Vypnarka Day 5: Sun!!!

May 19
“In the heavens he has set a tent for the sun which comes out like a bridegroom from his wedding canopy, and like a strong man runs its course with joy. Its rising is from the end of the heavens and its circuit to the end of them and nothing is hidden from its heat.”

We saw the sun today!!! I was beside myself with joy. Last night I begged God for sunshine. I’m confident he heard my prayer and I while I’m not sure he gave us the sun today because I asked--I was grateful! (As an understatement) So this morning when I read Psalm 19 speaking of nothing being hidden from the heat I was hopeful.

We worked more today on taking down brick tiles from the church building. It is beginning to feel like we are making progress. There were some anxious moments for me as I watched some of our students climb a wooden ladder on to the church roof today. There have been several moments this trip where I’ve felt uncomfortable with the tools we have. But then again we are in Ukraine and standards are different. And I’ll just be grateful that the sketchy looking ladder worked for us.

We have crossed over “hump day” today. We have 2 out of our 5 work days down. There were points of little motivation occurring for all of us. Even so, however, there still wasn’t any complaining. I’m just really impressed with our students. They are still giving all they have even thought today all we had to give was less than yesterday. I really enjoyed conversations with students today. The moments of hammering tiles together…feeling like we were getting nowhere but talking about life rank right up there with the best of the trip for me. It is cool how on the day when everyone is exhausted I felt the connection especially strong.

Students had a chance in the morning to visit the village market. We saw butchered meet in slabs on metal counters and like one would expect there was a “wonderful” aroma. It was fun to see what kinds of things people buy here. Lot of grains, candies, beans, and soaps. It was like an outdoor Wallmart and the community gathering point of the week. Today we were reminded that we are in a village…not a city! As we are getting to know the village better I’ve come to realize how significant the location of the church is. The Nazarene church is central to everything! And now I understand how important this kids play area is going to be. It could make a huge impact on the village for this church to have a communal play center. What a cool way of being hospitable to the community.

We again did Kids club. We had to speed it up today in order to be ready for a visit to an orphanage associated with the Nazarene Church here. Once we finished Kids Club we took a walk into town and found the orphanage. We made balloon animals and then shared songs. The kids sang for us and then we sang for them. We asked the questions and they reciprocated. They asked, “What kind of car do you drive?” “How old are you?”

It has been another good day here. I found out about fun plans for Saturday….we were asked to pray for a bus so that we can travel together for a special experience.