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Hello
everyone!
Thanks for
your prayers! We made it here safely. All of our flights
were fine. They were all full! We didn't get to sit by each
other until our last leg from Amsterdam to Kiev.
We arrived
at the warm city of Kiev around 2:00 PM on Tuesday. Ernie was
ready and waiting for us when we passed through customs. (It was
very easy -- thanks for praying for that specifically!). We took a
van to the train station on the other side of the city (about a 45
minute drive) and after picking up a quick supper at McDonalds, just
"chilled" in a lounge at the station to wait for our 7:15 PM
train to Zaparoshia (I know it's spelled incorrectly, but that's how the
city name sounds). The overnight train was a neat cultural
experience. We occupied two sleeping cabins dedicating a couple of
bunks to our mounds of luggage. We "rented" sheets from
a cabinet attendant and made up beds that we quickly stretched and
conked out on. They were a bit stuffy at times (esp.. after they
turned the AC off around bedtime), but that didn't keep us from
sleeping! This morning the attendants delivered hot tea with lemon
to our cabins. No dining car on this train! Fortunately
Ernie has made this trip before and had some bags of fresh fruit and
bottles of water. Combined with the snacks we had brought in our
carry-ons, we had a nice little breakfast.
We pulled
into Zaparoshia around 10:30 this morning where we hopped in Ernie's
parked van and drove another 2 hours to Berdyansk. We passed
the time by playing "Catch Phrase." It was a beautiful
day for a drive and a great way to see the Ukrainian countryside and the
odd village dotted here or there. It's hard to believe they had
snow on the ground just one month ago! The trees are out in full
leaf and the fields appear to have been worked and planted. The
winter wheat doesn't appear to have been out of the ground very long.
Ernie explained that most of the farmland is still farmed collectively
(we saw a couple of tractors in the field) because it appears that's the
only way they could afford the use of equipment to farm so much ground
(think, "Iowa").
When we
arrived a little before one o'clock, lunch was ready and waiting for us
on the table. We were joined by Jo, Robert and Bill, all long-term
volunteers helping the Smith's run some of the ministry here in
Berdyansk. After a delicious lunch (our first real food in a long
time) Ernie took us to tour the "Home of Hope" and see some of
the work we'll be joining in beginning tomorrow. The facility is
as large as it appears (if you have seen any photos or video) with tons
of potential. It's still in rough shape in many places and we have
our work cut out for us. After our tour our group split up.
Anastasia and Joanna joined Jo and Masha (her translator) to do game
time at the Orphanage. The rest of us came home (we didn't want to
overwhelm the kids with the size of our group) and took showers and
unpacked.
I think we
are going to be very comfortable here! The Smiths have been very
warm and hospitable. We are just one kilometer from the beach and
enjoy a quiet neighborhood. Tonight we (the English-speaking
volunteers) are having "church" in their house. Tomorrow
I believe we will be picking up scrapers and paint brushes and going to
work on one of the rooms in the Home of Hope. Then we'll get to
sit-in on Jo's English class.
I need to
close! We'll be in touch...
Cydil, for
the team
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