Life in the Ukraine.....

I have been in the Ukraine for 3 days now. I arrived on Friday and stayed in Kiev with Bogdan and Anya.

I moved on to work in Ukrainian God's Garage in Zhitomir on the Saturday, all day. Zhitomir is 2 hours drive from Kiev. The work in God's Garage was very cold but great to do. See the photographs below of Sasha, Pasha, Vashik who were working in God's Garage also. I've also included various views of the New God's Garage in Zhitomir. In some of them we  are putting in a doorway and putting up a stud wall.

On Saturday night we went on to the village where Max lives with his family. It is about a two hour drive from Pasha and Anya in Zhitomir. The roads are really bad in the Ukraine. We arrived at Max's and went for a sauna, Ukrainian style, very very hot. Max has a Sauna in his back garden which was occupied by club members and church leaders when we arrived. On the Sunday I preached in the baptist church where Max is pastor.I was one of 2 preachers and other giving words of encouragement. When we finished we then went on a pastoral visit to church member named Maria, who was 96. In the afternoon Pasha asked me to drive his family and him self back home, to Zhitomir this was nerve racking, craters in the road, mad Ukrainian drivers, driving for two hours in a LADA. Danger is my middle name, and I took on the challenge.  When we got to Zhitomir, Pasha declared that I was a good driver. Pasha then took me to a traditional baptist church for the evening service. There was about 400 attending. I could not understand a word but I could see it was traditional. This was Pasha and Svetta's home church.

The evening was rounded off in an Irish Bar, that had no Irish beer left. Newcastle brown ale was the best they had, we had a good night of listening to U2 and AC/DC while we talked about life, faith and God's Squad. A great evening together. Roll on the rest of the trip. I might not be able to access the internet for a couple of days, but I will blog again when I can. Stay tuned for the next instalment.