Sabbath (D-Day plus one)
As I lay here in my bed this evening I can say without hesitation that today we have been extremely blessed and that I am really tired. Both presentations went very well. Natasha’s voice has held up nicely. We had a good group of people at both meetings. There were no major malfunctions or interruptions. And did I mention that I’m tired?
The day started early with a practice of my morning presentation. During this session Natasha and I haggled over wording. She would ask me what one of my complicated words meant and I would explain it to her. She would then say, “OK, I can translate that,” or else she would say, “How about using ______ instead.” Then I would say either “that’s fine,” or “But…” and suggest another word and the process would begin again. She is very good for me because she forces me to simplify my sermon so that it will be easy to understand.
After a huge breakfast that kept me plenty full until our 2 o’clock lunch we returned to our work and did not finish until about 10:30. Church, here, starts at 11:30 and I was worried that my hour-long talk (30 minutes of talk and 30 minutes of interpretation) would make the service too long. I was hoping to be finished by 1 o’clock in the afternoon, at the most. I did not succeed. In fact I didn’t even start until almost 1 o’clock. At one point during the service I felt like I had come to a concert instead of a church service. There was special music after special music after special music. We had a choir, a children’s bell choir, a young children’s choir, a couple of solos and several more duets and quartets. Between most of these performances we had readings and poems. I asked Natasha if this was a typical Sabbath church services and she said, “Yes.”
At some point during this process I also presented to the children of the Dubno church the gift that I had brought with me from the church members in Cedar Rapids. Several of the women in Cedar Rapids had spent hours and hours cutting and organizing a felt set for the children’s Sabbath School classes and now it was my privilege to present it to the church. After the presentation, some of the children came up and did a short story using the new felts. It all worked out really well. Thank you Donna and team!
I am also happy to report that we successfully pulled off my not-so-silent prayer. At times like this I’m really glad that Natasha has good hearing.
Anyway, by the time we were all finished playing our various roles in the church service it was almost 2 o’clock in the afternoon. After lunch it was only a few hours until the evening meeting and we still needed to practice that presentation.
The evening meeting was the climax of the 3-presentation marathon and I am so glad it is finished. Now I can relax and get into a one-presentation-per-day-schedule. This was also the first meeting where non-member guests would join us. Needless to say I was a little nervous and to make matters worse, part way through my presentation I noticed that some other guests had arrived. Mauri Bascom from The Quiet Hour was sitting in my audience. The Quiet Hour is the American organization that is sponsoring these evangelistic series in Ukraine. And, if that wasn’t bad enough, he had brought with him five leaders of the Ukranian Seventh-day Adventist Conference including the president. Gulp.
But the Lord blessed exceedingly and we could feel His presence with us. It is such an incredible experience to be a part of meetings like this and I am so glad that I came.
Sunday, September 30, 2007
Friday (D-Day)
Today began a marathon that does not end until tomorrow night. Within 24 hours I will give 3 one-hour presentations: Friday evening vespers, Sabbath morning church service and the Sabbath evening evangelistic meeting. The bad news is that due to a last-minute schedule change I had only prepared for one of these presentations, in advance, before coming to the Ukraine. Yesterday in the van I condensed three chapters from a book that I’m working on to create a new sermon for the Sabbath morning church service and I’m using my “Sword of Damocles” sermon for Friday evening. Then I formatted, edited for time and printed the two new sermons and my interpreter and I spent most of the rest of the day practicing them.
Between practicing we did take a short break to go to the internet café in Dubno and catch up on e-mails. I also finally succeeded in getting the blog to work. It really helps when one has an interpreter to help guide one through the Russian web sites. We also bought a phone card so that I can call the United States for 20 cents per minute.
The evening service went very well and we are all pleased. There was pretty good attendance for Friday evening and all our practice paid off well. I thank the Lord for His goodness. There was a time Thursday night when I began to wonder if we could pull it off but things really fell into place today and, in our weakness, God showed His strength.
