Saturday, September 29, 2007
Today was a long day for everyone. We left Kirovograd at 9 a.m., heading about 30 miles across country to Znamenka for Sabbath school and worship service. Shawn McCrery gave a sermon on having our eyes open to the power of God, preaching on Luke 24, Jesus’ appearance on the road to Emmaus. He said that Jesus gave them understanding and power as they opened the scriptures about Him, and that their hearts “burned within them” because of their eyes being opened to God. He challenged the Znamenka church members to walk on the road and take people to meet Jesus. The church was small and old, so the members built an addition using railroad ties. One would never know, as the church is beautifully finished, plastered, and painted. The pastor has a vegetable and flower garden in the back.

Then the team met back in Kirovograd for a “light lunch” (see "light supper" Sept. 28) that included borscht (vegetable soup, highly recommended!) and oatmeal patties in a tomato sauce.

At 2:30, they headed back south, through a small village called Cbutny, or “Sabbath.” About 120 years ago, said our translator, there was a group of Adventists who founded the village. During the Second World War, some were rounded up and shot dead. A handful of Adventists remain in the village. An old woman sat with her goats while they mowed the roadside, and cattle grazed in a small field. That was all the movement we saw as we sped through.

At Alexandriya, we visited the church which was purchased about 10 years ago. As we stepped inside, we walked on large stone flags, past a wall of lathe lattice, and wattle, before entering the sanctuary, which is large and light. There’s a large back-lit 10 commandments on the front wall, with a golden cross between the tablets. We learned that the building had been a synagogue and was about 200 years old.

The meetings were held in a rented hall so that people could more readily attend, by riding buses or streetcars. In the entrance they set up a Health Expo, with large posters about smoking, drinking, and unhealthy behavior. On the other side of the corridor were the posters on drinking water, eating fruits and vegetables, and a table for monitoring blood glucose and blood pressure. They will offer massage for stress relief—some other night we’re not there!

Pastor Claude Steen of Durham, North Carolina, was the evangelist. As an experienced pastor, he made the evening run very smoothly.

Our team ducked out and quite literally “hit the road” for Alexandrovka. Our driver changed today, as Yuri Kuzmenko is having back pain. The new man, Pastor Stanislav, president of the Dnieper Conference, drives very fast and overtakes other drivers even on hills and curves! By this time, it was dusk. Then there are the extremely rough conditions of the surface. It was hair-raising sometimes. But the man must have three hands. One for each of two cell phones, one for the steering wheel and turn signal, one for the gear shift, one for the pistachio nuts… Wait. That’s a lot of hands! I told our translator to tell him that I was confessing my sins, here and now. Pastor Stanislav laughed at that. But he didn’t slow down!

The harvest moon rose, minus one-eighth, over the horizon. It looked huge. It was orange, too, because many people burn their autumn leaves, and the smoke hangs in the air.

In spite of our lickety-split dash across country, we arrived at the Alexandrovka church moments after the sermon, as the singers stood up for the final duet. We greeted people, talked with speaker Thomas Bour and his translator, and then were invited to a “light supper” (variation: chocolate cake) served at the local pastor’s home. The family were gracious and very pleasant.

Luis Leonor and I are very anxious to upload our photos, videos, and text files to our respective webmasters, but we haven’t got Internet access. We’re told that the conference office here in Cherkassy, where we’ll be based for two days, will have what we need. May it be so!

Sunday, September 30, 2007
Hurtling through the dark at 150 kph down the center of a two-lane bumpy road in central Ukraine, trying to reach two evangelism sites in one evening, is not the usual idea of international evangelism. Nor is searching for laundry detergent and Chapstick in a foreign market one’s idea of serving the Lord.  But these hair-raising and humdrum experiences weave together with miracles and God-changed lives, to create the tapestry of evangelism. The short-term missionaries and the evangelism organizers see the threads and knots underneath, but the Lord, and those who He is calling to Him, see only the beautiful colors and intricate design of the big picture.

More than a year ago, plans were laid to hold evangelism meetings in Ukraine. Cities and villages were chosen for the missionary work to begin: advertising by posters and brochures, Bible studies and home visits by the local pastors and church members, meetings at the conferences and union to plan the strategy and logistics of bringing 100 or more foreigners to Ukraine to preach the gospel for two weeks. Where would they minister? Where would they stay? What materials should be presented in Russian or Ukrainian languages? There are commitment cards, posters, and brochures to be printed. Meetings. Countless phone calls. E-mails to America. Transportation and translators to arrange for 50 sites across a country the size of Texas.

By Internet and by the printed word, people around the world learned of the evangelism outreach in Ukraine. Those whose family heritage is Slavic or Ukrainian were particularly excited about joining the team, because they share language or DNA with the people here. They may or may not realize that the Holy Spirit was calling them to this place at this time. This time for them, and this time for the Ukrainians who need to hear the gospel of peace. The skeins of crimson, lapis, and gold are threaded on the tapestry’s loom.

The government called for a national election to be held on the opening weekend of our two weeks—so would we hold the orientation meeting a day earlier, or move our meetings a week later? Would it be very cold by the end of the meetings? The foreign guests must purchase airline tickets several months in advance to get the most economical fares possible, as they’re paying their own way to the country, and their travel and living expense within the country. It would be wrong to make the volunteer evangelists pay to change their reservations. Even the union president, Vladimir Krupsky, admitted with a laugh that in this culture, they make plans and purchase tickets three days ahead, not six months out. So all this rush and rearranging seemed foreign in itself. The Quiet Hour, ShareHim, and the Ukrainian Union worked out alternate plans. The meetings were held in churches, or delayed by a day in order to accommodate the use of public halls for the elections. The tapestry’s picture is taking shape.

The 17 km-long, two-lane dam and bridge across the Dnieper River, which is the only crossing for 120 km in either direction, was scheduled to be shut for repairs on October 1, a few days into the evangelism program, cutting off access to the meetings in the hub city of Cherkassy. But the Ukrainian people fasted and prayed about these programs, the Lord intervened, and the dam repairs were put off until November 1. There’s the carpet of flowers bordering the tapestry.

On Friday, September 28, Luis Leonor, evangelism coordinator for ShareHim, The Quiet Hour’s partner in international evangelism, received three calls on his cell phone, asking for last-minute assistance with the software for the sermons or the Jesus video and how to overcome equipment challenges. But the Lord worked those threads through the tapestry, also.

God is weaving a living picture before our eyes. We don’t know what it will reveal; in fact, when this project is finished, we still won’t know much. The seeds are planted now. With the rain and snow and sunshine, the cultivation, and the change of seasons—a fruitful crop will be harvested in this fertile land.

Read October 1-2 reports