Well we had a good day on Saturday. We went about 40minutes to an orphanage of about 85 kids. We had not been there before but one of the ladies who comes to the meeting, Diana, the lady who is Hepatitis C. She is a sweet Christian lady and knows one of the lady teachers at this orphanage. We were well received but there were only about 20 children at the home as the ones with any relatives at all had gone home for Easter. We took bibles and clothes and spoke to them in the dining room, then we met the director and he was very appreciative of our visit. God willing, we will go back in the future.
We rushed back (Vadym doesn't waste any time in his old Mercedes !!) because our meeting was at 3pm and Flo and the folks were coming from Lviv for the meeting. Vadym's wifewanted us for lunch for one last time so we hurried over and ate our borscht, fish, varneniki (perogies) and rice. Sveta it a wonderful little wife and cook.
While we were eating Ruslan called and said they had arrived but had not eaten so they went to eat and we finished and headed to the Meeting Room.
As we had received so many boots from Eric Fowler and his friend, we thought we should send some to Lviv and so sorted out some sizes to take back with us. About 15 or so people came to meeting and Gilles Plourde and I spoke. We then had a nice lunch together, fitted some more people with boots and began to say our tearfull good-byes. We can only trust that God will keep this little company together, Vadym is committed to do his best to keep the meetings going with subject helps from us in Canada. Pleade pray for help in this area.
Sunday morning came early as we had planned to go to Lutsk for the morning and we planned to start at 7am, but did not get away until after 7:30 am. There were 13 who went along and so we needed a car as well as the van. It was very nice to see the improvements being done to the highways to ready them for the 2012 World Soccer matches to be held in Ukraine. Also one of the stipulations that was required to be in the European Union was to improve their roads. It is really showing in beautiful blacktop highways. Some of the little towns still need a lot of work on their roads.
We arrived at 10:05 but they had not started but the room was packed. Anyway they found seats for us as well as another 10 or so unsaved who arrived later. Wall to wall people but quite a nice meeting with good participation. There were two men also visiting from Ireland but Timothy asked Howard and me to speak, Howard gave ministry on 2 Cor. 5 and I spoke in Gospel at Timothy said there were 17 unsaved present.
As this was the sixth aniversary of the Assembly, a lunch had been prepared for everyone and was a regular feast, even hot chicken pieces. We had taken food with us so added it to theirs.
After lots of picture taking for and with the brethren from Ireland we headed for home in a lovely sunny warm spring day. The storks are perched on their nest all along the trail ,very interesting to watch.
Well we settled here in Lviv with Avrell in Flo's apartment. Gilles and Helene stay in another apartment but sometimes eat with us, it is all very cozy.
Good night. to all.
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Saturday, April 26, 2008
Truskavets & Starry Rozdil
We headed out to Truskavets early Thursday morning. The school we were going to is actually quite a large school but we were able to speak to only the younger children, about 150 total. We will be going back to Truskavets next week when school resumes since this is Easter week for them here and there is no school for a week at least. When we arrived in Truskavets we picked up Ruslan. Here we have a very good example of the "fun" of learning another language. He probably knows as much English as I know Ukrainian so we both had a very good laugh at this. He got in the van and wished everyone a good morning and then turned to me and said "How old are you?" wanting instead of ask me "How are you". He immediately realized his mistake and couldn't stop laughing. He was so embarassed. It was a very funny moment.
We had a good reception at the school and Ruslan and Flora were able to speak on the true meaning of Easter, not only that Christ had indeed risen, but why He had died in the first place. The kids were all very eager to answer questions that were asked.
Friday our plans were to head out to Starry Rozdil to bring shoe boxes to the kids as well as medecine we had purchased for the kids there. Two boys in particular are epileptic and also one suffers from schizophrenia. For the past several years we have been purchasing the necessary medecine for this boy's home from the money that is given to us from Christians in Canada to help here in Ukraine. Yesterday the director was showing us some documents he was given for work that is supposed to be done at Starry Rozdil. He is being personally fined because this work hasn't been done. There are several items, one being fencing that is supposed to be installed somewhere. However the government is not giving him any funds to do it with. So the money is being taken from his pay every month! Not the money to do the work, but money to pay the fine! There is something terribly wrong with the system but no one seems to know what to do to fix it. Even for purchasing the necessary food to run a home with 85 children in it... the price of everything is rising but the funds given to purchase food hasn't gone up. To purchase the same food and supplies (soaps...) that were purchased last year, we were told that they are short $40,000.00. He has thanked us many times over for what we bring since they don't have to buy those things. We have brought countless number of pairs of shoes there, clothing, disposable diapers, bed pads, fruits, personal soaps as well as laundry soap.
We had a good reception at the school and Ruslan and Flora were able to speak on the true meaning of Easter, not only that Christ had indeed risen, but why He had died in the first place. The kids were all very eager to answer questions that were asked.
