I visited the orphanage/school in Perechyn with PAstor Volodya and Viktor, a member of Sergi's church. 170+ children, all living there. About half of them have been abandoned. The country has been giving more financial support, even having official budgets that they honor. The assistant director was very proud that they have been able to upgrade sertain areas and that there is food farly consistently. That is good to know, as we can focus on the street children that are forgotten by the country.

I spent some time with Eva at Dorcas - they have several outreaches that I will update you with later.

I am waiting for Eva to show up now, gulping my espresso [at 6:30] and crossing the border.

God blees you all for the prayers and financial support you have provided. They make a difference. Know that the folks here pray on a consistent basis for us in the States.

Peace

Florian

I had another couple of seconds so wanted to post pictures again - quite exciting opportunity for me!

Anyway:

This is a picture of the church in Uzhgorod. It has the largest congregation of the 3, and is growing by leaps and bounds.


This is a picture of the women Karen and I met with the other night. You can see the variety of dress, age, etc. Nice women, and all hard working. They'll never retire.



This is Vasily and Alla - the Kamyanitsa pastor and his wife. Neither speaks English, but very hospitable and warm.


we're about to board, so we'll see you soon! If I can get online in New York, I will.

Susan

We can finally post pictures! Woohoo! I'm sitting in the Budapest airport, and I'm finally able to get online the proper way.

So I'll post the most important pictures:



This is on Sunday at the Perechyn church. Not a very big congregation!



This is a picture of Budapest, taken from the highest point in the city. It's a beautiful city.



And this picture is the true reason we came to Ukraine. For Robin, here we are at the castle above Kamyanitsa and Uzhorog (the "2 kilometer" hike). For those of you not from Oklahoma, this is what they do at Oklahoma State University.

That's all for now. I'll try to post in a minute if we have mroe time. now I have to get ready to board the plane.

Thanks for your continued prayers!

susan

Karen has survived another 2 kilometer hike. WHich of course means it was a lot longer than that. At least this time it has been all flat land!

We took a one-hour tour on the Danube river. This city is amazing. We're checking email now at the internet cafe, we'll grab a light dinner, and then go from there. We have just about 14 more hours before we have to leave for the airport, so we'll try to make the most of our time - even if that means sleeping!

:-)

All is well. See you soon.

Susan

It took us all of about 10 minutes to get through the border at Hungary this morning! So it took us maybe 4 hours to get from Uzhorod to Budapest.

This is an incredible city! We love it here! Our driver, Florenc, took us up to the "Citadel", which is the highest point in the city. Great views! We hadn't changed any money yet, though, so we had to (sadly) walk past all the souvenir kiosks...

Florenc (I think that's how you spell his name) had other things to do this afternoon, so we're wandering the city and exploring. The architecture is amazing. This will definitely be the place to bring teams for the end-of-the-mission excursions.

So, Mom and Dad, to answer your question, yes, you should come here and visit!

We're going back to exploring the city. Karen and Stan say "hi".

We'll be leaving in the morning for the airport, but we'll be enjoying our stay here for the rest of the day. But I think we're about ready to be home.

God Bless,
Susan

PS This computer has the capability for us to post pictures. Too bad I didn't bring anything with me to transfer the data...

Good morning!

Stan, Karen and Susan have left for Hungary an hour ago. Hopefully the border crossing will go smoothly and they will be in Budapest by 1PM.I have had several offers to spend the next two days as a guest. They all say "you are all alone in Ukraine". Far from the truth, as I have meetings all day today and tomorrow.

I beleive that we gathered a good understanding of lives of people here, but most important, we see how vital it is to have the church strong and present here. It is the hope and promise of Jesus Christ that will change the lives here. I am NOT talking about getting technology or cars or conveniences here; I am talking about people living their lives for Christ, searching for ways to glorify God in their daily lives. That is how the churches here have flourished so far.

I saw a young boy, Ivanko, who I have not seen since our first visit here is 2003. At that time we were breaking up the old floor and walls in the church basement. There was lots of slabs and chunks of rock, concrete that needed to be carried up and out to the street. This young gypsy boy, 12 at the time, showed up and just started to help us. He got fed, but worked from morning till midnight. He is now a regular member of the church.

