News from Kiev

I went to the baby hospital a few months ago and the first thing I was asked was if I knew of a cardiologist in
America who could do surgery on one of the babies at the hospital.  The doctors here didn’t feel that they could do the surgery needed.  A missionary doctor here started asking his friends in the states about doing the surgery.  There were several rejections but finally a doctor was willing to do it.  As they were communicating to the cardiologists here about it, it turned out that the doctor in the States is a very well known and respected doctor among the doctor’s in Ukraine.  They were so awestruck that he was taking the case.  One of the Ukrainian doctors needed to call the doctor in the States to make the arrangement and after a long conversation it was decided that the operation would be done here. 

The medical missionary has been trying to find ways to minister to the doctors in Ukraine and since his good friend in the states is their revered doctor/teacher, it has opened doors in his relationship with them.  One of the outcomes is an English class for the doctors/personnel at the cardiac hospital. We had our first class last night.  He had told them that we would teach 10 of them.  20 showed up.  So we will adjust and hold 2 classes 2 times a week.

As we introduced ourselves to them, they got all excited when I said that I work with babies with Down’s syndrome.  After class, they took me into the ICU to show me a baby with Down’s syndrome who had just under gone heart surgery.  I was so moved that they wanted to show me all their babies with Down’s syndrome.  When I said I didn’t want to touch the baby since my hands weren’t washed, they quickly grabbed the bottle of hand sanitizer and squirted it in my hands so I could touch the baby.  This is so untypical in Ukraine.  I think this may open some new doors for me.  I will ask them if there is something I can do with the babies.  What an opportunity we have.

This last week the world lost one of the most kind and humble men I know, but our loss is heaven’s gain. George Markey was a farmer/preacher in
Indiana when God called him to Ukraine.  He had 8 children and the youngest was just a baby. But God called him and off they went with their 8 children and 32 suitcases.  Ukraine had just broken off from the former Soviet Union and when they arrived here, they said that it felt like they had arrived to a dark hole.  There were many hard times then.  Food and things to buy were scarce and some things limited.  His oldest son, George, was a teenager then and had just gotten his driver’s license.  He was reluctant but willing to come to Ukraine for a year.  (Now 15-16 years later, he is still here serving the Lord here in Ukraine.)

George and Pam had been here 7 years when I first came.  The church was young even though they had about 300 attendees.  They had many young people and older women.  Of course there were a few men there but men were greatly lacking.  I wondered who in the world George would pass off his church to.  I did notice one couple who had a baby… Alosha and Julia who were new Christians.  Over the years I have watched them grow.  They also were involved with the youth in our church.  Saturdays some of the kids came to my bible study and then afterwards went to Alosha’s.  After some time, Alosha and Julia followed the call of God to be sent out from our church to start a church in a small city that was “hard ground” so to speak.  It was hard work but they loved the people and a small church was formed.  He was a pastor of the church 3 years before George felt God telling him to turn the Kiev church over to Alosha and for George to go elsewhere to start a church.  Alosha stepped into George’s shoes and has done a wonderful job.  Both are humble men who love God and people.  It was so gracious of God to have George pass off the church last May.  I truly believe that if George was still the pastor of the Ukraine church, it would have been totally devastating for the church.  They would have felt like sheep that lost their shepherd.  As it is, the church grieves but is stable and strong.

When George left to help his daughter and son-in-law start a church in the 10/40 window, he was sent out as a missionary from the Kiev church.  The church laid hands on them and sent them out.  The church not only prayed for them but also turned around and supported George and his family financially.  During this crisis, they poured their finances into George and Pam without hesitation.  When one son didn’t have the money to go and see George in the other country during his initial illness, the Kiev church stepped in and bought his ticket.  When George died and the family was trying to get to the States, one family couldn’t afford for 2 of their children to go.  When the Kiev church heard that, they immediately bought tickets for the 2 girls.  They also paid the plane fare for one of George’s sons and wife to go to the States for George’s memorial.

In all of this, it has reminded me of Paul and his churches.  He was their spiritual father.  When he was hurting, they hurt.  When he had needs, they helped to meet them.  When his ship docked in an area, people from his church came to meet him.  They loved him.  It wasn’t easy for Paul.  He talked of his life being poured out for the church.  He had struggles and hurts.  At one time, he wrote the more I love, the less I am loved.  But in the end, the church loved him and grieved for him.  I have watched George and Pam pour out their lives in Ukraine.  They served and served and served some more.  Yet they didn’t neglect their children and all 8 children love God and are serving him.  I have observed the church’s love for them from their sending them out to now.  George is a father to them as well as Pam is the mother.  They are honored, respected, loved and cherished. 

