Sunday connections with school tomorrow

Good Sunday to you! I realize you are only part way through your Sunday, but here we are just finishing up a jam packed weekend! It's been wonderful with new experiences and I just had to share.

Through our good friends, we received the tip that there is a church that meets here in Donetsk that is similar to ours (although no one can replace you guys!). We spent a week hunting through the internet searching for the Director of the Ukrainian Bible Institute (UBI) to see about attending church services that meet there. Last week we got a hold of them and attended church services with them. The Texan born Director, Jay, was speaking that day so we were able to hear most of the services in English. The singing was all Russian so we couldn't join in unless it was a song we knew, but it was still wonderful to be in a room with other people who loved Jesus like we do!

We heard they were going to have a man from Greece come and speak this week. He will be teaching a one week course at UBI and they asked him to take a little bit and speak at the church as well. They meet later in the afternoon on Sundays.

Because of the quarantine, this church congregation is not able to meet in the building they usually do, but will this time be meeting at UBI in one of the classrooms. We are not living very far from there so we decided to head down on foot yesterday to make sure we knew where it was. We were in high hopes that we might be able to pick up Vala and bring her to church with us and wanted especially to be familiar with where we were going before bringing her.

It was a nice, warmer day (didn't need gloves or the extra overcoat) when John and I headed out. We knew right where the street was, finding the place of entering the building would be another story. Most of the buildings are around 60 years old and decaying. We understood this building to be only 3 stories high and there would be a pathway between two buildings. At the back we would see the lower part of the building painted green to help identify it. We also found there was a small cross on a sign on the side of the building.

Not sure which entrance it was, we entered through an open door to a small stairway heading up. At the foot of the stairs was a door, but a woman had just come through and locked it up. We guessed this was not the UBI. We entered up the first couple steps to another door, crossed our fingers and prayed we wouldn't be entering someone's private residence. The door opened under John's grasp to reveal a brightly lit hallway with many doors in either direction spurring off the main hall. We knew there was a good chance this was it! Ukrainians don't use this many light bulbs and it was freshly painted, clean and very inviting. - I felt the touch of Jay's southern bell wife immediately!

John said Hello to a gentleman in the hallway who only spoke Russian. From one of the rooms, a thickly accented man said, "Come in here, sit and talk with me". We were just moments away from meeting Victor, UBI's Evangelism teacher. A boxer by trade, he was in out of the cold to warm up a bit before heading out again.

Victor graciously spent over an hour talking with us, answering lots of questions and sending out many of his own. He encouraged us to attend his church services that meet there just two hours before the other one was going to. We explained our hopes of picking up Vala and that we would be traveling to the orphanage during that time.

When we left there on Saturday we were so encouraged with our conversation with Victor. Victor is a Ukrainian who speaks English and knows his people well. We wondered if we could fit in church services with him next week, if we were still here.

So this morning we received the phone call that it will be impossible to take Vala to church with us during the quarantine. We were not surprised, but still saddened. Then the thought occurred to us that we could attend Victor's services and the ones with the Greek speaker as well now that we didn't need to travel. Both would be at the UBI, one after the other. He put our coats on and hurried on our way, thankful it was all down hill.

A woman heard us speaking quietly to ourselves (and we stick out like sore thumbs here as Americans no matter what we do). She came over and asked if we would like her to translate for us. I thanked her profusely for this kind gift she gave us! What a sweet, beautiful, gentle spoken woman. I believe someone said she translates professionally, but that day she was off duty and her willingness to translate for us was pure kindness. We had a wonderful time and Victor was very happy that we were there.

The next services started just long enough after that we had the opportunity to stand up and stretch our backs. Several of the members recognized us from the week before and remembered we were adopting. They kindly asked how the adoption was going in their best broken English. Those who can't speak just smiled warmly with a sparkle of recognition in their eyes.

When Dino got up to speak the fun began. He is a man full of passion with a thick accent. He spoke in English (the common language for everyone to translate) with a translator to recite everything back in Russian for the congregation. We would get the punch lines of the joke (said in English) before everyone else who had to wait for translation. It was funny and I had to make sure and hold my laughter as it seemed out of place when I laughed before everyone else! :o)

The Director, Jay, and his wife was once again in attendance and showed us around the school when the services were done. We were able to meet several of the teachers who where there. Many of them speak broken English so we were able to converse. Jay and his wife invited us to dinner with Dino and we accepted.

We walked up to a restaurant that had an English menu and joined them there. We all shared for hours and because of Dino's extensive background in Greek and Early Church History we were able to start communication about Ukrainian Orthodox church to better understand how Vala is being raised. She holds her religion very dear to her. Finally, since we were all getting tired, Dino just suggested John and I come to his classes each day this week as he will be teaching this very subject! Jay gave his approval. So tomorrow morning, John and I will be starting classes at UBI being taught by an Athens born Greek himself! We are excited!

We are hoping to know more about a court date tomorrow or shortly after that. We'll let you know when we know something. For now, we are so blessed to be using our time learning as much about this culture and the people as we can before we head home with our new daughter. Don't expect we'll be speaking Greek though!

Until tomorrow.....
Jenn