Matthew was taking the children for a walk on Kreschatyk, the main city street, last Saturday. This street is closed to car traffic on the weekends, but that doesn’t seem to stop cars from driving and parking on the sidewalks. One car was inching its way through the crowd of people. Matt was pushing the stroller, and stepped sideways to avoid the approaching car behind him. He didn’t realize that Callie was just behind him and didn’t step away too. The SUV ran over her foot. The car never stopped, just went on, not realizing anything was wrong I guess. When Callie could not walk on her foot, Matt realized that something was terribly wrong. They took her to the hospital and found that she has a small fracture. The foot was wrapped in gauze and a soft cast, and Callie was sent home.

 

That evening Roger and I had planned to take Callie to the ballet to see “The Nutcracker,” one of her favorites. She still wanted to go, though she couldn’t walk. So Matthew carried her over and put her in the box seat. I got binoculars from the usher, and Callie happily watched the performance. Afterward, Wes Janzen carried her to the door, and Matthew carried her home. This injury has kept her from returning to school for a while, but she should be getting a walking cast soon.

 

Last Wednesday twenty-one people came to a new members class for St. Paul’s church. We heard some interesting stories. One man, Anatoly, has had two strokes, and he is only 45 years old. He said that when he had his first stroke, he began to think about eternal life. His mother is a Christian, and she led him to the Lord before she died, three months ago. Since then he has been attending our church.

 

Another woman said that she received Christ as a child during World War II. Her father was a strong Communist, but when he went to the front, her grandmother took care of the four children and instructed them in the Bible and secretly had them all baptized.

 

On Saturday, Diane interviewed six of the candidates. More will receive interviews this week, and then the class will be taken into membership on Sunday, April 25th. There will be a party in their honor at the office apartment after the worship service.

 

Misha Vassiliev, our Concertmaster, is now home after his dreadful ordeal of being beaten and robbed of his precious violin. Roger and Wes, along with Sergei Basarab, went to visit him this week, for the second time, bringing him a Bible and some materials from Evangelism Explosion. Roger went through the Gospel with Misha, and Misha is thinking a lot about his eternal destiny. He says, “I’ve heard this for many years.” Pray for Misha, that God will touch his heart and bring him to faith in Jesus Christ.

 

Yesterday a reporter from the magazine, “What’s On,” which previously did a feature article on the work of Roger and Diane, came to see the widows program at the invitation of Wes Janzen. Not only did she see the food distribution, but she also attended Natasha’s prayer class and Kim’s Bible study. She interviewed some of the pensioners and widows, and they joyfully told her what this ministry means to them.  We will see what may come of this experience. At the end of Kim’s Bible class, Wes and Kim distributed Russian Bibles, and large print books of Psalms in either Russian or Ukrainian, which they had purchased with donations from Canadian supporters.

 

Last Tuesday, Tricia and Matt went to a baby orphanage for children three years of age and under, to deliver some humanitarian supplies that had been sent from the States. They were accompanied by Katya Fedulova, a grad orphan, who works with Tricia. Katya had been taken to this baby orphanage and raised there until she was put into another orphanage at age 4. They took socks, knitted caps, detergent, toilet paper, and soap. There were about 90 children there. Tricia was allowed to see some of the babies and give a few hugs before she left.