There are several things about George that stick out in my mind.  Some are his love of God, his love of live, his joy and his serving spirit. As much as George hated driving in the traffic of Kiev, he spent much of his day going to meetings or transporting people to and from ministries and meetings.  He looked for ways to show God’s love.  There were times that he carried heavy bags of potatoes for an elderly man up many flights of stairs when the elevator didn’t work and the time/times he helped to shovel snow for the street cleaner. He took fatherless boys swimming often one summer because he saw the need that wasn’t being met. As I watch the church in Kiev, I see this serving spirit in them.  They are busy serving in many places and have a heart to serve in others.  And they do it with joy. George has passed on a legacy.

It is not a Ukrainian tradition when someone dies to sing and express some joy.  But the day when people heard of George’s death, they wanted to get together and have a praise and worship time in his honor.  So we met at the office and sang and prayed and encouraged one another.  It was a beautiful time.  You couldn’t know George long without seeing how much he loved to worship God. He mentioned often from the pulpit how he was ready to spend eternity just worshipping God. So much love was poured out to him with this illness that he was so touched...often to tears and it motivated him to fight to live.  But his fight is over and he is standing right now before His maker rejoicing, singing, dancing and praising God.

When I talk of George’s impact on the church, I am reminded that behind every good man is a good woman.  George could not have done all that he did without Pam’s support, love and sacrifice.  She definitely is a proverbs 31 wife and mother.  She truly is an amazing woman.

Please pray for the family especially Pam.  She has lost her best friend and coworker as well as her husband.  4-5 years ago they adopted a Ukrainian girl who had been abandoned and had many major health problems.  They have loved her.  Pray for Pam to have the wisdom and strength she needs in raising Christine.  I have seen Christine make amazing changes as a result of the families’ love for her. Please pray for the new church and ministry in the country where he has been.  His younger daughter and husband started the ministry and George, Pam, the younger children and another daughter and son-in-law went to help.  Right now since all the family are in the states, a man from here, a pastor from Hungary and 2 missionary women are there to help them with the ministry. Pray for God to multiply the ministry through George’s death.  He is a man who will not soon be forgotten.

I have conversations with people all over the world and one thing these conversations have in common is one question….”what is your weather like?”  I think that you will agree that the weather this year has been the strangest.  All I hear from people in the States is how cold it is there.  My mother was visiting in Georgia she has been delayed returning to Oklahoma because of the ice storm.  But here….where it usually has snow on the ground from November to March or April has only had flurries until today.  Today we have 1-2 inches. 

 Instead of taking their children out in a stroller, they pull them to the store or for walks on a sled.  I enjoy the sight of a mom or dad pulling the sled along with their child.  This year the sleds have been put up on the shelf due to lack of snow.  Today as I peeked out the window to see the snow, the sleds are out again.  I am sure the kids are rejoicing.

Eight years ago and several years thereafter I was able to comfortably live in
Kiev on $500 a month.  That included feeding neighborhood children most evenings.  Now I am faced with my rent being that much money alone.  Several years ago the rent began shooting up rapidly.  It is my opinion that it was from greed.  The price of buying an apartment as well renting an apartment has greatly increased.  Everywhere you look new huge apartment buildings are being built all over Kiev.  Any inch of ground is being bought up for this purpose.  You would think that they would be overbuilt by now but that isn’t the case.  People are flocking to Kiev from the villages for jobs.  They keep coming and coming.  I jokingly say (but it may not be far from the truth) that all Ukrainians will live in Kiev and use their village home as a summer home. 

Ukrainians may own their apartment but they must pay for the square footage of their home every month. This includes their gas payments.  In the past many people ignored paying this largely because they couldn’t afford to pay it.  I just heard a rumor that the mayor of Kiev has increased this bill 300 percent.  Landlords are nervous and Lena told me tonight that several of her friends who are renting apartments had their rent raised by $100 this month.  My landlord told me last month that my rent will be increasing. She was here today for the rent and praise God she didn’t raise the rent yet.  But I think she is waiting to see how much the monthly bill will be raised before she decides how much. The bill didn’t get raised this month but we will see about it next month. My hope is that it will be just threats.  They have said 2-3 times over the last few years that the cost of riding the metro, tram, and trolley will increase and each time the citizens were so against it that it was shelved.  Hopefully it will be the case with this. But part of me thinks that it stems from the increase in gas prices as well as from people not paying their bills. Every summer the question is asked “Do you have hot water?” (They turn hot water off 2 weeks in the summer to clean the pipes.) Now the question is ” Has your rent increased yet? How much?”

