So as promised with the extra time we have before leaving for Svoylava later this afternoon here is a bit more about our host Valeri.
A little background is necessary. One of most common cars here in Ukraine is the Lada. Many Ladas have a front windshield and rear window of identical size and shape. About 10 years ago Valeri was involved in a collision with a drunk man on a bicycle. The week prior, Valeri's Lada had its front windshield replaced. However, the repair shop ripped him off and put a rear window without safety glass in the front. When Valeri collided with the cyclist the window shattered showering Valeri with shards of glass. His eyes were damaged so badly that he was left almost completely blind.
In recounting this story to us we were absolutely amazed at the abscence of bitterness or remorse. In his own words he had lost his sight, but in return he received something far more valuable. He found God.
In this past week with Valeri, we are continually astounded. It is often easy to forget that he cannot see. He has not missed a beat. He cooks, cleans, takes care of a massive garden filled with fruit trees, and navigates his house and yard with great ease. All of this is done with a smile and sense of humor that is very disarming.
Valeri is a kind and gentle man, who has a passion for life and it has been a true blessing to spend time with him. Both Matt and I have gained a great respect for Valeri and his wife Agnes. I think that I can speak for us both when I say that this has been one of the richest learning experiences we have had thus far.
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
Sunday, June 24, 2007
A day off
Hello from Charlene and Karlynn, the delinquent bloggers
Today is Sunday and we have a long anticipated day off. This, combined with the fact that we actually have internet access resulted in this post. The Mukachevo internet is sporadic at best, so we apologize for our seeming lack of communication.
This past week we have been staying at Marina's place. She is an English teacher, but is also an excellent cyrillic alphabet and guitar teacher. We have loved getting to know her better. She lives with her parents, who don't speak English. The food is amazing, but we cannot eat the amount required of us. Fortunately, Marina has dealt with Americans and Canadians before and understands our cultural differences. The food we eat is homemade, including noodles for soup, apple juice and our favourite salad: cucumber and tomato. We have surprised her with our ability to drown many flavours of Jaffa juices due to the high temperature and lack of drinking water. In addition, we have singlehandedly eaten her seemingly endless supply of cherries.
We spent our days running English Club for teens. Every morning we planned the days program of games, bible study, singing and english conversation activities. Then we had lunch and executed the days program of games, bible study, singing and english conversation activities. It never went exactly as planned but we learned lots and hope that we made a difference in the participants' lives. English club ended with sightseeing or sports which was a good opportunity to build relationships with the people. After English Club we had dinner at our host families and ended the day with team devotions and debriefing.
We went to church this morning at 11 and listened to an enrapturing Russian sermon. Singing Russian songs was somewhat difficult. Many of the sounds are not easily pronounced by the average English speaker. Not to mention the fact that the cyrillic alphabet hinders our small progress. However, even though we could not understand the language, we felt part of the local church community. They made sure to make us feel welcome and thanked us as a church for coming and serving in Mukachevo. A number of English club participants came to church as well and we had a hard time saying goodbye to them. After many hugs and a few tears we parted ways. We were surprised at how close we felt to these people after knowing them for one short week.
This Tuesday we leave for the Reformed Youth Festival in Svoylava, a 40 min drive from Mukachevo. We hope to update you on this next weekend.
We love and miss you guys and hope you are enjoying your summer.
Love Karlynn and Charlene (otherwise known as Charlynn and Karlene for those who have trouble pronouncing English names)
Prayer requests:
-That the people we met in English Club will continue to learn about God through the support of local Christians
-That our team will grow in unity and love for each other and strengthen each other in the faith
-Strength for our team as it's hard to leave everyone after one short week
Today is Sunday and we have a long anticipated day off. This, combined with the fact that we actually have internet access resulted in this post. The Mukachevo internet is sporadic at best, so we apologize for our seeming lack of communication.
This past week we have been staying at Marina's place. She is an English teacher, but is also an excellent cyrillic alphabet and guitar teacher. We have loved getting to know her better. She lives with her parents, who don't speak English. The food is amazing, but we cannot eat the amount required of us. Fortunately, Marina has dealt with Americans and Canadians before and understands our cultural differences. The food we eat is homemade, including noodles for soup, apple juice and our favourite salad: cucumber and tomato. We have surprised her with our ability to drown many flavours of Jaffa juices due to the high temperature and lack of drinking water. In addition, we have singlehandedly eaten her seemingly endless supply of cherries.
We spent our days running English Club for teens. Every morning we planned the days program of games, bible study, singing and english conversation activities. Then we had lunch and executed the days program of games, bible study, singing and english conversation activities. It never went exactly as planned but we learned lots and hope that we made a difference in the participants' lives. English club ended with sightseeing or sports which was a good opportunity to build relationships with the people. After English Club we had dinner at our host families and ended the day with team devotions and debriefing.
