Joe Ragan

Last week I shared some scripture that the Lord has been using in my life recently.  I had not planned to write on this subject again so soon, however, in the last 48 hours, the Lord has vividly shown me His love through others.  This love poured out on me has spurred me to even dwell deeper on what God may be saying to me.

I arrived in Donetsk Saturday afternoon.  Two young people, whom I love like my own, met me at the airport.  Their father needed their vehicle, so they called their cousin (who is a taxi driver) and he brought them to the airport to meet me.  We got to my apartment and they wouldn’t let me pay for the ride.  We walked into my apartment and the sister had already prepared lunch for us!  What a great picture of love!

Sunday, my car wouldn’t start.  Dead battery from all the cold weather!  A couple of brothers tried to help me after church to no avail.  I decided to go buy a new battery.  On the way to find a taxi, I saw my neighbor and after sharing my story, he wanted to help.  He wound up staying with me more than 2 hours in sub-freezing temps!  A great picture of caring for your neighbor.

Eventually, I had to call my mechanic, who happens to be a pastor at the church I attend.  He showed up and after more than an hour of charging my battery, the car finally started.  He insisted that I drive my car to his house so that he could put my battery on a charger overnight.  He, also, spent more than 2 hours in the freezing temps to help and after getting to his house, invited me in to warm up with a cup of coffee.  A great picture of people willing to help.

Do I show love to my neighbors?  Do I show love to my brothers and sisters?  What more can I do to help them see Jesus in me?  May I be ever listening to the Father’s voice so that my actions will fulfill, “by this all people will know…”.

After church this morning, a group of us went to a great Hungarian restaurant and had lunch.  I decided to go with some Hungarian goulash soup and a Spicy Chicken and pasta dish.

The goulash was delicious!  Maybe the best I have had in Budapest!  The Spicy chicken and pasta dish lived up to its name, it was spicy.  But not so spicy that it detracted from the overall flavor of the food.  There were 3 different colors of peppers served with a bed of wide pasta that had a great flavor that added to the spiciness of the chicken.  However, the portion was so huge that I only ate half of the plate, so I am looking forward to enjoying the rest sometime this week!

After lunch, I took a colleague to Culinaris.  A local store that carries lots of imported foods from around the world. The main reason for going there was to get some Dr Pepper Zero.  As far as I know, it is the only place in town to get it.  I paid 990 forints (around $4.50) for a 2 liter bottle.  I will enjoy every sip of it this week!

This store has lots of other American stuff like Reeces Cups, Pop Tarts, baking items and lots of cereals.  However, I was a good boy and refrained from it all (except the Reeces Cups, which I share with the colleague) and only bought the DP Zero and a bag of coffee from Vienna.  I have learned that I really like Viennese coffee.  It was a good day!

Budapest, compared to Ukraine, is the land of choices when it comes to restaurants.  In Donetsk, where I live, there is one decent choice for fast food: McDonalds.  Budapest has several US chains as well as some good local restaurants.

Today, in a moment of weakness, I decided to go to Subway.  I don’t do Subway as I feel that I can do a pretty good sandwich at home, minus the good bread at Subway.  I had a roasted Chicken sandwich that was ok, but not great.  This is exactly why I don’t do Subway.

One side “benefit” is to hear lots of folks speaking English.  There were 3 girls from Britain talking and laughing.  Then a boy and girl from the US came in and had a sandwich and left quickly.  They didn’t talk much to each other.

What I “learned” from this experience is that I should listen to myself.  I really didn’t want to go there, but decided to do so out of convenience.

Life is full of choices.  This choice wasn’t a life or death situation.  Yet, many of our choices impact our lives to varying degrees. The most important choice I ever made was in 1974 to follow Jesus.  That is one decision I have never regretted.

I remember the first time visiting the TsUM in Kyiv.  It was in May or June 1994.  The TsUm is short for Central Universal Shop (or Central Department Store).  These Soviet style stores are still popular where they still exist.

