Lovelace Lithuanian Link.

2011-12-12T21:57:00.000+02:00

Linksmų Kalėdų! Merry Christmas from Lithuania!

The picture is from the town square in Kaunas, where we live, with Europe’s first Eco Tree! And what is that you might ask ? The Christmas tree – is made of 40,000 recycled plastic bottles of Sprite! Nice? We are not sure, but it is a fun and huge tourist attraction and it did save a big fir tree from the beautiful Lithuanian forests. Every day new Christmas decorations and lights are added to the Christmas City here on the Kaunas main square– yes, it is soon Christmas, we see and feel it.

Moving to Lithuania after 14 years of ministry in Ukraine this September has been a time of adjustment and settling in. A new language needs to be learned, a new culture awaits to be discovered and it sometimes feels overwhelming to be back at the beginning of language and culture acquisition. But the joy of ministry and the grace of God gives us the inspiration for the challenge ahead. Here is a little of what we do:

Bill is the District Superintendent of the Lithuania District of the Estonia Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church, meaning he is the head of the Methodist Church in Lithuania. Lithuania is the southern most of the three Baltic countries of eastern Europe, bordering Latvia, Poland, Belarus and the Kaliningrad district of Russia. The Methodist church in Lithuania was restarted in 1995 after being closed while a republic of the former Soviet Union. This year, in 2011, the United Methodist Church of Lithuania celebrated it’s 110 year anniversary of ministry and the 100 year anniversary of the church building in Kaunas.

While administration of the district, signing payroll sheets, overseeing contracts and other paperwork does consume time, there are plenty of ministry opportunities. In the pastor’s meetings this fall, Bill has been leading a discussion on the renewal of the church in a ever changing 21st century. How can we as the 10 Methodist churches in Lithuania be a light in the community we serve, not simply repeating the same thing we have always done , but giving answers to the questions non-churched people have about God? How can we be creative with new ministries and possibly start new churches?

Church conferences will start up after the New Year, so every weekend for 2 months Bill will visit a different church in the conference for the churches yearly “state of the church” meeting, where ministry and financial aspects of the church are reviewed.

Helen is the Director for Diaconal ministries for Lithuania, overseeing and consulting with the diaconal work done in the district. One of the highlights this Christmas for Helen was to be with the "Food Bank" project, an initiative launched by the government in collaboration with humanitarian aid organizations, both religious and non-religious.

Organizations can apply to join, where they are assigned to a shop one weekend before Christmas and before Easter to collect products which in turn will pass it on to those who do not have the opportunity to buy a little extra for the holidays. People who come into the store to shop, shop a little extra and give it to the organization that has been assigned the shop. The Methodist Church in Kaunas was awarded one of the city's supermarket stores and we collected food for about 3,600 litas ($1,400) - which will go to the poor at Christmas!

We wish all of you the Peace of Christ in this Christmas Season and His Joy in the coming New Year.

Looking to the Future

2011-03-03T11:43:00.001+02:00

Greetings from Ukraine!

Anniversary
In January 10 years ago we started working with street children here in Kiev, Ukraine. Amazing how fast 10 years have passed! We started 10 years ago with serving soup and playing with children living on the street. We did it twice a week. Today we are working every day and we also have a center where we can invite street children and families at risk. We can invite them to a great fellowship and a safe environment.

We started working with street children in a park downtown Kiev, from there we moved to one of the Subway stations in the outskirt of Kiev, After a year we moved from the park to a rented basement in one of the apartment buildings in the same area, before we again had to move outside and continue working in a park before we were able - with help from Methodist Churches in US and Norway - to buy the first floor of a apartment building for our work.

Since then, we have expended our work to include families at risk and we have opened a new UMC congregation. Every day we have 15 -25 children, youth and mothers coming to our center and every Sunday we have about 25 people coming to the worship service.

We are thankful to God for what He has done here in Kiev and to each of you for being willing to listen to His call to support the work – in many different ways - we are doing here in Kiev.

Valeri and Vova
Today I want to share with you 2 stories from our work here in Kiev and what’s happen when we are met with love rather than rudeness.

First I want to let you meet Valeri. He is 19 years old now, but we have known him since he was 10. He has lived on the street since he was 6-7 years old. Since, before we met him, he has been sniffing glue and we can see and feel the result of many years on glue.

One day Bill and I went from our center to the bus stop together with Valeri. After a couple of minutes he told us at we walked too slowly, he wanted to go faster. He said goodbye and he “ran” to the bus stop. The trolleybuses do not come to often, so he had to stand at the bus stop for several minutes waiting for the bus. The result was that Bill and I came on the same bus as Valeri. Valeri did not see us even we saw him. The conductor came, Valeri refused to pay for the ticket and start arguing with the conductor. She left him and she came to us, we bought three tickets and gave one to Valeri. He said thank you, but the conductor got mad at us and told us we do not do any good buying a ticket for him – he is bad, he is terrible and does not deserve anything good.

She did not know that we knew Valeri, she has never seen Valeri watering the flowers, serving food, praying, giving me a big hug or carrying my bag back from the store. She has never met Valeri when someone has met him with loving and caring way.

She has only met Valeri when he has been met with hash words, when people are rude to him, when people hit him.

We have seen how people can change when they are met with love, with care instead of angry words.

Vova is another of the young men we have get to know through the work at our center. Vova is about 20 years old, we have known him for many years also. Vova has lost his parents and grandparents many years ago. Our center became his family.

Vova is in prison now. One morning he called us and start telling us about the life in prison. He was sharing room with 70 other prisoners and only 50 of them were able to sleep at the same time. We talked about this for a while – than Vova came with his real message – do not forget me!

For Vova, it is important to know that someone out there rememberss him, remembers him while he is inside the prison – to send him food, clothes, but also that we will be there when one day he finishes his term in prison. For him to survive, for him to have a hope for a better life, he has to know we are there for him. There is no reason to try to behave good, to try to study – if there are no people who care for him.

Our center is a safe harbor and a place to develop skills and give hope for the future.

New possibilities
In the beginning of our work here in Kiev, we worked with street children. After 8 years we were asked to also reach out to families at risk. We said yes to do that, and we have now contact with 5-7 families. We have an afterschool program, we have a computer class, mother’s groups, a project to teach people how to develop work skills through a micro-business and other activities for those who come to our center. We have also looked into the possibility to start a new children’s group every morning.

Since January we have been working with the preparation for open a new ministry at our center. We have started with two kids and hope to be about 10 pre school children in September. We are exacted about the possibility for new ministry.

