April - Ukraine and Beyond Trips

Up-Up And Away To................April - Ukraine...May - Honduras...June - Peru

That is the plan! April and May are engraved in stone and June is about to be engraved.

It looks like a busy year of travel and ministry overseas. It all begins on April 1st when I get the “privilege” of traveling with “Four” Women! But only for twelve (12) days! So I can survive.

Marilyn is taking Peggy Amos, our Church Office Administrator, Colleen Stouder and Tammy McQuade with her to do some “Teaching - Personal Counseling Sessions” with the ladies in Donetsk and Kiev. Only Colleen has been to Ukraine before so this will prove to be an interesting experience for Peggy and Tammy.

We go air-born 11:14 a.m. Wednesday, settle back down to earth on Tuesday at 1:10 PM on Thursday (Ukraine time). Collect our belongings, grab some food – probably at TGIF Friday’s in downtown Kiev and then head to the train station for a 12 hour ride to Donetsk, which begins at 7:25 p.m. We will be joined on the ride by Oksana Zeleviniska, our Ukraine secretary and interpreter and Oxana Raskind an interpreter who has traveled with us before. Both are excellent interpreters.

The seven of us will enjoy close fellowship for the trip. We will spend out time in two cabins. Each cabin has two bunks (4 beds). It should provide to be an interesting trip. I have decided the best thing for me to do is to take out my I-Pod or Zune and put the ear-phones in my ears and quietly enjoy my music, teachings and movies. (Don’t worry! All my movies pass the inspection of Focus on the Family!)

We arrive in Donetsk at 7:00 on Friday morning to meet our van which will take us to place of abode at Arrive Rhema Church, pastored by Vladimir & Ludmila Gorbachev where Marilyn and I were in October of 08. They have a lovely quarters for guests.

Since the focus for the this part of the trip is on the ladies and their ministry, I will be involved in a separate time of ministry from that of the ladies.

They will minister in a Christ-centered rehabilitation center – the only one in Ukraine underwritten by the government, and at Rock of Salvation - Edward & Liana Malyshev for two days.

They will return to Kiev on Thursday by train. YES! You guessed it - twelve hours, but only this time I will not be with them. In Kiev they will minister Friday and Saturday to the ladies of Abundant Life, pastored by Andre & Ira Ivanov.

Their lift-off from Kiev will be on Sunday morning, April 12th at 6:20 a.m. and they will settle back down in Ft. Myers at 5:55 p.m. the same day! But remember there is a time differential of seven hours so the travel time is longer than the hours show.

I’ll be “Left-Behind!” The balance of my schedule is sketch as of today but rest assured it will fill up between now and the time I arrive in Donetsk. I do know that I will go from Donetsk to Sevastopol and then to Simferopol in the Crimea region of Ukraine. Then to Armyansk to teach in the college and spend Easter – their Easter which is one week later tan ours this year. Then a grueling twenty plus hour bus ride to Chernivtsi because there is no train from there. I hope to find other arrangements even if I have to go back to Simferopol to catch an overnight train ride to Khmelnitksy which is about three hours from Chernivtsi.

Here is where the problem develops. My original schedule called for me to leave Ukraine on the 27th. But I need to remain in Kiev for at least 3-4 days to take care of college business. To change my flight from here in the US it would cost over $1,150! I only paid $850 for my complete flight. I will not pay an additional $1,150 to change my return flight. But I believe I can change it once I land in Kiev for much, much less.

Join me in prayer that this can be accomplished without a large change fee.

Well, now you have an idea of the upcoming missionary venture for April.

There is only a maximum of two weeks home before Marilyn and I depart of Honduras with the Life Training Institute Students and then another two weeks when we return before we become air-borne again to Peru.

I’ll try to keep you updated on the up-coming trips. So tune in daily, after we land in Kiev on April 2nd.

God bless,

Dr D & Marilyn