Final Goodbyes

Our last week in Donetsk was a pleasure, stressful, sad and exciting. And all of these emotions at once were quite overwhelming. On Wednesday the students at UBI held a program and a lunch for us. It was quite a treat. They sang a song in English for us and we played some games. The first game tested our Russian skills. They gave us a bunch of pictures and we had to tell them what they were in Russian and if we didn't know then we had to act it out. I let Bruno do most of the acting. Then Bogdan had three of the students play the chubby bunny game except instead of saying chubby bunny they had to say, “Bruno and Laurie.” It was funny but ended up a little messy. Another game we played they had Bruno and I blindfolded and holding hands while people tried to sneak through us as we tried to catch them between our arms by squatting down.



These two little girls, Regina and Masha won that game as we didn't even move when they walked through because they were so quiet. It was a fun game, but with all that squatting we were quite sore the next couple of days. Then of course was some nice speeches and a gift and afterwards we enjoyed a hotdog lunch together. Now you might be thinking, “hotdogs aren't that great," but I must let you know that a Ukrainian hotdog is a little different. Its more like a hearty salad in a bun with a fat hotdog. They treated us so kindly.




Friday was a very busy day for us. In the morning we sorted through the Journey Church donations of t-shirts and stuffed turtles because we had planned the day before to give them out to children at the TB hospital. The younger kids loved the turtles and were especially excited about the notes that came with the turtles. They kept coming over to us and asking us what they said. With our limited Russian skills we translated them all to say that 'God loves you' and that the children in Canada who made them hope that you enjoy your new toy. That wasn't entirely an accurate translation of all the notes but it was the best we could do on the spot. And the kids were thrilled and showed us their new chillipakas (turtles) and little notes over and over.





There were also several young teenagers present when we were there also. They each accepted a turtle, but there was a drastic change in their attitudes when we brought out the t-shirts. It was quite amusing actually because there was not enough t-shirts for everyone but the teenage girls loved the shirts so much they were begging to each get one. They pulled them on immediately and were just so excited and giggly afterwards. They seemed a little shy about their excitement at first but I showed them a picture of how I had already been trying on the shirts too as you can see in the picture below.



After we delivered these things we went back to UBI to share one last borscht meal with the staff and students at UBI. It was fun to have one last fellowship with them all and then we started in on all our goodbyes. That evening we went out with some youth from church for a final goodbye too. Then Saturday we walked around town with Bogdon and then along with Bogdon, Lena and Marina came over to our house for a meal. And we sent them home that evening with bags of stuff from our house that we didn't want to transport back to Canada. It'll be interesting to hear if they figured out what to cook with our strange Canadian spices and condiments.

On Sunday Bruno preached which was a little more challenging to do with all that he had on his mind that morning. But he still delivered a very encouraging message from 2 Peter. And then we got to say our goodbyes at church too. Several of the babooshkas (grandmas) there had knitted us some little things to take home. I'm trying to explain to Bruno what a doily is, but he's having trouble understanding why anyone would use such a thing. I tease him but in all honesty there is one item that these grandmas gave us that I can't figure out either. Maybe it's a pin cushion. It was very sweet of them all to go to such effort. It was wonderful and challenging to so many goodbyes. Wonderful to have one last visit with so many and challenging to say goodbye not knowing when or if we will see them each again this side of heaven.

Our final goodbyes at the airport were the most challenging I think. With Bogdon and Nazar especially who have truly become like brothers to us. We truly hope that someday we will get a chance to go visit them again and see what God is doing in their lives.

Our flights home went very smoothly and the view from up high was breathtaking. We very much enjoy Lufthansa and all the food and services they provide. In the Munich Airport we found that they have free cappuccinos for their quests. It comes from machines but you can get sorts of different lattes and mochas and such... I think there was like 12 options to choose from. We were a little shocked at first and trying to figure out if they were free or not. But a man overheard us speaking in English and assured us it was all free. This was a little shocking to us as we are quite used to speaking freely in English to each other without being understood by anyone around. We'll have to be conscious now that our conversations can be understood around us.



