MISSION UKRAINE: TEA IN TARUTINO & DINNER IN ODESSA

What an amazing week we have that was highlighted by two main events. Thursday we went to Tarutino to see the village our Suko ancestors came from before the 1917 Revolution. It was a 125 miles from Odessa on bumpy roads. We found the central market humming, ordered some shashlik at a Bessarabian cafe and then went for a walk while they cooked it over an open fire outside.

A few phone calls later we found where the pastor lived in a humble house with no indoor plumbing. Nicoli and his wife Nadia begged all nine of us to stay for tea, dinner and overnight. We have a lot to learn about hospitality from these people who have very little.

Over tea outside we discussed village and family history. Amazingly, in this village of 7,000, he knew an elderly white haired lady named Zelia (village historian) I had met here fifteen years ago. I thought surely she had died by now. As soon as I mentioned her he darted off to get her. She was alive and well, a member of his church and remembered us. She had become a believer and was full of German history about the village. What an amazing meeting about family history and God's working here over tea and cookies and an ancient map of the village from Stalin's era. It had the locations of half a dozen Suko relatives.

Later he took us on a tour of the village springs and a hidden grave yard where our ancestors are buried. We would have never found it on our own. We felt like Indiana Jones as we crept through the brush to find the ancient head stones. He also took us to the site of the large and beautiful old church my grandparents attended. It had been destroyed by the communists and the bricks used to build a government building. But, Christ is still building His church here (cf. Matt. 16:18). Nicoli also showed us the location of several new churches. Finally, he pointed out several old German houses that are likely the homes where ancestors once lived.

Sunday we attended the services of a new church here in Odessa. Both Caleb and I preached to the congregation of around 100. Most are young people. They are meeting in an old day care that they have fixed up very nicely. Three sermons in just two hours took care of the morning service in which about seven people came forward to openly repent. Then there was tea and cookies followed by a two hour members meeting where church discipline was routinely dealt with and I was asked to give PowerPoint presentation of Discovery's ministries.

Later we went to Pastor's house for dinner. Pastor Peter Rodoslavov and his wife Tamara are old friends from 1994. He has spent a short time in prison during the persecution years under the KGB before the fall. But now there is freedom and his ministry is fruitful. In his early 50's he is a busy man with a large family. He is also the president of a national association of baptists in Ukraine. We had a rich afternoon today discussing ministry, God's grace and the growth of our families and churches while Nehemiah went with a translator and a group of young people to play soccer in another part of the city. We took a nice group picture of our two families in a field near their house with Odessa in the back ground. God is so good. Thanks for praying for us as we travel. -Pastor Mark