Hello from Ukraine
“Zdrastvitye opyat!” Hello again! We’re well and truly into the New Year and… how do you feel about how God has glorified Himself through you so far? I find it an interesting question. Today, we read about the trend pervading our culture of teenage adults. That is to say: we have a growing number of people over the age of 25 who are, in many ways, still acting like teenagers. The main cause stated? Self-centeredness. They want to have the freedom to do what they want to do when they want to do it without anything tying them down. It caused me to be reminded that “self-love” is something we all have to deal with in our desire to put all on the altar before Jesus and serve Him alone.
“The Family” here had a wonderful time celebrating Jesus birth, life and resurrection in January. Here’s a photo of one of the nights we gathered where the kids began having a ball! This was actually the night of Dec. 31st. A tree here is not a Christmas tree, but a New Year’s tree. The Christmas celebration is a spiritual one. Anyway, the kids loved it as the guys played music and sang. It was definitely a fun time together.
The church with whom we fellowship is seeing some interesting developments. We are seeing older folk coming along and fellowshipping with us. If they get involved, this has to be healthy for a church family! Here’s a photo of us enjoying a celebration of Jesus. People loved it.
The last few days we have had snow falling – each day a few inches. The kids, notwithstanding (lovely word) the suffering “chicken pox” has handed out, have loved going out in it. We have a slope out the back of our home that is very steep with a drop off of about a meter over a wall at the bottom. They love this short slope and must have gone down it over 50 times the last several days! The bump at the bottom, bruise producing and all, is the biggest thrill of it! Pris and I took the two little girls out on sleds yesterday. It was a warm -6 and we all enjoyed it.
Until we get the plastic up over the hothouse frame, the strawberry farm is at a stand-still at the moment. I don’t mind from one perspective. Gaven is in England for several weeks and I’m using the opportunity to do bits and pieces round the house which need doing. Just before the New Year and the snow, we got the roof on the room we would like to use for “children’s gatherings” during the adult meetings. You can see it in the above photo in the background with the square dark window. But back to “strawberries”… here’s photo we took of the frame before the snow came. We’ve actually progressed further, but now wait until we can weld again without frying our brains through electric shock (when we have a thaw) or freezing our hands solid (when the temp is -6 or lower).
We enjoyed immensely a visit from Josh (my brother) and Bec and their boy Thomas. We went to the Carpathian Mountains with them and had “an experience” there for a few days. It was lovely!! We drove there and were stopped at a checkpoint near the border by this guy in the booth in the picture on the left. After 13 years here, I know what to expect from these guys and he gave me no surprises. Josh and Bec didn’t have their passports with them and by law; they are required to carry them at all times. There was talk of arrest, of deportation, of fines, of his loathing of our religion where we sacrifice babies on altars (communist propaganda against Evangelical believers still believed by many). He said that the consequences could be avoided depending on how much money we had on us. : ) Ahhh, yes. Good. We have finally made some progress here. Finally I can say that I won’t circumvent the law through giving a bribe and that he should just write out the “protocol” and we’d suffer whatever consequences for our oversight he decided to give us. I am actually at the stage where I enjoy these situations… as long as they don’t take up too long. I normally get the chance to witness to them and they have for several years now been letting me go without any consequences apart from eating up some time. This was no different. This fellow; however, wasn’t too happy about us not giving him anything. Oh! Priscilla got stopped on the way home for speeding! (First time driving in Ukraine!! Nice intro.) Unless you know the area, it is hard to know when the speed-limit drops to 60km/h… especially at night. The absolute plethora of signs in the west starkly contrasts the absence of signs here. Anyway, we had a similar experience with the bloke who pulled us over being “greedy”, except that he was friendly, jovial and let us go with a smile and well-wishes after trying to milk us for some dough. (Love the “mix” in that metaphor!) Anyway, life here has a number of these little specials which make living here unique. I am thankful for the opportunity to represent God in a place like this.
We have an opportunity to “go into milking”. Gaven’s background is a milking one (his family has milked for years) and we’ve been talking about something like this for six months now. It makes sense to be a presence in another nearby village as well as start a profitable business. We have found land there, (300 hectares), near some milking sheds (rent will cost $3 a hectare per year) and have visited several farmers in the area to look around and talk. Gaven was shocked at the primitive conditions and practices but confident that he could set up something that would work very well. We’ve talked a lot about it with a couple of other people and we’ll see what happens. It is mighty interesting considering the options and possibilities right now though.
Priscilla here: This past week has been a holiday of sorts for me since the three older children have had chicken pox. In spite of the discomfort, occasional tears, and a bit of sleeplessness, they have loved doing some crafts, reading, and especially watching videos—something we don’t spend a lot of time doing normally! For me, the pace has been relaxed without school. Also the men working on the room for children’s ministry have been working elsewhere, so it has been very quiet. One of the workers has come down with chicken pox. He does not know the LORD. His name is Andrei. You can pray especially that he will give his heart and life to Jesus. The children are all feeling vastly better even though they still need a few more days before they go out in public.
God has been so faithful once again in providing for us. In Matthew 5, we are told not to worry about things like clothes. Well, recently God provided some lovely ‘new’ clothes for Marie and Angel, and even a much needed snow suit for Elle! Last year some lovely people gave money for a winter coat for me, and it is sooo warm. I feel like our lives are an adventure of trust.
I’ve been reading in Psalms. I love reading them out loud. A couple days ago I read Psalm 42, which talks about feeling down in the dumps. Verses 5 and 6 stood out as what to do when I begin to feel that way—first, put my hope in God (not in others or in circumstances changing, etc.), second, remember God! Often I record my prayer requests and eventually, answers, in a little notebook. When I go back and read through that little notebook and ‘remember God’, then His goodness and wisdom give me the reminder I need to continue trusting in Him and walking in His ways.
Daniel and I are glad God has allowed us to be here in Rzhishchiv. A lot of life is filled up with the normal things of life like laundry, and being a wife and mom and homeschooling, but I also really enjoy having ‘deeper’ conversations with some of the young women. I pray God uses me here, both in my family and in the greater ‘family of God’.
Talking about the family of God… it is a joy and pleasure to share a little bit of love with you through the means of this printed page. I’ve been considering eternity again over the last few weeks and recognizing afresh that eternity is forever and it will be a forever spent ONLY with people who love Jesus and love worshipping Him and serving Him however we can. Ahhhh… now that will be one peach of a time!
We leave off praying God’s hand upon you, His Word in your heart, and the Spirit working the tasty fruit of righteousness in your life.
With love, Daniel and Priscilla