After the evening service, Natasha, the pastor, his wife, and I were having tea in the kitchen when the pastor informed me of a mistake that I had made during the service. There is a point in the program where we kneel and have silent prayer. It turns out that during this time, it is expected that the speaker will whisper a prayer loud enough for the platform team to hear but not the congregation. I’ve never heard of such a thing. I thought that silent prayer was silent! Anyway, tomorrow I get another chance. The question is how hard does one have to whisper so that Natasha can hear and translate and yet the congregation can not hear?
Before I close I should also say a quick word about my lodgings. I am really blessed. I have an excellent room in the pastor’s home and the pastor’s wife is a really good cook. I have been enjoying most Ukranian food although there are some things that take a little getting used to. We have a lot of fruits and vegetables and nuts at each meal. She also makes these really good dumpling-like things that are stuffed with cabbage and her soups are excellent. I’m afraid that I have given up on all thoughts of losing any weight on this trip.
Today began a marathon that does not end until tomorrow night. Within 24 hours I will give 3 one-hour presentations: Friday evening vespers, Sabbath morning church service and the Sabbath evening evangelistic meeting. The bad news is that due to a last-minute schedule change I had only prepared for one of these presentations, in advance, before coming to the Ukraine. Yesterday in the van I condensed three chapters from a book that I’m working on to create a new sermon for the Sabbath morning church service and I’m using my “Sword of Damocles” sermon for Friday evening. Then I formatted, edited for time and printed the two new sermons and my interpreter and I spent most of the rest of the day practicing them.
Between practicing we did take a short break to go to the internet café in Dubno and catch up on e-mails. I also finally succeeded in getting the blog to work. It really helps when one has an interpreter to help guide one through the Russian web sites. We also bought a phone card so that I can call the United States for 20 cents per minute.
The evening service went very well and we are all pleased. There was pretty good attendance for Friday evening and all our practice paid off well. I thank the Lord for His goodness. There was a time Thursday night when I began to wonder if we could pull it off but things really fell into place today and, in our weakness, God showed His strength.
After the evening service, Natasha, the pastor, his wife, and I were having tea in the kitchen when the pastor informed me of a mistake that I had made during the service. There is a point in the program where we kneel and have silent prayer. It turns out that during this time, it is expected that the speaker will whisper a prayer loud enough for the platform team to hear but not the congregation. I’ve never heard of such a thing. I thought that silent prayer was silent! Anyway, tomorrow I get another chance. The question is how hard does one have to whisper so that Natasha can hear and translate and yet the congregation can not hear?
Before I close I should also say a quick word about my lodgings. I am really blessed. I have an excellent room in the pastor’s home and the pastor’s wife is a really good cook. I have been enjoying most Ukranian food although there are some things that take a little getting used to. We have a lot of fruits and vegetables and nuts at each meal. She also makes these really good dumpling-like things that are stuffed with cabbage and her soups are excellent. I’m afraid that I have given up on all thoughts of losing any weight on this trip.
Friday, September 28, 2007
Thursday (An introduction to Dubno)
It is no longer just a point on the map or an entry in Wikipedia. It is Dubno, the city where I have taken up temporary residence. For the next 16 days this small city of approximately 60,000 citizens will be my temporary home and it will be my inestimable privilege to share the good news of Salvation with its people. The thought of my responsibility here in Dubno scares me and yet I can’t help but feel excited about the outcome because it is obvious that the Lord has led me here and he has a great work to do. I believe that, in spite of me and my failings, He will accomplish what He has set out to accomplish here. I continue to covet your prayers!
It takes about 6 hours to travel almost due west from Kiev to Dubno. Our plan was to start out this morning on our journey immediately after breakfast. Since breakfast was at 7:30 and it takes about a half hour to eat, we left around 10 o’clock. Don’t worry about the math, we’re in a parallel universe where the regular laws of physics don’t always apply.
We were only stopped by police twice during the trip. The first time was so that the driver could argue with the police about the quality of his license and the second time was to donate to the local speed trap fund. It’s amazing how efficiently speeding tickets are handled here. The police stop you, you get out and hand over cash, and you’re on your way again. You really have to admire Ukranian efficiency.
