MISSION TO UKRAINE
Prayer
Warriors
Welcome
It seems like there's always a slump after the campaigners are gone. Partly
that's because everybody is tired, and partly that's the time of year.
Anyway, we have some exciting things happening, and some discouraging
things.
It was wonderful having the American campaigners with us. All summer, we've
had people visiting and working here: a group from Belleview, Nebraska, a
group from Clarkson, Kentucky, and a group from Fort Worth, Texas. People
come just to see the Americans, but they develop relationships with the
other christians here, and the church is built up.The Ukrainians learn
something of the concept of fellowship from the American visitors, and it is
an important lesson. Two people were baptised on the Left Bank, and there
are several who seem to be very close.
The weather here is incredibly hot! It's been running in the mid-30s
(celcius), in the shade. Our balconey is in the sun right now, and if you
go out there in your bare feet, they will blister. Hal Pendergraft, who
comes from Texas, commented on how hot is was, and it has even become hotter
since he left. We shower morning, afternoon and evening, if there is water.
We drink amazing quantities of iced tea and compote, since we have drunk up
all our gatorade (which we were keeping for hot weather). We eat at least a
watermellon a day (at 40-50 kopeks a Kilogram, they're a cheap treat, even
if they have a tendancy to give you nitrate poisoning-the runs-because they
have been fertilized so heavily). I drink kvas (see the recipe at the end of
the letter), even though Twyla and James think it is horrible. The gardens
are drying up and dying, and there have been tornadoes (almost unheard of
here) spawned by the hot weather. The hot weather doesn't help church
attendance: people are soaking in the sea, hauling water to their dachas, or
just suffering through it at home. In the evening, the yard is full:
everybody wants to get out of the hot house and into the cool yard for a
while.
We've been having fun classes on the Left Bank: one of the new converts has
been there every time we meet, and she always has questions. Tonight we
talked about the Problem of Evil, about pentecostalism and miracles, about
whether we are more spiritual if our body suffers (i.e., monasticism,
aesceticism, etc.), and about politics. I stayed out of the political
discussion, but Nadezhda, Dema (Left Bank) and Dema(my translator) all love
to discuss politics. Attendance has been good on the left bank, and the
congregation is very much encouraged by the folks who have been here from
the States this summer.
Attendance has been poor, but not terrible at the congregation which meets
at Markochem, in the center of the city. I think a lot of this has to do
with the heat: we have a lot of old ladies, and it is terribly difficult
for them to come to church in this weather. Still, a surprising number of
them are coming. A lot of our younger members are spending their time in the
country, or at their dacha, or on the beach. One family (Nikolai, Luda and
Lena, as well as Vitali, who is madly in love with Lena) have decided to go
to the tent meeting while it is in town, because things are more exciting
there. They have a rock band and show movies and such.
Attendance has been terrible at Iskra. In fact, it has been non-existant.
Two of our families, and one babushka are moving or have moved out of town,
and they were our most regular members there. Andre and Sveta and their
kids, who have been more regular lately, have been spending all their time
at Grandma's place in the country, as have Edic and Natasha, who rarely
attend anyway. Albert, who was attending regularly and preaching
occasionally, has gone to Greece for a month. Lonya was the only one who
came to church a couple of times, and he has begun to attend at Markochem,
so now we have had nobody there for a month. If Andre and Sveta, Edic and
Natasha and Albert want to go on with things in the fall, it is probably
worth continuing with this congregation, but we may decide to simply merge
with the Markochem congregation, which needs the younger people and the
active men.
At Portovskoy, attendance has fluctuated. We had a record attendance one
sunday of 12 people! Sometimes there are only 4 of us, including Dema and I.
We try to take a carful with us, and while the Americans were in town we
almost always had somebody. Often someone from one of the other
congregations will go out with us. There is a core group out there of 5
ladies, although one of them attends rarely. One of them is sick quite a
bit, and I understand the heat is making things quite difficult for her. One
of the ladies is sometimes accompanied by her husband, and he has some very
good questions! They tell me that they invite many, and many say they will
come, but few actually come. We hope that this congregation will grow in
time.
We took off for a couple of days last week. One of our friends asked us if
we would drive her to pick up her son from summer camp, so we took off two
days to drive to Slavianagorsk. We spent the night in a "camp" there, and
the next day, we visited the Svatie Gory monastery, which is very
beautiful. The monastery dates back at least into the 1500s, and there may
have been a church in this location in the first century. The older
churches are built into a chalk/limestone cliff, and there are tunnels
through the mountain, with little chapels hidden deep inside the mountain,
and cells for the monks. At least one of the tunnels is a "secret" escape
route down to the Donets river. During Communist times, the monastery was
turned into a sanitorium, but it now operates as a monestery again, and they
are doing a lot of reconstruction and repair work. The main church was used
as a Cinema hall by the communists, so it is now being completely renovated.
