Making a Stand for Truth

Tuesday - The team and I went to the Beal's house and helped Jessie work on his house. Nick and I painted the rails on the balcony with this black paint that was very difficult to get off once dried. Daniel and Mr. Beal painted the upstairs bathroom and removed the shower stall doors from the downstairs bathroom. As always, Mrs. Beal took good care for us by providing an excellent dinner and a place to hit the hay. At 7:00 PM, we had our weekly English Club at the ministry center and had a great turnout with about eight people. The topic for the night was "Pets" and one person had a pet chinchilla. I was amazed because I had never heard of a "pet" chinchilla.

Monday night we had a very bad hail storm.

On the way to the Beals house

Mrs. Beal grading lessons from correspondence course students.

Wednesday - We woke up and ate a great breakfast at the Beal's and then got right to work. Nick and I finished painting the rails and then Mr. Beal asked us to paint the outside stairs, using the same black paint. Daniel and Mr. Beal finished working on the bathrooms. Nick and I also mowed the front and back lawn and then Nick, Daniel, and I moved sheet rock to Mr. Beal's attic and began to nail it over the insulation. We ate dinner then Mr. Beal gave us a drive back to our apartment.

This picture was not edited at all! You see it as it was taken.

Thursday - We passed out tracts. Ice cream was a beautiful thing as it was very, very, very hot outside.

Friday was very interesting. Why? It seemed like it was going to be a normal tracting day, but it wasn't. Daniel and Nick were a team and Joshua and I were a team. Around 11:30 AM, I got a call from Josh saying to finish my area and then stay put. I said, "Okay" and did as he said. About 25 minutes went by and I started getting a little nervous, so I called Daniel and he said that Nick got into a fight with some guy. It turned out that this guy accused Nick of stealing some very important documents of his. Nick said he didn't and the guy started to get aggressive. He pushed Nick around a little and then punched him in the face. Nick regained balance and then punched the guy hard on the cheek. After the guy fell, about four or five other guys barged out of black Mercedes and BMWs. Nick booked it away from that area and found a taxi. He told the taxi driver to put the pedal to the medal. The men ran back to their cars and chased after them. Once the taxi driver saw this, he went so fast and knew the city so well that he eventually lost them.

Saturday - We went to a village called Sloboda Bolekhivska and passed out film showing invites for next week. Afterward, we went to our camping site and it was amazing. The river was so deep, you could actually dive off a rock into it. It was so cool! The only down side was that we had company who built a fire about 10 meters away from us and decided to blast their music really loud. Finally, Joshua went and asked them to turn it down a couple times and finally they turned it off at around midnight and left.

Joshua shooting video of Chris which became part of the Tale of Three Villages movie.

Here Josh is telling a very funny joke

Sunday morning dawned cool and crisp.

By the time I got out the camera, the sun was sending forth it's warm and brilliant rays. We went to another village called Luzhky and showed the film at 3:00 PM. We had a great turnout with the average attendance around 35 people. It was great! After the film showing, we went home and hit the hay.

Setting up Sunday afternoon for the showing

Cris and I preparing the literature that will be distributed at the end of the showing.

Chris and Nick waiting for the crowd to appear

What is this?

On the way back to L'viv we passed an accident on the road.

EDITOR'S NOTE: The incident with Nick and the irate Ukrainian seems to be resolved. We've sought legal counsel to be sure of our position, and thus far things are quiet. The man who falsely accused and assaulted Nick has not made any more advances, and since there is no proof of anything on either side, we have been advised to "leave well enough alone." As a precaution, we are conducting our outreaches in other regions of L'viv. We appreciate your prayers for the safety of our team.

Tuesday was a full day of passing out tracts in an older part of L'viv. Some of the buildings are three and four hundred years old and are built in the style of Austrian architecture. When you walk inside of them, you can tell they where once very beautiful buildings. From the wide staircases to the arched door and windows on the inside and out, I really enjoyed walking into each building and seeing the different way each one was designed. We had a great day serving the Lord.