There were seven of us foreigners traveling in the van this morning and the driver dropped us each off at our respective sites as we traveled from east to west. Our first stop was in a large city called Rivne. Here we stopped at a local member’s home and ate an incredible meal. The table was so beautifully laden with food and drink that I felt compelled to take several pictures. Actually, I wasn’t the only one taking pictures. That poor family has probably never had so many pictures taken of their house, yard and dog in their entire life. During the meal, the man of the house asked permission to take our picture. We, of course, said , “no.” After everyone stopped laughing, he took our picture.
After Rivne, my translator (Natasha) and I were dropped off in Dubno. Although Dubno is a small city, it has one of the most modern and beautiful Seventh-day Adventist churches in the entire country of Ukraine. As I walked through the auditorium-style sanctuary and toured the children’s classroom and other facilities, I had to remind myself that I was in Ukraine and not in the States. This church could be plunked down in any city in the United States and still be complimented for its architecture, furnishings, and workmanship. The entire structure was designed and built by the church members themselves and they are justifiably proud of their work. There are currently around 210 members in the Dubno church but the sanctuary can hold around 400. I believe that it is God’s plan that we reduce the gap between those two numbers.
Natasha is fighting sickness and we are all praying hard for her. It’s amazing how helpless I would be here in Ukraine if I did not have a translator. Hardly anyone knows the least amount of English and whenever I try talking to someone when she isn’t around we end up frustrated and unenlightened. The pastor and I were sitting in his car waiting for Natasha to return with some medicine that she was buying at the pharmacy. Being a friendly guy he tried valiantly to carry on a conversation. He asked a question and all I heard was “life” and “shtadt.” Since one of our errands on this trip was to purchase a cell phone card from a company called “Life” I thought he was talking about my cell phone. Eventually, however, I understood that he was asking me which state I lived in. I think that the only reason we succeeded in even remotely understanding each other was that he new the word “California” and this helped his question finally sink in. After that we apparently both felt that the better part of valor was to wait until Natasha came back before speaking.
After our errands we set up the laptop and projector in the sanctuary and practiced my Friday evening talk. Speaking with a translator is a very different dynamic than I am used to. It is hard to get a rhythm going. After a while we got a little better at it and I’m hoping we’ll get even more efficient. To speed things up a little we tried overlapping our speaking. While she is still translating my last sentence I start my next sentence. Before I finish with that sentence, she starts translating it. It’s a little complicated but we partially succeeded and it really helps a lot. Tomorrow we will be doing a lot more translating.
I have still not succeeded in uploading this journal to my blog site and have high hopes that I can accomplish this tomorrow. There is an Internet Café in Dubno and it’s high on my priority list of things to do.
It is no longer just a point on the map or an entry in Wikipedia. It is Dubno, the city where I have taken up temporary residence. For the next 16 days this small city of approximately 60,000 citizens will be my temporary home and it will be my inestimable privilege to share the good news of Salvation with its people. The thought of my responsibility here in Dubno scares me and yet I can’t help but feel excited about the outcome because it is obvious that the Lord has led me here and he has a great work to do. I believe that, in spite of me and my failings, He will accomplish what He has set out to accomplish here. I continue to covet your prayers!
It takes about 6 hours to travel almost due west from Kiev to Dubno. Our plan was to start out this morning on our journey immediately after breakfast. Since breakfast was at 7:30 and it takes about a half hour to eat, we left around 10 o’clock. Don’t worry about the math, we’re in a parallel universe where the regular laws of physics don’t always apply.
We were only stopped by police twice during the trip. The first time was so that the driver could argue with the police about the quality of his license and the second time was to donate to the local speed trap fund. It’s amazing how efficiently speeding tickets are handled here. The police stop you, you get out and hand over cash, and you’re on your way again. You really have to admire Ukranian efficiency.