After visiting the monastery, we swam for a couple of hours in the Donets
river, and had lunch there, enjoying the very beautiful countryside. Then
we drove to some nearby salt lakes. The salt water and the smelly black mud
of these lakes are quite famous for their "healing" qualities. We didn't
enjoy them, and we spent a good part of our trip home looking for another
body of fresh water to swim in, and rinse off.
Since we were going through Donetsk on this trip, we took the opportunity to
drop off the computer for a check-up, and so we've been without it for a
week. They told me that there were two things wrong with it: it's an antique
(as computers go), and the hard drive is dead. We decided that at this time,
it isn't worth replacing the hard drive (a little over $200), but we will
try to buy one of their newer used computers in the near future.
We also had a chance to visit Roger and Tammy Queen in Gorlovka on this
trip. They didn't know we were coming, and we didn't have their number with
us, so we just dropped in. We had a bit of coke with them, and then we were
back on the road for home.
We managed to make this whole trip without dealing with the road police at
all! In Russian, the acronym for the road police is DAI, and it has an
unfortunate homonym: the word which means "give." Many drivers say that the
proper name for the road police is, "Dai mneŠ" meaning, "give meŠ" It is
often difficult to leave a contact with the road police with your wallet
intact.
Here's a Russian joke we learned recently, and added to our vocabulary: The
Russian word "rukovodite" can be translated "manage," or "supervise," or
even, "lead." Just as the English word, "manage" comes from the root which
means "hand," the Russian root "ruko" also means hand. Russians have a pun
based on rukovodite . They say, "I'm working. What are you doing? Oh, I see,
you are rukamivodite (just moving your hands)!
Here are the recipes for two of our summer drinks!
Compote
Compote is an inexpensive alternative to fruit juice (which is called
sok-sounds like soak). It is especially nice in the hot part of the summer,
when you are tired of the sweetness of commercial soft drinks which you
really can't afford anyway. Creativity is the key factor in making compote.
Buy about 2 lbs of any kind of fruit available, or a mixture of fruits.
Wash it and pick out the worse stems and leaves. Put it in a 3 gallon pot,
fill the pot with water, and bring it to a boil. Strain out the fruit,
reserve the liquid and repeat the process. If there is any flavor left,
repeat the process, once again reserving the liquid. We discard the fruit
when there is no flavor left, usually after two or three boilings. Mix
together the resulting liquids, add sugar to taste and chill. Serve cold.
Among the Ukrainians, this is the most common non-alcoholic drink served
with meals. Everyone tries to mix various fruits to arrive at the most
pleasing compote, and guests often try to guess which fruits are in the
copote. Compote may range from sicky-sweet to very watery. In the winter,
compote is often made by steeping dried fruit, or it is the liquid in which
fruit was canned. In the latter case, the fruit will often be spooned into
your glass, and you are expected to eat it. Berries (like raspberry and
currents) make pleasing additions to compote, as do banannas. We've even had
compote with mint added. Don't make the mistake of calling it compost: in
Russian, compost is manure, not just leaves and grass clippings.
Another way to make compote: Have your fruit in a large metal container and
boil your water in the kettle, then pour over the fruit and let stand until
cool. Drain liquid and repeat until the fruit is tastless and colorless.
Mix all the resultant liquid together, and sweeten to taste.
Kvas
1-2 cups dry Bread (preferably rye: dark brown or black bread)
3 litres Water
2-6 Tablespoons Sugar
1 tablespoon Yeast
Add bread and sugar to the water. Some people suggest that it should be
boiled (in fact, on this basis, I was told that Kvas was the only safe
thing to buy on the streets in Ukraine besides soft drinks). In any case,
the water should be boiled, whether before or after the dry bread is added.
When it is cool enough, add yeast and sugar. Stretch a rubber glove or
condom over the top of the jar, and occasionally let the air out. After a
day or two, strain it and drink it, at room temperature or cold. Most
Americans think it is pretty bad stuff, but I like it, if it hasn't sat too
long. After 3 to 5 days, if you haven't drank it all, throw it out and
start over. Variation: add two peeled, chopped lemons, and increase the
sugar to taste. Use white bread instead of rye.