Women's Day

Yesterday was women's day, not to be confused with mothers day which they also celebrate in Ukraine. We started the day attending church services with Svetlana and her family and Oxana our friend and translator. The church we attended was the one that provides the Awana program for the Internate. Service was about 3 hours long, our children-all of them, also attended.the sermon was on Men taking responsibility for the leadership in the church and home, this was also the main point of the church we attended last Sunday. It is serious problem in the Ukraine to find good Godly men to stand up for the truth and for their family's. Following the service the men in the church went up front and danced for us while the praise band sang. They then presented us with homemade bouquets of purple flowers. As often happens Randi found a new friend at church. An elder woman, not much older then me, nicely dressed. She spent a good portion of the service trying to read Randi's bible and checking with her to see if she got it right. She also noticed Jessica missed out on the bouquets and made sure one of the "brothers" got it for her.

After church we went to a "Super" market, it had a market on the base floor, food and shops on the second floor and shops, a small arcade and bowling on the third. We went to lunch first, half of us eating Pizza and the other half "Mexican" defined as "Ukrainian Mexican" Jessica and I shared was looked like spare ribs, a bowl of potatoes, chicken and cheese and a chicken burrito with a paper thin tortilla, tomato and soft cheese, a beef burrito the same way and a bowl of almost American style chili. We then went bowling. We had to check our coats and bags and even those none bowlers had to change shoes.

When we finished bowling we sent all the kids back to the apartment via taxi and Richard and I Went with Svetlana and her husband Sasha to Church. We stopped first at a church that had a very small book store to look for bibles, they only had 2. I am trying to locate Ukrainian bibles to donate to the bible study groups as they are currently sharing 5, the bibles- hardback were roughly $3.00 in US currency.

Richard and I were fortunate during both services we attended to have a translator for us. We would have been content to just sit and worship but it was nice to understand what the message was.

The down side for me is that for the past 4 days I have been suffering with a major toothache, I really have no choice but to see a dentist tomorrow who will be one recommended by our axe wielding taxi driver. So all- please pray, a lot.