Our last
week is rushing to its final conclusion.
We had deliberately left this week open as we knew external events would
intervene in any of our plans.
Last Sunday
we arrived by train in Zaporozhe from Kyiv.
The train trip was uneventful except for a strange time when the train
just stood for a whole hour. Later we
found out that it was the weekend for Ukraine to switch back to standard time
and an extra hour was introduced into the schedule. To ensure the train stayed on time, it just
stopped and waited till the extra hour had passed. I could not get a satisfactory answer as to
what the train did in spring when the schedule lost an hour.
Monday
morning we were met with an avalanche of requests for assistance. The one that sticks in my mind is that of an
elderly husband looking for assistance for his wife. She has had six surgeries on her spine, with
a progressive story of horror attached to each surgery. She was now in extreme pain and needed her
spine fused. They had borrowed money for
each surgery but now were so deeply in debt they barely had food to eat. The request was for $750.00. We agreed to accept their request and submit
it to the board for approval. I often
ask myself as to why I feel compassion for certain requests. In this case I know why. Here was this poorly dressed man, who one
could see just loved his wife and would do anything for her, asking for help in
a very dignified way. It was very
touching. Even though he did not request
it, we asked the staff to give him a food parcel as he left. I regret not getting his picture.
Tuesday was
seniors’ lunch day at the Mennonite Centre.
Many seniors come early just to sit in a place where there is some
warmth and visit with their friends. As
with any program there always are issues to be resolved. The occasional guest has had issues with poor
personal hygiene. The odour can
overpower the dining room and all attendees are made uncomfortable. We have started accommodating these guests outside. I am always impressed with the loving way our
staff treat these “special” individuals.
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| Tanya Serving a Special Guest |
On our way
home on Tuesday evening we met our favourite neighbours in Molochansk. They are Anatoli and Raisa. We refer to him as the turkey man, as he used
to keep these birds in his yard. He is
hard of hearing and has poor eyesight but once he realized who we were, we had
to come in for a visit. His wife had
just been released from hospital where she was for 3 months with kidney
stones. This couple has never come to
the Mennonite Centre for any assistance but has received all Mennonites from
Canada with open arms. Anatoli is proud
of the fact that his grandfather was a coachman for a business in Molochansk
(Franz and Schroeder). He feels a definite kinship with all Mennonites.
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| Anatoli age 90 |
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| Raisa |
Anatoli is
very enamoured with Mary and always remembers her name but butchers up mine
quite badly. He praised Mary to high
heaven and chastised me for my poor Russian.
He told me that I had been here often enough that I should be quite
fluent in it. He gave me an “F” in Russian
language speaking skills. He compared me
to Frank Dyck that had come from Canada and spoke Russian quite well. While I have never met Frank Dyck I do know of
him. He had come to Ukraine with a
different organization and had been instrumental in founding the current
Molochansk Mennonite Church. He also was
born in Ukraine and had a distinct advantage in learning the Russian language
as a youngster.
Wednesday
morning we drove out to Melitopol to see Father Peter, our favourite Greek
Catholic priest. We first met him when
he was renovating the former Mennonite Church at Schoensee to start his own
congregation in that village. That
congregation is now established and Father Peter is focused on an outreach in
the City of Melitopol. Among his many
programs in Melitopol, he operates a daily soup kitchen for the homeless. In summer her feeds about 30 people a day
with this growing to over 100 a day in winter.
The Mennonite Centre supports his work in Melitopol with a monthly
contribution of $350.00.
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| Passing Food Through The Open Window |
Father Peter
was in a very relaxed, jovial mood and we talked about many things. He gave us a delicious meal of a chicken that
he claimed had still been running around that morning. When we pointed out that the plate held 5
drum sticks, he claimed that it must have been a miracle with the chicken
producing an endless supply of drumsticks. We reminisced about our event with
the Ambassador last fall. He told us
that Schoensee was becoming a destination for pilgrimages in eastern
Ukraine. Last year about 100 people participated
in a joint pilgrimage from Melitopol to Schoensee. Father Peter sees this as a start. A similar pilgrimage in western Ukraine
attracted 85,000 people last year. All
the Mennonites walking the Camino in Spain may wish to consider another
option. A prayerful walk through our ancestral
villages would be very meaningful.
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| Our Meal of Miraculous Chicken |
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| Renovated Schoensee Church |
We talked to
Father Peter about our trip to the western part of Ukraine the previous
week. We thought we detected something
different in the people. Father Peter
strongly agreed. The people in western Ukraine did not experience communism for
as long as they did in the east. The
concept of family was not destroyed in the west as it was in our area. The people in the east who survived the
Holodomor of 1932-33, lived with a sickly fear.
For example, they were known to hoard food in case of another
famine. Father Peter felt that the
Protestant churches were better at relating to people and this gave them an
opening to getting established in eastern Ukraine.
Thursday
morning I finally had a chance to meet my much anticipated “Tunnel Lady”. She happens to be the local undertaker. We enjoyed the irony of meeting right after
Halloween in her place of business to talk about subterranean passages. The concept of under-promising and
over-delivering is not understood in Ukraine.
She had not walked the tunnel as promised. It seems that every person in Molochansk has
a second cousin once removed, who once had a friend, now deceased, who actually
walked the tunnels all the way from the Willms mansion to the Willms flour
mill. The tunnel lady’s father had drawn
a map of the tunnels but this map is now lost and her father has died. She remembers that it definitely showed the
tunnel from the Willms mansion coming passed the Mennonite Centre and on toward
the former Mennonite Credit Union. There
apparently were tunnels in many parts of Molochansk and she may show up later
today to give us a surface tour of where she remembers seeing tunnels.
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| Site of Latest Meeting on Tunnels |
Thursday at
11:00 AM we had to be back in Melitopol for a “Prayer Breakfast” organized by
the local clergy in honour of the 500th Anniversary of the
Protestant Reformation. This anniversary
is a much bigger deal in Europe than it is in Canada. All Protestant churches as well as Father
Peter of the Greek Catholic church were invited. Even the mayor of Melitopol was in
attendance. I was given almost 24 hour
notice that they were expecting me to make a presentation on the work of the
Mennonite Centre. When I got there I
realized that I was the main speaker.
Glad I put on my tie.
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| Prayer Breakfast Meeting |
In the book “A
Mennonite Estate Family in Southern Ukraine”, Nicola Fehderau spent his last
day in Halbstadt (now called Molochansk) walking around the town and commenting
on many aspects. I had hoped to do the
same but life has intervened. I might cover that topic in future trips. I thought I would show one final
picture.
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| Former Clay Pits in Molochansk |
This is a
picture of the old clay pit in Halbstadt.
Clay was extracted here during Mennonite times to make bricks and roof
tiles. It is also the location identified
by Nicola Fehderau where Soviet authorities buried the bodies of the Mennonites
they executed during the time of the Revolution.
This is
good-bye until the next time that Mary and I have the fortune to come to the
Mennonite Centre in Ukraine. Talk to you
then.
If you wish
to know more about the work of the Mennonite Centre, you can check out our web
site at: http://www.mennonitecentre.ca/
or follow our daily activities on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/Mennonite-Centre-Ukraine-735361069838076/
