Update coming soon!

I know, I know, I need to update this blog!   A major update is coming next week.  Lots of changes in the Street Children Ministry, exciting ones!  Stay tune.

Summer Update (part 2)

The girls we referred to in the last post (see below) - their stepfather who had lived with them also has died of complications from alcoholism just this past Friday.   Please pray for the girls, they have had quite a lot of loss and upheaval in their lives. 

We visited them at their new home at the Ark and they were very pleased with their new home as all three girls live in the same room with a separate shower and toilet.   They miss their mother, home and friends of course, but the environment for them is much better.

Those of you who have visited Kiev know Sasha, who along with her brother Sergei, has been a regular of our center for several years.   Her mother is also very sick in the hospital, with not a good prospect of survival.   Sasha is very upset and would appreciate the prayers of her friends abroad.

Summer Update!!

Helen and I are back from vacation in Norway and it is time to update this neglected blog.  The above picture is from Skåtøy, one of the little islands (7.4km long) in the fjord near Helen's hometown of Kragerø, where we had a nice relaxing summer vacation, riding bicycles, swimming and seeing friends.  There was even a fence painting project as well.

The Summer before vacation was busy and tragic for three of our youngest children-at-risk, regulars at our center.  The mother of these three girls, ages 8, 10, and 13 died of complications of alcoholism.   These three girls, along with their 1.5 year old brother, grandmother and uncle lived in a one room apartment.   After the mother died, Ukrainian social services took the girls as neither the grandmother, nor the uncle, nor any of three adult sisters wanted to take responsibility for them.   The 1.5 year old brother went straight into a toddler's orphanage. The father(s) of the girls whereabouts are unknown,  so there was no-one to take them.  Social services were thinking they had no choice but to split the girls up into different state orphanages with no one to assume guardianship. But there is a good side to this story!  

Many of you know the Ark, a Christian Rehabilitation Center run by two Americans, Jane Hyatt and Barbara Klaiber, with whom we have a close relationship.  We got in touch with them and after negotiations with Social Services, the girls are now residing at the Ark.   The guardianship question still has to be resolved, but for now, the girls are living together, in a great environment.  Please pray for them and for the guardianship question.  Also, pray for the younger brother and that the girls can keep in touch with him.

Partners in Mission

From May 9-19 we were privileged to have a mission team from Peachtree City United Methodist Church with us, interacting with our youth, helping us with repairs on two apartments that two of our young men have been given and participation in worship with St. Luke's UMC.  These folks hail from Peachtree City, Georgia and brought with them a wide range of mission experience.   Below is a picture of some of the group worshipping with us on Sunday at St. Luke's UMC.

Led by missions pastor Stephen Soulen and member Ted Reissing, one of the big helps of the group was to do some repairs on the apartments two of our street children, now young men, have received from the city government after we helped them to file the documents necessary to prove their being without family.   Athough the apartments are in a new building, the construction quality is not the best and some needed repairs were made on one of the apartments.  A broken door was repaired, a new sink and tub faucet installed and a good cleaning job was done in the apartment.  

While the apartment was being repaired, the rest of the group interacted with the children at the St. Luke's center, involving them with crafts, games and other fun.   One member of the team, Debra Shoaf, helped complete sewing a worship banner which is a cross with hands on it.  The hands are outlines of the children who attend the St. Luke's center's activities.

At the end of the time they had with us, the group took the kids to the Kiev Botanical Gardens where the lilacs were in bloom.  All had a wonderful time and we all deeply appreciated the time Peachtree City spent with us.

Back from General Conference

Whew! Helen and I just returned from the whirlwind event known as General Conference. The theme of the conference was a Future with Hope.   As the clergy delegate from Ukraine, replacing Alexander Merzlikov, our pastor in Lugansk who could not attend due to health reasons, I had 10 conference days which started at 7:00 am with a meeting of the Eurasian episcopal area delegation and usually ended around 11:00 pm at night or later.  Our lay delegate, Olga Tyshkovetz, and English instructor at the Lviv State University was very active, speaking on the floor of General Conference at least 4 times!  During the debates, many of us delegates had a Hope for a Future that was the end of General Conference.

 I had been told of the long days and the exhausting schedule.  I was also warned about being bombarded with material from the various caucus group and agencies which tried to persuade delegates to vote one way or the other.  But what I didn't expect was to be inspired!  The worship was wonderful: incredibly inspirational, powerful preaching and spiritually uplifting.  To see the whole process work gave me renewed vision for the United Methodist Church.  I left feeling that our United Methodist Church really does have a Future with Hope.  Here is our delegation, all two of us, hard at work.  Can you find us?  Olga is sitting to my left.  She's the one who isn't bald.

