Week of April 6th

Dear Friends
I will need to give you a condensed version of the events of this week. I have been struggling with a terrible allergic reaction to a combination of things here and have not had a clear enough head to work at a daily report.

Monday we went out to a school of a thousand children, but were able to see only about half of them. We noticed that the acoustics were very poor in this auditorium where we were to speak to the kids. The children filed in and we spoke to the grades two three and four. As usual the students were very attentive to what was being said and they each received a Children’s bible, as well as a scripture text and some candies. While Flo was speaking we noticed the sound wasn’t carrying at all. It was very difficult to be heard. After these little ones left, these other older children filed in. We were told these were the grades seven and that they were very difficult students. Well, that should have served as our first warning. Flo was trying to speak but Ruslan had to interrupt her over and over again and ask the kids to keep quiet and please listen. Misha also made an honest attempt at speaking to the kids. He had a 10 rhivny bill in his hands and invited “whoever” to come and take it. One boy in particular came forward and when he saw that all Misha had was a “ten”, the boy said “I don’t need it.” At this point it was getting harder and harder for Misha to make himself heard over the noise. Ruslan took over and his voice carried quite well, but the kids had absolutely no interest except for a few teens in the front row. After they received their new testaments and scripture texts, some of the kids stayed around and wanted to talk to us in English. We stayed around for a few minutes but had to leave as we had other places to go and were already an hour away from Lviv. We had expected Anatoly and Jeannette from Lutsk to come over but upon calling them we found they were only arriving the following morning.

Tuesday we had the pleasure of going for lunch at Ruslan and Tanya’s apartment and met with Jeannette and Anatoly there. It was an enjoyable relaxing time. Afterwards we returned home to prepare the apartment for the meeting. We had a nice turnout tonight with some coming who hadn’t been around lately. Anatoly took the meeting and we all enjoyed a bit of time together afterwards before being driven to our respective homes.

Wednesday I kidnapped Jeannette and we spent the day together walking around the center of the city and enjoying each other’s company. She has now been living in Ukraine for six month and is still adjusting to the different life here. I think she appreciated spending the day and talking with an English speaking person. While we were walking around, Ruslan, Anatoly and Flo went off to another school, met with the escort that had been arranged for us through the bible society and were able to preach the gospel to another large group of students. The reception was good at this school.

Thursday – we left early today to return to that same town as yesterday but to a different school. We had been warned that this was a very difficult school to get into to speak to the kids. We were shown to the auditorium and the grades one thru four came in and sat down on the wooden benches and were very very attentive and answered questions. While the kids were quiet on the benches, there was some unrest at the back of the auditorium as the teachers and director were discussing our presence there. They did not seem very happy to have us talking to the kids. We handed out the Children’s New Testaments to all the children there, as well as some toys we had brought for the younger ones….something we always do. Well, we were not to distribute anything else to anyone else as we were told they didn’t want us talking to the kids anymore and no, we were not going to be seeing the older grades. Basically we were being shown to the back door! Seems they thought we belonged to some cult and no amount of talking could get them to change their minds. So it ended up being a very short day as far as school visits are concerned.
We returned to Lviv and went for lunch and then I came home to finish packing my suitcases.
I will be flying out tomorrow afternoon 2:30 pm Lviv time. Never have I seen five weeks go by so fast. There is much to be thankful for in this visit. Flora will be staying behind till June 5th. On April 26th Gilles will be joining her here for six weeks. In the middle of May Jean Lee from North Carolina will be joining both of them for a three week period. I will try to keep some sort of update on the work here since I am sure I will be calling Gilles often! Malcolm Stanley and Louis Smith are leaving at the end of next week. Also tomorrow Apr 10th, Timothy Sloan and his wife Rhoda are returning to Lutsk for a five week period.
God bless you all for your interest in the work here in Ukraine. Please keep us in your prayers.
Helene