The biggest change in our ministry is that another GBGM missionary will take Bill’s and my position in Kiev from September 1. Last Summer Bill was asked by the Bishop for Northern Europe and Baltic to be the interim District Superintendant for Lithuania for 6 months. During that time, the bishop asked him to be the new DS from the Summer of 2011. Both of us said, yes we are willing to move to Lithuania, if we can find another missionary to take over the responsibilities we have in Kiev. We know that God loves the program and want the program to continue.

Bill and I were not to convinced that we were able to find one who would like to this ministry – and without that person in place, we were not going to say yes to the question from the bishop. We started to pray - God help us to see what is right, what we are going to do and if you want us to say yes to the call from the bishop, send us a person who can be responsible for the center as well as the church.

God has a plan, he sent a GBGM missionary to Kiev who is a UMS pastor, who speaks Russian very well and has worked as a pastor in a church in Moscow, which also had a center connected to the church as we have. The center was for student and refugees. When you believe in prayer, I don’t think we can receive a more clear answer from God.

We are moving to Lithuania September 1st. Bill as DS and I will working in the churches in Lithuania with diaconal issues and also be helping and mentor for children’s and family centers in Lithuania. The new missionary John Calhoun is already in Kiev starting to work 50% together with Bill and me.

We are excited about the new possibilities and thankful to God for what he has done through the center the last 10 years. For all of you who have supported the work, we pray that you will continue to support us and the center in Kiev.

May God bless you as He has blessed us through each one of you!

Bill and Helen Byholt Lovelace

Fall at St. Luke's

2010-09-29T08:54:00.005+03:00

Greetings from Kiev,

The summer is over and the fall program has started.

In the summer we had a lot of great day trips – we went to see a 3D movie, several trips to McDonalds, museum trips, and several other entertainments.

Some of the kids from our families have started in school this fall and Bill and I were so lucky that we were invited to be with one of them on his first day in school - a great day for both us and for the child.

This fall we have expended our program to include having a “Mother’s Day Out” program every Wednesday. Just behind our St. Luke’s Family Center, we have a play ground, where a lot of mothers and grandmothers take their preschool age children to the playground every day. It is starting getting cold here in Kiev and we want to invite them to the center for a cup of coffee, a talk and for the children to play.

Another new activity is introduction of English classes and an English Club for the students at the university we have close to our center.

In addition, once a month we want to reach out to our neighbors for a to a cup of coffee, help the kids who need help with homework, sharing humanitarian aid, invite them in to a positive and healthy environment.

Besides our new program we are continuing mother and child groups for families at risk, a life skill program for older street children and we are also starting up life skill groups for the younger kids coming to our center.

The city government is continuing to work with us to provide names of families at risk so that we can help the children to stay in the families, build good relationships within the families and build up the mother’s self esteem.

We continue to see good progress in the families we are working with – both for the mothers and the children and the relationships between the mother and children.

The work project for those over 17 is continuing and we are doing well. Our challenge is to sell over products, so we can be self supported and we want to start a small business. If some of you would like to come and help us with this project you are more than welcome!

Thanks to a gift by a Rotary Club in Norway for the purchase of computers, we are also going to start a computer class for the oldest children this fall.

Hope you enjoy our greetings, pictures and up date!

Greetings from

St. Luke Family Center

Dosvitok

Helen

Back in Kiev!

2010-05-12T09:49:00.002+03:00

After 9 weeks and 2 days of sick leave, Helen is back in Kiev! She will still need to take it easy for the next two months as the doctor said it would take 3 to 4 months for her to fully recover from her serious bout with pneumonia. But she is glad to be back and just in time for the blooming of the chestnut trees in Kiev.

2010-05-07T17:22:00.002+03:00

Helen has been cleared by her doctor and will return to Kiev on May 11!

Back in Kiev

2010-05-01T10:24:00.002+03:00

Bill is back in Kiev, while Helen still recovers in Norway from a bout of severe pneumonia (see previous posts). Helen will go to the doctor on Monday, May 3, to see if she is ready to return to Kiev or will need some more time before she travels. Please keep her in your prayers!

Wellness and Volcanoes.

2010-04-19T17:00:00.003+02:00

It's a bright, sunshiny day in Kragerø, Norway (no volcanic ash in sight) and Helen went to the doctor to get the results of her tests last week. The xray showed her lungs are clear, but the doctor wants her to be on sick leave for two more weeks and this includes no traveling. Now, Bill must try to find a way back to Kiev which is complicated by the erupting Icelandic volcano. After discovering that to go by train/bus/ferry would take at least three days and no guarantee of having a seat on some of the legs of the trip, Bill decided to wait and see if the plane flight issue resolves itself. He hopes he can catch a plane back by the end of the week. We shall see!

2010-04-08T11:37:00.003+02:00

Bill is back in Norway after being in Kiev for one week for Easter services. Here is a a video that has pictures from our after church Easter fellowship and a few clips of some members wishing Helen to get better!

Doing better.

2010-03-28T10:29:00.004+02:00

Helen is feeling better now, almost a week out of the hospital, but still some problems with breathing and being tired. She will continue on antibiotics for 3 more days, then take an xray after 2 more weeks of rest to see if her lungs are okay. If so, then she will return to Ukraine. Bill leaves for Ukraine in a few days.

Home from the Hospital

2010-03-23T18:26:00.002+02:00

Helen came home from the hospital in Kragerø, Norway today and requested pizza. She enjoyed it and now has to take medicine for another week and rest for 2 weeks before she can return to Ukraine. Thanks for your prayers and concern.

Helen in Hospital.

2010-03-21T22:10:00.003+02:00

While making a quick trip to Norway to get Russian visas and to speak to a Rotary Club in Oslo which is supporting the St. Luke's Family Center, Helen fell ill with pneumonia. She has been in the hospital for almost a week now in her home town of Kragerø. It was a very serious case, indicated by the bacteria count in her blood. Normal is 5 or less. When she entered the hospital, it was over 500. Over 100 is considered serious. The doctors immediately put her on intravenous antibiotics which she took until Saturday morning. She should be released from the hospital tomorrow, Monday, March 22. She will still take antibiotics in tablet form for 5- 10 days and then have rest at home for 2 weeks. After the rest period, they will check her lungs again to clear her for travel to Ukraine. The doctors said it could be 3-4 months before she feels 100%. Please keep her in your prayers and thoughts. Thanks for all the well-wishing on Facebook as well. Please click here for some pictures of her in the hospital, mostly after she was feeling better.

Winter creeping to a close.

2010-02-20T14:42:00.003+02:00

Finally it looks as if winter may be starting to come to an end. Here are some pictures why we can hardly wait until Spring.

Blog Restart!

2010-01-15T16:21:00.004+02:00

After a long break, this blog is being restarted!