There were seven of us foreigners traveling in the van this morning and the driver dropped us each off at our respective sites as we traveled from east to west. Our first stop was in a large city called Rivne. Here we stopped at a local member’s home and ate an incredible meal. The table was so beautifully laden with food and drink that I felt compelled to take several pictures. Actually, I wasn’t the only one taking pictures. That poor family has probably never had so many pictures taken of their house, yard and dog in their entire life. During the meal, the man of the house asked permission to take our picture. We, of course, said , “no.” After everyone stopped laughing, he took our picture.
After Rivne, my translator (Natasha) and I were dropped off in Dubno. Although Dubno is a small city, it has one of the most modern and beautiful Seventh-day Adventist churches in the entire country of Ukraine. As I walked through the auditorium-style sanctuary and toured the children’s classroom and other facilities, I had to remind myself that I was in Ukraine and not in the States. This church could be plunked down in any city in the United States and still be complimented for its architecture, furnishings, and workmanship. The entire structure was designed and built by the church members themselves and they are justifiably proud of their work. There are currently around 210 members in the Dubno church but the sanctuary can hold around 400. I believe that it is God’s plan that we reduce the gap between those two numbers.
Natasha is fighting sickness and we are all praying hard for her. It’s amazing how helpless I would be here in Ukraine if I did not have a translator. Hardly anyone knows the least amount of English and whenever I try talking to someone when she isn’t around we end up frustrated and unenlightened. The pastor and I were sitting in his car waiting for Natasha to return with some medicine that she was buying at the pharmacy. Being a friendly guy he tried valiantly to carry on a conversation. He asked a question and all I heard was “life” and “shtadt.” Since one of our errands on this trip was to purchase a cell phone card from a company called “Life” I thought he was talking about my cell phone. Eventually, however, I understood that he was asking me which state I lived in. I think that the only reason we succeeded in even remotely understanding each other was that he new the word “California” and this helped his question finally sink in. After that we apparently both felt that the better part of valor was to wait until Natasha came back before speaking.
After our errands we set up the laptop and projector in the sanctuary and practiced my Friday evening talk. Speaking with a translator is a very different dynamic than I am used to. It is hard to get a rhythm going. After a while we got a little better at it and I’m hoping we’ll get even more efficient. To speed things up a little we tried overlapping our speaking. While she is still translating my last sentence I start my next sentence. Before I finish with that sentence, she starts translating it. It’s a little complicated but we partially succeeded and it really helps a lot. Tomorrow we will be doing a lot more translating.
I have still not succeeded in uploading this journal to my blog site and have high hopes that I can accomplish this tomorrow. There is an Internet Café in Dubno and it’s high on my priority list of things to do.
Wednesday (Orientation)
I am happy to report that my Jet lag is lagging and I slept much better last night. This was very helpful considering that we sat all day in orientation meetings and I was not tempted even once to close my eyes for a quick cat nap. Since yesterday, I am wary of quick cat naps.
The orientation meetings were excellent. After introductions to, and short speeches from, the various Ukraine church leaders we were given a brief overview of the US organizations responsible for this series of evangelistic meetings: The Quiet Hour and ShareHim. There are approximately 90 people here from all over the US and Canada who are leading out in 50 evangelistic campaigns across the length and breadth of Ukraine. Many of us have never participated in such campaigns before and the orientation was chock full of practical tips and tricks for every aspect of the process from how to practice our sermons to how to handle speaking with a translator to security, cultural taboos, and visitation. The time flew by fairly fast and was well spent.
I found out this morning that my hub city, Rivne, is not my hub city. Since my campaign is in a small city about 40 km south of Rivne called Dubno (pronounced Doobno), the original plan was that I would stay in Rivne with the team responsible for that city and then would be driven to Dubno each evening before the meetings began. In this way we could meet together each day and pray together, share our experiences and encourage each other. However, the powers that be decided that it would be more convenient if I just stayed in Dubno.
That’s the bad news. The good news is that I met my translator today and she is top-notch. Her name is Natasha Gneeluke (spelled phonetically and you must pronounce the “G” at the beginning). She and her husband live in Kiev where he is pastor of the Congregational SDA church #20 and she works part time as the director of the child ministries department. In her church they always translate between Russian and English each Sabbath so she gets lots of good translating experience. She will be taking the next two weeks off and will be living in Dubno to support these meetings and I feel very blessed to have her.
