Monday, October 1, 2007
Yesterday, Luis Leonor and I spent about seven hours at the Dnieper Conference office, working diligently on reporting evangelism activities to our respective organizations, ShareHim and The Quiet Hour. A lunch was provided for us in the fellowship hall, and we broke bread (and enjoyed more borscht) with the volunteer evangelists working in the Cherkassy area: Pastor John and Kay Duge, Russell Tucker, John Benko, Thomas Bour (view video clip1) (view video clip2), Pastor Brandon Westgate, Bonnie Grundy (view video clip), and Basil Backy.

We drove about 40 km out in the country to visit Russell Tucker’s site in Chernobay, a rented hall in the small town. In the daylight, it was a leisurely drive, and we described American and Ukrainian birds and animals to each other and enjoyed the fall foliage in the trees planted between the agricultural fields. Russell, a retiree from Brainerd, Minnesota, is here in Ukraine because he knows that Jesus is coming soon, and that we have a commission from God to preach the gospel to the world.

After seeing the introduction, the health talk by Basil Backy (view video clip1) (view video clip2) of Loma Linda, California, the vocal solo, and a bit of Russell’s animated sermon, the evangelism coordinators were off into the dusk for another low flight (most wheels on the ground) back to Cherkassy, where Pastor Brandon Westgate (view video clip1) (view video clip2) (view video clip3) of Arkansas was preaching on the love of Christ and the gift of salvation. He appealed to the people there to remember, honor, and love Jesus for dying for us and giving us eternal life.

Sunday night, after more than a week of rushing and working long hours, it was time to pour the Tide into the bathtub and wash some clothes. The hottest water was about 85F, but with some brushing, soaking, rinsing, and wringing, the way women have done it for thousands of years (well, minus the “Blitz Action” of Tide!)—out came clean clothes, which were hung to dry around the bathroom pipes.

Today’s agenda started with a 9 o'clock prayer and staff meeting (view video clip) with the speakers, assistants, and translators for the Cherkassy-area evangelism sites. Luis gave pointers and praise to the speakers we’d visited, and encouraged them with an impromptu talk on being connected to Christ. Jesus could have compared Himself to a tall, straight pine tree, or a mighty oak, but instead called Himself a Vine. Luis reminded us that we are the branches, and we need to stay connected to the Vine in order to survive and bear fruit. Everything that can go wrong, will go wrong, he said, but Jesus is in control, and the war is already won.  

After the meeting, Luis and I again worked on our computers for hours, plugged into the conference office Internet, to file reports for our co-workers to find and format 10 time zones into the future. We were again invited to lunch downstairs, and (surprise!) the first course was borscht. Even though I’ve had it served about six times in less than a week, each cook prepares it differently.

Pastor Stanislav, the Dnieper Conference president, has been our driver for the last three days. He and our translator, Pastor Roman, took us on a tour of Cherkassy in the afternoon, and we stopped for ice cream at a Christian café. Pastor Luis treated us, and when we’d finished, he asked if we wanted a piece of apple pie or a drink. I reminded him that we’d had lunch, and supper was coming. “We had lunch? What did we have?” he quizzed us in his Dominican Republic accent. “Borscht, don’t you remember? Or was that Sabbath? Or Friday? If you want more ice cream, you should ask if they have it in borscht flavor!”

After a clothing change (because Ukrainians expect a more formal appearance for church services: suit and tie for a man; dress or skirt for a woman), we blasted off for Smiela, a city of 100,000 about half an hour outside Cherkassy (view video clip). Smiela means “Brave” and is named after a woman who defended the town against a military conflict about 200 years ago.

We were directed up the stairs of a public hall, and heard loud, thumping music from the first set of double doors we found. Pastor Roman and I exchanged comments that perhaps the health talks now included hip-hop exercise for all. Fear not, it was a dance class in a rehearsal hall. Our meeting was held around the corner in a sound-insulated room. After the very interesting health talk (even though it was in Russian) by a physician, the health ministry director for the conference, volunteer evangelist John Benko (view video clip1) (view video clip2) (view video clip3) introduced his sermon on the 2300 days prophecy of Daniel. He was fighting a cold (successfully as anyone could see), but was able to present the topic with the love of God evident in his manner.

While he talked, our team was zipping back to Cherkassy, where we visited Pastor John Duge (view video clip) in his meetings at the Palace of Culture. As all the evangelists preach the same topic on the same night, he was also preaching on the judgment. When he asked if people wanted more information, many eagerly said “Da!” and raised their hands. He told them to come back tomorrow night to hear the rest.

This was our last day with Pastor Stanislav. I’ll miss him, because he laughs at my jokes. Well, also because he is such a considerate man, kind, and gentle. (If he had the proper vehicle, the man could win some stock car races and demolition derbies, too. What a driver!) He presented Luis and I with tokens of their appreciation: towels embroidered by church ladies with “Keep the covenant” in the Ukrainian Cyrillic script, and a framed nature photograph with Isaiah 44: 23 written on it, again in Cyrillic. In my NIV Bible, the text reads, “Sing for joy, O heavens, for the LORD has done this; shout aloud, O earth beneath. Burst into song, you mountains, you forests and all your trees, for the LORD has redeemed Jacob, he displays his glory in Israel.” That picture will go up in my Quiet Hour office!

