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

another team is going!

We are set to send another team to Ukraine! This next team will leave on Thursday, Spetember 4, and will return on Tuesday, September 16. It looks to be a great group of people, ably led by Stan Mortimer. In addition to Stan, three other people are returning with this team - Pam, Betty and Susan. And there's a great new group of people, too. Leroy, Marci, Doug, Jaci, Kay, Tad, Donna, Craig, Susan and Owen. Watch for more posts to come as this team comes together for the common purpose of sharing Christ's love on the other side of the world.

See pictures!

Visit the Church of the Servant website to see a slideshow of pictures from the mission! (Click on the title of this post to get there).

we're back!

Secretly, my main goal was to get everyone on our team to Ukraine and back alive and in one piece. And we made it! I think we have been up some 27 hours, and it's definitely good to back on American soil. and good not to have to figure out how to convert 175 forints to 1 dollar!

It was a great mission, and a great team, and I think we met our main purpose of sharing the love of Jesus Christ in ways that make a Christian difference.

Tomorrow, don't look for me at work before lunch!

Susan

delayed in paris

We made it to paris, but just barely missed our plane to houston. therefore, we're delayed to OKC. I've left a message for the travel agent to get us new tickets, so we don't know our new schedule yet. when I find out, I will call the church to let them know there. call 721-4141 to find out our new arrival time. We'll see you all soon.

Delayed in BUdapest

Well, we're here in the Budapest airport, ready to go, all through security, but our flight has been delayed. The problem is bad weather in Paris. Hopefully the flight out of Paris is delayed as well. We're on flight 1095 out of Budapest, then #36 out of Paris to Houston, then #5523 from Houston to OKC.

So for now, all else is okay. We got up early early early this morning. A bus picked us up from the hotel a little after 5. Everyone did great getting up and being on time, which is amazign for a group that has tended to be a little late for everything else.

Now we're working on using up the last forints (Hungarian currency) that we have.

See you soon in Oklahoma!

Almost there.

We've been having a blast in this beautiful city. The architecture is incredible here. We went on two tours yesterday. In the morning, we took a tour by bus around the city for about 3 hours. Then we walked everywhere, and shopped a lot. Then last night we took a tour of the Danube by boat. This city at night is beautiful, too!

This was our tour guide showing us around.

















The Gelato is wonderful. This is Jennie, Betty and Sharon enjoying some. We all had some, actually.


Jennifer Witherby joined us for our morning tour on the bus, and helped us get around a little bit. Jennifer is here with her daughter, Hattie, for a few months while Hattie is in a therapy program. They normally attend Hannah's Promise. It was good to see her, and it was great to have her help us from her own experience. (This is her with me on the 4th picture down. We're at Hero's Square).

This last picture is of the parliament building. It's so beautiful, and even better at night. This picture doesn't do it justice.

We'll be headed back tomorrow. It will be early early when we leave the hotel (5:15!). It will be good to see everyone - I'm ready to head home!

Thanks for all your prayers and support, and your comments to our blog.

Susan

busy tourists

we haven't had any chance to post in the last few days because we've been busy tourists. we're safe in Budapest, walking a LOT, and having a good time. We're gathering togetehr in a few minutes to go to dinner tonight and then take an evening dinner cruise. íso this is going to be short. í sorrz for teh weird characters - this is a weird keyboard, adn not easy.

maybe we'll have more time tomorrow. just know that all is well. there are a few still sick, but they'll manage.

Susan

A little R&R

Wow. What an amazing week it’s been. It’s Saturday, and we’re all too pooped to party. Such powerful experiences we’ve had with the people of Ukraine. Work for us is complete, so today was a day for rest, relaxation, and fellowship. Vova and Carmen took us on a short tour of Uzhhorod Castle, as well as to the “Transcarpathian museum of folk architecture and way of life” (similar to Indian City, U.S.A., in Anadarko). The view from the top of the castle’s bastion was phenomenal! You could see the entire city from the top of the wall. In the middle of the outdoor museum is an Orthodox church, made entirely of wood, without any nails. After leaving the museum and the castle, we walked down through the old section of the city. We saw the Uzh River, the Jewish synagogue that’s now the Philharmonic Hall, and we lost Paul. He thought we went one way, and we didn’t. He couldn’t find us, we couldn’t find him, and so he got a cab and came back to the Nehemiah Center. Susan was very calm and collected, at least visibly, but was frantically searching for him. I was very proud of her!!!

After the morning touring the city, we had a wonderful picnic in the Kamyanitsa National Forest with all three ministers (from left to right, Vasily, Sergei and Vova). Vasily and his wife, Alla, along with Vova’s mother Anna (who has been cooking for us all week), grilled chicken and pork chops, made a wonderful soup with meat and potatoes in it, and had a gorgeous cake. Our picnic table was just right down the road from one of Khrushchev’s summer dachas! I could feel the history. We walked up the road, walked around, admired the renovations being done, and had a beautiful time. Much friendship and fellowship, and building more and more relationships. Our first early night back at the center, we should be rested and recharged for worship in the morning with Vova in Perechyn, and then a (hopefully short) bus ride back to Budapest, for two days of touring and souveniring!!! It’s hard to imagine that we will be back in OKC (and Tulsa) in just a few short days.

It's about relationships!

It's not about the task! It's not about the task! We must keep reminding ourselves of this because none of us were able to help at all with the building today. Or not much at least. we mostly handed out more invitations to church, but this time we went to downtown Perechyn. There were many people there, and I'm sure we stuck out like a sore thumb as we walked down the street handing out these papers. It was a good walk, however, and now we know Perechyn more better! Dixie even stopped by the post office and bought some stamps for Rick - 100 year anniversary of the Boy Scouts. These are stamps he had been hoping to find here. This is a picture of the market area of Perechyn.

After lunch, we took a walk down to the Uzh River, not very far from teh church. The leaves here are just starting to change colors - it will be even prettier in just a few weeks.

Then it was the final night of the VBS. I think we had about the same number of kids every night this week. Some of the kids are already members of the church, and there were a few new kids who came, too. Maybe our team will have had some small impact in their lives and they'll remember learning about God.

It was a full day, so after eating (again, for the umpteenth time) in Perechyn we travelled to Kamyanitsa for a regular worship service, then for the prayer service the women hold. I will write more about that later.

For now, it's time for bed. We have been up late most every night, including tonight. Tomorrow is our touring day, and we're all sleeping in. we'll get up for breakfast at 9 a.m., and then leave at 10. we hope to have a picnic, weather permitting, with the ministers and their familiies tomorrow.

Thanks for your continued prayers, interest, and love. One of us will write more on this later.

Susan