First, a little update. The officially registered name of our ministry to homeless children and families at risk is known as “Dosvitok”. This is a Ukrainian word meaning Daybreak, but it is rarely used in modern speech and so is not widely recognized by the majority of the public. The church we started 2 years ago when we opened our new building is named St. Luke’s United Methodist Church, so we then informally called the ministry, the St. Luke’s Children’s Center.

The sign says St. Luke’s United Methodist Church and Family Center.

On the bottom is Open Hearts, Open Minds, Open Doors, the official motto of the United Methodist Church.

In making our new sign, we decided to change the name to St. Luke’s Family Center because it reflects the shift of focus of our work. In large part due to the many active church groups and non-profit humanitarian organizations in Ukraine working with homeless children, orphans and other children at risk, the government in Ukraine in the past several years began to seriously look into the problem and start to work with these non-governmental agencies residing in Ukraine, including us. As stated earlier, the city’s Department of Juvenile Affairs gives us names of families whose children could be at risk of becoming homeless or semi-homeless.

Our daily schedule at the family center continues as before with two days a week devoted to our work project, where we simulate a small business of handicraft making. The project teaches such basic work skills such as being on time, not skipping work days, respect for others at the work place, working responsibly and doing quality work. The products made are now sold either in Norway or America in a restrictive market such as a missions festival, but in the future we hope we can compete in the Ukrainian market as a real business. The participants, our older homeless youth and mothers of the families we work with are becoming very creative in the products that are made, necklaces, bracelets and decorative candles, by looking at what people are wearing and what seems to sell in Ukraine and adjusting their designs accordingly. Some of the participants have never worked before and are now taking great pride in having a place to work.

Also the Mother and Child day has been expanded to 2 days a week, with Life Skill training for older youth, help with schoolwork for younger teens and elementary school age children, child care for preschoolers continuing on a daily basis.

The church is also doing well, with most of the members being participants in the family center. The church offers a midweek bible study now along with Sunday worship.

Bill now has more time to spend at the center and at St. Luke’s UMC as he is no longer District Superintendent of Ukraine. His term expired and at the 2009 Annual Conference a Ukrainian pastor, Sergei Bogomozyuk, is the new DS. He is pastor of one of our largest churches in Ukraine and is doing a great job in his new role as DS. Bill is now enjoying the extra time to concentrate on the St. Luke’s church.

Christmas was a special time this year as we had Christmas craft workshop on St. Nicholas’s day, Dec. 19 where we decorated candles, made Christmas ornaments, decorated gingerbread houses and indulged in a Norwegian Christmas tradition, having rice and cream porridge where 3 almonds has been placed in the big pot before all were served. Whoever found an almond got a special present! The adults enjoyed this as much as the children.

Christmas itself, celebrated on January 7, started with a worship service, continued with lunch and ended with a puppet theatre which was Leo Tolstoy’s story about the shoe maker who got a visit from Jesus. Changing the sanctuary into a dining room for 60 people proved to be a little challenge in our small room, but we managed to fit everyone in. Woody Wolfe, Beth Valentine and 4 others from Pennsylvania helped us celebrate and make this a day we would not soon forget. One of the mothers who goes to our Family Center said this was the best Christmas she had ever had.

It’s good to be back blogging and check back for future entries!

Update from Helen

2009-04-04T13:08:00.002+02:00

Greetings from Ukraine!

God is good and God loves Street Children are two phrases I believe in and have experienced especially the last ten years and I want to share with you all.

Two years ago we were so happy and blessed that we were able to buy a part of a building in Kiev for our street children ministry and in January 2008 we moved in to our new building. Since that, we have felt God’s presence in a special way.

Let me share for you some of our experiences:

Our main focus is on the street children, we have more and more children coming to us and we have seen the need of giving our older kids some work experience along with lot of other things.
In Fall 2008, we were asked by the local government in our area to also open our center to families at risk. We said yes to their request and we have now contact with about 10 new families in our area. The mothers are sending their children to after school activities and participating themselves in mother and children workshops we are providing.
During the Wednesday morning workshop, we have mothers and children coming to our center involved in doing activities together. We also provide a separate group for the mothers where we are discussing different topics to help them in their daily family life, talking about how to be a mother and what it means to more effectively raise their children.
The kids love to come to the center, they like to play with each other, listen to stories, do activities and have the possibility to play with all the toys we have at the center.

Afterwards, we eat lunch together, drink coffee and have time to fellowship with each other.

Our “After school group” starts when school is over. First, we eat dinner together before we help them with their homework or tutor them with subjects they find difficult. We have different activities such as a cooking class, model building and life skill groups. We also take trips to get to know our city play the card game UNO, table tennis and table football (foosball).

We have a lot of fun together.

We still continue working with street children and also homeless young adults. Now we have two main groups: those over 17 who have been in our program for several years and those 17 and younger. In the coming days we are going to start a work project for the young adults, teaching them to get and hold a job. We are going to introduce for them three possibilities of work options – creating and selling handicrafts, maintenance and babysitting. We will set up a “company”, and a part of the new project will be to help them to learn what it means to work responsibly. We will have contracts with each person, helping them to spend their money and how to save money. We are excited about this new opportunity for ministry.
For the street children, we continue to be a bridge between life on the street and a healthy home environment. We have Life Skill programs, cooking classes and individual counseling sessions. We help them to gather essential documents, provide a place where they can wash their clothes, buy new clothes for them when the seasons change, take them to hospitals when necessary, among a lot of other things. And always we are attempting to locate a stable family environment for them, whether back at home, with relatives or a good institution.
Every Sunday we invite all of our kids and families to our worship service and today we have 40 people coming to church.
We want to be an oasis for the people coming to our center and a place where we challenge each other to grow as people.

Thank you for your support and you are always welcome to come see us in Kiev!

Happy Old New Year

2009-01-14T20:10:00.004+02:00

In Ukraine, you celebrate all the holidays you can get, especially in the middle of not just the Worldwide Financial Crisis, but a Gas Crisis!

The Old New Year is celebrated in Ukraine as the Orthodox churches follow the Julian Calendar, which has New Year's Day on Jan 14 and Christmas Day on Jan 7. The Protestant, Catholic and Greek Catholic churches, however, celebrate Christmas on Dec. 25. Since New Year's and Old New Year's Days are celebrated by everyone, in essence Ukraine has 2 Christmas's and 2 New Year's. Very nice arrangement, actually.

Today, Helen was attending the Mother and Child group we have for famil at risk, a new program at our center. Since it was the Old New Year, she asked the mother's how they celebrated New Year's Day. The mothers were enthusiastic about replying, hoping to help educate the foreigner and explained how a Ukrainian New Year should be celebrated with a big New Year's day tree, lots of presents under the tree, relatives in attendance, plenty of good food and then at midnight, opening the presents. (Ukrainians celebrate New Year's similarly to the way Christmas is celebrated in many western countries). The mothers agreed, yes, that was the way to celebrate New Years.

