VBS in Nova Odessa

The VBS in Nova Odessa, except for the first day, was held in the court yard. It was much cooler and we had more room to move around. There were around 40 kids total that came to this VBS. Katrina Randolph works with these children and teens every week,as their full time missionary. Our Bible stories skits were a hit with the children! Jason and Jeff A. (Stepon translating) did a great job telling the story of Noah and ark.

Here Vita, Jeff A. and some of the teen leaders doing a skit about Jesus dying for us.

Dema loves craft time!!! ( Steff A. helping)

Games were so much fun. Jason, Dema, and Stepon on the same team? Now wait a minute.

Capture the flag in the forest, was a great game for the picnic on Sat. They really liked this one!!!

Parachute fun with water ballons thrown in, can it get better than that?

These were the leaders and teen leaders for the Nova Odessa VBS
And here is the whole gang for Nova Odessa. Pray for each of these children who heard the clear message of the Gospel.

Week off ???

When I say that this has been a week off, I don't mean that we aren't doing anything. It just means that we have a break in our VBS schedual. Would you like to see what a week off is for missionaries. First off, since this is summer we have started our canning. Yes, you can buy things at the store but you can save soooooo much money if you just can it. Here is Vita canning cherry juice. It is a totally different process than in the States. And since we plan on putting up as much food for winter as we can, we needed to fix our celler. The guys are still working on that one. Sand and gravel came today and they are building new walls for the steps since the old ones were all broken down.

And yes, we are trying to get a little rest when we can. Mr. King, Joshua's cat was so happy that we were home again and he was caught resting on the job as he was guarding the shoe rack.

A nice laugh helps one relax after our VBS last week. Three down and four to go. Thanks for praying for us.

Rained out little campers

Josh had a campout in our front yard with 5 of his little friends. They had a great time cooking hotdogs over the campfire and playing games. They slept in two little tents. Josh, Sasha, and Vonya in one little tent and....

Maxim, Sasha, and Andrew in the other tent. Jason stayed with them until everyone was asleep. Which was around midnight.

After Jason came to bed, then it decided to rain on a little campers around 3:30am. So Jason went and brought them all in and we tucked them in on the couch. What a crazy campout, but the boys had fun.

Cleaning, painting, building

Here is a guest room that we are fixing up for guest this summer. It has been used as a junk room for a while. Here Jason is working on getting old windows taken out and new ones put in. Jessica and I painted the room.
Jason sanded the floor and here he is staining it. Only a few things left to do. Jason is building the bed today and I need to make curtains tonight. I have ladies tea and fellowship tonight so we will see what I will have time to do. Two families are coming in on Thurs. and I have been trying to get sheets, pillows, towels and everything ready. We are excited to have people coming ot help.

Kids, Kids, Kids!!!!!

Yesterday afternoon, and evening we had a full house of kids. It has taken the teens a little longer to warm up to us, but there are a few that are starting to come around. Here is a couch full looking at pictures on Jason's computer. They love seeing themselves on the computer. Pray with us that we will be a able to start a youth meeting soon. I think there would be a few that would be interested, because that are starting to come to Sunday school. They reallly enjoyed playing swap! Pray that we will be able to love them all to the Saviour.

Inside and outside Church.

Last week the older ladies in our church asked to have church outside. It was a warm day and we had more of a breeze outside so we did. That patio sure served us well. We have had Sunday school outside a few times. But yesterday it was raining, so we moved inside. Actually yesterday was colder. It hasn't really been very hot here yet. But I know it is coming. There were several children who stayed for church. Here Pastor Roman is leading us in singing.

Summer plans

Jason and Josh took a trip to Western Ukraine to finalize our summer plans for VBSs and children's ministry in the mountains. The morning after the arrived it started to rain. And it didn't stop for three day. Needless to say there ways a lot of mud. They have a holiday here in Ukraine to celebrate Jesus' ascension. The church had a service on the mountain top even though it rained. A lot of people came and they had service for an hour and half, standing in the rain. The roads were fun (if you like mudding) for Jason, Josh , Veta and Stepon. They drove the van as far as they could ....

and then they walked. Actually Stepon, Jason, Josh, and a pastor from the area climbed the mountain to see about ministry opportunities. We are planning on having a VBS and outreach ministry in the mountains and they needed to make contacts with the people.

Here they made it to the top. Happy hikers even if it is still raining.

These mountains behind Josh are the ones we will be camping in and doing ministry. There are around 100 homes and as far as we know only one family are believers. We hope to do this ministry trip in the end of Aug.

Here is the one family who are believers and has invited us to come and hold services in their home and do VBS for the children of their mountain. Roman and Natasha have four children and live a very simple life. They are excited about some one wanting to come and help them share Christ with their neighbours.

