Day 15 - Ukrainian church service Sunday Oct. 2

It is our 3rd Sunday since leaving home. We were traveling the last two weeks and had no opportunity to try to find a church. This week, however, we had connections to find a Christian church here in Sumy where we are staying.Yarik was our guide. At first he said we should walk and then once we got outside and he tried to get his bearings and decided to call a taxi. We were all excited about the opportunity to take our boys to a Christian service in their own language. Yarik was very excited to go to church. We found out that he had never been to a church in Ukraine before. We did not think that we would have a translator, but it did not matter, we knew that the boys would understand and that we could enjoy the singing and fellowship.
The taxi took us to the address that we had been given. At first we were not sure, as it looked like a one story Orthodox church. Then Darren looked on the other side of the street and that building looked more promising. We followed the directions and found the room where they were getting ready to start the service.
There was a lady there that introduced herself in English and said that there was someone who could translate for us. This was an unexpected blessing.
The service was very similar to our service at home. There was singing with overhead slides with the words printed. We did our best to read and sing. We were fairly okay with the slow songs, but had trouble when they sang fast. We have no idea what we were singing, but could get a few things like love God and Jesus. After the singing, they had people greet one another. Then offer some praises and prayer requests.

Ukrainian church service

The Communion was next, and just like home, they do it on the first Sunday of the month. The difference was that they used a single cup for everyone to share the wine. It was really special to be able to share communion with Yarik and know that he could understand what was being said and what was happening.
The sermon was about the church being a body of believers united and caring for one another. It was a really great message and we felt like we were experiencing this in many ways during this trip. Building fast bonds with several other families who are here adopting, feeling welcomed by the church and people there, and feeling so blessed by the prayers of many of our brothers and sisters in America!
After the sermon there was a little more singing and announcements. They have small groups and other things just like we do. We really felt God's presence and were so blessed to see the boys reacting to the sermon and paying attention to what was being said.
We were so thankful for Ira who translated the main points of the sermon for us. She was such a sweetheart! We told her we would pray for her as she is the only one in her family that is a believer. It was a small church, but we could tell that the Spirit of God was truly present!

After church we decided to walk back towards our hotel and try to find a restaurant along the way for lunch. Yarik decided that we did not need a taxi and could find the way for us. The first corner, he tried to lead us the wrong way! We all had to give him a hard time about that.

Tonya, Tressa, Vitaly, Darren, Erica & Yarik at the Restaurant

We did find our way back to down town and after a couple tries, found a neat Ukrainian restaurant to have lunch. There was no English menu, so we counted on Yarik to help us not be too surprised with what we would be eating. We did pretty good, we got some soups, sandwiches for Vitaly, salad for Yarik and chicken dishes for Darren, Tressa and I. It was all very yummy. We then went back to the hotel and to spend some time relaxing. Yarik had to be back at the school that night, so we said good-byes and planned to see him after school the next day.