But then Helen asked, how did you celebrate New Years this year at your house? The mothers fell silent and then one offered,

"Well, we really didn't have much money for food and presents. Plus, my brother who lives with us in the two room apartment along with my mother and 4 children, uses New Years as an excuse to get drunk. Actually, he uses any holiday as an excuse to get drunk. As usual, he gets angry, hits me, tries to hit the children. I try to stand in the door to prevent him from coming into our room. This year, he also threw up on the floor and the two youngest slipped and fell in his vomit."

Another mother then said, "yes, my husband does the same thing. Uses the holidays as an excuse to get drunk. But I told him he better not hit me again or I would leave. That scared him a bit. Usually, we just leave the house when he gets this way. He ruins every holiday."

It's families-at-risk like these that have a likelihood of the children running to the streets to escape the chaos at home. Please pray for this new ministry in order to give families the spiritual support and coping skills to so that the families can remain intact.

Update coming soon!

2008-11-25T20:57:00.001+02:00

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)

2008-08-26T18:58:00.003+03:00

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!!

2008-08-21T18:27:00.005+03:00

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

2008-05-26T20:42:00.003+03:00

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

2008-05-07T16:50:00.003+03:00

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

2008-04-13T22:00:00.003+02:00

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

2008-04-02T21:54:00.003+02:00

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.

2008-03-16T20:34:00.005+02:00

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.

2008-03-09T17:18:00.002+02:00

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.

2008-03-06T19:40:00.004+02:00

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

2008-02-19T18:03:00.005+02:00

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

2008-02-11T22:53:00.000+02:00

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.

2008-02-06T18:37:00.000+02:00

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!

2008-01-28T19:16:00.000+02:00

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

2008-01-17T10:07:00.001+02:00

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!

2008-01-12T08:25:00.000+02:00

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)

2008-01-07T18:31:00.000+02:00

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!

The Naughty and the Nice

2007-12-26T02:39:00.000+02:00

Once again during this Christmas season, we have read many articles and watched TV Christmas specials decrying the commercial nature of Christmas and trying to determine what is the real meaning of Christmas. This morning in Norway, in the Christmas Day worship service in the Kragerø United Methodist Church, the pastor, Harald Olsen, made an interesting comment about that icon of Christmas materialism, Santa Claus. Everyone knows what Santa is about. He has a twice checked list of all the Nice and Naughty Children, bringing gifts to the Nice Children and a lump of coal in the stocking for the Naughty Ones. Doesn’t that make perfect sense? Shouldn’t only the deserving be eligible to be on Santa’s list for a gift?

But that is the exact opposite attitude God has in gift giving on Christmas: God’s gift, Jesus, is expressly for all the Naughty Boys and Girls, to give us the opportunity to reconcile ourselves with God and the world around us through Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross. No one is so naughty, so poor, so lost, so unworthy, so sinful to be ineligible for God’s Christmas list. God seeks us all and rejoicing is heard throughout heaven when anyone of us takes the Gift.

Merry Christmas! And may you be an instrument of delivering God's Gift to the world.

Sergei

2007-12-19T11:22:00.000+02:00

We finally heard about Sergei. Sergei is the young man who had been coming to our street children center for a number of years but is now in prison, serving a too long term for minor theft. The story of his trial is in our last newsletter. In Ukraine, if you are accused of a crime, you are held in a holding center for those awaiting their trials. There doesn't seem to be concept of bail. If you are convicted in the crime, then you will continue to be held in the holding center until it is determined to which prison you will be sent, depending on the severity of your crime. You cannot visit or officially communicate with a prisoner (read here about unofficial communication) until they are assigned to a prison. And notification of which prison they are in is only given by letter and the letter at last arrived.

We heard rumors that Sergei would be going to a prison near the airport, which would have been great for visiting often, but in fact, his prison is near Rivno, about 200 miles from Kiev. By Ukraine standards, this is not too bad, since the policy is reported to be to send the prisoner as far away from the place they committed the crime as possible, reputedly to break up criminal connections. So now we await more information so we can arrange a visit.

Busy Fall

2007-12-09T11:29:00.000+02:00

Time has flown as we have had many trips outside the Ukraine this fall. Now I have just returned from a 1 week trip to Switzerland and Germany where I was involved in two meetings: One was a 2 day meeting with three other missionaries to look over the new mission initiatives of GBGM which have begun in the last 15 years in order to review their strengths and weaknesses and discuss how we as missionaries could use our experience to help make upcoming mission initiatives better. We met in Interlaken, Switzerland, a very pretty place.

The next meeting was in Braunfels, Germany, where all the District Superintendents of Europe met with their respective Bishops in discussing the future of the UMC in Europe. Assisting us was Bishop Shnase from Missouri Conference who gave us lectures on the Five Principles of Fruitful Congregations: Radical Hospitality, Passionate Worship, Intentional Faith Development, Risk-taking Mission and Extravagant Generosity. The discussions were very much in line with the other conferences and meetings where I have been this fall. Now it is time to implement these ideas! It is great to be home in Kiev. Here is the Braunfels town square:

Here are a few more pictures from the trip. But our trips are not completely over for 2007: Helen left this morning for Moscow to attend the Eurasia Episcopal Area Financial Committee as the Ukraine and Moldova Annual Conference representative.

No promises for an easy ride.

2007-11-28T21:14:00.000+02:00

We have been home in Kiev for over a week and now are in the midst of a pastor's meeting. All of our pastors come together twice a year at our apartment for a time of prayer, fellowship and planning for our district.

But just before the meeting started today, I got some bad news: our new street children center was broken into for the second time this week. Thankfully, we had not put too much expensive things into the center, just tables, chairs and some of the humanitarian aid. Sunday, the first time they broke in, the thieves stole some humanitarian aid clothes, cleaning supplies, an electric hot water boiler, toilet paper(!) and some of the medicine we were given during our free medical clinic. The second time, though, they pulled out our washing machine, dryer and dish washer in an attempt to try to steal them, but then must have abandoned the thought. They did this time steal the stove top we had and a 10 year old microwave. Again, two electric hot water boilers were stolen (replacements for the one stolen Sunday), most of the rest of the humanitarian aid clothing, the replacement cleaning supplies and...toilet paper. Also two chairs were taken. The police investigated, but said since the most expensive thing stolen was the stove top, only around $300, they really wouldn't pursue it too much. Also sad is that a few simple portable DVD players owned by the children and stored at the center were taken. Sometimes it seems they just don't get a break.

