Луганск

This is Lugansk. It is an industrial and mining center which is located two and one half hours west of Donetsk, Ukraine by highway.  The population is about one half million.  The streets are wide with well-kept sidewalks.  Buildings seem to be a mix of near past and far past.

To get there, we drove past parks and monuments, mosques and monasteries.

The Lugansk Branch of our church meets in a rented building which opens onto a busy street.  While we were holding training in one of the rooms there, a man walked in off of the street and interupted the mission president, asking several questions in Russian.  Then, in English, he asked if someone was available to teach his family, and of course, there was.

Four elders work in the district that is in Lugansk. Each, separately confided to us that he would be happy to serve in Lugansk to the end of his days as a missionary.

On the outskirts of the city we passed several old cemeteries.  The geography of the area is rolling hills with only an occational "mine-made mountain" to interrupt the gentle flow of the land.



A mountain of mine-tailings.  The overgrowth testifies that mining has been here a long, long time.

Cleaning checks are interesting when nineteen to twenty-three year old missionaries are involved. 

It is not uncommon to encounter the unexpected.