Tuesday, October 2, 2007
This report comes to you from Odessa, a city of more than a million people, located on the northern shore of the Black Sea. There are two evangelism sites conducting meetings in this city, and we visited both, late this afternoon.

The day began at 7:15 in Cherkassy, where we loaded our bags into the van and re-joined Pastor Yuri Kuzmenko as our driver and Pastor Roman as translator. Pastor Yuri was anxious to get an early start, because of the long drive west and south to Odessa. The two-lane road was extremely rough, and the van bounced hard many times, as well as swerved frequently to avoid the hazards we could see coming up. There was no stopping Yuri—nothing. Not for pictures, not for the restroom (until 12:30, and then it was a waterless Asian-style hole in the privy floor, which I decided was designed by and for men and not for women). No stopping for stretching or smelling the roses, much less pointing out or aiming at scenic vistas. So if any pictures accompany this text file, please excuse the squiffy horizon line and the smeared windshield. I did my best.

The countryside near Cherkassy was much more green, with stands of forest and trees thickly planted at the roadside and between fields. The trees grow more colorful every day as they pass through their life cycle. The road ran arrow-straight for scores of kilometers, over giant rolling hills, and dropping at a 10% grade into narrow gullies, some with ponds or small reservoirs. There were almost no villages—just fields of dry sunflowers, corn, wheat sprouts, and another young green plant that may be beets or potatoes, as I saw truck trailers loaded with dirt-brown tuberous objects. The earth in that region is so dark as to be nearly black. Pastor Stanislav said yesterday that coal and silica mining and processing are two of the biggest industries outside agriculture.

As we moved south, the soil changed to a yellow-brown, and I saw a few porous rocks that might be limestone—but curiously, I’ve seen almost no rocks in this country. Maybe they’re covered with plants. The vegetation is mostly harvested here in the south, or they’ve prepared the ground for the next crop.

The sun is so warm and bright that I got a tan on my forearms in the front passenger seat of the van. We’re all wondering which clothes to re-combine from our suitcases, as we were told to pack for cold, but we received whatever the Eurasian equivalent of Indian Summer is.

So we came to Odessa at about 2:00. We still haven’t seen the Black Sea or any famous or historic sights. If I remember history, Odessa itself has been inhabited at least since the Greek Empire; and the Black Sea area shows evidence of prehistoric culture. (Yuri waved toward some trees and said in Russian that the Black Sea was off to our right.) We stopped at a church to change from comfy travel gear, including flip-flops, into our Professional-Church-People clothes.

Jonathan Leonard (view video clip), an evangelist from Carolina Conference, was preaching at a beautiful church where the ladies served a late lunch to us. (Borscht! If you’re counting along with us, that makes: Wednesday night at the college, Thursday at the union office in Kiev, Friday night and Saturday in Kirovograd, Sunday and Monday in Cherkassy, and Tuesday in Odessa.) Jonathan has the most mellifluous baritone speaking voice, but insists that his voice is for preaching, not singing. I warned him of saying that in the Lord’s hearing, because you know what happens when we say no! Jonathan’s interpreter is Pastor Sergei, who translated for the orientation session at the college last week (he’s the one who had the air of a diplomat). Their evangelism team is sure to have a powerful influence on the church they’re ministering to.

Then we drove through thick, smoggy traffic (view video clip1) (view video clip2) to the other evangelism site in Odessa. This is in an older, poorer section of town, with two stories of flats in a square around a courtyard. One side of the courtyard is the large meeting hall that they use as a church. The chairs are fold-up theater seats. Pastor Steve Adessa of Maryland was preaching with his translator Oxana (wife of Pastor Sergei) (view video clip1), when the computer’s projected illustrations and scriptures went black. Pastor Adessa didn’t miss a beat. He knows the material, knows what to do in a pinch, and he did it. The church’s audio-visual man restarted the computer during the talk, and Pastor Adessa moved seamlessly back into his illustrated presentation.

The pastors, evangelists, translators, and our team are staying at a place called the Sanitarium. Does that mean it’s a health institute? A mental health recovery center? There is a statue out front of a soldier with weapons. We’re told that it might have been a place for military officers to stay temporarily. It’s furnished in a Spartan manner with a wardrobe, single bed, half-size refrigerator, and a bathroom with shower stall, sink, and western toilet (thank you very much). The disinfectant they use on the floors or bathroom makes me cough, though, so I’ll pile on sweaters and keep the window ajar. The charge for the accommodation and breakfast is 227 grivnas, or about US$45.

Pastor Luis reports that the Sanitarium’s supper was stuffed cabbage and bread. (I stayed in my Spartan room with some tea biscuits and bottled water.) Alas, no borscht tonight, he complained with a wink. But tomorrow is a brand-new day!

Read October 3-4 reports