March 2015
Homeward Bound
01 March 2015 @ 14:27
Sitting in Frankfurt Airport waiting for my flight home. What an incredible journey from Moheliv Podilsky to the Boryspol Airport outside of Kiev which started yesterday after taking Archie an Ruslan's children to school. Yes it was Saturday and they had school. The government does not have the money to heat the schools on the coldest days so they close on those days and make it up using Saturdays.
Our first stop was in Vinnitsya where we had coffee with Ruslan's brother, Roma. It was the first time that got to meet Roma's family. He got married and they had a son during my four year absence from Ukraine. A beautiful family and Roma's son quickly took to the crazy old guy in the group.
From there we traveled on to Bila Tserkva where we treated my very first Ukrainian host family, the Zozulenko's, to dinner. What a wonderful time with this family who opened their home to me in 1998 and treated me as family. Olex and Tamara and their son Oleg and I sat down and started to talk like we'd never been apart. The father, Olex, is battling cancer and beginning a two week course of chemotherapy tomorrow. We shared an incredible time of laughter, tears and prayer together. Please join me in praying for my dear brother and his family. Our hosts from our first night in Ukraine during this visit also came by to see us off. A very emotional time for me as we left that city and there was more to come.
We traveled on toward Kiev where we visited with a friend, Dima, who I first met four years ago when we traveled together from Ukraine to Poland to participate in the 'March of the Living' that goes from Auschwitz to Birkenau. He and his wife Dina work with Christian's For Israel. Dina is originally from the Crimea region now occupied by Russia and both shared the difficulties people have been experiencing due to the conflict in the east. My heart just breaks as I see the pain which is visible in the faces of my Ukrainian friends. Dima and Dina let us catch about 4 hours of sleep there before finally traveling to Kiev.
So here I sit in Frankfurt Airport. Betsy and Dickon were on a different flight from here and have already departed. One more flight to go for me. Thank you for following these updates and for your prayers. God truly used these two weeks in a powerful way. I'll post more pix and videos when I get home and get a bit of rest. Please continue to pray for peace in Ukraine.
Our first stop was in Vinnitsya where we had coffee with Ruslan's brother, Roma. It was the first time that got to meet Roma's family. He got married and they had a son during my four year absence from Ukraine. A beautiful family and Roma's son quickly took to the crazy old guy in the group.
From there we traveled on to Bila Tserkva where we treated my very first Ukrainian host family, the Zozulenko's, to dinner. What a wonderful time with this family who opened their home to me in 1998 and treated me as family. Olex and Tamara and their son Oleg and I sat down and started to talk like we'd never been apart. The father, Olex, is battling cancer and beginning a two week course of chemotherapy tomorrow. We shared an incredible time of laughter, tears and prayer together. Please join me in praying for my dear brother and his family. Our hosts from our first night in Ukraine during this visit also came by to see us off. A very emotional time for me as we left that city and there was more to come.
We traveled on toward Kiev where we visited with a friend, Dima, who I first met four years ago when we traveled together from Ukraine to Poland to participate in the 'March of the Living' that goes from Auschwitz to Birkenau. He and his wife Dina work with Christian's For Israel. Dina is originally from the Crimea region now occupied by Russia and both shared the difficulties people have been experiencing due to the conflict in the east. My heart just breaks as I see the pain which is visible in the faces of my Ukrainian friends. Dima and Dina let us catch about 4 hours of sleep there before finally traveling to Kiev.
So here I sit in Frankfurt Airport. Betsy and Dickon were on a different flight from here and have already departed. One more flight to go for me. Thank you for following these updates and for your prayers. God truly used these two weeks in a powerful way. I'll post more pix and videos when I get home and get a bit of rest. Please continue to pray for peace in Ukraine.