Ukraine Mission Trips

Decisions Total 261 for 2010 Trip

2010-07-18T16:40:00.000-05:00

We're back in the United States on the Tri-State Tollway on the way home.

The final count on decisions for Christ total 261 which is almost a hundred more than last year.

Flood Relief Becomes New Part of Mission Trip

2010-07-15T16:50:00.000-05:00

On June 28, a devastating series of flash floods caused by a foot of rain in southwestern Ukraine killed 30, including 6 six children, while damaging more than 40,000 homes.

This clip from Ukrainian TV shows just part of problem.

The Baptist churches in Chernivtsi have been putting together sacks of staples - oil, water, salt, sugar, buckwheat, pasta and cornmeal to distribute in some of the villages. I know Bob went out one day to help distribute and I went out with the youth on Tuesday to Gorcha (sp?).

The town isn't even on a river. Crab Orchard Creek has a stronger flow, but unlike our creeks, this one was in a deep ravine which wrapped around the city on three sides. The flood waters hit the homes we visited not from the river side, but from the town side before rejoining the main channel.

The water lines were five and six feet deep on some of the houses we visited dropping off food and talking and praying with the residents. Most of the houses were masonry construction so the walls are still good, but the floors have to be taken out and the dirt underneath dried. Inside the plaster has to be re-done, but the furniture and electronics are usually totally destroyed.

Some of the people we talked to had just 15 minutes warning as the waters rose so quickly. Others had no warning since the flash floods took place at night. One elderly couple told us they were in the water for more than five hours.

According to news accounts (and the Ukrainiana Blog), flood waters damaged 40,601 homes, 360 vehicular bridges, 561 pedestrian bridges, 423 miles of roads and 83,724 of farmland.

Baby Benjamin and Bob

2010-07-15T16:18:00.000-05:00

There's a particular "Baby Benjamin" that stole the hearts of Bob, Oleta and Darek at different times. Born with spina bifida, Benjamin wasn't expected to live but has now for two years. Although paralyzed in his legs and deaf without hearing aids, Bob had both Sandy and Darek with their medical training (Sandy's a nurse and Darek is a physical therapist) look at the boy and the paperwork the mother had from the doctors to see if there was anything American medical technology or practices might help.

The mother had heard about a cochlear implant to help her son's hearing. The consensus seems to be that would help, but the issue is how to get the boy to America for such an operation. A wheelchair would also help, but even in America that would come until he was three or four.

Sandy says the boy is definitely taken with Bob, and as we've heard Bob talk about him enough, he's taken with the boy as well.

More Than 200 Decisions for Christ

2010-07-15T16:17:00.000-05:00

Today was our last day in Chernivtsi. For the first time in a week, all of us finally made it to the same building at the same time for a farewell meal and to find out what's been happening with the different teams.

Before the meal Brother Bob told me we had more than 200 decisions made for Christ this week with Bettie D. and Larry's team that stayed in one of the villages harvesting the most. I hadn't seen either one of them since last Friday. Both looked tired, but pleased with the results.

Most of us spent more time though planting seeds. The youth team visited six different camps in the past week. Betty M., Oleta and Sandy all at different times visited facilities for the deaf, a rehab center for alcoholics as well as the city hospital.

Almost every team has spent at least some of the time in the villages.

Tomorrow we leave Chernivtsi around 10:30 a.m. and ride to Lviv by charter bus. We'll fly out of Lviv for Warsaw on Saturday and from there to Chicago on Sunday.

Decisions Increase to at Least 28

2010-07-13T01:59:00.000-05:00

I've asked the other members of the mission team to provide me some written updates about what they are doing. As I get them I will post them.

Bettie D., from Second Baptist and Larry from Andalusia are out in the villages. I haven't actually seen them since Friday. The latest word from them is that six were saved on Saturday.

Oleta and Betty M. from Marion are together and seem to be mostly working with groups that are meeting in houses. Six were saved on Sunday and another two yesterday.

