Christmas time

 Opps, I guess I never posted that Garry made it all the way home! We have been busy with family, church and gatherings since he arrived. Luckily he was not jetlagged for long. 

He sang in the choir for the service on the 18th, after going through a good snow storm for the practice on the 14th. That's him in the back row.  We  had the farm Christmas party on the 16th, in spite of continued bad weather and celebrated Garry's 66th birthday on the 22nd with some of the family.

We had the whole family here for my birthday on the 26th and again for Christmas presents on the 27th. It's the first time we haven't had our celebration on the 25th, but Matthew was preaching in Fort Quepple  on Christmas morning and its a 7 hour drive in good weather. 

We have had Max Boradin out for several days for Christmas too, it's the seventh year I've filled a stocking for him with the rest of the family. He really seems to enjoy his new job and living in Steinbach, yesterday he went ice fishing with Garry and liked it so much he went back to the lake with him today. 

On the plane

 In spite of things not going as planned Garry Adam and Daryl made their flight out of Budapest!

The train arrived in Uzgorod about four hours late, because of snow, they were on a siding near L'viv for three hours. When Jessica drove them to Budapest from Uzgorod, they hit a very slow border crossing, they were in line (in the car) for six hours. Apparently, the computers were down. The guys had reserved hotel rooms they didn't get to use in Budapest but got to the airport with about 40 minutes to spare. They even got something to eat after checking in. Garry's suitcase was about 6 pounds over, but they let it go, so that went okay (he couldn't find the luggage scale in our room to check while packing.)

The driving wasn't great, they hit some wet snow, so it may have taken longer than three hours to get there after the border crossing. Jessica dropped them off, and then headed to her hotel for some sleep before driving back to Ukraine. They were all a little exhausted and stressed, but Garry will land in Winnipeg in about 20 hours after taking off from Budapest.

Thanks to everyone who was praying that they would make it to the airport in time!

On the train

 Garry packed his bag Friday and Saturday morning, washed the sheets and Max drove him to the city about 5 pm. Right now it's midnight Saturday... or Sunday?) and Sunday morning there, and they (Daryl and Adam are with him) have been on the train 13 hours, with eight or none to go to Uzgorod.  

Ready to come home

 That's a quote, ready to come home, although Garry doesn't get on the train until Saturday. He feels like everything is running so smoothly, he doesn't have much to do! It great to know that our staff has things well in hand, both farm and student wise.

He's also a bit tired of being cold, it's colder than normal for December in Ukraine right now, and right now they are in the middle of a power outage that's supposed to be about 16 hours. He called me from Oleg's home (8 pm his time, noon for us) because the generator was running there, so he could use Wi-Fi. Both houses have gas heat, but the pump to move the hot water around the radiators doesn't work without electricity. They will probably use the generator at our house in the morning, because the power is expected to be off until noon tomorrow, so that house can warm up. After last week when they had uninterrupted power for a few days, it has been off more often and often for longer periods of time. 

Yesterday evening they were cooking dinner in anticipation of a planned power outage around four o'clock and it went off in the middle of cooking potatoes, boiling water for macaroni and the biscuits had just gone in the oven. The power was back on around nine pm, however, they ate two jars of my homemade pickles when they got hungry while they were waiting for it to come on! The biscuits were a little hard. He made more brown sugar biscuits for breakfast this morning when the power was back on, and they came out better!

When Garry told me the story this morning, I asked why he didn't go cook in the summer kitchen. He had forgotten that there is a gas stove there. That's how he cooked dinner today. He was telling me he was cleaning the cupboards to store all the humanitarian aid food the girls are getting, even canned turkey from Mennonite Central Committee in yesterday's bags. 

This week has been pretty quiet, although there was an explosion about eleven o'clock last night. Garry slept right through it, but they think it was anti-missile fire taking out a Russian missile headed to one of the cities. Garry bred a cow in a village, one not that close to Nikolaipolia. Somehow, they had heard he was back, he's going back on Thursday to breed a couple more of their cows. 

Garry is not spending much money, because he had an adventure last weekend. He took the train to Kyiv to visit a former student Karina (in spite of my objections, because he had promised to visit). Unfortunately, there was a power blip as he tried to use a bank machine at the train station and it didn't return his bank card, so he only had the cash in his wallet. He took a taxi and visited Karina. Karina has really turned her life around in the last couple years, away from alcohol and being a "bad girl" to clean and sober and now married with a baby boy. She lives in a village near Kyiv (apparently the Russians were quite close early in the war before the baby was born) with her husband and mother-in-law.

So the taxi driver waited and drove him back to the train station, he had a ticket already for the evening train. He actually got a haircut in the underground by the train station and hung out at KFC until his train time. So it's good that life is cheap in the village (a bottle of coke is still 25 grivna) because he still has half his cash left. Unfortunately, now he can't buy the stroller for the new baby. He does have some Canadian cash for the trip home on Monday.

