Update on school in Verhovina

Dear Friends

Many of you will remember the project we talked about in former letters, at the school in Verhovina near the border of Romania. I am happy to say that the Installing of flush toilets in the school is about to begin on November the 22nd. God willing.

For those who might have forgotten the details of this project, I will recap for you.

A number of years ago, may be 3 now. We were told of this school and that we would be welcome to visit it with Bibles and the gospel.

We travelled the two and a half hours through the mountains to this forgotten part of Ukraine. We found a very run down community with a large school that also boarded students weekly, who travelled from the mountains surrounding the town. The administrator Oxana received us warmly and arranged for us to speak to large numbers of students.

The school has 430-450 students, 250 who board there all week.

There are basically 5 buildings on the property, a 2 story school building, two dormitories, a kitchen/ dining room and a heating building. This town does not have gas, everything must be heated by wood. There are washroom in the dormitories but NO washrooms or even water, in the school building. The students AND STAFF must use the disgusting outside toilets shown in three of the pictures above. The smell is so bad that neighbours in  an apartment have complained.

The original plan was to build onto the school some washrooms. A contractor gave a plan and estimate of $10,000US. When we went to see Oxana about the plan, she told us that they had remembered they had two store rooms in the same area as the plan and we could we see if they would do? Those are the other pictures in the above list. The rooms are full of junk and school records which they will remove. We measured the rooms and we can get 3 toilets in each room and one closed toilet for staff, plus wash basins.

Approximately $5.000CDN has been made available and may pay for all the materials. Pipes, toilets, basins and ceramic tile for the floors and partway up the walls.

Our driver who is also an elder in the Lviv assembly. is going to oversee the project. He has done this with other projects and is very trustworthy and a good worker.  He thinks it will take two weeks to complete with the plumber and tile man and a labourer. Oxana has offered to house and feed the men while they are there at no cost. We are looking to the lord to supply the funds for the worker’s salaries while there as well as transportation costs.

Please pray that everything will go well. The engineer at the school has volunteered to dig the trench to bring water in and the town will put in the sewer.

I will not be there to oversee the work but will be kept in touch daily.

Thank you for your interest in this poverty stricken part of Ukraine with an open ear for the Gospel, both in students AND staff.

Malcolm Stanley

Galatians 6v10

Dan's Reports: #1

Sunday, 6 of November

A full van load Left for Lviv early morning for the remembrance of our Lord and there Malcolm stayed behind for he will be going back home to his wife and family this week. While he was here we covered good ground, the Lord opened the doors for two more schools here in Ivano-Frankivsk and both of the principals of these schools are interested in us coming on a regular basis combining “Christian Ethics” with English as a class, not sure where this will go yet.

We also got a long overdue song book for our gathering to the printer, it will be completed this month. We can hardly wait to have them!

We got back in time for our meeting here with about 20 out.

On Monday we got a legal document made that explains our purpose here in Ukraine. This is needed in order for us to visit the prisons here, our first request was denied due to lack of this document. 

We visited a school/orphanage today and had a talk with the principal about having a meeting with the kids. The school is in town and has close to 500 students and about 150 live there. The principal was very easy to talk to and with just a few questions granted our request and set up two classes to speak to on Wednesday.

Tuesday had a brief visit with Andre (Vadym’s father in-law). One of his daughters will be getting married this month plus he is still going to the village on the weekends and gathering up the vegetables. Earlier this year he was showing some interest in wanting to get a better understanding of the Bible and his own standing before God but got busy and hasn’t been out to the meetings but still shows some interest. One of the tactics of the enemy is to keep those who show interested so busy that they lose all interest.  I hope he does not succeed with Andre!  We had our evening meeting, lighter than usual but thought they listened well.

Thank You for all your interest, please continue to pray!!

In Christ our Lord

Dan

Fall 2011 Visit : Report #11

Report #11 from Malcolm

Monday Oct. 8th.

Went to the airport 50 minutes before the flight to Munich, only to find it had left one hour earlier due to the daylight time change being changed here in Ukraine and no one had notified us of the change. I was the second in line to be told the same thing.

Oh well, God must need me here for another couple of days as the next flights out are on Thursday. I phoned Jean and she was able to book me again with Aeroplan except that I must overnight in Frankfurt.

I guess I learned a good lesson to check flights a day or so before flying.

At least I will be here for the Wednesday night meeting and we are going to the Carpathian mountains tomorrow.

Tuesday.

