"It Feels Like a Week Since Our Last Post..."

The Ukraine Team, servants of Christ Jesus by the will of God, to the people in Australia, together will all the Saints: Grace and peace to you all! Hello again from Ukraine and greetings to you all in what will most likely be our final post from this windy, wintry world.

The time is fast approaching when we will farewell the city of Donetsk and part ways with each other. Since we have arrived here we have been shocked (mostly by the cold), we have acclimatised, adapted to the ways of the people here - and to the ways of each other, shared, shown, encouraged and been encouraged ourselves! While we came here to serve and to encourage, God has definitely encouraged us through the people here.

Before we get lost any further in excessive sentiment and verbose philosophy, let’s bring you up to speed on our recent ventures. Excuse the length of this post – it’s almost a weeks worth of experiences…

Wallpaper (More interesting than it may sound!)
Our memories extend back as far as Thursday, when the cold snap (daytime temps of approx -25o c) put paid to our planned outside work building a green house. Not to be out done by the weather we tackled the task of wallpapering a recreational room in the dorms. Our ‘experienced’ team (a couple of people had previously seen others wallpapering, and others had seen wallpaper..) was joined by Natasha who generally works as a cook in the stolovi (cafeteria) but knows her stuff when it comes to wallpapering. We are quickly learning that you need to be a multi-tasker and multi-skilled in cross cultural situations.
In less than 4 hours the wallpaper was up thanks to our little Energizer Bunny Peter – only one person ended up with glue in their hair (no need for gel for quite some time) and the walls of the room looked pretty good even if we do say so ourselves! Speaking of… did you hear the Energizer Bunny was arrested? Charged with battery apparently!

Anyway…

More English Conversation
That same evening the men of the team (minus Daniel who was ill, possibly poisoned to prevent further poor humour) braved the cold and public transport once more to join with the International Partners team for an English Class. There were just 3 students this week. Rick, David and Peter paired off with a student each to ask questions of each other. The student then had to report 3 things they had learnt about us Aussies to the whole group. The last question we asked was “where did you first hear about God?” The ensuing discussion led into the second half of the class where David and Peter each testified of their salvation and personal experience of God. The students were then asked to share their thoughts on God and where they were at. We had some great discussion and the simple gospel message was boldly declared. One of the students is close to coming to faith in Christ. The Int. Partners workers were encouraged. Though we come and go, they faithfully continue to share the ‘good news’ of God’s grace through this practical vehicle of English classes.

A Break from Muesli
Saturday morning the team blokes were up early to get into Donetsk for a hot breakfast with the men of Hope Church. The Breakfast had been delayed a week due to the -25o c temperatures! Though the three nationals were well outnumbered by Aussies (including John Harris) and American missionaries, we had a great time of fellowship. David shared his testimony and Peter shared a devotion from Ephesians 5:14-17. The men were challenged to ‘wake up’ in the areas of obedience, freedoms, and husband/wife relationships.


The Markets
Markets are ‘the place to be’ even on a snowy day in down-town Ukraine. Artwork abounds, lined up along the footpath in the snow. Tables were set up with woodwork, needlework, unique Ukraine Artwork, books, heirlooms, etc The snowflakes were beautiful works of art too. We were fortunate enough to explore the stalls and, when feeling was restored to our fingers, examine quite a few of the home made trinkets on offer.

Church
There’s Hope in Ukraine! We again attended John & Kathy Harris’ church, Hope Church. It meets in a Theatre in a Government building. This Sunday Daniel gave his testimony, Rick preached the 'short sermon' and we sang our theme song “How Great is our God”.
The building guards are usually very antagonistic to the church group. As we were rehearsing our song they called over one of the church members who nervously went to them. They wanted to know who we were, what we were doing here and what were we singing about – because they were so impressed! We are very happy to be used to soften the hearts of the guards. And the Service was good too. We know lots of the songs sung here so we sing in English while they sing in Russian. A very uniting experience.


Men In Tights
Atmosphere electric as the orchestra began to play….. The thing you do around here for entertainment is go to the ballet – we think we’ve now successfully converted the males on our team to ballet lovers! [male interjection: appreciation perhaps, ballet lovers may be overstepping the mark…]

Sunday evening we were able to unwind in style. It was interesting to ponder, during one of the intermissions of Swan Lake (our Cultural experience) what some of our fellow IT Summer Teamers were getting to experience as part of their Cultural experience!

