Molochansk

We headed down to Molochansk this past Saturday afternoon and survived the drive! The main highway south was decent but the smaller highways were pretty brutal. I don't even know how to begin describing them but we are always praying for supernatural tire strength on our way anywhere! We would gasp loudly through big hidden holes and thank Jesus that no tires were imploding or exploding as we went! 

Our first stop in Molochansk was at the home of our old friend Olga who we stayed with for a week nine years ago on Trek. She is now 86 years old and is in poor health but she was joyful and happy to see us. She is still teaching some English lessons to young students and her grandson is living with her and taking care of her. 

In the evening we went to Real School at the MB church, which is what we were invited there for. The weather was amazing so we played some games outside before the program started. 

The game pictured below consists of someone chasing another person with a belt - once they whack the person across the backside, that person becomes "it". You can be "safe" by standing in groups of two, but once it becomes a group of three, the last person needs to run. I didn't play......getting hit with a belt doesn't sound like fun to me!

Dez played this dodgeball-type game and actually won, probably because he's small and hard to hit with a ball.

Steve shared a message about the power of prayer, using the floorball finals weekend in Poltava as his example.

After the message we played more games and gave out some Canadian prizes before having tea, cookies and hanging out. 

We spent the night with our friend Pasha's family who are so kind to open their home to us. His mom had pelmini (meat filled tiny perogies) ready for us when we got there at almost 10 p.m and had a big breakfast for us this morning.  His grandma didn't call us weak eaters this time (she did two summers ago) but of course she packed up many jars of compote (juice) for us to take home. I've decided that being a Grandma is it's own worldwide culture that doesn't have language barriers or country borders. She made sure we ate enough, she made sure we weren't cold and she sent us home with goodies....sounds like every Grandma everywhere to me! How blessed we are to have a Grandma experience here every once in a while!

We went to church Sunday morning and Steve preached a short message. It wasn't originally a part of the plan for the weekend but the Monday before we saw the pastor (Alex) in Zaporozhye and Steve told him that we were coming to help with Real School and immediately Alex asked if Steve would preach in church too. We've always been told some version of "always be ready to preach, pray or die" so of course Steve said yes. We're always thankful to be included in the local churches and love meeting believers all over.

This is their beautiful new church building that they built only a few years ago:

We headed back to Zap after church and made really good time. Our new car is quite a bit more efficient at hills and passing and didn't fall apart when we threw it through some big holes.