After loading up 8 boxes plus the 3 or so of Edmund and Agnes’s, we headed off to stock up on food items from the local department store, before hitting the road for the Carpathian Mountain town of Holovesco.  On the way we stopped at the town of Strei to drop off some clothing for the doctor who carves wooden figures, and whose son was recently hit by a bus and received head injuries. We met his mother on the road and she said he was doing well now and was back at school. PTL.

We then headed to the mountains on a nice bright day. Everything looks nice in its fall colours, but we did not see any signs of snow, which was a blessing as they do get very much snow. We met our “guide” Natalia, who has been our guide to the poorest families in the region. She is an English teacher in the 2 small schools in the two villages close by. We went to one of these villages and waited as the people gathered. Some walked down the mountain side as the houses are mostly up the mountains. When we had a crowd, I spoke a word in the gospel. They listened very respectfully. We then gave each family produce and clothing.

We then went back to one of Natalia’s sister’s home, who has 14 children. She gave us lunch and when we had finished about 15 or so women and children had gathered outside. Edmund spoke to them and then we gave out the rest of the produce and clothes. It had turned rather cold as the sun set behind the mountains and we were glad to get in van and head home after a very good day. Natalia was one of the “first fruits of Holovesko”. When we went there many years ago, she got the people together in the community hall and interpreted the 2-roads chart for us. She told us later that she trusted in Christ as she interpreted the chart. She is now married with 2 little girls.

Wednesday was a “get ready for meeting and going home” sort of day, but we had a nice prayer and gospel meeting in the evening.

Thursday we made sure we were at the airport in time and everything went well. I had to stay overnight in Frankfurt so it meant I got home on Friday afternoon, weary but not as tired as other times.

Thank all of you for praying for me and Dan and Howard at Ivano Frankivsk and Flo and Heather in Lviv. All except Dan will be heading home this month, Dan is staying until January. Please pray for him.

I will send an update on the work going to begin in Verkovna school, following this report.

God bless and keep you all in His love.

Malcolm

Fall 2011 Visit : Report #9

Note:  Since Malcolm wrote this report, he missed his plane in Lviv, it left one hour earlier. I have made reservations for him to fly out from Lviv on Thursday Nov 10th arriving in Winnipeg Friday 11^th. The lord must have more work for him to do in Ukraine. Jean

Report #9 for Saturday and Sunday Oct 5&6^th.

Saturday morning we went to a service centre to get them to see what the klunk was under the vehicle.

They put it on a hoist and found it needs two rubbers on the torsion bar. Thankfully it was not more serious and they can do it on Monday at nine am.

We then did some shopping for a folding bed and found one for just under $100. We intend to stand the King size bed up to the wall and use a folding bed instead. This should give us a lot more room to sort clothes in the bedroom. (don’t worry, we got permission to stand the bed up from the landlady. It should be quite safe. But pray for Howard!).

We then had lunch and headed to the school for the children’s meeting and were glad to have about 15 kids out. They played very well together and were well behaved when Howard spoke to them. They learned a verse and sang a chorus in both English and Ukrainian. Dan was very excited and hopes there will be more next Saturday.

We went home and got ready to take Svetlana our interpreter and her husband Andre and her mother out for supper. We had a good meal of Shish Kabob or Shishleek in Ukrainian. We left the restaurant in a pea soup fog and wondered if it would be clear in the morning.

Sunday came and we headed to Lviv in beautiful sunny weather. This was to be my last meeting and I spoke after the B/B. With many hugs and kisses, we parted with the Ivano folk, Dan and Howard and 6 others.

We went out with Flo and Heather to Nesnevachy, the first village we had meeting in when we came to Ukraine. Stefka, a relative welcomed us heartily as usual. It was in her homes that Ross Vanstone and I had good Gospel meetings when the Seed Sower group came over. The family were there and we had a good country meal together. Stefka is not at all well after having 6 surgeries on her abdomen and she had a large hernia now. She is 82 and won’t go in for any more surgery.

Came back and got ready to leave tomorrow at 1:50pm for Munich and home. Thank you for showing interest in our activities that we trust will bring glory to God in time to come.

God bless and thank you for your prayers. Dan will send reports periodically.

