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.