Ron Ellis has been shooting pictures galore. I hope to get some posted in the next few days. He had two saved yesterday.

Bob Wagner had one saved over the weekend and helped take relief supplies yesterday to some villages here in the oblast that suffered major flooding on June 28.

Until next time, keep us in your prayers.

At Least 10 Decisions for Christ So Far

2010-07-11T15:29:00.003-05:00

I think I'm working on about eight hours of sleep over the last two nights so this won't be long. While most of our group went out to the main camp Saturday for a baptism and a celebration of the camp's 10th anniversary, I found myself detached from the youth delegation and assigned to visit two Romanian ethnic villages still in the Chernivtsi oblast (state).

As a last minute change there was the usual mix-ups on times, who exactly was going and what exactly I would be doing. I had even stayed up to after 3 a.m. working on a sermon that I thought I was going to have to preach on Saturday. In the end I didn't need it.

The group ended up to be me; Nicoli, a Romanian preacher who helps organize evangelical crusades throughout the old Soviet Union; and my interpreter Olga, who teaches English at one of the Christian schools in Chernivtsi.

We arrived in Scherbintsy about 10:30 a.m. It's a tiny village that was too small to even show up on national map of Ukraine. We met up with the local pastor and made two visits as well as a man walking down the road. The streets in this village are beyond bad. Drivers endanger their cars by even attempting to travel them. The women at each house prayed and accepted Jesus. Keep Alexandra and Valentina in your prayers.

Later that afternoon we traveled to another village, Koteleve. This one was a bit larger, about 3,000 people and better creek-graveled streets actually laid out in a grid for the most part.

There we met with a man named Ian who was paralyzed after falling from the roof of his house. He had been visited before by others and while willing to listen wasn't ready to make any decisions. His wife has divorced him and taken custody of his children. Definitely keep in him your prayers. He's 38 and as far as he is concerned, his life is ruined.

Afterwards we met a social worker who belongs to the local Baptist Church. She wanted us to visit an elderly lady born in 1933 (sorry for anyone born that year that doesn't consider one's self to be elderly, this lady was). Her name was Maria and she took care of her mentally handicapped teen-age niece and nephew. She had nearly nothing in terms of earthly possessions but she loved God and the relatives in her care. She too accepted Jesus in her heart.

After Maria we went to visit the social worker's sister's family. They were Orthodox, strongly opinionated in the case of her nephew who taught at the finance and business institute in Chernivtsi. The two of them got into a loud discussion that even without the translator, was clear that it had started long ago, and this was just the latest on the subject of religion.

After he got up and left I tried to explain some things, both historical and Biblical, but the social worker kept interrupting usually with the thought on a totally different tangent. Afterwards, Olga told me she was ready to throw up her hands and quit, the woman was speaking so far and changing subjects almost as quickly. The social worker is a strong Christian, but when it comes to witnessing to her immediately family the battle lines have been set in stone. The rest of the family listened and responded well, but they never made a decision.

Today, I went back to Koteleve, and preached and sang at the local Baptist Church which had about two dozen in attendance. The service lasted a good two hours.

After the service and a quick snack at the church we went to the house of Vasily and Maria Lysak, an elderly couple unable to attend church due to their health and physical condition. Vasily is a former pastor. The deacon who went with us encouraged me to tell about my sermon, so I gave a shorted bare-bones version, which was about the thief on the cross (my solo is also the song "Thief" made popular by Third Day).

He had tears in his eyes throughout the visit and was so happy that he had visitors, particularly one from America who wanted to talk about Jesus.

Next we visited a couple where the man was suffering from cancer. Both were Orthodox. They understood and agreed with everything, but did not pray for salvation.

The next couple was an older couple, both suffering from physical ailments. Their names are Gregory and Yevgenia. Both were saved. Pray for them.

After the third visit we returned to the church for lunch - a vinegar-based slaw with cucumbers and tomatoes along with stewed potatoes. With the meal finished I got a chance to answer some questions from the Pastor Petro Dzetaryk, deacon Vitaly Kishlar and the local coordinator Oleg Lamba.

