Return Trip Changes

Brother Bob called yesterday and it looks like our return flight this summer has been change. It now looks like we are staying overnight in Warsaw.

Alternative Lodging for 2008

As much as we love the Hotel Cheremosh, there are alternatives in the region, particularly if we have a team focusing their time at the camp or if we send a team or two up to the mountains.

In Bulany, a village on the highway about 8 or 10 miles outside Chernivtsi and about 5 miles from the camp, there is the Bukovina Star Hotel.

This hotel is owned by the local rich businessman and is very modern inside. It's on the same scale as the hotel in Frankfurt that we have stayed at before. While it doesn't have wireless internet in the rooms like the one in Frankfurt it does have something the other does not — air conditioning.

For a higher price they also have first class rooms and apartments for 300 and 400 Grivna — $60 and $80 a night.

The shower even has a shower door and it's a larger opening than the tiny one at the Prosolok Hotel we use in Kiev.

Rates are 150 Grivnas for a one person room and 180 Grivna for a two person room. At the current exchange rates that's just $30 and $36 a room, or $15 and $18 a person per night. This is cheaper than the Cheremosh, and like the Cheremosh the prices include breakfast in the restaurant on site.

There's also a small amusement park across the street and just down the street is a 24-hour supermarket.

The same man also owns the Sun Valley resort just down the lane from the camp.

They have a number of modern high end cabins (the president of Ukraine has stayed there). Single room rates are 180 Grivna, First Class (3 people) are 400 Grivna and Business class - 250 Grivna. (Divide by 5 to get the amount in dollars).

It's more, but not that much more and anyone staying there could literally walk to the church camp. The two properties are neighbors.

On Friday Wally and I went to the regional tourism office near the university and talked with the staff there. We found out that there are lodging facilities in two of the mountain towns where there are Baptist churches.

In Vizinecha (bad spelling) there is the Nimchik lodge which looks like a modern establishment. Cost is $38 per person per night and that includes breakfast. (There is also whitewater rafting on the Cheremosh River at $34 a person).

In Putila, the village farthest from Chernivtsi there is a bed and breakfast inn that can host 8 people in presumably four rooms at $10 per person per day and that price includes meals. The house is relatively new construction. The bathroom is indoors with a modern toilet, but it is shared.

Why Ukrainian Churches Don't Have Steeples

If you notice in this picture of the front of the First Baptist Church in Chernivtsi, there is no steeple nor cross on top.

First Baptist isn't the only one like that. None of the Baptist churches do.

At first when I was here in 2001 I thought it was a relic left over from the officially-atheistic Soviet era, but it turns out it may not be.

Finally in my role of historian I had a chance to ask Brother Benjamin, the superintendent of the region's Baptist association, why there were no steeples.

He repeated to me his story of being beaten by his village's Orthodox priest using the crucifix around the priest's neck. Apparently his tale isn't the only such story passed down by the generation that still remembers the Orthodox persecution of Baptists during the time between World War I and World War II when Romania ruled the Chernivtsi region and Baptist churches were suppressed.

Between the negative reinforcement of crucifix-carrying priests and active destruction against minority churches in pre-war Romania and all churches during the Soviet era, there has never been any desire to build steeples.

It's also worth noting that the large Pentecostal church that we pass frequently also does not have a steeple nor cross over it.

Only the Orthodox and Catholic churches have them, such as this Orthodox prayer chapel located just a block away from First Baptist Church.

Source of Life Church Stays Young

Source of Life Baptist Church, formerly Fourth Baptist, is the outgrowth of a evangelism crusade in 1995.

For years afterward its pastor Brother Vasily was the eldest one in the church.

A four person band and worship team led the singing Sunday morning and the style of worship is noticably different than in the more traditional First Baptist Church.

Even today, with its new location on a hill overlooking the southern outskirts of Chernivtsi, the church is very young with most of church leadership consisting of men in their 20s and early 30s.

The church "elders" are shown in the second picture with me standing on the right. Wally, my interpreter who is one of the assistant pastors at this church is on the right in the first row.

The church reaches the lost in many ways, but particularly through an intensive effort of summer camps. The church provides leadership for a variety of camps that run from the end of May to the end of August.

There are camps for the physically handicapped, for children, families, youth leaders, teenagers and the blind with a goal of about 50 percent coming from the Baptist churches in the region and 50 percent from unchurched families.

The church subsidizes about half the cost of the camp to help keep the price affordable for students and families.

