Friday, October 30, 2009

Ukraine Fall 2009 Report #12


Friday October 30. Report #12.


The weather is rather unsettled, sunny and then light rain but not too uncomfortable.


We planned to do some necessary shopping for prescription drugs for 4 people who attend the meetings.


Things are very subdued in this area owing to the announcement this morning that several people who died within the last few days had H1N1 virus. There is a quiet panic of people cleaning out the pharmacies of cold remedies and face masks. We were in a large department store yesterday and all the staff had medical masks on. We were in the market today and many of the shoppers and store keepers were wearing masks.


So far about 20 deaths have been attributed to the virus. The Prime Minister broadcast today that all schools and daycares will be closed for 3 weeks. There are to be no public meetings, even the pre-election rallies have been cancelled.


So what does this mean to us? Namely two things, the one is that we cannot visit any schools or orphanages, at least to speak to children and secondly, we hope that Poland does not close the border, as it has said it might do, when we head home on Nov 11. We are also wondering about the wisdom to hold any more meetings.


Please pray for wisdom and good health and that things will settle down and the panic will subside.


All for now.


Malcolm

Ukraine Fall 2009 Report #11


Thursday Oct.29 Report #11


We will try not to bore you with details today, but it was different ! We loaded the big van that seemed to be working fine and headed out to an orphanage in the foothills of the Carpathian Mountains.


This is one of the best run orphanages we visit and the Director, Natalia, is probably the reason for it. She has 145 children with a school and workshops for the older children. She relies very much on sponsorship for many of the larger projects e.g. all new windows. She appreciates the clothing and craft items we bring. There were only 40 children there as there was a holiday and many of the other children had family members that can take them for short spells.


Her greatest need was the same as a year ago, namely winter boots. It is hard to believe that boots here often do not last more than one winter, but it is a fact. What she did was give us names and sizes for 45 children who have no family at all to help them with clothing.


We unloaded two boxes at an old folks home in the same village.


We then headed out of town to get diesel at a little service station, and would you believe it, the van would not start, the battery dead! We pushed it but for some reason it would not start. A man agreed to tow it and away they went leaving us to wait for them to come back. They did, about half an hour later.


We get in and head on to the road and clunk it stops again. No more details except that 2 hours later we headed home. The only problem now was that we had a meeting at 5 pm and it was now after 4 and we are still in the mountains. We got to meeting at 5.30 with everyone still happy and singing hymns as they waited.


We had an appointment with a lady who had surgery a week ago to take a tumor from behind her nose. They went in through the nose and got it all. She looked well but was tired. She is a regular attendee at our meeting and confirmed for us that she is born again.


We headed home very tired and enjoyed a good nights sleep.

Ukraine Fall 2009 Report #10

Wednesday Oct 28 Report # 10


I expect that Missionaries all have days like today. A day when nothing goes as planned or right. As we reported before, the big van we have had loaned to us was having charging problems and needed an alternator. Vadym took the van early to the garage that repairs and installs alternators.


Sveta, his wife had gone early to work so we were looking after their two and a half year old, Amelia. I should say that she is a little sweetheart and not hard to look after.


The job was to take about an hour which meant we could be on the road by 10:30 OR SO? Vadym told us to call if we had any problems. The first problem came at 12 noon when Amelia needed some potty care, but no answer from Vadym on his phone. After 10 or so attempts I gave up and assumed he was either dead or the van had run over his phone.


At 1pm Sveta arrived home from work, O joy, O rapture! She had been trying to get Vadym as well.


Howard and I decided we might as well busy ourselves with something, Howard read and I worked on a project on my computer copying CD’s of the Ukrainian bible for a blind Christian lady.


Vadym arrived home at about 5pm! To say the least of it, he was ready to burst. When he went to buy parts, he didn’t have enough money so he had to leave his phone as hock, hence no phone.: then the mechanic ? put the battery in the wrong way and blew the side out of it. The garage had to replace it but had a hard job finding the right one.


After Vadym had cleaned up and had something hot to eat as the temperature dropped rapidly in the afternoon and he was chilled through, we headed out to visit in the city. We called one lady but it was not convenient so then went to Dana and Ivan, the man suffering from radiation sickness since working to clean up the disaster at Chernobyl. I can never relate to such a family with so many health related problems. 5 children, 4 with health problems plus Ivan an Dana. Without repeating all their problems, enough to say they are deeply in debt to friends for repeated visits to hospital and purchase of medicines. The apartment is badly in need of renovating and over half of the family sleep on the floor on mattresses. We have one sponsor in Canada who is prepared to help with some renovations but help is also needed for their medical needs.