The first time I visited the store, I felt like I had just found the shop of all shops in Ukraine.  At the time I lived in Lugansk, in far eastern Ukraine and we didn’t have a shop that offered all the variety that the TsUM did in Kyiv.  I remember buying all kinds of stuff not available in Lugansk.

After my introduction to this department store, each and every time I visited Kyiv from Lugansk, I made a point to go to the TsUM to see if there was anything I needed from there. I also remember that most of the old escalators didn’t work and most of the time, only the ones going up were on.

A year later, I found out that another shop, called the Ukraina, existed.  It was there that I found a pair of hiking boots for some ridiculous low price.  A funny side note, my friend Dima and I stopped at a kiosk outside the store to get something to eat and I placed my bag with my shoes on the ground to pay.  We walked off and after a couple of minutes I realized I didn’t have my bag.  We ran back to the kiosk and thankfully, my bag was still sitting where I had left it!

This morning, I read online where the TsUM has closed for major renovations and won’t re-open until late 2014.  Here are the details.  It is sad that this landmark has closed.  When I arrived in Kyiv in 2003 I remember going to the store and realized it wasn’t the inexpensive shop that it used to be.  Most clothing had become expensive.

Now with a new mall going to open up in the spot, I am sure, with it being on the main street of Kyiv, prices will become even more unaffordable.  But I am sure I will ultimately visit the new mall, if nothing else, to see what was left unchanged and to see whether or not the escalators are working!

On Saturday, January 28, a colleague, Linda, led a prayer walking seminar at Gethsemane church.  The first half of the seminar she explained what prayer walking is.  Then she broke the group up into 2′s and 3′s and gave them photos of different landmarks and places around the city of Donetsk that I had prepared.

After they spent time praying she went around the room asking them what vision God had given them as they prayed for the city.  It was great to hear many of the responses.  Several of them wrote on the backs of the photos their prayers.

Hopefully, when I return from my trip to Budapest, I can arrange a slide show of these photos and assembly a visual prayer walk of Donetsk to put on the blog.  It was great for me to hear their insight.  New eyes always provide new vision.

Sunday afternoon, a taxi driver named Vitalik, picked me up to take me to the airport.  The street I live on is a one way street, except for one lane that buses use to travel in the opposite direction.

As we were traveling along the road, I heard a car engine revving and witnessed a car fly by in the lane reserved for buses traveling the opposite direction.  Fortunately, there weren’t any buses and we watched as this car weaved in and out of traffic with no tags on the car.

This incident caused Vitalik to ask me if we had drivers like that in America.  I assured him that we did, but there are far fewer of them than in Ukraine.  We began discussing the wealthy people in Ukraine and their children and several horrible incidences where their children have been able to practically walk away from incidences that would mean jail time in other countries.

His conversation reminded me of numerous conversations I have had in the last 18 months while living in Ukraine:  the younger people do not have hope for real change to happen in Ukraine and they are all looking for a way out.  Just recently, I asked a group of 4th year students a the Economics university how many of them planned to look for jobs outside of Ukraine.  Every hand went up.

I can only imagine the disappointment the professors must have felt who were sitting in the room.  They are preparing these students not to be productive in their own homeland, but for them to be productive elsewhere, at least that is what the students hope.

While listening to Vitalik, my heart was broken.  I shared with him that I have spent more than 11 years in the former Soviet Union.  I have enjoyed every country I have lived in and my greatest desire is to see these countries stand on their own and succeed.  Almost eight of those years have been in Ukraine and I have really grown fond of the country, its culture and especially, its people.  I truly believe that I love Ukraine more than some of its own.

Then, God reminded me of the proverb found in Proverbs 29:18: Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he. (KJV)  The translation I read the most, English Standard Version says, Where there is no prophetic vision the people cast off restraint, but blessed is he who keeps the law.

Where there is no vision.  I think in many ways, this describes the young people of Ukraine.  Many have told me, “If I only saw the country changing, then maybe I could believe things would be different.”  And how true is the “the people cast off restraint”.  I witnessed that with the way the driver conducted himself.