After the fall of communismn the church was able to acquire a former Young Pioneers (Communist youth) camp out in the country that they have been slowly renovating. While I haven't been out there on this trip, I were able to see a big difference last year compared with what it looked like on my first trip in 2001.

Brother Benjamin Outlines Greatest Needs

Brother Benjamin, the leader for the Baptist churches in the Chernivtsi oblast (as oblast is like a state), pointed to the mountains when I asked him Tuesday where the greatest need existed for the churches in the region.

He asked if we would consider sending teams to the mountain area to help spread the gospel there. They already have local missionary teams in place helping the three churches already established.

As you can tell by the map there are a number of churches spread over the region, but in the close-up map you'll notice that there are only three stars representing churches in the left-hand portion of the map.

There are not any hotels in that area and mission team members would have to stay with families, which is something that some of the younger members have talked about.

The summer would be the best time to visit the area. Last year a few of us had a chance to go to the mountains one afternoon. While we went to a tourist area in the next oblast, this area is more rural and is generally located in a valley that doesn't have much direct connection with the rest of the oblast.

For those who have gone to Africa, the Carpathians should be a breeze.

The last picture shows one of the existing small churches in the mountains. The finger in the picture belongs to Brother Benjamin.

[UPDATE: Thursday, Sept. 20, 2007]
Irene, Brother Bob's interpreter on previous trips told me tonight that there are hotels in this area she thinks as the tourist business is increasing. However, the prices are high.

Hopefully I'll find out more tomorrow or Saturday.

The Surreal World - Chernivtsi

While I am using the hotel's business center for most of my Internet work this trip, Wally took me to another Internet cafe yesterday (though I'm not sure if it is correct to call it a cafe since they serve no food or drink).

The name of the place is Chicago and is operated by a former Chicagoan who was Ukrainian born, but raised in the city it seems, at leased based on his accent. His wife is Ukrainian and they moved back here about five years ago.

He does have a Chicago Cubs poster up on the wall, but he admitted that he was a Cardinals fan. Something about liking to root for teams that have a chance at the World Series.

His place is located in what appears to be a new building tucked away in an inner courtyard in the historic downtown area of Chernivtsi. While I was checking e-mail a familiar tune came into the second floor window near where I worked. It took me a minute to realize that I actually recognized it. Surreally, it was three street musicians playing "Hello Dolly".

Meeting With Historian Proves Fruitful

[I've got to go now, but I'll add more later].

UPDATE #1 I'm trying something new with this one by uploading a video. It doesn't have any audio yet because I have not been able to transfer the audio files to my computer. So far however, it's not working.

UPDATE #2 Didn't work.

UPDATE #3 Let's see if this works. I'm trying to use Google's new video upload feature they now have for Blogger.

Brother Marin Tells of His Prison Ministry

Brother Marin pastors the First Baptist Church of Chernivtsi. Yesterday we met with him at the church and he told us about his prison ministry he began in 1991 shortly after the split-up of the Soviet Union.

I'll add more later, but this is one of the pictures of him baptizing a prisoner who had come to accept Jesus Christ has his saviour.

Church No. 4 Changes Name & Location

Wally belongs to what used to be called Church No. 4, or 4th Baptist in Chernivtsi.

In March they moved to a new building which is much nicer than the old one. They've also changed their name over the last year to Source of Life Baptist Church.

The church is located on top of a hill overlooking the edge of town. An apple orchard surrounds the church.

Apparently another church began constructing this building about a decade ago, but it turned out that the pastor was a better carpenter than a preacher.

Once they finished the building the church had not grown enough to support it so 4th Baptist was able to find a new home.

The top picture of inside Sunday morning. I took it about 10 minutes before the services began. The next photo Wally took of me while I was singing.

The church's previously located was off of an alley downtown in what had once been a Jewish synagogue before being turned into a meeting hall for young communists.

I've Made it to Ukraine

I made it safely to Ukraine Friday. Wally met me at the airport in Lviv and we took the overnight train to Chernivtsi and arrived yesterday morning. Due to my lack of sleep Wednesday night and the overnight flight on Thursday I all but crashed when I made it to the hotel.

The phone is not working and I should get that addressed Monday. Still, don't bother calling until I know what phone I will have.

Wally and Brother Vasily had me preach and sing this morning at Church 4. Their new building sits at the end of an unpaved road on one of the hillsides overlooking the city. It's large, light and airy and absolutely nothing in comparison to their old building in the old ghetto downtown.

Tonight we are going to Church #1. Tomorrow Wally is taking me to the Christian School.

