Back to Ukraine Maurice Frohn, local church elder and surgeon from Kent, England and I returned from a two-fold mission to Ukraine on April 26th. We first visited in the Chernobyl area, then traveled to our Sabbatarians friends in western Ukraine. Arriving in Kiev, we were taken to Chernigev which is about 80 miles north to visit two children’s medical facilities, a polyclinic and a center for the rehabilitation of handicapped children. We were guests of the directors these institutions which are only 40 miles from Chernobyl nuclear power plant, which ten years ago spewed out 200 times the radiation of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombs. The purpose of our mission was to confirm that what relief and news agencies was true about conditions, hospitals and staff. It had been reported that there was a marked increases in diseases due to radiation especially in children and that while there were sufficient willing doctors, they were short of essential resources. After a few days we had seen and heard enough to be overwhelmed by the sad state of shortages and great needs for essential medical help. The Chernobyl disaster affected nine million people. Four hundred cases of thyroid cancer in children have been reported. Eighty new cases of this alone appear yearly. After the Hiroshima atomic bomb the first thyroid cancer appeared eight years after the event. In Chernigev the first thyroid cancers appeared only three years after the accident. This disaster couldn’t have come at a worse time to a nation who could least afford the trauma. Since the accident the USSR has fallen apart. While Ukraine has become independent, it is alone in solving its problems. The economy is in shambles. A surtax of 12 ½ percent is levied against the Ukrainian people to deal with the Chernobyl problem. This is more than is spent on the national defense. Government paid employees have not been paid since the first of the year which compounds the problem of funding repair of the damage. The Ukrainian government has not helped in the rehabilitation of the Chernigev area as much as the outside. International relief, primarily from the Britain, has given these people some medical relief. Our initial introduction to Chernigev has been through a Bolton, Lancashire relief agency called "The Forgotten Children of Chernigev." We want to determine what is required and wanted. Maurice and I are now in process of directing the needs of these and a few others facilities to those in Britain and the United States who can and want to help. We already have commitments from relief agencies willing to send supplies to Chernigev. From Chernigev we traveled by auto to Khust in Transcarpathia, where we felt it important to reestablish contact with the Ukrainian Sabbatarian community. Because of a similarity of beliefs we have developed a affinity with them over the past five years. Because of disruptions in the past two years, however, this relationship has languished. These are people with whom we had worked together on joint projects such as a sending college students to teach English to their children and the community. In the past few years we were able to help them by sending them Bibles, literature translated into Ukrainian and Russia. Over a period of time brethren in Europe, Hong Kong and North America were able to donate computers, copiers, keyboards, clothing, shoes, sewing machines, fabric, and seed. During this past hard winter brethren from the Boston United Church of God donated $1275 to destitute Ukrainian families. We were very warmly received by the leadership and the brethren. Maurice and stayed at the home of Vasyl Mondich, the leader of the Sabbatarians. We instantly picked up our friendship where we had left off nearly two years ago. Maurice Frohn documented the spirit of our visit in his diary which can be read along with more comprehensive reports of our journey right here on my home page. We discussed our future relationship. One of their great immediate needs is sound spiritual literature. I showed them our efforts to date by paging through our first three Good News magazines, three booklets and selected copies of New Beginnings. They were amazed at what we had done in less than a year. They have contacts who can translate some of the Good News articles. They liked the Bible Study subjects such as "Were the Ten Commandments Known Before Mount Sinai? They particularly liked the two articles about the life of Abraham and Sarah which they will also translate. We discussed the booklet about the Sabbath. We decided that that we would supervise translation of that booklet from the United States. In long discussions we talked about the structure and governance of the church. Our form of government is actually quite similar to theirs. I went through our Constitution and left them copies of our Constitution and By-Laws. While the income of the people is miserably low. The average wage is about $50 a month. Unemployment in Khust runs at 70%. In spite of this they are generous and look outside of themselves for how they can help. The Sabbatarians established a Mission called "Nazareth" for the purpose of helping less fortunate people. We discussed how we could coordinate medical help through the Mission since it is a recognized government entity. The Sabbatarians wanted more personal contact with some of our brethren. Language is a major obstacle, but we worked out a plan where three of their families would write to families in the United States and Britain through a translator. Other plans are to send a teenager or two from Ukraine to live with a family in the West for several months. We also made progress in reestablishing communications through Internet. We have a few problems to iron out, but should be able to communicate via the Cyrillic alphabet before too long. In the past few years much progress has been made in the Khust church. They have tripled their membership in the last three years from 25 to about 75 people. On the Sabbath Maurice and I spoke to congregations in both Khust and Rokosova. He spoke on what is pure religion and I spoke about the Exodus and the spiritual lessons we learn from the experiences of the Israelites. This was my best trip to Ukraine. I felt that what we had worked for was not in vain. Our friendship transcended the recent difficulty. As we talked, we found we had much in common regarding standing firm for what we believed in. We appreciated what they’ve had to go through while they congratulated us for not wavering.