Jason also made contact with a gypsy camp and some Believers that are trying to start a church with them. We hope to have a VBS at the gypsy camp as well. Tomorrow is the first of June and the starts our busy summer. We plan on working around here the first two weeks of June with preparations and remodling. Then on the 22nd of June we head to Nova Odessa with two families that are coming to help with summer ministry. We start our first VBS on the 23rd of June. We will be leading and helping with 7 different VBSs in different towns and villages. Some of those will be in southern Ukraine, 2 near here and 2 western Ukraine. We also will be helping with a youth camp and evangelistic services and outreach ministry. We plan on doing some humanitarian aide also. It was fun letting you in on some of our plans. So will you pray with us that God will direct our steps and give us the strength to do what needs to be done. We are very excited. Keep on line to see more as it happens.

Hoe those potatoes

One of my friends, Valalena, said that she wanted to come to our ladies meeting but couldn't unless she had her potatoes hoed. I offered to help her. Jess and I went over to her garden and we had it all done in a little over an hour. It was fun to help a friend and get a little exercise.

Our first Young mother's tea or fellowship

God has made it possible for me to make friendships with several young mothers. And it didn't take me very long to realize how much they really needed fellowship and friends. Village life is hard and some of them don't have a very pretty life. This past Tues. evening we had our first young ladies tea. I invited all that I could think of and they were happy to come. We plan on meeting once a month. My summer is very busy with children's ministry, so pray that I will be able to keep up with it all. We made two different kinds of cookies and then shared receipts and had pizza and tea. Then we had a time of sharing prayer request. Several of the ladies shared from the heart. Then I had everyone pray for the lady next to them. God came in a special way and I know hearts were touched. The best part is, this are not just church ladies, half of them do not go to church regularly. Please pray that we will be able to see some of these ladies come to know the Saviour. We had a great time and are looking forward to our next meeting.

Homemade doughnuts

I made some doughnut dough before our lady's tea and hoped to show them how to make them. Well my dough didn't rise until later that night so I was up very late frying and frosting more than 65 doughnuts. Jess and I took them as we went visiting the next evening, and we also took some to Kid's Club. Everyone liked them and it gave us an excuse to go and visit in a lot of homes.

A morning walk

Jessica and I took a nice walk one morning this week. She had a look at the village well. Yes, people really do use it. A lot of people have their own well in the yard. And some houses even have running water. If they live too far from the village well then they use their neighbor's well.

I wanted to share a picture of the first summer roses here in Osikova, Ukraine. They were so pretty and a nice ending to a pretty walk.

Last month's Borscht !?!?

OK so not last month, but it has been several weeks since I have put any post on my blog. Sorry!!!! I really have tried and every tiime that I would have time to sit down and blog ( and that's not very often) for some reason the internet would NOT work or I couldn't get my blog to open. Well, my very patient and kind husband, took the time to show me what I was doing wrong. I am so glad that he can figure these things out for me. Any way, I'm back in blogger's world. So are you up to last month's borscht. On my title I called it yesterday's borscht, but I'll be honest with you I didn't do all these things yesterday. Happy reading and looking!

Building and repairs

Since spring is here, at least it is supposed to be here, it is time to fix up some things and spruce up the place. Jessica and I decided to tackle the job of white washing the celler. I have never white washed before in my life. And really the most I know about white washing is about Tom Sawyer white washing the fence, so that's not very much. I had no idea how to do it, but we jumped in and got it done. I didn't know that white wash was bad for your skin, but it really did a number on my hands. At least the celler and the front fence looks better anyway. Now if I can just get my hands to stop peeling.

Jason has to work on our van often. That's just the way things go. We need it to bring kids to Sunday school and people to church and get the things done that have to be done. It is a good thing that Jason is a mechanic, because this van is a mechanic special. We aren't complaining. We are very thankful to have wheels. But Jason thought that since he would be working on the van from time to time it would be very nice to have a cement pad to work on. It has worked out that we have used it for much more than just a place to work on the van. The whole family got involed in mixing and pouring the cement. Even I gave a helping hand when I could. It seems like mommys are always doing all those "-ing" things ( like cooking, sweeping, sewing, ironing, teaching, washing, cleaning.......... you get the idea) I like working along side my man when I am needed, but cement work is hard. I was very glad when Roman and his wife, Nodiea, came and helped us one day. They were such a blessing and it was great to work along side our Ukrainian people. It seems like you are always helping them, so it was nice to have the tables turned this time.

Josh felt like a man working with his daddy. Jessie liked to help when she could as well. She was always trying to get out of school so she could help. I am glad that my children like to work together as a family. My Mom and Dad taught me to love work and I hope I can pass that on to my children.

Fellowship and tea

Here is a picture of our patio after it is finished. Dave Drummond was here and preached for us on Sunday afternoon. It was a good service and some of the people wanted to spend more time with Bro. Drummond while he was here since he used to be their missionary. So they wanted to have tea outside and the patio was the perfect place. The village children have found out that it is also perfect for playing foursquare on and chalk art. We are so happy to have the nice patio.

Jess and friends

I liked this picture of Jessica and her friends at a church picnic. It was a fun day in the forest. Over here they usually have shish kabobs at picnics instead of hotdogs and hambugers. It was all good.