We are back in Ukraine after a successful trip back to the US for the delivery of our Isabella. We had lots of good visiting time letting Bella get to know her grands, aunts, uncles, and cousins. She's growing everyday.
The weather has been cold, more than what most are used to. We did have a white Christmas! We've had a mixture of good things and bad things happen that have driven us to the conclusion that God is our travel-agent and we need not worry when our own plans don't work out the way we originally wanted them.
We have found the church at Sumy doing well. As we sit in services and mingle with everyone, our Russian is coming back and making gains.
One of the easiest things to do is to make contact with the missionary community and others who speak English! We met a couple of families who are also doing mission work in Sumy. They are with the SEND organization who hosts our language program in Kyiv. One thing I learned from one of them is that out of over 300,000 people in the immediate Sumy region, the Baptists are the largest at about 3,000. The other evangelical churches combined make up another almost 3,000-- which together doesn't even make up 2%, which means there is still a lot of work to do here.
One of the most difficult things to do is to begin to cultivate relationships with Ukrainians, which is our mission. One thing that's a necessary part of cross-cultural living is to rely upon the people in your host culture.
We definitely have leaned upon Vova, the preacher at Sumy for helping us with basically everything.
Nina has brought us some staple foods to get us started with a good pantry. There is a young businesswoman from church who is helping us begin to look for an apartment. We are considering the implications of Luke 10's man of peace for looking for a home.
The Orthodox church, which is the prevailing religious influence on the culture and history of Ukraine, counts the religious holidays differently than the Western Church. Christmas isn't until after New Years. And New Year's is the main holiday--- so at the time of this writing, we are in the midst of the biggest holiday season which lasts a couple of weeks.
Other news around Ukrainian mission works...
Pinchuk
One of the key missionaries for the city of Kyiv--and the country of Ukraine-- passed from this life a few months ago. Rick Miroslav Pinchuk was a Canadian-Ukrainian, who went to Harding, who had been in Kyiv with his family since the Johnsons were here. Alicia and I shared several meals with this family in our 2 years here. This is going to leave a huge vacuum in the church of Christ environment in Kyiv. It's a huge and yet to be measured loss. His wife Carol and daughter Larissa are settling back in Canada, which is a big adjustment for them.
Camp in Ivankiv
Some missionary friends of ours, Andrew and Jenny Kelly are in the middle of a project to build a Christian Camp north of Kyiv. If their fundraising stays on course, they will be hosting teams and children summer of 2009.
When you pray, please continue to pray for God to open doors here, that He helps us improve our language skills, and that He sends some Ukrainian workers to share this ministry with.
Also be in prayer for Galena, Lena Bryan's mom, who had a stroke in December. The treatment methods in Ukraine are very different than in the U.S. Alicia is a physical therapist assistant and she is offering help. The Bryans visited church Sunday. They had greetings from the board and a financial gift they presented from them. We also enjoyed tea with them before they left.
