VBS in Kremenets

Friday July 10, 2009

We traveled the approximately 60 kilometers between Ternopil and Kremenets arriving at the church at about 8:30am.

The church is in the center of the town of about 20,000 people. It is a good place to sell what you grow. Today you could buy fresh red currents, black currents, blueberries, red raspberries and black raspberries.


The congregation, with the help of Thoughts of Faith and many others, were able to buy an old restaurant building and convert it to a church building. It is the nicest looking building in the town!


The American volunteers in Kremenets include (left to right) Stephan Babinec, Bill Stiefel, Jaimie Waack, Alyssa Mews, Tammy Schunk, Brent Peterson and Julie Cox.


Before the classes began, Pastor Roman Andruntsiv (far back on right) led the group of American and Ukrainian volunteers in prayer. On Monday, the first day of VBS, there were 101 students. The high count has been 124, and today there were 118 students. The students are divided into four groups by age: primary - 6 to 8 years (22); lower-middle - 9 to 10 years (27); upper-middle - 11 to 13 years (49); and upper - 14 to 18 years(20).


What's that word? It's in English. English based on the Bible lesson is one of the four lessons of the VBS program.


Ihor, a professional music teacher, taught each group for 40 minutes during the four morning sessions. The students will present a concert of the songs they have learned at the end of the morning worship service on Sunday. They will invite family and friends to come to the worship service and to hear them sing.


The young children get into their craft project for the day.


VBS is big news in Kremenets. The weekly newspaper "Dialog" had a picture of the American and Ukrainian volunteers and an article about the VBS program.

Tomorrow, Saturday, is the final day for the VBS lessons. Each group will take part in the worship service on Sunday. Please keep them all in your prayers as they complete their work in the congregations throughout Ukraine and travel back to Kyiv before flying home.

Kermit Traska