Brother Bob, you will be happy. Wally took me to a rib joint in the new supermarket/mall that has developed at the old missle parts factory on the east edge of the city. It's called the Potato House and serves barbecue ribs, burritoes, baked potatoes and steaks.

Keep praying for me this week.

The Hotel Cheremosh still has the same in need of an upgrade accommodations, but they have improved their business center with high-speed internet so I am happy. I'll add some pictures to the blog later this week.

I saw a host of our former interpreters and drivers at church today, though I can't remember most of their names.

Sincerely,

Jon Musgrave

New Trip Planned Next Week

It's been 14 months since we returned from Chernivtsi and I plan to take my vacation there next week. It will be part vacation and part preparation for next year's mission trip in the summer of 2008.

It's neat to see how much technology as grown over the last few years. In 2006 we had cell phones and this blog. Now I can find Chernivtsi videos on YouTube.

Here are a few. The first is scenery and street scenes from what appears to be a Russian native as he uses the Russian spelling of Chernovtsy.



Here's another one of street scenes posted this June with better music and more interesting comments. It's titled Chernivtsi (the Ukrainian spelling) but check out the spellings used in the comments. They really show the history of the city. There's the Russia "Chernovtsy", the German/Austrian "Czernowitz", as well as the Romanian "Cernauti".



A third video focuses on historic photographs and postcards of the city.



Another video posted a couple of months ago shows the city's more recent history in 2004 during the pro-democracy Orange Revolution.



One of the churches that we've visited in the past has been Church 4 which was originally built as a Jewish synagogue and later turned into a Communist Youth Hall after the Holocaust.

The city once had a large minority population of Jews in the 19th and early 20th Centuries. This clip posted in July by a German appears to be a retrospective of part of the lost Jewish history of the city.



On a lighter note this one shows how much American culture - particularly Californian pop culture - has found its way back to the homeland of many Ukrainian immigrants. This one is break dancing, and yes, white boys can dance, particularly if they were raised on soccer and gymnastics. These guys are impressive.



Here's another one.



And finally, the drivers are somewhat wild in Ukraine, but at least not all of them are as bad as this Chernivtsi driver.



I hoping that the presence of these and other videos on YouTube means there's more high speed internet now in the city. The dial-up connection at the Cheremosh Hotel is extremely slow and the internet cafe we visited in 2004 wasn't much better.

Waiting at Kiev's Borispil Airport

We've made it to Kiev last night and suffered through another Ukrainian dinner -- we went to McDonalds. We needed some American grease.

We're still safe and sound. Currently we're waiting in the airport to go through security and get boarding passes.

We're off to Frankfurt, Germany this afternoon and then Atlanta tomorrow.

We should be back in Marion around 10 - 10:30 p.m. (my estimate, not official).

On The Road to Kiev

Wednesday Night Update

It's Wednesday night about 10 p.m. and this is my first chance to get in front of a computer since the last post.

There were about 32 or 33 decisions Tuesday that I know about. I have not heard an update on today though.

The four-person team I'm on has been on a whirlwind tour of this region. Yesterday we left at 8:30 a.m. and returned to the hotel at about 11:45 p.m. We traveled to Khotin and presented our seminars to between 8 and 12 youth leaders (the number changed every hour).


After Tuesday's seminar we then traveled to the most remote and gorgeous youth camp I've ever visited. Though completely primitive with no permanent infrastructure, they have brought a generator which powers their sound system, computer, television, DVD player, printer, etc.

The camp itself sits on top of a hill over looking the Dnister River which is one of the major rivers in the country, but unlike the Mississippi or Ohio there appears to be no commercial traffic on it. We were there from 3 to 10 p.m. and only saw one fisherman in a rowboat. The kids swim in a tributary, play volleyball and have two-hour church services in the evening.

On Wednesday we left about 8:30 a.m. and traveled for more than an hour to another camp even more remote where we took part in smaller break-out sessions with all the campers before doing or seminar topics in front of about 30 youth workers. We did it outside on a hill side under a grove of oak trees. It was around 70 (yes, the forecasts were wrong, it did warm up) and a nice breeze. In other words, perfect.

At all the sessions we've done this week I think we have been able to encourage the youth workers and at least plant the seeds of God's salvation in the non-believing youth who are there camping.


Keep a kid named Roman from St. Petersburg in your prayers - he believes in God in his head, just not yet in his heart. That's him in the picture watching some of the other campers swim in the river.

Tomorrow morning we go to First Baptist here in Chernivtsi where we will be meeting with youth workers here in the city and surrounding suburbs. In the afternoon there is a group meeting at the church though we have not been given the details. (Bob may know but I haven't seen him yet tonight).

