Trolleybus #12

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

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

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

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

2nd Worship Service.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Faith and Politics

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

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

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

Wedding Bells!

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

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

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


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


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

С Роджеством! (Merry Christmas - part 2)

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

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

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

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

The Naughty and the Nice

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.