Report #19, Oct 28

Report 19 Tuesday 28^th Oct.

We woke to a lovely sunny morning but found there was still a cool wind.

We planned to go to the orphanage we took winter boots to last week and take the boots we had changed for sizes to fit the smaller children. We needed 9 pairs of smaller ones that the wholesaler did not have so headed for the market to find some at the right price.

After almost 2 hours of trekking through the 3-4ft wide isles we found the sizes we needed, what a frustrating search but as last we were on our way, so we thought??

Vadym’s care runs on propane and needs to be filled up every time we leave town as there is no propane in villages if we should need any. There is a city propane facility where the propane is half the price at other service stations. The only problem is the 14 or fifteen vehicle line ups waiting for a spot to fill up. Well I predicted a 45 minute wait and was not far wrong with the 50 minute wait we had. By this time we both felt it was too late to go to the orphanage as it was 1 hour away and we had meeting at 5pm. Any way Vadym was sure he could do it so off we went.

To say the least, it was a fast ride but we made it in about 50 minutes only to find that all the children had walked to the forest for a picnic!!! Well we met with administrator and gave her the boots. We then went to the old folks home where we had left the box of glasses for them to fit some of the old people who were not in the day we went. We headed home at a more reasonable pace in nice time for the meeting at 5pm.

We were met with several ladies who wanted to ask us for help before the meeting started. One lady Maria had a sad story about a teenager who was in school with her son and worked part time at a service station. We don’t know the circumstances but he got severely burned while working. He must have been alone as he tried to get a taxi to take him to hospital but none would take him because he had no money. No ambulance was available so he walked across town to a hospital. They would not take him because he had no money so he walked to another one that has taken him in but now needs money.

His class is collecting money as he has no father. We plan to go to the hospital Wed. afternoon.

Another lady had to go to the doctor with a heart problem and did not have the 30R for her medication. 35R is about $7.00 Canadian???

Well the meeting went well with about 20 out and a new lady who was a reporter for a Christian newspaper. She not only took notes but took pictures during the meeting too.

She is probably a Christian and said she would be back on Thursday.

Marika’s mother gave us two freshly baked loaves of bread she had baked, so we gave Vadym one and came home to have a cup of soup and ham sandwiches.

Thus goes the hardships of the mission field!!

All for now, Malcolm and Howard.

Report #18, Oct 27

Report 18 Monday Oct. 27 08

Monday dawned cold and foggy. They say it froze and some of the apartments don’t have heat on yet.

Well for the first time Vadym was here before the time we had asked and Howard had gone for a walk. We only waited about 5 minutes and he came sauntering down the street.

We had 3 people to visit this morning and went to see them all. The first is a 25 year old young lady who is saved and baptized but is not well at present and unable to come out to meeting; we knew that there was something wrong with the lady but got more details from her mother today. 5 years ago she was attacked by an old man and hit on the head with a bottle, she was then sexually assaulted. She had head injuries and has not been right since. What some people with have to face in a coming day.

We left some help for medication and further treatment.

Next we visited on old friend Maria; we have visited for years who is blind though not totally. She attends all of the meetings and we believe is saved but when questioned, said she was not ready to be baptized yet. At last her home has sewer and water for the first time ever and her brother is doing a good job at renovating her home.

It was noon by now and so we went to a little café we have come to appreciate and had Pilmeny and soup. It was a cold morning and we needed something warm after visiting in unheated homes.

We visited with our banker for a few minutes; his bank is next to the café, to get some receipts for the rent on the Meeting Room. The bank owns the building the room is in.

He is an amazing young man of 28 who manages one of the biggest banks in Lviv plus some in smaller towns. Andre is one of the most personal men we have met in Ukraine and is not at all proud of his accomplishments. His bank is brand new and only opened a year ago, it is state of the art in every degree.

We then went to visit our last lady who is invalided due to a spinal problem. She has had 5 operations in one year but is not cured yet. She is going in for another operation as soon as she can raise the money!!! Oh Ukraine, how sad is your medical system!!!

We had not met her before but she was a delightful lady. We offered her a new testament but she said she did not need one and showed us the Bible that she reads all the time. She may well be a believer, though obviously by the icons and pictures, still wrapped up in the church.

One of the saved ladies that come to meeting visits and looks after the lady and was there while we were there. Well she started setting the table and you guessed it, had a full meal ready for us. Lovely mashed potatoes with mushrooms and perogies, plus hot tea.

Well we could not offend and stuffed down as many as we could. These people are so kind.

