Greetings from Ukraine,

Russian Trip

Well, the Rogers’ are all back safe and sound in Ukraine after being in Russia for two and a half weeks. It was truly an UNFORGETTABLE trip!!! There was never a dull moment from near dying of unbelievable heat, waiting mega hours for planes, running across the railroad tracks as the train was approaching and the bells were ringing to seeing wonderful old friends in Omsk and the church there, getting to visit in many of the homes that REACH has helped with children who have Cerebral Palsy and then finally seeing the most elaborate Palaces I have ever seen. It was a wild 18 days!!

Jay Don and I left Donetsk on July first for Omsk, Siberia. Rhett and Julia had left a week earlier so they could attend Ilya’s graduation. We got our own taxi and got to the airport just fine. When we checked our luggage you could tell they wanted to try and get more money from us but we just acted dumb and said we didn’t understand Russian except a little so they let us alone!!!

Moscow Airport

On arrival to Moscow, Jay Don was just in shock to see the Domodidovo Airport. This is the one he flew into many times when he would come to Omsk and said it was the worst, most filthy place he had ever seen. Well, they had torn the old airport completely down and built a brand new one, not anything like a town of over 10 million should have, but a huge improvement over the other one. We were both very thankful as we had to wait 13 hours here before the flight to Omsk left.

It was late when we left for Omsk and it is a 4 and a half hour flight plus you loose 4 hours so just as we were landing it was already way past our bedtime but 5:30 in the morning Omsk time!!!

Omsk, Siberia

Rhett, Julia, her dad and uncle met us at the airport and took us to our apartment. The kids were just in shock about how hot it had been there and from the minute we got there until the time we left and we agreed~~~100 plus nearly everyday we were there!! They were able to get us an apartment but we would have NO hot water. After I saw the apartment I was not a very happy camper (bathroom pictures enclosed!!) but figured for 10 days I could do it if these people have to live like this all the time! (However, before the 10 days were over I was getting pretty grumpy though we did finally get hot water after a couple of days!!)

The church in Omsk had a campaign group of 15 Americans there the week we were there and it sure made the Sunday morning service great. We met in a library and it must have been over 100 degrees in there with thousands of mosquitoes biting you every second and not one fan or any other kind of air, but it was sure wonderful to see many old and dear acquaintances. Everyone was thrilled to see Jay Don again and wanting us to come to their homes. Ilya is doing a super job working with the church there and he just turned 17 while we were there. He is an amazing young man. We were only able to attend the other meetings one night as Dr. Olga had our time all booked up.

We went to two different homes where their were children with Cerebral Palsy. In one of the homes four different families were there. Both places just wanted to have us over for a meal and meet the children and say thank you for the money that has been given to them through REACH. The children have all improved wonderfully with the treatments they have received and the parents are so very grateful. Dr. Olga feels these parents are so good as she has seen some where they just treat the child like an animal and barely bother to feed him. It is a common thing here for people to feel very ashamed of a handicapped child and want to keep them hid but this certainly wasn’t the case in the homes we visited. The children ranged from 4 to 17. Some could talk, some could walk a little with help and some couldn’t but they all seemed so happy and you could tell the parents just adored them. In one case the parents and the grandparents had sold their apartments and all gone in together to buy one apartment so they could have more money to help their son. Over and over again they thanked us for the help they had received but as we always do, we told them the money comes from many loving and generous Christians who love God and just want to help in anyway they can. We just get to be the ones lucky enough to give it out and see the light in the eyes of so many grateful people. (Pictures enclosed)

In each one of these places we stayed 4-6 hours and not one of them had so much as a fan in 100 degree weather. I thought I was going to have a heat stroke. I am at the age I don’t do to well with lots of heat and no air!! My little hand fan I bought in Spain last Summer is all that kept me alive!! HA! The kids and us both bought fans for our apartments that helped a little and then just left them with Dr. Olga so hopefully they can have some relief.

Toward the end of our stay Dr. Olga arranged for us to go out to a camp where they have various groups of handicapped children. There was a group of deaf/mute children there at this time and we were asked if we could buy sports supplies so they could have things to play with outside. We had taken some REACH money with us and said we would be glad to. We bought basketballs, badminton sets, hula hoops, and lots of blocks. We were picked up by a "van" from the camp but we first had to go see a woman who was in charge of giving people "permission" to go to the camp. Dr. Olga had told us she was a strong Communist and was just hoping she would not stop us!!! How sad to think they could be so insecure, we were not impressed with the whole thing. This woman had forbid other campaign workers to take Bible story materials to the hospitals so we were very curious what her reaction would be to us. However, our God is in charge and He is bigger than any Communist Party and she was very pleasant to us and said of course we could go out to the camp and take all the supplies. We were then off on our journey of over an hour out in the country. When we got to the camp our first impression was a GREAT surprise. The smell in the air was of pine trees, it was cool and the facilities were by far the nicest I have seen in Ukraine or Russia anywhere. They have had a German sponsor who has funded them while they built their present facilities but the sponsor has now pulled out. I know they are wanting us to help there but this would be a huge undertaking. We left some REACH money with them as a donation and they seemed very pleased. They served us a light lunch and showed us the entire facility after we presented the gifts to the kids. (Pictures enclosed)

After the tour Dr. Olga and the Dr. in charge of the camp drove us out farther in the woods to a place where we had "Bar-B-Q" shashleek. We just had a nice couple of hours of relaxing and visiting while Rhett and Jay Don built the fire and played chefs!!

