Ukraine Stories and Such

My son Joshua and I just returned from an 11 day trip to Ukraine. We were the official "Journey Team" to Ukraine this year. While only 2 from The Journey went on this trip, we joined 123 other Minnesotans who were traveling to their own sister churches for similar kids camps, youth camps and other short term missions. So, we never felt insignificant in terms of numbers. In fact, the average group from even churches 4 - 10 times the size of The Journey was 4 or 5. Anyway, I want to ramble for a bit about the trip...

Basic timeline:

We left on Thursday, July 19th. This was Josh's first trip out of the country (not counting Niagara Falls!!), so he was a bit apprehensive. The flights over went fine--all connections went swimmingly--and we arrived in Kiev on the afternoon of the 20th. We went to the Hotel Rus and had a few hours to sleep and shower, then headed out to a local pizza place for dinner with the whole team that was there (we were part of a group of about 35 total who flew out and back on the same dates). The evening was given to food, fellowship with new friends, and then an early bed time to catch up on sleep.

On Saturday the 21st, we traveled by bus to the village of Buzifka. This is where Pastor Vasily, Alla, his wife, and their 2 daughters live. It was a wonderful reunion for me to see them. After 18 months, we were all excited to be together once again. Alla baked her famed chocolate cake which has been a treat for dozens of Minnesotans over the past decade. Of course, we had borscht as an appetizer and then something else yummy for the main meal. Following that, we headed to Zyubrikha, a 10 minute drive, to our sister church, for a get-together with the folks from the church. It was a time to welcome us and to make re-acquaintances with so many who I met last time. That meeting didn't start until 9 pm--many villagers have to milk cows and such and can't come to a meeting until later in the evening. The picutre below is Pastor Vasily, Alla, Luda (7) and Alena (3).

Sunday was great. I preached in the church in Buzifka at 9, then home for lunch and then preached in Zyubrikha at 2 pm. Last time, we had 5 services to cover between Saturday night and Sunday night, so this was a bit easier. In the evening, arrangements were made for Josh to try his hand at fishing in Ukraine. Alla's father is part owner of a fish farm, so we headed there and ventured out in a boat that scared both Josh and I a good bit. Josh caught a nice 5 - 7 lb. carp. Now, carp is usually pretty nasty to eat, but this is grain-fed, farm raised carp. So, we braved it and found it to not be very bad at all. Probably not my first choice for fish entrees, but it makes for a great story. Personally, I came up empty at fishing in the fish farm pond. Should have been just like shooting fish in a barrel, but I was blanked!!

Monday was the start of the Day Camp at the Zyubrikha House of Prayer. At 9:30, about a dozen kids showed up. Josh and I looked at each other with a bit of disappointment, wondering if we came this far to work with so few kids. By 9:40 another 50 or so kids arrived and we found the benches crammed with about 60 kids total. The day camp days were incredibly fun--very much like an American Vacation Bible School (scripture memory, Bible lesson, songs, games, crafts, snacks, opening and closing gatherings, skits, etc). Josh and I were the sports/games people. We taught the kids some games they had never played. Apparently they really liked "Steal the Bacon" because we had to play it every day with the girls. The boys preferred Sharks and Fish, which allowed them to run off a lot of energy. Day camp lasted 3-4 hours each day and we held camp from Monday through Thursday.

Afternoons were filled with preparations and errands for the events of that evening or for the coming day. We cleaned the church most days, came home for lunch, took a quick nap (30 minutes or so) and then worked during the afternoon in planning and prep for other events.

The evenings during the week were filled with other ministry events. That Monday night, Pastor Vasily had planned a couples' event at the church. He led a Ukrainian version of the Newlywed game. I taught for about 30 minutes on how to have a great fight...that drew laughter when my translator translated the title of the lesson for them. But, as we got into it, I could see these dozens of people--both believers and non-believers--taking lots of notes and being impacted by what I was teaching. Vasily later told me that most of these people have had very little exposure to such life skills.

Tuesday evening was a church service in another village. Pastor Vasily and Pastor Dima (also from Buzifka) are coordinating a new church start in another nearby village. They hold church meetings on Tuesday and Friday nights in this town. So far, 5 women have come to faith, and about 20-25 villagers are attending. One man walks twice a week from his distant village to come to this meeting--his walk in over 5 miles each way!!! There is spiritual hunger in this village, and I ask you all to pray for this new work. The village is called Stipivka. I invited people to come to faith that evening. Although I saw no one make a first time faith commitment, I saw several young persons who were impacted strongly by the service and teaching that evening.
Wednesday evening was a mix of business and pleasure. Josh and I were taken to Uman, a city about 30 minutes away. This is a large city--250,000 souls--which has an amazing park. Built over 200 years ago as a birthday present from some rich dude to his wife, this park boasts a number of lakes and rivers--all interconnected--plus fountains that rely on nothing but gravity to work. The maze of paths, boulders to climb on, statues and lakes make this a great place to visit and unwind. Following the park and a pizza dinner, we went to the Ukranian version of WalMart and bought enough ingredients for a huge spaghetti dinner. I unknowingly volunteered myself to make spaghetti for the entire village of Zyubrikha when I asked about a rumor I had heard that many American teams cook for the Ukranians on their final night in the village. While simply inquiring about the rumor, I was taken to be a willing volunteer and was told that I am more than welcome to cook for everyone!!!! Translation can be a very hard thing!!!

