Thursday, April 9, 2009

The last few weeks...

We have not blogged in the last few weeks so here is look at some of the things that went on in our lives... We attended a youth conference in Zhovti Vodi (Yellow Waters). We piled into our van along with the Zschech family and drove 5 hours through pot-hole filled roads to meet the rest of our youth group at the conference. We enjoyed 2 days of worship, teaching, great fellowship and wonderful hospitality. I taught a 2 hr. workshop on design principles and how to apply it in photoshop. I shared about looking to creation for design inspiration created by the "great Designer".
Last year, I got to know the village veternarian. Emily, our dog, was having some stomach issues, and someone directed us to Sergei. When my mom was here, we all went out to Sergei's home for an authentic Ukrainian meal. His wife, Lyena, laid out quite a spread and we enjoyed an amazing meal and fun conversation, thanks to our translator, Anya. We decided to return the favor and invited them over for an "American" meal at our home. We also invited Yura and Oksana. So, Christy actually went with the Italian dish, lasagna, complete with garlic bread, fruit salad and carrot cake for dessert. We think that they enjoyed the food or they were being very polite. Sergei and his son, Dima, tested out the Wii bowling and loved it. It was a fun evening and we pray that God would give us more opportunities to spend time with this family in the future and share with them the hope we have in Jesus Christ.

Sergei and his son bowling on wii.

The men in our church decided to put on a special dinner for the ladies in our church. Yura was the head chef and other men helped cook, serve, or provide entertainment. The ladies had a nice time being served and just relaxing and chatting with each other. According to my wife, "I had a great time and loved the food Yura cooked for us. It was wonderful to be able to enjoy a quiet meal with friends and not having to lift a finger to help with cooking or dishes! So, when is the next one?"
The Lord has provided me with some little work projects to help some of the ladies in our church. I helped out with a remodel at Natasha Semenenko's place, plastering and patching up her ceiling. Another project that came my way was building a temporary outhouse for a babushka in our church. Baba Olya has a fueding neighbor who has been harassing her and tends to destroy her property. His last rage was against her outhouse. She lives alone and usually has many jobs that need to be done around her house.

Baba Olya stands in front of her destroyed outhouse.
The temporary outhouse I built...4 poles, black plastic and a door.

The church had a work day to clean up the building and surrounding property. We showed up ready to work. Our cleaning arsenal consisted of rakes, shovels, brushes and a tractor complete with trailer for all the trash and rubble. The Lord gave us a beautiful day to serve him!



1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hey buddy! look like God is doing amazing things your life! I hope to try and catch you on skype soon, but we shall see. I cannot believer Yura cooked and there was food left for people to actually eat! tell him i think he is getting to big and i might be crushed if i ever come back. anyway i hope you are doing well. I heard that you might be having a team from Calvary? is that North or what? i would love to hear from you soon. also i am not getting your emails, so my email has changed to boogyisback@gmail.com
With all my love,
andrew