Friday our plans were to head out to Starry Rozdil to bring shoe boxes to the kids as well as medecine we had purchased for the kids there. Two boys in particular are epileptic and also one suffers from schizophrenia. For the past several years we have been purchasing the necessary medecine for this boy's home from the money that is given to us from Christians in Canada to help here in Ukraine. Yesterday the director was showing us some documents he was given for work that is supposed to be done at Starry Rozdil. He is being personally fined because this work hasn't been done. There are several items, one being fencing that is supposed to be installed somewhere. However the government is not giving him any funds to do it with. So the money is being taken from his pay every month! Not the money to do the work, but money to pay the fine! There is something terribly wrong with the system but no one seems to know what to do to fix it. Even for purchasing the necessary food to run a home with 85 children in it... the price of everything is rising but the funds given to purchase food hasn't gone up. To purchase the same food and supplies (soaps...) that were purchased last year, we were told that they are short $40,000.00. He has thanked us many times over for what we bring since they don't have to buy those things. We have brought countless number of pairs of shoes there, clothing, disposable diapers, bed pads, fruits, personal soaps as well as laundry soap.
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Rainy Ivano
Tuesday
Raining heavily again today, everything is a real mess. The roads are so bad because the holes are now full of water and every time someone goes through a puddle it washes more gravel out of the hole and it gets bigger and deeper. We planned to go to an old peoples home about 65 km away. I had been there before. We took a bag of clothes and new testaments as well as glasses.We were very well received by the staff. A charge nurse was in charge, a very nice woman of about 40. She was excited that we had come and eventually got the people together in the dining room where we sought to fit them with glasses. Sadly many of them need + 3 or stronger, but we only had up to +2.75. However we probably fitted 8 or 10 of them plus some staff. There are 25 residents and I was pleasantly surprised at how happy and clean the people and place was. We asked what their greatest need was and they said bed sheets and housecleaning supplies. We will try to get some used bed sheets to send to them and will get some cleaning supplies locally. We were invited to Vadym’s for supper again and spent a nice evening with his wife and baby.Howard feels he is getting a cold so we did not stay up late so 2 Tylenol and off to bed.
Malcolm & Howard
Wednesday April 23, 2008
Today is the same as yesterday, cloudy and a slight drizzle. Before long though it turned to a steady rain again and rained all day. O for Sunny Manitoba !!!Well today we had arranged to meet Halia at her apartment at 9am. We arrived on time and found the table set with a full breakfast of potato pancakes, regular pancakes etc etc.It didn’t matter that we had had breakfast, we HAD to eat again !!
Halia is still willing to give us addresses of places we could visit as well as places that had received clothing so that we could visit and distribute Bibles and speak.She then accompanied us to the garage to retrieve the 37 boxes of winter boots that had been sent by Eric Fowler and were waiting to be distributed. There were so many boxes that we had to rent a large van to move them to the Meeting Room.Just to give you a little scenario of how difficult things can be I will tell you what we had to do to get the boxes into the room.Firstly, there was a car parked right in front of the double locked gates to the building the room is in. Vadym went to see if they had the key for the lock on the gate. No key , the manager would be back with in May!! Now the driver of the van gets a bar out of his van and with the help of a hammer, the padlock is smashed off. (We bought a new one later!!)There were double doors into the building but the bolt on the one would not release the door, so out comes a big screw driver to pry the door open and all this done in a steady drizzle of rain!!! Then Vadym had to go through the offices and find whose car was blocking the gate and the man eventually moved his car. We spent about 2 hours emptying the boxes of the boots and piling the boxes on top and inside every cupboard we had, eventually getting them all unpacked and the boxes collapsed so as to make the room ready for meeting tomorrow.What to do next? I felt we should try to mend relations with Andre at Solidarity and so we went over to meet him It was just like old times and although the meeting that is still going on is not something we can fellowship in, thankfully, the gospel is being preached and some have been baptized. We then headed home as Howard had completely plugged up with a cold. I made him a cup of Neo Citron and he is sleeping as I write this letter. We both felt that the day was spent in things that needed to be done and felt God’s presence in both meetings.
Malcolm & Howard
Raining heavily again today, everything is a real mess. The roads are so bad because the holes are now full of water and every time someone goes through a puddle it washes more gravel out of the hole and it gets bigger and deeper. We planned to go to an old peoples home about 65 km away. I had been there before. We took a bag of clothes and new testaments as well as glasses.We were very well received by the staff. A charge nurse was in charge, a very nice woman of about 40. She was excited that we had come and eventually got the people together in the dining room where we sought to fit them with glasses. Sadly many of them need + 3 or stronger, but we only had up to +2.75. However we probably fitted 8 or 10 of them plus some staff. There are 25 residents and I was pleasantly surprised at how happy and clean the people and place was. We asked what their greatest need was and they said bed sheets and housecleaning supplies. We will try to get some used bed sheets to send to them and will get some cleaning supplies locally. We were invited to Vadym’s for supper again and spent a nice evening with his wife and baby.Howard feels he is getting a cold so we did not stay up late so 2 Tylenol and off to bed.
