Jennie's Mission

We're home!

After running through two airports and barely making connections, and after traveling for about 20 hours, we are exhausted, but home. Only Tad's luggage - the lucky guy - made it back to OKC. Everyone else's luggage is now in Detroit somewhere. We hope to get it tomorrow.

Like I said before, it was a great trip, and a great mission. But home is a welcome sight, luggage or no.

Susan

We're headed home

We're now in the Budapest airport - no problems this morning getting here. We're just waiting for the flight.

Yesterday we walked around Budapest in a steady drizzle - light to heavy. It was non-stop, but didn't keep us from enjoying the city. Two of the team (I won't announce who) even went to the Turkish baths - sans swimsuits - for a nice relaxing two hours.

Last night we took a nice tour on the river on a boat. It was still raining, but that didn't stop the city from being beautiful.

This has been a great team, and the mission has been a good one. In fact, it wouldn't be too much of a stretch to say that this is probably the best mission trip overall I've been on. Our team members have lived the secondary VIM motto - "Be flexible" with little or no complaints. We've had our laughs, our amazing moments, and bonded well together. and Stan has been a great leader.

But the best part has been the mission itself- continuing the relationships with the people of Ukraine. It has become more evident from two years ago when Stan, Karen and I first went there to now that we have a good comraderie with the people there. They are open to us, know that they can trust us, and are so gracious for our presence. They have the hard work still ahead of them with teaching their fellow citizens about Jesus. But they know that we support them and will do whatever we can to help. And they bless us in turn. That is what the relationship has meant, and why it's so important to go with the intention of long-term partnership instead once-and-done. and that is probably why this mission trip has meant the most to me.

For now, I think we're all ready to go home. See you soon!

Sunday in Budapest

Sunday started off with a European Breakfast of breads fruits and cereals and nothing had ketchup – we were stunned. Stan had arranged a tour of the city which, for us who had not been here, was a great way to begin our excursion of Budapest. A quick break back at the hotel and we were off again (a rest at home will be welcomed) to find our way to the market by way of the underground metro – what a sight to see – first we couldn’t quite figure out the ticket machine. After a short ride we got off to transfer to another train and reading the map to figure out which way to go became quite the challenge. We surfaced to a construction site and again decisions, decisions needed to be made. Several blocks into the journey we found the market building --- which, would you believe, was closed on Sunday.
All was not lost, we found the pedestrian market full of shops and open air cafes – pizza and diet coke for all. The remainder of the day was spent shopping and photographing the incredible architecture. Stan’s directions to stay in pairs worked out well. Several times we came out of a shop looking for the group to no avail, generally finding them a short distance away. However, one time we had given up and made it to St. Stephen’s Basilica as the map showed it on the way back to the hotel. Leroy and Susan were a welcome site to see when we exited. Next stop Opera House, but lower light made photography a bit of a challenge so, we headed back to the hotel to find the others.

Doug and Jaci

Saturday Night Dinner

We're in Budapest

We have arrived safely in Budapest with only a long wait at the border into Slovakia. The rest of the journey was uneventful, including getting to the hotel. We're all well and headed to explore the city. More later...

One last day of work

Today was the last day of work at the worksite. Well, it ended up being 1/2 day. Stan called it "done!" and we ate lunch. The work was again sifting dirt to sort the rocks from the sand. I could tell everyone was wearing down a bit. But they (actually Volodya, Vova's father) decided that what we had done was good. If we had not done it, they would have had to hire someone instead. So us moving bricks and sifting dirt turned out to be a great project for us.

In the afternoon, a few of us went to town (Uzhgorod) to do some last-minute souvenir shopping. The market we visited was quite interesting.

Tomorrow we head for Budapest. We start earlier than usual because there is another team coming from Oklahoma and the bus that is taking us there is picking them up. So the bud drivers need to be at the airport to pick up the other team. But that's okay, because we'll be in Budapest earlier to see some sites before the end of the day.

There is an internet cafe just around the corner from our hotel so hopefully someone will be able to pop in there and add to this blog that we arrived there okay. We'll continue to blog while in Budapest.

Thanks for your attention to this blog while we've been in Ukraine. Comments are always welcome and appreciated!

