St. Patrick

At annual conference David and I ran into a friend, and fellow missionary, Patrick Whaley.  Patrick lives in Tennessee and he works with the  General Board of Global Mission’s (GBGM) Russian Initiative, which includes not only Russia, but Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia.  He spends most of his time in Russia, but at the Ukrainian annual conference we learned that his visa to Russia had been denied (they do that to Americans sometimes) and he was stuck in Ukraine for almost two months. 

Patrick and the bishop decided that Patrick could best serve the Church by making himself available to all the Ukrainian pastors for the next two months.  He would go to the different churches in Ukraine and 1) preach to give pastors a rest, 2) help them to further develop their programs, 3) work on discipleship, 4) answer questions about Methodism, and 5) just be an outside support.

The Lviv United Methodist Church was lucky enough to have Patrick all last week.  He arrived Monday morning on the 4:45am train from Uzghorod, and left on Thursday evening on the 9:30pm train to Chernivtsi.  During the week he met with Lubomir, the pastor, Ira, a lay leader, David and me.  Sometimes we met as a group, sometimes individually, and often he spent time just getting to know Lubomir and Ira.

They showed him around the city; they showed him their universities; they talked about their families; they shared where they are headed in life.  He really was able to talk and relate to them, and they enjoyed being heard.  Patrick was able to spend time getting to know Lubomir, Ira and their hearts before he sat down and talked about the ministry with them.  It was amazing to see how much that helped him to see their strengths, passions, weaknesses and desires.

Patrick talked about the vision of the church.  He talked about the big picture.  Patrick also talked about a mission statement and goals.  However, he didn’t forget about the small stuff and logistics also.  What time should the service should be?  What should it look like?  He talked about the alumni from the student ministry, inviting new people, small groups, worship, who would light the candles on Sunday, who would greet people on Sundays, Sunday School, the youth group.  We talked a lot.

And when I say Patrick talked, what I mean is that he lead a discussion, and really made Ira and Lubomir think about these questions and come up with answers that are relevant to the people in L’viv.  He did not answer the questions for them, he introduced topics, gave examples and really pushed them to think.  If the church in Lviv is going to grow and prosper, Ukrainians must be the ones to help accomplish this.  They know their context best.

Patrick’s week with us came and went quickly but we were still able to accomplish a lot while he was here.  It was a joy to be able to host another missionary for a week and learn from his experience, not only as a missionary, but as an experienced pastor.  Thank you Patrick for all that you did for us.

Sunday School with the Georgians

Earlier this year we wrote about Erika, Andriy, Ira and Valya attending the Russian Initiative in San Diego, CA.  The General Board of Global Missions (GBGM – our mission board) has a vested interest in Russia, including countries that were previously part of the Soviet Union.  The conference held in San Diego was to allow representatives from Russia, Ukraine, etc. to share with representatives from GBGM and other American churches about the establishment of the United Methodist Churches and the effect it is having on their individual lives and surrounding communities.   

While at this conference Erika, Andriy, Ira and Valya met a lot of people, shared some great experiences and formed some relationships that they wanted to share with their church body back in Lviv.  However, except for some pictures and stories it was hard to think of a way.  Then, Elise, a young women from a church in Georgia contacted our students.  She said that her Sunday School class was beginning a new study this summer using some new curriculum they had received from GBGM.  It is titled Young People Reviving Hope: Mission Education & Leadership Development Journal.  She invited our students to join in on the study using Skype.

For those of you reading this that are not familiar with Skype, it is one of those modern day innovations that makes communication between countries so much easier.  It’s a computer download that works like a telephone between computers and can also include a camera so you can see who you are talking with.  Elise invited our students to meet with them during their Sunday School hour, which is 5pm Lviv time.  Of course, doing anything across the world needs some adjustment time.  Our first week there was Skype confusion, the second week there was attendance confusion.  But this third week I think we are all finally on the same page and are ready to begin.

The curriculum begins with a discussion of the youth conference held in Brazil that talked about ‘Wesleyan Identity and Social Responsibility Leadership Development Seminar.’  The study beings with Youth in Mission including ’The Role of Youth Leadership Today’ and ‘Youth: Faith for Change.’  The second study is titled Wesleyan Identity: Holiness in Heart and In Life including ‘The Three Rises in Methodism,’ ‘Wesleyan Heritage: The Power of the People,’ and ‘The World Is My Parish.’  I am very excited about our students being introduced to John Wesley and his life teachings and theology.

And of course, talking with Americans via the internet is a great Sunday afternoon activity for university students.  The Isle of Hope United Methodist Church in Savannah, GA has found out how to have a true relationship with an overseas missional church plant that is both inviting, informative and non-threatening to all parties involved.  The technology of today allows these relationships to not only exist, but foster each other’s knowledge and growth in Christ.  

Ukraine-Moldova Annual Conference 2009

We just returned from Ukraine-Moldova Annual Conference 2009 in the wonderful city of Uzghorod.  It was our first time in the Za-Carpathian area, which is a little like Appalachia, and it was a great experience.  Not only  we were able to visit one of our largest and longest standing churches, in a village called Kaminetza, we also ate, hands down, the best soup we have had in Ukraine so far.  Still not quite sure what the name of it was and when we asked for the recipe we were told it would be too hard to recreate.  There was some sort of fat burning woodsy procedure involved.  

 

Woodsy Stew

If your familiar with the United Methodist Church, you will also know that Annual Conferece is a time for a lot of administration and sometimes personal changes.  This year we had much of both.  The largest change we will be undergoing this year will be that our fellow missionary, Rev. Bill Lovelace, will be transferring his 13 years of service as the District Superintendent to a Ukrainian.  This is a big step towards indigenous leadership and one that our Conference has been expecting.

As for Shannon and I, not a tremendous amount changed.  We did learn a lot about our church and we also learned a lot about the operation of our church.  Lubomir, our local pastor, was accepted as a candidate for ordination and will now undergo the intermediate period before ordination.  We are proud of Lubomir!

 

Kaminetza UMC

 

 

Lubomir and Bishop Vaxby

A Week of Firsts

Time has been flying by lately and I thought I might share a couple of “first” for the brief this week.

1. First Sermon at Pilgrims: Yes, our time of being committed to language without preaching is over and last week I preached my first sermon at Pilgrims. It went well and it seems that the students were very ready to hear me preach and very ready for a consistent preacher. I am excited about preaching and hopefully I will continue to be as I will be doing quite a bit of it in the near future.

2. First “Second” Anniversary in Ukraine. Yes, May 19th was our Anniversary. We celebrated by taking the day off, having a nice lunch, and relaxing! It was wonderful.

3. First Collegiate Basketball Championship! Yes, you heard that correctly. My team, at Ivan Franco University on Wednesday, May 20th, defeated the Physical Institute, to win the Collegiate Regional Championship! Although I did not play quite as well as I did the last game, I still am proud of my performance. I did not do so well in the foul department and had three fouls early but I had to guard a guy who was easily a foot and a half taller than me the whole game. This was also my first game against a professional team, as these guys get paid and are actually in the lower of the two Ukrainian professional leagues. I am pretty sure our season is over, but we may keep playing because I am not exactly sure how things work here. Whatever the case is, it has been a wonderful experience. Thank you Jesus.

Tip-Off

Champions!

A little live game action....

Circle Dance

4. And finally, first Ukrainian snake. Caught it in a small wood tract where tons of people go and make sish-kabobs!  Wish I knew what kind it was.

Keeping my distance.