This is Rob. Cherie wanted to make sure I put that, however you will know by all of the spelling errors. Sunday evening we went into the city center with Nina (host mom), and her daughter, Svielana and her husband Vadim, and their son Daniel(5 years old). Vadim speaks English extremely well. This was such a blessing as he filled us in while we toured all around. Vadim has a fantastic knowledge of Ukraine history. He shared so many hardships the people have gone through. Gaining insight on all of the beautiful churches and buildings were great, but getting to know Valim and his family are priceless.
Today is an awesome example of getting to know the people. After touring with our church group to see the oldest church in this part of the world and checking out the monks in the caves (very interesting), we went to a church far outside the city in a small farming community that serves people with disabilities. None of us were prepared for the impact this would have on us. We started out with a meal (the forth meal of the day and only 3:00; everyone passed parts over to my plate where somehow I had to hide it all under my napkin). Pastor Alexander shared such genuine compassion for these people as I have never witnessed before. He brought up five individuals and their families as we prayed over them. He shared personal attributes and incredible hardships for each one. There wasn't a dry eye among us. Dave D said his eyes were "sweating". There was Litha and her special needs daughter that played the piano for us, Sergei is blind and wanted us to anoint him with oil so he could see, a widowed grandmother taking care of an autistic young son, an alcoholic son, and a granddaughter from a son who died. You could have titled this perspective.
We ended the evening back "home" having fun learning more Russian words from Nina and Sergei and eating another meal. Of course Cherie has already mastered some of the written language...compared to me anyway.
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