We now have 2 guards staying at the center at night and between the two break-ins, we ordered an alarm system, though a phone has to be installed before the alarm can be put in. We have also ordered bars for our windows. Please pray for Svetlana, our daily director, as the burden of dealing with the police, etc., has been on her.

St. John's Downtown

2007-11-24T11:50:00.000+02:00

While in America, just before we attended the Russia Initiative Conference at Church of the Resurrection in Kansas City and after our Georgetown visit, we were able to make a one day visit to St. John's Downtown United Methodist Church in Houston, TX. As mentioned previously, this church has around 9,000 members in which 3,000 are homeless or former homeless. We wanted to see how this church has been able to blend a congregation of homeless poor, middle class and wealthy people.

When we arrived at the church, we waited for the pastor since he was preforming the funeral of a 21 year old member of the church who had been shot in gang-related violence. The neighborhood around the church is not an easy one to work in. After the funeral, the pastor, Rudy Rasmus, greeted us with hugs and warm welcome, spending the rest of the day with us showing us the church and its ministries.

Two points stood out as he related how this church has managed to grow while still maintaining its blended character. One was of "extreme welcome". Since homeless people are refused entry to so many places, it is difficult for them to "challenge the door", that is, get up enough courage to actually walk inside the church. To ease this, St. John's Downtown has a 3 tier welcoming system. People called Ambassadors are on the street around the church before services to invite people with hugs and handshakes to come on in. Greeters are inside the door to give more hugs,
information and direct people to the sanctuary. Ushers in the sanctuary then give more hugs and show people to their seats. We were told you probably would get hugged 5 or 6 times before you actually sit down. This sense of welcome gets people, especially the poor and homeless, over the barrier of entry to a new place. The second point was "to never compromise the vision of the church". The vision of St. John's is to be a place for all people of all economic and social classes. As any church becomes more successful, the pressure to accommodate the church to those who give the most financially is always present. It takes a lot of work to guarantee equal access to the pews for all in a church which crosses economic and social classes. We hope to remember these points as we begin our "equal access" church in the Dosvitok Children's Center building.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2007-11-22T14:17:00.000+02:00

Our trip to America is over and we are back in Kiev. Well, I am back and Helen arrives today. She had a meeting with the Northern European Central Conference Board of Drug and Alcohol Concerns (the same board where we met 14 years ago) in Germany and is probably landing at the airport as I write these words. With all the flurry of activity and being outside the United States, it is hard to believe that today is Thanksgiving.

And we do have a lot for which to be thankful. We are very thankful for the generous support we have received for our ministry in Ukraine, both financially and spiritually. Between conferences we were able to visit First United Methodist Church of Georgetown, TX, just north of the state capital, Austin, who have been faithful supporters of our work, especially the Dosvitok street children ministry. You have heard Texas being called the Lone Star State, (one star in the state flag), but the Texas state motto is "Friendship". This motto was certainly lived up to by our wonderful hosts, James and Shirley Varner who have worked tirelessly in promoting our work in Georgetown. Here they are as we are about to enjoy one of Shirley's great meals.

Isn't it great to be able to sit outside and eat breakfast in November? We even got to go to the Alamo on the Saturday before we spoke at the church on Sunday.

More on our trip to America and what has happened in Kiev in the coming days.

Boy Howdy!

2007-11-08T05:11:00.000+02:00

We have been in Texas over a week now. The Living Faith, Seeking Justice Conference in Ft. Worth, sponsored by the General Board of Church and Society, was very inspiring. One quote from a conference speaker:

"The Church is a lot like Noah's Ark, it may stink at times, but if you step out of it, you'll drown."

During the conference, there was some time to do some Texas things, like eat reel Texas bar-bee-que. Here are three happy Europeans chowing down on a moderate portion of ribs:

Helen, Dominic Schmidt from Germany, first time in USA and Finn Uth from Denmark.

The moderate portion of ribs. It was an all-you-can eat deal, by the way.

You sure can't get a ride like this in Germany:

Adam Hamilton, pastor of Church of the Resurrection which supports two of our churches in Ukraine and a main speaker at the Living Faith, Seeking Justice Conference commented on the fact the "sweet spot" of the United Methodist Church is our combining of the Evangelical and Social Gospels, how they cannot be separated. If we neglect either, the church does not do it's job. He quoted the General Rules, an official source for our doctrinal standards and which were the basic foundation of the Methodist Church:

Firstly: By doing no harm, by avoiding evil of every kind,

Secondly: By doing good; by being in every kind merciful after their power; as they have opportunity, doing good of every possible sort, and, as far as possible, to all men:

To their bodies, of the ability which God giveth, by giving food to the hungry, by clothing the naked, by visiting or helping them that are sick or in prison.

To their souls, by instructing, reproving, or exhorting all we have any intercourse with; trampling under foot that enthusiastic doctrine that "we are not to do good unless our hearts be free to it."

Thirdly: By attending upon all the ordinances of God; such are:
The public worship of God.
The ministry of the Word, either read or expounded.
The Supper of the Lord.
Family and private prayer.
Searching the Scriptures.
Fasting or abstinence.

A good foundation, let us build upon it.

2007-11-01T18:40:00.000+02:00

A quick post from the US! We made it fine, arriving Monday night, though one bag was delayed. That bag came the next day. Helen is already at the Living Faith, Seeking Justice Conference, while I am staying with Randy and Susan Sublett in Carrollton, TX, good friends from my time in Texas, 20 odd years ago. I will go to the conference today and the two days on my own in Dallas gave me time to run around and do errands. We do have a US phone number, so if you would like the number, add a comment to this post with an email or send a request to dosvitok@gmail.com. Be sure to let us know who you are! Addresses like xtremfriend34@yaxoo.com don't always jog our memories. We will be in the US until Nov 18.

2007-10-28T18:17:00.000+02:00

Our last post from Kiev for while is today's, as Helen and I are traveling to the US for a couple of Conferences. The first is the Living Faith, Seeking Justice Conference in Ft. Worth TX, sponsored by the United Methodist Board of Church and Society, where we hope to get some ideas and inspirations for the street children ministry. After the conference ends, we will be in the Dallas Ft. Worth area, then going to Georgetown, TX, to visit folks at the First UMC Georgetown, generous supporters of our homeless children's ministry. Then on Nov 14, we travel to Leawood KS near Kansas City to the United Methodist Church of the Resurrection, which is hosting the Russia Initiative Consultation, a gathering of all the US United Methodist churches who sponsor UM churches in the former Soviet Union. A delegation of 11 is coming from Ukraine, so I think we are going to lobby for a change in the name to be a little more inclusive of the countries involved which includes Belorus, Modova, Russia and Ukraine. We also hope to visit St. John's UMC in Houston if we have the time, a UMC church of 9,000 - 3,000 of which are homeless or former homeless. We hope to learn some of the unique characteristics of having a church which stretches across economic classes, like the one we hope to plant in Kiev.

