating with Ukrainians, God has brought this young Muslim English-speaking man into our lives. Farri himself said that he feels that the day that he met us in the bazaar was not just a chance meeting. Please pray for him, Tonia, Olia, and his son and pray for wisdom for us.

2 Corinthians 5:20 We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making His appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.

Village Burners

2008-02-09T10:13:00.000-08:00

Oksana is our church secretary and friend. She has an excellent knowledge of English and translates for us on Wednesday nights during our English classes. She had been reviewing the placement tests that we give to students to determine which of the 3 classes they should attend. She was very amused by some of the paragraphs that the students had written about themselves. Following are some excerpts: “I have mother, sister, and brat. I burn village of Rozhevka.” “I bath in 1985.” “I have girlfriend. She is very biuotiful.”

God has been blessing our attempts at establishing outreach English classes. The classes continue to grow and our church Bible study that follows the classes is now standing room only. We surveyed the students this week to determine if we should expand our classes during the next two month session. Over 90% of the students requested that we offer more courses during the week.

We have also continued to meet with our Indian friend Farri and his Ukrainian wife on a weekly basis and they have invited us to go with them to a nearby village for their son’s 2nd birthday party. We met Farri’s wife for the first time a couple of weeks ago and we took an instant liking to her. Her English is very good and she was happy to have someone to practice with.

With the exception of missing our family and friends and some minor hardships, we are thoroughly enjoying being in Ukraine. It is a great adventure and we are making good friends. The success of the English program has been a great encouragement. During the last couple of years as we have prepared for full time ministry we have often felt that we were throwing ourselves off of a cliff and asking God to catch us. The fear of risking the unknown and abandoning the security of what was comfortable and familiar seemed overwhelming at times. But God has caught us and He is trustworthy.

I was reading an excerpt from a book by Elizabeth Elliot which made the point better than I can.

“When my brother Dave was very small, we spent a week at the seaside in Belmar, New Jersey. In vain my father tried to persuade the little boy to come into the waves with him and jump, promising to hold him safely and not allow the waves to sweep over his head. He took me into the ocean and showed Dave how much fun it would be. Nothing doing. The ocean was terrifying. Dave was sure it would mean certain disaster, and he could not trust his father. On the last day of our vacation he gave in. He was not swept away, his father held him as promised, and he had far more fun than he could have imagined, whereupon he burst into tears and wailed, “Why didn’t you make me go in?”

Romans 12:1-2 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

“Ya put, ee eestihna, ee zhittya”

2008-01-25T10:14:00.000-08:00

Today in Ukrainian we learned John 14:6 “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” Interestingly, there are two words for truth in Ukrainian, “istina” and “pravda”. Subjective truth is pravda. In other words I have my own pravda, which may not agree with your pravda. I love that there is a definition like this in Ukrainian. I wish we had one at home. With postmodernism run amok, we need a word for relative truth. The word that I love the most though is used in this verse, “Istina”. This is a higher truth, one that cannot be doubted, ultimate, overriding, and completely true (2 +2=4). When someone in this culture says “the istina is…” people wonder “who made you a prophet?”
Hurray for trustworthy, solid, unshifting truth that we can hang our hats on!!

Both Bill and I are now taking lessons in the Ukrainian language. Originally, I was going to study Russian and Bill had decided on Ukrainian. However, there was not an opening for me to continue with Russian at the language school and we felt it was important to not waste the next few months so I have joined Bill. It is helpful for practicing conversation at home and it is emerging in importance here as people seek different ways to express nationalism.

Our English language classes are doing well. We have grown from 20 to 30 students in 3 weeks and the majority attend the Bible class afterwards. Our prayer is that these students will meet the Lord and grow spiritually as a result of this introduction.

Borsch and Sidney Poitier

2008-01-14T09:18:00.000-08:00

On Sunday, two of our young friends, Oksana and Lyena, came over for Borsch and a movie. They gave a lesson in how to cook Borsch, the traditional Ukrainian beet soup. It is actually a very nutritious and delicious soup and almost daily fare for Ukrainians. After supper, the girls chose a movie from our borrowed collection of DVDs. We enjoyed watching Sidney Poitier in the old movie, “Lilies of the Field.” For those of you who don’t remember the movie, Sidney’s car breaks down in the desert near a convent of recently arrived German nuns. At dinner, they talk him into teaching them some English. Sidney waves his arms around, stands up and says “We all stand up!” and then follows it with more gestures and “We all sit down!” It was a good evening.

