Today we visited the Mala Kamyanka Village. This is a location where the Church has been focusing efforts to assist in the schools and community. When we first began working in this village we were actually seen as “devils.” That perspective was fueled by a number of factors with the primary one being the village priests who did not want to lose their control over the villagers.
It has been several years and many activities but that perspective has now changed. Now we find a warm and welcoming environment. Several of the villagers have attended services and no longer are we feared as “devils.”
The benevolent efforts have provided the means to overcome the initial perceptions. Those who support financially, work in the freezing temps and the scorching humidity to pick up, sort, clean, label and pack are the ones responsible for helping this perception change! THANK YOU!
I was shown the village’s appreciation by the school children presenting a special performance for me. They dressed in the traditional culture clothing of Ukraine. Those who did not have the traditional clothes dressed in their best!
After the presentation I was able to address the school and express the love and greetings from Christians in the USA and talk about how we loved them and wanted to be partners.
After things closed out at the school I was taken on a tour of some gardens where seeds had been distributed and the plants were just beginning to sprout. We have more garden seeds that have arrived from Knob Creek, KY and Elizabethtown, KY. These will be distributed this week and before the weekend is over the seeds will be well on their way to germination and harvest will feed families through the winter!
Our evening Bible study continues the study we began last time in the Book of Colossians. We had a good crowd and great attention for tonight’s class. Just being in fellowship with these brethren is uplifting. We were thrilled to see more visiting the classes.
The congregation continues working with those displaced. They assist them as much as possible and then invite them to join with them in Bible study and worship. They do not pressure those to come and make it clear there are NO conditions in receiving the relief aid—if they need assistance they receive it regardless of their attitude toward spiritual matters. It is encouraging to see a good percentage that are interested.
Immediately after evening classes we had to go to the storage and load a truck that had come to get some of the items we shipped on the last container out of Judsonia. I wish the Judsonia crew could have been here to help and to hear the wonderful gratitude expressed! There were also loaded 100 boxes of the dry food mix that the British Columbia, Canada group had shipped for us (more on this later). These relief supplies will find their way into the feeding kitchens and camps of the displaced and some even have routes opened by which we can get some relief supplies into the war zone where many innocents are starving.
Tomorrow we will go to Sinatin to visit and follow up on distribution efforts. Then we are invited to attend a media event as some of the relief commodities are unloaded.
Please continue praying for us!
John L. Kachelman, Jr.
Ivano-Frankivsk, Ukraine
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