Malcolm Report #3

Report #3   April 5^th and  6^th.

Today we went out to a big maximum security prison with 800 men.
We picked up Oleg, the contact man from Prison Services, (or whatever it is called). He is head of Parole Services and has to meet with every prisoner in the 4 prisons in this Oblast or province.
Along the way we also picked up the Catholic Chaplain of the prison we were going to plus about 10 boxes of clothing that had been donated to the prisoners. This was good as we had run out of men’s clothing. The Chaplain was a very nice old man who seems to have a heart for the prisoners.
It took us quite a while to get into the prison, while they waited for the prisoners to collect in the large auditorium. About 150 or so gathered and listened very well. Both I and Dan spoke. We gave out N/T and John 3:16 to those who wanted them, most took them. The Chaplain sat and listened well.
We headed away and had lunch in a nice little cafe on the side of the highway.
We will be going back to the prisons again next week.

We were pretty tired when we got home. The travelling plus the unknown in going to the prisons I think, take a toll on you. We had to get ready for meeting though and were happy to see about 18 out again.
We had some good talks with some individual ladies. The one, Maria I had not seen for 4 years, so she said, I was so glad to see her back.

We went to the hospital afterwards to visit Svetlana, Vadym’s wife, who had had a sinus cleared that had blocked. She was very glad to see us and hoped to be home on Friday. We then went to see Yaroslav, a Christian man, who took what he thought was a heart attack, but thankfully was a blood clot that they were able to clear. No damage to his heart. We were pleasantly surprised at the cleanliness and efficiency of this local hospital.

Got to bed at about midnight but didn’t need to get up early on Friday.

Friday  6^th.
Today was a spare day with no visits planned. We needed to pick up medications for one man who cannot get out very much now. We had to go to 3 pharmacies before we filled the 4 items. We had to pay the utilities for the apartment at either a bank or another funny place. You pay for the gas and electricity at the same place.
We then had to run around for parts for the van, we need two front struts, they are leaking fluid. They did a bit of welding under the van while we were at the garage. We then visited the man who needed the medications. His wife and son come to all the meetings and were there when Dan gave Michaelo the gospel. He can’t see what he needs since he “has always believed in Jesus!” Sound familiar, doesn’t it?

We went to see Natalia who has MS but could not get into her house. No answer, so we don’t know if she was home or in hospital. Will keep trying to make contact.

Came home to spaghetti supper. (not like home!)

All for now, please keep praying.
Malcolm  Dan and Volodia.