Malcolm & Howard
Wednesday April 23, 2008
Today is the same as yesterday, cloudy and a slight drizzle. Before long though it turned to a steady rain again and rained all day. O for Sunny Manitoba !!!Well today we had arranged to meet Halia at her apartment at 9am. We arrived on time and found the table set with a full breakfast of potato pancakes, regular pancakes etc etc.It didn’t matter that we had had breakfast, we HAD to eat again !!
Halia is still willing to give us addresses of places we could visit as well as places that had received clothing so that we could visit and distribute Bibles and speak.She then accompanied us to the garage to retrieve the 37 boxes of winter boots that had been sent by Eric Fowler and were waiting to be distributed. There were so many boxes that we had to rent a large van to move them to the Meeting Room.Just to give you a little scenario of how difficult things can be I will tell you what we had to do to get the boxes into the room.Firstly, there was a car parked right in front of the double locked gates to the building the room is in. Vadym went to see if they had the key for the lock on the gate. No key , the manager would be back with in May!! Now the driver of the van gets a bar out of his van and with the help of a hammer, the padlock is smashed off. (We bought a new one later!!)There were double doors into the building but the bolt on the one would not release the door, so out comes a big screw driver to pry the door open and all this done in a steady drizzle of rain!!! Then Vadym had to go through the offices and find whose car was blocking the gate and the man eventually moved his car. We spent about 2 hours emptying the boxes of the boots and piling the boxes on top and inside every cupboard we had, eventually getting them all unpacked and the boxes collapsed so as to make the room ready for meeting tomorrow.What to do next? I felt we should try to mend relations with Andre at Solidarity and so we went over to meet him It was just like old times and although the meeting that is still going on is not something we can fellowship in, thankfully, the gospel is being preached and some have been baptized. We then headed home as Howard had completely plugged up with a cold. I made him a cup of Neo Citron and he is sleeping as I write this letter. We both felt that the day was spent in things that needed to be done and felt God’s presence in both meetings.
Malcolm & Howard
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Wednesday evening in Lviv
Good evening
You will have to forgive me for the delay in getting something on the blog for Malcolm or for ourselves. There was no telephone connection at all from early this morning and it finally only just came back tonight.
We were able to get the name of a lady who attends a clinic for rehabilitation massages where Oleg, Flo's nephew's son worked at one time. He contacted the director of the clinic and told her we were interested in knowing if they knew of anyone who was needing some help. This is how we ended up with Lecia's name and address and phone number. We were able to get in touch with her and told her of our desire to help in whatever way we could. We picked up some groceries to bring along and spent about half an hour with her. She told us that she has been wheelchair bound for three years. The doctors do not seem to know what exactly is her problem but she told us that she just slowly lost the use of her legs. Her left arm and hand are also affected. Lecia is 51 years old. They have 6 children, all grown up with the youngest being 15. There are still 4 living at home. The one thing that struck us as we sat in that apartment is how cold it was. She told us that she doesn't know how she would manage if she didn't know that God is there. Flora spoke to her about God and about Jesus and how He died for us and that we didn't have to do anything to get to heaven. The conversation was short because we had only a bit of time before we had to leave. We do expect to return shortly to see her. She very gladly told us we were welcomed to visit anytime.
Tonight we had a nice turnout at our meeting. There were 5 unsaved people there plus others and the gospel was clearly brought out once again.
We were informed that there are about 40 boxes that will be delivered on Friday!!! Where will Howard & Malcolm sleep????
Tomorrow we are heading out to Truskavets to a school again!
Helene
You will have to forgive me for the delay in getting something on the blog for Malcolm or for ourselves. There was no telephone connection at all from early this morning and it finally only just came back tonight.
We were able to get the name of a lady who attends a clinic for rehabilitation massages where Oleg, Flo's nephew's son worked at one time. He contacted the director of the clinic and told her we were interested in knowing if they knew of anyone who was needing some help. This is how we ended up with Lecia's name and address and phone number. We were able to get in touch with her and told her of our desire to help in whatever way we could. We picked up some groceries to bring along and spent about half an hour with her. She told us that she has been wheelchair bound for three years. The doctors do not seem to know what exactly is her problem but she told us that she just slowly lost the use of her legs. Her left arm and hand are also affected. Lecia is 51 years old. They have 6 children, all grown up with the youngest being 15. There are still 4 living at home. The one thing that struck us as we sat in that apartment is how cold it was. She told us that she doesn't know how she would manage if she didn't know that God is there. Flora spoke to her about God and about Jesus and how He died for us and that we didn't have to do anything to get to heaven. The conversation was short because we had only a bit of time before we had to leave. We do expect to return shortly to see her. She very gladly told us we were welcomed to visit anytime.
Tonight we had a nice turnout at our meeting. There were 5 unsaved people there plus others and the gospel was clearly brought out once again.
We were informed that there are about 40 boxes that will be delivered on Friday!!! Where will Howard & Malcolm sleep????
Tomorrow we are heading out to Truskavets to a school again!
