W. E. R. F.

I am not sure why and not sure who... but while on a 3-day getaway to the Carpathian Mountains with the family I got a call from Lubomir, our assistant pastor, saying he arrived at 10 am to work on Friday morning only to find the front door had been badly burned. See photos in album.

 

As far as we know we have no enemies, it could have been just a random act of vandalism. We doubt it was attempted burglury because it is clear to most that the door is made of metal and the wood is simply the facade.  We all have our suspicions of who it might of been, and all have a good arguments to counteract those suspiscions. Regardless it was someone who is hurting for some reason, so we lift up prayers for that hurting soul.

 

We will need $100 to repair the wood facade on the door, and aproximately $50 to do some repainting in the hallway. In general the hallway was in bad condition so added smoke damage doesn't make it look much worse. The hallways in these Ukrainian cities are the responsibility of the city super, but rarely get cared for. Perhaps another $20 will be needed to replace the welcome mat, some cleaning supplies, and spruce things up a little.

 

Overall we are very grateful that the whole building did not catch on fire. It could have very easily as the wood steps leading up to the door still had burning embers in them when the fire dept came to inspect on Friday afternoon. We are also glad that we invested in a metal door 15 months ago when we moved in.  We have seen colleagues get broken into recently, and should the arsonist been able to enter he could have done extensive damage as well as stolen much needed equipment.

 

We pray, of course, that this was in no way related to our confession of faith, and that we have not wronged anybody in such a way that they felt they needed to retaliate.  This may simply have been an act of kids in the building playing with matches, or any number of men who drink to much but reside in the building. We are quite confident that what someone meant for evil God will use for good.  We are not frightened and suprizingly have been able to keep a good and humorous attitude about us.

 

We would appreciate your prayers that such behavior would not continue. We offer thanks to God for the protection of His saints and this humble ministry!  

 

 

   

I completely forgot to mention the Phosphorus spill which occured after a train derailed near Lviv about 2 weeks ago. 
 
I wasn't aware that you all were hearing news of the spill in the states. I know it did make it on the BBC but didn't know it got back to the USA. We actually have some students who are from this area and even have some live footage on a cell phone camera of the massive dark cloud above the villages in the region. One of our students took the footage as they were evacuating.
 
What we hear is that their is no immediate threat to us in Lviv.  It took place in the Lviv oblast (State) but some 70 kms from the city and the wind was blowing away from Lviv that week.  Of course some government official got his name in the news for calling it worse than Chernobyl but this was a huge exaggeration.  The word still isn't out yet on what harm has been done to the soil and water in the area. Residents are welcome to move back in, as is my student, but they honestly don't know who to trust in terms of safety - when one official says all is well, and others say it couldn't be worse.
 
As for our Student residing directly in the area, Vova Paskiv, he has gone home to pack up a few things and bring the back to Lviv. During the school year he lives in Lviv so he will just come back a little early.  He too is clueless as to who to trust regarding the safety of the area.

 

We have been advised not to eat products coming from this area so already we know the economic impact will be significant until this gets cleared up. The US Embassy also reports (unofficially) no immediate threat to the population of Lviv.

 

Ukraine, as always, needs your prayers.
Thanks for your interest. 

 
Be blessed,
Fred

 

Andrij Tachin, a recent graduate, incredible fencer and trainer, and strong methodist lay leader here at "Youth To Jesus" is off to Moscow for an entrance interview at our United Methodist Moscow Theological Seminary. 

 

He is on a 24 hour train ride from Lviv. I have been sending him text messages of encouragement as he travels. He replied to one of them with the following words:

 

"You are a really good pastor, I'm really appreciate your care. And i will hardly try to do my best for the Glory of God. Be blessed!"  

 

"Hardly try" struck me funny.  I am 99.6% sure that he meant "Try hard" :)

Just another day in the world of language barriers. :) 

Last night we closed our pilgrims meeting as we often do - in a circle squeeze prayer. As the chance to pray aloud is passed around, students make thier petitions known to God. We have done this a million times but last night it just really struck me just how often they pray specifically for us, Stacy and myself. They thank God for us, and pray God's protection, guidance, and strength on our family. Honestly I never really absorbed how beautiful this is until last night. But while they were praying, I thought to myself, have I ever prayed for my spiritual leaders in thier presence ever... ever? What a blessing!

