Dear Dick,

It was a good week teaching at the college, but it does make for long days. I leave the house about 7:30 a.m. We have to leave at least a half hour early because of bad roads. With all the snow we have had they have yet to clear the secondary roads. So now we have 6-8 inches of ice as a base and then we have ruts, potholes, ridges and washboards in the ice. Where we would normally drive 50 we have to go 20. Once we get to the main highway it is okay.  Of course it takes extra time on the way home. It has been below zero for almost two weeks, except for one day when it got up to 33 and melted a lot of ice and snow. Then the temperature plunged to single digits that night and refroze everything.  But our house and the college have been warm. We have had a couple of frozen pipes at the house, but we were able to get them thawed out before any damage was done.

Ron Minton, plus his wife and interpreter came to spend the night Thursday. They are on their way to western Ukraine where he will teach a seminary course for a couple of weeks.  I will teach another week at our Bible college next week and they travel to far eastern Ukraine, city of Lugansk, where I will teach a seminary course for Ron Minton.

We went to hear Beethoven’s Missas Solemnis last night. This is one of the most incredible piece of music ever written.  This was performed by the Kiev Symphony Orchestra and Choir, plus two other outstanding professional choirs.  There was a full orchestra and more than 200 voices. They say that you can’t do justice to this piece unless you have at least 200 in the choir.  The four soloists were world class, and the piece was directed by John Nelson, an American, who is recognized as one of the world’s greatest conductors. The music we heard last night was one of the most magnificent things I have ever heard.  The Gloria alone was worth the price of admission.

The Ukrainian election for president is today. This is a run-off, and it is very much like the election of five years ago which resulted in the Orange Revolution. The outcome of that was a weak president who just didn’t have the clout to get things done as he wanted.  Today, his big rival and his big ally in the former election are facing off. It is a race too close to call at this point. The fear is that if Yanukovich wins he will turn to Russia and grant them access to many of the resources in Ukraine. Alexander Putin campaigned for this man in the last election.

I talked with the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine yesterday. He is a career diplomat who was serving as ambassador to Georgia when the Russians invaded. He had some interesting stories to tell about that. One point he made was that the Russians grossly underestimated the Georgian desire for independence and their willingness to fight for it.  When Russia finally agreed to pull back, according to Ambassador Tefft, is when they inflicted the most damage, destroying several small towns and villages on the way, raping and pillaging as they went. He said that this received virtually no media coverage.  Surprise, surprise!  He said that he thinks that Russia has also underestimated that will of the Ukrainian people to be independent. He said that he had had a long meeting with Yanukovich, and, in his opinion, he doesn’t think that Yanukovich is going to jump into bed with Russia, that there are too many people who are backing him who want to be free to operate without Russian domination.  But of course, who knows?  He said we will probably be able to get a decent picture in the first three months of the new administration.  So, I had an interesting day yesterday.

Today is the election, so we must move the meeting place for our church. This is always a bit disruptive, but we will survive. We have rented a hall at a nearby hotel. It’s a nice venue – I wouldn’t mind meeting there every week, but it is four times the cost of our usual place.  We meet at the college on Sunday night, so that is no problem.

The sun is shining brightly under a brilliant blue sky this morning and predictions are that we will get as high as 20 today. Maybe some sublimation – maybe not.

Thanks for all,

Jim