Yesterday, teams Tikkun Olam and Fire! Glory! Freedom! assisted Lindsay and Krista of Living Word Church with their English Club in L’viv! We had a sort of “English Olympics” complete with a short video, competitions and medals awarded to the winners (everyone happened to be a winner this time.)
We began by passing out flyers around the city and asking people if they spoke English. If they said yes, we would invite them to the English Club. Then, we all met in a room nearby where the local Ukrainians could practice their English with real-live Americans. It was a lot of fun trying to overcome language barriers and find creative ways to explain what we were saying.
Notably, I had a good conversation with my new friend, Stanislav or Stass. He went to the University here and as a hobby has made origami for 20 years. I asked him to make me something, but we didn’t have the right kind of paper apparently, and the designs he made were very “difficult.” We spoke for a while, albeit laboriously and I came to find out that Stass is part of a new Vineyard church plant here in L’viv. This was pretty amazing considering I worked with the Vineyard church in Ireland the entire past month. So, we talked quite a while about that and now we are friends on Facebook.
Also, I spoke briefly with another man named Victor. He carries parcels around the city as a job, delivering packages for different businesses. Again, it was difficult to have a fluid conversation, but we were up for the challenge. This time, my military background made for some conversation as Victor spent one year in the Ukrainian army as an artilleryman. One-year service is mandatory for men here unless they are granted a waiver (which is often the case from what I hear.) As I understood Victor, the Ukrainian army isn’t well equipped (they don’t have many rifles?) and isn’t at all like the American military. But I told him how I serviced helicopters in the Marine Corps for five years and he seemed interested in continuing the conversation so hopefully I will see him at English Club next week.
We had fun. Other than that I am learning a lot about Shalom (peace, wholeness) and Sabbath rest this month as we are spending time with Messianic Jews! Our time is much more restful than last month so I’ll actually have time to think each day what I’ve done and possibly write consistent updates! We’re also learning how singing songs of praise to God has the ability to shift the atmosphere of a city and bring out smiles and spontaneous songs of joy from curious passersby.