Vacation Bible School Last Day

This was our last day of vacation bible school, we learned that Jesus helps us to tell others about God. All of the kids had a great time and brought more friends today. They all will be missed and we were blessed by everyone of them.

Day of rest

Nevitsky Castle atop a mountain in the Transcarpathian Mountains.

A fun day at Nevitsky Castle. Work crew finally gets a day off!

There are many rumored stories of this castle, but we couldn't tell you what they are at this point. This castle is in ruins as you can see from the photo, as there have been many battles and hostile takeovers. This castle is located in the Transcarpathian area of Ukraine.

Another view of the ruined castle on a cool, overcast day high up on the mountain top.

Susan, Leroy, Dixie and Betty admiring the views. We climbed to the very top, of course, to view the entire town of Kamyanitsia below. We spotted the little church in the valley and the very spot where we were to picnic later.

Vova and Carmen taking a rest. They are hosting this God-given day of wonderful glorious rest!

Some of the crazier folks in the group decided to hike down the mountain, while other more sane folks took the bus down. The hikers beat the bus down; they knew the shortcut.

Doing what we do best: eating!

We took a journey through the mountains by way of the scenic route arriving at the picnic area beside a babbling brook in the Ukraine National forest. We passed apple orchard after apple orchard, bounced through many pot holes, and came close to the border of Slovakia.

We arrived to Anna and Volodia cooking chicken over an open fire. With cucumbers, tomatoes, bread and watermelon and cookies, we enjoyed a feast and a lively conversation about our work, the state of the union and the experiences of the Ukranian people.

The dacha of Nikita Kruschev is right down the road from our picnic spot. It has been in a state of ruin for years; however, recently this government has endowed a refurbishing project which appears to be progressing rather slowly.

This is the main house of the dacha; we checked out the bunker, the swim house and the gate house. Can you imagine just what type of decisions that shaped the world were made here?

This blog brought to you by Marci and Eric.

More Exeriences

Jesus took away our sins was the VBS lesson for today. The children placed frowny faces (sins) on the cross for Jesus to take away. This was a great visual that they all really enjoyed. This was followed with the children making stained glass (paper) crosses.

Our student population doubled today to 12, word is getting around - Praise God.





















Carmen accompanying us ending the day in song, singing in both English and Ukraine at the same time --- we made beautiful music.

Mowing the side yard.








Yesterday we received a load of sand to continue mixing concrete. We are thinking the mixer seems a little small, especially when compared to the pile of sand.













Notice the brick toss to the worker laying the second story layer. These bricks are BIG.

God's Presence

Back at the site today, no rain but cooler. We begin screening dirt and rock; we miss moving and stacking brick. After we screen out the rocks, shoveling the rock is harder than dirt. I discovered that the gloves I bought are not worth what I paid for them, they continue to come apart.
The process involves separating the dirt and larger rock, loading the rock into a wheelbarrow and pushing it up a ramp to the inside of the building to fill the low spots of the subfloor of the building. We are not sure what the floor will be constructed from. Several of the ladies spread the rock around after we dump it. Later in the morning, we discover a sheet of paper taped to the wall with the guys names listed across the top – would you have guessed, we were competing in the “First Annual 2008 Ukraine Wheelbarrow Olympics!” The ladies began to shout scores as we dumped our loads. We were being judged on Execution, Degree of Difficulty, Landing, Creativity, and Happiness; I think this sped up the process. Later the ladies awarded medals they had created from rocks with the winners names painted.

Probably one of the most memorable events happened today. In the morning, an elderly lady came by on her way to the field to pick corn. Seeing the ladies shoveling and raking dirt and rock, she invited Betty Bohan to join her pick corn, suggesting she would be better off. After lunch when we returned to work, the lady came by on her way home with two large bags of corn hanging across the crossbar of the bike she had just picked across the street by the railroad tracks. She slowed down, waved and smiled. Tad went over to visit with her, not easy in two different languages but everyone makes do with hand signals, a lot of emotion, smiling and laughter.

