Monday, October 6

Get Up! Clean Up! Pack! Eat! Load Car! Travel! Take unexpected detour! Driver doesn’t know the way to the train station! Recall Immediately! Perfect! Extra Time! Find Restaurant! 65 Minutes Train Departs! Eat! Go to Train! Board Train! WHEW!

That is a summary of the day. It was all complicated because we have not been able to make the “sleep” adjustment. Your stomach is seven hours off. You are just getting sleepy and the sun is coming up. Even when you have taken two Tylenol PM’s the eyes just will not get heavy enough to close. So you watch a movie on your IPOD or listen to the Bible being read from the IPOD. But your adjust and keep on keeping on during the day.

It was hard to say goodbye to Chernivtsi and the people we have loved for nine years even though we know we will return in the Spring (April sometime). You can hear the unsaid words, “Hurry back. We need you. We want to have more fellowship.” But Donetsk and Kiev are calling. So you give them a hug and say, “God bless you. See you sometime in April.” Then you crawl into the vehicle and begin the journey to Khmelnitsky.

As you are departing the city of Kamenets-Podolosky (when I first heard it I thought they were saying, Communist Podolosky) a policeman signals that the road is closed and you have to take a detour. The road is narrow, hilly, and rough. Some places the pavement has become mixed with mud and potholes are everywhere. The traffic is slower and you wonder if we will make it to the train station on time. We do and even much sooner that I expected going the normal route. Thank God!

We do have time to eat and it will help those who brought us to Khmelnitsky to eat now instead of after they place us and our luggage on the train. While in the restaurant, The Big Goose, I notice a man looking and smiling in my direction. He starts to get up and then stops but decides after I nod at him to come over. Would you believe it? He is a member of the Dawn of Life Church in Khmelnitsky where we have ministered many times. And he speaks English. So we greet one-another and after a brief chat go back to eating.

The train ride takes four hours and twenty-three minutes according to the schedule. Normally they run right on time. Tonight they take fifteen minutes longer but we arrive and Eugene Taits is there as scheduled to take us to his house for the next thirty-eight hours. We arrive at his house and discover that his wife and youngest son, Nathan are sick. Eugene takes over and we converse for a couple of hours and then settle into the preparation for Tuesday which includes laundry, re-packing and meeting Pastor Vadim and Inna Uruymagov in downtown Kiev for a time of food and fellowship.

They are going through a tough time. Inna has been diagnosed with breast cancer - a very radical type. They have decided to believe God for her healing. My call to Vadim to confirm the meeting informs me that Inna has had a rough time during September. You can tell they need us to spend time with them.

And I ask you to place them on your prayer list to stand with them for God’s divine healing.

God bless.

Dr. D. & Marilyn