Saturday, June 10, 2006

Joel and I made a very hasty trip to the United States to participate in Joel's mother's funeral. Our sorrow has been for ourselves because we know that she is rejoicing with the Lord. Her funeral was a time of joy for us because we know she is much better off. However, this has been a very difficult time for Joel and his brothers. We are back in Kiev and preparing for a team that will arrive tomorrow evening.

Monday, May 29, 2006

Today is a great day for celebration...we had planned to celebrate the end of the school year with our American Club kids by going to McDonald's, and Valya did do that with the kids, but Joel and I quietly celebrated a great homecoming as Joel's mom entered Heaven's gates this morning. We grieve for ourselves as we will miss her greatly, but we celebrate her victory in going home to be with our Lord and Savior !

Joel is out purchasing tickets and I am home doing laundry and taking care of last minute arrangements. We will leave at 5:00 in the morning for the states.

Thursday, May 25, 2006

Lena is a young girl in our building who is a member of my American Club who lives with her Grandmother during school season and with her parents the rest of the time. (They have a home in a neighboring town.)

Lena had shown me her dress earlier in the day and I asked her to come up to our apartment and let me take her picture when she got ready for her school banquet that afternoon. She is pictured in our entrance hall, posing in front of the mirror so that you could see the front and back of her dress. She looked great and felt good about herself also.

Victory Day, May 9, 2006

A very Ukrainian way to celebrate Victory Day is to take food and go to the cemetery, sit and eat and fellowship and remember those who have passed on. Quoting Joel's assistant, Viktor, Ukrainians like to mourn and they do it well. One of the secretaries at the IMB office recently lost her father and I accompanied her and Dalese Stockwell to her father's grave. We put the food and water on the table (with a built in bench there too) right by her father's grave. And of course we brought flowers for the new grave.

Since her father had just died he only had a simple Orthodox cross on the grave but the photo to the left will show you how the grave could look eventually. This grave was a few feet from Luda's father's grave. Almost all graves have the face of the deceased person etched on the tomb stone (usually NOT made of stone).

April 12. 2006

Catalytic Church Planter Training

Joel is spending most of the week in Dnipperpatrosk attending a Catalytic church planter training session. Joel had two of our mentors going with him to the training, but one had to cancel because of some difficulties in his church. SC's from across the region brought in Ukrainian men who are experienced in church planting to give them further training. Pictured on the left is SC Mike Ray who was responsible for putting all of this together. We want to commend him publicly for a job VERY well done. His wife Linda is seen walking in the background helping Mike take care of the whole event and fellow Kiev Team member, Randy Greer is on the far right in a green jacket.

Saturday, April 8, 2006

It has been our pleasure today to host the president of IMB, Dr. Jerry Rankin and his wife Bobbye. The ladies of BUS field were treated to a brunch and enjoyed a wonderful time of worship led by fellow "m" Wendy Woffard, followed by a time of sharing and inspiration led by Bobbye Rankin. This evening we hosted a reception for the Rankins and Central and Eastern Europe Director, Rodney Hammer at the Baptist Consulary.

The Rankins fielded questions by IMB employees and presented a challenge to each of us to stay focused on the main thing. Pictured is BUS leader Mick Stockwell, Dr. Rankin and Joel.

December 5, 2005

American Club Christmas Party

Since Joel and I are going to be in the states for 2
months I decided to do Christmas early for our
American Club. Last week we did the make believe part of Christmas and this week we talked about the real reason we celebrate Christmas and why it is such an important holiday in America. Here in Ukraine, New years is the big holiday and Christmas, celebrated in January is just a minor holiday. I invited the families of the girls to come for the party. Pictured above is my friend Valya studying to be able to interpret as I told the Christmas story from the Bible.

After the Bible story, the girls were able to spend all of those points that they had been saving from their homework each week at the little American store I had set up in the dining room. The girls were so excited about buying stuff with points they had earned doing homework in English. We followed that with a U S style Christmas Party.

My downstairs neighbor, Julia, came with her granddaughter, Lena and Dasha brought her older sister.

July 19, 2005

When I lived in the United States I used to speak very unfavorably about the ambulance chasers, but I proved just as bad this morning. Of course Joel was urging me on. We had just finished eating breakfast when I looked out the window and saw a firetruck outside our apartment. There had been no sirens and no noise of any kind, but on further notice I realized there were three firetrucks (two water and hose trucks and one ladder truck) and an ambulance. So I couldn't resist the urge to go downstairs and join the other onlookers to watch several firemen in full firesuits mount a ladder to a 6th story balcony.

I know we sound really nosy, but this is the very first time in 2 1/2 years that we have ever seen a firetruck in action...notice the white walls. As far as I could understand, no one was hurt. The ladder truck is in the center of the photo behind a tree, but you can see the ladder slanting up to the building.

July 17, 2005

The IMB missionaries in Kiev gather once a month for worship in our heart language...always a hilight of the month! Several times a year we make it a whole family affair. So this evening we celebrated the 4th of July a little late with picnic food, fellowship and worship. It was a thrill to pledge allegiance to the American flag...we were just surprised that one of us had a full sized American flag. Also for some of you who have known Joel a while, he did a very usual thing for him...he sang "I'm Proud to Be an American"...only this time he didn't have any men in uniform to stand up next to!

July 15, 2005

Turning 60 was not nearly as scary as I had thought it might be. At least I don't feel a bit older than I did at 59...may even feel younger. Spending my birthday with Melody and the team from Bellevue was really special. The wall hanging that they brought me from the US is beautiful and is hanging in our dining room.

July 6, 2005

We arrived home around 6:45 pm and were really excited to finally be home. There was one drawback to our excitement...Joel like so many of the children at AGM came down with some bug...achey all over, very congested, sore throat, etc. However, the good part is that we got to bring Melody back with us from Poland. My family had all sent me money for my birthday July 10th) to buy Polish Pottery while we were in Poland. So we all carried pottery with us on the plane to make sure we got it home safely! Pictured above is some of the pottery that I purchased with birthday money...thanks guys! I'm crazy about it.

July 5, 2005

This morning we were up early and packed and were picked up by a taxi at 7:45 in order to catch the train to Warsaw and then the plane back to Kiev. Traveling through the country side of Poland on such a beautiful day was wonderful. Pictured on the right is a view of village with Catholic Church in background and wheat fields in the foreground.