After lunch I thought we were finished because only three names or addresses had been mentioned when requests were made at the end of the morning service. It turns out the pastor had two more spots in mind — the homes of two of his sons, both who had grown up in and around the church, but neither had made a profession of faith.

At the first house we met with son Ivan and his wife Marina. Another brother Yuri also arrived early on and sat and listened. I told the story of how my father wanted me to play basketball, and asked me one time why I didn't practice. While I don't actually remember saying this, he repeatedly claimed later that I said I didn't wanted to play basketball because he wanted me to play basketball. I thought that maybe some of the reluctance by the preacher's son, was in part simply due to the fact that his father was a preacher.

Whatever I said and Olga translated managed to get through. With the Holy Spirit encouraging them, all three prayed for forgiveness and to ask Jesus to be their lord and Savior.

Then we went next door and spoke to another one of the brothers, Petro and his wife Natasha, along with another neighbor Raisa. There all three made decisions for Christ.

With just three minutes until the evening service was to start, we left in the preacher's car for the church. Since the service can't start until the preacher arrives, we weren't technically late. I played and sang my new song, No Matter What Happens, and then found out I was definitely supposed to preach. I started with the barest notes of a sermon I had started a couple of months ago and ended up preaching on Psalms 118.

Overall it was a good day and I'm exhausted. Others are beginning to return back to the hotel. As I get updates and time to get to the computer I will add them. Mom and Oleta's interpreter Wally blew out a tire tonight while they were coming back to the city. He hit a pothole. They had a good day as well.

Second Baptist Group Ready to Leave

2010-07-07T16:50:00.000-05:00

They're calling for us to board the plane. Here's the picture of the group from Second Baptist.

Got to go. Bye.

Hour To Boarding

2010-07-07T16:32:00.000-05:00

We're sitting at Gate M1, all 15 of us, just waiting for the call to board our flight out of Chicago. The two from Texas and the one from Alabama all arrived safely on their flights and met us in front of the LOT Airlines counter.

Only problems so far is my camera stopped working sometime between yesterday afternoon and today. It was only two weeks old.

Our flight LO2 is scheduled to take off at 5:25 p.m. and arrived local time in Warsas at 9:50 a.m. The overall flight goes 9 hours 25 minutes on a Boeing 767-300/300ER aircraft. We cross seven time zones to Poland.

We take LO765 out of Warsaw at 11:50 a.m. tomorrow to Lviv, Ukraine. That flight is just an hour long, and lands at 1:50 p.m. in Ukraine. We add another time zone on that flight.

Click on the following link to check our flight status. Track Flight Status for (LO2) Polskie Linie Lotnicze 2

Today's The Day

2010-07-06T07:52:00.001-05:00

It's time to stop laughing and finish packing. We're leaving in five hours.

The Second Baptist Bus rolls out at 1 p.m. this afternoon on the first leg of the 2010 Ukraine Mission Trip. There's eight of us from Second going. We'll pick up another four from First Baptist Du Quoin up in West City. Our goal today is Monee, Illinois, just outside the Chicago metro area.

Tomorrow we'll meet three others at O'Hare before we fly to Warsaw.

The picture by the way is Sandy Gibbons, one of the first-timers going this year. Her husband seems to think she has no sense of humor. She was just giddy with excitement Sunday morning when I tried to get a photo for her testimony handout.

I obviously couldn't use this one on that, but it was too good to not use at all.

Forecast Good for Travel This Week

2010-07-05T16:33:00.002-05:00

Let's pray the church bus air conditioning continues to work over the next couple of days. It worked last week for the youth going to New Camp in Tennessee.

Hot humid weather is forecast for Illinois Tuesday and Wednesday with a chance of thunderstorms Wednesday. However, skies are supposed to be just mostly cloudy when we're scheduled to fly out of Chicago O'Hare.

As far as our flights Thursday, we scheduled to land in Warsaw, Poland, Thursday morning. The forecast there is for clear skies all day. Another flight takes us to Lviv, Ukraine, that afternoon where we should avoid the "morning shower in spots" that's forecast.

