Arrival and first days in Ukraine

Howard Pratt and I, Malcolm Stanley arrived in Lviv on Thursday the 9th,
after a good flight on LOT Polish Air. We were met by Flo Kancir and our
driver Ruslan. It is always good to see them once we get out of customs;
thankfully no problem at all with customs this time.

On Friday we went to get money changed, only to find the exchange was the
lowest we had ever experienced. We thought it wise to wait as we were sure
it would go back up. By the evening it had gone from 4.15Rhivney to the
Canadian dollar to 4.33, so we changed a few dollars hoping it will go up
again.

On Saturday we loaded up with clothing and food staples and headed 140km to a
village in the Carpathian Mountains that we have visited numerous times and
is very poor. The recent floods in the region did not affect them too badly,
as the rain started in the mountains and filled the rivers going down on to
the lowlands. However, they had 3 weeks of heavy rain that really affected
their gardens and roads, washing out some foot bridges and flooding gardens.

We gathered the people together in groups with the help of our friend
Natalia, a school teacher and spoke a word in the gospel before giving out
the clothing and food. There are many large families in these villages. We
met with one with 12 children, one with 10 and another with 6. Life is very
hard in these beautiful grassy mountain villages but there is little
opportunity of earning any money. Sadly, some of the men go away for
extended periods to work and leave their farm to their wife and children.
Most have a horse and cart and one or two cows.

On Sunday we had a service in the apartment with about 11 of us. We then
went to a Christian lady's home who has MS and had little meeting with
neighbours in her kitchen.

And so the work goes on with a little here and a little there.

We sow the seed; pray that God will give the increase.

More later.