We went to church this morning at 11 and listened to an enrapturing Russian sermon. Singing Russian songs was somewhat difficult. Many of the sounds are not easily pronounced by the average English speaker. Not to mention the fact that the cyrillic alphabet hinders our small progress. However, even though we could not understand the language, we felt part of the local church community. They made sure to make us feel welcome and thanked us as a church for coming and serving in Mukachevo. A number of English club participants came to church as well and we had a hard time saying goodbye to them. After many hugs and a few tears we parted ways. We were surprised at how close we felt to these people after knowing them for one short week.
This Tuesday we leave for the Reformed Youth Festival in Svoylava, a 40 min drive from Mukachevo. We hope to update you on this next weekend.
We love and miss you guys and hope you are enjoying your summer.
Love Karlynn and Charlene (otherwise known as Charlynn and Karlene for those who have trouble pronouncing English names)
Prayer requests:
-That the people we met in English Club will continue to learn about God through the support of local Christians
-That our team will grow in unity and love for each other and strengthen each other in the faith
-Strength for our team as it's hard to leave everyone after one short week
Saturday, June 23, 2007
Ukrainian Life
Hi jordan here.
Now that we have a bit of a breather after completing the week of the English Club in Mukachevo Ukraine I think it is time to update our severly neglected blog. This past week matt and I have been staying at the home of Valeri and Augusta, members of the Church George and Sara have planted. We have be welcomed into their family like two of their own children. Although their english is practically non-existent we are able to get by communicating with the little Russian that I know and old fashioned hand motions... as well as frantic scrambling through a dictionary at times. However the hand motions are somewhat complicated by the fact that Valeri is almost entirely blind. An entire blog post about this story in-itself would likely be extremely fascinating and may be forthcoming if time permits.
We have been eating lots of Ukrainian traditional delicasies. And the food is entirely splendid. But the sheer magnitude of what they eat takes some getting used to. As we eat we are constantly encouraged by 'mom' to kushayet or eat, eat... Let me tell you that she monitors our intake very closely and will not be satisfied until we have stuffed ourselves beyond our normal capacity.
The English Club was a huge success and we had approximately 30 young people attend. Primarily girls aged 13-16. Their interest in all things american is somewhat embarassing. We are constantly being asked to make a picture with them. However, I have found that over the course of just one week very strong bonds have been formed. It was truly awesome to see God work in such a short time. It was very hard to sever these ties friday on the last day of English Club and Today on an excursion to the Mukachevo Castle with some of the people. The promise of emails and letters will be hard to fulfill as we will be meeting many more young people in the weeks to come.
Well we are off to dinner in a few minutes. I will try to keep some more posts coming this weekend with the time that I have before a voyage into the areas without internet.
Now that we have a bit of a breather after completing the week of the English Club in Mukachevo Ukraine I think it is time to update our severly neglected blog. This past week matt and I have been staying at the home of Valeri and Augusta, members of the Church George and Sara have planted. We have be welcomed into their family like two of their own children. Although their english is practically non-existent we are able to get by communicating with the little Russian that I know and old fashioned hand motions... as well as frantic scrambling through a dictionary at times. However the hand motions are somewhat complicated by the fact that Valeri is almost entirely blind. An entire blog post about this story in-itself would likely be extremely fascinating and may be forthcoming if time permits.
We have been eating lots of Ukrainian traditional delicasies. And the food is entirely splendid. But the sheer magnitude of what they eat takes some getting used to. As we eat we are constantly encouraged by 'mom' to kushayet or eat, eat... Let me tell you that she monitors our intake very closely and will not be satisfied until we have stuffed ourselves beyond our normal capacity.
The English Club was a huge success and we had approximately 30 young people attend. Primarily girls aged 13-16. Their interest in all things american is somewhat embarassing. We are constantly being asked to make a picture with them. However, I have found that over the course of just one week very strong bonds have been formed. It was truly awesome to see God work in such a short time. It was very hard to sever these ties friday on the last day of English Club and Today on an excursion to the Mukachevo Castle with some of the people. The promise of emails and letters will be hard to fulfill as we will be meeting many more young people in the weeks to come.
Well we are off to dinner in a few minutes. I will try to keep some more posts coming this weekend with the time that I have before a voyage into the areas without internet.
Sunday, June 17, 2007
what day is it anyway?
Believe it or not, we are all pretty much adjusted to our time zone now. though we are having difficulty remembering what day it is on occasion. Currently it is sunday, and on sunday we began our day by going to church. This morning we went to church where Pastor George lead the service and we struggled through leading "this is my father's world" in Russian... thats right Russian. needless to say it was difficult for us, but I think that we can say with some certainty in powers greater than ourselves that we were successful. Seriously though it was fun. In addition to singing songs and hearing sermons in other languages, I (matthew) was asked to share my testimony with the congregation. Again, by God's continuing Grace and Power I spoke cohesively and openly.
