Spring 2011 - Report #16

Report 16 April 14th

My last full day in Ivano Frankivsk. Not too much to report as to visits. I got up at 7am and baked t2 batches of Carrot cake muffins that Jean sent with me. They are for our “last supper” tonight.

We were supposed to go to Petriliv or Peter village in English, but the mayor who loves to take us around was away and so we will go tomorrow before going to Lviv.

We did visit one lady who used to come to meetings but has had a hip surgery that is taking a long time to heal. She invited a neighbour in who has 5 children and a husband who just “comes over” every now and again and gives nothing to his wife to keep house but drinks his pension. She seemed very clear on the gospel and said her only hope was in God. She lives in 2 rooms with her 2 teen boys and the youngest at 2 years old. She has to share a cooking area and bathrooms. I wanted to give her some financial help from me and Dan but she completely refused it and pushed it into my pocket. That is a first for Ukraine!

We also visited one of Dana’s sons, the lady I wrote about yesterday. He wanted to show us the apartment he was “remodelling”, for want of a better word! I have never seen such a hopeless project in my life. It was a ground floor 1 room apartment. The bathroom had been gutted and water was running from a leaking pipe from the apartment above. The owner, a police man and his wife will not allow anyone in to repair the leak as it isn’t leaking into their apartment. The young man has been to the authorities but they can’t do anything about it. Can you believe that? I took pictures but my camera does not record smell, it was awful.

Well I think just about all the people came to meeting at 5pm. We changed the format to a bible study and sat around in a square. We started in John’s gospel and the interest was very encouraging. We then had a lunch of muffins, cookies and pop. Everyone seemed to enjoy the time and there were tears as we said our good bye. Dan is planning to continue with studies with the help of Edmund when he can come from Lviv.

I am hoping Daniel will write at least weekly and let us know how things are progressing. He has booked lessons in Ukrainian, beginning 2 days next week. Pray for him.

Malcolm and Dan.