This has been a challenging and busy few weeks. My landlord has always been resistant to buying me a decent faucet for the shower.  I finally decided that I would buy one myself.  Roma eagerly replaced it but in the process we saw that the hot water pipe was rusted through. Roma bought the parts for me and we waited for the repairman to come. He did come and told us what we actually needed to buy.  Then I realized how much it would cost and decided at that point I needed to go through my landlords.  It was their water pipe and responsibility. They came the next day. (All this time we were without hot water and shower.) The repairman was emphatic about the quality of the pipe and my landlord looked and said that he couldn’t find it.  So yet another day went by. The landlord gave the repairman the money to buy the pipe and supplies but another day went by without repairs.  Then I heard that the repairman and my landlord were arguing over the cost of the pipes.  The repairman said that he needed 60 more greven to finish buying the supplies and my landlord said that was too much. (Actually for the quality of pipes it was normal.) So another day went by.  Finally the next day the landlord bought his cheap pipes and came and fixed it himself.  The way that he fixed it, it is difficult to put the tiles back up so I just have plastic taped over the exposed areas.  So far, so good.

Also during this escapade, I was trying to connect to the university to show an English film in the English classes.  We did finally connect and now we have an open door to continue with them.

Also during this time my cell phone recharger died.  I went and bought another one and 3 days later that one died.  I need a new cell phone so I decided that it was ridiculous to keep patching up the old one so I am waiting for the opportunity to get another one.  I was a little resistant to start buying a cell phone in the first place, feeling like I didn’t need it.  But Roma had one and I decided to get one to keep in touch with him.  Now I am thinking how inconvenient it is to be without a cell phone.

Also in all this time, an opportunity came for me to have someone to leave the country with to get our visa registration validated so we made a quick trip to
Hungary.

Also in the last few weeks I started a bible study with a lady from church. It is going well.  We meet in a corner booth in McDonald’s because it is a more central location for both of us.  Actually it is working out fine.  I come early and buy lunch and work my way around to the most private tables. So far it has worked out.

A friend and I just got back from
Hungary.  In Ukraine, foreigners have to register their visa every year, but in order to do it legally, the landlord has to write a letter stating that you live at your address.  Since most of the landlords secretly rent their apartments to avoid paying taxes, there is no letter.  The only other option is to pay someone a large amount of money to say that you live with them or leave the country every 6 months and re-enter.  I have opted to leave the country every 6 months and get validated legally.  It is about the same money and I would rather not pay someone a lot of money to lie.

So we decided to go to Hungary because it is rather easy to get there and if we traveled as Ukrainians travel, it was rather inexpensive.  To take a train direct costs about $175-$200.  Ukrainians take the train to the last town in Ukraine by the Hungarian border, then take a train across the border to the next Hungarian town and then take a fast train to Budapest.  That costs about $80-$90.  So off we went…Ukrainian style.  The only possible problem was that we didn’t have the train schedule so we didn’t really know how long it would take us to get there.

But God was so good to us.  Our first lag was uneventful.  We had two interesting roommates.  It turned out that the train was full of steel workers returning to their village for their days off from work.  I think the 2 Americans were quite intriguing to them because they walked by our cabin all evening.  One of our roommates was a steel worker and another was a preschool teacher. 

I decided that it would be better to take a taxi across the border instead of waiting for 2 hours for a train.  So when I asked the taxi how much it would cost, he just said $2.  I thought that was strange.  I expected a lot more.  So off we went.  As we traveled, I thought about how cheap his price was, trying to figure out if he was going to charge us more when we got there or what.  Suddenly we were at the border and he stopped.  He flagged down a car and told us to change cars.  He only charged me to go to the border.  I thought we were going to CROSS the border.  Very puzzled we got into the other car.  It was a black car with blackened windows which is usually used by the mafia so I was apprehensive.  But we got in and it turned out that the man was a fireman.  Since his salary is so minimal, he travels across the border every day into Hungary to buy meat and supplies and returns to Ukraine to sell them.  So he was on his way to Hungary and was willing to drive us across the border. 

But we stopped behind a long, long, long, long line of cars.  I realized that we had made a huge mistake to drive across the border.  He said that it probably would be about 3-4 hour wait.  So we started thinking about getting out and flagging a car down going back into Ukraine and take a train instead.  We asked if we would be able to flag a car down going back and then he told us that if we were willing to pay a bribe we could drive through faster.  I normally don’t pay any bribes but at that moment, it seemed worth it.  So we paid 2 people $5 and got to the train station in an hour and 45 minutes. We were able to get a train to Budapest without any problem. 