Helene
Ivano-Frankvisk
Monday April 21, 2008 This is the report for yesterday Sunday. It always a little different thanat home with no morning meeting. However, we had a good meeting at 5pm butwere a little disappointed that some were not out who we expected. We don’tknow why yet but think it is something to do with Ukrainian Easter which isnext week. We can see crowds of people standing in long cues outside thechurches, waiting to get in to confess to the priest so that they will be“sin free” for “Paska” or Easter next weekend. The all have Pussy willows intheir hands on the way home. Next weekend they will bring their littlebaskets full of food to the church, ready to have the priest bless theirgardens for the coming summer. Sad to say that many of the people whoprofess to be Christians, still think there is some value in thesetraditions. Before meeting, we went to see Natalia, the young lady with MS. We wereshocked to see how she had deteriorated in less than one year. For the firsttime since visiting her years ago, she cried with the pain in her legs andhands. She can hardly open her hands now to use the phone. She says thatnone of the pain relievers the doctor prescribes help her. She is one of thesweetest people we ever meet and dried her tears and said “ enough about me,lets talk about happy things”. Once again, we poured in the gospel to herand her mother and can only hope that it got through all the catholic imagesetc. The good thing was that her Bible was on her table and her mother readsit to her daily. It was well marked. Does anyone know what she or we couldget to relieve the pain? Well after meeting we were invited again to dear Orisa’s humble shack, forthat is what it is, nothing more than a two room shack at the back of someother houses. She had to killed one of her rabbits once again and had alovely rabbit stew with pickled tomatoes. I must say it is one of thetastiest meals we have in Ukraine, as far as I’m concerned. Her mother is still living with her and her husband, but thankfully hermother was up and about and not bed ridden as she was the last time wevisited. She is 80 and can’t wait to get back to the village to plant hergarden. Orisa’s husband seems to be off the liquor for the present and Ithink is working some. So home to bed and get ready for another meeting on Monday night and somemore visiting. Monday April 22, 2008 Vadym phoned to say he would be a little late, as a friend was in a villageabout 50 kms away and needed to be towed to town. The friends father, whoworks at a service station, had filled his car with diesel. The only problemwas, his car uses gas not diesel!!! This gave us the morning to do laundry and get ready for meeting. Vadym came just after lunch and we went to visit three people. The one lady, Luba, who is a baptized believer, lives in the most atrociousone room and kitchen apartment. She has a sweet daughter of 12 or 13 and ason with either ADD or is Autistic, but is often quite a trial. Last year webought her a fridge but she told us it was not plugged in because she had nofood to put in it!! We had also left money for a stove but she elected tohave a washing machine instead because she wanted the children to be cleanto go to school. I cannot describe her kitchen but will try to attach somepictures. The burners were all burned out and the oven door had fallen off.We felt so concerned for this widowed sister that we are going to attempt tofix her little apartment for her. She can go to the village and stay withher mother in law while Vadym gets someone to fix the holes in walls, (allthe pipes in the wall in the bathroom exposed), fix the kitchen, install anew cooker and repair the plugs in the kitchen so that the fridge can be inthe kitchen, rather than in the bedroom!!! One of the reasons is that theboy is on heavy meds and she also because of epilepsy. She owns theapartment but has little left for food or anything else once the medicationis paid for out of a meager disability pension. Her husband died of cancer,just after the boy was born. We know that the renovation will cost a fairamount but God is able to supply. Meeting went well but still a number who we expected out were not out. Six or seven families came to the Meeting Room for clothing during the dayand the rest of the boxes from Flo were put out. Another box of clothing wassent to an orphanage in a village. Pray for Maria who is looking after thesorting and distribution of the clothing, she is a baptized believer and isvery efficient and faithful.
Malcolm & Howard
Malcolm & Howard
Lviv
We had a nice turnout on Sunday for meeting and it was nice for Gilles to get re-acquainted wtih everyone and also for Avrell to meet new people. It was a pretty quiet day.
Monday Gilles and I headed out to our Ukrainian lessons. We decided that we would be staying in Lviv because Gilles is having a terrible time getting his sleep pattern turned around.
Flora and Avrell, along with Misha's helper (Misha the carpenter) and Sasha the plumber and of course Ruslan all headed out to Yosopovitchy. Sasha went along to measure for the plumbing that would be needed to finish off the rest of the plumbing repairs that were needed on the school side of the building. Misha's helper (Sorry I don't know his name) went to put together the shelves that were fabricated to replace the old lockers the children had to put their clothes in. The windows were also measured in view of replacing the old ones. There are five that need replacing at the cost of approximately $400. each. Also the necessary bathroom needs were assessed, ie. new toilets, sinks, plumbing, drains etc... The ceiling in the children's bedroom was being painted. So a lot of work is going into the little Yosopovitchy orphanage again to finish off everything that is needed to make the place liveable. The director has often commented on the fact that if it wasn't for the Christians who donated so much for all the repairs there, they would be in a very bad state. When all the work will be done it will certainly be good for fifteen or twenty years at the least. Another thing that was repaired was the collapsing ceiling in the dining area in the school side of the orphanage. Because of wetness in the "attic" the ceiling was collapsing in an area of about six by six feet. That was all repaired and the attic problems taken care. There is a new roof on the building so that shouldn't be an issue again.
