Hello again!
We just settled in our hotel room for another night and wrapped up day 8 of our trip. It’s been a good day, with an interesting twist of events this evening that I’ll write more about later.
I am happy to write that we started today with a full eight hours of sleep the night before! Maybe, just maybe, my body is finally getting adjusted to the time zone. Kipp & I spent the morning reading and planning the week ahead before going out to exchange some money and eat lunch together. This afternoon, we prepped for the next couple of evening study sessions on Jehovah’s Witness doctrine and before we knew it, we were off with Vera to a print shop to print out some material for the church members and then to bible study.
Our study started out as normal...but we did notice a little extra conversing going on between everyone. Vera explained that they were having a discussion about taking Kipp and I around Mariupol to see parts of the city we have not seen before. In an earlier post, I mentioned how Valentine has insisted taking us on this excursion without our translator because he wants to spend the entire day with us and travel by bus and by walking. When we left on Sunday, we tried to explain to him that we needed our translator go with us because we thought we might appreciate things more if we could understand what he was saying. We have found that Valentine’s English vocabulary consists of “OK,” “come,” (which he usually says “come-come”) and “yum” (which he usually says “yum-yum”). Plus, we tried to explain that Vera is 6 months pregnant and doing a great deal of walking would not be good for her. He did not want to listen to us. We get a chuckle that when he thinks we don’t understand him, he gets a little closer to our face and repeats himself only in a louder voice. And it seems that every time we are with him, he has just eaten fresh garlic with his lunch or dinner. : ) We usually nod our heads and wait on Vera to tell us what he said.
After Vera let us in on what was going on, we went ahead with our study on Jehovah’s Witness doctrine. They took good notes and said everything was clear to them. We are going to continue the study on Jehovah’s Witnesses Tuesday evening. I think this will be something profitable for them since they seem to have had regular contact with Jehovah’s Witnesses recently.
Once our study ended, the discussion turned again to our tour of Mariupol. After we left worship on Sunday, Evgenia evidently contacted her son-in-law who has a vehicle and can drive us. There is room enough for Valentine, Vera, Kipp, me, and the driver. So....problem solved, right? No,...not really. Valentine kept insisting that this was not the way he wanted to do it and then he said that he didn’t want to go with us if we went in the car. This was over the objections of Evgenia, his wife Galena, and Elnora. Those three women were obviously upset with him and what had been a comical situation for us to watch suddenly took a bad turn when tempers began to flare. Evgenia, obviously frustrated, got up hastily to leave, and so did Mansoor and Elnora. That left us with Galena & Valentine and an uneasy and awkward silence. You could really tell Galena was upset with Valentine and I figure she’ll be setting him straight this evening.
What is interesting about this is just a few minutes before while Kipp was teaching we read Matthew 18:1-3 and were discussing how Jesus says one must become as a little child to enter the kingdom. We were reading this passage to refute the Jehovah’s Witness doctrine of hereditary depravity. Valentine agreed with Kipp that a Christian should conduct himself with humility and not hold a grudge, etc. So...these guys still have much to apply and put it into action on a practical level. Kipp and I will be sitting down with Valentine sometime tomorrow to tell him we appreciate his gesture, but that he needs to be considerate of the needs of others.
After the study ended, Vera found out that Evgenia has arranged to have her son-in-law pick us up at our hotel tomorrow and take us around the city. We are hoping that Valentine will be present and in a good humor.
We are both doing well, and having a great time. I appreciate all the responses via email and to the blog. And...thanks again for your prayers...not only for us, but for the Christians here in Mariupol.
More later!