 

If you would like to know more about General Conference and what was discussed, I recommend the blog of pastor Adam Hamilton, delegate from Kansas East Annual Conference who had a daily report from General Conference along with thoughtful discussion of all the major issues.  You can find it by clicking here for the main page of the blog.

Check the Recent Posts section in Adam's blog to find the posts on General Conference.

General Conference

Helen and I leave for the USA tomorrow morning, or in about 9 hours. I am the clergy delegate from Ukraine for General Conference, the once-in-four-year meeting of the United Methodist Church with delegates from every Annual Conference in the world to meet and do the denominational business including considering changes to the Book of Disciple, the document which sets theology, policy and structure for the United Methodist Church. The elected delegate was Ukrainian, Alexander Merzlikov, pastor in Lugansk, but for health reasons he could not attend. I was the alternate delegate, so I will attend in his place. Pray for us as we make the long flight over. Helen has been assigned the new Area Financial Representative for the General Board of Global Ministries in Ukraine, so she will be in New York for some training while I am in Ft. Worth at General Conference. We also get a few opportunities to meet with some people from our supporting churches, but not many as time will be tight. If you wish to call us while we are in the US, send a request for the number to ukraineumc@gmail.com. State who you are and your connection to us or some aspect of our ministry.

Under the Weather

The flu just isn't fun. Slows down things quite a bit, but fortunately, my bout did not last too long. And it also came just after I returned from Lviv.
Lviv is the third or fourth largest city in Ukraine, the "capital" of the western, majority Ukrainian speaking portion of Ukraine. It is about 70 miles from the Polish border and a very beautiful city with many historic buildings.


This is an inside shot of the Church of the Transfiguration, one of many churches in Lviv. This part of Ukraine is home to the Greco-Catholic Church, a church which pledges it's allegiance to the Pope and has it's own Cardinal, but uses Orthodox liturgy and has married priests.

Lviv is also home to Ukraine's oldest University and where we have a thriving UMC student ministry. I was there last week for a charge conference (and also picked up the flu) and found the United Methodist Student Center to be a bustling place. The ministry, founded by GBGM missionaries Fred and Stacy Vanderwerf, has a student center right in the center of town very near the university. The Center is open all day long where students can come and surf on the net for free, hang out with friends or attend an activity. English lessons are offered 4 days a week, twice a day, which is a big draw. A new class starts every 5 weeks. Each time a class starts, around 60 new students show up to take the course. Of those, 4 or 5 usually stay to take part in the other activities, which are small group bible studies, a compassion ministry group, the Pigrims class, a bible study/worship time on Thursdays and United Methodist worship services 2 times a month.

The Lviv UMC student center is interdenominational in it's activities, but the students know it is sponsored by the UMC and can choose to come to UMC worship if they desire. Overall, 90-100 students come through the doors of the center every week. It's an exciting place to be. I didn't have my camera with me, but some students took some pictures for me. As soon as I receive them, I will post some.

Prayers from the least of these.

Today in church, just our seventh service, we asked for prayer requests and then had a time of open prayer. Two of our children-at-risk, one 9 years old, had the same prayer, "Help mom not to drink and to get up tomorrow to go to work". The nine year old then listed several other names of relatives asking that they not get drunk. Life is tough at nine when you are the one responsible for your mother's work attendance. This particular nine year old lives with 6 other brothers and sisters, grandmother and her mother, all in an one room apartment with about 140 square feet. Bathroom is down the hall with water from a pump on the street since the inside water was cut off long ago. Puts my own prayer life into perspective.

Life Needs.

Pray for Ivan S., one of our street youth who was slashed in a knife fight and is on the lam from the police since he violated his probation. He was in church today. We got him to an emergency room to get stitched up. He has a lot of potential, but his street life weighs him down. I will be in Moscow for the next few days in a Cabinet meeting, which is a meeting of district superintendents with the bishop. Pray for that as well!

Conferences and More.

The European General Conference Delegate Consultation in Kiev came off well with surprisingly few unexpected events. One delegate was delayed at the airport 9 hours and there were a few illnesses, but most of the delegates from 14 countries and 5 bishops came in on time, without delays, lost luggage, hale and hearty. We were also worried if the meeting would fit into the main room of our St. Luke's street children center, but with some creative arrangements of the tables, they all squeezed in. The delegate conference was the first test of our new center to host an event, but with work, organization and help from the kids, I think we passed.