Our English classes started this week. We had advertised that we would have native English speakers, and as a result recruited Bill to teach the beginner’s class. He graciously agreed despite having no training or experience. Oksana who has a great deal of practice constructed the lesson and gave it to Bill. However, they realized at the start of class that no one had made printouts and Bill was left alone in the class with no game plan while Oksana left to print the lesson. Ah – but fortunately for Bill he had just seen “Lilies of the Field” and did his best Sidney Poitier impersonation. As Oksana returned to class she heard “We raise one hand, we put one hand down.” God’s sense of humor and timing are great!

Thank you all for praying. We had a good turnout of 20 students and expect even more next week and the Bible study following the English classes was full to overflowing.

Psalm 37:5 Commit your way to the Lord, Trust also in Him, And He shall bring it to pass.

A Night Out and Speech Therapy

2008-01-04T07:22:00.000-08:00

Unless we have given a false impression, we want to let everyone know that Kiev is a very beautiful city. It has a thousand year history and was considered at one point to be the center of Kiev-Rus. Bill and I took Saturday afternoon off from studying to go to an art museum that was located in two side-by-side houses that were a few hundred years old and very ornate. Afterwards we toured the city looking at the beautiful European architecture of the large buildings that line the brick streets. We accidentally stumbled into the large maze of an upscale underground mall while looking for a metro station. We walked for several blocks underground looking at all the stores. Every so often, we emerged like gophers looking for familiar landmarks. Eventually we came up and asked a passerby for help in broken Russian and she led us to the center of downtown. It was decorated for the New Years with a great light display and crowded with families doing last minute New Years shopping. There is much to enjoy here.

I thought my speech therapy friends might be interested in the following story, but it also sheds some light on services that are provided here. A friend arranged for me to tag along when she took her adopted daughter for speech therapy. Alyona was the daughter of an alcoholic mother who died when she was a toddler and so she was raised by her alcoholic grandmother and suffered significant neglect. She spent much time in bed under the covers hiding and had very little speech at five years of age when she was adopted by Andre and Ella. She has been receiving therapy for the last year and has made great improvement. The therapy is provided by a Speech Therapy Clinic here that is free and state-run. However, that does not mean that it has significant resources. They usually request that parents give some contributions (Ella said they suggested 10 grievna which is two dollars in our money). Because it is the end of the year and they have come to the end of their government funds they have had to reduce the number of children they see from 60 to 20. Perhaps because Alyona is adopted, she is still attending.

All Speech Therapists are called doctors here because they provide medical services. I believe that their education is equivalent to a masters degree. They use a holistic approach and see Alyona for a total of two hours every day. I observed a half hour of speech therapy which was similar in many ways to therapy in the states. She was later seen for massage therapy with massage to the upper chest and face as that is considered very beneficial here. She receives a lunch as they are concerned that their patients get good nutrition. Ella warned me not to speak English as we observed the meal as she said it is frequently not very nutritious and she didn’t want them to think we were critical. Alyona also receives a half hour of Montessori therapy for cognitive development and then she receives injections of medicine. I asked what type of medicine was used and Ella showed me some pamphlets. It was claimed that one type of medicine increased blood circulation for help with cognitive and developmental problems. The other was for help with cognition, psychic disorders, depression, anxiety, stuttering and some other problems that I cannot recall.

Prayer Requests:

Pray for our friend, Farri, a young Indian Muslim who has become our friend and now comes to dinner weekly. He calls Bill “uncle” and loves American box cakes.
We start our outreach English classes next week on Wednesday evening. Please pray for the people who will be attending.

Double Merry Christmas (and Happy New Year)!

2007-12-21T07:31:00.000-08:00

We have come to the land of holidays! Because the Eastern Orthodox Church is still active here, there are two calendars. One is the one that we are familiar with and the other one is the Gregorian Calendar (Orthodox) which is two weeks behind ours. For this reason Christmas is celebrated twice in Ukraine. We will have Christmas this coming Tuesday and again on Jan.7. There is also our New Year’s celebration and then two weeks later what is called “the Old New Year”. Presents are not given on either of the Christmas Days but on New Years. Dedushka Morose (grandfather frost), who was created by Lenin and looks very much like Santa Claus, is responsible for the presents... I hope this is all clear.

Happily, we are attending a Christmas party at the Myer’s home with the church and college staff. We will have a gift exchange and a dinner so we will not be missing out.

Sorry - no Christmas cards this year. So to all our wonderful friends and family we send you our love and best wishes for a wonderful Christmas season! We miss you all.

Isaiah 49:6 Indeed He says, “It is too small a thing that You should be My Servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved ones of Israel; I will also give you as a light to the Gentiles, that You should be my salvation to the ends of the earth.”