The Theatre in Donetsk is one of those beautifully decorated artistic places with a huge chandelier which makes your trip to the theatre an experience.

Ballet is such a part of the thread of life around here all ages, all genders, all classes attend. Tickets range from 10UAH – 20 UAH ($2.50-$5.00) Most cities of this size (1 million) have their own troupe. The standard was amazing – sets costumes and dancing were breathtaking. For all the sub-zero temperatures, Swan Lake was certainly not frozen over. It was here in the theatre we saw a crack in the reserved Eastern European culture as the audience let down their guard to cheer boisterously for the dancers.

The Russian Language and our Intrepid Interpreters
We’ve been told that, in the Russian language, there are so many ways to say ‘to go’ that you can fill a book! We have found lots of ways around the language barrier but have also been blessed by numerous wonderful interpreters and excellent synopsis-givers. This means we could understand sermons, talks and instructions. So a BIG thanks to those helpful locals and imports who helped out.

Australia Day Party
Last Friday night (yes, we are aware of the lack of chronological coherence in this post) we provided our host staff and students here at DCU with a little cross-cultural experience of their own. It’s impossible to capture the atmosphere that led us to just say this: For a people group whose outer shell is sometimes hard to crack, for a people who have learned through the Soviet Era that suspicion and self protection are the way to go – we have not since we’ve arrived seen so many smiling faces, excitement and joy and heard so much laughter in one place. This was our experience as the students and staff honoured us by coming to help us celebrate our National Day.


For a little over two hours we subjected the locals to all manner of things Australian: Vegemite; folk songs; games involving Australian animals and bizarre poses; introductions to Australian sports; bush dancing; and, of course, thong throwing – something that all Australians do regularly and hold very dear to their hearts. Uhuh. However despite some of the questions over the “Australianness” of a good thong-toss, it was a great night that was thoroughly enjoyed by all!

Final Greetings
Well its about time to go and pack away the heavy overcoats and thermal underwear – and then unpack them again very shortly if you’re heading to Moscow like 4 of the team. It has certainly been an extraordinary time here in Ukraine, we have all seen God moving in the people here and in ourselves since being here. We look forward to (eventually) coming home and sharing our experiences in a more familiar and slightly warmer place!

The churches in the area of Donetsk send you greetings. Peace to the brothers, and love with faith from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ!

Local Lives, Library & Laughter

Sunday Worship

On Sunday we fellowshipped with Holy Trinity church, here on the DCU campus. The church consists of locals from the surrounding area and numerous students and faculty members from DCU. Our team joined with the church worship team to lead in the singing of worship songs. We sang a verse in English and the congregation continued in Russian. The congregation knows many of the songs we sing (at least they know the tunes to Russian words). Our team was also asked to share an item. We sang 'Here I Am to Worship'. We also sang 'How Great is Our God' and sang the chorus in Russian as they joined us. This was a fun experience. They appreciated our singing and our willingness to 'have a go' at Russian.

Each of the team briefly introduced themselves and Kate shared her testimony. As is the case for most Russian and Ukrainian churches, this church has two sermons on a Sunday morning service, and Rick shared in the 'long' sermon slot, regarding the doors of opportunity in mission which are open to us, as they were in Paul's day.


Sight Seeing

Monday was our 'day off' and we were scheduled to go into Donetsk and see the sights. Let me paint a picture of the situation - we woke up to a -25 deg C day (colder than the temperature in Moscow that day) but the sun was shining. And regarding sight-seeing, well that is just not done here in Donetsk. Everyone we have spoken to regarding tourism in Donetsk have asked 'what is there to see'. Lonely Planet suggests that the only sights to see in this region are the coal and salt mines.


Despite all this we pushed off into the snow on foot. After a 15min walk to the main road we waited for at least 30 mins for a 'trolley bus' (this is a standard 'old' bus which is electric powered and attached to overhead powerlines via two swivelling arms). Having seen not one single trolley bus in that half hour, except for a maintenance bus, we figured in a team conference that the trolley buses were not operating that morning and another form of transport was necessary. By now our toes were well frozen and getting onto a 'coaster' type bus was very welcoming. We packed into the bus, with two of us literally squeezed into the door well, hardly allowing the door to close and open. Others were packed into the aisle with our noses pressed under someone else's armpits. Other than our toes still frozen due to the cold floor, it was a warmer proposition than waiting out in the cold, and we were moving, on our way to Donetsk city centre.