The first night was at the conference room of the Kozatsky hotel where the delegates stayed, with the praise team from Istochnik UMC showing off Ukrainian talent.



Istochnik Praise team.


Tight fit, but cozy fellowship for the plenary session at St. Luke's Children Center.


The kids helped to keep the kitchen on time serving lunch.


Worship and Communion at St. Luke's with participation from our kids.


A Happy Norwegian Superintendent!

European Delegates to General Conference Meet in Kiev

This is a hectic week for us, as all the European delegates going to the United Methodist Church General Conference are meeting in Kiev this week for a preparatory "pre-conference". At the conference, the delegates will learn how General Conference is run and how delegates will need to participate in the various legislative committees. For those of you who don't know what General Conference is, here is a link which will explain it, but in short, General Conference is the top policy-making body of The United Methodist Church which meets every four years. I, Bill, was elected as an alternate clergy delegate from Ukraine and will now go to GC since the delegate elected, Alexander Merzlikov, cannot attend due to health reasons. Next post will have pictures from our meeting!

Trolleybus #12

In front of our building is a trolleybus stop and we never had ridden on this particular one, #12, in the 8.5 years we have lived in Kiev. It just doesn't go where we frequent in Kiev. But we always wondered, where in fact did it go? What is a trolleybus you may ask? Well here is one from an old picture in Kiev (taken by Aare Olander).

They are crowded, jerky and perhaps the slowest form of public transportation in Kiev. Also, one of the cheapest. So, on our last day off, we decided to live a little randomly and just get on #12 and ride it to the end of it's route to see where it might take us. We knew it might be a long trip since our stop is the first stop on route #12. Now you might be thinking we discovered some wonderful hidden section of Kiev, which really didn't happen. But when we got off at the end of the route, we did get to see a few things we had never seen before, such as this Kiev-Moscow friendship monument, a little defaced by anti-Russian grafitti:

And this nice, new, modern-designed Ukrainian Orthodox church:

We wanted to take a picture of the inside, but when asked, the lady at the table selling icons said "Ni!", Ukrainian for no. "Pray, yes, but take pictures, NI!". She shook her head in way that suggested wonderment for us even asking. Feeling sufficiently chastised for our craven tourist notions, we slipped out at that point. To get back on the bus, we walked past the back of Kiev's Hippodrome, a somewhat dilapidated race track and got to see a friendly horse who walked over to us, peering hopefully through the fence, looking for a treat. Unusual to see horse stables in the middle of city of 3 million, but then again, the people next to our street children center have a rooster in their backyard. Overall, it was a nice slow paced day, taking in the sights of Trolleybus #12.

2nd Worship Service.

On Sunday, we had our second worship service. Worried because we don't have a musician yet, we had been praying for an alternative to acapella service. An answer came with a surprise visit by Woody Wolfe, a long time faithful supporter of the St. Luke's Children's Center. He also came bearing gifts: A guitar for the church which was given by Jeffery, a friend of Woody who washes dishes at a local cafe in PA and puts back some of his salary to buy guitars for mission ministry. The guitar he gave to us is his third to a mission project. We are so thankful for this generous gift. Here is Woody with the guitar. No, it is not me, though some claim that we share some similar characteristics.

Woody also surprised us with a CD he has just made of his own music, which includes songs inspired by his visits to our St. Luke's center and some of our kids he has met. Now I need to figure out how to put audio clips on this blog.

Grand Opening of St. Luke's Children's Center!

The days finally arrived. After a lot of preparation, furniture buying, interior renovations and much prayer, we had our opening of the St. Luke's Children's Center and the first worship service of the St. Luke's United Methodist Church of Kiev this past Saturday and Sunday. Festivities on Saturday night included a dinner, musical entertainment from a musical group from our UM church in Chernovtsi, a slide show on the history of the street children center, congratulations from various guests from Norway, America and Ukraine, an address from our Bishop Hans Vaxby and of course, if a Norwegian has anything to do with the organization, coffee with cakes.

You may notice the name of the center is now the St. Luke's Children's Center. Our organization is called Dosvitok, which is a poetic Ukrainian word meaning daybreak, but it was decided to name the center St. Luke's, the same name as the new church which will meet at the center. St. Luke's was chosen because because when Jesus announced his ministry in Luke 4, he read from Isaiah where it said:

The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me
to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to release the oppressed,
to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.

We strive for this emphasis to be the emphasis of our ministry for both the Children's Center and the new church.