From there we take a bus to Chernivtsi. It's supposed to rain there the next few days but end with "a thunderstorm in the afternoon" on Thursday when we're on the bus. That's about the same weather as we had two years ago.

And after spending spending a week sweating buckets at New Camp where it seem to stay in the high 90s most of the time, it's going to be so nice to go someplace where the high Thursday is supposed to be just 70.

On our full day of rest Friday it's just supposed to be 76. It will warm up to the low to mid 80s by Sunday with lows at night in the 60s. That weather pattern should continue throughout next week.

The next chance of rain is Tuesday night and Wednesday morning.

Planning Meeting Set Next Tuesday

2010-06-16T14:09:00.003-05:00

There will be a Ukraine Mission Trip Meeting Tuesday, June 22, 2010 at 6:00 p.m. at Ryan's in Marion. If you can't attend the meeting, please let Brother Bob know at the church.

Exchange Rates Looking Good for Trip

2010-05-12T21:03:00.002-05:00

For most of our past mission trips this decade the exchange rate has been about 5 Hyrvnia to $1. Today it's 7.9 to 8 Hyrvnia to a dollar.

While that helps our purchasing power, when gas is up so is their costs to import. We've also noticed that prices have increased over the last few trips. What used to be dirt cheap is now just inexpensive.

For more information on Ukraine's currency and to see more pictures of their notes in circulation, check out the Wikipedia article.

Lunch is about 25 Hyrvnia according to some sources online so figure $3 to $4 and the current exchange rates.

Poland uses the Zloty as their currency. Currently the rate is about 3 to a dollar, though we won't have many places to spend money in Warsaw other than the gift shops in the tourist/historic district downtown and at the airport. All of those places will take credit cards.

Mission Trip Planning Meeting Thursday

2010-02-07T17:09:00.002-06:00

Any one interested in learning more about the upcoming 2010 Ukraine Mission Trip are invited to a planning meeting Thursday, Feb. 11, 2010, at Golden Corral in Carbondale, Illinois.

We're meeting there as a halfway point between the churches in Marion and DuQuoin. Hope to see you. If you can't make it and are still interested please contact Second Baptist Church in Marion.

Ukraine 2010 Dates Set

2009-09-01T14:31:00.003-05:00

The 2010 Ukraine Mission Trip is set for Wednesday, July 7, through Sunday, July 18, next summer.

Sponsored again by Second Baptist Church in Marion, Illinois, next year's mission will include a new component: NewCamp Ukraine!

The youth camp will include staff and youth from American churches who participate in NewCamp Ministries each summer at Dayton, Tennessee. Joe Wagner, director of NCM is pastor now of First Baptist Church of DuQuoin, Illinois, and has been joining us in Ukraine since 2001.

Next year may be the biggest group yet. If you feel like the Lord is calling you to participate, let us know. We need commitments by the end of next week in order to reserve plane tickets.

If interested, contact Bob Wagner, pastor of Second Baptist.

Leave at Noon, Arrive after 3

2008-07-20T06:45:00.001-05:00

Our return flight is scheduled to leave Warsaw at 12:10 p.m. local time and arrive in Chicago at 3:15 p.m. It looks like a short flight, but we're flying against the Earth's rotation. It's actually 10 hours 5 minutes if I did the math right.

It's flight LO0001 on a Boeing 767-300.

160 Decisions for Christ

2008-07-19T15:58:00.003-05:00

According to the figures compiled by Brother Bob there were around 160 decisions made by Ukrainians this past week to accept Jesus Christ as their personal Saviour.

While Larry Avery and Bettie Dugger saw the largest and most impressive outpouring of the Holy Spirit with all of the decisions made in the villages where they worked on the northwestern edge of Chernivtsi, all of the teams who went out on home visits saw immediate results.

What won't be known for some time will be the fruits of the seeds planted this past week.