We had some thing to buy so went to a very large store, browsed but then bought nothing. Something strange happened while there. I needed some Rhivney and so went to make my first withdrawal this trip. The machine said it had a problem processing my transaction. I tried with a lower amount and it said I had exceeded my limit, so I left it to try tomorrow.

After we got home, my wife phoned to talk and then told me I had with drawn $350.+ out of our account ???? I will have to go to the machine tomorrow and find a phone # and hopefully find an answer. Please pray if you think of it.

All for now. God bless you all.

Malcolm and Howard.

Report #17, Oct 26

Report 17 Sunday Oct 26^th

It’s strange not getting ready to go to the Breaking of Bread Meeting but the nearest Assembly is almost 5 hours away in Lutsk. We had a time of listening to a cd of Mr. Jack Hunter, what a blessing it is to have his messages available today.

We left the house after having a sandwich after noon and visited a man and his mother and then we prepared for the meeting this afternoon. We were happy to see a full meeting room with only a couple of empty chairs. Helene the lady with the crippled girl was out for the second time with a lady obviously her friend. The husband of one of the sisters, who we visited the other day and needs kidney surgery, was also out to what we think was his first gospel meeting. He listened very well.

We plan to have meetings on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, as we leave to go back to Ivano on Saturday. We hope to have a baptism on Saturday in lviv where one or two in Lviv want to be baptized as well as Vadym our driver here. That will be a happy day.

We bought cooked chicken for supper and had a good meal here in our apartment, listened to more of Mr. Hunter and now to bed.

It is much colder tonight with a real risk of frost.

God bless.

Malcolm and Howard of course.

Report #16, Oct 24

Report 16 Saturday Oct 24^th.

We woke at about 8:30 after a good night’s sleep and had our bowl of porridge and a nice slice of fresh bread from the bakery around the corner. We don’t have a stove or hotplate, so can’t do much else. We do have a microwave.

We went for a walk and found the MEEST office. We went in to ask the were a bouts of our last shipment of boxes from Portage. They were sent on August 21 and we thought should be here already. To our amazement we found it had arrived on September 26^th and had already been unpacked and much of it put away. We have never had boxes travel so fast, usually about 6 to 8 weeks. Vadym had piled the boxes and the ladies unpacked them but nobody recorded where they came from. That won’t happen again!!!

We went for a coffee and shared a personal Pizza and then started to walk back to the apartment.

On the way, we passed the only Synagogue in Ivano and Howard asked me whether I had ever met the Rabbi, I said no so he said he would introduce me to him as he had met him 3 times.

We went into the Synagogue just as they were finishing something, as it was the Sabbath remember. The Rabbi met us cordially in his office along with another priest visiting from New York. They asked us what we were doing in Ivano and we told them. The Rabbi then asked if we could bring him a Bible, so we are going to take him one. Then they asked us to follow them to this other room where about 20 people were sitting at tables with food in front of them. Oh by the way, they asked us to wear our hats while we were in the synagogue. They showed us to a table and brought plates of food to us as well as offering us vodka. We declined for mineral water and waited for the Rabbi to pray in Yiddish. He then took two loaves of bread and sliced them up for us praying over it.

While we ate he would start singing and they would join in. Then he had a little preach in either Ukrainian or Russian. After a few more songs there was a break and we asked to be excused. This was granted and we went on home. It was a very interesting experience even though we did not know what was said. Even though we will not be able to remember the Lord tomorrow, we did see the Rabbi break the bread and drink the wine, but it was for a very different reason we are quite sure.

We were eventually picked up by Vadym and taken to his apartment for a supper with his wife’s two sisters and her mother and father, to celebrate the baby’s 18 month birthday. (Just an excuse for a good meal I think !)

We got home tired and full. We will have a meeting a 4pm tomorrow so need to prepare.

Love in Christ.

Malcolm

Report #15, Oct 24

Report 15 for Friday Oct 24 2008

We woke up to a nicer dry day and planned to deliver the boots to the
orphanage in the village of Yablunin. We were shown into the office of the
Director Natalia and spent some time with her as she explained the types of
children in her care. She said there were 140 children, some were total
orphans, some had only one parent and some had been taken out of neglected
or abusive homes. She then offered to take us on a tour of the buildings and
activities. We were very impressed with the whole place. It had been
remodeled with government funds. It had workshops for woodworking, leather
work and shoe repair. It had an infirmary with dentist's chair and equipment
with a dentist coming one a week. A doctor and nurses came in shifts through
the week. They have a small gym with equipment.

