Happy Old New Year

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!

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

Summer Update (part 2)

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

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

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

Summer Update!!

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

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

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

Partners in Mission

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

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

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

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

Back from General Conference

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

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

 

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

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

General Conference

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