Dealing with the youth this week I was disappointed in not seeing immediate results, particularly when I found out that we were going to be dealing with kids more than teenagers and young adults. I haven't helped with Vacation Bible School since I took part in it as a kid myself.

Needless to say they nearly wore us out, especially the imp on the left of this picture from some of the kids from Anadoly, a small village downriver from Khotyn and about an hour away from Chernivtsi.

We were there most of the day on Monday and Tuesday, playing games, teaching songs, and just generally telling kids about God. It wasn't called Vacation Bible School, but that's the closest description if take a normal 4-hour VBS schedule and triple it to 12 hours.

On the previous Friday and Saturday we went to the home of Brother Simon, one of the assistant pastors at First Baptist Church in Chernivtsi. His family was hosting the equivalent of a Backyard Bible Club in his garage with games at a nearby park down the street.

Like I mentioned earlier, I was disappointed at first when I learned that we had missed the week of youth camps and would be present for a week of kid camps. I didn't feel like what we were doing was as important as the other teams.

No matter how many times Jesus' words kept flowing through my mind - "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these (Luke 18:16 NIV)" - I still didn't see the connection until we all started comparing notes on the van ride to Lviv yesterday.

Oleta Arnold told of a visit she and my mother Betty Musgrave made to some friends of Brother Simon a day or so after we worked with the kids at his house. After witnessing to the family, including the two kids, repented and accepted Christ.

Later she asked the man of the house who had not wanted to sit down long enough to listen, why he finally did and made the decision he made. His answer was surprising. It was hearing the songs about Jesus and God his children had come home singing that they had learned from us and Brother Simon's children.

Young Adults Sing in Khotyn

2008-07-19T15:28:00.003-05:00

The team that has been working with young people this week spent Tuesday evening in Khotyn, Ukraine, which is an ancient city about an hour away from Chernivtsi on the Dniester River.

It's best known for its fortress along the river which we visited last year and had a chance to visit again with the new members of our team on Tuesday. This was the second time for Joe and I at the church at Khotyn, pronounced Ho-Teen.

When they talk about youth in the Baptist churches of this part of Ukraine, they're talking about anyone up to around 30. Most of the people we met with Tuesday night were college age.

Every group can sing. Here they sing a praise song that's native to Ukraine (or Russia). Often times it one we know. Below is one of theirs.

Back in Poland

2008-07-19T10:56:00.002-05:00

Our flight out of Lviv was an hour late, but the plane ride was comfortable and smooth. We're now back in Warsaw staying at the Radisson.

Warsaw is a beautiful modern city, and I'm not just saying this because there's free high-speed internet in the hotel room.

We're off now for a walking tour of the old city and dinner at 8 p.m. (two more hours). I plan on uploading some videos and photos later tonight along with an update of our (the Lord's) success on this trip.

Village Update

2008-07-17T02:08:00.002-05:00

Jay and Larry Ditty returned yesterday from the mountains so I'm told, but I actually haven't seen them yet.

Larry Avery and Betty Dugger are supposed to arrive around noon today from the village(s) they've been at this past week. I just saw Oleta in the hotel lobby and she said there has been 80 to 90 decisions made in the villages where Larry and Betty have been working.

My team worked at the main camp yesterday at Boyen, ate dinner at our interpreter's house and traveled to another village about an hour away for church services and a meeting with some of the youth.

Tonight we should all be together and I'll be able to get better updates myself. I haven't talked to Bob in days, but we've passed on the streets at least twice.

Aubrey is developing quite a fan club. Some of the same guys from Tuesday night came to the church we were at last night and for some reason I don't think it was for my signing.

Update from Chernivtsi

2008-07-16T01:44:00.002-05:00

Sorry for the delay in any updates, but my team has been getting back to the hotel each night between 11:30 p.m. and 12:30 a.m.

My team includes Joe Wagner and Kara Baker from DuQuoin and Aubrey Bogle and Matt Davis from Marion.

They've had us busy with younger children at day camps which are kind of like Vacation Bible Schools, except they run about 12 hours a day. Thankfully, we don't have to be there when they start.