So now we are home and experiencing a lovely case of jet leg. I have been up since 2am and Bruno since about 3:30 ... it'll take us a few days to adjust. But it is nice to start seeing all the people we love here again. We hope to catch up with all you in the near future.

Rest, the circus and wrap up.

Our past week was quite quiet. The staff and students at UBI had their fall break last week and many of them took this time to have a break from Donetsk. We didn't have much to do either so we shopped, walked and hung out with our friend Nazar for pretty much the whole week.



I bought a pair of jeans in the open market and made Laurie laugh. This is because I was changing behind a curtain and apparently I wasn't using the curtain properly. She said my butt was hanging out pretty much the whole time!

On Saturday we treated ourselves to an outing to the circus. Quite affordable actually, only about 15 bucks for the two of us to go. Our expectations were fairly low at first thinking it would be an animal show more than acrobatics but the first act made us realize we were in for a treat. There was high flying flips, swinging from poles, lots of humor and a live band. The good definitely out weighed the bad. Afterwards though our ears craved silence...sooo many kids having sooo much fun.





This week is our last and it is filling up quickly. Today we did some errands and visits. Now everyone wants to see us before we leave. Tomorrow we think the students at UBI are doing something for us. We were asking Lena earlier today if her and Vova wanted to come over for a visit and a meal after classes tomorrow but Lena laughed and said we couldn't have guests tomorrow because we ARE the guests at UBI tomorrow. That was the first we had heard of that ... so I guess we'll see what thats all about tomorrow.

Last Friday we found out that the postal office has two packages for us. We assume they are the boxes from Journey church VBS program. They have shirts and stuffed animals in them. We were hoping they would be delivered today but not so far. We were told that they could come at five or even tomorrow so we are hoping for sooner rather than later. If we can we will deliver these donations before we go but it all depends on when they get delivered and if we can organize where to take them soon.

This will be our last post from the Ukraine as we leave on Sunday and our time is quickly being booked up this week. We will of course post another when we get back to Calgary. I'm sure there will be plenty to share from this week and our trip home. Thank you for following our journey thus far.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We hope everyone back home is enjoying a good Thanksgiving Day holiday with all the good turkey and pie. Thanksgiving is not celebrated here so it's business as usual for all of us. The students at UBI, though have this week off for fall break. So life around the school is a bit quieter right now as many of the students are home with friends and family for the week.

Our past week was fairly quiet. We went with Jay Don and Mary Lee to a cardiac children's hospital where we were served a little lunch with a couple of the doctors there. Doctor Natalia, whom we had met at the Christian conference in Crimea a few weeks ago gave us a tour of the hospital. It was a little shocking as there were several beds in each room and not a single heart monitor in any of them. There was one room that she was very excited to show us as it had all the new equipment that Christians had donated to them. This was a nicer room and it had a treadmill and another machine that you can do some heart testing/monitoring with. It also had one portable defibrillator machine. It was a little shocking to see how little they had for all these children with heart conditions and yet Doctor Natalia and the others were obviously excited by these great new equipment pieces they had recently received. We also learned that this is also a teaching hospital so they have a few research rooms as well but we didn't see them.

On Wednesday we decided to take Jay Don and Mary Lee out for a nice meal as a 'thank you' for all that they have done for us here. We've really appreciated them letting us tag along with them and showing us around the Ukraine and their ministries here. So we went to a nice restaurant that we hadn't been to in a while and we had a great time visiting with them. But at 2:30 in the morning Bruno got out of bed and began a very restless night for the both of us. Bruno had food poisoning!!! I have never seen him so sick. I felt so bad for him, but there really isn't a whole lot you can do for someone that sick. He spent most of Thursday in bed and sleeping. And I went to the school for a bit to cancel some of our plans. We were supposed to have a friend over Thursday evening and Bruno was supposed to be doing the chapel talk on Friday, but his illness made both of those impossible. But by Friday evening he was almost 100% back to normal. I say 'almost' because his stomach obviously shrank through this ordeal because he has been eating far less than normal and far less than I am for 4 days now. I hope he gets his full appetite back soon ... I'm not too fond of out-eating my husband at every meal. :)

Yesterday Bruno preached at church again and I think he is now also scheduled to preach the morning of the 25^th right before we catch our flight home. That's right ... two more weeks and we'll be coming back to give many of you a big hug. See ya soon!