The minute you get into Hungary you can see how it is more progressive than Ukraine.  It is more groomed and cleaner.  Also they have new products that Ukraine doesn’t have yet.  It was fun being in Hungary.  We both had 2 objectives…to go shopping in the grocery stores looking for items that we don’t have in Ukraine and to hit the American fast food places that we don’t have in Ukraine, i.e. Pizza Hut, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Mc Donald’s breakfast menu.  We even ate at a great Hungarian restaurant.

Our plan was to arrive in Budapest in the late afternoon, spend the night and return to Kiev the next night.  Nice plans.  Everything was going great. We found a fairly nice place to stay that was near the train station.  All our fast food restaurants were right there.  Ukraine doesn’t have pepperoni pizza so it was such a treat to get one there.  The hostel had internet for free so I could get my emails. 

Then the next day things were going great.  We did everything that we wanted to do.  Had our fried chicken and ran off to catch the train.  As we boarded the train, I saw that people were in our seats.  I showed them our tickets and they informed us that our train left 2 hours earlier…it was in military time and for some reason in my mind I thought that our train left at 7:00, but instead it left at 17:00 (5:00).  So we went to change the tickets hoping to catch another train that night. 

I went to the information window and they said that part of our tickets was still good but there were no more trains that night.  We could leave at 5:50am.  So I went to the ticket counter thinking that we would receive money back.  (Keep in mind that I only know Russian and English and Hungarians refuse to speak Russian and some know English.  Which makes some things complicated.)  The lady at the counter told me something and gave me back the tickets so I returned to the information counter.  The lady was kind but couldn’t figure out why I was back.  She gave us back the tickets and said something so I thought we had to go back to the ticket counter.  We stood in the line again and the ticket lady got frustrated not understanding what we wanted.  So again I went back to the information counter.  By that time I just smiled at her, she laughed and covered her eyes.  Again I thought she sent me back to the ticket counter so we stood in line again.  Then a girl tried to translate for us and gave up because she didn’t understand what we wanted to do.  So again we returned to the information counter and again the lady laughed and covered her face.  Fortunately a guy translated for us and finally I understood that in Hungary the tickets are sold by how many miles not by destination.  Our tickets were still good for travel the next morning without changing anything or paying more. 

Most people were very kind to us in Hungary.  After our major confusion about the tickets and no one speaking the same language, the first lady that I went to at the ticket counter went off duty before we went back the second and third times.  She must have heard about all our confusion and she actually tracked us down to make sure that we understood about our tickets.  That was very nice of her.  Also that evening as we were racing to find the platform where the train was that we THOUGHT that we were taking, we asked an old man for help because we couldn’t find it and time was running out.  The old man told us and we race off in that direction.  A few minutes later the old man came puffing up behind me to tell me that he told me wrong.  It was clear on the other side of the station.  So I thanked him and took off again.  Then it dawned on me that that man didn’t have to run after us to correct his mistake.  How kind of him to make the extra effort.  Also the man from whom we rented our room saw us stopping at the money exchange in the train station.  Of course it is quite a rip off there but by the time we had finished the ticket comedy show while carrying our heavy backpacks, we just wanted to get some money and return to the hostel and rent a room for another night and go to sleep.  So it didn’t really matter to me to get less money in exchanging the dollars so that I didn’t have to lug my backpack around looking for better exchange rates.  So the man we rented a room from saw us and gave me a hard time for not finding a better place.  Of course I told him I really didn’t care at that point.  I was too tired.  So he took my back pack and escorted us to the better money exchange place and then back to the hostel.  How kind.

Returning we still had no idea what the train schedules would be.  So we left Budapest at 5:50 am.  At the Hungarian border town, we had to wait 3 hours or so.  But it was nice.  There was a small restaurant so we were able to get something to drink and it was a comfortable wait.  Then we arrived in the Ukrainian border town at 5:00pm only to find out that we couldn’t get a train to Kiev until 2:00AM! A 9 hour wait in a dark, semi-clean train station with no seats or restaurant.  When I looked dismayed, she told me about another train we could take to another town and then from there to Kiev.  We only had 10 minutes to buy the tickets and find the train and get on.  But to us it was worth the try.  But then I didn’t have all the Ukrainian money. In the midst of trying to quickly buy the train tickets and finding that I was short of money, there was an elderly lady who was constantly badgering me, trying to get me to sell her my old train ticket even when I continually refused and asked her to leave us alone.  Even though she was very irritating, she did help by calling a man over to trade money with us. So we were able to buy the tickets and run and catch the train.  We would only have a 3-4 hour layover in Liviv and we heard that there were seats and places to eat at that time of night there.  But God was good.  As we were checking the platform board when we arrived, we noticed that in 10 minutes a train was leaving for Kiev so we rushed to the ticket counter and changed our tickets and ran for the train and made it.  How great!  We had no layover.