Tuesday we had an afternoon time set to go give out shoe boxes at the little children's orphanage on Pacitchna Street. There are about 100 children all under the age of 7 here. They all gathered together and each "class" put on a little presentation for us, dancing and singing their songs. It was really sweet to see them. When Flo asked the director if there was anything that was needed for the kids, she answered "Yes, I need parents for these children". It is hard to imagine there are so many kids with no families and this is only one of many many such orphanages in Lviv and in Ukraine. Gilles spoke to the kids about Jesus and afterwards we gave out the shoe boxes to the kids. They were all very very happy to get these.
In the morning, I took the bus to Flo's to go get Avrell. It was another cool rainy day. We then returned to the center to our apartment where Avrell was able to access the internet and get in touch with her friends and family.
Later in the day, we saw the Meest bus pulling up to the building. Twenty one boxes were delivered from Canada. We have our work cut out for the next couple of days sorting out all the clothing that came in.
Monday Gilles and I headed out to our Ukrainian lessons. We decided that we would be staying in Lviv because Gilles is having a terrible time getting his sleep pattern turned around.
Flora and Avrell, along with Misha's helper (Misha the carpenter) and Sasha the plumber and of course Ruslan all headed out to Yosopovitchy. Sasha went along to measure for the plumbing that would be needed to finish off the rest of the plumbing repairs that were needed on the school side of the building. Misha's helper (Sorry I don't know his name) went to put together the shelves that were fabricated to replace the old lockers the children had to put their clothes in. The windows were also measured in view of replacing the old ones. There are five that need replacing at the cost of approximately $400. each. Also the necessary bathroom needs were assessed, ie. new toilets, sinks, plumbing, drains etc... The ceiling in the children's bedroom was being painted. So a lot of work is going into the little Yosopovitchy orphanage again to finish off everything that is needed to make the place liveable. The director has often commented on the fact that if it wasn't for the Christians who donated so much for all the repairs there, they would be in a very bad state. When all the work will be done it will certainly be good for fifteen or twenty years at the least. Another thing that was repaired was the collapsing ceiling in the dining area in the school side of the orphanage. Because of wetness in the "attic" the ceiling was collapsing in an area of about six by six feet. That was all repaired and the attic problems taken care. There is a new roof on the building so that shouldn't be an issue again.
Tuesday we had an afternoon time set to go give out shoe boxes at the little children's orphanage on Pacitchna Street. There are about 100 children all under the age of 7 here. They all gathered together and each "class" put on a little presentation for us, dancing and singing their songs. It was really sweet to see them. When Flo asked the director if there was anything that was needed for the kids, she answered "Yes, I need parents for these children". It is hard to imagine there are so many kids with no families and this is only one of many many such orphanages in Lviv and in Ukraine. Gilles spoke to the kids about Jesus and afterwards we gave out the shoe boxes to the kids. They were all very very happy to get these.
In the morning, I took the bus to Flo's to go get Avrell. It was another cool rainy day. We then returned to the center to our apartment where Avrell was able to access the internet and get in touch with her friends and family.
Later in the day, we saw the Meest bus pulling up to the building. Twenty one boxes were delivered from Canada. We have our work cut out for the next couple of days sorting out all the clothing that came in.
Sunday, April 20, 2008
News from Ivano Frankivsk
Yesterday we visited 7 families, mostly ones we knew but one or two newpeople. Things do not get any better for the senior population. We had tearsof utter hopelessness from more than one of the homes. Old pensioner womenlooking after grandchildren who had lost both parents, others who’salcoholic parent had left their family and their spouse and children and thegrandparents now had to both provide a home and some of the expense.The one family that is most serious trouble is the family with sevenchildren whose father is suffering from radiation sickness because he wassent to clean up Chernobyl, after the accident. The man’s name is Ivan, wecan’t think of the mothers name at the moment. I want this family to be madea matter of prayer and provision as their need is critical. Here is a listof the ailments the family has and most of them are radiation related.Because Ivan is not totally incapacitated he receives no compensation orpension. Marika,is 13, the only girl, and is now receiving treatment in Kievfor a spinal problem and something else. The next boy 18, is receivingradiation on his thyroid. The next at 22, was hit by a car and sufferedbrain injury. The next is 26, and has TB. The next boy is 28, and wasworking up north and lost all his toes and half of one foot. The next at 30has just received his fifth operation for what sounds like an ulceratedstomach and is still not right and needs another operation. They have takenaway part of his stomach I understand. The eldest boy at 32 and is ok andtries to help where he can but the hospital and drug expenses justcompletely drain them. Then to cap it off, the mother told us she has atumor but will not do anything because what money they get goes for thekids. She wept the whole