God was seen in the message of the service today, my testimony (which pastor George had not heard) and Pastor George's sermon (which i had not heard) complemented each other quite nicely. It is affirming to see the work of the Father in "small" things like this, so Praise God. Please continue to pray for the group as we continue to work our testimony stories into something that will speak to the people we are sharing them with.
I should mention about the congregation; predominately Ukranian with some Hungarian in there if I am not mistaken. There were maybe 25 people in attendance at worship. I think that there are even fewer members, so it does not take long to pass the offering plate : ) The Church building is a somewhat small room with an LCD projector, a Cross and some speakers. Oh and fans, two of them to be exact, and these are a vital part of the operation. They keep us all from sweating off a few pounds. The weather is pretty warm right now, and by that I mean that it is hot.
Complaining aside, it has been a wonderful opportunity thus far. During devotions tonight we were remembering the goodness and provision that God has met us with at every step of the journey. We are thankful for so much already and look forward to sharing our gifts begining tommorrow.
God was seen in the message of the service today, my testimony (which pastor George had not heard) and Pastor George's sermon (which i had not heard) complemented each other quite nicely. It is affirming to see the work of the Father in "small" things like this, so Praise God. Please continue to pray for the group as we continue to work our testimony stories into something that will speak to the people we are sharing them with.
I should mention about the congregation; predominately Ukranian with some Hungarian in there if I am not mistaken. There were maybe 25 people in attendance at worship. I think that there are even fewer members, so it does not take long to pass the offering plate : ) The Church building is a somewhat small room with an LCD projector, a Cross and some speakers. Oh and fans, two of them to be exact, and these are a vital part of the operation. They keep us all from sweating off a few pounds. The weather is pretty warm right now, and by that I mean that it is hot.
Complaining aside, it has been a wonderful opportunity thus far. During devotions tonight we were remembering the goodness and provision that God has met us with at every step of the journey. We are thankful for so much already and look forward to sharing our gifts begining tommorrow.
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
Hello from Ukraine
Welcome to the Eastern Europe 2007 summer missions team's blog spot.
This will be our way to share with all of you our ministry and experiences as they happen. We would like to say thank you to all of you for your support; we could not have made it here without you.
That being said...
We (Matt, Charlene, Jordan, Karlynn) arrived in Grand Rapids, Michigan on tuesday and began our 6 days of training with the other teams going to Mali and Mexico. During this week we spent most of the day (7:30 am- 10:30pm) developing an understanding of other cultures through fellowship and lecuture. Wednesday through friday we spent the days in lecture and discussion learning about ministry and missions work including culture shock, interpersonal relationships, our reformed faith, team building and evangelism. The Eastern Europe team spent time learning about the intricacies of Eastern European Cultures. Monday morning (bright and early) we departed for the Grand Rapids Airport and the first of our 4 flights ending in Budapest, Hungry.
We arrived safely and on time in Budapest, Hungary on tuesday morning. George De Vuyst (the local CRWM missionary) met us at the airport and we began our long trip from Hungary's capital to Mukachevo, Ukraine. After a night of much needed sleep from our 29 hours of travel, we began in-field training at George and Sarah De Vuyst's home. While battling some intense jet-lag we have spent the day learning about Ukranian culture and developing our testimonies for speaking in church congregations and youth camps.
some prayer requests: continued adjustment (including time and culture), team unity amidst stress and challenges.
The De Vuyst's request prayer for a local pastor to come and lead their congregation (Russian Speaking) and a church building to combat cultural stigma.
check back periodically for updates from the field.
This will be our way to share with all of you our ministry and experiences as they happen. We would like to say thank you to all of you for your support; we could not have made it here without you.
That being said...
We (Matt, Charlene, Jordan, Karlynn) arrived in Grand Rapids, Michigan on tuesday and began our 6 days of training with the other teams going to Mali and Mexico. During this week we spent most of the day (7:30 am- 10:30pm) developing an understanding of other cultures through fellowship and lecuture. Wednesday through friday we spent the days in lecture and discussion learning about ministry and missions work including culture shock, interpersonal relationships, our reformed faith, team building and evangelism. The Eastern Europe team spent time learning about the intricacies of Eastern European Cultures. Monday morning (bright and early) we departed for the Grand Rapids Airport and the first of our 4 flights ending in Budapest, Hungry.
We arrived safely and on time in Budapest, Hungary on tuesday morning. George De Vuyst (the local CRWM missionary) met us at the airport and we began our long trip from Hungary's capital to Mukachevo, Ukraine. After a night of much needed sleep from our 29 hours of travel, we began in-field training at George and Sarah De Vuyst's home. While battling some intense jet-lag we have spent the day learning about Ukranian culture and developing our testimonies for speaking in church congregations and youth camps.
some prayer requests: continued adjustment (including time and culture), team unity amidst stress and challenges.
The De Vuyst's request prayer for a local pastor to come and lead their congregation (Russian Speaking) and a church building to combat cultural stigma.
check back periodically for updates from the field.
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