A few hours later, I arrived in Budapest.  Hungary gained its independence from communism in October 1989, less than 2 years before Ukraine.  I do not wish to compare the two countries, but let’s just say that Hungary is farther along in the process than Ukraine, which begs the question, “why isn’t Ukraine?”

While there may not be vision in Ukraine, there is hope.  It is that hope that drives me each and every day.  The hope for a better country, for a better live.  That hope is found in only one place, a relationship with Jesus Christ.  That is my vision for Ukraine.  That soon, every knee will bow and every tongue will confess: Jesus Christ is Lord.  Then and only then will there be not only hope, but vision as well.

Sundays in Germany means that businesses are closed.  Several times a year, they are allowed to open on Sundays, and most of those Sundays are before Christmas.

Today, October 23, happened to be one of those days when businesses were allowed to be opened.  I decided to go to IKEA, on the edge of town, but just one tram ride away from my hotel.  The businesses are not allowed to open before 1 p.m. and must close at 6 p.m., so I timed my journey in order to get there right as they opened.

I arrived and there were people already in the store and there were numerous cars in the parking lot.  When I came out about 40 minutes later, the lot was full.  So, Germans like to shop on Sundays too!

I planned my trip so that I could go to a shopping mall where a large supermarket was located.  In many malls in Europe there are large supermarkets.  It’s kind of nice, America should try it out!

Any way, I arrived at the mall and it was packed!  The supermarket was full as well and long lines at the checkout.  Again, proof positive that the Germans like to shop on Sundays.

I had a discussion with some people about this law and they told me the church still has control of the government to the extent that they won’t change the laws. What’s important to note is that the churches have little influence upon the culture here and many if not most of them are empty on Sundays!

I remember growing up in the 70′s.  Everything was closed in Texas as well.  We had blue laws regulating that a business had to be closed on Sundays.  I seem to recall that when malls became popular, they wouldn’t open until 1 p.m. on Sundays and close around 6.  Today they open as they please and we know most WalMarts are open 24/7.

That is probably why WalMart and other big box stores like them never got a foothold in the German market.  Even though they do have large retail chains here, most of the mom and pop store exists as well.

At 4:45 p.m. today I had a reservation to visit the German government building.  Today is a Sunday!  I couldn’t believe that a business doesn’t have an option about whether to open or not on a Sunday in Germany, but the German government will give tours!  With the current economic crisis throughout the EU, I think a few more stores would be making a loud noise about being open on Sundays.

Just my thoughts….

Another week, another wedding.  I got to the church a little late and couldn’t find a parking spot.  Cars were every where.  I knew this probably meant the church was full and it might be hard for me to find a seat. I was right!

Valerie Antonuik, vice president of the Baptist Union, had been invited to lead the service.  He did a great job of explaining the union between a man and woman.

After the ceremony, I was asked to go with the couple to take some pictures at a local park.  It is a tradition with most Slavik couples to take pictures around the city at the different historical or scenic spots.

Sergei and Sveta decided to go to the new park the city is building near the football stadium.  It is a beautiful spot, made the more beautiful with the colorful leaves from autumn.  It was quite cold in the park since the wind was blowing pretty hard.

Afterwards, we went to Donetsk Christian University to attend the dinner the parents of the couple were hosting.  The dining hall had been converted into a nice setting to host the dinner.

Usually, those in attendance are given the chance to say some words of blessings or encouragement to the new couple.  I didn’t really want to stand in front of all those people and try to share my heart in a language not my own, so I waited until we had a break.

For the last few months God has been really speaking to my heart about love.  Since this day had been all about the love that had grown between Sergei and Sveta, God brought to my heart 1 Corinthians 13:13 “So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.”

It has been apparent between these two young people that their faith is strong.  Knowing Sergei longer, I have seen the hope and trust he had in the Father to provide the wife for him.  And in the last few months I have seen their love grow stronger for each other.

So, when my time came to share with them, I shared this verse.  The greatest of all things is love.

For me, it means that I must love God even more tomorrow than I do today.  And because of this love, it will spur me to love my neighbors even more than I do today.  I will be judged by the Father by how much I love.  I must strive to fulfill these greatest commandments.