There are other great stories like this one. People's lives are being changed here - God is changing them through us, through Pastor Sergi, Pastor Vasily, PAstor Volodya, Josef the street minister, Alla, Carmen and Esther, the wives of the pastors.

Please pray for these folks daily. They are in constant prayer for us.

Karen and I had a great meeting with the women of the church tonight. There were about 20 of them there. We shared stories, and discussed struggles that we all face. we asked what they needed most, or about how we could encourage them. Their main request was for prayers for their husbands and sons. Most of those who attend churches are women because most of the men are alcoholics. I could see the pain on their faces; this is a big problem here. There are many reasons, but probably the main ones are because of the unemployment (or underemployment) and poverty.

Please pray for them and their families. Their biggest dream is for their husbands to be sitting next to them in church on Sundays. It's not a lot to ask for, is it?

Then, of course, we talked about things that were much more fun, such as recipes! we will try to bring recipes for them when we come again, and we can share our cooking ideas. They are such good cooks.

One interesting tidbit- in the village where we were meeting with the women (Kamyanitsa), all of them grow much of their own food. Vegetables, maily - cumcumbers, tomatoes, beans, and much more. Many of them even have a cow that provides milk! (Remind us to tell you about the cows walking down the road). anyway, i shared with them that I know very few people who grow their own vegetables - especially for surviving. They commented that they know very few people who don't! We all got quite a chuckle out of that. It's quite a different lifestyle here. The women never "retire" because there's always work to be done. Lots of work.

It's time to head for bed now. We have to get up early in the mornign and we'll head for Budapest.

Thanks for reading!

God Bless,
Susan

Our time here in Ukraine is winding down. Today (Tuesday) we will meet with Sergei and others of the Uzhorod church. Then, this evening we'll meet with the women about women's issues in the church. Then, tomorrow it's off to Budapest. Florian made arrangements for us for someone to take us to Budapest, and someone else to show us around. I think (hope) these people speak English! Then, Thursday we'll be travelling home. It's unlikely that we'll have internet access after today. I am sorry we couldn't post more pictures (I've taken quite a few, of course!), but the internet is extremely slow here. Pictures would put us over the edge!

Thanks again to everyone for your prayers, support and encouragement. To those of you from Church of the Servant, I hope you will fall in love with the people of Uzhorod, Kamyanitsa and Perechyn just as we have. I can't think of a better way to be in ministry than to help them grow their church and spread the Good News of Jesus Christ to the people in their communities. The pastors and congregations are ready, willing, and able. They just need a little bit of support and encouragement. And hope. This is God's Mission for sure!

Please pray for the churches, their ministries, their people, and their pastors. This is the most important thing we can do for them. There's a lot to be done for sure, but prayer is key.

As well, pray for our journey home - for safe travel and short lines.

God Bless,
Susan

Hello All!
We spent the day with Eva, director of Dorcas Aid International. She is the regional field director [of Transcarpathia]. Her organization helps with funding many social, medical and educational programs, including providing materials for construction. She is my dearest friend. Together we helped start a Christian foster home in the village of Petrfalva, near Vinegrado. We visited that home, where a young couple, Ishtvan and Andrea, are raising their two children along with 5 foster children. The kids stay there till majority. It is quite a revolutionary program. Neighbors were very suspicious why a couple would raise children that are not related, especially a gypsy child. This couple, and the foundation, has helped eliminate that prejudicial and ignorant thinking.

Between visits we stopped for pizza. Sounds funny, but the pizza is very tasty, but I can not eat pizza with corn and peas on it, as Karen dove into!

The next home we visited had 4 foster children, two boys and two girls, and their own 5 year old son. Probably 3 of the 4 foster children have some type of special need, but looked very healthy and obviously loved and taken care of. It never ceases to amaze me how much love can conquer/cure, even in the darkest situations.

This morning the OK folks will be packing up, then spend the afternoon with Pastor Sergi. We have not spent time with him as his urban ministry keeps him constantly busy. In the evening Karen and Susan will be meeting with the church women in Kamyanets. Tomorrow brings an early wake up and a trip to Budapest.

Thank you all for your prayers. I feel them here. Be assured that the churches here pray for us as well.

