We had guests, and more guests from Canada

Saturday we had company most of the day as Jo Ann and the boys arrived in the morning. We had soup for lunch and some of the homemade sourdough bread Jo had made and brought with them. The boys were more impressed with the fact our satellite now has Nickelodeon in English instead of Russian like before. They sat on the top of the chair closest to the television for a while.

 Garry had planned a fun activity for them, making mozzarella cheese for the pizzas I was making for dinner that night. Jo was really more into the cheese making than the boys, although they enjoyed the trip to the barn with Garry to get milk to make cheese. Steve arrived back from a meeting in Dnepro around 2:30, he was going to lead some games and talk to the students (about Christian love) at four pm. 

Shannon made muffins, I made some sandwiches and bought some cookies for the snack time.

 I stayed home while everyone went down to the classroom and made pizza, which we ate with Steve, Jo and the kids around seven pm when they finished. The girls had a slice or two when they got home and there were several leftover ones I warmed up Sunday evening for our next guests.

Sunday February 17th, we went to church in Dnepro to hear Scott's first sermon in Ukraine at Morningstar church. We did not need an interpreter to understand the message!  The students who came with us did though. 









Afterwards we dropped the five students downtown to walk around while we visited Lena's English school, where it was standing room at the back with many stools filling the aisles in the room. Garry talked about Valentine's day in Canada and the greatest love story in the Bible of Jacob and Rachel and how he had to work a long time to marry her.

Then we picked up our students and hurried home because we had company coming from Canada by way of Kirvoy Rog. I had to move Inna (the new girl) from the yellow bedroom to make room for everyone to stay overnight.

We still have the blue bedroom as the guest room with the king size bed, which was where Dennis and Sandy Ford slept, and I made the two single beds in the yellow room up for Sandy's brother Richard (who has been here with Jack's Salmon Arm work teams several times) and Adam (from Rays of Love), who drove them here from Kirvoy Rog. Dennis and Sandy have visited us several times over the years and were excited to return to Ukraine in spite of recent health problems. They were blessed and a blessing as they were able to visit several ministries that they have been involved in over the years in Ukraine.

 We had a good visit, on Monday morning they all visited the students while Garry was teaching, and walked over to the barn before having lunch at Scott and Shannon's house next door. They were a blessing to the Crawfords as they brought several items for them from Canada, like peanut butter and cheezies. Monday evening Scott and Shannon and Nellie joined us (guests and girls) for spaghetti and meat sauce and corn fresh from our garden (by way of the freezer) and brownies and lots of talking and some games.

 
Tuesday morning Adam and Richard helped with some yard work as Garry and the Crawfords undertook some spring cleaning. They planned to leave for Dnepro and more visiting around eleven Tuesday morning and they got on the road not too long after the hour.



Shannon and I had been invited to a ladies' afternoon at the sauna (her first for this very Ukrainian experience) that afternoon by Jessica and Jo. I drove the little white car and Shannon navigated with her phone, and we had no problems finding the hotel by three o'clock.
 Jo brought a girlfriend, and Jessica one of her coworkers. We steamed and sweated in the sauna and we even got into the cool pool afterwards, although some ladies jumped in. We also talked, drank tea and lemon water and ate treats.





We finished at six pm and I drove home with Shannon. Traffic is a little heavy at that hour leaving Zaporosia, but we got home fine.

We had to get up at 5 am to drive to Dnepro to catch the train to Kiev with Scott and Shannon Wednesday morning.
I finished packing and went to bed early.  Inna moved back in the yellow room that evening and Leila asked Garry if she could move there also, so two girls per room now.