May 27, 2013
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A Busy May
I hope you all are doing well. We are getting very excited about seeing so many of you in just a few weeks as we travel to the States for General Assembly! We are all doing well.
I wanted to give an update on our lives in the past month. It’s been a busy month, so you may want to go get a cup of coffee or tea before you continue reading this!
We finally celebrated Easter here on May 5. The date of the Orthodox Easter was over one month later than the western Easter date this year! Pozniaky church, where we most often attend in Kiev, rented a hall (rather than the apartment where we normally meet), so we had room for more people. We nearly filled that room. We had a great service celebrating the resurrection of Jesus. After church we had a potluck lunch together. That is always a fun time to try new foods!
On May 9, we left on the train for Odessa to visit our churches that area. The pastor of Odessa First Church is a Syrian man named Nabil. We had a great time with Pastor Nabil! He loved Bekah and Sarah and made sure our excursions around the city were fun for them. We ate at a great Ukrainian restaurant, had the best shaurmas I have ever tasted, toured the Odessa Opera House, played in the fountains, and walked ALL OVER the city! Scott spoke Friday evening to a small group from Odessa First Church, Saturday for several hours to a larger group from many churches, and then preached on Sunday at Odessa First. After church, we went to Pastor Nabil’s house in the country for a barbeque. The food was delicious, and it was great to be able to talk to the people in a relaxed, informal environment.
We arrived home Monday morning and had four days at home to do laundry, have Russian lessons, finish Bekah’s last week of second grade, entertain an overnight guest, and repack! This is also the time when allergies decided to hit the Rainey house! White stuff started floating in the Kiev air, and the coughing, sneezing, and sore throats started.
We left on the train for Chernovtsy on Friday evening, May 17. I want to tell you a little about what it is like to ride an overnight train in Ukraine. When we have to leave on a train near a meal time, we have developed a routine. The train station has a special seating section with a play area for ticketed passengers with children. Sarah and I go in there with all the suitcases, while Scott and Bekah walk across the street to get McDonalds. They bring it back to us and we eat together in the train station. Then the girls are able to play for a little while before we get on our train. When we go on a long train ride, we get tickets for a “coupee”, which is like a small room with two sets of bunks and a small table in between. When it is bedtime, the conductor brings sheets to put on the pallets for the bunks. Sometimes the windows open on the trains, sometimes they don’t. Some trains have air conditioning; sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. If the windows don’t open and the AC doesn’t work, it is quite hot and stuffy in the train. We also carry on a cooler bag with breakfast foods for the morning. The train serves tea or coffee for about 50 cents. The girls like to climb up and down from the top bunks!
When we arrived in Chernovtsy, we met Vera, a woman who runs a kids’ club twice a month there for disabled kids and a support ministry/Bible study for the moms. The moms have been told since their disabled kids were born that they were given these disabled children because of sins they have committed. Consequently they carry a lot of guilt. Vera insists that moms who bring their kids to kids club must stay during the club time. Disabled kids don’t get out of their homes much in Ukraine because nothing here is handicapped-accessible. Few people have cars, and public transportation is nearly impossible for people with severe disabilities. When the kids arrived at the club that Saturday, I wish you could have seen their faces! When they saw the workers they knew, their eyes lit up and they got the biggest smiles on their faces. It was so clear that they feel loved and accepted at this club!
There is no Nazarene church yet in Chernovtsy, so we did not have Sunday morning service. Vera took us on a walking tour of the city and also to see a possible site she hopes to purchase in the future to house the kids club and other ministries. I’m sure many of you have seen our pictures on Facebook of the little Chihuahua carrying keys. That is Vera’s little “baby” Toby. He is such a hoot! That key is his favorite toy! He gets all excited if she even mentions it! She takes him everywhere with her, and he usually carries that key in his mouth the whole time!
That afternoon, Scott spoke to the mothers who come to the support/Bible study that meets the Sunday following kids club. The moms were very welcoming and kind to us and gave us a card and a decorative cutting board they had made as an anniversary gift.
We traveled that evening, again on a train, to Lviv, for some vacation time. On the train, we met a very interesting Jewish man named, David. He is a professor of Jewish Law who has lived in the States and Canada in the past. Now, he lives in Vinnitsa. He was very kind, and we had a good and interesting talk about faith. We passed contact information and hope to talk again when we travel to Vinnitsa. When he told us his name, he mentioned that he often tells it to people and says, “Hi, I am David, King of the Jews.” We smiled, but I have to say that I am so thankful to personally know the TRUE King of the Jews!
We arrived at our hotel at about 11:30 PM Sunday night. We slept in a little bit, then spent the next 4 days on vacation… running around the city seeing the sights. On our anniversary, we spent the day at a mall in town. We watched a movie (in Russian), went bowling, ice skating, and the girls played in an indoor gym. In the center of the city, we climbed to a bell tower to see the city – 305 stairs! Another day we took a bus tour and walked up a hill to a high point of the city where we had a great view.
In Lviv, we ate at some fun restaurants. We ate at a pizza place that is also here in Kiev, but this one had special seating for parents beside a play area for kids. This play area had video games or movies, lots of toys, and a giant chalk board. The girls loved it! We also ate at a Ukrainian restaurant where each table was inside its own little gazebo. Probably the most interesting meal was at a restaurant called “Krayivka.” There are no outdoor signs for the restaurant – you have to KNOW where it is. You must knock on a big wooden door (no sign on the door), where a man opens a little peephole with a machine gun pointing at you, and says, “Glory to Ukraine!” To be allowed in, you must know the password, “Glory to the heroes!” Once inside the door, you are offered a shot of vodka from the man with the gun, then directed downstairs into the bunker. It is quite dark downstairs, with plank-type tables and stools for chairs.
One of their signature dishes is the half-meter sausage. We ordered that, and Sarah ate most of it! Scott ordered fish, and it came cooked, but completely intact. After he had eaten, he pointed to the fish head and told the girls that he would give them 5 griven (60 cents) if they would pick it up. Sarah said, “I’ll do it!” Then she proceeded to not only pick up the fish head, but gave it a great big lick! She got 10 griven for that!!!!It was a very fun experience!
Our train back to Kiev was from 10:30 PM to 6:30 AM, so we had an interesting, and short, night of sleep. We are getting caught up again now. On Saturday night we had ten people for dinner (plus our four)! I made lasagna and lemon bars, which were both a big hit. The group included two of our Kiev pastors and a family (mom, dad, and 3 grown kids) who are all doctors here in Kiev. It was nice to get to know the family of doctors better. They attend Kiev First Church and donate a lot of their time going to small villages to provide free healthcare to needy people.
These next 2 weeks are crunch time to renew our Ukrainian visas. We have had 1-year visas, and that year is nearly over. We are praying that we will receive our letters of invitation on Monday or Tuesday of this week, and then can go to the visa office. Scott has meticulously gathered every possible document that we think could possibly be requested by the visa officer. Every time we go, we are asked for different things. Sometimes they want a particular item; then next time, they don’t need that item, they want something else! So, we are praying that when we go in, we will have everything we need. Please pray with us that this all goes smoothly and we can get everything approved before we leave for the US on June 12.
Thank you for your continued prayers and support. We feel your love and are so thankful to have you all cheering us on! Your prayers, gifts, and numerous things you do to help us encourage us in tough times and make our ministry here possible. Each one of you is a part of the work of the church across the CIS! We love you all and can’t wait to see you soon!