The prophet Isaiah foretold that the Messiah of Israel would come one day as a blessing for all nations. Today we are blessed to have experienced that salvation!

A Word About Our Sponsors

2007-12-14T00:51:00.000-08:00

We wanted to take some time to describe the history and ministry of Jim and Phyllis Myers, who we are working with here in Kiev. Jim and Phyllis graduated from Moody Bible College and pastored non-denominational Bible churches in both Arkansas and New Mexico for a number of years. In the early 90’s after the break up of the Soviet Union, they came to Belarus and started a Bible study which eventually grew into a church there. However, Belarus became more and more of a closed country and eventually they were forced to leave as foreigners were not allowed to head up churches there. They left the church under the leadership of a trained Belarusian pastor and came to Ukraine which was decidedly more open to foreigners and missionaries. Since coming here they have started a Bible College and church. The Bible College prepares nationals for a variety of ministries. Several graduates have started churches in other areas of Ukraine and some have gone to other countries as missionaries. Because the people here are usually too poor to afford leaving their jobs to study, the Bible College provides a free education and a living stipend to the students to allow them to complete the two year program. The Bible College occupies two adjoining apartments in a local tenement building. The church consists of nationals, some American missionaries, and some Ukrainians who are on staff with Campus Crusade. We meet in rooms rented from a local public school. In addition to the college and church, there are several ongoing ministries that the students are involved in. These include Bible studies for a drug and alcohol rehabilitation facility, Bible clubs at a variety of hospitals, and help and visitation to some invalids who are unable to leave their homes.

Our involvement will include help in administering the church and college and outreach English classes. We are currently planning our first English classes to begin in January, and have started to plan for these classes in the last couple of weeks. Our first session will be ten weeks long and we are looking at it as a trial run. It will only meet once a week and depending on the response we will determine if we should expand it when the second ten week session starts.

Because our current focus is on learning languages, we are trying to limit our involvement in ministry initially. That is difficult to do as we are quickly getting busier and busier. I am currently meeting with a young nurse in our church who requested English lessons. Bill has been meeting with the assistant pastors regarding some administration issues. He is also planning on meeting with a friend we have made in the church for personal discipleship and is hoping that this gentleman will be able to help him with his Ukrainian as well. He has decided to learn Ukrainian.

We have been invited to different social events and into people’s homes, and have been trying to reciprocate when we have free evenings. This week we are going with some Americans to listen to a full orchestra and choir perform The Messiah, something which we are truly looking forward to.

Thank you all for praying. We truly desire to have effective ministries here and wish there was a magic pill that we could take to immediately learn the languages and overcome this barrier. We are trusting that even in this time of preparation, the Lord would use us to accomplish His purposes.

Isaiah 9:6 For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given; and the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Our heads are hurting!

2007-11-29T23:53:00.000-08:00

Our Russian lessons have really amped up. After two hours of intense concentration, being asked to read and respond to questions in Russian, we feel as if our heads will explode. And then home and time to study for tomorrow’s lesson. Bill also is continuing to study for one of his last seminary courses so he is quite overloaded. He has yet to decide whether to learn Ukrainian or Russian when we start at the official language school in January. He has surveyed many people that we have met as to which language they feel would be more useful. At times their political leanings influence their answers. Those who have great loyalty to Ukraine and especially those with roots in western Ukraine feel that it is essential for him to learn Ukrainian and that the people here and especially in western Ukraine (should we end up there) will be more appreciative of his knowledge of that language. Some who are either Russian born or miss the old communist system are adamant that Russian is the best choice. As for me, we have decided that it will be best to continue to learn Russian so we may end up as a trilingual family.

Much of our shopping is done at an outdoor market which is a combination farmer’s market/swap meet. You can buy clothes, books, plumbing, furniture, meat, and all sorts of fresh fruit and vegetables. In the last couple of weeks we have developed a relationship with a young Indian man who sells household cleaning supplies. Being from India, his second language is English and he is eager to speak with other English speakers as he does not have a good knowledge of Ukrainian or Russian. His name is Farri and we hope to continue to develop a friendship with him.

This Saturday we are going to a jazz concert at the music conservatory located in Independence Square. We have invited Alla, a friend who is a graduate of the Bible College to go with us. Our church choir director has a husband who is in a group that will be performing (we are working on including a traditional Ukrainian Christmas carol from that group on the blogsite).

Our Wednesday night Bible study this week was on the Magnificat, Mary’s song of praise after the news that she would be the mother of the long awaited Messiah (Luke 1:46-56). The wonderful message for us and all who choose to follow the Lord is that He takes the ordinary people who are of no special importance and uses them to accomplish His purposes. That is who we are and we are hoping that God will indeed use us to accomplish His purposes here.