I have also been told that I will be living in a room inside the actual Seventh-day Adventist church in Dubno where I will be speaking. So now instead of driving half an hour…each way…every day…to get to the church, I need only walk a few feet. You have to admit it is more efficient and the more I think about it the more I like the idea. I also gather that the church pastor’s wife will be helping out with meals so I might not lose as much weight as I had anticipated from shopping and cooking for myself.
Tomorrow morning, after breakfast, we take off on our six hour trip from Kiev to our respective cities in the Western Ukraine Conference. There are four other sites besides mine in this conference and we will all be traveling together, by bus, for the trip. Most of the other speakers in the other conferences have already left for their respective sites so there are only two of us guys in our dorm room tonight. Needless to say, we both anticipate a blissfully quiet sleep experience.
I am happy to report that my Jet lag is lagging and I slept much better last night. This was very helpful considering that we sat all day in orientation meetings and I was not tempted even once to close my eyes for a quick cat nap. Since yesterday, I am wary of quick cat naps.
The orientation meetings were excellent. After introductions to, and short speeches from, the various Ukraine church leaders we were given a brief overview of the US organizations responsible for this series of evangelistic meetings: The Quiet Hour and ShareHim. There are approximately 90 people here from all over the US and Canada who are leading out in 50 evangelistic campaigns across the length and breadth of Ukraine. Many of us have never participated in such campaigns before and the orientation was chock full of practical tips and tricks for every aspect of the process from how to practice our sermons to how to handle speaking with a translator to security, cultural taboos, and visitation. The time flew by fairly fast and was well spent.
I found out this morning that my hub city, Rivne, is not my hub city. Since my campaign is in a small city about 40 km south of Rivne called Dubno (pronounced Doobno), the original plan was that I would stay in Rivne with the team responsible for that city and then would be driven to Dubno each evening before the meetings began. In this way we could meet together each day and pray together, share our experiences and encourage each other. However, the powers that be decided that it would be more convenient if I just stayed in Dubno.
That’s the bad news. The good news is that I met my translator today and she is top-notch. Her name is Natasha Gneeluke (spelled phonetically and you must pronounce the “G” at the beginning). She and her husband live in Kiev where he is pastor of the Congregational SDA church #20 and she works part time as the director of the child ministries department. In her church they always translate between Russian and English each Sabbath so she gets lots of good translating experience. She will be taking the next two weeks off and will be living in Dubno to support these meetings and I feel very blessed to have her.
I have also been told that I will be living in a room inside the actual Seventh-day Adventist church in Dubno where I will be speaking. So now instead of driving half an hour…each way…every day…to get to the church, I need only walk a few feet. You have to admit it is more efficient and the more I think about it the more I like the idea. I also gather that the church pastor’s wife will be helping out with meals so I might not lose as much weight as I had anticipated from shopping and cooking for myself.
Tomorrow morning, after breakfast, we take off on our six hour trip from Kiev to our respective cities in the Western Ukraine Conference. There are four other sites besides mine in this conference and we will all be traveling together, by bus, for the trip. Most of the other speakers in the other conferences have already left for their respective sites so there are only two of us guys in our dorm room tonight. Needless to say, we both anticipate a blissfully quiet sleep experience.
Tuesday (Kiev)
Today, being Tuesday, is orientation day. Which does nothing to explain why we spent it touring Kiev. I don’t know why I even bother reading schedules. But I’m not complaining, I’m always up for the tourist thing.
Breakfast consisted of sdflkjdf (read “another unpronounceable Ukrainian food that tasted like it might have been made of rice”) with a side of an egg quiche-like thing and red bell peppers, cucumbers, tomatoes, bread, cheese and tea. It really wasn’t bad if you added a little salt.
