Krasno-armeysk

Vika, me and Marina

I just returned from a lovely trip to the other side of the country to spend a few days seeing the new ministry of my friends Vika and Marina. They were two of the students who went through the IM training center here back in the Fall. I met with Marina weekly for discipleship, became good friends with her and have really missed her since they returned home. And since they don't have any females there meeting with them for discipleship and encouragement, I asked Mark if I could spend a week with them every other month, and he agreed. It was so great to go and spend five days seeing how they are serving there. Krasno-armeysk is a town of about 70,000, which is right next to their town, Dimitrov, where they grew up. They spend their time going back and forth between the two towns doing bible studies, meeting with different people, encouraging young believers and doing an English Club. Both of them studied how to teach English in university and Marina even spent a year and a half in the US, so her English is very good. So for the five days I was there, I did everything with them that they would normally do and got to meet most of the people that they serve.

I led the English Club, telling them about my family, city and state(and showing pictures), with the main topic being "Differences between the US and Ukraine." That can be a very dangerous topic, because there are just so many huge differences. But I decided to not discuss anything negative about Ukraine, but instead, discuss some of the negative things about the US and some general differences, as well. The reason I decided to do that is because so many people think that the US is fabulous, but don't understand that it's very expensive to live there and that it's not a perfect country, either. The list included:

-Debt(almost non-existent here)
-Public transportation(very good here)
-University costs(very expensive in US-pretty cheap or free here)
-types of schooling:public, private, homeschool(private & homeschool do exist here, but are rare. Homeschooling still tends to be only for sick children or those with special needs)
-size of the country-there are almost 309 million people in the US, compared to 45 million in Ukraine. The country of Ukraine is the second largest in Europe, yet it can fit inside the state of Texas.
-the US is a nation of nations; peoples from almost every country in the world live there. That is a huge difference from here, where the vast majority of people are Ukrainian or Russian and the rest are from former Soviet countries. There are very few foreigners living here and therefore, very little understanding about other cultures.

Most of the above explanations are for those of you reading this, not actually what I said to them. I primarily wanted them to understand that many problems exist in the US and that the grass isn't quite as green on the other side as they think it is. Yes, if you, as an American came here, you would be overwhelmed by the differences. Like I said before, they are vast, and many of them are sad differences. But many others are humbling and I am still working to wrap my mind around them.

One huge difference is that Orthodoxy rules this country, even if the average person only goes to the temple twice a year. Orthodoxy is in their blood and therefore, why should they listen to anything else? A huge percentage(I would guess 90%) would say that they hope their good deeds will outweigh their bad and that God will allow them into Heaven. But their main concern is that their children and grandchildren have better lives than they did. They have no hope for their future and really don't even care about it, as long as their children are ok. If asked if they know for sure that they will be in heaven after death, they either laugh, get angry at you for asking, or are astonished that you would be so presumptuous to say that you yourself know that answer. They have no hope.

Please pray for the people of Ukraine. Pray for the missionaries working here. Pray for a clearly presented gospel. Pray for Vika and Marina, both from unbelieving families(Vika's last name means Without God), as they share with their own people the changes that God has brought to their lives. Pray for this desperate and dying world.