Later in the afternoon we were all sitting around taking a break. The little lady came walking up the road and waved. Everyone was surprised when she came up the drive with a bag of cooked corn for everyone – what a great surprise. She apologized for the corn being a little old but who cared. Tad offered her the small cross Susan Sutter had passed out in the morning. The lady said she had several crosses but this would be special. Everyone felt God’s presence.

Doug

still digging and sifting

Today we had an honest day's worth of work. More sifting dirt to get out the big rocks. It was hard! We got a lot done, though, and were tired at the end of the day. tomorrow we have the day off because it's an orthodox holiday. we will enjoy an extra hour's worth of sleep in the morning!


The women worked just as hard as the men! Here are the pictures to prove it.





Kay was the queen for the day. She was a hard worker leveling the larger rocks used as filler in the flooring of the church building.




Owen has been showing the string tricks to the kids in the area. Today he did it before the Bible school time. He was a hit!


Stan brought a pair of boots for Vova from the USA. When they were in Oklahoma City in November, Stan took Vova and Sergei to Shepler's. Vova is fascinated by "the west" and cowboys, etc. Vova tried on boots but they were way more expensive than he could afford. So Stan was nice enough to bring them over for him. Vova really liked them.

a close-up shot of Vova's new boots.

This lady (I didn't get a picture in time to get her face) asked Betty to come help her pick corn from the field. Betty declined. But the lady was nice enough to bring some cooked corn on the cob to us later in the afternoon.

"Stan's" dog showed up again yesterday and again today.

This is what some of the ladies have been doing most every evening - a card game called "Phase 10". Fun game! It's caused some of them to forget the covenant statement they made not to curse!

Tomorrow, as I said, is a day "off". We'll go to Nevitski Castle for a tour, then a picnic in the national forest. Yum! We haven't had any bad food yet, but tomorrow will be extra special.

Diggin' dirt

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

Another day completed and we learned a new trade, rock sifting. Large piles of dirt and rock left over from last year’s trench digging. The guys, using a homemade sifter made from an old fence, tossed dirt through the fence to separate out large rocks. The rocks were then shoved into a wheelbarrow and carried to fill the subfloor of the church building; we stacked the dirt on plastic sheets to save for making concrete flooring and better back fill. Moving and stacking brick was a lot easier. Today we feasted on soup, tomatoes and cucumbers and a plum and walnut pastry roll – all were exceptionally delicious and prepared by Anna.

Vacation Bible Study continued with a lesson about how God gives us the power to help others with the lesson about Jesus healing the blind man. The kids were blindfolded to get a feeling of what a blind person may feel like and then healed, with our version using oatmeal, similar to Jesus mixing dirt and spittal to heal the blind man. We ended the lesson with asking them to help each other freeing their hands from bondage. Our songs took on a higher breadth with the accompaniment of Carmen on the guitar, I think the guys sitting outside were tapping their feet to the beat of Jesus Loves Me in Ukrainian --- we were loud!

The day ended with a dinner at the Center honoring Anna and Volodyia and Carmen and Vova. After a scrumptious meal of chicken and cabbage, we moved out to the sun room to hold a surprise party for the girls. We presented Anna a gift showing our sincere thankfulness for her preparing our wonderful lunches for the past two days, remember there are 14+ of us! We then surprised Carmen and Vova with a baby shower, the group was generous with the giving of some awesome baby gifts. The baby is going to be the best dressed baby boy in the Ukraine.

Early in the day

We are just getting started as you can see the smile on Dixie's face.

A tired crew --- where's Dixie?

Interview by the local paper with Victor and Susan

VBS kids and there's Dixie!

Bricks and Vacation Bible School

Monday, September 8, 2008


What a fantastic day of work and fun. This was the first day at the worksite for many of us. Following a cozy ride with people and supplies, we arrived at the site for a quick orientation by Volodyia, our site foreman. We picked up Victor, our interpreter on the way out and he had his job cut out for him. We had more questions and he did a remarkable job of condensing Volodyia’s explanations into a few simple words this bunch could understand.


There were few craftsmen on site today. Our primary job involved helping Volodyia clean up the site fence line, repair the fence and move a lot of brick around in preparation for the craftsmen tomorrow. The latter became the primary focus for the rest of the day between rain showers. Victor, our interpreter, found some gloves and jumped in and helped.


