Yesterday we traveled with Jim Dwyer to Poltava for a worship service. As you might recall from the last post, we were going to have to take the bus back, because there were no tickets on the Express train from Poltava, almost directly east from Kiev. The express actually starts in Xarkhiv, Ukraine's second largest city, so they reserve most of the tickets for people starting from Xharkiv. We found if we bought the ticket from Xarkhiv, even though we would board from Poltava, THEN there were seats available. Tricky, eh? We discovered this from the woman in front of us while waiting in line to see if any tickets were available. We couldn't resist taking our picture in front of a famous persona from Ukraine's Soviet past.
Jim was the guest preacher at the service and we welcomed a new lay missionary who will serve in the pastoral role in Poltava, Irina Malchenova. She has been serving as an assistant to the pastor in the church for the past year and with the departure this September of the former pastor, she has now begun this new position. A native of Poltava, she looks forward to helping the church grow. A few pictures from the trip are here, along with the name of the above persona, if you did not recognize him.