The children in the lower grades met in the auditorium and we began to fit
them with boots. What a shimozle, they thought they knew their sizes but
most didn't. Well we finished up with some very happy little people, but
some were disappointed because we did not have their sizes. We had about 6
or 7 left over and will take them back and exchange them for the right
sizes. We were then treated to sandwiches and tea and headed back to Ivano.

We were to go to Marika and her mothers for "tea" at 2pm but did not get
there until 4pm. No problem, just boil the water and have our tea, RIGHT! We
find out that they have a full meal that was ready at 2pm, oops! Cabbage
rolls, meat and cheese open face sandwiches, battered fish, and then a large
bowl of hot home made chicken soup. Dessert was two slices of a chocolate
and jam roll. We were absolutely stuffed but the problem was we were
supposed to go to another Maria's for supper at 6pm. We left Marika's at
5:30. I didn't know until after that Howard had prayed that Maria would not
have a big supper. His prayer was answered when she asked if tea and some
home make cake would be enough PTL.

We had a lovely visit with Maria who speaks and teaches English, also her
daughter Anna Maria and her 16 year old son Andrew were there. Maria
interprets for us when she is at the meeting. We did not stay too long as we
were getting very weary so came home to relax and have an early night.

All for now. With Christian love.

Malcolm

Report #14, Oct 23

Report 14 for Thursday 23 Oct 08

It looks like rain this morning and may well turn to snow, but not too
likely, they say. It rained on and off all day and was a lot colder.

We were hoping to take the winter shoes out to the orphanage today but the
wholesaler had a problem collecting enough shoes from all his little stores
around town. We decided to go and visit Natalia, the lady with MS and so
filled in the time waiting for the boot order by doing so. She is looking
much thinner but is the brightest person you could meet. She can only use
two fingers on one hand now, the others are paralyzed. We had a lovely visit
and poured in the gospel, just in case she is not saved but she says she is
ready to meet God.

We went to get propane for Vadym's car, it runs on both that and gas, but
the line up was so long and so slow. I said we wanted to go home instead and
we could try later. I had managed to buy another internet card and wanted to
try it. Well I tried it and it would not work either. It would come on and
go off. I was not very happy so gave up and got ready for meeting at 5pm.
The boots were ready at about 4 pm so we went and paid for them and packed
the car and then headed for meeting. There were less out tonight, only about
15 but we had a good meeting. After meeting we gave them the seeds Max had
sent, they go wild for them.

So now the fun started. We left the meeting and headed to Vadym's for
supper. About two blocks from his house we ran out of propane and it would
not run on gas, even though it showed on the gas gauge. Well we were right
on this narrow busy street and so Howard and I pushed the car on to a side
street. Vadym in the mean time had called a friend to come and bring gas and
his wife to come and get us. We left him with the car and went to his
apartment. He walked over and told us to have supper while he went to get
gas.

We had finished supper when he arrived because the gas would not work when
they put it in so his friend had to tow him to the outskirts of town to sit
in line and wait for the propane. And so goes Ukraine, nothing is easy.

While there, I hooked into his phone line and sent all my reports and read
my e-mails. We are now sure there is something wrong with the phone line in
our apartment.

All for now, God bless all who read this and pray for us and Ukraine.

Malcolm

Report #13, Oct 22

Report 13 Wednesday 22 Oct 08

Well we got an early start by 9:30 this morning as we wanted to get to the
wholesale in good time to get some product for the poor ladies who come to
the meetings. Some are looking after aged parents some have children and no
husband and some have disabled children, both physically and mentally. We
thought it better to bring the product to the meeting room and have them
come there for it. While going for the product we stopped and sent my
reports on e-mail at Vadyms work, I still can't get the internet at our
apartment.

We then went and ordered winter boots for the orphanage and will get them
and deliver them tomorrow. We went to Vadym's apartment and had a snack
before going into the country to visit another orphanage in a rural town we
had never been to and were told of its need. The road for the last 40 kms
was the worst we have been on this trip; absolutely no way of avoiding the
chuck holes all over the road. We found the home and were greeted by lots of
kids, some obviously mentally challenged. The administrator was in Ivano,
where we had just come from but gave us permission to speak to the kids.
There were 80 in the home and most of them came we think. They were very
well behaved and I think we were appreciated by the staff who were there.
The lady who organized events invited us into he office and gave us tea and
nice dainties. We made our way back over the terrible road and headed to
Diana's for tea and a Bible study in her apartment. She is a sweet Christian
who is hepatitis C and not all that well. She had another lady and a young
university student there as well. After questioning each during the course
of the meeting, we believe each to be saved but were lacking assurance of
salvation. We think we were able to point them to the truth of security in
Christ. We challenged them about baptism and we feel that there may be one
before we leave. We headed home tired but rejoicing, got our own supper of
soup and salami sandwiches and now are heading for bed.