We had a good talk with them as to who was saved and it seems that at least 4 of them say they have trusted Christ for salvation, for which we thank God. We plan to purchase some folding beds for them because there is no room for permanent beds. We found some good ones for about $100.00CDN each.


Everyone is in a panic here because of a sickness that has killed 20 people already in the last week. Schools have been closed and people are rushing for cold medications. Seemingly it is not H1N1 but is very sudden and serious. One Catholic priest has died with it too. PLEASE PRAY FOR US.


All for now, hoping for a better day on Thursday.

Ukraine Fall 2009 Report #9

Tuesday Oct 27 Report #9


We headed out to a neighboring town to visit a man who had attended meetings for some time and used to live in Ivano. He has a severely mentally handicapped boy of over 30 years old. He has cared for him all his life and is paid a pension to do so. His wife obviously did not want the responsibility and went abroad to work and then came back and divorced him. He has now married a lovely lady who shares in looking after the boy, who of course is no longer a boy. He just lies in bed looking at the wall and making a sound now and then. It is very sad to see.

Vacilli is a saved man and told us that he was saved after Howard and Eric Fowler visited him over 2 years ago. He has read and studies his bible very well and was very good to talk with. He had visited several churches and was confused that they all said they were the right church. His most recent visit was to a large charismatic church in Ivano. He was not at all impressed but wanted to know what the bible said about their form of worship etc. We had a good time showing him the scriptures and left for home in the pouring rain that didn’t stop all day.

The big van that we were hoping to use on Wednesday was still in the garage while they tried to see why the battery would not keep charged, they charged the battery and said we could try it. More later!

We went to the market for some things, met Oleg who invited us again to his home for tea, we agreed for 8pm.

We went home and got ready for Meeting at 5pm. About 20 people came again and we had a good meeting. I spoke on prayer and Howard on baptism. We are hoping there will be a break with those who are saved and not baptized, that they may want to be baptized in Ivano on the 9th of Nov with 2 or 3 others.

The rest of the story. The van was waiting for us after meeting; the mechanic had brought it over. He shut it off and it would not start! Battery flat again. We push started it and Vadym drove it home, I drove the little van. The rest is too long to relate but the mechanic and Vadym worked until 1am replacing a slipping pulley only to get it running and find the alternator was not charging enough either, this will be fixed today God willing !

While this was going on, we went to Oleg’s one and a hour late but had a good visit.

Frustrated? I suppose I could say that. Please pray for us that we will get to the places we want to get to with many boxes of clothing and bibles.

Keep praying that the home visits will bear fruit as well as the meetings.

Malcolm

Ukraine Fall 2009 Report #8

Monday Oct.26 Report #8

Another day of running around trying to get organized as to who and where to visit.

We had planned to visit a man who has come to our meetings and had a severely mentally handicapped boy. He used to live in town but now lives in a village. We started out for the village only to find that he was in Ivano getting some meds for his boy. We turned around and went to the Half Way House home in town but found that the director was in a meeting until the afternoon. So goes the visitation in Ukraine sometimes. One may wonder why we don’t phone up first. There are two reasons. Firstly it is sometimes impossible to get a person on the phone. Secondly, the people we go to are usually at home or work.

We then went to visit a quite ill lady, Maria, who has had numerous spinal surgeries and uses 2 crutches. Needless to say she had cooked us a bountiful lunch which absolutely exhausted her. She lay on the couch while we ate but we did have a great conversation with her and I think that if she is not saved she is really thinking about it.

We then went to pick up a large van that Vadym can use when we go out to the country and take more boxes than before. Well the battery was dead and so I toed it until it went, but Vadym tested the battery and we think it is shot. Well he left it at his garage and we went on our way back to the Half way house and had a good talk with the administrator, Maria (Again!). We found out what the 25 children needed and will go back later and give them out and speak to the children She share with us how that she has to have 3 jobs to support her family, administrator, teacher and one other.