So, on our last day before departure, we took a stroll down the main street of Kiev, Khreschatik, which is closed to cars and open only to pedestrian traffic on Saturdays and Sundays.

A popular live broadcast karaoke-type singalong TV show is filmed here on Khreschatik on Sundays. People are picked out of the crowd to try their luck and people were having a good time as we passed by.

Mini-Grand Opening

2007-10-27T21:13:00.000+02:00

Today was the first day in the new Dosvitok children's center! As noted before, we are saving the real Grand Opening when the entire center has been completed, but from today forward the center is open 6 days a week from 10:00-17:00. It has been one year and four months since we lost the lease on our old premises and 6 months and 2 days since we purchased the premises we have now. Our and your prayers have been answered and the ministry can move ahead in a more effective way. Here are some pictures from the first day. The pictures as usual do not show many faces as we try to protect the privacy of the children who are homeless.

You will note that we have two pictures of people playing checkers. Ukrainian checkers has different rules. The pieces can only move forward as in American rules and jumps are obligatory, but pieces can jump both forwards and backwards. Also, when you reach the back row and get "crowned" a king, the king moves like a bishop in chess. I claimed I was new to the rules since I lost both games I played.

2007-10-26T08:25:00.001+02:00

Our meetings continue. Yesterday was the Financial Committee of the Annual Conference, today the Administrative Council. Here is Sergei Bogomozyuk, pastor from Uzhgorod giving his best fiscally responsible stare. Valerie Fedorov, treasurer of the Istochnik church in Kiev, sits next to him.

I would have some pictures of the administrative council, but Helen took the camera to the Dosvitok street children center where she and the staff are cleaning up for our opening tomorrow. It is not a grand opening, which we will save when the entire center has been completed, but from tomorrow, the center will be open for the children to come every day! The kitchen was finished at the beginning of this week in the Dosvitok center. For those who are interested in some pictures of the completed kitchen, click here. There are also some other pictures of the status of the rest of the repair work. If you want to compare to what the kitchen looked like before the repair work, click here.

2007-10-24T08:33:00.000+02:00

This week is our visitors week, as we are having three conference meetings held at the Ukraine and Moldova Annual Conference Office (our apartment). The United Methodist Women's Council meeting will be held today, the Annual Conference Financial Committee tomorrow, and the Annual Conference Administrative Council on Friday. All of the committee members will be getting nice Ukrainian snacks such as these and will be well supplied with pens, some of which actually write.

Our visitors week started off, however, by a visit from Raiya Pinchuk and Sasha Lutsiak from Chernivtsi, a city in Western Ukraine. Raiya is the wife of the pastor of the church, Alexander Pinchuk and Sasha is the church lay leader. They will be attending the Russia Initiative Consultation, which will be held in Kansas City and had their interview with the US Embassy yesterday. Since they had to be at the embassy at 7:00am, (the embassy processes 200-300 visa interviews per day) they came a day early to spend the night with us. Here they are after the interview, with the smiles of those who have just received a visa.

A common joke about the strictness of the visa application process to get a US visa is that the last Soviet institution in Ukraine is the US Embassy.

Raiya's husband Alexander spent 7 years in prison because of his faith. Actually, it was about 3.5 in prison and the rest in a mental institution. He refused to serve in the Army (Ukrainian Christians from the Soviet period have a strong pacifist tradition) during the Afghanistan war and was asked was it because of his faith. When he answered in the affirmative, he was then visited by psychiatrists. They asked him the standard question in cases such as this, "Do you believe the Holy Spirit speaks to you?" When he said yes, the diagnosis of schizophrenia was immediately given, backed up by the admission of the patient of hearing imaginary voices. He subsequently was committed to a mental institution. Hard to believe this happened only 15-20 years ago in Ukraine. Now Ukraine has one of the best statutes and application of the statute regarding religious freedom among the former Soviet republics.

2007-10-22T12:52:00.000+02:00

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.

2007-10-20T21:44:00.000+02:00

James Dwyer, our Regional Executive Secretary from the General Board of Global Ministries of the UMC came to visit us this weekend. It is always nice to have guests, as we break our routine and enjoy the beauty of Kiev.

James and I are here discussing deep missiological issues in front of the new chairs we have purchased for the street children center.
Tomorrow, we leave for Poltava, one of our churches in central Ukraine in the city where in the early 1700's, Peter the Great of Russia defeated Charles the XII of Sweden, starting the decline of the empire of Sweden, at the time known as the Great Mistress of the North. James will be the guest preacher. Another train ride is involved, this one leaving at 6:30am tomorrow morning to arrive by 10:30 in Poltava. Due to people commuting to Kiev to weekly work from Poltava, we will have to take a 5 hour bus ride back, since the express train is full.

This Ukrainian building technique near our new center caught our eye.

2007-10-17T07:46:00.001+02:00

Back from Kerch. Total time in Kerch: 39 hours. Total time on train (round trip): 46 hours. As you can see from Helen, it is important to get nice and settled in on these trips.

It was very nice catching up with old friends while in Kerch for the annual Charge Conference (Methodist lingo for yearly business and planning meeting). Kerch was Helen's and my first appointment in Ukraine and therefore especially dear to us as we lived in Kerch for a little over 2 years. Kerch is the oldest city in Ukraine and one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities on the continent of Europe, around 8,000 years old! We stayed with some friends and right across the road from where they live, a 7th century BC cemetery was recently uncovered, the time when the city was a Greek colony known as Panticapaeum. Our friends were sad we had not been there earlier as during the excavation, when all the skeletons adorned in jewelry were readily available to see. We enjoyed worshiping at our old church and pastor Evgenia Kozarenko was especially proud to show off her first child, Versavia. Here are some other pictures of the trip to Kerch. Be sure and put your cursor on the captions as they expand so you can read more. Also use the "slideshow" option for the best view.

2007-10-12T14:40:00.000+02:00

Today we leave for Kerch for their annual Charge Conference. Kerch is where Helen and I began our ministry in Ukraine and our married life. The city is located on the eastern tip of the Crimean peninsula, on a little strait of water separating Ukraine from Russia, and separating the Black Sea from the Sea of Azov. Click on the maps to see them slightly larger. It is also the church the farthest away from us in Kiev, entailing a 24 hour train ride. Kerch does not have its own separate train in the fall and winter, but just two cars which are attached to the Kiev-Sevastopol train. When the train stops in Djankoy, the city at the top of the Crimean peninsula, the cars are detached and wait on a side track for 4 hours until they are picked up by the Djankoy-Kerch train, which tears up the track of the remaining 200 km (124 miles) in 5 hours.
But we enjoy the leisurely pace, it is nice to have time to read, talk and be disconnected from electronic media for several days. The two train rides, up and back can almost be little mini-retreats. We will stay in the home of Olga (not her real name), a good friend of hours from our Kerch days. She has been through a hard time recently as her husband died of cancer last year (only 5 weeks from diagnosis until death) and she now must live with her mother 5 hours from Kerch on the other side of the bay in Russia, who has Alzheimer's and cannot be left alone. Nursing homes are not available. She is coming to meet us as we arranged for some home care so she could have a respite to be in Kerch to see her house and son who is in the seaman's university in Kerch. Pray for Olga and her situation. More on Kerch when we return on Tuesday.

