Our meeting with Masha and our visit to the Cathedral

Shortly after arriving to the apartment yesterday afternoon, freesing cold, Masha (our facilitator) called us and asked us to meet at the Irish Pub in 15 minutes. So we had to put on all the snow gear and go out again. It was snowing and it was a lot colder than the day before, fortunately the place was very close. We got there OK and she was waiting for us upstairs...


After so many phone calls and emails, we finally met!









We talked for over an hour, she gave us a few pointers for our SDA appointment which is this afternoon, we talked about the process and showed her pictures of our daughter, our house and our Community. She was really nice and sweet and made us feel very comfortable. She said she thinks the SDA meeting will be smooth and fast, and that she would get the copies of the dossier done in the morning and ask them to have the authorization by closing of the business today so we could take the train to Kramatorsk tonight and meet the boys tomorrow morning. There are no guarantees, but let's hope it is this way and we don't have to stay a whole extra day in Kiev waiting for this paper. We'll see, please pray that everything is done in God's time.

During our conversation with Masha, we asked her where we could find a Church. It wa Sunday and we really wanted to attend Mass. She explained that St. Michael's Cathedral was really close by, and we ventured to look for it. It was really impressive, we could not believe our eyes, the murals on the walls, everything was beautiful! We saw lots of people arriving, so we went too and some kind of ceremony was just starting. I don't think it was Mass because there was no Holy Communion, but it was wonderful. There was a lot of incense, the Priests wonderful robes, everything was colorful and golden. They made a kind of Adoration of the Holy Sacrament and the singing was just beautiful, at first we thought it was a recording, but then we saw the choir, they sounded like real angels. This was a gift for us, being able to live a moment of so much devotion and closeness to God just the day before the whole process was about to begin. It felt as if He was blessing us and telling us not to worry, that everything would be OK.

Here are a few pictures, if we thought the morning was cold, we didn't know how freezing the afternoon would be!



St. Michael's Cathedral










Another Church right beside the Cathedral











Brrrr..... it was cold!












It was snowing heavily!









After this we almost ran (as far as you can run in the snow) to the apartment to get something to it and warm up, but we were very happy and comforted by the beautiful experience we had just lived.