As to issues of national pride I can report that (with the help of our Ukrainian interpreters and drivers) we managed to show a decent team effort in our volleyball games with the Ukrainian kids and their leaders. We may have even won one or two games in the last few days.

It has definitely not been the complete embarrassment seen during our near-infamous attempt five years ago at playing soccer with kids who have played all their lives.

The mission team members who have been witnessing are reporting some remarkable successes, even with strong Orthodox believers. I'll post more as I know more.

I haven't listened to the some of the last few audio posts, but there maybe a few bad ones where I punched the wrong button on the cell phone but a post was still made anyway. Sorry.

Tuesday from Khotin

Arrived, Rested & Ready to Go

All of the members of the mission team arrived safe and sound in Chernivtsi last night, though some worse for wear. We left Kiev about 9:10 a.m. and arrived at the Hotel Cheremosh here about 7:30 p.m.

After dinner those of us who went to sleep immediately (including the author which explains why he didn't blog last night) managed to get a good night's rest.

Those who stayed up for a while didn't as they couldn't get to sleep when the wedding reception on the first floor took off in high gear. Personally I didn't notice it at all. Joe Wagner on the other hand managed to get to sleep about 5 a.m.

Today we ate breakfast at the hotel — scrambled eggs, bread, thin slices of ham, cheese, butter, a honey spread, and a sweet something with powdered suger on top and something fruity inside. We also had yogurt.

We then took off to the "big church" which is what we call First Baptist to meet up with our local team members, drivers and interpreters, pray over our missions, and eat lunch — a chicken noodle soup without the chicken or the noodles, but with potatoes and some type of meet, plus a rice and pork combination along with bread and cookies.

After lunch we visited the camp for a tour and dinner. The camp is a former Young Pioneer camp (think Soviet Boy Scouts) that the Baptists were able to purchase after Ukraine became independent. There are marked improvements in the camp, especially for those of us who saw it in 2001.

They have new a new shower house and bathrooms, but while they have urinals they still have the turkish-style toilets - a hole in the tiled floor with a place on either side for your feet.

Dinner tonight took place at the camp. It was a salad of quartered cucumbers and tomatoes with an entree of a baked chicken leg and a double serving of mashed potatoes. The drink was a lemon compote (too weak to be called lemonade, but I liked it better than lemonade), and dessert included one banana, five cookies and three pieces of individually-wrapped candy.

Oh Sandy, remember how we joked about Alexis using the mission trip to find a nice young man who speaks Russian? Even Brother Benjamin, the regional association head, has given his blessing. During his speech at our orientation meeting he told her that the best way to learn Russian is to find someone here and marry.

Don't worry too much Sandy, our team leader is married and although our interpreter is 27, an English teacher and former athlete, he's already engaged to a Ukrainian girl studying in Rochester.

There is however, two other 19-year-old single interpreters.

Alexis and I are part of a mission team including Joe Wagner and another member from Andalusia First Baptist. Our local team members include Slavik Nagirnyak, who is the regional youth leader for 150 churches in the Chernivtsi region. Our interpreters are Oleg Kleshch, the one who is engaged, and Marina #1, who was Joe's interpreter last time. She married the son of Brother Vasily last year.

We were going to be spending time at the camp in the morning teaching youth workers and then witnessing in the afternoon.

That plan changed today. That didn't surprise us at all. We knew it would. We were just waiting to find out how.

Now we are going to a different city each day (Monday-Thursday) and speaking at one of the local churches to the area youth leaders. Then in the afternoon we will be traveling to a nearby camp to speak with the campers, many of whom are not saved.

Actually, I like this plan better as we will get to see more of the countryside and larger region outside Chernivtsi.

The city itself appears to be growing. We rode into town on a modern new highway that appears to have farther go to. I noticed more restaurants (though no McDonalds yet), and in the village near the camp they have a new hotel, which was under construction two years ago, that looks as modern and shiny as in any European city.

They also have a supermarket, which is interesting, but they actually use the word "supermarket" rather than the traditional word "gastronom" or something like that, which is similar to the French word for food.

Internet, blank, telephone, telefax, center, are just some of the words that are being included in the Ukrainian business language.

Tomorrow everyone goes out and either preaches, sings or gives their testimony. The team I'm on will go to Hotin which is about 30 or 40 miles north of Chernivtsi.

I've got to get off the computer now to work on my sermon. The hotel has a business center with internet for only $2.80 an hour.

On The Road Again