Anyway, we bought 30 jars of spaghetti sauce (their largest jar is the size of the smallest jar you'd find here in the US), 30 packages of spaghetti, lots of spices (the sauce is known to taste sweeter than ketchup and needs a lot of doctoring!!), garlic cloves, meat (bologna was the best I could do, also adding to the sweetness of the overall taste), mushrooms and onions. They thought I was crazy buying as much as I bought, but then vastly underestimated the number of folks coming to the Thursday evening program!!After day camp on Thursday, we went home, had lunch, and then it was time to get ready for the big evening. I make sauce for the next 3 hours. I spent about an hour of the time teaching Vasily and Alla about some theological concepts that I have been mulling over for the past year or so. They were amazed that I could chop onions, garlic and saute sauce, while simultaneously deliver a theological teaching to them! Anyway, we got the sauce all ready and let it simmer from 3-5 pm. After a light dinner, we headed over to Zyubrikha. I met with the church leadership team to discuss their vision, finances and other ministry issues that they wanted some input on.

Following that important meeting, there was a 2 hour sports festival for the whole village. There were games for the kids, big time soccer matches (2 villages sent their teams to play against Zyubrikha's best footballers), and a few volleyball games. I played with the Zyubrikha men's volleyball team...although we lost, I managed to make a few good plays. I did well for a guy who hasn't played in 20 years....

At about 9 pm, we had an end-of-day-camp meeting. Volunteers were thanked, Josh and I were recognized, we presented gifts to the church from The Journey, and there was special music.

Once all that was done, the spaghetti feed was on. We started this "dinner" at about 10:15 pm!! Thankfully, my 'over zealous' buying was pretty accurate. We had less than a pint of spaghetti sauce left over after about 125 people ate dinner. The sauce wasn't up to my standards by any means, but people liked it. They've never really had true Italian cuisine there. Thankfully, everyone got plenty of food and they all seemed to be happily ready to trundle off to bed. After many hugs and kisses goodbye (the babushkas are always ready to kiss anyone), we left for home at nearly midnight. We were tired, but the evening was a great success. Many folks came to the church for the sports night and the other events who ordinarily never come to church. That's excellent!!

On Friday, we had time for packing, breakfast, and a very brief time of prayer. Our bus showed up 30 minutes EARLY which is unheard of in Ukraine. So, we had to leave sooner than we expected. Leaving Vasily and Alla was difficult. We have grown close to one another through our two visits and it's not fun to leave people you care deeply for.

The rest of Friday and part of Saturday was time in Kiev. We have the afternoon and evening to ourselves. I met with a friend who is in YWAM Kiev and the 3 of us went out for a long walking tour of Kiev. Saturday afternoon, we had a short flight to Vienna, where we had to lay over for the night. We dropped our bags at the hotel and then 13 of us went into downtown Vienna for dinner, walking tours and their world famous ice cream. It was a great night.

Sunday was the long travel day, flying from Vienna to Chicago and then to Minneapolis. We got home 7 minutes early, all jet lagged, but happy to be home.

So, that's a basic timeline of our trip. I'd like to share with you some of the significant and impactful aspects of the trip as well...

--the kids at the camp were wonderful. These kids steal your heart. They have maybe 2 outfits that they wear for the summer. They walk perhaps a mile to get to the day camp. They may or may not have had breakfast. Yet they are all very happy and excited about day camp. They love the songs and sing whole-heartedly--even the older kids. I had one young boy who stuck by me all the time. After he won some candy for knowing his Bible verse, he gave me half of it as a friendship gift. This kid wore the same clothes each day--he's got very little to his name. Yet he wanted to share with me. Stuff like that happened again and again. You can't go to Ukraine without your heart being stabbed by the love these kids show others. It breaks your heart at the same time that it makes you want to shout out to God in praise for the youthful beauty and innocence all around.

--my time with Vasily was amazing. We had some great talks, pastor to pastor, filled with encouragement, prayer and openness. Our translator told me that she'd never translated between 2 pastors who were being as open and vulnerable with one another as we were. Our friendship has gone to very deep levels. Vasily has great vision for his ministry in Zyubrikha and in the surrounding area and I am excited to continue our partnership with him precisely because of his vision.

--being able to bless Vasily and his family was a significant goal of our visit. We were able to bring him a brand new laptop to facilitate his ministry there. We also purchased a CD/mp3 player for use in the church. On a personal level, Josh and I bought Vasily and Alla's daughters bikes. They have never had the money to buy bikes in the past. Luda, who is 7, has been praying for a bike for 2 years. All her friends have bikes, but she didn't. Now she does.
She went down to the corner market about 5 minutes after she got the bike--that's a daily chore for her and she used to have to walk. Now, she rides and puts whatever she buys in the basket that came with her bike. What a joy for her.

--another amazing part of the trip was spending so much time with Josh. He's getting to the age soon where he'll want to do stuff with friends instead of parents. What a blessing to spend 10 days with him. We were only apart from one another about 3 times for a total of maybe 8 hours during this time. We shared lots and lots of little conversations about life, God, ministry, culture, language, customs, manners and everything else that you'd expect on a missions trip. We prayed together, laughed, worked hard on our juggling skills, slept in the same room, ate a lot of new stuff together, and we had an awesome time together. It's stuff that I will cherish for the rest of my life. I was unspeakably proud of him and his adventuring spirit during the trip. Josh even became a daily feature at the camp for his basketball spinning skills, juggling, and other silly stuff that the kids just loved.

All around, this was an amazing opportunity for both Josh and me. We had a great time. Josh wants to go again next year. How about you?? Vasily and I have ideas for next year and I believe we can build on what we started this year. I encourage all of you to prayerfully consider joining us in 2008. A trip to Ukraine will change your life. Thanks for reading!! On a final note, I ask you all to pray regularly for Vasily and his family, the church in Zyubrikha and the newer churches being started in Stipivka, Konela-Popevka, Kupiavata, and other nearby villages. Vasily, Dima and other local pastors are working vigorously to advance the kingdom. Pray for their work. Pray for new ways to connect with the lost. And pray for the outpouring of the Spirit on these villages!!