After lunch at Vova's this morning we showed Carmen, his wife, pictures of our church. She was especially excited about the children's area and wants to draw pictures on the wall like we have. It's wonderful seeing the enthusiasm in this young couple.

After the second church service, Vasily and his wife Alla took us for a picnic in the forest. They grilled steak, veal and chicken. Everything was delicious. We were in an area across the street from the former grounds keepers home next to Nikita Kruscheve's former summer compound. It was quite interesting.

Keep the comments coming. We love hearing from everyone.

Another great day for us here in Ukraine! We spent this morning at the local Kamyanitsa church, where Vova is the pastor. We gave greetings to his congregation from the Oklahoma United Methodist church, and in particular Church of the Servant. They give their greetings and blessings back to all of you. They welcomed us warmly. The service was nice, all in Ukrainian, and a bit shorter than usual because we were on an unusually tight time schedule (so it only lasted about an hour!). Karen and I spoke for a few short minutes to the congregation.

I'll post pictures soon. It's a small congregation. The youth from the Kamyanitsa church sang for them today.

Then we went to Vova's house for lunch, and spoke with him on end about how VIM teams work, and what the whole process will be for when teams go there in the future.

After that, we went to church again, but this time at the Kamyanitsa church, where Vasily is the pastor. Another good service, and all in Ukrainian. That service started at 4pm, so that was 8 a.m. in Oklahoma. I was thinking about the ChristWays class, and hoping you were all doing well (and hoping Delbert had no problems setting up!) :-)

We gave them your greetings as well, and we were just as warmly welcomed there.

We are still excited about the prospects of sending teams there in teh future. It looks to be a good mission, and they are excited about teams coming to them.

We've eaten ourselves silly again. they keep putting food in front of us, and it's rude not to accept! They think that if we are saying the food is good, that means there should be none left on the table (but of course they cook for an army!) Luckily it's all very good food.

That's all for now. we're thinking about you all. I hope there are people out there still reading this! There haven't been many comments lately. :-)

Stan and I are thinking of the JustFaith group meeting tonight at Judy's house. We'll miss being with you guys. Watch Cinderella or Snow White for us and Mary Alice.

God Bless,
Susan

We spent yesterday with Volodya and his wife. It was good to here his thoughts and visions. Volodya [or Vova, affectionately], is always talking about being in prayer. We'll make a suggestion, and he says "ok, we must pray about it". Josef and Sergi are on the same page. I realize how little I pray compared to our brothers here. Something is reavealed to me every time I come here.

Today we will atend church in Perechyn, with Volodya, then probably another light lunch [for those of you who have traveled here, I am sure you are giggling], then to Vasily's church for 4PM service, and a light supper.

We have been blessed with cool weather and warm hearts. There is so much opportunity to share the Gospel. We have yet to hear a complaint - each problem is veiwed as opportunity to show God's face to the poor, the challenged.

Some more pictures to share:



This is a picture of a street in the city where we did a lot of walking yesterday (Friday). I can't pronounce or say the city's name, so I won't even attempt to tell you here! This city is the home of the doctor where we ate that scrumptious meal. I share this picture because it's a typical street for a bigger city around here.




The gypsies use horse and buggy to get around. Every 20th vehicle it seems is a horse and buggy like this. Okay, maybe not that many. But there are a lot mroe around here than there are in the USA! Maybe soon I'll share pictures of the cows walking down the street...



This cutie is a little girl in the hospital where we visited on Friday. She wasn't sick, but was from the orphanage. I'm not clear on why she was at the hospital. Quite a personality.



This cutie was supposed to be taking a nap at the orphanage. He gave me the sweetest smile. Just wanted to share. There were so many cute kids there, you would be bored if I posted all their pictures.


We had a good day today (Saturday). We spent most of the afternoon with Vova and his wife, Carmen. We went to the castle near Kamyanitsa, and walked for what we think was 6 miles (total). Half of that was uphill to the castle - pretty steep. It was a good walk, and we got some good pictures. The castle was built in the 12th Century, but is mostly piles of rock now. We had a good talk with Vova along the way, and we're making good inroads on how a VIM project works. He asked lots of good questions about Church of the Servant, and seems eager to learn about building a new church. And he "gets it" - what it will take for his church to receive teams, and that how they have to be part of the process. It's quite exciting. I think this may just work out after all.