After breakfast, with lunch bag in hand, we boarded a bus that is propane powered (I have the pictures to prove it). It has a row of propane tanks bolted to the roof. Everything is an adventure in the Ukraine! An hour and a half later we were in downtown Kiev where we visited a couple of the iconic Russian Orthodox churches. Quite impressive structures inside and out. After lunch we did the market souvenir thing and then headed back to the bus. Somewhere during this process we lost three people and while awaiting their return I nodded off for a cat nap. When I awoke the bus was completely empty except for a guy sleeping in the seat behind me. Now that’s an interesting experience. How did a whole bus-load of rowdy people get off the bus without waking me up? I think it’s the long days and short nights catching up with me. Fortunately for me, I found one of our group (awake) and meandering outside the bus. He told me that the rest of the group had gone for a walk down-town and had left about twenty minutes before. I had no idea where down-town was but there was no way that I was going to sit on the bus for the next hour waiting for them to get back especially since I really wanted to send out some e-mail and was hoping to find an Internet café. I meandered through several side streets until I found one that looked promising and followed it down to a large plaza (with its very own two-story McDonalds). Within a couple of minutes I spotted one of the group and got re-connected. Shortly after that I happened upon an Internet café and succeeded in accessing e-mail. Altogether the experience turned out quite satisfactory when you consider that I could just as easily have gotten lost on twisty, little side streets with very few available English speaking guides.
In a couple of days I’m going to be shipped off to my hub city in the middle of nowhere and expect that there will be even fewer English speakers around. I think that it would be a good idea to learn some more Ukrainian. Following is a list of my current repertoire of phrases:
Dobre Danya (good day – welcoming)
Dobre ve’cheer (good evening – welcoming)
Dobre neech (good night)
Dya ku u (thank you)
Proshu (please and your welcome)
Pera proshu u (sorry, excuse me)
Nechi Boch bobla ho slo vit’ vas (May God bless you)
Tak, or Da (Yes)
Nyee (No)
Dusia dobre poyeve (I have eaten well)
Please note that all the preceding Ukrainian words were spelled phonetically. I did this for several good reasons…not the least of which is that I can’t spell them any other way. As you can see by this impressive list of phrases, I am quickly picking up the native tongue and, at this rate, expect to be fluent well within the next hundred years.
Today, being Tuesday, is orientation day. Which does nothing to explain why we spent it touring Kiev. I don’t know why I even bother reading schedules. But I’m not complaining, I’m always up for the tourist thing.
Breakfast consisted of sdflkjdf (read “another unpronounceable Ukrainian food that tasted like it might have been made of rice”) with a side of an egg quiche-like thing and red bell peppers, cucumbers, tomatoes, bread, cheese and tea. It really wasn’t bad if you added a little salt.
After breakfast, with lunch bag in hand, we boarded a bus that is propane powered (I have the pictures to prove it). It has a row of propane tanks bolted to the roof. Everything is an adventure in the Ukraine! An hour and a half later we were in downtown Kiev where we visited a couple of the iconic Russian Orthodox churches. Quite impressive structures inside and out. After lunch we did the market souvenir thing and then headed back to the bus. Somewhere during this process we lost three people and while awaiting their return I nodded off for a cat nap. When I awoke the bus was completely empty except for a guy sleeping in the seat behind me. Now that’s an interesting experience. How did a whole bus-load of rowdy people get off the bus without waking me up? I think it’s the long days and short nights catching up with me. Fortunately for me, I found one of our group (awake) and meandering outside the bus. He told me that the rest of the group had gone for a walk down-town and had left about twenty minutes before. I had no idea where down-town was but there was no way that I was going to sit on the bus for the next hour waiting for them to get back especially since I really wanted to send out some e-mail and was hoping to find an Internet café. I meandered through several side streets until I found one that looked promising and followed it down to a large plaza (with its very own two-story McDonalds). Within a couple of minutes I spotted one of the group and got re-connected. Shortly after that I happened upon an Internet café and succeeded in accessing e-mail. Altogether the experience turned out quite satisfactory when you consider that I could just as easily have gotten lost on twisty, little side streets with very few available English speaking guides.
