Dig, dig, dig!

Today was Work Day One, and boy do they mean business here! Vasily, the pastor of the church in Kamyanitsa, picked us up at the Nehemiah Center at 9:30 to take us to Perechyn to begin work on the site of the new church building. Expecting a backhoe to show up anytime, we picked up shovels to begin digging the trenches for the footing and the foundation of the church. Because the church is right across the road from the Uzh River, which often floods in this area, the footings for the foundation have to be 50 centimeters across and one meter deep (approximately 1 ½ feet across and 3 feet deep). With no backhoe in sight, we started digging, and by the end of the day, still with no backhoe, we were able to dig the trench for almost half of the building!!! Amazing what you can do with a little grace and some elbow grease, and lots of laughter!

We did suffer our first two injuries today. Susan, the first and only to draw blood, endured the horrific pain of a minor laceration to her right thumb. Sharon, our nurse-in-resident, rushed to administer first aid on the wound. Susan should really be more careful in the future opening packages – those paper cuts can be nasty business! (You can breathe now, Lucia!) David also managed to twist his ankle, but only just a little. His foot slipped off the shovel as he was digging, but nothing could slow him down! He continued to work until he felt he needed a little extra TLC, and with Sarah not around, he turned to trusty Sharon to take care of his ankle. He returned to work after supervising for a bit and playing with the dog that wandered on to the work site.

Bible school was amazing! Expecting to have as few as just a couple of kids show up on the first day, we had more than 20 show up! They seemed a bit skeptical at first, but with Stephan translating and Penny leading the way, they seemed to have a great time learning about Moses and the 10 Commandments. They ranged in age from 3 to 13, and seemed to all have a blast! We’ll see how many more kids we have tomorrow.

We’re all looking forward to a good night’s rest and another full day tomorrow of work. We will be helping serve in the soup kitchen at the Uzhhorod church, as well as visiting members of the Perechyn congregation, and continuing to dig, dig, dig!!

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