Swine Flu and Gypsies

“Flu. Masks. Quarantine. Schools Cancelled. Inflation on Cough Syrup. Cure?” are only some of the common topics seemingly on the tongue of everyone in Ukraine. The reason is simple and complex. Recently a flu epidemic has been spreading from Western Ukraine throughout the country, the WHO recently listed that a total of 763,000 people have fallen ill with flu and acute respiratory infections in the last few weeks, with 34,000 of them hospitalized. Thirty-two cases of H1N1 have been confirmed in the country, including 14 people who have died. Currently 109 people have died from either H1 N1 and respiratory infections. So what does this mean practically? Currently all ‘unnecessary’ public meetings are being cancelled for the next three weeks – meaning public schools, universities, and even in some places, churches. The government has been discouraging citizens from using public transportation or spending any unnecessary time in public places like grocery stores or Cafe’s. Citizens of Ukraine are also all being encouraged to wear masks at all times. This epidemic has possible negative implications for our teaching ministry here in Ukraine. Because of the fear of catching the flu we have already experienced a drop in the amount of students participating in our seminar’s. Luckily however the past week we were not working with typical ‘Citizens of Ukraine’… The past week and a half we were working with a small gypsy community just outside of Uzgarad, which is a medium sized city bordering on Hungary. For those of you unacquainted with the group, Gypsy’s are cultural rejects and outcasts of Ukrainian society. They keep to themselves, do not send their children to school, live in extreme poverty, and have a reputation for being thieves and beggars. We had the privilege of being welcomed into their community, homes, and churches and preached in three church services on topics like ‘Incarnational Missiology, ‘A Biblical Perspective on Work’, ‘The Power of the Tongue’, ‘Servanthood’, ‘Grace and Salvation’ among others. We were honestly sorry to leave them and wish we had had more time. Currently we are heading over to eastern Ukraine to run Inductive Bible Study seminar’s for the next couple of weeks. Pray that God would provide protection for us during our time here, and seminar’s full of students.