Good morning from Ukraine! Byron is currently sleeping because he has no jet lag, but I've been awake for awhile, and decided blogging would be a good way to spend my time. Today is our third day here in Кагарлык, or Kaharlyk. There is so much to talk about, but I'll try to keep things brief...
Arrival
When we first arrived in Ukraine, we were greeted at the airport by a really cool guy named Wayne. We were told to "look for the person with an Aussie hat on." So, while on the plane ride from Moscow to Ukraine, we had a long discussion trying to figure out what an Aussie hat looks like. But once we finally saw the hat (I'll post a pic of the hat at some point) it clicked for us. We had an hour drive to Kaharlyk, and then met the rest of the missionaries.
The Missionaries
We're currently staying at the church, which has an apartment for visitors on the second floor. It's really nice and much larger than our American apartment. Wayne, his Ukrainian wife Olya, and their boys Mark, Matthew, and Nikita, live on the first floor of the church.
Danny and Annaliese Foote are two missionaries here from California. They're really sweet and we like them a lot... Danny is the church administrator and teaches every other Sunday.
The Food
The food is awesome! Ukrainians totally know how to eat. Last time we were in Ukraine, we were working at a summer camp, which served camp food (enough said), but staying with Olya, we get real Ukrainian home cooked meals, and they're amazing! Plus, Ukrainian strawberry yogurt is like the best thing in the whole world! At tea time a couple days ago, we had cottage cheese pancakes... I've asked Olya to teach me how to make them :)
The Ministry
Wayne teaches on Sundays, but also puts energy into two main ministries, cricket and enterprises. For cricket (like the British game cricket), he's put together the first ever all Ukrainian cricket team, which has drawn a lot of interest by the locals and given Wayne a way to get to know the local youth through batting practice ect. For enterprises, the church does things like farm mushrooms and sell them so that people in this town that can't get work might have a way to survive... It's a really cool idea...
Olya's main ministry is feeding the elderly once a month on Wednesdays, which we're excited to be part of this coming Wednesday. The elderly here are mostly disregarded and very hopeless, so this is a really cool and almost unheard of ministry to have here in Ukraine.
The Church
The church has probably 50 members, including kids, which is really cool... And the Gospel seems to be accepted by almost all of the members. One cool story we heard yesterday was about a family coming to church here for about three years.
The husband used to be abusive to his wife, slept around all the time, and a drunk. His wife started coming to Calvary Chapel Kaharlyk and became saved. He didn't believe in God and really hate that his wife started reading the Bible, going to church, etc. but as Jesus changed his wife, he started to see incredible changes in her, and grew interest in God.
The turning point for him was one day when he was really hung over and it was a crazy hot, humid day, and he just felt horrible. His wife had just learned about how Jesus washed the feet of His disciples, so she decided she should wash the feet of her husband. This had such an impact on her husband, that he began to change as well. Now, he's totally sold out for Jesus, doesn't drink, is faithful to his wife, and would never hit her - and it's really obvious that they're deeply in love with each other too.
A funny side note, totally unrelated to the touching story I just told... The church here is called Calvary Chapel Kaharlyk. Kaharlyk is literally translated as "cursed place" and Calvary is literally translated into Russian as "skull hill." So, sometimes people are wary of the church here because it's name in Russian means "church of skull hill in the cursed place." lol
Cleaning Day
I had the privilege of being here in Ukraine for the spring cleaning day at CCKaharlyk. It was so cool to serve alongside of these Christ-loving Ukrainian women. We scrubbed windows (inside and out because there are no screens) for most of the day. I was afraid that my jet lag would make me fall asleep while cleaning the windows, and I'd have a Eutychus situation, but the Lord kept me awake. :)
It was such a blessing and encouragement to see how much pride these women take in their church building, and it reminded me that I need to be careful to never take my church for granted... I'm so lucky to call CCAurora (www.calvaryaurora.org) my church home, and I want to thank God for that church body, and the church building, more frequently.
We're off to Kiev today to drop Mark and Matthew off at a summer camp... We'll post again soon! God bless you guys!
-Emily (and Byron too)
Arrival
 |
| The apartment kitchen |
The Missionaries
We're currently staying at the church, which has an apartment for visitors on the second floor. It's really nice and much larger than our American apartment. Wayne, his Ukrainian wife Olya, and their boys Mark, Matthew, and Nikita, live on the first floor of the church.
Danny and Annaliese Foote are two missionaries here from California. They're really sweet and we like them a lot... Danny is the church administrator and teaches every other Sunday.
The Food
The food is awesome! Ukrainians totally know how to eat. Last time we were in Ukraine, we were working at a summer camp, which served camp food (enough said), but staying with Olya, we get real Ukrainian home cooked meals, and they're amazing! Plus, Ukrainian strawberry yogurt is like the best thing in the whole world! At tea time a couple days ago, we had cottage cheese pancakes... I've asked Olya to teach me how to make them :)
The Ministry
 |
| The empty sanctuary |
Olya's main ministry is feeding the elderly once a month on Wednesdays, which we're excited to be part of this coming Wednesday. The elderly here are mostly disregarded and very hopeless, so this is a really cool and almost unheard of ministry to have here in Ukraine.
The Church
The church has probably 50 members, including kids, which is really cool... And the Gospel seems to be accepted by almost all of the members. One cool story we heard yesterday was about a family coming to church here for about three years.
The husband used to be abusive to his wife, slept around all the time, and a drunk. His wife started coming to Calvary Chapel Kaharlyk and became saved. He didn't believe in God and really hate that his wife started reading the Bible, going to church, etc. but as Jesus changed his wife, he started to see incredible changes in her, and grew interest in God.
 |
| The CCKaharlyk sign and the Body of Christ worshiping |
A funny side note, totally unrelated to the touching story I just told... The church here is called Calvary Chapel Kaharlyk. Kaharlyk is literally translated as "cursed place" and Calvary is literally translated into Russian as "skull hill." So, sometimes people are wary of the church here because it's name in Russian means "church of skull hill in the cursed place." lol
Cleaning Day
 |
| One of the windows we cleaned |
It was such a blessing and encouragement to see how much pride these women take in their church building, and it reminded me that I need to be careful to never take my church for granted... I'm so lucky to call CCAurora (www.calvaryaurora.org) my church home, and I want to thank God for that church body, and the church building, more frequently.
We're off to Kiev today to drop Mark and Matthew off at a summer camp... We'll post again soon! God bless you guys!
-Emily (and Byron too)
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