Ukraine Fall 2009 Report #1

Friday October 16, 2009

I arrived in Lviv safely Thursday afternoon about 2 hours late. We had to wait for some passengers to arrive from New York and then were delayed by heavy wet snow in Lviv, not a nice time to land with wet slush on the runway, but a good pilot thankfully.

We awoke to most of the snow gone but very wet and cool. Still no heat on every day yet and no hot water. Two of the Christian men have been painting the apartment and were re-grouting the tile in the bathroom and so we couldn’t shower any way.

We decided to go to the orphanage in Lopartin with clothing, especially shoes and some housekeeping items. We got all the children (there a 135 in this orphanage) and began to fit the most needy ones first.

There were not enough for everyone but we got a list of sizes of the most needy ones and will get some in the market.

On Saturday we had a very interesting and we felt profitable visit to a house, for want of a better name, being used to rehabilitate drug and alcohol users. The Christian man running it has no support from government but just trusts the Lord to supply. He has eight men and boys at present and they were all ready for us, sitting on benches with their own well worn Bibles. Three of them told their testimonies of their former life and what God had done since they came there. It was a very emotional time with many tears.

Howard and I told our testimonies too and it seemed to be a help. We left them with clothes and food items which were well appreciated.

On our way back we stopped at one of the massive hardware stores called Epi Centre. One of the brethren here has been out of work for months but is able to do electrical work. The problem was that he did not have any tools suitable to work, so we felt it profitable to set him up with what he would need to start up. He was most appreciative and kept wanting to buy the cheapest tools but we persuaded him to take some that would last.

We had decided to go to Lutsk on our first Sunday and so two vans set out at 7:15 with 13 of us. We get there just in time for meeting at 10am. It is a long and very rough ride but worth it (once in a while) to encourage the Assembly there as well as Timothy Sloan, the full time missionary. It was good to hear all our men from Lviv take part in the meeting. Howard and I both spoke after the Breaking of Bread.

The work on their hall renovation goes on slowly but surely but is a long way from occupancy yet.

Malcolm & Howard.