This Week

Last Saturday we took Stas and headed to our friends Andre and Olya's "new" house that they bought in June. There were a couple of buildings in the backyard that needed destroying so that's what Steve, Stas, Andre and one other guy did....while I sat in the shade and read a book. 

There was shashlik afterwards which is the equivalent of ordering pizza for everyone after they've helped with a job.  

On Monday Jessica invited us to go to Dnipro to the water park with her, her Mom, Igor, Igor's brother and another friend who is helping her with her project. We had low expectations but it was actually great and the boys were really happy to go. 

Monday was Steve's evening youth group which is called "Home". Home is a small group that sprung out of the Real School program that our friend Andre helped to start. Throughout the summer they wanted to stop the small group but Steve offered to take over the leadership of it so that the momentum they had could continue. So they've been discussing marriage and dating and Steve asked if I could come and be a part of that so that at some point we could split into groups and I could lead a discussion group of girls. 

Tuesday evening we have been playing beach volleyball. We had about 20 people come this week. 

After the beach Steve had floor ball practice. His knee buckled while running and he couldn't run anymore but it felt fine later on in the evening. 

Wednesday for supper we always have the Molochansk boys over. I always feed them something and there is usually four to six of them but sometimes there will be a surprise seventh. Steve does an English lesson with them and they have a Bible discussion and sometimes they go to church to hang out with a group Jessica has there Wednesdays evenings and sometimes they stay at our place. 

Steve spent Thursday meeting with different friends and we had our small group in the evening. It was so hot that day that the boys and I sat under the a/c all day and couldn't bring ourselves to go outside!! Steve did take the boys to floor ball practice in the evening so that they could run around a bit in the gym, which I'm sure was also a thousand degrees! 

This week has been a hot one and I was looking forward to those "cooler" weekend days!  

Steve has been playing soccer Friday and Sunday evenings but Thursday evening at floor ball and again playing soccer yesterday his knee buckled again so he was unable to run. Summer is a very bad time for him to not be able to play sports but hopefully with a few days of rest it will feel better. It doesn't hurt at all other than when he tries to run and it gives out.

This was the sunset yesterday after a +37 degree day - we finally got some clouds and rain that continued into today.

Despite the on and off rain today Steve got some floor ball guys together to play baseball. It was "cooler" today as well, only +27.

And that was pretty much our week. Some weeks are busier than others especially when we're running a camp of some kind but even without a camp we always have something up each and every day. 

House of Compassion Ground Breaking

Our dear friend Jessica is building a home for orphan children and last Sunday we helped her host a ground-breaking ceremony. It was an absolutely beautiful afternoon filled with praise to God, prayer for the project as it moves ahead and for the children whose lives will be changed by Christ in this place. 

Standing on the road looking across her field:

Jessica shared a bit about the project:

There was singing and speaking by Jessica's pastor who came from New Hampshire and the whole time the kids who were present (our boys included) were running through the field and across the dirt, breaking in the land.

Steve and I were in charge of food. Jessica and I went shopping and bought all the necessary things and I made salads and half of the dessert for the 50 people. Steve and Igor were on the grill the whole time cooking up hot dogs and grilling vegetables.

The Niva was a good wind block for the grill because it was crazy windy that afternoon. 

Jessica had no idea how many people were going to come - she invited 40 but anticipated up to 50, and there were actually about 50 people there.

We're so excited to see this house go up and to help and support Jessica in every way possible. She is incredibly faithful to the Lord, being in an at-war, unstable, foreign country where it's completely counter-cultural to be doing something like this as a single woman. Jessica and I constantly look at each other and say: "are we crazy? This is impossible!!!" We are determined that the only way it's going to happen is through the Lord and it is He alone to Whom the glory belongs when it is done.....AND in the long, arduous building task ahead!

Beach Volleyball

Every Tuesday we play volleyball at the beach and this week we were hoping that some of the teenagers we met at the English camp last week would come. We had 10 or more of them come which was great and we had some of our regulars come so we had a large group. Unfortunately we encountered the same problem as last summer - there are poles for volleyball at the beach that we bring our own net to play on but recently some "real" teams have come to "practice" and basically kicked us off which is annoying. Thankfully people still love to play volleyball in a circle. 