Dr. Olga and the other Dr. had brought all the food and it was very tasty in a lovely "camping" atmosphere. It was so good to smell a campfire again. Boy, do I miss camping in BC. After a good lunch and nice visit we headed back to Omsk to sweat the night away!

St. Petersburg

On July 12th all four of us left Omsk and headed for St. Petersburg. It was a late, long, hot flight and it was over two hours late. When we finally arrived the missionary and van driver who were meeting us were most uptight about us being so late but it wasn’t our fault!! They were uptight because we were staying about an hour away from the airport on an Island. There are several draw bridges to get there but they close them EVERY night from 2-4 A.M. to let the boats go through. If you are in a car and miss the bridges being down, you have to sit in your car for 2 hours while the boats go through and wait until they reopen the bridges. We then understood their frustration. They got us to our apartment and just took off, leaving the landlady to explain things. (They made the bridge just in time!!!) It was now about 1:45 in the morning. The good news was that we had an apartment with rooms for each couple but the bad news was that there would be NO hot water the entire week we were to be there. The Russian mentality is that they save a lot of energy if they just cut off the hot water during periods of time in the summer, and who cares about what the people do without! (I don’t really care for this way of thinking!!!) (They also supposedly clean the pipes out at this time as well but I can’t see that it helps much.)

The next 7 days were spent letting Julia show us "her" city of St. Petersburg. I must say we saw some of the most beautiful, elaborate palaces I have ever seen and I truly enjoyed seeing all the beauty. The Hermitage and the Peterhov Gardens were just fabulous. It is just a shame the Czars had to have so much and not share some of this wealth with the people. Maybe they would have stayed in power if they had not been so selfish and lavished so much wealth upon themselves. On the last day we were there we went out to St Peter and Paul’s cathedral where St. Petersburg started. Many of the royals are buried there, including Anastasia. She was NOT the one missing despite the Disney story!!!

We visited the church at Lomonosav on Sunday where Joel Petty works. One of our students, Igor and his family are there right now testing the idea of them moving there and working with the church there. So far both parties are very happy with each other. If that does work out UBI would place another worker in Russia. Igor and his family are just wonderful and they were so happy to see familiar faces. They had about 35 members there that day and are in the process of buying an apartment to worship in. It was nice to get to meet another group of Christians on this side of the world. They had Jay Don do the Lord’s Supper. After a quick visit we had to rush to catch our train back to St. Petersburg.

Rhett, Jay Don and I left for Donetsk on the 18th and with the heat and no fans, the sauna nights, and no hot water for a week we were really ready to get back home. You know things have really been difficult when you are excited to get back to Ukraine!!! Julia had to fly back to Omsk to be in her best friends wedding.

We made it home just fine and were so excited to get home. The first thing I did was turn on both air conditioners and just sit a while before going to take a good long hot shower but ALAS Jay Don came in and told me we had NO WATER!!

Welcome to Ukraine!!

New Light Lectureship

Jay Don and I have been ask to speak on a lectureship at New Light next week and I think I am going to use some of the material from the Purpose book. There are a couple of lessons on what makes God smile and I really like that idea. I told Jay Don before we moved over here teaching children(babies) was my thing and not ladies but it seems the Lord keeps making me stretch!!! Now that the Sneeds are gone and we are the only resident teachers I have the whole ladies program on my shoulders. Anyone want to come for a term or two and volunteer to teach??????????????

Jay Don is very busy now trying to arrange the Fall schedule and get things organized for school to re-open on August 11th. It looks like there are plenty of people willing to come for the first couple of terms which is a real blessing for my husband. We have enjoyed the break but are both ready to see all the precious students again. Rhett will be preaching full time at Kubashev, doing taping of the classes at UBI and going to school to SERIOUSLY learn Russian. Julia will be a senior at her college and is overjoyed with the prospect of finishing. I will also try to steal her to translate for me any time I can!!

Must close this book for now and please know we send much love to each of you and thank you so very, very much for your faithful love, support and prayers.

Much love in Him,

Jay Don and Mary Lee

We thank our God every time we remember you.

Mary Lee with children

Bathtub in Omsk, Siberia

An evening with Dr. Olga

Giving sports equipment

Getting the fire ready

Jay Don and Mary Lee in St. Petersburg

Family with Cerebral Palsy child