We will meet their congregation tomorrow, and have more to say after that.

God Bless- thanks for your continued prayers and support.

Susan

We had some internet stafu's last night, so couldn't get online to report anything from later yesterday. They also just installed a wireless network here at Nehemiah Center (where we're staying) but I cannot seem to connect to the network through my laptop. anyone want to come over here and help me fix it? Come today! :-)

We didn't go to see the castle yet, but we're supposed to do that today. Robin, we'll take your special picture then. :-)

To answer the questions from the comments:

We have our own communal bathroom! We're sharing one bathroom between the two of our rooms. It's almost like a suite - us girls are in one small room with two beds and the guys are in teh other room. and there is one bathroom for all of us. It's still not a bad set up.

The food is good. We've had one meal of stuffed cabbage, but it was incredibly good. We even had pizza yesterday for lunch! It wasn't Papa John's or Hideaway, but it was good.

The weather is still much better here than what you guys are experiencing there in Oklahoma. Sorry... (not really)

We'll be going to the Perechyn church tomorrow for worship. This will be a great time for us to get to know the congregation better. I'm looking forward to that. it's a small congregation - maybe 25 people.

That's all for now. Thanks for all of you reading this and keeping in touch. Your prayers are appreciated!

Susan

First, I want to give you some background information on Joseph that I should have mentioned several days ago; he has the soup kitchen for the street kids. This man is so passionate about his ministry and feels an urgency about getting the message to the children. He was a former policeman and would hunt the street kids down and break their fingers if they wouldn't tell him where others were hidden. He lost his wife and child because of the person he had become. Then he turned his life over to God, got his family back and created this ministry to save the very children he used to persecute. Joseph is in the picture on August 17th, far left.

Second, the hotel is back in business after Susan and I were told that the plug we unplugged in our room was actually to the outdoor light for the hotel sign.

Now onto our day:
Dr. Yuri Yurovish Demjan, orthopedic surgeon at the Regional Children's Hospital, and good friend to Florian, picked us up and drove us to the hospital in Mukachevo. The hospital administrator, Dr. Elizabeth Birok, came in from her day off to give us a tour of the facilities and what has been accomplished in the last few years. They have added a neonatal unit, added a hydro theraphy swimming pool, reburished a new building within a complex, and are adding a modern laundry facility. One more note. We were told that the hospital can't refuse children so the gypies will make their children sick, bring them to the hospital then pick them up after winter. Some have no contact with their family for months.

Next stop was an orphanage in Slavyava where the director, Dr. Viktor Tarasov, gave us a tour. There are quite alot of abandoned babies. Families can drop off their babies for up to two years if they have found jobs outside the country. The mother has to visit at least once every six months or she loses her rights to the child.

Next stop was Leroy's for pizza, Ukrainian style, then shopping in downtown Mukachevo. Yuri's son, Yuri Jr., gave us a wonderful tour. After 2 1/2 hours, we took a 20 minute walk to Yuri's home for dinner. It was more of an outdoor feast.
1st course: Borsht (hearty vegetable soup)
Next: smoked bacon, ham, and cheese and bread
Next: cucumbers, tomatoes, and eggplant from the garden
Next: grilled pork ribs and sheep kabobs with potatoes cooked with onions and bacon
Next: Urkranian ice cream with pineapple and chocolate wafers and also fresh plums from
the garden
After all that Yuri apololized for not having roasted baby sweet corn.

After rest and wonderful conversation we were driven back to the hotel.

You ask for pictures, and here they are! (Thanks for the comments again).



This is a picture of Florian, Vasily (the minister from Kamyanitsa), Vova (see below) and Stan. This is inside the Kamyanitsa sanctuary in the back.



The church pictured above is the one in Perechyn. The grey building is the church. Doesn't much look like one, does it?? There's a lot of work to be done.

The picture below is the of the pastor (Vova for short) and his wife, Carmen. He's 25 and she's 24. They were only married 6 weeks ago! They're very cute together - holding hands and all. And she just laughed and laughed when we asked if they had a car. Obviously some point of frustration or discussion since they don't have any form of transportation of their own.





This picture is of the church in Kamyanitsa. The front of the building is the sanctuary, and the minister (Vasily) and his wife (Alla) live in the back. He built it himself! Nice place.