We've been operating mostly in the Khotin area which is about an hour away from Chernivtsi.

We're definitely more spread out this this trip. Jay Ditty and his father Larry are in the mountains at a village. Larry Avery from Andulusia and Betty Dugger are at another village not in the mountain (I believe - I actually haven't seen them since Saturday), and Derek from Poland by way of Texas is at another village.

Matt's mother Virginia, my mother Betty and Oleta Arnold have been busy here in the city and Brother Bob has been around just about everywhere where we have people.

Everybody is fine. The food is great (both traditional Ukrainian cuisine and the three pizza restaurants we've tried as well).

My team is getting ready to take off here in a few minutes at 10 a.m. local time. We go back to one of the camps when to a church service tonight.

Keep us in your prayers. We have two more days here in Chernivtsi before we leave for Lviv on Friday where we will fly out of on Saturday.

Welcome to the Cheremosh

2008-07-10T12:01:00.000-05:00

These aren't the greatest images but simply the best I could find online.

This is the Hotel Cheremosh in Chernivtsi - our base of operations in the city so far for every mission trip since 1993. It's located on the south end of the city — "not far" from the city center as they advertise, but certainly not close.

It's 11 stories with 326 rooms. Each room as a TV, phone and private bathroom. Other amenities that it offers but which we've never used except the currency exchange is a hairdressers' salon, sauna, post office and secure parking service.

Sometime between our trip two summers ago and last fall it opened a business center on the main floor with high-speed internet which I plan on using to update this blog.

Here's the lobby. The front desk is on the right and the bank of elevators down at the end of the hall.

You can barely see the open staircase on the right side of the picture. That goes up to the in-house travel agency and the currency exchange which overlooks the lobby below.

Between the stairs and the front desk is a hall that goes back to the business center.

Here's the type of rooms that we've used every trip. As you can tell they are pretty basic. They also (usually) include a small refrigerator as well as a private bathroom.

We're cheap and we get the basic rooms. The hotel does provide better accommodations, though they are just as dated.

When I was here last fall I was told they were upgrading some of the rooms and trying to go from a three star hotel to a four star hotel. They even had a red carpet running up the front entrance and the staff were in new uniforms. It also seemed that there were more of them who spoke or at least understood English.

I'll leave with you with one last picture. This is the pool, which I had never seen until I ran across this picture.

We Have Arrived!

2008-07-10T11:55:00.000-05:00

We have arrived.

Here's the satellite view of the city.

Publish Postsrc="http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&s=AARTsJrZpEjjGFlXAw_4K2Kjw0TF4SLb7A&msa=0&msid=111356353956914323080.0004503466718f8a47c27&ll=48.283079,25.944214&spn=0.068539,0.137329&t=h&z=12&output=embed">
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Bus Ride to Chernivtsi

2008-07-10T06:05:00.001-05:00

Here's the route we're taking from Lviv to Chernivtsi. It's around 190 miles and should take between four and five hours, which is less than half the time it's taken us in the past to drive from Kiev to Chernivtsi.

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We've Arrived in Lviv

2008-07-10T05:55:00.000-05:00

Here's a picture of Lviv International Airport I found on Wikipedia. It was taken four years ago, but the exterior still pretty much looks the same.

I flew into this airport last fall. While the terminal is physically impressive it's certainly not designed for the 21st Century.

They're in the process of expanding the airport with plans to triple its capacity from around 110,000 passengers a year in 2005 to 330,000 passengers a year when it's completed, according to Wikipedia.

Here's the satellite view of the terminal.

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Leaving the European Union for Ukraine

2008-07-10T02:30:00.000-05:00

Our flight to Lviv, Ukraine is scheduled to take off from the airport in Warsaw at 11:25 a.m. (which will feel like 7:25 a.m. Illinois time) and land at 1:45 p.m. Ukraine time which is an hour ahead of Warsaw.

It should be a hour and 25 minute journey on flight LO765.

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