When it is well with thee, remember us! (It doesn't rhyme but you know what
I mean.) Malcolm

Report #12, Oct 21

Report 12 Tuesday 21 Oct 08

We were not expecting an early start this morning as Vadym's car was still
not repaired so he came by taxi at about noon and we went to visit the "half
way house orphanage" we have visited for years. We met with the director who
has been the one we have always met with and she shared how things were
getting so tight financially to run the home. She said that meat had gone
from 18R to 42R in just a few months. There were times when they had to pay
for the food out of their wages. We found that the greatest need was again
for running shoes. We have located a man with a shoe warehouse who will give
us a very good price on both runners and winter boots.

We are also going to buy 30 pairs of runners and 30 pairs of winter boots
for the orphanage we went to last week and take them out to them may be
tomorrow. We hope to speak to the children again when we go.

We had a good meeting again tonight with about 26 or so out, not counting
Vadym and Us. We were really pleased to have Vadym's wife Svetlana out too.
We are not sure whether she is really saved but listened very well.

We went out for pizza after meeting as the meeting starts at 5pm and so we
have not had supper.

All for now, I am about to try to get on line again as it is 11:30 pm and I
hope there will be a free line somewhere. I have been trying since 10pm.

Good night and God bless you for praying.

Malcolm

Report #11, Oct 20

Report 11 for Monday Oct 20

Well today looked like being a day when we could not do too much as Vadym had to take his old but good Mercedes into the shop to have the rear springs replaced, as it was bottoming out and sitting very low. It was to be in by nine and should have been out by 12 Noon. Vadym phoned at Noon and said that it would not be ready as they found that it was not so much the springs that were the trouble, but the frame and they were going to cut out the bad and weld in some new!! It is amazing what they do with cars here and seem to do a good job. Enough of the mechanics course.

He said he would use his wife’s car and so came to get us in that.

We had planned to visit an orphanage in town but found that the administrator was out of town, so will go on Tuesday. We went to visit Luba and see the renovation job that was done on her apartment but found that she was out, so had to go back later. We went back and found that they had done a great job but if someone had not seen it before they would not have thought that much had been done. With it being about half the size of a North American bachelor suite and having a lady and a boy and girl living in it, there is little chance of the place being tidy. How a person can exist in such confined circumstances is beyond us. All this being said, it is now clean and functional with more than the one outlet she had before: new plumbing and toilet and taps; a new cooker and a good front door. She is overwhelmed with the kindness of Christians to care about her. She is a lovely baptized believer.

Well we had arranged to visit Tania and her mother who Tania had just brought from the hospital in Kiev on Saturday. We said that we would pick up some chicken for supper and go there at 5.30. We went and found the mother (forgive us, we can’t remember her name !!) up and about but feeling really drugged. We cannot find a name for her problem but it is something to do with her nose and is extremely painful, hence the drugs.

Three of her sons were there, another one lives with grandma, and then there is Tania who is the only breadwinner as the husband has left them all and is a drunken truck driver. What a nice combination.!!!

We had a nice meal and then each told how they got saved. It would seem that most were saved except the youngest.

We left and came home to try once more to get on line with no success. The lady we are renting from invited us to use a high speed connection her grandson was using to see if we could get on line. We could get on line but not on the internet; most frustrating.

We hope to get help on Tuesday.

God bless and thank you for praying.

Malcolm

Report #10, Sunday

Report #10 Sunday

We relaxed a little this morning and went for a walk up town. We are very near the centre and walk through a park and are soon at the old city hall which is now a museum. It is quite a gathering place and very nice in the good weather. There is a man who has several electric cars for children and they are whizzing around among the people. The parent rents them for a fee.

I found a place to buy an internet card and thought that it would be so easy to be on line again. Not likely!! I have tried for two days and Vadym has also tried and for some unknown reason it will not connect. We are going to phone the company and find the problem.

We went for pizza for lunch at our favorite New York Pizza. And then came home to prepare for the afternoon meeting. I had a cd of Mr. Jack Hunter and we listened to some of his messages.

