Ukraine Day #6

Day #6 Wednesday

Some more snake hunting with Kyle. Still failing at what he does best.

We split up into a few different groups, one group went to the orphanage, a few people worked on campus, and I went to work with a church, to help them out however needed.

When we first got to the church they let us jump on the trampoline and eat a snack. This is Shion's first time ever on a trampoline.

Before heading out into groups we did some weeding around the church property.

Then we split into 3 groups and went to different Babushka's (Grandma's/old ladies) houses to help them clean etc. I was with Kylie, Erin and Owen's group.

She had very poor eyesight and hearing. As we worked she would be talking away to us in Ukrainian even though we didn't understand. She was a very sweet old lady, I really wish I could visit her again.

Erin and Kylie cleaning the kitchen.

Her kitchen was a mess, there was food for cats all over the floor, lots of dirty dishes, and in general the house just had this bad odor to it. Kylie and Erin, cleaned out her kitchen, scrubbed the floors, and possibly washed the walls.

Owen and I pulled out the rugs to beat the dirt out of them.

The girls cleaned the house the entire day. For most of the time I weeded her sidewalk, and Owen cleaned out her guest bedroom, I think I would call it.

She had her own little Chicken coop. While weeding she came out and seemed disturbed at her front door, then slowly walked over to the chickens with her old broken cane, to bring a jar of fresh eggs back to her house.

We later found out that she was agitated because she couldn't find her walking sticks that she left by the door of her house. Owen and I realized that we used them to beat the rugs. We returned them before we left.

She was very thankful for us and what we did, she gave us the fresh eggs she had gathered, and a jar of Apricot Jam. She was so happy when we were done and we just enjoyed being able to help the church show Christ love to her, to give them more opportunities in the community. We all had a very good time working at her house.

On the way home our driver let Erin drive partly home. She now can say she drove in the Ukraine.

We got back to the church campus before anyone else, which gave us time to have a little extra fun.

Lunch Break: I'm not sure if I stated this earlier but almost every meal we would have hot soup and hot tea with bread and once in a while luke warm soda. I am very glad to have nice cold drinks after working hard in the states.

Kyle's Ukrainian twin. Not only do they look alike they act very much alike.

After a quick nap, the groups split up again. Our group stayed on campus to do a lot of weeding.

Owen and I had a little competition to see who could get the biggest root. It was hard to decide who one...

Weeding all day really takes it out of you. I remember weeding as a little boy and hated it. Now that I am older, I try to appreciate my mother teaching me how to weed correctly and disciplining me to work hard, and I never thought I would be able to use this talent in the Ukraine. lol

We had a chance to sing to the church, funny thing, we didn't have our guitarist, and the songs we sing are hard to sing without music to go with it. So we completely failed the first try. Stopping in the middle of the song, and chose a different one to sing as a group, turning out alright.

We also had the chance to share testimonies with what we had been learning from the past week, or what God was teaching us, with the congregation.

We were told that this town was the location that the "Fiddler on the Roof" was written. The man grew up here, and wrote it about this place. Just a cool little fact.

After dinner we had like a missions conference. We got to sing and put on a little skit, then share testimonies before the missions minded message.

For the skit, we would walk with a cardboard, written on one side something about our life before Christ, then on the other side, how Christ fulfilled us in that area.

After the conference, we sat into different prayer groups to learn about different countries and their need for the gospel, then to pray about it. Each group all year tries to help missionaries and find ways to get involved in the country that they are praying for.