Monday May 21 at 2:30 pm
We have internet again after it was off for the weekend!
Amber writes…
Some of our friends that we met here at the seminary took us around Odessa. Their names are Maranda and Vasya. He is from Ukraine. She is from the US. She was our translator kind’ve because he doesn’t know a lot of English. Vasya speaks Hungarian, Russian, and Ukrainian. We ate at McDonald’s for lunch. We got to ride on a bus. They took us to a beach by the Black Sea. There were a lot of seashells in the sand and in the water. After the beach we stopped at the grocery store for a few things and then headed back to the seminary. I can’t wait to come home. I miss you all. We have had a lot of interesting adventures here but this is only one of them.
One thing I do like about Ukraine is that there are a lot of old buildings here that have some history about them. One thing that I don’t like is that cars sometimes don’t slow down for people when they are crossing the street. I am curious to know how old you have to be to be allowed to drive. I am having fun here though. There are a lot of neat sites to see. My mom and I have taken about 900 pictures so far on this trip and we still have about two weeks left. So we will be taking many more. We have also taken video of things. I will continue to tell you more about our adventures that we endure everyday. This is the end of the Amber Chronicles for now.
Some of our friends that we met here at the seminary took us around Odessa. Their names are Maranda and Vasya. He is from Ukraine. She is from the US. She was our translator kind’ve because he doesn’t know a lot of English. Vasya speaks Hungarian, Russian, and Ukrainian. We ate at McDonald’s for lunch. We got to ride on a bus. They took us to a beach by the Black Sea. There were a lot of seashells in the sand and in the water. After the beach we stopped at the grocery store for a few things and then headed back to the seminary. I can’t wait to come home. I miss you all. We have had a lot of interesting adventures here but this is only one of them.
One thing I do like about Ukraine is that there are a lot of old buildings here that have some history about them. One thing that I don’t like is that cars sometimes don’t slow down for people when they are crossing the street. I am curious to know how old you have to be to be allowed to drive. I am having fun here though. There are a lot of neat sites to see. My mom and I have taken about 900 pictures so far on this trip and we still have about two weeks left. So we will be taking many more. We have also taken video of things. I will continue to tell you more about our adventures that we endure everyday. This is the end of the Amber Chronicles for now.
Janell writes...
On Saturday, May 19, 2007 we spent the day seeing a little more of Odessa. We met Miranda and Vasya here at the seminary. He is a Ukrainian student and here for two weeks. His wife is from Northwestern Iowa near Sioux Center. What a blessing they have been to us. He found the bus connections to get us around and Miranda did the translating so we could converse. He is a pastor in a town about the size of Mitchell in western Ukraine. They have been helping us understand the differences between Ukraine and U.S. and of course getting some laughs at our adventures and naivety.
They got us to McDonalds and ordered for us. It is just not as easy as you think. You can’t get Diet Coke with the meal deal, only regular Coke! What’s with that?! It only comes in a bottle, is really Coke Light, and must be ordered separately. Their ice cream sundaes come in an oversized cone as a cup. We then went to the beach on the Black Sea. There were quite a few people out swimming and laying out on the cloudy day. The temp was maybe 70 degrees. We walked along the water and Morgan collected lots of shells. It was just a nice relaxing day visiting with our new friends and learning about each other’s ministries.
Jon spent the evening working on his sermon for Sunday morning. I spent it trying to find internet but with no luck.
On Sunday, May 21, 2007 we went to our sister church. Good News Baptist Church in Fontanka averages about 125 people. They started in 1998 with twelve people. A house near the Black Sea was donated to them to meet in but when landslides into the sea threatened that building, they had to find a new location. They found a spot and old building for $11,000 a few years ago and have been building since then. The land is now worth a half million dollars. Land in Fontanka has sky rocketed and there are many new homes being built. That is worse than California I think. So the church has lots of potential in a growing suburb.
Their church services are a little different. They sing a few songs and have a sermon. Then they excuse the children for Sunday school and have the next two sermons with some songs in between. The service is two hours. The Christians here take their faith seriously because they have to. Evangelicals are viewed as a cult due to Soviet propaganda. Things are changing slowly amongst the younger generation.
The people there were very friendly and welcoming. We got another sampling of good Ukrainian food after church. Glenn from Louisiana also rode to church with us and gave the second sermon. He comes to the seminary every two years and teaches a course. His hometown was hit by Hurricane Rita. It hit right after Katrina. I forgot about that one because of all the coverage of Katrina. He told us about areas that were devastated by that hurricane. He lives 100 miles inland and had quite a bit of damage.
We spent the rest of the day reading, playing games, and eating a supper of beef jerky and power bars. Last night we watched a DVD of Dragnet and The Rifleman and ate dry bagged popcorn.
Jon also had the opportunity to call home to Northridge Baptist Church and give them a live update during both morning worship services. It is so good to know that there are many people praying for us on this journey.
