Shopping & Church

It was a really long day, I'm hoping I don't fall asleep while I'm trying to write.  I didn't sleep well last night and was feeling a little sick to my stomach this morning.  I had no time to rest in hopes of feeling better.  There were many things that we needed to do today and I couldn't afford to lose a minute.  The time with these children is so precious and our schedule is jam packed.  It was time to suck it up and get busy. 

The plan for the day was to take Krystina and Olya shopping for a few hours, then meet Joe and Frank back at the ARK house to go to church this afternoon.  We were to meet with the pastor of a small church that is somewhat similar to my home church, Frederick Church of the Brethren.  Similar in the way that they have both hearing and deaf people attending.  I'll get to that in a minute, but first the shopping experience.....

Irina (our chaperone from our summer group) picked us up at 9:30 this morning.  Irina is a great friend and does a great job with the kids during the summer program.  She is a Dr. here in Belarus and knows how to get things done.  Which made her perfect for our task this morning. 

Once she heard I wasn't feeling well the decision was made to stop at a pharmacy to get me some medicine.  I wasn't crazy about taking something that I couldn't read the label, but I wasn't going to argue with Irina....I know I would have lost that argument anyway. 

The girls needed many things, but we only had time for a few stops.  Last year we spent an entire day shopping, seven hours straight.  It nearly killed me and there was no way I could do that again.  We did a little shopping the other day when Krystina got a new coat, sweater and under ware and Olya got a new sweater and under ware.  I was glad we were going to church this afternoon since it limited our shopping time.  I despise shopping, but I can tolerate it for short periods of time. 

Today our mission was boots.  Both the girls needed new boots.  Boot shopping in Belarus in one of the more frustrating things you can do.  Each store is very small and only carries a few boots in each size, if you find a style of boot you like and the display boot isn't your size you better head to the next store.  After visiting 4 different stores we finally found something for the girls that they liked.  Teenagers aren't picky at all.....are they?  Lets just say that I had to use every bit of the patience the good lord has provided me.  I can't wait to try to get them jeans......

We made it back to the ARK house in time to meet Frank, Joe, Yulia and Vadim's mom (I don't know her name).  Yulia and Vadim's mom are deaf and they will be our escorts to church.  Frank and Joe invited Vadim's mom to join us as she does not usually attend church.  Vadim and his dad unfortunately refused the invitation.  It has been my experience that more women than men attend church in Belarus.  I won't get into a political commentary on religion in Belarus other than to say that they do not enjoy the same freedoms that we do in America.  During the communist rule, religion was banned and pastors were jailed.  It takes time to make cultural changes.

The trip to church was a lot longer than I had anticipated.  First there was the 4-5 block walk to the bus stop.  We all piled into a van, which makes up a good portion of the public transportation in Mogilev.  After about 30 minutes I was directed to get off at the next stop. When I stepped out of the bus I was immediately hit by a strong cold, snowy wind.  Of course it was snowing again, or maybe I should just say "still."  The heavy snow and wind made for a very long walk to the church.  The bus stop was a good half a mile or longer from the church.  Some of the walk was through deep snow. 

Finally we reached the church.  It was a large brick building that looked fairly new and run down at the same time.  The third story of the building had boards over where the windows should have been.  We stepped through the door into a small hallway where we were asked to take our shoes off.  In Belarus people do not wear their shoes in the house.  If you ever make this trip you better pack some slippers. 

Once our shoes were off we went into the room where the church service would be held.  It was a small room with about 30 chairs set up, a display screen and a keyboard at the front.  The building itself was very large, however, this was the only room that was finished.  I tried to slip in the back row with Olya & Krystina, but the pastor grabbed me and made me sit in the front row next to him.  Joe and Frank were on the other side so they could see the sign language interpreter.  We all stood while they sang several songs.  Natasha who came to Frederick last summer as part of our ABRO group was singing.  There was a small amp and the singers wore a microphone.  To be honest, that was a little overkill as the room was small enough to hear very well without the microphone and amp. 

A few minutes after the pastor started the sermon I heard the word Americanski, so I knew he was talking about us.  I didn't have a translator for the first part of the service, so I recognized very few words, but I did recognize the scripture he was preaching from.  (Not because I can understand Russian, they put the scripture up on the screen in English)  The pastor then looked at me and invited me in front to say a few words.  Before I knew it I was escorted to the front of the room along with an interpreter.  I'm not sure how I keep finding myself in these situations where I'm volunteered to speak in public.  I'm more of a reluctant public speaker and usually do not want or need to be in the limelight.  I guess I can do it if I have to, but not something I necessarily look forward to. 

The good thing was that other than the interpreter, Frank and Joe were the only ones who could understand English and they couldn't hear me......I figured that if I said something silly, the interpreter might not translate it. 


I spoke for several minutes, explaining who I am and why we were in Belarus.  I talked about ABRO and working to help the children effected by Chernobyl.  I explained that this was my third trip to Belarus and how nice the Belarussian people have always treated me.  I explained that we were similar in many ways, including having both hearing and deaf congregations. 


It didn't take long before I ran out of things to say during my of the cuff speach.  As I was ending my speach the pastor invited Frank and Joe to join me up front.  He then asked them both to introduce themselves.  They both did a good job explaining who they were and what brought them to Belarus.  The interpreter had a difficult time understanding some things, so when Joe was using sign language Frank had to interpret for me, then I had to explain what he was saying to the interpreter who then had to speak it in Russian and then the Russian sign language interpreter had to sign it for the Russian deaf attending the service.  It was actually a little comical if you think about it taking 5 people to communicate to everyone in the room.  But we did it!!!


After the service we met with the pastor who explained his goals and vision for his church.  The building has a long way to go before it is completed, but he has many plans when and if it gets completed.  We got a tour of the rest of the building, I can see it has much potential once it is finished. 


It was a long, eventful and productive day.  I need to get some rest as tomorrow is going to be another full day as we will be visiting the first of three orphanages.  Ryasno is the orphanage Krystina was in prior to being placed in foster care.  Well the day starts early.......