Thursday - December 21, 2006

Today was our day to “play.” But it was not our day to sleep in very late. We got up at 9am and ate breakfast. The guys split up into two groups to take showers at different people’s homes. The girls stayed at Pastor M’s house. The boys who went to one house got to watch a movie, eat chocolate and food, and receive presents. The owners of the house also burned the DVD off for them. The boys were very excited when we picked them up.

We traveled to Dnepropostrovsk to go tourist shopping. The sidewalk had vendors on it and you had to bargain with them. This was the first time I had done such. I could have done better, but it was good for starters.

We all wound up at McDonald’s where there was a restroom and heat. It was terribly cold that day. Even Anna, who lives in Ukraine, was freezing.

From there we went to the conference office for lunch. The place wasn’t heated, but we had warm soup which helped. I thought we were just there for lunch, but afterwards the conference leaders started making speeches. He thanked the Konrads and the older members of our team for coming and gave them gifts. Then they gave each of the younger team members a wooden container along with a letter of thanks. It was very moving.

After we were done, we left. We were informed that we were going to be conducting evening meetings at the church in Pavlograd where we had been staying. The members had not seen us. They had only seen our stuff and wanted to see what the Americans looked like.

We got back to the church, cleaned up, and changed. I was feeling worse then and was glad that we would be able to get to bed early that night.

The meeting started at 5pm and Jarrod and I along with Nadya had the kids from 5-6. The adults lasted until 8pm. The kids had too much energy to sit still, so we let them go early. After the meeting was over, the Ukrainians talked to us and asked us all sorts of questions. I tried to talk to the kids, but we didn’t know enough of each other’s language.

Then the Ukrainians got the great idea of playing ping-pong. The only problem was part of the ping-pong table held up the boys’ beds. So the boys had to take all their beds apart. They started playing and I left for supper at 10.

When I got back there at 10:30, they were still playing and singing. I went to the girls’ room, but since the room was right next to the sanctuary, I couldn’t go to sleep. I decided to join them. My head was aching and my nose was draining. We finally got to bed at 1am. So much for going to bed early.

At the church, we met Katya. She was a very sincere girl who wanted to know more about Ellen White. She also wanted to start a similar group like ours. She talked to Mrs. Hadley for a long time and expressed a deep gratitude for the message that had been presented that night.

This church hadn’t been on the original schedule, but I think God knew that Katya would come to this meeting. If I had my way, I would have been in bed. But this shows how much higher and better God’s ways are. So often I want my way, which is not the best way, and this taught me that God knows best and I should keep my mouth shut and follow Him.