Why did the chicken cross the road...?

To meet death. That is, the tire of our taxi! I think our taxi driver was proud of himself he chucked quite a bit. Yesterday was an interesting and tiring day. Our plan was to visit and speak at a small congregation about two hours west of Donetsk and then to join in their fall harvest celebration lunch. Last time we went we had a friend drive us in his van but this time he was unavailable so we rented a taxi instead. The village we were heading to is called New Gregory. Jay Don had been there many times before but wasn't sure how to get there exactly. Our driver had a map and found the town on it so we figured we would head out. We also had another option of following a van that was taking another congregation there as well but we were early and they were late so we decided to go on our own. That was a mistake.

About two hours later we find ourselves on a rough looking road in the middle of nowhere. We were suppose to be there then but in fact we had no idea where we were. Our translator called the Pastor at the New Gregory congregation and through him we learn that there are three villages/towns in our province named New Gregory!!! And of course we had set out towards the wrong one...in fact we drove almost 100 kms in the opposite direction of the town we were trying to get to.

Five and a half hours later we made it to our destination. Everything was finished, the celebration lunch was over and many people had already left. So we just visited with a few there and they were gracious to us and fed us. We had to rush though because another small congregation about an hour away was hoping to see us. We arrived there near the tail end of the service but in time for Jay Don to give a message. We visited and took time to see the Pastor's house. The Pastor and his wife recently bought a big home with the intention of having a congregation meet there.

We then headed out to Slavic's rehab center. Which is basically three homes being used communally for addicts trying to get dry, away from the city. Slavic is a graduate from UBI and had a vision to help addicts recover. When he inherited his grandma's home and bought the next door house he invited addicts to come live with him to recover. He sets them up with a program of work, study and devotionals to keep them busy during the withdrawal. I don't know how long his program is or the details of it but he has had a fairly high success rate from my understanding.

It was interesting to visit the center because it is in its primitive state right now. The buildings are old and they are in the process of remodeling them to better suit their needs. I think we saw it at its worst but I'm sure it will be a lot nicer when the work is done. We would have liked to stay longer but we still had another two hour drive back to Donetsk. In total we spend almost eight hours on the road and had some excitements. We saw many chickens cross the road and one that didn't make it. While we were lost we passed a big truck hauling a John Deer tracker and because we kept pulling over to read the map or trying alternate roads, we passed that same truck and tractor four times. And we saw many...many farm fields. It was quite the scenic tour, but we feel like we have seen quite a lot of the Ukrainian country side now.

The rest of our week wasn't as eventful. On Tuesday we went and delivered some toys we bought for a children's AIDS hospital. Our timing wasn't so great because we arrived during nap time but there was one group of toddlers who hadn't gone to bed yet. So we visited with them and gave them the toys. They were very cute and you could tell some of them were confused while others were happy to have new toys. This hospital currently has eighty two kids from six years old to newborns. Half of them have been confirmed to have AIDS while the others are tested continually because the disease sometimes takes up to 18 months to show up in the tests. If the child is found to be free of AIDS they are given back to the parent or placed in an orphanage. They said they have fourteen kids there who were true orphans with no relatives at all. Laurie and Mary Lee would have stayed there all day with the kids but it was their nap time so we had to leave.

We also continue to open our home to the teenagers and college age people we have met here. We had several of these friends over Wednesday night for dinner and games. And on Saturday we had a small English class and then hung out with some of our students afterwards. I have been making progress on my assignments but I also have been asked to speak in chapel and church this week so I'm being occupied with that and planning our last few weeks here as well.