May 27th

Here in Ukraine, today was the last day of school.

In the States we may have a celebration often when a child graduates from kindergarten, some when they go from middle-school to high-school. Here, that happens for all the kids every year, so the day's celebration at school is huge and 
everyone's decked-out in their best.

The sunshine just beginning to break through the foggy morning on the far pasture, so beautiful!

Well, for us, sunshine today meant a good day to get busy, so we did, but not really in our best outfits, though some of the guys might like to say so.

Paul was out early to get the cement mixed for mortar so brick laying could begin again today.

Getting this sewage tank built is our focus right now.

The extra support between layers of brick has to be trimmed down to size, 

Bryan took on that job today.

Vlademir, a gentleman from church in town, joined us to make a big dent, 

well, he heightened the wall a whole lot :-)

Sasha did the same and we praise the Lord that the ground has not 

collapsed again with the rains we've had.

Work, what's that? :-)

These two are the delivery guys to those in the pit. It's the same over and over - bucket up, fill it with mortar or bricks, bucket down, all day long - so their waiting for the next empty bucket to be tossed up.

mortar mixing

The company team today did a whole lot of cement pouring.

Just a little bit more of the foundation to go, then the house walls will begin going up.

MAY 26

If you haven't noticed, RAIN has been the theme through the weeks that the teams have been here. It did that through this last night and continued to downpour this morning making work outdoors next to impossible. 
I know the plants are appreciating the watering, that's a plus.

This afternoon of waiting for the land to dry out, before it rains again, has given me a bit of time today to catch up and get the latest pics up here on the blog.

Sunday evening, May 22nd, a team from Dayton, OH came with Jon Gibson and with him a gal who is also doing ministry in the western part of Ukraine with kids and their families who are disable. It was such a blessing to meet and listen to Nataliya share her wisdom and experience and share with her the kids that I work with here in Tsyurupinsk. We all made a day trip the orphanage and then to Nedpriana so Jon could meet some of the guys who will be in Stephen's home and take back info to share with his church members. His congregation has been deeply involved in the lives of kids in Nataliya's home for orphans. Those kids are now young teens moving on in life. It's beautiful to see. 

This transition is opening doors for the congregation in Dayton to reach out and hopefully become involved in the lives of the young men and women I work with too. God is so good!

Jon with Sasha in Tsyrupinsk

Nataliya with Lena in Tsyurupinsk

This was a wonderful day and I'm so very glad the Lord made this connection.

Pastor Jon Gibson, along with one of the deacons from his church, Gary Hurst participated in the Mid-West bike ride this past September with my sister Wendy in an effort to raise monies for these homes. God made that connection happen &...

...He holds the future!

The following day, May 24th, we had sunshine!!!

The guys really got a start on the walls on the septic tank. This has become the high priority as the one wall collapsed before, the hope is that this won't happen again before we can get the walls up so we won't have to dig out the fallen dirt again. Praying for a break in the rain to be able to accomplish this.

Sasha and Sergei getting the first layer of brick down.

Bryan, up top with Paul, mixing and delivering the mortar for the bricks 

to Sasha and Sergei.

Getting close to the end of the first day of work on this...

...it is no small task.

MEANWHILE, on the house

the hired company of men were working on putting in the rest of the foundational slabs in the entry area, kitchen and utility rooms of the home. 

This work is going together fast.

from the far back corner of the house looking to the front entry where they work

May 21st

2/3 rds of the team returned home!

Yes the jet plane left at 3:21pm - something like that

We spent the morning going over last minute plans, talking with Slava the construction designer and making sure Ralph passed along all the knowledge he had, as he'd been leading a lot of the team work, but he was heading home.

With goodbye's said and suitecased stowed, everyone packed and in the van...

...heading out to the airport!

May 20th

Our day to visit the adult institutions

Nadya, Sasha's wife, sharing time with a young man who has down's syndrome

Sergey, one of the young guys who will be in Stephen's home one day soon.

He use to live in the orphanage in Tsyurupinsk, was moved here about 

2 years ago, to Kiary.

Bryan and Paul with another man here in Kiary. 

This institution is a dormitory for 500 mentally disabled men.

Sharing with both guys I've worked with at the orphanage & others I've not. 

All simply wanting a lil' bit o' luv!

Nadejda Borisevna, on the board of advisor's for PROMISE, sharing with Kiryil, also a potential guy we'd like in Stephen's home.

Then we went to Kahovka to share with Oksana and brought Sasha, 

her friend, with us from the orphanage as he hopes this will become his new home as he's now 18 and of age to move out of Tsyurupinsk. 

This would hopefully be a short detour before Stephen's home for him.

Our last stop for the day was Nedpriana. Vitya is always glad to have a guest. A new book to read and look through for he & the other guys brought smiles to their faces.

The two young men in front of Nadejda Borisevna, Sasha and Ura, not facing the camera, are to be in Stephen's home. I learned this day that one young man we worked with died of heart failure. Makes me very sad.

This is Stass with Sasha! 

For those of you who have a book mark that has a different picture, I was mistaken. This young man Stass is bright, just like Oksana and he loves the Lord. He became close friends with Sasha when Sasha was out there remodelling the bathroom that we made handicapped accessible for all the guys.

This was a long day, emotionally draining, but it was so good to share with the guys & gals!

May 19th

Our last full day of work, and boy did we work!

The day started off looking like it was going to be a beautiful one.

The project for the day was to get the rest of the foundation poured for the back wall of the fence. This day though the cement was mixed in the small mixer and delivered in wheel barrels.

that's 1 part cement, 2 parts sand, 4 parts gravel

Half way through the day it rained a bit, then cleared again

Towards the end of the day, as the sun set, the last corner was turned and the last caldron of cement was poured.

and that was it!

The company working along side on the house began the process of digging out the rest of foundational trenches for Stephen's home. Because the plot is so small, and it will be filled with the home, it had to be done in 2 parts.

the first back hoe had problems, so this older one came as a replacement.

quite the hole they dug

May 18th

Sorry for my delay in getting these posted, it's been a crazy busy few days wrapping up with the guys who have been here to work.

This was, like the others, a day of hard work and we 
accomplished what we set out to do.

NAOMI'S PLOT

The old shack is gone man, solid gone!!!

These guys put up the fence on the side to fill the gap and around the corner, across the front of the property to keep people off of it. 

It's been used as a toilet and short cuts for years sitting empty.

STEPHEN'S PLOT

Brick delivered for the walls of the sewage tank. Used some later in the day to make a temporary grill for making a traditional Ukrainian dish, shash-lik or shish-kabobs.

Bruce & Sergei set the forms for the back fence in place.

Ralph, the mastermind behind the project measuring out and cutting the longer planks.

Paul, forming the boxes for the supportive, wider pilers.