On January 13 my wife Beverly and I
will leave for Eastern Europe to visit with
some of you. I'd like to explain some of
what we hope to accomplish.
The areas we serve are basically divided
into three zones: Eastern Europe, the Baltic
Republics and the Nordic countries. It is
not possible to cover all three areas
adequately on any one trip, but we CAN cover
two well. This time we are going to Ukraine
and Poland in Eastern Europe, Latvia and
Estonia in the Baltics and will make only
one stop only in Sweden for the Nordic part
of our trip.
The map on the right shows our itinerary.
The numbers are the dates in January that we
arrive in each of the locations.
We
will fly from New York to Budapest from
where we will continue by train to Ukraine.
Joining us in Budapest will be Dr. Jan
Karlik who is a United Church of God member
in Bakersfield, California. He is lecturing
at a Budapest University. His work ends when
we come and he will then continue with us
for about two weeks.
In Ukraine, we will stay with Sabbatarians
in the towns of Vinogradov and Khust. We
have had a brotherly relationship with these
people since 1991 when we met with their
remnant who emigrated to Florida. They put
us in contact with an entire Sabbatarian
culture in Ukraine and Moldova. In 1991
Ukraine became an independent nation as the
USSR collapsed almost overnight; it was now
possible to worship God openly whereas
before they had to do it secretly. I have
described some of our early contacts on the
Internet and you can see
more here and go to the
entire Ukraine section here.
Traveling with us to the Ukraine part of
the trip will be Scott and Caroline Scharpen
who have a great interest in the children of
Vinogradov.
We have visited these people many times
since then. Our Church has provided projects
such as a major Ambassador University
program to teach English as a Second
Language in 1994 plus humanitarian aid.
One of the ways in which the Sabbatarians
have helped us in the past six years has
been by printing larger quantities of United
Church of God literature. This has provided
a great cost savings. We pay only one-third
of what it would cost to print the same
material in the United States or Western
Europe. We have printed booklets in Russian
and Swedish and the Bible Study Course in
Russian. The quality of booklets and Bible
Study courses is very good.
On this trip I am bringing over the
necessary files to print 2000 copies each of
the lessons 7-12 of the Russian Bible Study
Course. We also hope to print the God's Holy
Day booklet. One of the Sabbatarian leaders
is a printer and manages the printing for
us.
We will also visit our Street Children
Program that we have supported since 2001
and stay with them for a few days. This past
summer several of our United Church of God
members did another Teaching English as a
Second Language Program.
Their story is on the Web here. On the
first Sabbath of this trip we will speak to
two churches in Transcarpathia.
We will then return to Budapest by train and
fly on to Warsaw, Poland where will spend a
few days with Andrew and Karen Lee and
family. Andrew is a partner with the Ernst
and Young Accounting firm and works in
several Eastern European countries,
including Russia. I have known Andrew and
his family since 1965 when I first met them
at Church services in Minneapolis,
Minnesota.
From there we fly to Riga, Latvia and go on
to Smiltene to the Robert Schultz's. Robert
Schultz is pastor of a Church that has
started keeping the Sabbath and this past
year kept the entire cycle of Holy Days. He
and his wife Elita kept the Feast in Germany
this past fall. Most of you were able to
meet them in Leksand this past summer. We
will be in Smiltene for the second Sabbath.
From Smiltene we will travel 120 km to
Tartu, Estonia. There we will stay at
Johnnie Lambert's apartment. This apartment
has served as our mailing office in Eastern
Europe. We will mail out Good News
magazines to more than 700 people, as well
as do mailings of the Bible Study Course in
Estonian and Russian. We will insert
translated articles in Estonian and Russian
to respective subscribers.
We plan to have an evening with our Estonian
brethren. I also plan to visit Valdur
Vesingi at the Vangla, the Tartu prison. If
you would like to read more about Valdur,
you can click here. He wrote a common
letter to all who have written him that you
may want to read. He appreciates visits and
correspondence.
From Tartu we travel to Tallinn by bus. We
will meet with Toomas Schvak and a new young
man Artur Aleksandrov.
Then we fly from Tallinn to Stockholm and
take the train for the last days of the trip
which we will spend with Paul and Kira
Spenser and their three children. On the
Sabbath we hope to have people come from
Oslo, Gothenberg and perhaps other places.
That will be on January 31st. We fly back
home on February 2nd.
We look forward to seeing you!
Antra
Kikutu (pictured on right) and Ziedonis
Riders have written a wonderful article in
the current December issue of the United
News about the the Smiltene Baptist
Church keeping the Feast of Tabernacles.
We were saddened to receive a note from Katrin
Kaasik in Tartu on October 1 about the death of
Helgi Luts. Helgi had suffered from cancer for
several years and had undergone several regimens of
chemotherapy.
