This post is a continuation from our recent post, A Week in the Life: Sunday through Tuesday. In both of these posts, we discuss a typical week here in Lviv. Since we recently moved into the city, our daily tasks are changing, but our weekly activities will remain the same.
Wednesday
Wednesday is another work day when we take care of whatever tasks need to be done that day. One of Maggie's tasks on Wednesdays is to prepare for the evening's English Club by printing out reading passages and preparing a game for the students.
Wednesday evenings, we head to church with Krista and Lindsay for English Club. This ministry is a free service for Ukrainians who want to learn English. There are numerous English clubs throughout Lviv, as many people want to learn English. We have a wide variety of students from teens to elderly people whose knowledge levels range from only a few words to conversationally fluent. We play a game with all students together, then break up into four groups based on skill level. Trey leads the most advanced group, Maggie leads the upper intermediate, and Krista and Lindsay lead the lower intermediate and beginner groups respectively. We typically read a passage from the book of John together, study vocabulary words, review homework that we assign each week, play games, discuss grammar, answer questions, practice pronunciation, etc. The specific activities we do with our classes depend on the week and teacher. One bonus of helping with English club is that Michael, Maggie's brother who came to Ukraine for a month this past summer, helped the Blessings start it! So it's been neat to help carry on a ministry that he was involved in at the beginning.
Wednesday evenings, we head to church with Krista and Lindsay for English Club. This ministry is a free service for Ukrainians who want to learn English. There are numerous English clubs throughout Lviv, as many people want to learn English. We have a wide variety of students from teens to elderly people whose knowledge levels range from only a few words to conversationally fluent. We play a game with all students together, then break up into four groups based on skill level. Trey leads the most advanced group, Maggie leads the upper intermediate, and Krista and Lindsay lead the lower intermediate and beginner groups respectively. We typically read a passage from the book of John together, study vocabulary words, review homework that we assign each week, play games, discuss grammar, answer questions, practice pronunciation, etc. The specific activities we do with our classes depend on the week and teacher. One bonus of helping with English club is that Michael, Maggie's brother who came to Ukraine for a month this past summer, helped the Blessings start it! So it's been neat to help carry on a ministry that he was involved in at the beginning.
Our students say that they are really enjoying learning English, and they feel that attending each week helps them gain a very practical skill. We also are enjoying the chance to read and study Bible passages with many people who have a variety of beliefs. Because they are the most fluent, Trey's group has had several very good conversations about what it means to be "born again" and what John 3:36 means when it says "Whoever believes in the Son of God has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life." We hope that through reading and discussing about Jesus' life and teachings, many of the students who don't have a personal relationship with God will come to understand His love for them, the sacrifice that Jesus made for their sins, and that they may begin a relationship with God through faith. We also hope that they are blessed by the free English lessons that they receive each week, and that these lessons may be beneficial to them.
Thursday
Like Wednesday, Thursday is a work day at Bethel House (with any needed errands mixed in, as always). Following our work day, in the evening, we attend the young adults group at church. At this meeting, we spend time with about 20 young adults (college students up to folks in their early 30's), worship together, and study God's word, We have really enjoyed getting to know these peers, most of whom are not married. Several are new believers in Christ, as they began a relationship with God in the past several months. It is amazing to see the growth in their lives, and such an encouragement to be around them. We envision our apartment in the city to be a place where these young adults can visit and can gather, and even bring friends over as well.
Friday
Friday is another work day at Bethel House. If we haven't cleaned the house Thursday, then Friday is the cleaning day. With numerous guest rooms and the family's living area, there is always a lot of cleaning to do. But as they say, many hands make light work! The girls typically do most of the cleaning while the men work on other projects around the house, and within a few hours, dusting, vacuuming, cleaning bathrooms, etc., is all done.
Saturday
Saturdays are usually a day of rest for us, although occasionally we've worked on some projects around Bethel House, depending on what needs to be done. Maggie tries to catch up on laundry if it isn't already done, and we also try to catch up on emails/communication when possible.
In Our Spare Time
Overall we've been pretty busy during the past 6 weeks here, but we definitely have had some free time to enjoy this new place where God has brought us. We've enjoyed the chance to see Lviv, particularly the beautiful historic center, which is very European-feeling.
We have also gotten to see several sights in and around the area. For instance, with a couple of our friends and Maggie's cousins, we climbed Високий замок ("High Castle"), a hill outside the city center with a 360-degree view that locals like to visit. The fall leaves and sunny weather made for a beautiful day.
We also got to visit a local "Architecture Park", which contains real buildings (homes, a church, a school building, windmill, etc.) from various points in time over the past several centuries. These buildings were all transported to this single park and were set up as a museum. There are small exhibits inside, where visitors can learn more about life in the time period associated with that particular building.
The Blessings have a car from the US here, and Ukrainian law requires them to take the car out of the country every 2 months. (Sidenote: some laws here, like this one, seem rather arbitrary to us.) Since Poland is only about an hour away, this trip is fairly painless, aside from the border crossing, which seems to always take hours. One Saturday, Krista and Lindsay took us with them for a required border crossing trip, so we got to see a small city across the border called Przemyśl. (It's pronounced "shem-ish"; don't ask us how that works.)
The Blessings also brought us along on a 3-day mini vacation to the Carpathian mountains, which were incredibly beautiful. We spent the weekend hiking and enjoying the beauty of God's creation. We celebrated Krista's birthday while there too! It was such a wonderful trip. We were also amazed at how cheap it was. Lodging was only $15 per night per person, and this price included a meal credit of $7.50 per day per person, which covered over half of our meals!
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