time we were there. She is a lovely lady and sheand her husband both come out to the meetings and brought their oldest boylast Thursday. The mother didn’t want to tell us the amount of a loan aneighbor had lent them for the operations the one boy had to have, but wefound out it was 12,000 Rhivney or about $2,600 Canadian. Now the lenderwants to be paid back. They just don’t know what to do and we are not ableto help at this moment although we did give Ivan enough for the train fareto Kiev to bring his daughter back home until they have enough money to takeher back for further treatment.What a mess the health system is in. Not only do the charge for doingsurgery but most of the time it is not effective and has to be repeatedseveral times. Thank God for Medicare. Several other cases were quite bad but we were able to help with some ofthem by buying medication and other needs.Well Saturday was to be a more restful day but one of the thing that hasbeen a tradition for the poor people, in fact all that were coming to themeetings, was to have a picnic. Well the weather has and still is, veryunsettled with many periods of rain, however yesterday started out withclear blue skies. We went shopping at the Supermarket to get enough food for30 people. We had quite the overloaded basket of cooked chicken pieces, coldmeats and cheese, bread salad items and cold drinks. Well at one o’clock we all met at the river bank that runs through the cityand found a picnic spot in the trees. The kids cleared the area of papercups and wine bottles and one of the men lit a fire. Not that we needed itbecause it was just the right temp. The sky clouded over and it reallylooked like rain, but not a drop. However by suppertime it was pouringagain. Everyone of US thoroughly enjoyed the meal, then I gave a littleimpromptu word on a "table in the midst of our enemies" and "the greatsupper to be enjoyed in Heaven "We relaxed the rest of the day and went to Vadym, our driver’s home, for amuch not needed supper that his dear wife Svetlana had prepared. We bothfelt so bad that we could not do justice to her lovely meal.And so home to bed and looking forward to meeting on Sunday as well as avisit or two.Please keep us and these dear, poor Ukrainian Christians as well as the nonChristians who God puts in our path and hearts in your prayers..
Malcolm andHoward.
Malcolm andHoward.
Saturday, April 19, 2008
News from Ivano
Well at last the rain stopped and we had a nice dry day. We wanted to get
things ready for the meeting tonight and the room was a mess so we went
round after picking another 12 chairs the same as the other ones. We were
expecting more people tonight.
One of the ladies was waiting for us when we got there with her squeegee
ready to wash all the filthy windows. She worked on them for over 3 hours
inside and out good glass and broken panes but did a great job. We had
bought oilcloth for the shelves so I cut that and lined all the shelves,
then another two sisters came and started to put clothes on the shelves in
size and age order. Did a great job but didn’t even get to Flo’s load we
brought up and the shelves were loaded.
Once the boxes were out of the way we vacuumed with Vadyms vacuum and the
room looked really nice.. Vadym and Howard went to get haircuts while I
finished off and then we went home to clean up and change for meeting at
5pm.
Well the meeting is now over and we filled all the chairs, what a good job
we got the new ones. There were quite a few new ones who seemed very
interested and in fact stayed long after the meeting to talk etc. We have
arranged to have a picnic on Saturday if the weather stays nice. We are
going to a picnic ground near the river in the city so
will not need a bus.
We are starting to visit some poor people today with Maria who is doing all
the organizing of the visits and distribution of clothes. It looks as if the
best plan is for one needy family at a time come to the room and she will
fit their kids then. It is too difficult to guess what size their kids are.
I think that is all for now.
Malcolm
things ready for the meeting tonight and the room was a mess so we went
round after picking another 12 chairs the same as the other ones. We were
expecting more people tonight.
One of the ladies was waiting for us when we got there with her squeegee
ready to wash all the filthy windows. She worked on them for over 3 hours
inside and out good glass and broken panes but did a great job. We had
bought oilcloth for the shelves so I cut that and lined all the shelves,
then another two sisters came and started to put clothes on the shelves in
size and age order. Did a great job but didn’t even get to Flo’s load we
brought up and the shelves were loaded.
Once the boxes were out of the way we vacuumed with Vadyms vacuum and the
room looked really nice.. Vadym and Howard went to get haircuts while I
finished off and then we went home to clean up and change for meeting at
5pm.
Well the meeting is now over and we filled all the chairs, what a good job
we got the new ones. There were quite a few new ones who seemed very
interested and in fact stayed long after the meeting to talk etc. We have
arranged to have a picnic on Saturday if the weather stays nice. We are
going to a picnic ground near the river in the city so
will not need a bus.
We are starting to visit some poor people today with Maria who is doing all
the organizing of the visits and distribution of clothes. It looks as if the
best plan is for one needy family at a time come to the room and she will
fit their kids then. It is too difficult to guess what size their kids are.
I think that is all for now.
Malcolm
Postometey
Saturday was a warmer day than yesterday thankfully. We started off by stopping at the grocery store to buy some groceries for a family we wanted to visit.
