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** This is a guest post by Mike Hopcraft.Wow! I can’t believe that 2 weeks have gone by. Lisa and I have thoroughly enjoyed Ben and Ang’s wonderful hospitality. I am so glad that Lisa has been here before and that Ben was such a willing guide – I would have been lost many times over. Not only with the language but with the driving! Ben could be a rally race car champion!
Helping at the YWAM work day was very satisfiying. Seeing two of the interior walls being built for the new kitchen and the volleyball court levelled as well as LOTS of other clean up was great! It was neat to see how the whole YWAM team works hard, laughs a lot and encourages each other – what a great team.
We were able to see lots of the sights of Kiev as well as Lviv. In Kiev we saw the Iron Mamma, the war memorial, Lavra, holodomor memorial, Khreshchatyk St. and many more sites! I learned so much about the history of Ukraine, Kiev and Lviv. I really like old buildings and… doors, funny eh? Anyway, Lviv was a great place to take pictures of both! Ben, Jay, Lisa and I took the night train to get there (at 6am!!) and we walked up and down almost every street in the old part of Lviv. It was absolutely amazing. Not only did we cover lots of the streets but we went ‘under ground’ for supper, which included secret passageways and hidden doors! We also had a dizzying climb to the top of the bell tower and had a fantastic view of the city! At the end of the day we went back to the train station to wait for our train, which was scheduled to depart at midnight. We arrived at about 9:30 and it was very nice to be off our feet after a long day of walking. On the way back our train stopped for about an hour and that train car got quite warm – no need for those wool blankets. :)
Thanks Ben and Ang for being such great hosts! It was wonderful to spend so much time with you and your kids. May God bless you for the work you are doing in Kiev.
Mike.
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Steve Gregg has been teaching Romans in our SBS this week. He had this great comment about our (over)use of commentaries: “It’s interesting how much light the Bible sheds on the commentaries.” Yay, inductive approach!
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This last Saturday we had a church picnic and baptism. What a beautiful day it was and by that I don’t mean the weather. Oh, the weather was great too but what makes a baptism special is not the weather. It’s being a part of something incredible.What is baptism? Maybe this is oversimplifying it a little, but it is an experience of identifying with Jesus. He loved us and so died an innocent death to give us new life. When someone is baptised, they are usually dunked under the water, symbolising death (death to sin) and then raised out of the water, symbolising new life, the new life they have received in Jesus Christ.
Two of our friends were baptised this Saturday. What a beautiful day it was. Congratulations Veronica and Pasha – Christ is risen and you have new life with him!
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I’m Lovin’ It! It’s true that those words usually refer to McDonald’s (which I can recognize from a long distance), but this time they refer to the joyride that Uncle Mike provided. Unbelievably, they took apart a little bike, packed it in a suitcase and flew all the way to Ukraine with it. So on day 3 I was pretty surprised to find my bum sitting on this little BMX, whippin’ around the YWAM property by the careful hands of Uncle Mike. Thanks uncle Mike!
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Taking care of the properties used for serving people is clearly important. Whether its a building used for meetings, a van for transport or a beach for camps, the time spent in cleaning, maintenance and repairs is part and parcel of the opportunity to use them.Here in Kyiv, we have a property with some buildings, fields for soccer and games, and a beautiful beach. Each gets used in different ways and by different groups. So for us its vital to be a part of taking care of them. Our visiting family (Ben’s sister Lisa and her husband Mike) contributed to our property care during the most recent property work day by spreading sand, picking rocks and building walls (part of an addition to the kitchen). Thanks for helping out!