Will write more later.
Susan

Hello all! It's been a heck of a day around here (in a good way!). We've been to Perechyn and Kamyanitsa, the two small villages that are home to the other two churches. Perechyn is a small church, and is the priority now for any upcoming projects. So I think we've found our first main focus. It's quite exciting, actually! The small church is now meeting in an old home that needs a LOT of work. Two rooms plus an entry. But, instead of fixing this small building up, they'd rather build a new and bigger one. They'll need to get through the winter, which is why they need a heating system (Stan wrote about this earlier), but won't invest much money elsewhere in the building. The other 2 pastors are also quite supportive that this is the first and main priority. This is a perfect project for VIM teams! And it costs a lot less to build a church here than in teh USA. It costs a lot less for everything, actually...

I'll post more pictures of all 3 churches later.

Everything else is great. The weather couldn't be better. It's been in the 70's most of the time during the day, and hasn't rained too much. Florian (our guide) has told us that it's usually been much warmer when he's been here before.

Our food has been good, but rich and not helping any diet that I would have possibly been on. I think everyone around here is thin because they walk so much.

Tomorrow we're off to see a hospital, an old castle, and something else. I'm just going with the flow, so will report our whereabouts afterwards.

We're having a good time. Lots to learn and take in. And I'm feeling even better now that it's clear that there's a good VIM project, and lots of other opportunities as well. Very nice people. At least everyone we've met so far has been!

Has it cooled off at all yet in Oklahoma?

Please keep making comments! We like to hear from you.

God Bless,
Susan

Hello All!! Spent the day in Perechyn and Kamyanets. Volodya, just 25, the pastor and his wife, carmen, 24, will do great things with God's help and guidance. The building just needs a heating system, some flooring and a bit of wiring. They are holding service for 25 + now. Tonight we will meet with Woody, a UMC from South Carolina, who works with the street children. Tomorrow we will go to Mukachevo, visit the children's hospital and Slavyava, the orphanage.

Florian

Thanks, Brad, for helping me get this worked out with the pictures.



The church in Uzhhorod has a "soup kitchen" 3 nights a week for street children. Some of them get nothing else to eat, or scrounge for food from who knows where. These kids literally get soup! This looked like a good soup - some kind of vegetable.



I always thought of a "soup kitchen" being for adults. But this is for only kids. The church even reaches out to the local Roma population (gypsies) who are hated by the mainstream Ukrainians.



I wanted to bring home many of the kids, especially the one here in the blue shirt.



This is a picture of the kids playing a game together before they were to eat soup at the "soup kitchen". Cute kids.



This is a picture of where we're staying. Nice place! It was built within the last 5 years, and where all future teams will stay. It's called "Nehemiah center", and is used for Christian groups who need a place to stay. It's set up much like a hotel, but not just anyone can stay here. (Don't think American hotel!)


Thanks for all your comments. Please keep them coming. Ask questions of us- to answer ourselves or to ask of the churches we're visiting.

Susan

Okay, i can't figure out why I can't post pictures, so I'll keep working on that. Pictures would be much more interesting!

So maybe I should explain a bit more why we’re here. Back in February, Bill Lovelace showed up into our lives and got this all started. Bill is the District Superintendent for this part of the world (Ukraine, specifically). He’s a missionary with the GBGM as well.

He proposed we support these 3 churches in Ukraine (in and near Uzhhorod) for $10,000. “We,” meaning Church of the Servant. The Mission Council of COS had been looking for an international missionary or project to support, and this seemed like just the right one. But the Mission Council doesn’t just want to hand out money. We want to be more than a bank, or a foundation-type organization that gives out grants. We know that relationships are key in ministry, and if we want our choice of how we spend our money to be an effective one, it means we need to be involved. We need to get to know them (the churches), get to know the pastors and church leaders, find out their needs, and then help fill those needs. So our trip here is a relationship-building exercise. We started meeting with the pastors today, and have started to know more about them, and we have been telling them about us. Healthy relationships are two-way, so we also want them to know about Church of the Servant (we showed them pictures of COS today), and eventually bring some Ukrainians to Church of the Servant to visit. We can learn from each other!