There are several pallets of brick needing to be moved and the bobcat must be busy, but now that I think about it, I haven’t seen one around. They tell me that we moved more than 3500 brick using assembly lines passing bricks from one to the other singing hymns. We got good enough to toss the bricks some 8-10 feet - discovered that wears holes in gloves rather fast.


They served us lunch on site. As you might expect, Stan ordered cabbage rolls and Anna delivered, they were fantastic.


Some of the ladies spent the afternoon making a replica of Jerusalem, preparing name tags and lining the tiny church walls with craft paper, getting ready for VBS. We weren’t sure if we would have any kids today, as the official beginning is Tuesday. Late in the afternoon we were blessed to open our doors to six boys and girls and welcomed them with open arms. We were able to convince Victor, our interpreter that VBS would be a well deserved break from brink moving and we couldn’t have done it without him. He was such a sport to help out with the story of the lepers and how they were quarantined from the town, (or tied together with bright yellow caution tape which was our version). VBS ended with songs sung in both English and Ukraine. Pam Bishop did a terrific job with planning the VBS, even down to the 24 lbs of corn starch which we are still looking for and starting to wonder if this product can even be found here … sorry Pam, probably no walking on water this trip.

Weather was just perfect, cooling down after the showers.
We are all looking forward to another blessed day tomorrow.

An amazing day of worship

As Eric said in the previous post, "wow"! We've been to some pretty incredible worship services today. Eric told about the one. Then, at 2 pm we headed to the river for a river baptism service. That was quite an experience! Most of us had never been to one in person. The people came from the three churches - Kamyanitsa, Perechyn and Uzhhorod. Actually, a few were Joseph's kids - those he's been working with in the soup kitchen. He was extremely happy. Sergei (from the Uzhhorod church) and Vasily (from the Kamyanitsia church) performed the baptisms. They said they only do this once every two years, so it was quite an honor to be here when they were doing this. This first picture is of Sergei preaching before they were baptised.

This next picture is for Mike.

I like the look of joy on this young woman's face. Sergei and Vasily are there to welcome her and the others with open arms.

Then after that service we went to the Kamyanitsa for another worship service full of testimonies (including another good one from Stan) and praise. Maria, in this picture - seated in the middle, shared about her son coming to know Christ. her son had shared his testimony earlier. Both were very powerful.

And finally, we had dinner at the Kamyanitsa church. This is where the real relationship building happens! Vasily and his wife Alla served it, along with the help from Vova's mother Anya. Great food, great fellowship. Great team!

Experience in Church

Wow. What a worship expereince we had this morning. I couldn't understand a word that was being said, but I could hear the love for Jesus in the prayers of the people! Stan was asked to give testimony this morning and he did a great job. If Robert, ever needed a replacement Stan would be a good choice to fill in!
We also heard testimony from Mike, whom we have met hear at the Nehemiah Center. Mike is an interesting man, he is from Buffalo, NY. This is his 9th trip to Ukraine since 2004. In 1997, Mike was working with Christian Ukraineians, and they gave him testimony about Jesus. Mike was saved by these folks and is now very active here in the Ukraine. He is on the board for the Nehemiah Center and has been very helpful to us.

Please keep us in your prayers and know that we are having a blessed and wonderful time, at least I am!

Eric Nance

Uzhhorod UMC

Group getting ready to go into the Uzhhorod Methodist Church.

Four taxies, three flights, two passport controls and one extremely long bus ride and we have arrived and experienced our first day in Uzhhorod.

We arrived at the Nehemiah Center around 1:00 Saturday morning after leaving Oklahoma City at 4:30 Thursday afternoon …. We are looking for a shorter way.

We were able to make all of our connections – some of us running – and most of our bags made it with the exception for four --- which we are still waiting for; they have been promised to be delivered today, probably tomorrow as it is now 9:30 pm. Two of the suit cases contained part of our VBS supplies and Marci is hangin’ in there without her luggage.

