The Widow’s House

There are several things here in America we take for granted. We have so many appliances that we don’t think about. When we were in Pulin, a small village in Ukraine, we oversaw the Widow’s House. We took in widows who had no one to care for them. Some of these widows came from very small villages and did not have appliances of any kind in their kitchen. Continue reading

English as a Second Language

When we first went to Jericho, we went to teach English as a Second Language. We had no idea how many people would be interested in classes, but we were told the class would be full. At first we had to find out what they knew about the West. For instance, we found out they knew Mickey Mouse, but had no idea about Minnie Mouse. They did not know about Romeo and Juliet or Gone With The Wind. I say this because these were in the lesson books we had taken with us from the International Bible Society. From the very beginning we had to come up with our own curriculum. We had not planned on that. Continue reading

Home Groups in Zelenograd

Hospitality means “Friendly and generous reception and entertainment of guests.” I will admit I am not that kind of person. I’m the kind of person who will pour your first cup of coffee or tea and tell you where you can get your second cup if you want it.

When we went to live in Zelenograd, Russia it was to help people learn how to be small group leaders. We had a small apartment where our living room served as our bedroom and three times a week we had people over to show them how to invite people to their home and be hospitable to them. Needless to say, I felt out of my element. But I made coffee and tea and always had some sort of sweet. Continue reading

Such a scary word

War! That is such a scary word and one most of us do not want to hear. But what happens when you find yourself in the middle of a war? It doesn’t have to be a big war. It could be what some people call a skirmish. There was a time I found myself in the middle of a war.

In 2000 the Israelis and the Palestinians went to war. It was called the Second Intifada. Intifada means throwing off. I won’t bore you with how it started, but I was there living in Jericho.

One morning we woke up and found we could not leave Jericho. If we did we would not be allowed back to the city. The stores were closed and we were told it was war. Continue reading