9/9/09 TWINK

Roger's Recovery
Roger is coming through his recovery quite well. He is down to one pain pill a day, and eager to get back to work. Today he will conduct at his first rehearsal with the KSOC. He will not do the whole rehearsal. Matthew, Sergey, and Vika will also be conducting. But this is an important first step as he prepares for a concert for October 28th.

Roger is also scheduled to preach at St. Paul's Church this Sunday. His sermon topic will be on The Creation, and parts of Haydn's Creation will be sung and played by the KSOC. The hardest thing for him is to walk too far, and also to hold his head high. His neck wants to bend down, but he does not want to end up looking like a cartoon character at the conducting podium. I guess he will need to develop some new muscles.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Diane's Work with the Widows
Last Saturday Diane began her Bible study series, "The Life of Jesus" with 140 widows and pensioners at the Bieli Dom. She is also leading the Stephens Ministry. We have forty pensioners, three church members, three choir members, and two orchestra players who deliver food to 60 homebound widows.

Diane is visiting these homebound persons with their Stephens minister and her translator Natasha Shevchenko two days a week. On Monday she visited Zoya Podolnaya, who is one of the ladies featured in her book, The Last Flowers Before Winter. Zoya is 82 and looked as cute as a button, wearing her robe, earrings, and necklace. Diane took some seedless grapes to her, a treat only recently in the markets of Kiev. They reminisced about the war, the memories of Solzhinitsen, and looked at her medals, which she held in her hands.

Evgenia Lonskaya, who brings her food, is very loving to Zoya. They have known each other a long time, and Evgenia's mother was one of Zoya's best friends. Zoya knows that she will be in Heaven someday, but she asks for more days on this earth, and prays every morning and evening. In closing, Evgenia prayed with the group, and then Diane prayed, and all hearts were full of joy.

On Wednesday, Diane and Natasha met Ludmila Kispitskaya, at the end of the metro line and took a trolleybus three stops to a sanatorium for retired military personnel, where Nadia Pobilets, lay in bed with a broken hip. Nadia is very weak, but she smiled so sweetly to meet Diane again, after what seems a long time. The facility was very clean, though very Soviet, and Nadia had a private room. Ludmila comes several times a week. She and Nadia had known each other many years ago. Then when Nadia got sick, Ludmila started helping her with food. Nadia shared Christ with Ludmila, and she became a Christian.

Ludmila started attending church and Diane's Bible classes, and then joined St. Paul's Church. So Ludmila feels very connected to Nadia, as friend, and spiritual mother.

Ludmila's relatives have all died. Nadia has relatives but they do not take care of her or even visit her. They are waiting for her to die, so says Natasha. Diane brought Nadia a small piece of dessert cake with honey and poppy seeds. They prayed together, and then a friend who used to work with Nadia came to visit, so we ended the visit. Ludmila, who has high blood pressure, said at our departure, "My heart felt like a stone this morning, but now that you have come with me to visit Nadia, I feel light as air, and so very happy." So I think these visits, not ony help the homebound person, but also the person who cares for them, as we celebrate being sisters in Jesus' family.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Matthew's Beginnings

Matthew and his family have been in Kiev for three weeks now. Matthew is gradually picking up the reins of leadership meant for him and forming plans for the future with Roger and the MMK staff in Kiev. Every morning he leads the staff in devotions in Apartment 11. This is very convenient because he now lives in Apt. 12, just next door. He is involved in planning the worship services with Vika, Sergey Golubnichy, and Sergey Basarab. Last Sunday, Matthew conducted the choir and congregation in two great hymns, "A Mighty Fortress" and "How Great Thou Art." He also conducted the offertory, "For the Beauty of the Earth," by John Rutter.

Matthew's classes at the Conservatory have begun. There are six students in his conducting class, one of them being Sergey Golubnichy, his friend and fellow conductor. His teacher Mr. Vlasenko, conducts operas at the National Opera Theater, and has no music as he watches his students conduct various pieces, yet he knows every entrance of every instrument. A brillant man! Matthew is still waiting on the paper work to attend his other classes. Hopefully that will be soon.

Plans for the 2010 American tour are taking shape. The group that travels next year may be downsized in number, but not in quality. This will make touring more affordable, and housing and fees more accessible. More about this in future TWINKs.


----------------------------------------------------------------------

Notes from Tricia
What a joy it is for us to greet you! Matthew, Callie, Elias, Jacob, and I have been in Kiev a little over 3 weeks now and are starting to get into the swing of things. We arrived, utterly exhausted, to the nearly empty apartment where Roger and Diane had called home for many years. We lugged in our 11 fifty lb. suitcases, 6 carry-on's, and 2 strollers and dumped them in the new large open space of the living room. The apartment has undergone quite a transformation in order to accommodate a family of 5. We are anxious to finish the remodeling before our container arrives in just a few short weeks. We have been able to "borrow" from the office apartment next door, 3 couches which we use for sleeping, several tables which we are using for not only dining but as desks and makeshift dressers, also kitchen dishes, pots and pans, and several rugs to cover the holes in the floor. They have been gracious by sharing with us everything we need until our container gets here.

It took about a week to get used to the 7 hour time difference (not any fun with kids who did not understand that even though it feels like the middle of the day it is really the middle of the night and you have to go to sleep!) Every 30 minutes one of the children would poke us in the face saying "I am hungry" or "I am not sleepy" or "Can I have a banana?" I think the first week we went through more the 2 dozen banansa! Getting accustom to the new foods, language, people, and apartment living has been challenging but we just keep looking at it as an adventure.

We started homeschooling Callie (also a new adventure) who is now in the first grade, we have about 2 hours in the middle of the day when both Elias and Jacob are napping so we use that time for her lessons. We hope to start her language lessons next week as well. Elias who is almost 3 doesn't really understand where in the world he is at this point. He keeps asking me for chicken nuggets and waffles, but fortunately he is a little more adventurous so we have been able to find some foods he will eat. Jacob who is only 4 1/2 months old is just happy to be with his family whatever country we are in.

Matt has begun his study with his professor but will have to wait until his documents have been fully processed before he can begin the rest of his classes. Once his documents arrive he will have classes Monday through Saturday, although we are hoping he can skip his English class on Tuesday. So with leading devotions at the office in the morning, classes, KSOC rehearsals, church and making room for family time, he goes to bed exhausted every night. My projects, besides teaching Callie, taking care of the kids and making a home for us, are getting to know the Ukrainians through a ministry of hospitality, and working on the children's ministries of St. Paul's church. We have already hosted several meals in our apartment and have enjoyed discovering new friends. We are working on adding a nursery for ages up to 4 along with a Sunday school class for ages 5-8. With these new classes we are encouraging young families to feel welcome in our church.

Please remember us in your prayers, especialy for health and safety of the children (Callie has already had a visit from the doctor due to a playground accident). They are a bit like Labrador puppies cooped up in an apartment all day, they can get a bit wild, and really need to find some friends that they can communicate with. We look forward to sharing more with you soon. ~ Matt, Tricia, Callie, Elias & Jacob