The rest of the day was enjoyed by the experience of an extreme winter's day in Ukraine. We did see some of the sights, but only momentarily and between extended periods of thawing out in the shopping mall. We had prayed for snow and have received 'abundantly more' than we asked for.


Library Work

Click go the keyboards - click click click. One of the opportunities for service is our time spent in the library (which is, thankfully, by far the warmest room on campus). We are entering the table of contents from reference books in English into a data base used by students to search for books. The information is used to search for topics on the computer as there is no 'shelf browsing' in the Ukraine.

We have spent a great deal of time with the Librarian 'Nicholai' who shared his appreciation of our work with the church congregation on Sunday. Apparently we have completed more in a few days than the library could complete in a month - it helps when English is your first language. We certainly wouldn't like to be typing in Russian although these keyboards do allow it and you will often hear oh no I'm typing in Russian again... Да ФЙЦЛЩ (FYI you need to hit the control and shift key at the same time).

Local Lives

What an honour it is to share in the lives of the Ukrainian People. We have been blessed many times over through hearing the stories of God's provision and saving grace for both students and staff at DCU and in the lives of others we have met along the way.

We were invited to share a meal with one of the students and his family. Prior to coming to DCU to study Serge worked as a missionary in Siberia. Before moving to Siberia the family gave away all their possessions. They arrived in a city in Siberia where they were to be provided with a 'furnished apartment'. The apartment was already occupied so the family of four squashed into one room. Serge spent the first night sleeping on the floor. The next morning they prayed for a bed. That evening when the family arrived home after church there was a bed lying on the footpath outside their apartment. Such prayers were answered over and over again during the month that the family lived in this apartment and during the next three years in Siberia. We were reminded that God provides for us in many ways and the provision of money to allow us to purchase things we need is just as miraculous as the provision of a bed on the side of the road - something to ponder.



Serge's wife shared her testimony with us. An amazing story, as all testimonies are, of the saving grace and love of God. Growing up in communist Soviet Union she had little interest in or access to the Bible but when she was 17 God placed a real desire on her heart to read the Bible. She was unable to access a Bible. Shortly after this time she grew very ill, given only a 10% chance of survival and transferred to a hospital in a different town. While in hospital she was visited by a Baptist Youth Group who presented her with a Bible (this was not long after the fall of communism). She spent time reading the Bible and praying and eventually asked Jesus to be the Lord of her life and for forgiveness of her sin. She recovered fully, including her sight which had started to fail due to the illness. The Atheist Doctor even said 'Praise God'. It was wonderful to hear this couple share their testimonies with such enthusiasm and passion. There is so much that we can learn from the stories of these brothers and sisters and the way they live their lives.

Until next time...

Coating Up, Blessed McDonalds..., English Classes Galore

Coating Up

One doesn't just 'nip out' anywhere in winter in the Ukraine! You need to prepare yourself for leaving the building about 10 minutes before departure time.

In case you find yourself in the Ukraine follow the steps below:

1. Make sure everything you are taking with you is at the door
2. Put on your scarf
3. Put on your coat
4. Put on your boots
5. Put on your gloves
6. Hope you haven't forgotten anything and don't need to go to the toilet!

Then do it all in reverse when you arrive at your destination. There is quite a traffic jam when you arrive anywhere on mass and all try to remove snow, boots and jackets before moving into the premises.



Blessed McDonalds

Quoteable Quote: "I have never been so happy to see McDonalds"

-23 degrees with a wind chill which made it feel like -37 degrees celcius and those whacky Australians are out and about trudging through the snowy streets of Donetsk fighting the blustery winds.

We ploughed through the snow, rescued by a brief stop at McDonalds to regain feeling in our faces and feet before heading off to an English Club run by the mission group International Partnerships. Upon arrival we discovered that, in this sort of weather, Ukrainians rarely come out so our English lesson lasted ony 10 minutes before we headed back out in the snow again... an issue faced regularly by missionaries in this part of the world when such weather strikes. We've been told that the Ukraine has not expereinced temperatures this low for about eight years.