We were invited to visit Tania and her family for tea. Her mother who has had the problem with her nose is able to work again after 2 years of treatment for her loss of the skin on the end of her nose. It is still evident of there having been a problem but a skin graft has made a big difference. All the family were there for the first time, Tania the oldest at 25 and 4 brothers. They all profess to be saved and certainly seem like a very happy family.

We thank God for the opportunity to visit and encourage these different families. We then came home to bed.

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Ukraine Fall 2009 Report #7


Sunday Oct 25th Report # 7


We were up early Sunday as Vadym had to take the van we were using, back to the owner. Every Sunday there is a massive vehicle market just outside Ivano with literally hundreds of vehicles of every shape size and year. The van was left for the day and if not sold, we would get it back on Sunday night, which in fact we did.


As the meeting is at 3pm on Sunday, 5pm during the week, we spent our time getting ready. We went a little early so that we could put the heater on but it didn’t do too much as the room was very cold and is made of very thick concrete and so retains the cold.


Just over 20 people came to meeting and gave good attention. Howard gave gospel message and I spoke from 1 Peter 2 on the subject of “What does God expect in a New Testament Church?” It was obviously new to some there but I saw many nodding in agreement with the scriptures.


One of the young ladies who is usually at the meetings, Tania, had to work at the coffee shop she now works for, so we went to visit her. Some of you will remember that it is her mother that has been receiving “treatment” for want of a better word, for a problem with the end of her nose where the skin has “slid off”, which is the best way to describe it. Tania told us that they have spent somewhere near $8,000 in treatments and medications. Her nose has not healed but she is able at least to cover it, I suppose, and go to work.


We came home and are trying to plan our week of visitation and distribution.


Malcolm

Ukraine Fall 2009 Report #6

Saturday Oct 24th Report # 6

Our morning was taken up with transferring boxes to the Meeting room from Vadym’s home. There are about 75 boxes but we only took 35 over at one time so that the ladies can sort them out.

We also fixed another light in the room and installed a ceramic wall heater that may or may not help heat the room.

We were invited to Marika’s mother’s apartment for a late lunch and spent a nice time with her mother and her husband. Uri is a lovely man who is in the fourth stage cancer. He doesn’t know it because over here they don’t tell the patient, only the relatives.

He has multiple surgeries and is slated for another one. They told us that things in the hospital are so bad, we could hardly believe it. The elevator was not working to the top floor operating room and so Uri had to get some of his friends to carry him up the stairs. Reminds us of the man in mark 2 with his 4 friends. While he was in surgery, Marika was sent to buy some medication. Not once but 4 times!

Medications alone cost 4,500 R ($555US $608C)and an MRI cost 1700R. ($239 Cdn) . Altogether with doctors costs etc they have had to borrow over 6,000R. These figures may seem insignificant but to these people it is horrendous. When pensioners get just over $100US a month, it doesn’t leave much to live on or for emergencies.

We came home and got ready for Sunday meeting.

Saturday, October 24, 2009

Ukraine Fall 2009 Report #5


Friday Oct 23rd Report # 5


We had several things to do today that took a lot of running around. As I wrote before, we got the Meeting Room back but everything had been piled into boxes and the room was in a mess.


The first thing we did was go looking for a folding table for the ladies to sort clothing on. We went to three stores before settling for a drop leaf table for about $35.00. We then went to meet the banker and pay the room rent and talk about the situation with the room. It seems the building was rented by the local government and they have now found them government property, so the place is empty except for us. He says that we can stay until the end of the year as they are doing a total renovation of the building.

We then went to the Meeting Room and took out boxes of garbage that had accumulated and sorted out the bibles and the many Seed Sowers. We had also bought a wall hanging ceramic heater for the room as we can’t expect the ladies to work in a freezing cold room.

As we were going into the market to buy me some slippers (very expensive, about $5.00 ?) we met Ola one of the ladies who had worked at Solidarity ever since we had been coming. She told us she was no longer part of Solidarity nor was she or her husband going to the meeting at Solidarity. She had her own business now. We were invited to visit her and Oleg in the evening, but as I will relate, we never made it.

It might sound as if we are not doing much “missionary” work, but there are days when one has to get things in order and we do give out tracts and John 3:16 magnets as we shop.

