Dan's report #75.

Dan’s report #75. Wednesday the 4th of December Had an appointment to visit an orphanage in a village called Smonyaka up in the mountains about 2 hours from Ivano. Made it there in good time. We first met with the Director then went into one of the classrooms to speak with the kids but we came in while they were in the middle of a lesson. After I spoke the Director thought instead of going class to class it would be better if I spoke to all at once in the auditorium. By now it was lunch time so they made a nice meal for us but with no meat due to their religious holidays; (the 40 days fast before Saint Nicholas Day).After lunch I spoke to about 150 kids, found it a little difficult but it went well they listened and participated very well. All the kids received candy, a calendar and some received new testaments. We left also boxes of clothes and cleaning supplies. Before heading back to Ivano we went to visit the Director of a school we met while Malcolm and Jean were here. It is a big building but just under a hundred students. The Director’s mother started this school 50 years ago and now her son has become the director. In one of the rooms is a small museum to show some of their culture. This was an unexpected visit but we were welcome to come again to speak to the kids. On our way back we picked up a man that wanted a ride to a village close to Ivano, he works at the prison so I asked if he know of a way we can come to speak with the inmates there but he had no leads. Thursday) There were more protests today in the center of town; no longer for joining the EU, that door in now closed but now they are protesting for CHANGE! In one day they have raised $50,000 to send people from Ivano to their capital Kiev to help the demonstrators there. Left in the morning to a town called Olesh, there we visited a school and met with the Vice Principal. We had planned to visit this school weeks ago but they were having their annual testing and this was the first week after the tests. Before I spoke to the kids I talked to the English teacher, she was very disappointed with her students, their scores were bad and she showed me some of their books and said “how someone can learn from these”, she was so disappointed! The kids listened well and they received candy, calendars and new testaments, also left boxes of clothes for the poor families. Had our evening meeting all went well as we continue our topic on “Wrath”. We have been looking at this in three ways, God’s Wrath, Human Wrath and Eternal Wrath. We are coming to the end and I am now searching for another topic to discuss. Friday) Sasha and I spend some time together to learn each other’s language. Because he can already speak English he is much ahead of me but I can only do what I can! We then made up an invitation to the meetings now in a new place. I wanted to make sure others in town knew that these meetings are open to the public whether they come or not is their choice. On Saturday I printed the invitations and passed them out at the bazaar. Sunday) It looked like thousands of people came once again to the center to protest but this time the priest was at the microphone make his long prayers. I was told he was praying for the demonstrators. Then went to see Andrei who runs a charity and he shared with me some of the projects he hopes to start in the future. Had our gospel meeting, at first it looked like it was going to be small but after fifteen minutes the meeting more than doubled. I was hoping to see some new people from the invitations but not yet. After the meeting went to visit Ivan( the amputee) . He said he thought we forgot about him. I said we didn’t we had just been busy. He was a little sick and said that there is still no improvement in what is left of his marriage. Monday) Met with Sasha and we called a few places to visit for the week. We then went to buy some prescriptions for Roman’s wife who recently had some kind of spine surgery. Then visited Tania who works at the hospital and gave her a small box of baby clothes , she said she can give them to the needy that comes to the hospital and she asked for invitations to give with the baby clothes. Tuesday) We went to have our evening gospel meeting but could not get into the room. The security guard said we are not on his list as we had not paid, so after some time and commotion his boss called and said to open the door for use as we had paid but the woman who has the receipt did not pass them to the woman that does the booking. All went well at the meeting but no new people out tonight. Please continue to pray for these meetings, there are big difficulties with the language barrier and for Sasha’s salvation and with his learning how to interpret!! Thank You All!! In Christ our Lord! Dan