 

Thanks to the special support of the MN Annual Conference, I was able to visit the Holy Land with fellow pastors and Laity of UMN in MN.  We had a 10 day trip with the Society Of Biblical Studies which was very well organized and included not only a highly informative pilgrimage of holy sites, but also an instructive look at the modern conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. 

 

I went expecting to be blessed by the scenes of biblical stories, and, in all honesty, prepared to block out much of the discussion on the contemporary conflict, but in fact, I found myself deeply engaged. A person can’t help but be engaged when you see the size of the wall that cuts through the west bank, and you see poverty incurred by the economic sanctions on Palestinians.

 

It was all very powerful and I am still processing what I learned. We often refer to these tours as “walk where Jesus walked tours” but one person commented that for only ten days I better slogan would be “run where Jesus walked tour”.  That’s for sure.

 

I must admit too, I was prepared to see much of the Holy Sites as “touristy, shrine-y, and over commercialized” but I was in fact very awed by the shear vastness of the Dead Sea, the beauty of the desert of the Qumran community, and the splendor of desert monastic living along the wadi between Jericho and Jerusalem.  And I was simply impressed by how quickly the topography changes in the region in general. It was worth seeing. I recommend it to anyone. I especially advocate traveling with The Society For Biblical Studies, under Rev. Peter Milano.  http://www.sbsedu.org/

A couple weeks ago we had the great privilege to learn under Adam Hamilton from Church of the Resurrection.  A group of 10 or so joined him outside of Kiev, Ukraine, and they led us in a workshop and evangelism seminar for Pastors and Laity of the UMC around Ukraine and Moldova. Stacy and I were grateful to attend along with Lubomir, Andrij, and Olya all from our ministry in Lviv. 

It was hands down the best conference we have been apart of in terms of practical helps for church growth.  Adam provided many tools that are useful not only for ministry in Ukraine but for ministry in general. We were very blessed to have been able to glean from his experience and practice.

I have been meeting daily with Andrij as he prepares for seminary entrance exams. On one particular day we were discussing the importance of the day of Pentecost in Acts 2. 

 

Within Judaism there is also a holiday of Pentecost, in fact, that is why so many were in Jerusalem when the Holy Spirit came. I wanted Andrij to grasp the significance that folks from all over were already in the city for the Jewish holiday and thereby Peter’s message reached a wide audience. So I him something like, “keeping the Jewish holiday of Pentecost in mind, what can we learn about this event?” His response was “so, we can see that God works on Holidays.”  

One of the pluses of missionary life is the incredible hedge of prayer we know we walk in because of so many believers back home keeping us in prayer. We know its true, and we know so many people who have never even seen us face to face lift us up. We get cards and letters from United Methodist Women's groups who saw our names in the UM prayer calendar and wanted to let us know they prayed for us.

 

Another huge bonus is the care packages!!! Woo hoo! 

 

The thing about care packages is not the stuff but the stuff behind the stuff. Yes we love the tortilla chips, and the peanut butter cups, but its not that we only love them, we love them because they remind us of home.

 

In one of the last boxes though we got something interesting. A bar of soap called Natural Scentsations. A little card reads "congratulations! You have just purchased a pure and natural bar of handmade soap! There is no greater pleasure than bathing in its silky, fragrant lather." I cracked it open and to my suprize what y'all call Natural and Handmade soap in the USA is just called soap here. Kind of funny. This bar of soap was selected by a very compassionate person. That person wanted us to experience a real pleasure. To pamper ourselves a little. But little did she know the markets are full of this kind of soap.

 

But you know, I like the soap I got better, because it reminded me of home. Now, I have never used that kind of soap at home, but it reminded me of how gracious you all are back home. 

 

Thanks for the CARE that comes in the packages!  

Before coming to Ukraine we alwasys called Kiev, Kiev or pronounced "KeeYev" but in fact, Ukrainians speaking Ukrainians call it Kyiv or "KeeYeev". Now it seems the US State Department has decided it will too. So its official. Check out this news article. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061019/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_ukraine_capital_1

 

By the way Lviv is also spelled many different ways in English. Lviv, Lyviv, Lyvyv, and in russian it is called Lvov with its many transliterations. But we are sticking with Lviv.