Arriving at the Nehemiah Center at 1:00 am, fourteen very tired people looked forward to a bed with plans to meet for breakfast at 8:30, maybe 9:00 Stan said, after watching them lug their suitcases into the hotel. This all changed after arriving to no reservations! As we stood around the very small lobby Stan was able to work with the poor person we woke to arrange for everyone to have something to sleep on. I am not sure Stan got much sleep thinking about what he was going to do about rooms the next morning.

Saturday morning we did get to sleep in and meet at 10:00 to plan our day. Stan was able to work out the rooms and get most everyone placed shortly after breakfast with promises for everyone. We had the fortunate experience of meeting Mike, who is on the Board for the Nehemiah Center, from Buffalo, NY; we gathered and he explained the history of the Nehemiah Center.

With showers, clean clothes and an eagerness to see some of Uzhgorod we picked up some noncarbonated water and were off on foot. Ending up at the local mall – where several of us had the experience of meeting a vendor who was selling a Japanese head massage tool; of course we all had to experience it but for some reason, no one seemed inclined to take it home!

After lunch at the Center, we were off again, this time in four taxies to see the Folk Architecture and Life Museum, an area on a hill overlooking the town with replicas of the old houses of the area, one of the wooden churches of Uzhhorod and the Uzhhorod castle complete with moat (no water). We concluded that Saturday must be wedding day; there must have been a dozen wedding couples with their photographers and wedding parties looking for interesting places for their memorable photographs. This fascinating and beautiful part of town made great backgrounds for the wedding parties as they gathered for photos. The brides were beautiful as well as their floral arrangements attached to their cars. After walking several more miles through the downtown area we found our way to Sergei's Methodist Church who was kind enough to give us a ride back to the Center.

For the end of a wonderful day, several of the group walked the neighborhood, while others ended with a game of Phase 10 and some of us just sat out front and enjoyed each other’s company.

Weather today – hot.

Thanks to everyone for all your prayers...
Jaci and Doug Finch

Picture at Folk Village

At the Folk Village Museum.

We have arrived

We are here! Sorry for the delay in posting, but we are here and all is well. We arrived late last night (very late) after a long journey from Oklahoma City. From the airport in OKC to the Nehemiah Center, it took about 27 hours. We are tired! The internet connection at the Nehemiah center has been spotty at best, so it has been difficult to get to email and the blog.

We have been taking it easy today (Saturday). After lunch, we have been walking around town. We'll head back to the Nehemiah center shortly and be there or the rest of the evening. Tomorrow is church - several services, including a baptism service at the river.

It's a bit warmer than we were expecting, but the weather has been great. The weather may turn a few degrees colder by next week.

Someone will post more later.

What we're going to do

This is what the building looked like just a couple of weeks ago! We're not sure exactly what construction we will be doing, but this is the first story of a two-story building. We'll post more pictures as we go along of the building. Click on this picture to see a larger view.

We'll also be holding a Bible school for the kids at 5 p.m. every day. Pam and the other ladies have been doing a great job of planning out the week and getting the supplies together. We have no idea how many kids to expect, but it may be 20 to 30. maybe more???

We're blessed!

Our team was doubly blessed in two worship services yesterday morning. We are almost ready to go. We had a team meeting last week to go over last-minute details and pack up the donations and VBS supplies.

We are to meet at the airport at 2:30 (p.m., thankfully) on Thursday. Then we're off! We fly through Detroit, then Amsterdam, then land finally in Budapest. From Budapest we have an 8-hour drive (or so) into Ukraine.

If you have been watching the news recently, you know that tensions are high between Russia and Georgia, with a possibility of the conflict spreading into other former Soviet republics such as Ukraine (specifically Crimea). We are going to a part of Ukraine far away from what is going on there, so don't worry about us and our safety in that respect. I'm more worried about dropping a brick on my toe! :-)

But please do pray for our safety! For travel safety, especially. Here is a list of our team so you can keep us in prayer by name:

Stan Mortimer (leader)
Leroy Ball
Pam Bishop
Betty Bohan
Marci Brueggen
Jaci Finch
Doug Finch
Dixie Grosshans
Kay Harper
Susan Hunt
Tad Milewski
Eric Nance
Owen Sutter
Susan Sutter