For all those who remember Ed Dooley from LCC. I found his twin or at least his brother. I realize that this is interesting to only a very small number of people, but it's amazing how close he looks like Ed. He laughs like Ed. They had to be brothers separated while they were really young.

Here's another picture of the class during dinner, and there is Ed, err.... I mean Igor in the bottom left corner.

Class was good today, but it seemed very long. Sergei and I finished up the pre-class assignments tonight, so that is done.

Having read them, I gain new insights into how they understand worship. But even more than that I get to see how they put that worship into practice.

One of the class papers they have to write is in the area of the Christian disciplines.
They are to document their practice by writing a 1-2 page description of why they choose the particular disciplines they did, what happened, and what they learned.

24 hour fast: Choose one day per week for at least 8 weeks.
Journal: 5 days a week for at least 8 weeks. The journal can be comprised of devotional reflections, daily experiences, written prayers, etc.
Retreat: 2 days away from your routine for the purpose of prayer and Bible meditation.
Read: through the New Testament noticing any insights into the Christian disciplines and worship.
Serve: Look for at least three opportunities to help someone who does not have the ability to help him or her, then journal about your experience.
Compassion: anonymously share a gift of money or tangible gift (food, clothing, etc.) with someone in financial need. The amount of the gift is between you and the Lord.

It's these last two that usually get to me the most. When I read about one student who gave money anonymously so her friend could buy a wedding dress. I mean what do you say. We have so much in America that we decide we need to rent storage units as large as 12x12 so that we can put the unused material things we have in our house that we aren't using and we make sure that no one else can have them either. And we store them for months on end. The apartment I was in on Sunday had one bedroom, a small living room and a tiny kitchen. 5 adults and one child live in it.

I think I'm going to go into the storage unit business.

Monday June 29

The Ukrainan Baptist Theological Seminary.










Class with Sergie my interpertor standing in the back.
left to right: Igor, Sasha (Oleksandr), Sergie, Roman, Tetyana, Vitaliy, Martha,
Sergiy, Svetlana









Class with me standing (yes I'm standing) in the back.









Greek Catholic Church













Mary













Jesus













A saint of the Greek Catholic Church without it's head














I'd say it was an icon, but the Catholic Church doesn't believe in Icons.














A steet scene














It was the first day of class and everyone was trying to get to know the teacher and the teacher was trying to get to know everyone else. Not just their names but their personalities and what they might be like in class.
It turns out that all 8 are great students. Actually only 7 are going for a degree. One, Martha is an audit student.
Sergie is my interpreter/translator. I’m thinking he is doing more interpreting while he is translating, which I don’t mind at all.
Igor, Sasha, Roman, Tanya, Martha, Sergie, Svetlana and Vitaliy are all wonderful students. By the time class was over today, I think all of them participated in some form. I can tell it’s going to be a week full of questions and answers that will make us all grow.
In one of our breaks Tanya asks me what kind of fruit and drinks I like. TCMI buys some items like these for its professors and Tanya was going to get some for me to have in my room for the week to snack on. She came back with a large bunch of bananas, (I’m not sure I can eat them all – and I told her that, and also, oranges, tangerines, juice and water. Oh and I can’t forget the cookies (two kinds) and the chocolates. Little bite size pieces of wafer, hazelnusse cream, chopped Hazel nuts and all covered with chocolate. I know there won’t be any of these left by the end of the week.
We eat breakfast, lunch and dinner together. Wait, I should say, breakfast, dinner and supper. I can never figure out what the difference is between dinner and supper, to me they’re the same thing. It’s interesting listening to the students talk to each other, the way they laugh and then the way they become quiet when they are having a serious conversation. Because we are in the Theological school there are other students from the college eating with us.

PS it's pronounced EE-gor, not I-gor, sorry Marty.

