Ukraine Bible School 2009

A tram every 20 minutes

Our Bible School was held in a Sanatorium close to Puscha. It was compact, but clean and with good bathrooms, and had the advantage that we ate, listened and slept all under one roof. Combined with the judicious use of a bicycle hooter in the corridors five minutes before each talk, this meant that the seats were regularly filled with amazing promptness.

The attendees were divided into children, looked after by Kathryn and her team, a beginners’ class, and the main group, studying the Second Temple and Mark’s Gospel.

We ran three workshops in the afternoons: one on Preaching, one on Bible Study, and one on Crafts, as well as the daily Bible readings. The evenings were occupied with a ‘pretend’ interview for baptism, John Parry’s trip to America for the CBM of the Americas, Any Questions, a Bible Quiz, and the last night concert. This last included an engaging play by the children about Joseph in Egypt, and puppet plays about the Good Samaritan and Saul’s conversion.

The highlight of the week was the baptism of Charles, after an excellent interview. Charles had met our brother Tobi at work, and became persuaded that his Catholic background did not match Bible teaching. There was a beautiful lake with a sandy shore, fifteen minutes’ walk from the Sanatorium, and the rain dried up in time for us to witness his immersion in comfort, followed by the strains of “The Lord bless thee and keep thee”.

The site was served by both minibus and tram. The single car trams rolled along every 20 minutes, and left with a loud humming from the rails, which was audible from our bedrooms during the early morning hours, along with the Kiev male dogs’ choir.

The caterers had been asked to provide ‘Western’ food for the English members of our party. This meant delicious new potatoes cooked with butter and herbs, and whole beetroots, carrots and cold cauliflower chunks. The fresh vegetable soups were great.

The week ended with a Breaking of Bread at which Nicolai gave the exhortation, and Charles was welcomed into fellowship.

David Pearce

Information about Ukraine