English Classes Galore

"O' sheen pree etna" - It's nice to meet you!

All DCU students learn English to allow them access to theological books written in English. The teachers like having native speakers to chat with the students to improve their conversational English. Also weekend and night classes give locals from the community opportunity to learn English. These classes also provide opportunities to share the gospel. We have enjoyed our time chatting with the students and hearing their stories. We've put Australia on the map as they want to know about our country. We assured them that our present Prime Minister is not Whitlam!

Praise & Prayer Points

Praise - the snow (we wanted to see it snowing); the opportunity to talk with students; that we have remained warm and healthy; faithfulness of workers who turn up even in the snow; the blue sky and sun that is shining as we sit typing this blog; answered prayer; new friendships; fun times and laughter and all God is teaching us.

Prayer - Guidance for the students as they look at their futures; wisdom for the correct words to share as we speak in churches, chapel and bible studies over the coming days; warmth and good health; (we'd like to withdraw the prayer for snow as it is now impacting on ministry opportunities!); for encouragement for missionaries and christians working throughout the city.

Until next time....
P.S. Keep putting your comments on the blog. We really look forward to reading them! Anyone can comment now without being a registered user.

Dobrey Den from Ukraine

This week we were privelleged to have a couple of Russian Lessons with a teacher from the Ukrainian National University. Our progress was slow, and certainly not without our fair share of frustration, sense of hopelessness and, of course, comic value. Nevertheless, we managed our crash course in this wonderful language and can now hold a semi-decent conversation - even if it does take 10 minutes to ask where the milk is! It is a complex language - yesterday we went to the "magazine" to buy some fruit "sock" to drink! Our experience with the language and language barrier has been a real eye opener to our vulnerability as mere humans and has been a truly humiliating experience (in the non-embarrassing sense of the word :P ).

Our time here in Donetsk has been divided between helping and meeting with other international missionaries; and mixing with the locals, primarily the students of DCU, where we are based. Unlike some of the other summer teams, our tasks here have not been evangelistic in nature, rather God has been using us as disciplers and encouragers to those working, studying and sharing here.

We have been involved in some music presentations and forums - our reputation has evidently preceded us: we have been requested to lead worship at this Sundays church service... a definite indication that God has been working over time on our abilities! We have also shared in some prayer groups, and from what we have seen and discussed, the messages that we have brought and shared have been exactly what some of these people have needed to hear. God is definitely using us!

We are presently involved in English conversation classes, and have several other ministries lined up for us to be involved in. Some of these include English outreach classes, a mens breakfast, a womens luncheon, and possibly some manual work around the campus!

Some prayer points

* Pray for the students and teachers who are currently involved in intensive units of study
* Pray for the team members and the opportunities that they have in encouraging the DCU students and staff

Until Next time Dasvidanya - Ukraine Team

Donetsk - The Beginning

Donetsk

After arriving at 3am and sleeping in till about lunch time we were able to get a quick introductory tour to Donetsk Christian University (DCU). We learnt a little about the history and geography of the immediate area. Our "neighbours" include a brewery, "Ukraine's Richest Man", an area that was formerly a botanic garden and a hotel. All of which are interesting stories in themselves.

The first night saw us take two trolley buses to a Christian Music Forum. A number of people from various churches gathered to share music, pray and have fellowship. Though we were extremely tired from jet lag and our our early morning arrival, it was well worth going to the music forum. The music styled varied from more traditional Russian and Ukranian music to modern songs. (some of which were Russian translations of songs that we were familiar with)
It was also our first real interaction with the local people who were very warm and friendly a very stark contrast to our first experiences of Ukraninan weather


Ukranian Weather

It wasn't long before we learnt that Donetsk is a place where you can put things in the fridge (or the freezer) to keep them warm. The average daytime temperature to date has been a balmy -4 degrees and night time temperatures have dropped to about -10 degrees celcius. Rugged up and moving, the weather is cold but bearable. However when standing still waiting for trolley buses without thermals with a cold evening wind blowing things can be quite different!!

