We woke up on Tuesday to a changed schedule of events. The night before had brought little attendance at the lecture at Starry Lisets and the mayor and principal of the school offered to allow our group to present the lecture and bible lessons during the afternoon at the school. This brought a much greater attendance from adults as many of the teachers and others from the village stayed for the lessons…22 attended instead of only 2 on Monday night. Unfortunately, we thought we would continue to do our lessons during he afternoon but found out that was a miscommunication. So our schedule changes again tonight. If anything, this trip is flexible. After all that is “how they do it in Ukraine.”
While Billy, Nick, BJ, Malorie and Danyel worked at Starry Lisets, Scott and I were able to speak at the local law school. We were excited to speak to them about our jobs and work. Scott did an excellent job in talking about the U.S. Constitution and how it was founded to secure our rights…regardless of how they are being disregarded in our current world. As always, He made some excellent points and I could have listened to him for hours! I was able to talk a little about my job and some of the things I do as a prosecutor. The audience, made up of students and professors, asked many good questions and we soon ran out of time and had to stop our time together.
We enjoyed an afternoon tour at Ugorniki, the town that gave the church the land on which they are building a warehouse for humanitarian aid. We first met with the mayor and then we went and toured their school. The mayor has been battling breast cancer and has undergone several rounds of chemotherapy. Hopefully it is now in remission. The school was very nice and clean and we were impressed with their dedication at providing a nice place for the children to learn. They are currently building a new kindergarten that looks to be gorgeous. We were not able to go in but drove by the outside. After our touring, we enjoyed a nice dinner at our local hangout — the “Mafia Cafe” and several of us enjoyed their brick oven pizza.
Our day today will go back to the original schedule with our evening lecture. Scott, BJ and I are going to speak at the law school. Nick, Billy, Malorie and Danyel will return to the school in Starry Lisets. Scott will present a lesson tonight on “Gentleness and Self-Control.” We also hope to visit a children’s shelter and kindergarten this afternoon.
Several in our group are struggling with sore throats from either allergies or other things. Keep them in your prayers and hope that we will all be strong enough to keep up our hectic schedule and do all we have planned.
Thoughts from Danyel:
Another wonderful day with precious children! What could be better! We again were able to engage in conversations with 3 high school classes yesterday in the school at Start Lessets. They have been learning in their English classes about careers and emotions. We were able to do a charades game about emotions. The children were responsible for picking an emotion from the chalkboard and acting it out while their schoolmates said the word in English. It was wonderful to see their personalities shine. We were also able to use the subject of emotions as an avenue to speak about God and what he says about emotions. Our wonderful translator Olga has been a huge help and thought that particular class went very well. After we finished working with our classes we had a wonderful lunch of borsch, potato dumplings, and homemade bread in the school cafeteria.
Afterwards, we were taken to a classroom of 5-10 year olds that were waiting on Malorie and I to bring them their bible lesson. Malorie did a wonderful job teaching the children on peace and patience. She has such a bubbly personality and it blends well with the children. They love her! They also loved the story of Jesus calming the storm. We were blessed with a classroom full of 31 people. I really can’t wait until tonight when we again meet at the cultural palace to have our 6:00 bible class and activities with these wonderful children.
Once the lecture series ended, everyone met up to visit another village near Ivano-Frankivsk. The mayor, Lubov, has been suffering from an illness but she came to meet with us anyway and to talk about her village. You could instantly see the love she has for her community and how grateful she is for the relationships built with the church here. Her beautiful smile was contagious! We were then shown around the community and visited the school they have there and the improvements that have been made to there school. We then went to the property that has been given to the church and updated on the building progress. It’s a beautiful property and I’m so excited there will be a permanent meeting place for everyone to attend and for all of the benevolence to be stored.
After our daily activities were completed, we had another group meeting and I was able to learn just how many trials the church here has had to overcome! I am more amazed everyday spent here of the faith, courage, and perseverance of our brothers and sisters here in Ivano Frankivsk. I am so thankful for them and ask that you please continue to keep our brothers and sisters here in you prayers.
Thoughts from BJ:
On day 3 we stared off with a visit to the school again. As each day passes the children there seem more and more excited to see us and we are just as excited to talk with them. We then had our fruits of the spirit lectures at 1. Me and Nick had 30 teens in our class. I’m not quite sure what it is, but even though we have only been here a short time I feel a strong connection to the kids in this village. Please continue to pray for continued success on this trip and thank you.
Thoughts from Nick:
Yesterday was long but rewarding. In the morning we went to breakfast at 8 and went back to Starry Lysets to speak to some more children. Malorie and I spoke to 7th and 8th graders about the American Education system. They were very interested and had a lot of questions for us! After a great lunch at the school (potato filled dumplings drizzled in bacon grease), we held our lectures at the school. BJ and I spoke to the older kids about peace and patience. We had 30 kids that came and some more that were too shy to come in the room but stayed outside to room to listen.
After the lecture, we went to visit the mayor of a village that the church has worked closely with. She was very enthusiastic and happy, even though she has been very sick. We also were able to visit another school that has been helped by humanitarian aid from the US. The impact of benevolence that we may take lightly is very large and opens many doors that would otherwise be closed. I am looking forward to the rest of the week and how God will continue to bless our work.
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