We are spending the week in Zaporozhye at the home of Olga
Rubel. She is the Mennonite Centre
representative in this area. The west
bank of the Dnieper River at Zaporozhye was the site of the first Mennonite
settlement in Ukraine in 1786. It was
called Chortiza, after the name of a local river that flowed through the
settlement. Many Mennonites in North
America trace their origins to this settlement.
With the Mennonite Centre in Molochansk located east of the Dnieper
River in the settlement that was known as Molotschna and our representative Olga
Rubel in Zaporozhye, we can provide support to both original Mennonite
settlements. (All other Mennonite
settlements in Ukraine were daughter colonies from these two original
areas.)
We arrived at Olga’s place on Saturday and spent the evening
planning our week. Our objective was to
obtain a better understanding of the work in the Zaporozhye area. It
wasn't long before we had the week filled with at least 2 meetings per
day. Tuesday morning we left on an
inspection trip to Dolynske, which covers the former Mennonite villages of
Neu-Osterwick and Kronsthal. Ostensibly
this trip was to look at the former Mennonite school which was still in use
after 100 years and where the Mennonite Centre had provided assistance in obtaining
new windows, desks, and chalk boards. In
reality, this destination was a highly personal choice on my part.
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| Hundred Year Old Mennonite School Building in Dolynske |
One year ago, a good friend of mine, Reg Litz, was going to
visit us in Ukraine and we were going to explore these villages as they were
his ancestral home. Instead of arriving
last May as planned, we received an email that he had a very serious type of cancer
and would be undergoing surgery. Reg
passed away last December at the young age of 55. On one of my visits with him in the fall, he
acknowledged that he was not going to get to Ukraine and he asked me to make
the visit to his ancestral village and take a picture of the location where the
church stood where his grandparents were married. That was the real reason for my trip that
day. While we had the original maps of
the village, it was hard to determine the precise location of the church. I believe he would have been pleased to see
that there is a beautiful Orthodox church very near the site of the church
where his grandparents were married.
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| Original Site of Church |
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| Nearby Orthodox Church |
Mary and I both felt Reg’s presence on the trip that
day. On our tour of the school we got to
see every classroom with the students and teachers present. I could just imagine Reg, with his high level
of energy and enthusiasm, taking over each class and starting a discussion with
the students. He would have found a way
around the language barrier. In one
class with a teacher and 2 students (they claimed 3 people were sick that day),
I imagined Reg with his crazy sense of humour suggesting that the class break
up into discussion groups and resolve some unique world crisis. It was healing for us to travel with the
memory of Reg that day.
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| Class With 2 Students |
There are many things I do not understand about
Ukraine. The country claims to be poor
when it comes to furnishing their schools with needed equipment and supplies. On the other hand, in this school they had a
student/teacher ratio of less than 10 to 1.
This is not the case for all schools but obviously there is no one
setting overall priorities on how to spend education dollars. The people responsible for the budget for
salaries obviously have no responsibility for other aspects of education and do
not make trade-offs between these areas.
Another day we drove north to visit a dairy farm started by
a Manitoban named Garry Verhoog. His
children are operating the original dairy farm in Canada, located south-east of
Steinbach. He has come here as part of
his Christian ministry to establish a self-sustaining dairy operation and trade
school where he can teach orphans a valuable skill while providing employment
for many locals. Through good feeding
and genetics, he has managed to double the milk production over that of local
farmers. I admire Garry for undertaking
the difficult challenge of learning a new language and deciphering the culture
so as to successfully operate a business in Ukraine. You can read more about his work in his blog
at: http://moo-oosings.blogspot.ca/. He is currently expanding his operation and
will soon have a barn for 100 milk cows.
The cows will be free roaming with a separate milking parlour. They are even building classrooms in the barn
to properly instruct the orphans on site.
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| Garry Vehoog in New Dairy Barn |
I like Garry’s practical approach to ministry. With increased security in the area marked by
road blocks, Garry has responded by providing the nearest security checkpoint
with a weekly supply of milk. One time
he bought out all the hamburgers at McDonald’s and dropped them off as he went
through the security roadblock. This
would have been a gourmet treat for the police and military staff.
Others are also reaching out to the military in this
unsettled time. Last Sunday at church in
Zaporozhye, we heard a report from people in the church who had made a special
trip to deliver humanitarian aid to a group of soldiers camped out in a field near
Mariupol. This is in the eastern part of
Ukraine on the Sea of Azov. They brought
essential items such as toilet paper, flashlights, and food. They were in cell phone communication with
the soldiers as they approached and were guided in with special instructions. The area surrounding the encampment is mined
and getting off the path could be dangerous.
The group of civilians was thanked for their assistance and given a ride
on an armoured troop carrier. Another emergency
supply convoy is planned for the coming week.
Obviously the situation in Ukraine is not stabilizing. I have been warned by some readers not to
take pictures of any military activity and definitely not to post it on my blog
as they are concerned for our safety. I
would like to respect this request as much as possible but some exceptions will
have to be tolerated. The next picture
you see is a military vehicle from another era.
It is located in the museum in Dnepropetrovsk and shows a buggy built by
Mennonites, captured by the Red Army (communists) who mounted a machine gun on
the back seat. The message written on
the back says, “Death to General Wrangel”.
This general was in charge of the White Army fighting the communists. He fought a number of battles in the area
occupied by Mennonites.
Mary and I would like to complete our term in Ukraine and go home as scheduled on May 28. We realize that this cannot be guaranteed and
that our plans have to remain flexible.
Your ongoing prayers for our safety are much appreciated.
For more information on the work of the Mennonite Centre,
please go to: http://www.mennonitecentre.ca/
You can also join Facebook and follow us at: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Mennonite-Centre-Ukraine/735361069838076
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