Prayer Requests: Direction for Bill regarding whether to learn Ukrainian or Russian
Continued relationship with Farri

Luke 1:46-47 My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior. 1:49-52 For He who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is His name and His mercy is on those who fear Him from generation to generation. He has show strength with His arm; He has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts. He has put down the mighty from their thrones and exalted the lowly.

Settling In

2007-11-23T00:17:00.000-08:00

Today is the 3 week anniversary of our arrival and two weeks of living in our apartment. It feels as if it is taking forever to get the things we need for the apartment. We finally found acceptable pillows today and hope to find a good mop and a broom tomorrow. Why is this so difficult? Well, it is the same problem that the majority of the Ukrainians have. You can only buy what you can carry home. I do not cease to marvel at the strength and endurance of these people. A friend told us that there are two classes here, the very rich, and the poor. The rich are increasing in numbers, as you see many modern high rise apartments going up, many cars on the street, and shops here with very expensive things. However, the majority of people use mass transit, carry everything home, and can only buy small amounts at a time because of small apartments with little refrigerators and limited cabinet space. Because of these conditions people shop frequently regardless of how cold or wet it is. The streets and metros are full of people even at nine in the evening. The snowstorm that came in early November has turned to glaciers that cover the parking lots and sidewalks adding danger to these daily outings.

Our Russian tutor, who we mentioned before, is an answer to prayer. Tatiana is a very good teacher with a good method for teaching. Russian is an interesting language. It combines all sorts of strange consonants in blends like sdr, stv, dv, etc. Another complicating factor is the large number of syllables in many words. The word for female professor is “prepodavatyelnitsa” which has required a great deal of practice in order to get it right. I still have to say it in slow motion.

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving celebration a couple of days early at the home of the Myers. They invited several Americans and we had a great turkey dinner, just like home. We met some great people who have different ministries around the city. It is interesting to hear of all the things that one could be involved in, ministries to different types of hospitals, a church that helps a large number of poor widows, ministries to street kids, orphanages, etc. One gentleman at our dinner is a gifted director who runs a musical conservatory and tours with his orchestra and choir. They just returned from a trip to closed countries in middle Asia and were able to perform Christian classical music including the Messiah to large audiences and explain the meaning and origins of these works.

Prayer Requests: Safety on the sidewalks.
Continued prayers for direction regarding ministry.

For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. Ephesians 2:10

Random Events & Observations

2007-11-15T02:38:00.000-08:00

We have been in our apartment for just over a week now and have spent time cleaning, borrowing items, and shopping in order to make it home.

There have been challenges in adjusting to being in a foreign country (as there will continue to be). Examples: 1) We have a small wash machine which takes approximately 3 hours for a cycle. The first time we used it we tripped the switches half a dozen times and then realized that by unplugging the refrigerator and turning off all lights we could successfully make it through a cycle. 2) Our refrigerator is very old and does not have a door on the freezer. We put apples in the refrigerator and the first time we bit into one it was like having an apple popsicle. 3) We do not yet have an internet connection because the people in our building voted not to have internet cable so we walk to the Bible College (only 2-3 minutes away) and use their computers for email when the students are in class. 4) Our building has a security door system so that people have to be rung in after calling up to our apartment. However, a few days ago the huge metal security door was somehow separated from its hinges (the door was propped up at an angle for people to walk under). Thankfully it has been repaired.

However, there are so many good things about being here. We continue to find that the people in our church are very kind and welcoming. We also have an American friend, a young woman named Simone, who is very good at Russian and spent a day teaching us the ropes. She taught us how to make transfers on the metro system (subway type mass transit), which brands to look for in grocery stores, where to buy the best meat, produce, etc., and most importantly, a good restaurant for pan pizza. Bill and I have been on the "Jerry-Subway" diet (kind of). While I have been getting my kitchen organized we have made it a habit to walk 2 miles to McDonalds every night and back. Will it work? We do everything on foot so we should be very healthy very soon.

We had a large snow storm last weekend with over half a foot of snow. It has been fun to see the toddlers in their big snow suits unable to move their arms. It is common to see parents pulling their children along on sleds. Snowmen have cropped up everywhere and when we were downtown there was a major snowball fight going on between school boys in one of the large squares. Unfortunately, the storm has left over 1,000 small villages without power and most still do not have it as of today.