Malcolm

Fall 2011 Visit : Report #8

Report #8 for Thursday Oct.3^rd. - Friday Oct. 4^th
We had an early start with a class at 8am in school 21, a new school to us. This was an English speaking class and so we didn’t need an interpreter. They teach English very well in Ukraine. We gave out N/T’s and John 3:16’s. The teacher stayed and talked for a long time.
We went to see the Principal afterwards and had a good talk with him. He is a Bible reading Catholic and seems to lean towards Charismatic Catholicism, but seems very happy with our presentation and wants us to come regularly.
He then gave us an address of an orphanage in another town for us to visit.

We then went to another school and spoke to about 80 students in their auditorium. There was a wonderful reception here and the old tradition, the first for this trip, of signing their N/T’s. Wow! Talk about wrist cramp. Even the teachers wanted theirs signed. Then they wanted group pictures with us in. It was  very good reception for a new school.

We were invited out for supper with Oleg and Ola, good Christian friends. They wanted to take us to a new motel restaurant about 20k out of town. Well it was not where they thought it was and we got really off track. We eventually saw it on a hill, surrounded by a fence all lit up with round lights on posts. To say is was great is the understatement of the year. It had only been open for 3 months.
The menu was magnificent, the service the best.
Out of interest, we got a tour of the rooms. They were the best we had ever seen in our lives and only 300R ($40) per night, including breakfast. Enough about it, but I will include a picture of the 300 seat banquet room.

Today we headed to the Sanatorium we had told you about, where children go for respite after some illness. The room was packed with 100 children  plus staff. They were from about 6 years to teenagers. They listened and participated very well and we were invited back whenever we can come. If it wasn’t for the road, we would go back more often. It also takes 2 hours to get there. We did manage to find a less disasterous road for our return.

We came back to Ivano and did some business with our land lady, who is also Notary Public regarding our vehicle.

We came home and made supper with the remaining pot of goat meat stew, given to us from one of our ladies from meeting. It was very good.

Thank you for praying for us.
Dan, Howard and Malcolm

Note. Malcolm leaves for home on Monday

Fall 2011 Visit : Report #7

Monday was a day we planned to go to my favourite orphanage in this area, in the
village of Yablunuv, which I understand means "Apple village" . We planned to
make a good day of it and visit the village school first. We spoke to about 30
teens and had a good time with them.
Then we went to the orphanage and took some clothing and 2 boxes of thread for
their sewing room.
Howard took 3 balls he had bought in Lviv with money his 3 grand-daughters had
given him for that purpose. There was one soccer ball and 2 volley balls. That is
so sweet when children in Canada think of children in Ukraine.
Dan then spoke to the children about the lost sheep, using some of the kids.
It went very well.
We then visited the maternity hospital to take some baby blankets for new-borns.
We went in a different door this time and went right up to the ward. We had never
been allowed up before so could not get a picture; this time we did. There was
only one young woman in at that time and so we gave her the blanket and a warm
scarf. She was from a mountain village and so came in a month before she was due.
She was very sweet and very appreciative. I will try to post her picture.
We went back to Ivano and were invited to Svetlana, our interpreter's home for
supper. Her mother prepared a scrumptious supper. As we were finishing, Howard
got up and went to the washroom. When he came back he was shaking uncontrollably.
He had no pain but could not stop shaking and was finding it hard to breath. The
family called the ambulance and it came very quickly with two paramedics. They
checked his B/P and found it very high. They gave him a couple on injections and
said they wanted to take him to the hospital.
He walked down the ambulance and Dan and I followed at break-neck speed. A doctor
checked him out and took a blood sample. He had stopped shaking but felt very
weak. She said there was nothing wrong with his blood and she suggested he go
home, as the hospital was full of people with the flu; so off home we went with
no charges for ambulance or doctor.
Howard laid low yesterday and is almost back to normal today, Wednesday PTL.
Yesterday, Ruslan (our driver in Lviv) came from Lviv with a man who can do most
of the work on the washrooms in Verhovina. He was supposed be here at 9:30 but
didn't arrive until 11:30 because of thick fog all the way here. We headed off to
Verhovia, hoping the fog had lifted, and it had and we had lovely sunshine
through the mountains. We did an assessment of the job and availability of
materials. Ruslan will head up the job for us, once Flo Kancir returns to Canada.
He hopes to start on November 19th. When we have a job like this, it is very
important to have a trustworthy man who will control the expenses. Ruslan will do
that and will come up for a week or two with the man and can stay at the school
dormitory and also get their meals.
It was a very long day and I got back at 6pm, just as the meeting started.
Dan took the meeting as Howard was not up to preaching.
Today we had to speak to two classes of students in the largest school in this
Oblast. Over 1200 from 1 to 12 grades. This was a new school and we have a large
group to speak to again tomorrow. It is also the school where we will be having
the Saturday afternoon Children's Meetings in the Gym.
Our good friends Oleg and Ola wanted to take us out for supper tonight at a new
hotel in the country. We headed in the right direction but turned on what Oleg
thought was the right road but found out 20 or so Kms on, that we were on the
wrong road. We eventually found it, perched on a hill and visible for miles. What
a gorgeous place. Only 3 months old and I would say 6 star rating. We went on a
tour of the rooms. Unbelievable! And only R300 per night or $40.00, including
breakfast. It had a banquet room for 300 guests and they have been doing 2
wedding a week. The Honeymoon suite is included free with a banquet. A great meal
for the 5 of us.
And so to bed, tired but well fed today.
God bless and please don't forget to pray for us.
Malcolm, Dan and Howard.

