Little taxi driver

Josh loves to give all his little friends rides back and forth on our street. One day was we were walking as a family (you do that a lot when you live in a village) the little girls were fighting over who would get to ride with Josh next. This little girl, Ira, won this time.

End of School Year

Jessica and Josh are very happy that the end of the year has come. This is actually an old picture of Jessica at her desk. When you are a homeschool missionary's kid you end up doing school on the run a lot, and in many different places. We have done our best to keep up with their schooling no matter where we were. Josh has finished this work for this year and Jessica has one PACE left to go. She should be done in one or two days. Jessica likes to sit at her desk and turn on music and turn it up so she can't hear all the distractions. I think the teacher is almost as glad as the students that it is the end of the school year.

Daddy's Girl

Jason took Jessica on a date few weeks ago. It is really special that they can have time to talk and build a good father -daughter relationship. And I want Jessica to know how a man is supposed to treat her. She is becoming quite a young lady, and we are happy how God is working in her life. And yes, they do have pizza in Ukraine.

Saturday market

Guess what I have caught up my blog to today. Yea!!! Yes, this morning we took a family trip to a Saturday market or bazzar. We needed a few things and wanted to check on the price of vegetables compared to Kiev prices. Thought you might like to see what a shopping experience is like. There are shopping centers and supper markets in Ukraine now. But only in the big cities. Most Ukrainians will buy what they need in market like this or in small shops. Here is a horse waiting on his master to finish shopping. Most of the people come by bus or taxi van if they don't have a car of their own.

On we were on our way Jason stopped at a bus stop because I saw one of my friends there and wanted to give her a ride. Well, everyone at the bus stop got in and Jason gave them a free ride to market. I think there were about 8 or 9 people. It was kinda funny.

Singing in the rain

When I heard it raining, a few days ago,I went to look for my children who had been out taking a walk. This is what I found. They were in no hurry to get home because they had on waterproof hats.They weren't actually singing but they were pretty happy! Here are a few of the children that are usually at our house. They are very nice children from our street that come to Sunday school. Jason built a tree fort and they had to try it out. Recently we have been having kids over every day because it is at the end of school and the weather has been a little warmer. It is not hot yet, just warmer. You still need a jacket most days.

May Bugs!!!

When we went on the church picnic the kids found trees just loaded with June bugs. Here they call them May bugs. Of course all the little boys had to shake the trees and see how many they could pick up. Here is Josh with this handfull.

Sunday school picnic

We had a picnic with our Kid's Club from both villages, (Osikova & Kenyasachee). The children had to memorize Pslams 23 to go on this picnic.

Dr Jason

Actually the children in our village call him dada Jason which means Uncle Jason. But here he is getting a piece of glass out of Sasha's foot. It doesn't look like Sasha is too sure about it all.

Slovakia pictures

We had to leave the country to keep our visas legal. We took a short bus ride into Slovakia and rented a car and drove the back roads and had a few family days. Here are a few of the pictures. This is a neat looking house in a village where we stopped for a picnic along the river. Here is the view from our room at the little farm we stayed at. Yes, that is a castle in the background. Someone suggested that we visit it and I am so glad that we did. It ended up being the highlight of our trip. In the barn, in the foreground, there were pigeons and horses.

Here is a view inside of the castle. There has been a castle on this hill since the 1100AD. There were so many interesting stories about kings, and princesses and battles. Lots of history and so much fun.

Family picture with castle in background.

I thought this church looked cool. A little different then we had in Ukraine.

A sweet custom

This is a beautiful blue church in Uzgarade. But that is not the sweet custom I was talking about. When we went walking over the river, I noticed all these locks on the bridge railing. Veta told me that whenever a boy asked a girl to marry him (or some other important point in their relationship) they would go to the bridge and put "their" lock around a railing and then lock it and throw the key in the river. I thought that was a very sweet custom and had to get a picture. I had never heard of anyone doing this before, but Jason said that in Moscow, he saw the same thing. If you have ever seen it let me know.

These were just a few of the locks. Some of them were very beautiful and some plain.

More from western Ukraine

I really liked this picture of my man and I. We were at a castle ruin overlook the river and the village. It was a fun hike and beautiful view. Jess and Josh were sitting on the castle wall and looking out over the village.

Jason and the kids climbing around in the castle ruin. It was fun to hear old stories from Stepon.

Both Jess and Josh seemed to enjoy this trip. We had fun as a family, and also made plans with Stepon and Veta about this summer's ministry. Lord willing, they both will be translating for us this summer. We are looking forward to working with them.

Family picture outside a village house. It was very interesting learning more about Ukrainian history.

Here is a picture of the inside of one of the houses. Check out the beautiful needle work on the pillow slips and bed skirt.

Western Ukraine

I am finally getting back to blogging and catching you up our trip to Western Ukraine and Slovakia. We met Stepon and Veta in Uzagrade. We had a very nice picnic in a museum of village houses from different regions of Ukraine. It was a lovely day and we had a very nice time. Here is one of the village houses, thatch roof and all.

Train ride!!!

This was our little room on the train we took to Western Ukraine. It was a 17 hr trip, so we spent the night on the train, which the children found very fun. One part I really like was wakeing up in the morning and seeing mountains outside the window. I miss the mountains in Colorado. Ukrainian mountains are not Rocky Mountains but they sure are pretty. I will post more pictures later but my internet is very slow tonight.

First picnic of the year

Jessica and Josh and a few of their friends had a picnic in our back yard, last Sunday. It wasn't WARM but it was warm enough to enjoy a picnic and it looks like they did.

We are alive and fine

The last time I wrote a post was three weeks ago. Sorry to all of you that have been checking to see if anything is happening with us ( if there is anyone out there reading this, I'm afraid that all my faithful readers have left me). Every says that they are busy. Aren't we all. I feel I'm running in circles and not remembering where I'm supposed to be, or what I'm supposed to be doing. Seriously, I can give you the quick version of what we have been doing the last 3 weeks. And then I will try to give you a better over view with pictures( notice I said "try"). We had to take some teens back home to southern Ukraine, the week after spring break. We were down in Nova Odess for three days and then back home. We were home for 4 days ( two of those being busy ministry days) and then we were on the train headed to Western Ukraine. We had to met with our translators for this summer and make plans. Then we took a bus into Slovakia, because we needed to leave Ukraine for our visas and also had few days of family time. We have been home for almost one week and have been pouring cement and making a few repairs and getting ready for our summer ministry . So that is the short version. Thanks for your prayers this past few weeks. God has helped us in many ways.