Monday, May 6, 2013

UKRAINE MINISTRY BLOG 7 - Location: Khmelnitskiy - Dawn of Life

Our day is over!  What about yours?  And it has been a good busy day.

It all got started earlier than usual because I “think – but I could be wrong” that my body is finally adjusting to the time change.  Anyway I got up and got started before 7:30 – it has been 9:30-11:00.  Get off of it!  I am not lazy.  Because that is before you got up anyway!  Ha!

We spent the morning doing “household chores - completing the washing, and ironing” – honestly I put the clothes in the machine and Marilyn did the hanging, and ironing.  These European machines and I get along good.

Then this afternoon we spent with Pastor Valentyna Melnyk eating dinner and discussing the current process of reviewing church structure, vision and how to move forward from here.  We finally had to stop so we could return to our home]-away-from-home here to get ready to return for the evening activities, within 30 minutes.

The activities were simple this evening!  Marilyn speaking to the Ladies and yours truly, speaking to the Men.  I am sure I did better and she is sure she did the best.  Ask the ladies and they say Marilyn was great.  Ask the men and they loved me.  But since no woman heard me and no man heard her, the final decision will have to wait until eternity. 

But to be serious, it is always an opportunity to be practical and assist these great people in their maturity as husbands or husbands to be and wives or wives to be.  Their culture for years was designed to destroy families.  Women were “taught to hate and distrust men” – at least that was the words from one of the men in my session.  And there is a good reason for that.  Men were almost encouraged to have another woman although he stayed married to his legal wife.  It is therefore important to assist this generation if we expect to see the future generations enter marriage with the proper perspective.

Now as we unwind this eve we have only two more scheduled meetings.  Tomorrow begins at 12:40 PM and will end about 9:00 PM.  We have a meeting with the elders and then a session with the “Ministerial Couples” although I am not sure who all that includes.  But the focus will be on “Balancing Ministry And Family Life.”

So I will stop and get my mind moving in that direction!

O! YES!  Carina Kudin, the oldest daughter of Rostic Kudin is going with us to Crimea to help at the Pastors’ Retreat.  She will work with the children of the pastors and also be with Marilyn to help her in communication with the ladies.  She is very good with her English and has a heart for God.  And – she is another one of my Ukrainian Grandchildren.

God bless and good night and THANKS FOR YOUR PRAYERS.

Dr D & Marilyn

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