Short Report on the week in Ukraine:

It was a brief introduction to an Eastern Slavic culture and very interesting. Steve Seibert organized and facilitated the whole trip and all the events. Several things happened in and around his Church. His pastor, Dema, was very welcoming and helpful with translating some of the meetings. I could preach in the Church on Sunday and after the sermon a young man decided to be a Christian. It was very precious. On Saturday we had a 3 hour teaching on Apologetics for the Church. I saw some lovely relationships and fellowship in the Church.

Posters attracted 45-50 people to two public meetings on worldviews in a room rented by the Church and one in a public library. Mostly non-Church people came, which was encouraging. 2 Orthodox priests came to the first meeting. Many of the people were committed to nothing and vaguely interested in everything ( as in Athens as visited by Paul?). The Orthodox Church is hardly one Church, with four Patriarchates functioning in Ukraine. They vary in practice and tolerance. There seems to be a rather widespread folk religious underlying the surface culture. In it women use eggs for healing, praying and causing the sickness to enter from the person to an uncooked egg, which when broken open is black inside, showing that it has received the evil. Some Patriarchates seem to tolerate this kind of thing more than others. There are many waiting for my next visit, which should be, Lord Willing, in June.

The economy is a bit poorer than in the West, but there is a wealthy class with big houses, big cars, beautiful fur and leather clothing. The culture functions on relationships rather than on any concept of Truth, law or objectivity. It is East enough that people do not say "no" to keep from losing face. "Yes" must serve for "yes, no and maybe" and so is overworked and suffers a severe meaning fatigue. For example, we called a taxi for 6:30 and the dispatcher said "yes" although all the taxis were booked. We waited until 6:45 and a taxi pulled up to the curve. The driver was someone who knew Steve, had heard his call on the radio, knew no one was available and came to take us himself, probably abandoning another and unknown client. It was the relationship with Steve that made the situation work for us. This way of living requires a certain amount of adjustment, which I’m not sure should be made. Many questions.

In 30 minutes I will leave for Bratislava and a week of teaching there with side trips to Nitra, Banska Bistrica and Budapest. Thank you very much for your prayers.

Yours in Christ,

Ellis

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Copyright © 2006 Ellis Potter.