Sunday - December 17, 2006

We got up at 6, ate at 7, and left at 8 for Krivoy Rog. We thought we would be gone for four days, but it turned out we would only be gone for one night. On the way to the church, we sang songs, played games, and talked. We also stopped at a restroom. Nadya left to pick up Lubasi at the airport. We traded her for Helen who would be our translator for the afternoon. The boys took many weird pictures while we all took turns in the one-seater restroom, which was a flusher.

We arrived at the church. We were impressed with its beauty. They had the Ten Commandments on the front wall above the platform. I really liked that, because it was God’s house with God’s rules on the wall. They also had many real plants on the stairs in the front. The windows on the sides had beautiful lace curtains. On the front wall, they also had three angels to symbolize the three angels’ message. The whole church had a very light and airy feeling about it. This church was heated, which was very nice. Downstairs they had Sabbath School rooms, a kitchen, a dining area, and bathrooms.

The meetings started at 11am with Justin T. preaching his sermon on Ellen White. Then we ate lunch. The cooks were really good! We ate very well. They cooked all the food for all the people who were coming to the meetings. Their pots of soup and tea were humongous.

The meetings started back up at 2pm. I had the children from 2:40 to 5. Jarrod helped me. I was wondering how I would be able to communicate with the children since I didn’t know if we would have a translator or not. I was praying, “Dear God, please help me. It might be hard keeping the kid’s attention. Please help Your message to come across through the language barrier and our human inexperience.”

God supplied our needs beyond our expectations since we were blessed with not only an interpreter, but also a piano player. They really liked kids and the kids loved them. We had lots of fun with the kids. We did typical VBS stuff. The kids loved it. At the end, we gave them small toys and their faces lit up.

Then there was a closing meeting until 6pm. After that, we ate supper and administered the test over Messages to Young People. [Editor’s note: Before we got there, we encouraged the young people to study Messages to Young People, because we were going to test them.] We also had some more seminars.

That night we split up into members’ homes. All the girls plus Pastor M went to one house. It was a two-story house with a ping-pong table, pool table, and two restrooms. There was also a den and a living room. It was a very nice house. I slept very well and was sad when the night was over and I had to get up.