Last Saturday, Sveta got married.  I got to know her this past summer as she interpreted for a couple of teams I hosted.  I knew she was bound for marriage the first day she interpreted.  She was constantly on her phone talking to her boyfriend, Zhenya.

Baptist believers have several traditions during the wedding day.  I make this distinction as I have never been to any other kind of wedding in Ukraine.

First, the young man comes to the house (or apartment) to pick up the young bride to take her to the church.  Ukrainian law requires them to have a civil ceremony as well, which is typically done before the church wedding. 

Zhenya picked up Sveta and her attendant, Toni.  Together with his attendant, they drove to Sharkhtorsk (about 1 hour from Donetsk).  Around 11 a.m. the flower girl and boy made their entrance, followed by the attendants and then the bride and groom walk down the aisle.

They had asked Stepan Ivanovich to preside over the service.  He is the regional pastor for Donetsk.  He did a fine job outlining the roles of both the wife and husband.  I enjoyed what he had to say to the couple and the responsibility of the family and church.

One of my favorites Ukrainian traditions is when the pastor lays hands on the couple and prays for them.  The pastor also had the parents of the the couple pray their blessing upon their children.

After the service, several pictures were taken around the church and then the couple headed back to Donetsk where they took pictures around the different cultural sites around the city, which is a Slavic tradition.

Then the parents hosted a very nice dinner at a local restaurant.  I was blessed in receiving an invitation.  After several hours of eating and enjoying the entertainment, they invited everyone to come forward that wanted and share some words with the couple.  Of course, I struggled to express my happiness for the couple since Russian is not my native language and I didn’t want Sveta to have to translate.  My weak attempt at a joke failed, so I guess I will have to call them later to explain what I meant.

Overall, it was a great day with weather to match.  I have two more weddings this month, so I will have a couple more times to expose you to a little Ukrainian culture.

Donetsk doesn’t feel like a big city to me.  That’s why I really enjoy living here.  We don’t have the 20 or 30 something story apartment buildings like other cities of over a million.  So, I call Donetsk a big village.

I have had a REALLY busy day today getting ready for the team from AL, who will arrive Tuesday evening.  I got up early this morning and drove the Auchan Supermarket.  It is the largest store of its kind in Donetsk.  I always try to go there early because it can be really busy.  I didn’t think it would be today since it was a holiday.

I filled up the cart and had to wait until the lady checked some of my food before I could finish unloading.  I don’t know how people with large families do it overseas.  I guess they shop 2-3 times a week because our refrigerators aren’t big enough and neither is our storage space.  I have 4 bags in the floor of my kitchen since I don’t have anywhere else to put things in the kitchen!!!

Well, Auchan didn’t have parmesan or any good mozzarela cheeses so I knew I would have to go to another store, but decided to go home, unload the car (took me 3 trips up/down  3 flights of stairs).

While home I went ahead and did some cleaning.  It is amazing that I cannot find someone to come clean/ cook for me.  I even had a pastor ask around.  No luck yet.  So, I am having to plan and prepare all the meals for the team and so am trying to do casseroles and crock pot stuff!

About an hour ago, I decided to go to the other supermarket not far from my house.  I figured that it probably had calmed down enough that it wouldn’t be too busy.  BOY, was I wrong!!  My big village turned into a big city around Park Sherbakova, McDonalds and the supermarket.

I think everyone was there.  First of all, lots of young people were out front drinking and eating and leaving their trash (I feel bad for the supermarket having to clean that mess up!).  I bet they wish they didn’t build so close to the part as well.  The lines to use their toilets was incredible.  I bet there were more than 20 women standing in line!

The supermarket itself was packed as well.  I should have known from the overflowing parking lot not to go in.  But I figured, “Hey, I am here.  Let’s get er done!”  I was able to get everything on my list.  I found the mozzarela and parmesan I like, along with a few other items.  And I actually found a short check line.

Well, I guess it’s okay that my big village was a big city for a while.  It will make me appreciate even more the next time I am at that parking lot and the lot is not as full.

Life’s good…