Finale! After supper we headed out to visit Oleg and Ola in a nice Range Rover that Vadym had as he waited for some parts to fix it. We just got on to the main road and it ran out of gas, about 1,000 yds from a gas station. So we pushed it to the pumps and he puts gas in it. We went to leave but it won’t move.

The dash board reads “gear box not engaged” or something like that. We pushed it away from the pumps and after Vadym exhausting every possibility, we towed it home with his other vehicle.

Needless to say, it was too late to visit our friends as we didn’t get in until 10:45pm.

So went a busy day with many little but MOSTLY necessary things

Thank you for your interest and prayers.

Ukraine Fall 2009 Report #4

Thursday Oct 22 Report #4

The day dawned dry but overcast at about 7C. Ruslan arrived at 9:45 am and loaded us up, ready to move us to Ivano Frankivsk about one and a half hours away. The trip is quite good and very pretty through the countryside of hills and valleys. We say several large John Deere tractors on the road, pulling large American pieces equipment. Someone is obviously financing some farming operations .

We arrived in Ivano and went to the Meeting Room to see if we could get in. It was locked up and some men were working in the building doing renovations. The whole building was empty except for our room. We got hold of Marika who had keys and is the lady in charge of sorting the boxes of clothing that are sent. When we got into the room we found that all the metal shelving had gone and most of the cupboards. They were not ours but had been in the room when we rented it. The only thing that was ours and was missing, was the plywood that was laid in the shelving. Thankfully, all our chairs were there.

Vadym was at work so Ruslan took us to Vadym’s house where we unloaded our stuff. Sveta, Vadym’s wife warmed us soup and we settled into our bedroom.

Marika had phoned around to tell people about the meeting at 5pm and about 21 people came into the cold Meeting room, we all kept our coats on.

There were several new people came, 2 men and 3 women, they seemed very interested and we hope will come back on Sunday.

We went out for pizza and then came home to relax. I could not get on the internet last night, but will have to try today.

All for now.

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Ukraine Fall 2009 Report #3

Wednesday October 21, 2009

We got up to a cloudy but dry day with temperature around 7C. We were to start a little earlier as we had to go into the country to a boy’s prison.

First we had to buy some bibles from the bible society for Ivano Frankivsk when we go on Thursday.

We headed out with the load of bibles as well as some boxes of school supplies for the school in the prison. The town is called San Bier and is an hour away from Lviv.

There have been several visits to this prison; I was there several years ago. We were met by a charming Christian lady who is in charge; it seems, of the religious education of these boys. We were ushered into the Head Warden’s office and treated to tea and cookies. After formal introductions, we went into the prison proper, through many locked gates, surrendered our passports and cell phones and made our way up to the nice auditorium on the top floor.

There were 60 or so of the population of 200 boys, aged from 10 or 11 to 18 or so. We didn’t get the actual figures but the last time Flo was there she met an 11 year old who had cut his mothers head off. There are some real young criminals there.

There were several warders with them and the boys looked the picture of misery and hopelessness.

Howard spoke first and I followed after. God gave help as I used the rope “trick” showing how there are not good sinners and bad sinners but rather we have ALL sinned and ALL need a Saviour.

We couldn’t have had a better audience. When we had finished a tall good looking prisoner stood up and thanked us very much for coming. They then all clapped.

We were able to give them John 3:16’s and I was even allowed to take a picture, something that is not usually allowed.

We stopped for a nice meal on the way home and then came and prepared for the meeting tonight in our apartment. There were 14 of us, some were sick and some were working. God gave help to Howard and we then had a birthday lunch for one of the ladies, with birthday cake and fruit salad and meats and pickled herrings. A really great combination!

We are now packed up ready to go to Ivano Frankivsk tomorrow at 9:30. DV.

Ukraine Fall 2009 Report #2

Monday Oct 19 09

Quite cold in our apartment due to little or no heat; it seems that “someone” who has the authority, only turns the heat on when THEY feel cold. The silly thing is that there is hot water and the heat for the apartments comes from the same central heating plant. The other thing that bugs the tenants is that they still pay for heat in October.

Well we have the gas stove burners on that warm up the kitchen, so at least we eat in comfort.

We started out, as usual, by buying food for a baby orphanage in the city that we have visited many times. They only get enough funding to buy the very basic baby foods with no meat products. We brought sliced bread and bologna and watched them eat it up like it was the tastiest steak. They are very well looked after but there are a fair number of mentally handicapped children among them.