2007-10-11T09:15:00.000+02:00

We heard from Sergei today, the young man we wrote about in our newsletter who is in prison. He called Svetlana, our daily director of the center from a cell phone. What? Called from a cell phone? In prison? Yes, Ukrainian prisons have some conveniences. Apparently, a cell phone is made available so prisoners can call quickly to ask for the person called to call them back. Sergei was greatly appreciative Helen and I were at the court during his trial, he didn't expect anyone to show up, thought everyone would be angry or wouldn't care. He told us to tell all of you who are praying for him a big thanks, as it means so much to him. Sergei also related that he wished he had listened to Svetlana and us and realizes he made a big mistake. We can't visit him until he is moved from the holding center to one of the regional prisons. We hope it is nearby Kiev; it could be anywhere in the country, depending on the type of prison (strict regime, light regime) to which he is assigned. At the holding center he is in a cell with 50, yes 50 other men. But this seems to be a normal practice in the prison system. Continue to keep him in your prayers, especially so he will not get the drug-resistant TB very prevalent in the prisons and of course, to be safe from violence.

2007-10-10T14:55:00.000+02:00

I (Bill) went to a Children-at-Risk Coalition meeting today, a group of Christian ministries that work with troubled children, primarily in Kiev. Helen was having a staff meeting with the employees of our center and couldn't go. Ministries include those to street children, work in orphanages, independent living dormitories for older teens, etc. The director of a ministry named Child Rescue is now the head of the Ministry of Children's Affairs in Kiev. In contrast to previous suspicions about non-governmental orginizations (NGOs) working with children, the government in Kiev is wide open to cooperation with NGOs, secular or religious. This openness is a direct answer to the prayers of our coalition and others.

One statistic that was shared and particularly troubling is that of all homeless children who have been processed through government shelters, orphanages or other institutions, 10% are found to be HIV+. Pray for us as we will encounter this situation more and more in our work.

2007-10-08T10:13:00.000+02:00

Helen and I just returned from Lugansk, a city in Eastern Ukraine which has been known for its mining industry. I am starting my yearly circuit of the United Methodist churches in Ukraine to hold what is known in United Methodist lingo as the Charge Conference, or a yearly business meeting where reports of the previous years work of the local church are given and future plans are discussed. Here are some pictures of our trip.

2007-10-02T16:25:00.000+02:00

Today is Helen's Birthday! We celebrated by taking the kids out to a cafe nearby in the grand Norwegian tradition of throwing your own birthday party. We deviated from tradition a little bit because we had the celebration on the exact day of her birthday, while Norwegians seem to celebrate their birthday on most any day of the year except the exact day. And more than once. I must admit though, Helen disputes my interpretation of the date(s) of celebration. Here are a couple of pictures. By the way, Helen also blogs for the Norwegian United Methodist Mission website. So all you Norwegian readers, enjoy.

2007-09-30T21:14:00.001+02:00

Here are a few more pictures from the Dosvitok center as the renovation stands today. Click here for a lovely view.

Newsletter September 2007

2007-09-28T17:23:00.001+02:00

Greetings in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ! Exciting things are happening in the Ukraine and Moldova Annual Conference. Two of these directly concern the ministry of Bill and Helen in Kiev.

Street Children Ministry

First is our Street Children Ministry, Dosvitok, which means Daybreak. As many of you know, in July 2006, the ministry lost the half-basement it had rented for 4 years. For the last year, the ministry has been operating “On the street” as we searched for a new place to operate. When Helen founded the ministry, it started on the street, so old skills were put to use again. With real-estate property prices in Kiev growing faster than any other place in the world in 2006 and 2007, it seemed as soon as a suitable place was found, the price was out of reach. But in March of 2007, in answer to the faithful prayers of many, Dosvitok purchased a 208 square meter (2239 square feet) first floor of an apartment building in the same area of Kiev as the former center, this time near a lake and park area. The entrance to the new center is at street level, on opposite side of the building from the entrances that the other residents use. There is a fenced-in paved area in front of the entrance which is for the center’s use only. You can see the outside entrance area of the center by clicking here.

The purchase was made possible by a gift from Blacksburg United Methodist Church, covering 1/3 of the purchase price, gifts from United Methodist Churches in Norway, covering 1/3 of the price, and a loan from the United Methodist Church of Norway covering the remaining cost. Completing the purchase exhausted the reserves held for the ministry, but with the climbing real-estate market Kiev and the inability to find a suitable place to rent, the opportunity could not be passed up. The ministry has been blessed though by new donations coming in which are helping to pay for needed renovations and the day-to-day program of the center. You can see interior shots of the building before renovations were started by clicking here.

Renovations have been moving at a slow, but steady pace. The first floor we purchased was an unfinished storage area, so extensive renovations have to be completed before we can open the center to full time usage. A staff meeting was held in the new building shortly after the purchase using plastic chairs set up in an unfinished room. One conclusion of the half day meeting was that the bathroom needed to be finished first! You can see the before renovation and after result by clicking here.

As the rest of the building consists of private residences, Dosvitok wants to be the best neighbor it possibly can be. Therefore, we wanted to not let the children know where the center was located before we were open on a full time basis so to keep down the chances of them hanging out around the building without supervision. A medical team though, from Central PA led by Woody Wolfe, a long time supporter of United Methodist work in Ukraine through the Central PA Ukrainian Initiative, came to Dosvitok on the 18 & 19^th. With the bathroom complete and the main activity hall at least painted, it was decided to open the center for one day only to hold a medical checkup clinic for the children. Two of the “children”, both 18, are a new mother and expectant one in the ninth month and it was good for the doctors to check out them and their baby and baby-to-be. A hernia was discovered on the almost 2 month old (boy), which probably would not have been discovered otherwise. The mother smokes and probably injects a homemade methamphetamine drug known as “vint”, so we are anxious to get the center up and running so as to have these mothers coming to a controlled environment so we can monitor the development of their babies and help them to care for their babies. Nothing else serious was discovered except for the general hazards of life on the streets such as high blood pressure for the smoker/glue sniffers, scabies and bad tooth decay, serious enough of themselves. Click here for some pictures. Note: We try not to show faces of the children for their own protection and safety. Please do not post these pictures elsewhere on the internet. Thank you.

