Greetings in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ from the shores of the Black Sea! Summer is coming to a close as the 90 degree days turn to the mid 70’s and the summer tourists head back to Kiev and Moscow. School starts Sept. 1st, (if the teachers don’t strike) and folks are harvesting the last from their summer gardens, canning vegetables and fruit. Kerchians are already beginning to worry about the winter, as the last winter had some of the coldest temperatures in 95 years, and the energy shortage is promised to be worse.
Kerch Ministry
The economic situation in Kerch is not getting better. All the factories are still closed, salaries for those who do manage to have a job are still not being paid. Pensions are being held back, or only 40-60% of the monthly pension paid. Most receive a pension between $20-60 per month. Even when it is fully paid, it is barely enough to live on, if it is on the high end. Here is how one of our retirees, Sveta, (not her real name) manages to get by:
Starting from her house at 5:30 in the morning, she walks 30 minutes to take the 6:00am ferry over to the Russian side. She is carrying two or three bottles of vodka, several bottles of beer, cigarettes and candy which she has bought in Kerch the previous evening. Sveta told me she is ashamed to sell these things, but they are the only products she can sell which will give her enough profit margin to make the trip worth it. She meets two or three of her friends, and they ride together. The ferry costs 5 griven, or about $2.40. When going through customs on the Ukrainian and Russian sides, she quickly looks for the officers she knows, so she will have to pay less of a bribe. Once on the Russian side, the little group races to their “spot”, on the side of the road, near where some factory workers will be walking to work, and tourists may be driving by, fresh off the ferry. But, to their dismay, this time, some other babushki, or grandmothers, have already taken it. Fortunately, Sveta and her friends have paid a bribe to a policeman, who they spot ambling down the road, “encouraging” other sellers pay a bribe. At their request, taking a bottle of beer for his effort, and saying “because you are my special friends”, he shoos away the interloping grandmas, and Sveta and her crew can finally relax. She stays there 12 hours, in all kinds of weather with no shelter and takes the last ferry home, getting home around 8:00pm. If it was an average day, after paying the ferry tickets and various vzyatki (bribes), she will make around 5 griven for herself. $2.40 for 12 hours work. If it is a good day, maybe 10 griven, a bad day, maybe nothing. But, if Sveta goes to “work” 3 or 4 days a week (all she can handle at 67 years, 5 years over the life expectancy for a Ukrainian woman), she earns almost as much as her 90 griven($42)/month pension. And since the pension has not been paid in the last few months, it is all she has to support herself and a grandson who lives with her.
Because of situations like the above, the humanitarian aid received by churches and individuals in America and elsewhere is greatly appreciated. We recently received a gift of $2,000 from an anonymous donor, which we used to buy flour, sugar, and cooking oil. Every member of our church, children’s Sunday school, and 10 families with handicapped children not members of our church, a total of 150 persons, received 20lbs of flour, 22lbs. of sugar, and 3 liters of cooking oil each. This effort has proved to us it is more efficient to buy food products in-country, rather than sending food products from overseas. We put money in the local economy, pay no customs duty and the labor is free because it is provided by members of the church. The spirit of Christian community is strengthened when people can give of their own time and effort to support a project instead of feeling like they are always receiving.
In spite of the economic difficulties, God is with us and the church is doing well. Our attendance is up a little to 60-65 adults attending on Sunday, with 50-70 children in Sunday School.
One of the most significant new ministry events in the Kerch church is the start of three small groups for women by Helen. These groups have 8-10 women each and meet for bible study, prayer and fellowship. The life of women is very difficult in the Ukraine. They are expected to be the spiritual backbone of the family, do all the housework, take care of the kids and still have time left over to make money for the family. But wait, you say, this is something we DO have in common! J Shopping is done at the Central "Rinok", something like a big flea market and farmer's market rolled into one. There is only one of these in this city of 150,000, so even if you live on the outskirts of the city, you must come to it. The scarce government run food stores prices are sometimes twice as high, and choice of products low, so the trip is worth it. No one has a car to load the groceries in, so when you buy four bags of groceries, including 4 kilos (8.8 lbs.) of potatoes, you have to carry it yourself, all the way home, on the bus. For many of our retirees in their 60's and 70's, this is not an easy job. The divorce rate in the Ukraine is around 60%, and there are many single mothers. Most every family has someone with an alcohol problem. The women's groups provide a much needed outlet for sharing problems, praying about them, and drawing spiritual strength from each other.
The Free Lunch program is continuing to provide a hot meal twice a week to a group of 25 retirees. The group changes every month. As an added bonus, we have received several new members as a result of this outreach. Through gifts from friends in Norway and American we have received 3 thermoses for the tea (we were using glass jars before) and new pots and pans to cook the meal. For new readers who don’t know, the lunch is cooked in the home of one of our members, and then transported to the retirement center. German Methodists provide the funding. Helen and I enjoy the time fellowshipping and sharing the Bible with the retirees.
Our children’s Summer Camp was an ecumenical venture this year, as our church participated in the children’s camp of a local Pentecostal church. Another gift from abroad to our Sunday School department provided money for our own camp for 12-15 yr. olds. About 25 children from our church attended both camps. An intern from Asbury Seminary, Dena Krigbaum, was with us this summer, and she helped out at the camp, as well as preach, assist in the worship services, and enter in to all the various ministries of the church. Dena also helped out at an children’s English Language camp sponsored jointly by a local group and the US Peace Corps.
District Ministry:
Bishop Minor visited our church for our Charge Conference, which necessitated a 24 hour train ride from Kerch to Kiev. Once nice thing about train travel is the opportunities for relaxing fellowship, a good environment for brainstorming. As we rode, we began to think of the overview of the district. The Southern District as originally envisioned consists of Russian speaking Crimean peninsula of the Ukraine and the Caucuses region of Southern Russia, (where Chechnya is located). We have four registered churches: Kerch and Sevastopol in the Crimea; Stavropol and Pytagorsk in the Caucuses. A Methodist church in Uzhgorod, a city on the Hungarian Border, has been in existence since before WWII and belongs to the Hungarian Central Conference. New work, though, is starting to spring up the main part of the Ukraine. A church is being started by the Polish Methodists in Lviv, German Methodists have work in Poltava, and The Central Pennsylvania Conference is working in Bila Tserkva and Kiev.
With all this new work starting, and the geographic area of the Southern District so large, it has been decided to establish the District headquarters in Kiev and in the future, make the Southern District Ukrainian only. This will not only limit the geography, but help us to register the denomination in the Ukraine, and concentrate on the new church opportunities. Helen and I will travel to the Tallinn, Estonia soon to interview a recent graduate of the Baltic Seminary in regards to a church planting position in Simferopol.
An assistant pastor, Sergei Tixi, has been appointed to Kerch to free me up to concentrate more on my duties as District Superintendent, and establish the office in Kiev. After our home assignment which is January to mid-April 1999, Helen and I will bid sad farewell to Kerch and move to Kiev. Happily though, we will still be in contact with our Kerch friends through District work.
Prayer Requests:
Helen and I celebrated our 1-year anniversary on August 9 in the beautiful city of Lillehammer, Norway, where the 1994 Winter Olympics were held. During the three quiet days we had there, we reflected over how during this hectic first year of marriage, with the merging of two cultures, Norwegian and American, to live in a third culture, Ukrainian, God has brought us ever more closer together. It has take some adjustment: two, independent, 20-year-single adult veterans trying to live together, listen to each others needs and serve a church at the same time, but it has been so worth it. We both truly rejoice in being partners in minatory and life.
Z Bogam (with God),
Helen and Bill Lovelace
This page last updated on April 12, 1999.