We were very happy to see a good crowd come again and once more some new faces. One lady was very eager to tell me that she remembered me speaking at Solidarity 3 years ago and didn’t expect to see me again. Another younger lady, who we were very happy to see, was the lady Halia whom we had met a few days ago who had the crippled girl and a baby. It was the first time she had ever heard the gospel and she stayed behind and we talked for a long time, explaining how a person can be right with God.

It seemed no one wanted to go home as most just stayed and fellowshipped, both inside and out. It was so good to see.

We came home very happy and spent more time trying to get on the internet with no success.

Keep praying.

Malcolm.

Report #9, Oct 18

Report #9 Saturday Oct 18 2008

We didn’t need to get going too early this morning as we were going to meet Dana and her son and daughter at the Meeting Room. Her son just got out of prison and had no clothes to speak of. I did not know that she had any problem like that, she had never mentioned to us before. Dana is the woman whose husband went to Chernobil to clean up and now has radiation sickness.

While she sorted clothes, we sorted the New Testaments and children’s bibles and put them into the book cases so that we could see what we had to give out.

We were then taken to Vadym’s apartment for “breakfast” at noon, more like brunch!!

We were quite distressed to see what Vadym, Svetlana and their baby were living in. Because the woman who owned the nice apartment they rented before, sold it to someone else at an exorbitant price, they had to move in with Svetlana’s mother and father.

They live in one room and share the kitchen and bath room. The room is no bigger than 12 ft by 14ft. with cupboards all along one wall. The baby’s crib was across one end and they slept on a pull out divan.

This did not prevent Sveta (short for Svetlana) from preparing a magnificent meal. We were stuffed!!

We had plans to go to a town near the Carpathians to visit an orphanage and an old folks home. We decided that we would need two vehicles, as we were taking Sveta to help us assess the needs in both places but we wanted to take bedding sheets, bibles and 3 boxes of clothes and we could not get this all into one car, Sveta has a car and so we took hers as a second vehicle.

We arrived at about 3pm and were greeted by the lady administrator of the orphanage. We were surprised to find that they had 130 children from ages 6 -17. There were only about 80 in that day as some can go home for the weekend to spend with relatives.

They gathered them into a small auditorium and we spoke to them and gave out bibles according to their age as well as suckers and other things. We were amazed at how well behaved and attentive they were. As they left we gave almost all of them a toothbrush and toothpaste. (Donated by my dentist, Dr. Hans Staziuk).

We left what clothes we had and promised to come back next week and bring more. The building had been renovated and they had sponsors for that but none for clothing, so we agreed to help.

We then went to the old peoples home and, again some were away visiting but we got to speak to about 9 people plus 2 staff. We fitted several of them with glasses but we are still waiting for the stronger ones to come from David Brand. They were very grateful for the bed sheets and clothes. We gave them all New Testaments and John 3 :16.

We left very happy to have made the new contacts and then Sveta led us to this dumpy looking café. She had phoned ahead and ordered supper for us. Well once inside, were we amazed. It was very nice and the meal outstanding. A cold salad, fresh mushroom soup (not my favorite soup!!), then a big platter with pork chops in a sauce with the neatest roast potatoes that looked like little houses or big mushrooms, hard to describe.

Well it was a good day and we arrived home very tired and went to bed before 10pm.

Thanks for reading my prattle

.In Christ.

Malcolm

Report #8, Oct 17

Report 8 Friday Oct 17 3008

We both slept well and woke at about 7pm to a soaking wet day of pouring rain that did not really stop all day. There was hot water for a bath plus the heat is on in the house.

We ate our cereal out of out coffee cups as we did not have bowls. It worked quite well. We had some sardines Flo had given us so ate them on bread. We had coffee and were satisfied until we get some more things today.

Vadym arrived at 10:30 to take us to get some produce to take to shut-ins as well as some in great difficulty. By the time we had shopped at the wholesale it was after noon and so we went to a nice little café and had a bowl of soup and a toasted sandwich, very good and cheap.

We went to visit 4 homes of different people from an old mother with a blind boy of 28 to an abandoned mother with a crippled little sweetheart of 7 or 8 and a one year old boy; and lastly an old widower of 84 living alone except from a little help from a grand-daughter. He recalled for us his time in concentration camps and work camps. He suffered under the Germans, then the Hungarians and lastly by the Russians. While he was in one of the work camps a priest gave him a bible which he carried with him through the whole war and he still has. He believed God preserved him because he read and believed the bible he carried. He may well be a saved man or at least a believer in God’s ability to protect and preserve.

