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.