In a couple of days I’m going to be shipped off to my hub city in the middle of nowhere and expect that there will be even fewer English speakers around. I think that it would be a good idea to learn some more Ukrainian. Following is a list of my current repertoire of phrases:
Dobre Danya (good day – welcoming)
Dobre ve’cheer (good evening – welcoming)
Dobre neech (good night)
Dya ku u (thank you)
Proshu (please and your welcome)
Pera proshu u (sorry, excuse me)
Nechi Boch bobla ho slo vit’ vas (May God bless you)
Tak, or Da (Yes)
Nyee (No)
Dusia dobre poyeve (I have eaten well)
Please note that all the preceding Ukrainian words were spelled phonetically. I did this for several good reasons…not the least of which is that I can’t spell them any other way. As you can see by this impressive list of phrases, I am quickly picking up the native tongue and, at this rate, expect to be fluent well within the next hundred years.
Tuesday morning (2:30 am Kiev time, 7:30 pm body time)
I woke up this morning feeling refreshed and ready to face a new day in Ukraine. The light on my watch doesn’t work but I could see by the gray morning light in the window that it must be about time to get up. On my way to the bathroom I looked at my watch and discovered that it was actually only 1:30 in the morning. The light in the window must have been wishful thinking because when I get back to the room the sky through our window is pitch black. It really isn’t fair. I have gotten three hours sleep in the last 31 and I can’t sleep more than 4 hours before I’m wide awake.
We are staying in one of the girl’s dormitories on campus. The rooms have five bunk beds and one small, wooden closet. We guys have our very own bathroom on the top floor but the whole dorm shares a shower room on the bottom floor. When I discovered this, I immediately pondered the logistics of sharing a single shower room with a dorm full of college girls. It turns out that the procedure goes like this: First, knock loudly on the outside door of the shower room. Second, listen carefully. If you hear men responding, it is safe to enter. If, however, the room breaks out in a cacophony of screaming females voices you should probably come back later.
We have five guys staying in our room on the top floor of the dormitory, one of whom, it turns out, is sonorously endowed. I dreamt, at some point last night, that one of the other guys in our room had a fool-proof method of taking care of snoring problems. After that dream, whenever I was rudely pulled from oblivion by a room-rattling rendition of a rampaging rhino, I consoled myself with the thought that at least tomorrow we had a fail-safe way of dealing with the problem. This morning at 2 o’clock as I lay in my bed with a clear head and no more dream-induced delusions I engaged in a fruitless race to find sleep before he did. Having lost that race, I find myself sitting on the edge of the lower bunk, writing in my journal.
Besides the snoring we also have to deal with the late-comers. I don’t know when it happened (and I don’t want to know) but some time during the night the door to our room was rudely thrown open and the light was turned on. As I tried valiantly to shield my eyes from the blinding light a group of people stood in the doorway discussing room arrangements. After several minutes, one blessed, sane soul in the group said, “shouldn’t we turn off the light so we don’t disturb those who are trying to sleep?” Being in a patient and kind mood, my unspoken response was, “Duh!” But it’s OK because I’m in the Ukraine! I did mention that already didn’t I?
I woke up this morning feeling refreshed and ready to face a new day in Ukraine. The light on my watch doesn’t work but I could see by the gray morning light in the window that it must be about time to get up. On my way to the bathroom I looked at my watch and discovered that it was actually only 1:30 in the morning. The light in the window must have been wishful thinking because when I get back to the room the sky through our window is pitch black. It really isn’t fair. I have gotten three hours sleep in the last 31 and I can’t sleep more than 4 hours before I’m wide awake.
We are staying in one of the girl’s dormitories on campus. The rooms have five bunk beds and one small, wooden closet. We guys have our very own bathroom on the top floor but the whole dorm shares a shower room on the bottom floor. When I discovered this, I immediately pondered the logistics of sharing a single shower room with a dorm full of college girls. It turns out that the procedure goes like this: First, knock loudly on the outside door of the shower room. Second, listen carefully. If you hear men responding, it is safe to enter. If, however, the room breaks out in a cacophony of screaming females voices you should probably come back later.
