Sunday

This morning we made the drive in to go to church and deliver 150 liters of milk to Victor's church first. Next week we are supposed to bring another 100 for our (Moringstar) church, with production still rising. Church started at ten, and it was strange to realize that the praise songs in Russian are sounding familiar, many people greeted us after the service ended around 12:30. Thanks to our interpreter today, one of the medical students from Africa (Russian is not his first language either)we understood most of the sermon and prayer requests. We went to the boys other favorite restaurant here- Puzata Hata (translates to - the big belly) where they have traditional Ukrainain food, before heading home to the village.

It’s 5:20 Sunday evening, and it seems hard to believe that a week ago the boys and I were in Piney at the International Christian Fellowship listening to Matthew preach on Sunday morning. Afterwards Seth and Jonah enjoyed swimming at the pool/indoor water park in Steinbach with brothers Micah, Matthew, sister-in-law Kari and the three girls. The boys love to play with their nieces (that’s all the boys from Josh down to Jonah) Seth tells me that 2 year old Havi tried to drink the pool water from a sprayer like it was a fountain. It is one of the most difficult things for me being so far away from my granddaughters here, I’d like to spend time with them every week. Unfortunately we can’t get Skype to work well enough for web cam talking, which might help. The girls call us “Grandma and Grandpa from Ukraine.”

Any way this afternoon Jonah was watching his favourite cable channel discovery science, one kitten is sitting on my leg watching me type, while the other is curled up on the radiator. The boys are off in their bedroom now (it’s the biggest room in the house with the exception of the kitchen/living room.) Garry has taken off to Dnepro to play pickup basketball. One of the girls (like 20 something) from church is playing with a girls team and they practice at a gym by playing pickup ball(he went a few times before we went home, but they had to find a new place to play) He says only a few people actually know how to play basketball. He went last Sunday night and had quite a trip there and back.

Apparently all this snow we have here fell last Sunday night. It was snowing when Garry left here, and the road was slick, he saw a couple cars go into the ditch, one went from the other direction right past him into a field (it’s a four-lane highway from here to Dnepro.) Garry says he wouldn’t have gone to play if he had realized how bad it was. It was worse after they were done playing, several inches of snow had fallen. One guy’s car wouldn’t start and so they tried to push start it but it slid and spun the wheels and he couldn’t engage the clutch, to go. So by the time Garry was in his car, he was wet and cold from trying to push the other car. It was snowing hard so visibility was really poor to begin with and then his windshield wipers were having trouble clearing the windshield, so he had to stop a number of times to clean ice off the wipers. He was very glad to finally arrive home at midnight after a drive that was more than twice as long as normal.

Garry was also glad on Monday morning as he looked at 6 inches of snow on the ground that he had already bought tickets for the train to meet us on Tuesday, since road clearing can be sketchy in Ukraine, and once the snow/freeze/thaw cycle gets going potholes are everywhere. The moment the big snow falls the train tickets sell fast, and he wouldn’t have been able to get those nice 2 person compartments for the trip from Kiev to Dnepropetroesk.

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The little kitten has fallen asleep on my lap, so I guess I should move on the something new!