Sunday in Odessa

Sunday was beautiful in Odessa. We attended the morning service at Grace where we met 4 men from York, PA who came over to help lay tile in the kitchen of the Black Sea Camp. This should sound familiar to the Team to Gulfport! These men had the advantage of being contractor and this being their second or third trip over to work on this large construction project of rehabilitating an old camp ground. They will be here until next Friday when they will return from their 2 week mission trip.
On Sunday evening we attended the 6pm worship service, which is mostly older members. It is also a time when visiting ministers and/or seminary students have a chance to share the Gospel and preach. There are usually three sermons per worship service; usually 10 to 15 minutes long, interspersed with choir anthems, solos, readings, prayers and, of course, an offering. Headsets and translators are available; however, we prefer to listen to the services in Russian or Ukrainian. It is interesting when there is a Ukrainian speaker, for most of the older population were forced to speak only Russian and therefore do not completely understand the sermons given in Ukrainian. For us it would be like someone preaching in Elizabethan English. We would understand most of it, but there would be words that would have a different meaning or context. Makes translating to John a real challenge!