Sunday, Sunday, Sunday!!!!!!....(Holy Shorts reference)

So on Sunday morning we woke up and enjoyed some blueberry pancakes prepared by our wonderful cook. We had bought the blueberries on the side of the road on the way to here from Kiev on Saturday. We went to church service with the missionary that will be staying with us. He is from North Alabama so we were able to speak with him a little easier than the Pastor. The church is about a ten minute drive and we were excited about going there to worship. The church is on the fourth floor and had two rooms. The church is a church plant and is in the process of purchasing a bigger building. Below are some pictures from the church:


This is a view from the one window in the back of the church. There are a lot more high rises like the ones seen in this picture in the area around the church.

This is the church sign. It is simply called “Resurrection” Church. It is a church plant through the IMB (International Mission Board)

When we pulled up to the church, we meet a few other people from the church. One of them spoke a little English and taught me a few Ukrainian words. She was the violinist and also helped with coffee and food after church. The church service last about 2 hours and the missionary (Tim) offered to translate for us, but we told him we did not want to disrupt the service and we did not mind just listening to the Ukrainian. We picked up on a couple of songs that we had sung before in English and the missionary helped me out by showing me the words. During the service our fearless leader Bob preached, Pastor Oleg preached, and I gave testimony. There was a lot of worship through song, but in all honesty I did not think the service seemed very long for a 2 hour service.
Then we went to the park in which our day camp was going to be held each day. Below are some pictures of it:


The grass is very long and if you look in the distance you can see one of the football goals.


The park is outside of a school and the school said we could use the park even though the Pastor said sometimes the area is kind of aggressive towards Christian groups so we might have to be mindful of that.

I thought I would do a close up on the football goal. There is another one on the other side of the field, but neither have nets. Yet, I was very excited to see them.

When we went to the park, one thing I thought it was interesting the Pastor’s daughter (who is 6) went with us and she picked some flowers. Then when we got back in front of the church she placed one flower on the railing of the steps up to the church (on the fourth floor). Flowers seem to be a big thing here. You see people on the streets selling flowers, we have seen many people just carrying flowers, and during our church service one girl received flowers because it was her birthday.

After church we had a nice lunch with the Pastor, his wife, their children, the missionary, and our group. The Pastor’s mom joined us too because she is preparing meals for us each day at the Bible College that we are staying. Later in the afternoon we went to the place in which we are doing the ESL classes and checked email for the first time and set up a special Skype session. Because of the time difference we were able to Skype with our church back in Dothan during the beginning of our service and we talked to the Pastor and the congregation. It was very neat. Here is Bob setting up the Skype session:


After we left that area we walked back down the central plaza area. It is a very cool plaza area with a lot of neat restaurants, shops, banks, and other things. A cool thing happened on our walk. The girl who had played violin at the church in the morning saw us on the plaza and asked us if we would stay and listen to her little group that she had. We of course said yes and they were great. Below is a picture of the musical group and our mission group listening to them:




The sun was in my eyes ok?

After we left the plaza Sunday night, we went to a great city park. Bob had been their earlier in the day and told us we must go there. I went prepared and wore my running clothes (USA soccer jersey included). I went with the group to the park and while they walked around looking at all the neat things, I ran around the park. At the edge of the park is their local football stadium. It is impressive. I did not take any pictures of it on my camera, but I did take video of it on my ipod. It is a Ukrainian 1st league team (for those of you who don’t understand the football leagues that is still professional, but it is under the top league which is called the Premier league). I hope to take pictures of it before I leave here. Following my run, we had another lovely dinner prepared by our wonderful cook.
Then we prepared for our day camp the next day. After preparing for the next day’s camp, Bob and I went the Art Café to watch the World Cup final. I was really hopping that The Dutch would win since I said before the Cup start that they would win. But, I guess I can’t be right all the time. One thing I noticed that was strange was at half time and after full time before extra time, whole tables would get up and leave full drinks and food plates at their table. It looked as if they were all leaving, but I realized when they came back they were just going outside to smoke. In American restaurants we have a few people go outside a restaurant to smoke during a break in games, but I don’t remember ever seeing over ¾ of the restaurant going outside. I got my World Cup coke bottle in Ukrainian to take by home with me. Anyway, more later.

Peace Be With You
Ben