Fall 2011 Visit : Report #6

Report#6 for Thursday Oct.27th to Sunday Oct.30th Thursday was a fix things kind
of day. Not necessarily broken but jobs to be done. We went to order a round
stamp to make some of letters more official looking. We needed to pick it up on
Friday. We can't get things done this quickly at home. We took in the words we
wanted on the stamp and they said it would be ready by 2:30pm on Thursday. All
for 150 R or $20.00.
We then went to the principal/Administrator of School 22 where we are having the
Saturday meetings for Children in their gym. He had his teacher who was the
Christian Ethics teacher and they asked us what we intended to say and do. When
we told them they booked us for 2 days this week. Two classes one day and a large
group in the auditorium the other day. He then phoned another school and made us
an appointment with that Principal. What a God send to find this man.
We had our meeting in the evening with a good number out once again. I had
forgotten to mention that we went to see Natalia, the lady with Ms, the other
day. She is not getting any better, in fact she had problems holding her head up
now, and keeps looking at the ceiling. She is so sweet and doesn't want us to
feel sorry for her. We took some adult pampers once again, as they find them very
expensive to buy.
On Friday we picked up the stamp and got some money changed. The Canadian has
really gained from 7:50 to 7:90r to the Dollar. US was 7:95Rr.
 As we were expecting more people to go to the Conference in Lviv than we could
get in our van, we went to the bus depot to find a 15 passenger van to take us
all to Lviv. This was to no avail as firstly there were no 15 passenger vans and
all the others we booked to go to places. Well lastly we found a man with a van
taxi who was willing to take us, but it was only a 9 passenger. So that meant we
had to take our van too. We had no other option but to hire him for 600r for the
one trip , or about $78.00. We said we would make arrangements from Lviv to get
home. We planned to leave at 4pm and the people were ready, but about 4 people
dropped out at the last minute which left us with 7 of them and the 3 of us. We
couldn't help it and so all the others went with the taxi and us three in our
vehicle. A bit disappointing but as they say, this is Ukraine!
We got to the big Baptist church half an hour before the evening meeting and they
were insistent that we ate some soup and sandwiches before meeting started.
About 70 people were there for the first meeting from Lutsk, Ivano and Lviv of
course. This conference was to celebrate the first anniversary of the Lviv
Assembly.
 The first meeting was for prayer and gospel. A visiting brother from Ireland
Lawrence Mc Hugh and our own Howard Pratt. Most of the people stay at the church
as it had a boarding facility up stairs.

Saturday started with Breakfast at 8am in the church and a Bible reading started
at 10:30 to 12:45. (The longest one I've been at!) . We did all of Mark Ch.1,
with Lawrence leading it.
Then we had lunch and ministry with 3 brethren taking it. Timothy Sloan, myself
and Lawrence in that order. After supper the Lutsk people went home and our group
stayed in Lviv for the Morning meeting at Flo's. Dan stayed with our group at the
church, Howard and I at Flo's.
When Dan was ready to leave the church, their service had begun and someone had
blocked the van in. At first they didn't want to disturb the service to find out
whose car it was. (They say there are 400 who attend here). Any way someone
eventually let them out in time for meeting.
We had a full meeting with about 22 breaking bread and about 9 looking on.
After lunch we managed to pack everyone, uncomfortably, into our van and got home
in good time for our meeting at 4:30.
Altogether a busy but very profitable weekend and now one week left for me and
two and a half for Howard. Dan is staying on till after Christmas, at least.

Sorry for the Epistle but no time to write while away.

Dan, Howard and Malcolm