They are getting the heifer sheds cleaned out- the new loader just fits, I'm told. They combined some more corn today and hope to get the dripline up and the field plowed now. However, there is snow in the forecast, so we'll see how that goes. 

Here's Garry with the mother and kids from the refugee family living in the old boys' house with Vova and his mother. They are heating with wood there. They had six kids when they came from Russian occupied territory and had a new baby this summer. They attend the church in the village. Garry went there twice, this last Sunday he visited Morningstar Church in Dnepro, although many were away for the installation of the new pastor in Kivoy Rog, where Daryl and Adam are, he was able to talk to Misha and a few other people we know. 

Garry says he is wearing a lot of clothes and putting all the blankets on the bed, to stay warm. He says the girls don't seem to be as cold as him, but are wearing lots of layers, and the two Yulias are running out to give the chickens water as soon as the power comes on. 

 

Some highlights

 Here's a few photos of Garry's week so far.

Here's some from the Saturday supper at our house. I hear lots about the girls and little Angelina in our house, and wave to them while talking to Garry. Angelina seems to like Needles. 

Oksana and Kolya's baby girl was born Wednesday night and they were home from the hospital on Friday. It seems safer in the village than the cities. Her name is- according to Garry, hard to say, but something like Osiya. 

He went on a trip to Poltava with Max and a couple guys from the village on Thursday and bought a loader with them. Garry said job one will be to clean out the heifer sheds. It's Chinese made 2020 that was being used to build a highway that isn't being built now, and who knows when it will be now, so the company was selling two loaders, this was the small one. 

The last couple days the sun has been shining, it rained every day for the first ten or more days he was there! This week the power is out for a couple hours in the evening usually. Max has been filling up the fuel tank while Garry's there.

Sometime this week he needs to get his inexpensive Ukrainian haircut before he starts his homeward journey. 

One week

 

Garry has been in the village for a week now. Here's some photos, from church Sunday morning to many of the farm and students. He says the house is rarely quiet with everyone stopping in. He has given most of the presents I sent with him away.

He has gotten a 1500 piece puzzle out for everyone to work on, although he says the pieces are falling off the table often with the kids around. Two-year-old Angelina likes to work on it and will stick ten or so pieces together in a line on the floor.

Garry has been busy preg checking cows (Tuesday all but one was pregnant of 20 or 25 he did) and has been breeding a group of heifers. He's working on trying to fix cow things while he's there, like finetuning the feed rations for the winter.

Friday evening his time he called me and it was noisy with kids and their kids, including baby Sofia. He made pancakes for the students there (a lot he said, and the two new Yulias didn't know how to cut them with a knife and fork, so the other students were showing them how. 

Apparently when they came this summer they didn't even know how to boil an egg. Oleg's wife Elena has been doing weekly cooking class at our house with the students like I used too. 

I've heard from Garry every day, even when "all of Ukraine" was supposed to be out of power for 24 hours, although the Wi-Fi wasn't working in the village during that time period. It's back up now, even video chat was working last night. He said the power wasn't out that long in the village, it was like a normal day.

Every day they do have rolling blackouts, with the power out for three hours at a time, some days (often) three times a day. There's a schedule, which is mostly followed, so they know when they will be out. Unfortunately, one to three milkings a day can be during the outages, so the generator at the barn gets used often. It's tractor powered, and Max is trying to find a backup generator to buy, they tried to order one from the company, but can't get one like that until the spring, so they are trying to find a large commercial type one, but only little home sizes are available to buy. 

So they try to get cooking (for those with electric stoves) and other chores done while it's on and go to bed early when it's going off at nine pm!

Update, just talked to Garry at Saturday suppertime for him. There was a pizza and ploff party going on with many of the students and staff, everyone said hello. He also said that the power had not been out for almost two whole days.

At the farm in Ukraine

 Garry called me around 4:30 Manitoba time this morning, as the train was getting close to Dnepro, I was awake because I have caught a cold (Garry tells me he has no symptoms though). Anyway, I talked to him around 11 am here (he was cooking supper there) and he is pretty pleased with everything at the farm. His only thing he wanted to change was the bred heifer group's ration, as they looked a little thin, he's going to get the guys to feed them some corn silage. 

Oleg posted some photos to facebook so I'll share some here. Garry was pretty impressed with the new chicken venture in the old tent barn, they are selling eggs and meat chickens. 

He said Ukraine looked pretty normal from the train, although the electricity was off for a couple hours after he arrived in the village. There's a schedule and it mostly follows the schedule, although some days instead of one three-hour outage, there's three of them he was told. 

Everyone was excited to see him, and he handed out the presents I sent with him, and the parts for Max to fix things. He got to hold baby Sofia, who was born July first. I sent some sleepers and a dress for her. I didn't ask if Angelina (above photo) remembers him. He did say it looked like there were many jars of jam and pickles that I made in the cupboard. 

Looks pretty wet and muddy in the photos at the farm.

