Fourth Week in Kiev
Classes, Documents and Other news
It is hard to know where to begin this update. The last two weeks have been so busy but they have also been so wonderful!
Classes
For the last two weeks, I have been teaching Christology and Soteriology. The first week went very well with some interesting discussions but no controversial issues to deal with. The students did well in their presentations and their exam. The second week was also very good but full of discussions. We had class debates (scheduled—not free-for-alls) on the Extent of the Atonement, Calvinism vs Arminianism, The Order of Salvation (Faith precedes Regeneration or Regeneration precedes faith), and Perseverance vs Apostacy. I put all the students (28) into 8 groups and each group had to research and defend one position (even if they did not hold that theological position). They did great! The debates were biblical and logical and most of them were full of passion for their positions. We had a great time and the students learned a lot!
This next week, I have to finish up my work on my class for December (World History) and get the Powerpoints to the translator. I also need to complete the syllabus for my March Talbot class (The Theology and Practice of Prayer) and my January class (Research and Critical Thinking 2). Be praying for me as I get all these things done. I also hope to begin putting together a real office too .
Documents, Documents, Documents
When I first came to Ukraine, all the missionaries here told me that you have to get used to waiting in line and then finding out you don’t have everything so you have to come back and do it all over again. Boy, was that an understatement! Since I arrived here at the end of August, we have been working on getting all my documents in order for getting married. Every week, we made trips to the US Embassy and various other Ukrainian agencies. But the last two weeks were classic …
I’ll try to give you the short version; the real story is way too long. Every day for the last two weeks, my schedule has been … teach class in the morning; leave after class to go downtown (over a 2 hour round trip by metro) to some government office for paperwork, wait in line to find out that I needed “one more stamp” or “a different document” that I would have to get and return again tomorrow; and then I would get home about 10-11 pm and try to get ready for class at 8:30 the next morning. I did this for two weeks straight.
Here are some highlights. First, the documents I brought from the US did not have the right seal on them. So I had to get new documents from AR and have the Apostile placed on them, Joy had to run to the State Capitol to get them and FED EX them to another American professor who would bring them on Monday.
Then we had to have the documents all translated. Then the translated documents had to be certified (another trip downtown). Then we discovered the translations were Russian and they needed to be in Ukrainian (repeat everything from the last sentence the next day). Then we took the paperwork to ZAGS and found out that I needed to re-certify my US Embassy documents. So the next day, I had to go to the US Embassy in Kiev (2 hour round trip) only to get there and be told that they only certify documents between 9 and 12. I explained that I teach in the mornings and could not be there before 2 pm. The man told me to come back tomorrow (Thursday) and he would take care of it. So Thursday I made the trip again only to be told that they never do any documents after 12. Then the two embassy officials talked privately for a few minutes and came back and said, “We are not allowed to do this but we will process them for you today. But don’t ever come and try to get documents after twelve again!” Mission Accomplished … almost….
So, while I’m at the Embassy, Katya and our translator are getting the newly translated documents re-certified in another part of Kiev and we met to go back to register. Katya and I waited in line until just before closing. The lady went over our documents and said that we were missing one more seal from the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. They are only open from (yes, I’m not joking) 9-12 in the mornings! Since we were giving an exam on Monday, I asked Dr. AL Wright (teaching in the afternoon) if he would do the lectures for me on Monday morning so I could go to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. So Monday morning, I head out for yet another part of Kiev and another office. I found it (with difficulty) and then, to my dismay, discovered that all the instructions for the paperwork were in Ukrainian and no one there spoke English! Fortunately, an older gentleman took my passport and pointed line by line at what I needed to write in each line on the forms (3 of them). He also took a completed form and told me to copy the other information on the forms. He did all of this with just signs and pointing and I was able to complete the forms and submit them. But I had to return between 4-5 pm to get my documents back. So back to the school for the last hour of class then back downtown again. By then it was too late to go back to register the documents at the ZAGS office so we planned to go after class on Tuesday (This really is the short version!).
We barely made it to the office before closing on Tuesday. All our documents were finally in order but the lady who processes the final paperwork did not want to do it until Saturday if we would come 15 minutes before they opened at 9 am. We did and finally got everything registered on September 25th, my birthday!
This is already too long, but I must tell you about our meeting with the pastor of the church where Katya is a member (the church we attend is a new church plant and is not yet registered). Before we can get married, we needed a letter from him approving the wedding. You don’t make appointments here; you just show up 30 minutes before church services and hope the pastor will meet with you. We were supposed to meet him on Tuesday but, with all the document running around, it was too late on Tuesday. SO we went on Thursday night. When we met with him, there were 3 other men in the room who were preparing for the service and they sat in on the meeting. The pastor told Katya that he knew her and her family but he did not know me and could not recommend us for marriage. One of the other men in the room spoke up and said, “I know him very well” and he proceeded to describe in detail my work at the seminary for the last 15 years and told about my character and highly recommended me. The pastor said that was all he needed to hear and he would recommend us, and even had a prayer of blessing for us. I did not know the man who spoke up but found out that he was a very close friend of Seminary President Anatoly Prokopchuk. They had just returned from a 2 week vacation in Crimea together with their families and Anatoly had told him about me! And he would not have been there on Tuesday night when we were originally planning to meet—God’s timing is wonderful!
Other News
I’ll keep this short. We finally have an apartment (or will have in about a week). And we are buying most of the furniture in it too. The apartment is a lot bigger than we needed but Katya negotiated with the owner and got him to reduce the price by $250 below what the last missionaries were paying! She says she is not good at these things but I would never have even asked for such a reduction.
Today, Monday, I begin Russian lessons at the SEND International Language School. I’m excited. I really need these lessons! Also, I plan to be meeting with the residential seminary students weekly for some discipleship times each Thursday morning. Be praying for us as we get started this week.
The wedding date will be Saturday, October 16th at 3 pm. We are planning on having it videotaped so, if all goes according to plan, you might be able to see the wedding online. We hope so. And then we plan to be back in the US from October 20 until November 1.
Well, I have lots to do with class preparations, language school, apartment preparations and wedding plans! Thanks for praying!!!
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