L'viv

First of all I have to say, I'm sorry by no photos in this blog. After i got here things started happening so fast i didn't even have time to think about getting camera.
Our plane we delayed 1 hour and 20 minutes. Seem like it was a computer malfunction. we actually disembark one plane and got on another about 20 minutes later. Some type of plane but different equipment. (why do they use the term equipment when they mean plane?)
Anyway, we get to L'viv and a bus picks us up at the plane and takes us to the passport control building. No sooner do we get there when another bus arrives with more people that have to go through passport control. It was pretty crowed in there and we were all in one big bunch packed together quite close. I finally get to the front of the line and the guard there wants to see my immigration papers. (I'll explain this in another blog). I show him what he wants and he notices that there is no name of a person I'm going to see, nor is there an address of where I'm going to be spending my nights. There not a name and a residence, because I don't have a name other then Sergei (no last name) and i have no idea where Sergei is going to take me. He tells me in broken English, "Write what I tell you, Hotel L'viv, City L'viv. I finally understand what he is trying to tell me, so i quickly wrote down, Hotel L'viv, City L'viv. When it was my turn to go to passport control and gave the person my passport and the immigration paper with Hotel L'viv, City L'viv. She finally stamped everything and gave me everything back and out the door I walk.
I finally met Sergei (my translator and guide for the week), his brother Sasha (short for Alexander), another Sasha, and Yevgeniy Siney the National Director for TCMI Ukraine.
All 5 of us got in Sergei's car and drove about 15 minutes to Sergei's house for dinner. The drive for most people would have taken about 25 minutes.
Once we got to his apartment, about 8 floors squeezed in a small elevator, he told me that he, his mother and father and his brother wife and kid all live in this 2 room apartment. I'm not sure how that worked out, because I was directed to the kitchen, for dinner. 4 of us (I'm not sure where the brother was) sat down at the table and there before us was a spread of meats and cheese and homemade desserts. Sergei's mother also made this drink. It was carbonated. I asked what it was and they told me it was made from bread. I'll try and remember to tell you more about it later on.
Sergei, told us we had 20 minutes before we had to leave for church. Okay, no problem. All the food was good, hams, meat (that's what they told me... "This is meat") breaded and fried cabbage (reminded me of fried Zucchini flowers).
As we are going out to the car, Sergei, turns around and tells/asks/informs me that i am preaching tonight. After a couple of questions (on my part) and answers (on his) we wound up with me preaching a short sermon, one of several during the service.
The service was wonderful, lots of Ukrainian songs, and everyone sang out strongly. Sergei, preached first, more songs, several specials from two young girls, and it was my turn. John 4: 7-ff. I finished up and more songs and then the preacher Vladimir got up and preached. his was the main one, I'm pretty sure.
Well, that's been my first particle day in L'viv. Tomorrow, I start class. I'll be blogging with pictures also.
Okay i better go for now, it's getting late here.
John

TCMI campus

The peaceful, serene Sattelbach which runs right by the horse barn on the main campus.

Another view. Please notice all the greenery on either side of the stream, err.. excuse me, the brook (Bach).

Compare these to the first two pictures.

Further down stream it had to be moving close to 30-40 K.

Our little abode for the next several weeks.

If you look real hard you can see the balcony on the third floor. That's the balcony from our apartment. It's really nice, screened in even. But you have to walk up 46 steps (inside) to get to it. And it to into the Haus there is another 5 steps on the outside to the door.

Now that's not really too bad at all during the week. It's just the moving in and out with all the suit-cases and don't forget the trips to the grocery store, with all the bags of grocery to carry up to our nice, cozy, screened in balcony-ed apartment.

Holidays

I never thought much about the holidays I grew up being just American holidays. Take Fathers day for instance. It just happened this past Sunday. I have two daughters. I’m sure they were thinking of me on Sunday.
Now I'm guessing other countries may have similar holidays, but I'm really not too sure how many do. I do know England does celebrate Mothers day. It's in a different month, March I believe, but its there none the less. I’m not sure about a Father’s Day, but I’m sure if they have a Mothers Day, they’ll have a Father Day. I’m sure someone will set me straight with all of this.
Groundhog Day, Earth Day, Arbor Day, April’s Fool Day, Halloween. Speaking about Halloween, did you know there is a Mischief Night? It’s the night before Halloween where people go around and cause minor mischief offenses, like the wonderful art of tepeeing trees in front of houses and houses and even the inside of houses. I found toilet paper and the cardboard cores for months afterwards. Thanksgiving, Valentines Day, Secretary’s Day oh, I’m sorry I meant to say Administrative Professionals’ Day, Sweetest Day (it’s a Hallmark thing) and my favorite of all Grandparents Day. Actually most of them are Hallmark days. Yes, I did leave out Festivus (Dec. 23). But I really wasn’t a big Seinfeld fan.
I left out all the president days and the war memorial days, because I do know that other countries celebrate their countries famous men and women and they also celebrate the battles and victories of war.
Bank Holidays, that’s what they call them over here. You have to be careful though when you go out to shop; you always have to check to make sure it’s not a Bank Holiday. Most everything is closed. Plenty of spaces right down in front to park though!
You never know when you've got a Bank Holiday to celebrate.
John