We have five guys staying in our room on the top floor of the dormitory, one of whom, it turns out, is sonorously endowed. I dreamt, at some point last night, that one of the other guys in our room had a fool-proof method of taking care of snoring problems. After that dream, whenever I was rudely pulled from oblivion by a room-rattling rendition of a rampaging rhino, I consoled myself with the thought that at least tomorrow we had a fail-safe way of dealing with the problem. This morning at 2 o’clock as I lay in my bed with a clear head and no more dream-induced delusions I engaged in a fruitless race to find sleep before he did. Having lost that race, I find myself sitting on the edge of the lower bunk, writing in my journal.
Besides the snoring we also have to deal with the late-comers. I don’t know when it happened (and I don’t want to know) but some time during the night the door to our room was rudely thrown open and the light was turned on. As I tried valiantly to shield my eyes from the blinding light a group of people stood in the doorway discussing room arrangements. After several minutes, one blessed, sane soul in the group said, “shouldn’t we turn off the light so we don’t disturb those who are trying to sleep?” Being in a patient and kind mood, my unspoken response was, “Duh!” But it’s OK because I’m in the Ukraine! I did mention that already didn’t I?
Sunday and Monday (The journey)
I am in the Ukraine! As I take another bite of my potato patty that has an unpronounceable official name, I look around the room and ponder my circumstances. Here I am with a small group of strangers digging into a meal of potato patties, macaroni and cheese, shredded beets and strong-tasting tea. And although we barely know each other, the atmosphere is festive and the conversation is warm. We are joined together by a common purpose and a common mission and it doesn’t take long before we feel like old friends. There are only 12 of us now but when everyone arrives there will be 80 people from all over the US who will go out and give 50 evangelistic programs across the country.
By the way, did I mention that I’m in the Ukraine! Kiev to be more specific. The journey here started Sunday morning (my time) and now it’s Monday evening (Kiev time) as we dine together in the cafeteria of the 600-student Seventh-day Adventist College and Seminary outside of Kiev. All the flights on my journey here went off without a hitch. No delays, cancellations, missed flights or even mad dashes. If one didn’t count the permanently petrified posterior one could say that the 21-hour trip from Chicago to Frankfurt and then on to Kiev was fairly painless. On the flight from Chicago to Frankfurt I had a personal visit from the purser. He told me that as a United Airlines gold-card member he had taken the time to personally look me up (in the bowls of “cattle-car” class) to welcome me on board and to let me know that if there was anything I needed that I should be sure to let him know. What I really wanted was a seat in business class where leg room was more than just a euphemism, but I smiled and told him that he would be the first to know if I had any difficulties. But I didn’t have any difficulties…because I was on my way to Ukraine!
I am in the Ukraine! As I take another bite of my potato patty that has an unpronounceable official name, I look around the room and ponder my circumstances. Here I am with a small group of strangers digging into a meal of potato patties, macaroni and cheese, shredded beets and strong-tasting tea. And although we barely know each other, the atmosphere is festive and the conversation is warm. We are joined together by a common purpose and a common mission and it doesn’t take long before we feel like old friends. There are only 12 of us now but when everyone arrives there will be 80 people from all over the US who will go out and give 50 evangelistic programs across the country.
By the way, did I mention that I’m in the Ukraine! Kiev to be more specific. The journey here started Sunday morning (my time) and now it’s Monday evening (Kiev time) as we dine together in the cafeteria of the 600-student Seventh-day Adventist College and Seminary outside of Kiev. All the flights on my journey here went off without a hitch. No delays, cancellations, missed flights or even mad dashes. If one didn’t count the permanently petrified posterior one could say that the 21-hour trip from Chicago to Frankfurt and then on to Kiev was fairly painless. On the flight from Chicago to Frankfurt I had a personal visit from the purser. He told me that as a United Airlines gold-card member he had taken the time to personally look me up (in the bowls of “cattle-car” class) to welcome me on board and to let me know that if there was anything I needed that I should be sure to let him know. What I really wanted was a seat in business class where leg room was more than just a euphemism, but I smiled and told him that he would be the first to know if I had any difficulties. But I didn’t have any difficulties…because I was on my way to Ukraine!
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