Wednesday we passed out literature in a village, placing tracts on gates. Everything was going great up until lunch time. From there, it went down hill fast. Well, let me back up. Just before we stopped for lunch, I re-injured my hurt foot on a rock. Then, as we where sitting eating lunch, a bee landed on Chris so he jumped up and tried to kill it by swinging at it with a mostly empty can of energy drink. It just happened to be in my direction! Needless to say, I was now the bee's target because I had this sticky stuff all over me! Then, it happened. A bee nailed me on my right bicep. Then, I was looking for plantain to put on the bite.

With that business taken care of, Nick and I headed out to continue tracting in our sectors. Everything was going fine and then I heard it-the thing that all CMOers come to dread. It is a four letter word that cannot be spoken without causing the hearers of it to tremble! RAIN. It can turn a beautiful day into total misery in a matter of minutes! When it started to sprinkle, we stopped to don our "armor" in preparation for the coming battle! The bad thing was, when it started, we where out in the middle of nowhere, which means there is no place to hide. Plus, I had not brought all of my r--n gear. The only thing I had was my jacket and I couldn't even zip it up, because I was attempting to keep myself and my backpack dry! In about two minutes, I went from being completely dry to being completely miserable! So, I waited about twenty-five minutes to see if to would stop, but it continued to pour. I called Nathan to see what the plan was. I asked how wet he and Chris were. Without answering my question, he asked what condition we where in. When I told him, he started laughing! Again, I asked Nathan how wet they were. In between his laughs, he made the statement "We're as dry as a bone." At this point, I was looking for a five gallon bucket, a big puddle, and Nathan. Nathan was not going to have the opportunity of returning home to Katelin bone dry! Here I was soaked to the bone, and to make it worse, it was 65 degrees and still raining. It's probably a good thing that Nathan was on the opposite end of town or he would of have paid for his laughter! Because of the r--n, we decided to return home early. However, this was not the end of my day. As Nick and I were walking back to the bus stop for the ride back to L'viv, we came to a part of the road that was totally under water. Water was almost covering the sidewalk (about 4" deep.) I didn't like the look of things. If a vehicle were to come though, it would have a good chance of soaking us for the second time. We didn't have much of a choice. We had to take the chance. No sooner did we make some progress, then this car came flying through, sending a sheet of water flying! Whatever had been dry was dripping wet. Then, we had an hour bus ride home. I had a good laugh after a hot shower and dry clothing. So concluded my day. Just another day in Ukraine! (For the record the car was being piloted by a woman!)

Thursday morning was free for the simple fact that Wednesday we had passed out all of the tracts that we had. We were waiting on our next shipment from the printer. At 1:00 PM the printer stopped by and delivered a full box of 10,000 tracts. Once they were collated, we each grabbed five packs and headed out into L'viv. In all, we where able to pass out about 2,000 tracks in two and half hours.

Friday morning, we passed out tracts in L'viv. In all, about 3,500 tracks where distributed for the day. Also, it was the first time in two weeks that Benjamin went tracting with us. It was good to have him back on the team! That afternoon was team church. It was a great time of singing, encouragement, and the preaching of the word.

Saturday, at 11:30 AM, our taxi arrived for the ride to the train station. This was the first taxi driver I've found that understands the term expedite. We arrived in record time at the train station. I thought I riding in a racecar at the Indy 500! We got on the train and rode it all the way to Striy. From there, a van drove us to the village where we passed out film invites. About midway though passing out, it started to r--n and continued for an hour or so. By that time, we where done and headed for our campsite. Then, it really cut lose. There is nothing more exciting then hiking in the rain! We decided to take a shortcut, which entailed crossing a stream. Nathan and I made it across just fine. Nick and Chris were a different story. Nick knew he wasn't going to make over dry, so he waded across shoes and all. Chris, on the other hand, took off his shoes and socks and rolled up his pant legs. He took his first step in the water and lost his balance. He tried to catch himself but reached down with the hand that was holding his shoes and drenched them! When he realized what was happening, he tried to shift his weight and almost fell in hiking pack and all! We all had a good laugh at Chris' expense.

Sunday, during the night it rained some, but the morning dawned bright and sunny. After eating breakfast, we started the fire and enjoyed a beautiful morning. At 12:00 noon, Jessie, Cassia, Alexandria, Josh, and Benjamin arrived. We drove to the showing and set up. Everything went well. Only a few people showed up, due to the fact that there was a wedding taking place in the village at the same time. We packed up and headed for home.