a well-watered garden

Mozart and Lysenko in a small Ukrainian village

Again a whole month has gone by since I've written on my blog! Last weekend, we had some guests from Kiev join us in Rivne for a seminar on Christianity and a special concert at an orphanage. These kids who live in a beautifully built new housing complex rarely get to the city for entertainment. The music they choose on their own tends to be dance and rap music. So you can imagine their surprise when our guests brought Bach and Chopin to their stage! Here's a short clip of our friend Olga singing a famous Russian song:

July Update

Summer Home Assignment 2007 Begins!

As many of you know, I’m now on the “FLEX” plan for missionaries which means that between 2004 (my new five-year term) and 2009, I must spend a total of 12 months in the United States touring and speaking at churches and camps. I’m taking my first 3-month ‘chunk’ this summer. On June 14th, I landed in Pittsburgh, and enjoyed some time getting to know my family again! After a trip to Indianapolis for missionary debriefing, I began speaking in Pittsburgh area churches. It has been good to reconnect with so many people who have been praying and giving to support Kingdom work in Ukraine!

General Conference 2007 at Spring Arbor, MI

One week ago, I returned from the Free Methodist Church of North America’s “General Conference.” Delegates from each area meet to make decisions about key church matters—and people from all over the country and world gather to celebrate, worship, and hear from the Lord. It’s hard to describe the encouragement and inspiration received when you share time and space with such a group of leaders.

Family Camps, family camps, and more family camps!

Mom, Dad and I drove directly from General Conference to Tri-State Family Camp in East Liverpool, Ohio. I got to do two food-oriented meetings (ice cream social and ‘missionary tea’ – we FM’s love to do fellowship with food!), a few evening spots, and time with youth and children. Just yesterday I visited another camp that wasn’t on my schedule: the Cattaraugus camp in the Genesee Conference area. I went to see my friends Lynette and Josef Sykora and their new baby Simon. They normally live in Slovakia, one of the countries bordering the one in which I usually live (which, by the way, is Ukraine). It was a busy day but refreshing to the heart to see friends who also happen to be colleagues in Europe!

Tomorrow I leave for another camping marathon: Fairchance Family Camp followed by Kiski Family Camp. SEE YOU THERE!

Please continue praying for friends in Russia Thank you so much for your prayers for Richard’s family and friends in St. Petersburg, Russia. As I mentioned before, I didn’t know Rich personally, and only met his friends last summer while taking a Teacher’s Certification course in ESL. But it is a blessing to be able to offer even a little support to these teachers who are in shock and mourning—Pray with me that God will be very present in their lives right now.

A tremendously HUGE thank you to all of you who are constantly praying for me. I am humbled and supported by those prayers and your dedication. May God support and lift YOU up too!

In Him, Julie Allman

another night of 'kairos'

We had our fifth 'Kairos' evening this past Sunday night.  Trying to meld the themes of April Fool's Day and Palm Sunday was a bit of a stretch!  There were more games and activities this time, and it seemed to help people interact.   

Here's a clip from the cup game that Sergei and Sergei Jr. did for the crowd:

News, News, News!

Laggin' behind . . .

Hello again everyone!  Lately I've been writing my 'missionary Allmanacs' a lot more often, but my blog is lagging behind (if you want to receive The Allmanac - let me know!)  I'm thinking people probably read blogs based on how often they're updated. Cuz why would you check back to look at a blog that stays the same for weeks, even months???  See, I'm a blog reader myself, so I know  :)

Teachin' . . .

Okay, that aside, I wanted to write a bit about what's going on these days. My teaching has gotten going again - Just two or three times a week: at the university and at the music school.  Most recently I've been using things like Kelly Clarkson singing 'Breakaway' to entertain students and teach them phrasal verbs.  At the music school, we may start reading Prince Caspian, since they enjoyed The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe so much last year.

Preachin' . . .

This Wednesday, I attended a small group run by the local chapter of IFES (in Ukraine it's called "CCX"), entitled "Glad you Asked":  This is the name of a great study/video/discussion course designed for use in Europe and Eurasia to help seekers walk through their questions about faith.  I might keep visiting this group--it's exciting to see students think through these things and realize that there are good reasons for believing, and believing in Jesus!

and Singin' . . .

And last but not least, I wanted to tell you about Kairos!  I wrote back in May about our first Kairos coffeehouse - named Kairos because this Greek word for time expresses the idea of a special moment: the moment to act, the time to hear, the time of decision or persuasion. 

So we finally had a second Kairos last night: Nov. 11.  No, we didn't have a Veteran's Day theme; it's not veteran's day in Ukraine  :)    Again we ate, we listened, we hung out, we played a game and found out who can climb walls and touch their tongue to their nose and sing the Ukrainian National Anthem (not all at the same time). 

Music School students played beautiful violin and flute pieces--as usual bringing a hush over the crowd. 

. . . and friends I met in the Nazarene Church, Masha and Slavik, played some good coffeehouse-type worship music for us:

Next month, we hope to celebrate Christmas and collaborate our musical efforts (get those young classical musicians to improvise with us geetar players  :)   Should be good!  Also hoping to craft a clearer vision of this ministry so that it can be communicated to those who participate.  Pray with me!