 I'm sure you were wondering if he'd arrived safely, so I'll go back to crocheting and blowing my nose. He'll be busy preg checking cows for week or two and hanging out with the students and staff. He'll be going to the village church tomorrow.

Almost there

 

As you can see, Garry was pretty excited to be going to Ukraine Wednesday morning when I left him at the airport in Winnipeg. His flights were fine, and after a rather long layover in Vienna, they got to Budapest about on time. Our missionary friend Jessica picked them up around four in the afternoon Thursday and drove them across the border from Hungary to Ukraine.

They spent the night at the Hotel Uzgorod, and Garry slept until 10 am and missed out on the hotel breakfast. They got on the train after lunch, which is where he is now, they don't arrive in Dnepro until just after noon Saturday... as long as it is on time. It's a 22 hour trip, they bought a four-person compartment for the three of them.

Max will drive him home from the city to the village, and he says that the students told him there would be pizza for supper.

He's going!

Wednesday morning, I will be taking Garry to the airport for his trip to Ukraine! He's really happy about getting to go (the mission came up with a way and is looking at changing the policy that has kept us in Canada) and is off finding stuff for Max's wish list of farm machinery parts this morning! I'm filling his bag with clothes for the new babies and kids in Ukraine, and warm socks for all the students (my traditional Christmas presents for them).

He will be traveling with Adam Nikkel and Daryl Porter, they will go to the church and mission in Kirvoy while Garry heads to the village for a couple weeks. I'm sure it will be warmer and less snowy there, as we got a pile on Friday evening. 

This week we took a day at the cottage, putting stuff away, since we won't be out there until December, and checking for Garry's missing wallet. It wasn't there (he booked his flight anyway) but it turned up when I was searching for something I wanted to pack for one of the students. I packed and unpacked those suitcases too many times to remember where everything is now. I did eventually find the item I was looking for, it's in the suitcase.

Wishing, hoping and praying

 Over the last eight months we've done a lot of wishing, hoping and praying about our mission in Ukraine. While Garry has kept busy here in Manitoba, and felt useful during his two months in Poland, he has felt God calling him back to Ukraine, and wants to go before winter sets in, just to encourage our team and students there for a few weeks. Right now, he's hoping to get permission to go from the mission. I would stay here in Canada, but have been shopping for small gifts for everyone there to put in his suitcase. 

Last week we were video chatting with some of the students, and saw little Sofia, who was born on July first, she's looks like she's growing well and is very alert. Her four-year-old brother Danil was very excited to see me and waved furiously, then showed me his Rubble Paw Patrol figure. It seems hard to believe that we left there on November sixth for three months in Canada and have not been able to return. We have heard that they are milking three times a day, and power outages have not been a problem in the village.

We have been going between the farm and the cottage, depending on the weather and what else is going on. Garry made it to a couple of the boys' basketball games in Winnipeg, where he plays a little, and has sung in the choir at church the last two Sundays. We left the cottage at 6:30 am both times to be at the church for 8 am sound check! 

However, it was worth it as Saturday was a beautiful warm day, and the lake was as smooth as glass, even if we only got three fish in the boat. We've enjoyed some family time and worked a bit on finishing the house renovation.

Thanksgiving

 

Little Angelina has a new ride in Ukraine

We are back home in St Labre. with so much to be thankful for. First, that our village in Ukraine remains relatively undamaged by the war, our students and staff are safe, and the crops were good over there this year, and that we had plenty of storage for our wheat that can't be sold yet and even for the other small farmers in the village (and the scale got built last winter to weigh it). We are really amazed that God had a plan in place to keep our program going in Ukraine when we couldn't go back in February, with all the staff and supplies to keep everything running. It makes it easier to not be there, although Garry would go in a minute if the mission board okayed it. 

Dima and Julia are back in the village

We are thankful for a safe trip to Prince Albert, where we spoke at our friend Clay's church. Garry did a great job swerving around a potato truck that went across highway one in our path. WE also saw a lot of geese, Canada and snow types, as we drove.

 Saturday evening we were surprised to find Scott and Shannon Crawford at our PowerPoint presentation, and we saw a couple from SEI who moved there from Ukraine recently. Lots of hugs and a good visit with Clay and Maggie, too. 

Garry and I left early Monday morning and headed for Morden, where our daughter was hosting Thanksgiving dinner Monday evening with all the family. Thanking God for our first time all together since last December. A good time and lots to eat for all, although the children played more than ate! 

We are also thankful that the harvest here in Manitoba has been plentiful and has gone well this fall.

We are also thanking God for the life of Pastor Ivan, who passed away this week in the village. He had been in poor health since last fall and was happy to turn the preaching over to Oleg last winter. Pastor Ivan was a great man of God, I will always remember him being part of our Multilanguage skits during the armor of God VBS, with a big smile on his face. Last spring he was delighted one Sunday morning to see he and I were wearing matching t-shirts, the ones from the spring VBS with the Canadian team with the name of God in Ukrainian, Russian and English.