We were able to have good conversations with most and invited those able to come to the meetings. We trust will they will try to come.

We went shopping and came home to a supper of soup, and a sandwich and Pringles.

We plan to visit an old folks home and an orphanage tomorrow.

Good night and God bless.

Malcolm.

Report #7, Oct 16

Report 7 Thursday 16th Oct 08

We woke up to a dull foggy day and got ready to leave for Ivano Frankivsk.
We plan to spend the next two weeks there. Flo was busy unpacking some of
the 17 boxes she had just received from herself two days ago. What a mixture
of shoes, socks and children's clothes. She has an over abundance of every
size of socks and so gave us a large bag of socks to take to Ivano.

At about 9:30 two men arrived to begin laying a ceramic floor in the
kitchen. No one had told Flo when they coming so they took us all by
surprise. Ruslan brought the men as they do not have a vehicle, also Tania
his wife came plus one of our former drivers. So to say the least it was
wall to wall people for an hour until Vadym our driver arrived to take us
away. What a mess we left with the whole floor ripped up and piled in the
hallway waiting to go down in the elevator!! It should look nice when we
get back.

We had an uneventful but rainy trip to Ivano, it takes a good hour and a
half for the trip with half an hour for lunch on the way in a lovely
restaurant in the forest.

We went straight away to look at the first apartment Vadym had looked at for
us and took it right away. It is a semi-basement suite in and old home on a
quiet street right downtown. It is a large bedroom living/ bedroom with
three beds, a kitchen with fridge, micro wave, kettle and dishes also a
bathroom. Every thing is spotlessly clean and very sufficient for our needs.

Well a meeting was planned for 5 pm in the Meeting Room. When we arrived
there was a crowd waiting to get in and by the end 26 people came to
meeting, we were so blessed. We both spoke and The Lord gave help. There
were 4 or 5 people who we had not seen before including one young man.

The next meeting will be on Sunday at 4pm then a bible reading on Tuesday at
5pm.

We came home and made ourselves a light supper, we need to go shopping but
will do this tomorrow.

I got the King size bed again as the other two beds had "hammock" spring
mattresses and Howard said he could sleep in one of those but I felt I would
have a problem. I might have not had a "hammock" bed but neither did I have
a Sealy Posturpedic. The mattress is only about a 4 inches deep spring
mattress. Thankfully I was able to sleep well with only a little hip pain !!

Good night and continue to pray for our visit with many unsaved that someone
will respond to the gospel.

Malcolm & Howard

Report #5, Oct 14

#5 Report for Tuesday 14 Oct. 08

Howard and I decided to stay home today as we were having a bible study
tonight and Flo was just taking some product out to Bookva, the home for
girls. As there is no opportunity to speak to staff there we felt we could
get more done at home.

On Monday evening we took the drain pipe in the kitchen sink apart and
finally got it draining properly. But now we tackled the dripping tap. We
eventually got it apart while the water was off (from 9am to 6pm) and headed
to the little plumbing store 5 minutes away. They did not have a washer for
that type of faucet ??? The man was very helpful though, and drew a map and
we set off to the store, only 1000 meters he said, I think that was after
the first kilometer!! Well we did get a complete repair kit and after
walking back, soon had it fixed. Nothing is easy in Ukraine.

Flo came home and we had a nice dinner of chicken and fries. We then had to
get ready for the bibles study at 7pm, but some arrived while we were doing
the dishes.

Others had arrived by 7:10 and we had a nice bibles study in Matt. 5 on the
beatitudes. We finished about 8.30 and Ruslan took some home. One lady,
Lily, has Parkinsons and was not feeling at all well so Ruslan took her
right home as she usually travels by train and then walks to her house. O
that those in our favored country had such interest in the meetings.

We had an early night as we were leaving early on Wednesday morning to go to
a school.


Wednesday 15th Oct. 08

We were to leave at 8:30 but Ruslan was a little late. We were going
Truskavetsk to speak to a large school of several hundred children. Flo had
met a young Christian, Ruslan, at the Bible Society who asked her to come to
his town.

The ride took over an hour through very old villages and eventually into an
area that had once been the site of mines of some kind. The buildings and
equipment were still visible but none of them working any more.

