Dan's Report No 3

Dan #3 Report.

Sunday the 5th of May 2013

Had our meeting but a small number were out some told me ahead of time that they will be away, I understood that others would be away for the Paska Holliday( Easter). This time is also a time where many go out to the fields to plant their crops so never sure how many will be out.

After the meeting we went to visit Natalie who has MS. She was able to talk but cannot move and it looks like the MS is progressing. Her mother was there and an orphan girl in her teens that the mother is trying to adopt. They reminded me that I have been visiting them now for three years and started to talk about our differences and said, Malcolm like to laugh, Howard is calm, Louie shows much kindness and me they said, I’m like one of them; not sure what this means but one of my purposes is to blend in with the people in order to reach out to the people, I’m hoping their comment was on the positive side?

Monday. Met with Oleg and Olah and their Son Taras and his wife Ivana( they are still in their first year of marriage). Being a holiday both Oleg and Olah were not working so they invited me to go with them outside of town to a new restaurant and hotel. The food was good and not too expensive this is always a plus .The place was very modern and had private booths on the lake  where we ate, they also had a cage with many parrots and a large cage with dear, peacocks and other animals it was a nice place.

When we got back to town in the evening I tried to visit this lady who cannot hear so well to drop off the prescription but once again she was either not at home or could not hear the doorbell?

Tuesday.  I was invited to Andrei’s house for some coffee and tea. He runs a charity in the center of Ivano. I meet his wife and two girls; they seem like a very nice family. His oldest girl is part of an exchange program and spends part of autumn in Germany and in the spring a German student spends part of the spring with them. Andrei can speak  German fluently.

At the charity he is having English lessons and asked if I can help with his intermediate class which deals with conversational English and in return he will start a Ukrainian class for me, I just may be the only one there. It sounded like a good idea so we plan to start next week. He is also a Christian and would like me to preach the gospel as part of an English class to foreigners that can speak English but have no church to go to. We will see how this develops! Had our evening meeting and all listened well!

Wednesday. Made an appointment to visit one family in a town called Harushka, Howard and Malcolm visited them last month. I made the appointment later than I would like because Svetlana will be tutoring until late. Her last student cancelled but instead of visiting this family in Harushka I wanted to go to the lady who can’t hear well to give her this prescription. I do not know what it is for or how urgent she needs them, so we knocked and rang the doorbell (that no longer works anymore because we drained the battery). But as we were about to leave she opened the door, hurray! She was pleasantly surprised that we put the effort to meet with her and even bought the prescription for her. We then began to talk about salvation and the “prescription” for our soul. I ended with telling her the most important question that she will have to answer is “What will you do with Jesus?”. I told her just to think about this question. We then went to visit the family in Harushka and as we got there they had dinner prepared only for us, they ate earlier. Yuri the husband said to me, so what did you have for breakfast? As I tried to think what I had and said a few things to answer his question he then said , brothers in Christ ask this question to each other meaning our spiritual food. I felt like I was wearing donkey ears for not understanding what he meant. We talked about the Bible and the teaching of eternal security and having a sound mind. He then shared with me the situation he and his family are in, living with the unsaved mother in-law. Yuri and his wife Oksana are Christians but not the in-laws. He showed us the property that was bought on credit and he is slowly fixing it so that his family could move in as soon as possible; we were able to help with some funds for materials.

Thursday.   I had an appointment for the Van today, the speedometer and odometer was not working. After waiting more than an hour they did a diagnostic and the only problem was one fuse, this was good news!

We then made a visit to a place for the mentally ill here in Ivano. One young lady that we know was put in there by her mother who, many think that she should be in there, not her daughter. We went together with Luba and Maria her daughter. Tania, Maria’s friend went with us, they were all friends and neighbors to the young lady in the home. They all came to the meetings many times. It was good to see her but not in that condition, they put them all on some kind of drug to keep them calm and they keep a watch on her so she does not escape. We brought a few things for her and before leaving I told to her to read her bible to keep her mind from flipping out! We plan on bringing her more bible materials.

We then had our new Thursday meeting, it was small just four of us but all spoke English and very little interpreting was done. I wanted to interact with them but I did most of the talking and they were very willing to listen! We talked about three of God’s attributes Love, Holiness and Justice and how Jesus was the fulfillment of all of them and that Jesus was the fulfillment of Truth and how Jesus fulfilled God’s salvation plan, it was a good meeting I thought.

Friday.   Made plans with Vitalec,Yarolav’s son, to visit some orphanages and give them onions that Yaroslav  had grown and if he keeps them any longer the onions will go bad. He wanted me to help deliver them to these orphanages. We went to the village in the morning to pick up the onions and met Hallya (Yaroslav’s wife) who knew where the orphanages were. Hallya stayed behind as Vitalec and I loaded the van with ten crates of onions and headed towards a town called Sniaten where four orphanages were. Then we came back to the village and had a little something to eat that Hallya prepared, Svetlana could not make it so my only interpreter was my iPhone which was a great help! We loaded up the van again with eight more crates of onions, now we headed back towards Ivano. One orphanage was supposed to be on the way but after spending much time to try to find it we found out that it was much further than we thought and it was too late to go so we went on to Ivano and dropped off half of the onions at a large school/orphanage in Ivano that I don’t think we had ever been to. Then we took the rest to another orphanage in Ivano that is run by nuns. They knew Vitalec and were happy to see him and were very friendly. They were having dinner and invited us to join them so we did. There are seven nuns and about thirty kids and some adults that live there. There is no age limit to how long the kids could stay, they can stay until they find a job or finish their schooling or decide to leave. It is not a school, just a place where they are being cared for. I think the Catholic Church bought the building and may pay for some bills but for the food and clothing and other supplies the nuns have to find donors. The two nuns that I talked to were very nice and can speak five languages though English was the least that they knew. After dinner they gave me a tour of the place and I asked if it was possible to speak to the children some day? They told me anytime I like just let them know.

Sunday.    Met with Andrei in the afternoon at the charity and was able to preach the gospel to those that were there, they all listened well. Afterwards they had a small English lessen that I sat through and saw a little of the method that Andrei it trying to teach the people with, he said he can teach me Ukrainian in six days? What an advertisement!

We then had our meeting in the apartment and both Yaroslav  and I spoke.  I mentioned how people come to meetings all their lives and everything they hear comes in one ear and out the other, but those here that cannot hear well don’t even get that far.

After the meeting went out with Oleg and Olah for dinner and had a good time together!

 Pray for these local meetings, to strengthen what we do have and for wisdom to reach out to those who have not! Thank You All!

In Christ our Lord!

Dan

A note from Dan and Malcolm. If anyone is talking to or communicating with any of the people in Ukraine who we know, please do not mention anything you read on these reports. Some of them are very private and don’t seem to like the fact that letters or reports are sent around the world. We try to hide things that are private matters that they may have shared with us. Sometimes we share things that really need urgent prayer.

Please accept this in the spirit it sent.

Thank you in Christ’s Name.