Stift Heiligenkreuz (Stift Holy Cross)

The Stift from the air. ____ The church from the court yard.

The altar. _______________ The Schubertorgan

Inlaid wood patterns. It took _________ The 'Fraterie' also

two brothers 20 years to_____________know as the 'work

complete all the woodwork.___________room.

The Rose window._______________The 'Funeral Chapel'

____________________________The monks are still laid
____________________________out here before they are

____________________________buried in the Stift's

____________________________grave yard.

Stain glass window in the____

'Fountain Room'. This______

was completed in 1295._____

Now it is called the ________

'Washing Room'.__________ Glass Harmonic

Choir stalls. They were completed between 1708-1712. Notice the engraving in the picture on the right.

Rooms in the stift used by TCMI for their graduation exercises.

Stove in a room

Click on any of the pictures to enlarge them for a better view.

Down the road just about 1/2 kilometer is Stift Heiligenkreuz. It is a monastery of monks from the Cistercian Order. The Stift was started in 1133 built from the money given to them by Leopold III of Austria. He is also called St. Leopold. His son Otto was a Cistercian monk and persuaded his father to build a monastery here. Because it was built by and the money came from someone outside of the church it is called a Stift.

By 1182 it had its own relic of the cross of Christ. It was given to them from Duke Leopold V as a gift to him from Baldwin IV of Jerusalem, King of Jerusalem.

Here are some pictures of the Stift both inside and out. A couple of them are stock photos, but most are mine. Pam and I were given a private tour last year, and I was able to take pictures of places not usually shown to most people.

The organ there was built in 1804. Schubert and Buckner both played it, and Schubert wrote a piece for it. To this day it is called the Schubertorgan. When our guide said that word, I wasn't quite sure what he said. I thought I heard the word Schubert but I wasn't to sure. It has 3700 pipes, 50 ranks and 2 manuals.

The pictures on top show the room where TCMI holds its graduation each year. We have a very good relationship with the Stift.

Just this past year Pope Benedict XVI was at the Stift for a visit.
Click on this link to see and hear the Cistercian Monks and Stift Heiligenkreuz
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLFN-RVpLtk&feature=related
john

Austria

Well, we finally made it here. The last two weeks have been a whirl wind for us. I headed out to Springfield MO. with Pam for the ACL conference. What you've never heard of the Association of Christian Librarians conference? We also managed to visit with friends we haven't seen in a long, long time. While Pam was at the conference, I was tooling around with Burt. Burt's wife was also there for the conference. He had a car!! Burt is a Native American Indian from the Kiowa tribe. A very interesting person to talk with and be with for those several days.
A quick trip to Fl (2 days) to pack and move furniture out for new renters. Back on Saturday (late) to MD to pack for our TCMI trip. Drove to NY on Monday, left on Tuesday for Austria. Got here on Wednesday around 2:00 pm our time. We did stay up until 9:00 so we would sleep in until morning. The alarm rang at 7:30 this morning and I jumped up not knowing where I was. I haven't made the calculations yet to see how long we were really up. I'm not sure I really want to figure that out.
Today was the last day of class for the students that were here during this last session. It was good to see a lot of former students and to find out how they are doing.
Sorry no pictures today. I'm just getting used to the time change and my mind is not quite clear yet. Okay I can hear all the comments now.........
In one week I'll be in Ukraine. The week after that I'll be in Romania. Next week will be my time to get everything ready for my class.
That's it for now.
John