I'm not too sure why but it always ends up taking at the very least one hour to buy the food we want. Today we had the extra hurdle of having to find every
thing in the store since they changed absolutely everything around. The only items which were still at the same place were the meat and the produce. Thankfully we didn't have to wait in any long line ups. Tuesdays are the worse days as there is a 10% discount on everything in the store. The place is often packed on Tuesday. So we bought what we needed for this teacher and her two boys. Her name is Natala and the two boys are Taras and Bohdan. She was so
thankful for the groceries as well as the clothing we brought along from some of the boxes we received lately. She had a small meal there for us and it is obvious she is giving from what little she has. We ate with great appreciation of her kindness and generosity to us. Flo spoke a bit with her and mentioned that Natala is always opened to hearing the gospel.
Earlier in the day we went to visit Flo's sister in law Stefka. Her nephew Orst has had a stroke. He is probably in his early 50s. There has been MRI equipment donated to one of the hospitals in Lviv, the hospital where Ruslan's wife Tanya works. Orst had an MRI done and they determined that this is actually the 5th stroke he has, though there has been no damage from the previous ones. We were happy to see that he can function almost normally and the paralysis that was affecting his left side is almost all gone. He still has greatly diminished use of his left side though. We stayed and visited with Stefka and Oxana her grand daughter who lives upstairs.
Avrell is feeling pretty well normal recovering from the jet lag fairly quickly. This is where age has its advantages I guess. Gilles is still exhausted and spends several hours in the night wide awake. A couple more days and he should be back to normal. We are going to be pretty busy in the next little while as we were waiting for Avrell to arrive so that she could take in as many places as possible. There are so many things to take in... She has her camera in hand at all times and I was teasing her today that she will definitely have several hundred pictures before she is done. It is a pleasure to see her enjoying everything so far.
To anyone who wants to leave a comment on the blog, just leave your comments and your name and send it as "anonymous". You don't have to register anywhere to leave a comment, it isn't necessary. And of course you could always send us an email at ghplourde@hotmail.com I'll pass on messages for Avrell or Flo since they do not have internet access. The connection is there but chooses not to work most of the time.!
Keep us in your prayers .
Helene.......for Gilles, Flora and Avrell
I'm not too sure why but it always ends up taking at the very least one hour to buy the food we want. Today we had the extra hurdle of having to find every
thing in the store since they changed absolutely everything around. The only items which were still at the same place were the meat and the produce. Thankfully we didn't have to wait in any long line ups. Tuesdays are the worse days as there is a 10% discount on everything in the store. The place is often packed on Tuesday. So we bought what we needed for this teacher and her two boys. Her name is Natala and the two boys are Taras and Bohdan. She was so
thankful for the groceries as well as the clothing we brought along from some of the boxes we received lately. She had a small meal there for us and it is obvious she is giving from what little she has. We ate with great appreciation of her kindness and generosity to us. Flo spoke a bit with her and mentioned that Natala is always opened to hearing the gospel.
Earlier in the day we went to visit Flo's sister in law Stefka. Her nephew Orst has had a stroke. He is probably in his early 50s. There has been MRI equipment donated to one of the hospitals in Lviv, the hospital where Ruslan's wife Tanya works. Orst had an MRI done and they determined that this is actually the 5th stroke he has, though there has been no damage from the previous ones. We were happy to see that he can function almost normally and the paralysis that was affecting his left side is almost all gone. He still has greatly diminished use of his left side though. We stayed and visited with Stefka and Oxana her grand daughter who lives upstairs.
Avrell is feeling pretty well normal recovering from the jet lag fairly quickly. This is where age has its advantages I guess. Gilles is still exhausted and spends several hours in the night wide awake. A couple more days and he should be back to normal. We are going to be pretty busy in the next little while as we were waiting for Avrell to arrive so that she could take in as many places as possible. There are so many things to take in... She has her camera in hand at all times and I was teasing her today that she will definitely have several hundred pictures before she is done. It is a pleasure to see her enjoying everything so far.
To anyone who wants to leave a comment on the blog, just leave your comments and your name and send it as "anonymous". You don't have to register anywhere to leave a comment, it isn't necessary. And of course you could always send us an email at ghplourde@hotmail.com I'll pass on messages for Avrell or Flo since they do not have internet access. The connection is there but chooses not to work most of the time.!
Keep us in your prayers .
Helene.......for Gilles, Flora and Avrell
Friday, April 18, 2008
Thursday in Lviv
Just a short note to let everyone know that Gilles and Avrell Bowden arrived safely in Lviv at 2:45.
Sure is nice to see them :o)
It will be a quiet day on Friday as we let these two "jet lagged" ones get some needed rest.
Sure is nice to see them :o)
It will be a quiet day on Friday as we let these two "jet lagged" ones get some needed rest.