Also, we were so grateful to hear of two gifts to the ministry, one of $90,000 from Blacksburg United Methodist Church in Blacksburg VA and also one of $46,000 from Molde United Methodist Church of Molde, Norway and the Central UM Church of Bergen, Norway. All three of these churches have been active in supporting our work, sending teams to participate with the children and lifting us up in prayer. This gift means that our $150,000 loan has only $14,000 left in less than a year from the time we purchased the center! We thank God for the way God has used these congregations and other supporters as instruments for enabling the St. Luke's Children Center and United Methodist Church to have a permanent home.

Here are some pictures from the events:
Click here for the Saturday Night Opening celebration.
Click here for the Sunday Morning Facility Dedication worship service, the first service for St. Luke's UMC.

Faith and Politics

After the excitement of the first caucuses and primaries in the US with the surprise victors in Iowa and "comeback kids" in New Hampshire, there is a little lull in the action as everyone waits for the February 5 Super Tuesday where half the US nation votes. Similarly, there is quiet in the political action in Ukraine after Julia Timoshenko was finally confirmed as Prime Minister 2.5 months after the elections results.

But in both nations, concerned Christians are confronted with those who feel that religious beliefs should stay out of politics, that religion is a private affair which has no business in the public realm. There is one Baptist denomination in Ukraine which agrees, believing that Christians should not vote since voting interferes with the will of God. Citing Romans 13:1-7 as the basis for this belief, their thinking is that if God establishes the authorities, then voting is humanity trying to supersede God's will. That sure doesn't sound like the rhetoric coming out of many of the churches in the US today, with religion in politics being one of the major issues in the 2008 US Presidential Campaign. What's a Christian to do?

The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection in Kansas City is doing a series of sermons on faith and politics which is really outstanding. The series is entitled "Seeing Gray – Faith, Morality and Politics in a Black and White World." The first sermon was one of the best I have heard on the issue. The sermon series is current and on their website. Check it out, it is well worth your time.

Wedding Bells!

We had a wedding yesterday in our Dosvitok Street children ministry. Sveta Tolstonok, a staff member and daughter of Svetlana Tolstonok, our daily director, got married yesterday! So congratulations to the new couple! Ukrainian marriages are different (to me) in that the civil and religious parts of a wedding are separate. Only the State can make a marriage official under the law, so one must go to the government "wedding palace" or ZAGS, where the couple signs the official wedding registry and receives a certificate of marriage. ZAGS stand for the Registrar of the Act of the Citizens Status, a throwback to the USSR when right after the revolution in the 20's, the USSR banned marriage. Then when chaos erupted, the authorities decided they needed to formalize for legal purposes a union which was occurring and ZAGS was created. There is a ceremony at the ZAGS which reminds one of a somber Las Vegas wedding ceremony in the wedding palaces there. They also do a video montage for the couple and show it to the wedding guests immediately after. Very nice. Afterwards, the couple and their friends go to famous places around Kiev, usually monuments, lay flowers there and get their picture taken in front of these monuments. A church blessing of the marriage may occur the same day, sometime later or not at all. But everyone has a big party in the evening, a big reception.

Helen and I went to the ZAGS, but forgot our camera! We did have a cell phone camera, so here are a couple of fuzzy pictures:

Mother holds the traditional bread given to the couple with Grandma standing by.


Closeup of bread - The words say "Bread and Salt" the two basic necessities to start a home.


The happy couple....sigh, cell phone photos aren't the best...I'll post some better pictures later!

С Роджеством! (Merry Christmas - part 2)

It's Christmas again! One of the great things of living in Ukraine is the long holiday season which starts with the December 25 celebration of the Christmas, western date, New Year's Day, Christmas Jan 7, eastern date and the Old New Year, Jan 13 for those who really want to stretch it out, like shops and restaurants. Holiday lights are on at least through Jan 13, when they take down the big Kiev Christmas tree:

...And they continue on for some places through mid-February. Some places never take them down, just turn them off.

So today is Christmas. Yesterday was Christmas eve (quite naturally) and we had our first worship service in the Dosvitok Street Children Center! Joining us and helping us celebrate was a mission team from Central Pennsyvania, most of the team being from around Hershey. It was especially nice to see familiar friends, some who have come several times to Kiev. Here are some photos from the Christmas Eve worship service and celebration. When you look at the pictures, be sure to roll your mouse cursor over the captions to be able to see the English versions.

And since this is the first post of 2008, Happy New Year! С Новым Годом!