Saturday

Saturday was a nice relaxing day for the team. We had morning tea with an English class, orientation and dinner with the Gingerys.(One of the International team Missionary couples based in DCU)


Sunday

This morning we took the trolley bus to "Nadesha" (hope) church. Our first Russian Church service!! Once again the music was great and we were lucky to get a couple of sermons in English (translated into Russian). The first sermon was on how God is always with us and the second was a reminder of how important the bible is when trying to hear God. Following the service the women of the team were to share at a Women's luncheon whilst the men learnt how to walk on water!! (Well we walked and skated on the frozen river)

Women's Luncheon

Kate & Jenny - After attending church spoken in English and Russian, we headed off to a small room with tables and stools, a sea of smiling faces and unrecognisable sounds. Dishes of mashed potato, shredded red cabbage, spicy grated carrot and pickles (the sort one pulls off the McDonalds Hamburgers and now politely says thank you Spah-see-bah), plus black or white bread and a selection of delicious biscuits and cakes. So began the women's lunch which Kate and Jenny then spoke at.

Jenny & Kate shared about themselves, their testimonies and their church (Kate & Jenny attend the same church). The women asked lots of questions and a few laughs were had by all. Among other things Jenny & Kate talked about a big Christmas festival held each year by the church which they attend. One of the Ukrainian ladies said they have a prayer meeting and would love to pray that the people who come to hear the Christmas story (about 9000) might become Christians. That was a highlight for both Jenny and Kate. A warm introduction to the Donetsk Hope Church.

----------------------------------------------------

Tomorrow we start Russian lessons but in the meantime we'll say to you "yani pani maya pa ruski" ( I don't understand Russian),

Dasvidanya (Good bye)

We are here!!!!

There is a certain excitement about getting on and off planes, passing through various checkpoints, finding your seats, experiencing inflight food and entertainment etc... At some point that excitement turns to routine, and then from that into tedium. I think we may have crossed that line sometime between our 15th and 16th hour of flight time. Not that we're complaining! The adventure so far has been very interesting, and, while exciting, has definitely required some patience and faith!
We have safely arrived in Donetsk and have taken up our residence in our dormitory rooms at the Donetsk Christian University. In the short time we have been here we have been given a brief tour of the campus and the facilities, met a few of the resident staff and students, and even eaten some of the highly anticipated vegetable soup and meal combo! However, most of our experience so far has not been in Ukraine but in getting here.
So far we have spent almost 24 hours in planes and another 6 hours waiting in airports! Thankfully this was broken up by a wonderfully rich over night stay in Hong Kong.
We will tell you a few things about Hong Kong.

Friends
First, let us introduce you to our team with a photo taken at our training in Sydney. Our experience as a team began well in Sydney, getting to know each other and with activities designed to help us 'bond' as a team. The picture here was taken at a Turkish restaurant in Auburn. Team members from left to right are as follows:
Peter Wieske, Perth; Daniel Watson, Sydney; David Cheng, Sydney; Jenny Munns, Sunshine Coast, Qld; Rick Sirico, ITA Sydney; Kate Irwin, Sunshine Coast, Qld. Also pictured with us is Sarah Dunbar, our trainer from I.T. Australia, but she is still back in Sydney!





Food
After arriving in HK, we set out to discover some of the culinary delights. It was a very brief stop over and we only had a couple of hours in the evening and then a couple of hours the next morning before going back to the airport. But we did have a lot of fun and managed to find some good local Cantonese food both for dinner and breakfast.




Fish
After breaky we had a stroll down to the local fish market. This was not what you would think such as an Aussie fish market. All of these fish were 'live' and it was primarily types of goldfish. It was a little disturbing to see them places in small plastic bags and put on racks outside the store for potential customers. There were many different stores, some complete with large aquariums that had small coral reefs.




Flowers
On to the flower markets further down the streets. This was a great sight. So many different varieties of flowers. Some familiar and some were new, but all were beautifully presented. The orchids and rose displays were some of the most spectacular.






Feathers
Finally we strolled briefly 'and cautiously' through the bird market. The sounds of many of the singing birds filled the area. Some parrots and colourful birds were found, but mostly small 'finch' type birds in cages. The people in H.K. are fascinated by fish and birds.




From there we made the way back to the hotel to catch our transport to the airport. It was a brief time, but we were satisfied that we had filled the time with some great new experiences of exploring and learning.
More to follow . . . .

Ukraine

G'day Ukraine Team.
Not long now until we will be on our way! This is the blog we will be updating as we go!
See you soon - Rick











The Harris Family - Donetsk, Ukraine