Monday was a sad day for us in the street children ministry. Sergei, one of the children who has been with us since the beginning, now 18, was on trial for stealing a cell phone. One and one half years ago, while a minor, he also was a participant with another young man in a cell phone robbery. Both were caught and while his partner, 18 at the time received four years, Sergei got 2 years probation. We worked with Sergei to make sure he understood that crime was not the way to solve his numerous problems. Sergei’s father died while he was young and his mother started to drink. She sold their apartment for a case of vodka which put Sergei and his two sisters on the street.

Recently things had been looking up for Sergei and his siblings. His older sister received an apartment (from the government) in the village in which they were born and Sergei’s younger sister had been staying there looking after the older sister’s child. Sergei had gotten a job loading and unloading trucks in Kiev to help support himself and send some money to his two sisters. But cell phones are a status symbol and the best models are hard to purchase on a minimum wage job. The temptation seemed to be too much for Sergei.

Sergei was always the first one to greet us when we came to the old center. Laughing and playing around he constantly had his arms around our necks, reaching out for the contact he did not receive much in his life on the street. But today those hands were in handcuffs as he was led to the “cage” in the courtroom, the place in a Ukrainian courtroom where the accused is locked in. He was crying and so were we as the judge asked him, “Where is your father?” “Dead.”, Sergei replied. “I notice your mother was recently released from prison. She broke probation as well.” “Yes…”., mumbled Sergei. “Anything to say for yourself?” said the judge “Please, I’ll get a job, I’ll do better..” The judge gave Sergei a long look, then said, “Sentencing at 2:30pm”, and the courtroom broke for lunch. The guards handcuffed Sergei and led him out, sobbing as he went, but glancing our way under the stern gaze of the three guards. No communication is allowed between a prisoner and anyone else. We came back at 2:30, waited for 20 minutes outside the courtroom, but then a guard walked by and said, “Oh, it is already over. Judge took a quick lunch; he got 4 years 2 months.” So we didn’t even get to wave goodbye. This term was especially saddening when we read in the Norwegian newspapers how a man charged with being an accomplice to murder got 4 years in prison, while a young man Sergei’s age, also a repeat offender, convicted of robbing a cell-phone kiosk in a mall was sentenced to counseling and 58 hours of community service. Sergei will be held in Kiev for one month as they decide to which prison they will send him. After that, once his prison is known, we can visit. Prison in Ukraine is a tough place, over crowded and disease ridden, with no effort to separate young offenders and hardened criminals. In a newspaper article this week about the processing center jail where Sergei is staying until his prison is chosen, the HIV infection rate was said to be 20-25% of the inmates.

After having done the ministry “on the street” for over a year, the negative difference can be seen in the life of the children to whom we minister. The lack of a building has made it difficult to give the children structure and specific Christian and basic elementary educational programs. It is hard for us not to think that if we hadn’t been on the street for this past year, perhaps Sergei could have avoided his prison term. Pray for us as we now have this new center to even more effectively do ministry which positively impacts the children’s lives. Two of our priorities are to develop a program for young mothers at the center and to establish programs which we minister to the whole family, not just the child who shows up at the center. Our staff needs to expand to take care of the increase of children we expect with the opening of the new center.

New Church Start Up.

Bill has been appointed by the Bishop to start a new church in Kiev which will at first meet in the Dosvitok Street Children Center. The vision of the church is to be one which will be open to all, especially without regard to economic class. As any church growth expert will tell you, sociological factors are against mixing economic classes in a church, perhaps even as difficult as having a multi-racial or multi-ethnic congregation. The new church is to be named St. Luke’s UMC and with the inspiration of the gospel of Luke and the call of Christ, there is hope to overcome these natural barriers with the supernatural love of God. This church is being sponsored by the partner church program of World Evangelism and the World Methodist Council in cooperation with the Russia Initiative and special help from Ted and Kay Reissing of Peach Tree UMC in Peachtree GA.

Conference News

One of the biggest events of 2007 in the life of the United Methodist Church in Ukraine has been the Leadership Institute in Kiev put on by the Church of the Resurrection (COR) in Kansas City. COR is a 11,000 member United Methodist Church which holds this seminar on building church leaders and helping local churches reach people for Christ every year in Kansas and attracts more than 1,500 pastors and church leaders from around the United States. We were blessed to have this valuable seminar in Kiev for all our pastors in Ukraine and up to 3 lay leaders from each church completely sponsored by COR. Concepts learned in the seminar were followed up by “homework” for the pastors and their churches, turned in at Annual Conference in July. Every church now has a purpose statement and a pastor with a 6 month preaching plan designed to grow her/his congregation. Other ideas learned at the seminar were also implemented. Continued follow-up will be done as Bill leads the annual Charge Conference in every local church before Annual Conference 2008.

Annual Conference 2007 was highlighted by the entry of a new church into our Annual Conference: The Great Commission Church UMC of Kishinev, Moldova. The church passed their probationary period which is required for all existing churches which desire to become United Methodist with good reports from their mentoring church in Chernivtsi and Bill as District Superintendent. Congratulations to the church and their pastor, Leonard Chernoy. Many thanks for the prayers for our pastor in Sevastopol, Illya Boroxov who was having kidney problem symptoms. The problems turned out to be a cancerous tumor of the prostate which went into the bladder, but an operation removed the tumor and no trace of the cancer has been found elsewhere in his body. Pray for his continued recovery. Two announcements of joy for the Ukraine and Moldova Annual Conference were the birth of the first child of Pastor Evgenia Kozarenko who had a girl, Versavia Denisovich Kozarenko and the birth of a son, Adam Lyubomirovich Rudko, of the associate pastor in Lviv, Lyubomir Rudko.

Prayer Concerns:

Dosvitok: (Street Children Ministry):

- Sergei, for safety from disease and violence in prison. The chance of being infected with drug-resistant tuberculosis and AIDS is high in prison.

- Mortgage Payment - Though we have very good terms on the loan from the United Methodist Church in Norway, we still need to pay it off, pay for the renovations and keep up the daily budget of the ministry.

- Young Mothers Program

- Acquisition of new staff members who are both called by God and qualified.

St. Luke’s UMC in Kiev (new church plant)

- Core leadership group

- Organizational planning before start of public worship

New Church plants which are being planned in the Uzhgorod region and Chernivtsi

Alexander Pinchuk, pastor of Chernivtsi UMC, continuing debilitating back problems

Elections in Ukraine on Sept 30, 2007.

Thanks so much to all our supporters. May God bless you as He blesses us through you.