Christ is Risen !

Easter dawned wet this morning in Ukraine. We drove into Dnepropetroesk for church this morning, just the two of us. Our Crimean visitors are elsewhere for the weekend, and the guys stayed in the village. Max Boradin and Andrey were impressed with what the Easter bunny brought them, since there were little baskets of candy for everyone on the table this morning.

However, with the rain coming down and hardly any marschutkas (vans) and buses on the road due the holiday, we stopped twice to pick up guys looking for rides. One guy dressed in black that we picked up walking along the highway in the rain and dropped off near the market in Bratskii (which was closed for Easter) said he was finally able to eat meat. Many people here fast and  keep Lent, even those who do not regularly attend the Orthodox church. We picked up the second guy on the other side of that town and dropped him off just at the edge of Dnepropetroesk. Both guys had trouble sliding the side door of the van shut, the interior light stayed on, they were trying to close it gently.

Spy camera shot (sorry for the quality)

We stopped at Mc Donalds for breakfast, which has become a Sunday morning tradition with us. Although it is packed the rest of the day, it is never busy for breakfast, Ukrainians are more likely to buy ice cream cones, which are sold before ten am, then other items off the breakfast menu. We noticed that three people sitting near us had brought their own drinks, not unusual here, but the first time I have seen beer bottles wrapped in Mc Donalds paper bags at breakfast!






Normally Easter morning we see lots of people walking with their baskets that they went to the Orthodox church to get blessed, but not as many today.... maybe some people were using plastic bags because of the rain! I did get a few snapshots as we drove through the city.

Even the billboard is for Easter (Paska)

We had wonderful music for Easter at Morningstar and even some special performances after the sermon. We saw our friend Doreen there, as she was brought here from Kramatoresk, where we have visited her a few times. She came to Dnepro on Wednesday as the Donetsk region had become more unstable, and came out to the farm for the day on Thursday. It was good to see some other friends there to worship, also. We received a few homemade Paska breads, too.

 We were going to decorate Easter cookies on Thursday when Doreen was here but we ended up just talking and eating the Napolean cake I had put together, so Friday night when Maria stayed over, the rest of us girls decorated Easter cookies.

There was even egg dying, we plan on an egg hunt sometime on Monday when our guests return...


Max and Andrey had eaten all their candy and were getting showered to go to the youth service in the village when we got home at three o'clock - they got home late from singing, Bible study and then shisklik (BBQ) 

The praise band on a special morning