As we pulled in Truskavetsk, Ruslan met us on his motor scooter and guided
us to the school. It was a large school in very poor condition in need of
complete renovations. We met with the grades 1-3 first in the little
auditorium. Wall to wall kids!! They listened well as I spoke and loved the
picture bibles, and picture verses plus a candy. Next came in the 3-5 and
Howard spoke. The 6-9 were not at all well behaved and there were so many
that there must have been 20 standing. Lastly the grade 11 and 12 kids were
also not the best behaved we have see at other schools. Howard spoke briefly
and then Ruslan, the young man who invited us, gave his testimony. He was
save after spending 7 years in prison for drug use. They really listened to
him and also as I gave the final punch about lives ruined by alcohol and
drugs and told them that God could make a difference in their lives if they
would turn them over to God.

We then left and went with Ruslan and another young Christian man Vasil who
had accompanied us and went to a home for single pregnant women that the
government has set up to help these women. The program started 3 years ago
and they have a lovely hostel style building where these women can stay
until they are able to care for their children. Some very sad cases, but
well looked after. We met with them and gave a little word of encouragement.
Flo left some toys and other items.

We then went for a late lunch at Rulan's nice church meeting room. They were
so thankful for our visit and want us back to speak in another school
whenever we can get back.

And so we headed home quite encouraged by the day.

Tomorrow we go to Ivano Frankivsk, so are not too sure of our e-mail hookup.

Good night and God bless.

New Ukraine Blog

Anatoly and Jeannette Schevchuk are now blogging! See the link on the left.

Monday Oct 13 Report #4

Another lovely day for a visit out to the village where we first had meetingin the home of Stefka, Ola and her husband Orst. They live on what we calla small holding with a large garden of about an acre, a milk cow, two pigsand some chickens. There are a number of fruit trees with most of the fruitfallen on the ground. The fruit does not look good as I don't think they canafford to spray and so the apples all seem to have spots on them. They pressa lot of apples into juice. The potatoes were not good either this year withmany spots mainly because of the very wet harvest season. A grand daughterand husband and daughter also live on the second story of the nice solidhouse. When we arrived they were making cheese and potato pirogues in the summerkitchen. We had brought some winter clothing as well as staples notavailable on the farm. Even though these people live on a holding there isvery little money for such things as cooking oil and cleaning supplies, sowe help out with some of these things. They all agree that it will be a hardwinter for many families who lost all their gardens and do not have anymeans of income. After good meal of borscht and pirogues, we left for Vileki Luben, a homefor mentally challenged children as well as some abandoned orphans. I wasvery surprised to see that a magnificent building that had needed to betotally renovated was now in total use. The last time I saw it, I doubted itwould ever be habitable, but with funds from Switzerland and elsewhere, itwas finished. We were met by the male director and showed into the auditorium where allexcept the youngest children were gathered, along with three staff. We sang"Jesus loves me" to them with a chart then each spoke a little word to themfrom the bible. They were all very attentive, so we gave them all bigsuckers, very generous!! We toured the renovated buildings. What a difference this new administratorhas made: the former lady director had been dishonest with the fundsallocated and was charged and fired several years ago. After a cup ofterrible coffee with all the grounds floating on the top we headed home to asupper of spaghetti and meat balls. God night to all. Malcolm

Sunday Oct 12 Report #3

We were not planning to go to the assembly in Lutsk today and so did nothave to be up before daylight. We had a light breakfast and prepared for the meeting in the apartment atnoon. It was another lovely fall day, not cold but the leaves falling heavily offthe trees. There has still been no frost yet and so there are still flowersin bloom. After we had read a little, Howard and I decided to go for a walk.There is a lovely ravine right at our apartment and so we walked down it andthen up to the road again. I was really feeling my lack of exercise by thetime we got back but it was a great walk. While we were away Flo had made a large bowl of mixed fruit for those whowould be coming to the meeting. People began to arrive at 11:30 and we started the meeting at about 12:15 assome people have a long way to come on buses and so we wait for those weknow are coming. Several people were sick today and so the total number wasonly 11 people. We sang and then Howard spoke on Ephesians 2 and then Ispoke on the vine in John 15. We may be having a baptism before we come home. A lady named Maria andpossibly a man named Volodia. We will have to use the Baptist church if itis possible to use it on a Sunday. We didn't bother with lunch because we were going to the home of Lesia withMS, to have a meeting at 3pm. Volodia was out and agreed to interpret atLesia's and so there were 5 of us who went. When we got there we found outthat the living room was being renovated, so the meeting was in thekitchen!! It was very crowded before any one arrived. But a lady came with 3children, she is their grandma and is looking after them because theirmother walked out and left them with her. She listened very well along withtwo other girls from a family of five children whose parents are bothalcoholic. Flo has left Lesia some help to feed the five children beforethey go to school, as their mother is rarely sober enough to feed them. We came home and Flo made us a pilameni supper with salad and a chocolatecake one of the ladies had brought for us. I missed my Sunday afternoon nap but made up for it after supper but thematron woke me up so that I would be able to sleep tonight. I think she usedto work in a prison!! Not really, we are doing fine. All for now.God bless.