So I hope that explains it. There’s a lot for us to learn here, and we’re already learning a lot. For one, there’s a big divide between the eastern and western parts of the country. The east tends to lean more toward their Russian past and culture, while the west tends more toward their own Ukrainian nationalism and own culture. Another issue they deal with is the oppression from the Soviets, and Stalin. It’s a long, complicated history, more than I can explain here. But the economy, corruption, poverty (or at least the divide between the rich and the poor) are all barriers to modernization and good governance.

Also, one of the pastors tells us that the Oklahoma Conference (or a church from within) bought the property for the church in Uzhhorod in 1924. Pretty cool.

At the expensive of my vanity, I thought I'd give everyone a chuckle. We ate Blini's last night at a restaurant called Yum Yum. It was raining and I ordered hot tea. The cup comes with the lid and when I removed the lid I saw very little water and lots of tea leaves. I'm trying to figure out how people drink this and start to try when Sergi, one of the pastors, comes to my rescue and removes the center part of the cup which turns out to be a giant tea strainer. Voila, I can now drink my tea.

We've had another full day today. We started out by meeting the pastors of the three churches (you can imagine what's that like - plus add in the need for translation!). It ended up being a good meeting. We have a good feeling so far, but there's still some work to be done to build trust.

i want to add some pictures to this, because I took some great ones of the kids at the church's soup kitchen tonight. But for some reason the 'post picture' button is gone!

But the kids were fun to be with. The church here in Uzhhorod is the biggest of the 3 were here to see, and they have a lot of outreach ministries for the community. One is for the local street kids - either the kids that are literally homeless or their parents send them out to beg. The church is really loving on them and may be giving them the only meal they get a day.

Kids are the same everywhere. You take one picture, and they all want to have their pictures taken. Very cute. and of course the boys and some of the girls put two fingers behind the heads of their friends that are next to them. How do they all know that trick??

We also walked around the town today. It's a neat place - just a typical European town.

There's lots more to tell, but that's all for now. Karen and Stan hopefully will post soon, and I'll figure out how to add pictures again.

Susan

After 28 hours of travel (from when we met at the OKC airport to when we arrived at our final destination), we are finally here! We are beat, and definitely ready to go to bed. We've had a full day of travel already, but the car ride from Budapest all the way to Uzhhorod was a harrowing experience. they really like to pass. We rode for some 8 hours on a two-lane highway, travelling at speeds up to 140 kmh! Plus passing other cars - on the right and the left! The plane trip was easy...

Anyway, we'll write more tomorrow. just know we're all well, glad to be here, and ready to go to bed. there's lots of history to tell - the oppression from the Soviets in the past is still weighing them down. But they're good people, and need a lot of help.

Pray for us that we'll be about God's Mission, not only while we're here but as we continue to build a relationship with them into the future. We'll start meeting them tomorrow (the pastors and congregants).

God Bless,
Susan

We have arrived safely in Budapest. we are waiting for our ride into Ukraine. more lateer when we have better internet access anda better keyboard.
all is well
Susan

This is a picture of Bishop Hans Vaxby and his wife Kaika.














This is a picture of the delegation (clergy and lay) to the Ukraine Annual Conference in May 2006.

So here we are, Susan, Stan and Karen, on Thursday before we go. The staff prayer for us was wonderful. It's nice to know that there's a great group of people who are supporting us and will pray for our journey.

There are a few links on the right-hand side of this blog that will tell you more about the churches we're going to visit, and about Ukraine itself. I'm looking forward to meeting the people, and learning about the country.

Our departure date is quickly approaching! We're very excited to be going. The staff will pray over us tomorrow morning at 9:00 a.m.

This is a map of Ukraine; we'll be going to the far western reaches of the country. this picture is hard to see, but Uzhhorod is circled in green, and the city is actually the black dot in the far right-hand side of the circle. For a better map, click on the link on the right side of this blog that is "more Ukraine information". It is a clearer map of the country, and where it is in the world.

We fly to Budapest, Hungary, and drive 7 hours over the border into Ukraine.

Church of the Servant will send three representatives to the Ukraine August 21-31, 2006. Karen Steele, Susan Hunt and Stan Mortimer will be visiting the churches to meet the ministers and congregation, and to begin building relationships between us so that we can set up a "sister church" partnership.