We then went to a large market to see if we could get any good deals on winter coats for the children in Lopartin. We struck it good with a store owner and were able to get 25 coats for an average of 200Rhivney each. That is $27.00Cdn. each, We thought that was pretty good. We got 3 other smaller ones for 150R.from another stall. This was not enough for all the children but certainly would help.

Before we left the market, Flo met this old lady begging and was really touched with her story and so decided she would help her Tuesday with some produce.

Tuesday. October 20th

Off to the Supermarket again to get produce for the beggar and two other families in need in a village.

We found the address of the beggar but it was an empty apartment being renovated. No one seemed to know who we were looking for. Flo doesn’t know what to think; either she is suffering a little dementure and gave a wrong address or she is a con woman, we may never know.

We headed off into the pouring rain, heading for Lopartin. I wish you could have seen the reception the kids gave us when we arrived. The usual confusion with the sizing and distribution of coats and more shoes and we were done. Every one given away but still half of the children not fitted with a good coat.

We really don’t have any more funds to spend on this orphanage as there are many more that have pressing needs too.

We were taken for tea by the deputy Administrator and her assistant. This proved to be one of the highlights of the day. We had been listening as they told us what they got for a salary, a mere 1,000R per month for teachers. That is $138.00Cdn. or $124US. Not much for a professional is it? I then asked what they thought the most important thing was in life ? They said it was good health. This then opened the subject of assurance of being in Heaven. We had a good conversation for over half an hour, it was very rewarding.

Off in the rain again for the village of Krasne, where a slightly simple lady lives in a large house alone, since her mother died a year ago. She seems to be managing but is very lonely. We had a talk about salvation and the left a food package.

In the same village live a family we have visited often, where grandparents are raising to lovely teenagers since their mother died of cancer and their father was killed by a train.

The girl Nadia, has the same problem with her kidneys that her mother died of but they think they may have it under control. She is very confident of being in Heaven as she has trusted Jesus to forgive her sins, she told us.

Her brother Volodia is attending a college in a close by town and is a lovely bright boy; however he does not profess to be saved yet. After a good conversation with Grandpa and Grandma we left in the pouring rain for home.

Everyone was very weary when we returned but Flo made a good fish dinner, so we are well fed and ready for bed.

Ukraine Fall 2009 Report #1

Friday October 16, 2009

I arrived in Lviv safely Thursday afternoon about 2 hours late. We had to wait for some passengers to arrive from New York and then were delayed by heavy wet snow in Lviv, not a nice time to land with wet slush on the runway, but a good pilot thankfully.

We awoke to most of the snow gone but very wet and cool. Still no heat on every day yet and no hot water. Two of the Christian men have been painting the apartment and were re-grouting the tile in the bathroom and so we couldn’t shower any way.

We decided to go to the orphanage in Lopartin with clothing, especially shoes and some housekeeping items. We got all the children (there a 135 in this orphanage) and began to fit the most needy ones first.

There were not enough for everyone but we got a list of sizes of the most needy ones and will get some in the market.

On Saturday we had a very interesting and we felt profitable visit to a house, for want of a better name, being used to rehabilitate drug and alcohol users. The Christian man running it has no support from government but just trusts the Lord to supply. He has eight men and boys at present and they were all ready for us, sitting on benches with their own well worn Bibles. Three of them told their testimonies of their former life and what God had done since they came there. It was a very emotional time with many tears.

Howard and I told our testimonies too and it seemed to be a help. We left them with clothes and food items which were well appreciated.

On our way back we stopped at one of the massive hardware stores called Epi Centre. One of the brethren here has been out of work for months but is able to do electrical work. The problem was that he did not have any tools suitable to work, so we felt it profitable to set him up with what he would need to start up. He was most appreciative and kept wanting to buy the cheapest tools but we persuaded him to take some that would last.

We had decided to go to Lutsk on our first Sunday and so two vans set out at 7:15 with 13 of us. We get there just in time for meeting at 10am. It is a long and very rough ride but worth it (once in a while) to encourage the Assembly there as well as Timothy Sloan, the full time missionary. It was good to hear all our men from Lviv take part in the meeting. Howard and I both spoke after the Breaking of Bread.

The work on their hall renovation goes on slowly but surely but is a long way from occupancy yet.

Malcolm & Howard.