Saturday Oct 11th, Report #2

Woke up at 6am and could not get back to sleep, still a little jet lagged, Iguess. Not a very nice looking morning, foggy and cold, however it turnedinto a lovely day. Had a nice omelet for breakfast and then got ready to goto the Carpathian Mountains to distribute food and clothing. By the time wehad all the boxes loaded, there was hardly room for us!! We filled up withdiesel; the price is way more than the gas at 6.56R a liter. It cost us 400+R at 4.33 per Canadian dollar, that's expensive. The trip starts out on thenew good roads but once you hit the foothills the roads are horrendous. Theheavy rains had played havoc with what road surface there was and then thewater was running over the road still in many places. It is 137 K to thevillage we visit and take 3 hours to reach. We picked a man up who was waiting for a bus, I think, as Ruslan recognizedhim as the husband of the family with 12 children the last time I visited 5years ago, but now has 14 children. There's was the house that had burnedpart of the roof off, and when we first visited with Seed Sowers, we alldonated to buy the metal for the roof. Well our first contact was to phoneNatalia who is a school teacher and was our contact when we first went. Shespeaks good English and was a young widow then but married again 4 years agoand now has 2 lovely little girls. Her husband was busy today working ontheir lovely house, having raised the roof and built another story on it. She took us to find the poorest and most needy families and gathered anumber of them at different locations. Once they had gathered I gave thefirst group a short message in the gospel and Howard the second group. Theconditions some of these people live in is terrible and doesn't seem toimprove at all. Some seem to have lots of children and are always havingmore. We wonder where they sleep them all in some 2 room homes. Once we have spoken a word, we take out the boxes of clothing and they sortout what they want with help from Flo, then we dole out the food itemsaccording to the size of the family. They are all very grateful as there isvery little opportunity to make a reasonable living in these hills. Thefloods did not affect them too much in this area but they had 3 weeks ofheavy rain that flooded all the gardens. Some bridges were washed out. We finished up at the home of Natalia's sister Ira, with the 14 children,all at home plus one married and living at home. She fed us a lunch whilethe people were rounded up from the homes up on the hills. We left theremaining clothes with Ira who doles them out as she hears of need. She isalso a teacher and is very much in touch with the local needs. And so home after a tiring but profitable day; I was hit with utterexhaustion by the time I got home but feel fine now. Good night to all.

Arrival and first days in Ukraine

Howard Pratt and I, Malcolm Stanley arrived in Lviv on Thursday the 9th,
after a good flight on LOT Polish Air. We were met by Flo Kancir and our
driver Ruslan. It is always good to see them once we get out of customs;
thankfully no problem at all with customs this time.

On Friday we went to get money changed, only to find the exchange was the
lowest we had ever experienced. We thought it wise to wait as we were sure
it would go back up. By the evening it had gone from 4.15Rhivney to the
Canadian dollar to 4.33, so we changed a few dollars hoping it will go up
again.

On Saturday we loaded up with clothing and food staples and headed 140km to a
village in the Carpathian Mountains that we have visited numerous times and
is very poor. The recent floods in the region did not affect them too badly,
as the rain started in the mountains and filled the rivers going down on to
the lowlands. However, they had 3 weeks of heavy rain that really affected
their gardens and roads, washing out some foot bridges and flooding gardens.

We gathered the people together in groups with the help of our friend
Natalia, a school teacher and spoke a word in the gospel before giving out
the clothing and food. There are many large families in these villages. We
met with one with 12 children, one with 10 and another with 6. Life is very
hard in these beautiful grassy mountain villages but there is little
opportunity of earning any money. Sadly, some of the men go away for
extended periods to work and leave their farm to their wife and children.
Most have a horse and cart and one or two cows.

On Sunday we had a service in the apartment with about 11 of us. We then
went to a Christian lady's home who has MS and had little meeting with
neighbours in her kitchen.

And so the work goes on with a little here and a little there.

We sow the seed; pray that God will give the increase.

More later.