God was good.  Even with all the language and travel challenges, we had a good time and it was a nice change. But I must say that it was nice to come “home” to a language that we can mostly understand and customs that we have come to understand.

Well what can I say?  The university near me wants Pete and me to show a film for their English class next week which thrills me.  But my cell phone died today and it has Pete’s cell phone number.  I tried to email him but I can’t get connected to the internet line.  Hopefully he is available for next Tuesday morning. 

Also today I am stuck at home waiting for my landlords to bring me water pipes for the bathroom since our hot water pipe has a hole in it.  We have been without hot water since Sunday morning.  It looks like it will be too late for the repairs to get started today so that means tomorrow I will also cancel my plans (the orphanage) to be home for the repairs.  Isn’t that life?

Last night I took a few Americans to the city center.  We ate in the food court of a mall. Some of the girls left for a bit and a teenager came by and tried to take their drink.  I gave a resounding “No!” He left and then I saw him again a few minutes later and decided to buy him some soup. (I could tell that he was probably a street child. I never give children money.)  So I told my friend what I was going to do.  She wanted to do it instead so I helped her order his food.  She then invited him to eat with us if he wanted and he did. 

His name is Artur. He is 14 years old and lives on the streets.  He and his brother and sister lived in an orphanage but long ago he ran away and now lives on the streets.  We shared with him about God’s love for him.  He answered, “I know.”  I asked how he knew.  “Because I received Jesus in my heart last month.”  We didn’t have a Russian bible with us at the time so we told him that we would pray that he would be given a bible and encouraged him to read it.  So please pray for Artur.  He seems like a sweet boy.  He had a great smile when he did smile.  Pray for him to get to know God and that someone will indeed give him a bible or that he will find one.  Pray that he will read it and believe it.

Today as I was thinking of him, I realized that I know of a Christian rehab center for street children.  I wish I had remembered about it last night.  So I will pray that God brings him back into my life again so I can tell him about it and then pray that he would be willing to go.

“Handicapped children require a lot of help from a lot of people.  Wouldn’t it be best to just let them die?” A nursing student asked. There were 8-9 American women in the room and our mouths dropped to the floor in absolute shock.  I knew that the doctors here advise mothers of handicapped children to just leave their children at the hospital.  That it would just be a lot of heartache for them to bring them home, but I had never heard anyone speak so blatantly about it.  I felt like crying and one woman did.  The American team was very gracious in answering her question.  The girl only reflected what she is taught in school.  How sad.

This week a group of 22 American healthcare professionals came to
Ukraine to address the care of handicapped children.  A physical therapist was in the group and God blessed me with part of her time.  She went to the orphanage with me to see my children.  She gave me some great ideas of what more to do with them.  Also I was invited to the conference and learned even more.  It was such a blessing.

Last week my pastor and his wife adopted a baby from my orphanage.  They weren’t one of my children though and I asked one of the workers why noone comes to our room to adopt babies.  She looked at the babies and said, “Would any one want them?”  My heart sank…”I do.”  My heart was sad because that is the attitude of doctors and workers here.  Parents of handicapped children are told that it would be better to leave their children at the hospital and not try to take them home.  Fortunately many parents do take their children home but many other parents don’t and just sign away their rights.  On rare occassions the mother continues to come and visit her baby. She just feels helpless to take care of the child.  I have such a child in my group now.  She is a precious, sweet girl.  So cute!  I hear that her mother comes on Saturdays.  I am considering to go on a Saturday in hopes she will be there and start showing her things that she could do with her.  My desire is to see her mother change her mind and take her home.

I am always trying to find seminars for me to attend when I come to the States to help me work with my Down’s children.  Unfortunately most of these seminars are in the summer and I come home in the spring or winter.  I have been thinking about it a lot lately.  Last week one of the missionary doctors here called me and invited me to a medical conference being held this week for workers of handicapped children.  What an answer to pray.  Instead of my trying to find a way to get training in the States at a high cost, God has sent a team here to teach a whole spectrum of care and it is free.  Last week a team of 22 medical professionals came to
Ukraine and taught this seminar in Western Ukraine and this week the conference will be here starting tomorrow. A physical therapist from the group, who specializes in treating children with Down’s sydrome, went with me to visit my babies.  It was great to see her work with them so that I got more of an idea how to help them.  Wish she could be around for more sessions. But God is good.  I got more practical help today in 1 ½ hours than I ever have in an official course.  God is good.