Ivano - Thursday April 17
Well another full day of rain, a soaker for the second day. We spent much ofthe day at the Meeting Room, fixing the boards in the shelves and putting upa fluorescent light. What a job for Vadym drilling into the cement ceilingto fasten the light up. Then we could not turn off the power to the lightsso had to do it with the power on, quite tricky with poor old wiring too.Well we got it wired and on and the boards in all the shelves, but leftquite a mess???? I said it was good you were not here; I could hear yousaying “why didn’t you cover or move everything”. The truth was, we did nothave anywhere to move anything to except on the floor. So we will be havinga big clean up tomorrow. Some ladies are coming to help. We are going to getsome plastic sheeting tomorrow to cover the shelves before they put theclothing from the boxes on them. We don’t know what to expect for tomorrow’s meeting, one lady is bringingand another several with her. In view of that we have bought 12 more chairs, they will be here tomorrow. Becausethere is no room to unpack any more boxes, we have not got Halia’s boxes yetbut hope to have room by tomorrow. I really think we should be encouraging some people to come to Ivano as soonas we leave, and continue to meet with these people, we mustn’t let the workslide away again. There are many who need to be saved and many who need togrow as Christians. It seems there is great excitement now that we have our own building
Malcolm
Malcolm
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Ivano & Truskavets
Monday was the day Malcolm and Howard decided to return to Ivano Frankivsk. After my language lessons and a stop at the Bible Society we were on our way. We arrived in Ivano at about 3:30 and started unloading the Bibles and the clothing that was brought along. The room that is being rented for the meetings is very well located near the center of the city. It has large shelves where the clothing can be sorted out and stored, as well as plenty of cupboards for storage of Bibles. It is large enough and when the meeting started at 4:30 the 25 chairs that were purchased were filled. Many of the ladies there are already known to Malcolm and Howard, having attended previous meetings. A good word was given in the gospel and there was a lot of talking amongst everyone after the meeting. Ruslan, Flora and I returned to Lviv a bit later. We enjoyed the scenery on our way back as the sun was setting. Spring is well on its way with trees filling with leaves, flowers blooming everywhere, the cherry trees all in bloom. It truly is a wonderful time of year where everything comes back to life.
Tuesday we were off at a very early hour to go to Truskavets once again. We met up with Ruslan there, the same fellow we were with on our last visit. He had managed to line up a senior's home for us to visit. We did our mandatory stop at Ruka Vitchka the wholesaler, bought bananas and oranges for the people we would visit, as well as disposable diapers & pads for beds. We had a bit of clothing to bring and had several gospels in large print. We also brought some glasses that were received just recently in some boxes that were sent from the states. This might be a good opportunity to remind everyone that we can only give out reading glasses. We were met by the director of the senior's home. About fifty people assembled in the auditorium, many of them handicapped. We all had a little word to give them and they all listened nicely. There was one gentleman who stood out. His name is Stephan and he is 77 years old. When he saw us arrive he went to his room and changed into his best clothes, Ukrainian shirt under his suit coat, a bright smile on his face and a very proud gentleman no doubt. He was such a pleasure to see. When I had spoken to the people, I had mentioned that I could speak French and English but apologized for not being able to speak to them in Ukrainian. Well, Stephan kept talking to me in German!! Some ladies came to tell me how old they were as I had mentioned the age of my parents at home. We gave everyone a John 3:16 text and a banana as well as an orange. Afterwards we went to see the people who were bed ridden. This was not an easy task and poor Ruslan was besides himself. The smell in the rooms was not very pleasant at all. Sanitation is always less than ideal in these places, whether they are orphanages for children, or as we saw today, in homes for the aged. Again we left them the texts and fruits and were on our way back home. I do not know how much they understood of what we told them, but when it was mentioned that under Communism they were taught there was no God, they all nodded and they also all agreed that in their hearts they knew that it was false and that there had to be a God.
Tuesday we were off at a very early hour to go to Truskavets once again. We met up with Ruslan there, the same fellow we were with on our last visit. He had managed to line up a senior's home for us to visit. We did our mandatory stop at Ruka Vitchka the wholesaler, bought bananas and oranges for the people we would visit, as well as disposable diapers & pads for beds. We had a bit of clothing to bring and had several gospels in large print. We also brought some glasses that were received just recently in some boxes that were sent from the states. This might be a good opportunity to remind everyone that we can only give out reading glasses. We were met by the director of the senior's home. About fifty people assembled in the auditorium, many of them handicapped. We all had a little word to give them and they all listened nicely. There was one gentleman who stood out. His name is Stephan and he is 77 years old. When he saw us arrive he went to his room and changed into his best clothes, Ukrainian shirt under his suit coat, a bright smile on his face and a very proud gentleman no doubt. He was such a pleasure to see. When I had spoken to the people, I had mentioned that I could speak French and English but apologized for not being able to speak to them in Ukrainian. Well, Stephan kept talking to me in German!! Some ladies came to tell me how old they were as I had mentioned the age of my parents at home. We gave everyone a John 3:16 text and a banana as well as an orange. Afterwards we went to see the people who were bed ridden. This was not an easy task and poor Ruslan was besides himself. The smell in the rooms was not very pleasant at all. Sanitation is always less than ideal in these places, whether they are orphanages for children, or as we saw today, in homes for the aged. Again we left them the texts and fruits and were on our way back home. I do not know how much they understood of what we told them, but when it was mentioned that under Communism they were taught there was no God, they all nodded and they also all agreed that in their hearts they knew that it was false and that there had to be a God.
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