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QUARTERMAN ITINERARY 2016
MARCH
2 1st Pres Jackson MS Conference (til 3/4)
5 UKRAINE: teach ERSU Seminary course on Leadership (til 3/17)
19 Mom's 93rd birthday
20a Emelle, AL (Palm Sunday)
20p Aliceville, AL
22 Huntsville, AL
24 Brainerd Hills, Chattanooga, TN
25 Gatlinburg (til 4/1)
27 Evergreen, Sevierville, TN [Easter]
30 Cornerstone, Brevard, NC
APRIL
1 Johnson City, TN
3a Blacksburg, VA
3p Westminster PCA, Roanoke, VA
6 Brookhill Baptist, Roanoke
10 New Hope PCA, Fairfax, VA
17 West Hopewell, VA
18 Columbia, SC (til 4/19)
20 Ingleside, Atlanta, GA
24 Lexington, SC
MAY
3 MS Valley Presbytery
5 Fly back to Ukraine
10 Presbytery of Ukraine
20 Odessa Chr Sch Graduation
24 Netherlands EuCRC Conf (til 5/27)
30 ERSU Seminary spring session (til 6/3)
Please pray for our Travels!
- Details
In America, we complain about government red tape. The most laughable are the “paperwork reduction” notices that require reams of useless paper. Yet, we don’t really appreciate what it’s like beyond our borders.
Every country has its bureaucracy, but Ukraine takes the cake. After having been registered in Odessa under new laws, I had to “unregister” in order to move to Kiev. We’ve been working at it for 6 months, now, trying every way possible to rush things through, and we STILL are not fully registered.
Praise God for the steps already accomplished: Invitation letter from the church, Permit from the Department of Religion, another Invitation letter from the church, buy temporary health insurance (a formality), leave the country to get a new type of visa, third Invitation letter from the church, Second Permit from the Department of Religion, application form to Migration Service, buy second health insurance (also a formality), and finally, receiving our “Temporary Residence Booklets”!
Each step entailed numerous visits to notaries and translation offices, getting copies of all in triplicate, and waiting in long lines (and shoving crowds). Aren’t we having fun?
However, there is still ONE more step – registering our address in that little booklet. We’ve been working at that since September. Since we don’t yet have EVERYTHING correct in our paperwork, we’ve been avoiding the authorities whenever we could.
Yesterday, however, I needed another legal form, available only from our local Housing Authority. Ours happens to be located on the very street where the bloody riots occurred three weeks ago. So, I had to walk through two protester barricades and three riot police lines! The barricades at City Hall look like the ones in “Les Miserables,” and the police had 13 bus loads of riot police with black helmets, shields and batons. This is NOT where I wanted to go, with my papers “not in order”!
Would you go through all that, just to get a piece of paper that OUGHT to be available on the web as a free download? Besides that, I had to push my way to the front of the line in the Housing Authority and talk the lady into giving it to me (in mixed Ukrainian and Russian)!
All of this process is simply to prove that I DO live here at THIS ADDRESS! Think about that, the next time you are standing in line, waiting your orderly turn at the U.S. Post Office, and see a free stack of “Change of Address” forms!
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The QuarterWomen in the family of Q
- Kiev, 6 Aug 2015, ClayQ
With all the boys in our family, we haven’t always talked about the women of the Q Family! Clay will be teaching a seminar for the Lydia Institute in fall on the Christian Philosophy of Women and Women’s work. But he has some wonderful examples to work from!
Darlene has a servant’s heart. She spent the summer in Mississippi with our son Nate and our granddaughters (Kendra, age 8, and Rivka, age 6 – two more wonderful women-in-making). Darlene was helping out while Malaika was in Virginia for a month, working on her Masters. Malaika is also bringing the girls a baby BROTHER in October! Darlene also helped in Jackson with Clay’s Mother, who is in great health for age 92! But Clay is glad to see Darlene back in Ukraine after 6 weeks away!
Erin, Matt’s wife, finished her Masters and is now the Librarian of a theological school in Seattle. Matt stays busy working at an Apple store, writing music, and singing with Erin at church and elsewhere.
Irene, Ty’s wife, became an American citizen and got her Driver’s license! That’s a big thing for someone who didn’t grow up with a family car! Ty is working on a college degree while training and working in the Shipyard of Newport News.
What would our lives be like without these wonderful women?! Besides the obvious, women are such a blessing from God, and their special qualities are so important in our families and personal lives! Thank the Lord for each of these precious jewels!
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After looking for apartments for weeks, (our total came to 29 apartments), we decided on an apartment right in downtown Kiev, overlooking the street where the Orange Revolution took place in 2004. The sad part is that we had gotten rid of all our furniture, thinking we would rent a furnished apartment, and this one is unfurnished! So we have been furniture shopping, too! Please pray for all the deliveries, paperwork, visas, approvals, and contracts necessary to get us settled there. Our household goods are STILL in storage, so we are still living out of suitcases – since last October!
We are enjoying the hospitality of all our new teammates in Kiev, who have rolled out the red carpet to us, providing meals, transportation, and temporary housing. One sure way to become ‘part of the family’ is to move into their homes! We’re thankful to God for our new team!
Ministry has continued in the meantime, including two weeks of seminary, joining the choir, team meetings and cookouts, grading seminary papers, meeting local Korean missionaries, learning the public transportation systems, and exploring many areas of the city.
…And we haven’t even been back in Ukraine for a month!
Thanks for continued prayers. - Clay
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