Vypnarka Day 4: Sun Please

May 18

I am ready for summer and ready for the sun to peak out from behind the clouds. This California girl is tired of being cold!! : ) Our first day in Vypnarka was wonderful and warm. But every day since has been gloomy and cold. We’ve been fortunate so far to not have much rain. This at least is allowing us the opportunity to work outside.


We are learning how to say, “That is different, and that is OK.” One of our work projects has me saying this. The students enjoyed it. We are taking off the tiles from the outside of the church building. It is a brick building to begin with and has tiles on the outside. Our task today was to remove as many of the brick tiles as we can. Hammers, crow bars and drills were going strong for most of the day. It feels to me like we are just making a mess. I much prefer creating something to destroying something. But in this instance it will be future teams, future groups or church members that will see the fruit of our labor. How often does someone invite you to take a hammer to a building?

There is a cold beginning to go through our team. A couple of us today were out of commission with it. We are all dealing differently with colds, culture shock and fatigue. I got a nap today and was very content. I’ve been dragging some today. But I was on time for Breakfast today! I was a little late to breakfast yesterday and got a hard time from Dan. Quite the jokester, that one! One of they guys took cold medicine PM and was out the entire afternoon. I’m pretty impressed with the group energy.

Some fun connections are happening. There were some more significant connections between our students and the men from the recovery center. I can tell the men from the center are enjoying themselves. They joined us for the whole day today including lunch and dinner. We are getting to hear more of their stories and they are beginning to inquire about us. I‘m grateful for those helping us with translation. Also during our kids club I noticed the kids warming up to us. They didn’t want the club to end and stayed around to try and talk to us. My favorite part of this week so far has been the interaction with the kids. They have such pure fun with such simple games. I’ve enjoyed laughing and watching our students laugh with the kids. I think they’d be around all day with us if they could be. I could see future trips having a larger kids club-- English lesson, Bible and games emphasis. We were not prepared…not as much as we could have been…but we are having a blast despite that.

We celebrated a Birthday today. Nathan turned 21 and one of the men from the recovery center gave him a wood carving. It was a special moment for Nathan. They sang to him in Russian and then prayed for him. It was very cool.

Well, I’m praying for sun! : ) I might have to wait until Nampa! Maybe I’ll get lucky and get some before.

We do not have much access to internet. When I get to Kiev I’ll see if I can upload some pictures.