English Camp

Thursday through Saturday we helped out at an English camp that was organized by a Baptist church here in the city. It took place at an old Soviet "camp" on Khortitza Island. 

The boys loved this "castle": 

Old Soviet campy-type signs: 

There were some other Americans there - a missionary from a town south of Zap and his friend who was here visiting. They each preached the message on Thursday and Friday and Steve was there those days to lead the English discussion group. 

The last day was Steve's turn to preach and he shared about God's love and salvation.

The closing camp game was basically "drench the leaders" and Steve won the prize for being the least wet.

We invited all the teenagers to beach volleyball on Tuesday and we're really hoping some of them come. We had some really deep conversations with some of them as well as just getting to know some of them which is hopefully the start of some new relationships. The church hosting the event has a youth group but doesn't really have the desire to really minister to these kids so we're hoping they come to us and we can get them involved in the things we do, which ultimately can lead to them accepting Christ.

#JustYouth July: CANADA DAY

#JustYouth was on Saturday and it just happened to be Canada Day, so what better theme than to force everyone to celebrate with us!! It was HOT. +37 degrees Celsius and the a/c units in our church building are absolutely pathetic! We were wondering how many people we would get but there were at least 60, and more always straggle in as the evening goes on. 

We had decorations: 

My Mom brought me all sorts of Canada items when she came - a massive Canada flag that we hung from the ceiling, red food colouring, Canada cupcake papers....

All of these great little flags and a maple leaf cookie cutter that I cut up a watermelon with: 

Ruslan, our regular MC wasn't available so Steve and Antonio did it together, in Russian and untranslated English.

We played Canada trivia and handed out Canada prizes - a bunch of toques and mittens, headbands and calendars we brought back with us in winter. Did I mention that it was +37 degrees Celsius?? Yeah, and we handed out TOQUES AND MITTS. ha ha ha

Steve really wanted to prepare some songs....so he made a mashup of famous (and not so famous) Canadian artists and we sang and acted along with their music videos. This was the Celine Dion portion:

And here is Nickleback:

It was as embarrassing and as awkward as it looks, not to mention incredibly hot!

We played Canadian sports - basketball:

A very loose version of curling:

We also did hockey but didn't manage to pull off lacrosse.

 Our friend Oleg (the director of Young Life) spoke this time:

After Oleg spoke we carried the cake table up to the front where we cut it and made everyone come up in SINGLE FILE to take a piece. That way one person didn't take 8 cupcakes and seven people didn't get any.

I try to keep on top of Canada - Ukraine relations and it makes me very excited and happy to know that Canada supports Ukraine in a lot of ways while the country is in rough shape. From the new Canada-Ukraine Free Trade Agreement, sending Canadian troops to train Ukrianian troops to helping in tangible, on the ground ways (for example, donating a fleet of ambulances) it makes me extemely grateful to be from a country that has so much and can do so much for other countries. I don't think I was ever very patriotic until I moved away, oddly enough! But being in Ukraine makes me realize how much we have as Canadians and we thank God that we are able to be in Ukraine to share His love and salvation through Jesus Christ. 

Sports Week

We really chose a painful week for doing sports! 

We started with football (soccer) on Monday, playing from eleven until one in the afternoon. In the shade (where I was sitting) it wasn't so bad, ha ha. 

The first two days we headed straight to the beach after playing because it was just so ridiculously hot. 

On Wednesday we tried to round up enough people to play baseball. Ideally we'd like to have 20 to play but in reality we never get that many when it's so hot. There were 12 played which worked to play a rotating position game. Steve explained how to play in the sand: 

Thursday was our last day and we met on the beach at four in the afternoon. It was +35 that day so it was good to go a little later and to be in the shade at the beach. 

Some years sports camp is a huge hit and other years it's a big flop. This kind of felt more on the flop end of things but I don't really think the weather was on our side. So we'll try again another week when it's hopefully cooler and hopefully we'll be able to draw some bigger crowds.