Last Saturday, we spent a wonderful evening with Oksana and her parents, Roman and Nadia. Normal Ukrainian hospitality dictates a meal of several courses and it is polite to eat it all. We did and it was great. They were so generous and sent extra food home with us as well as a gift of a cooking pan. Roman shared many recollections of living under Soviet rule that we were quite interested in. He has worked as a mathematician all of his life and said that at his research institution, it was necessary to get permission from the KGB to Xerox anything at the job. All typewriters were required to be registered with the KGB (dangerous weapons) and they were able to trace all typed documents to the typewriter that produced them. It was illegal to tell political jokes under communism so they made a joke about political jokes which goes like this:

Did you hear that the KGB had a contest for the best political joke?

First prize – 20 years

Second prize – 10 years

Third prize – 5 years

We have started Russian lessons with a very nice tutor named Tatiana. She comes to our home in the evenings. We are eager to learn rapidly as that will be a very important tool for ministry. We met with the church council last night and will be planning an outreach program for teaching English which is scheduled to start in January as the next month is more holiday oriented. At this point we are trying to listen and observe how things are done here. We are praying that the Lord will establish those ministries which will be most effective for us to be a part of over time. In the meantime, we are building friendships with the people of the church.

Happy Thanksgiving to friends and family!

2 Corinthians 9:15 Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!

A Place of our Own

2007-11-05T08:15:00.000-08:00

Psalm 31:19 Oh, how great is Your goodness, which You have laid up for those who fear You, which You have prepared for those who trust in You in the presence of the sons of Men!

We are here! (Oh yes, and it is snowing) We arrived safely last Wednesday and were met at the airport by the director of the Bible College, Oleg. As he drove us to our temporary home in the village of Rozhevka, we were able to catch up as he was an acquaintance from our first trip. We discussed with him our desire to find an apartment and what we were looking for. Two days later he had found an apartment that was within walking distance of the Bible College, public transportation and shopping. He and many others here were quite amazed as there is a shortage of apartments. Thank you so much to all of you who were praying for this for us. The Lord appears to have us on an accelerated course to get started with our ministry here.

Our apartment is very sunny, furnished, and has two bedrooms, a small living room, and a tiny kitchen. And it has a washing machine which is a big plus! We are on the third floor (perfect for when the elevator decides not to work). We move in this Wednesday and will have to start looking for small appliances, kitchen utensils, etc.

We have been enjoying our stay with the Myers at their place in the country. We took a walk through the village the other day and made the mistake of greeting a couple of neighbors in Russian. They both immediately launched into full conversations. We explained that we didn’t understand so they slowed down and spoke very loudly (still in Russian). Until we learn the language better, we will probably just greet people in English so they do not get the wrong idea.

We attended church yesterday in Kiev. It was a wonderful service and it was good to see friends that we had made a year ago. The people are very friendly and kind and were quite happy to hear that our home in the mountains had come through the fire as they had been praying for that.

Our next tasks will be to find a good language teacher and get settled in our place. We hope to start Russian lessons next week.

Prayer requests: Direction regarding which ministries we would be best suited for and could manage during our time of language learning

Southern California Fire Update

2007-10-29T14:29:00.000-07:00

On Friday evening we got the good news that our cabin did not burn in the recent fire. For those of you who did not know, we were one of the many thousands who had to evacuate last Monday. One of the large fires in the San Bernardino mountains started within a couple of miles from where we live and before leaving we were able to see flames from our windows. We packed for our Ukraine trip in a panic in the course of an hour and a half. Left several things at the cabin that we needed and brought things with us that we didn’t need. Nothing that can’t be remedied. We really appreciate the friends and family that prayed for our home. At one point the entire town was surrounded by fire and the fire department was pulled out as it was too dangerous for them to stay. And so, it is quite remarkable that only 10% of the homes in our village were destroyed. God is good!

Get Ready! Go!

2007-10-19T11:17:00.000-07:00

A brief history: Two years ago the Lord got our attention. We were to try something different than the status quo. So we quit our jobs and sold our home in San Diego. Now Bill has 2 classes to take over the internet to complete the 2 year Seminary program, and Ann just received her Teaching English as a Second Language (TESL) Certificate this July.

Two summers ago we had the privilege of interning with James F. Myers Ministries in Kiev, Ukraine. Seeing firsthand their work with a Bible College for nationals and a church plant sparked our interest in going overseas. This April we were honored to receive an invitation to join Jim and the staff full time.

As we complete the final days of preparation, we both look forward to digging in. We plan to drive up to Seattle 10/24 and depart for Kiev on 10/29. This summer has given us a number of opportunities to fellowship with friends and family and receive what we covet the most, the prayer support to do our work through Jesus Christ.

The Lord has done great things for us!

Bill & Ann

Prayer requests:
- safe travel
- ease in finding an apartment and getting settled