Photos!

 Thanks to Jeremy I have more photos to share. Here's the team after landing in Moldova getting their luggage- except for the two bags you read about!

Here they are going out to the yellow van at the airport.

Here they are unloading the van at the border.

The second photo is when Hannah was playing violin while they were waiting to be able to cross the border on foot to Adam and Max and the vans on the Ukraine side. The border was closed when they arrived because of an air raid warning. Finally the border opened and they got in the vans to continue the journey to the farm. 

Here are some photos in the village, not just the shed build Garry's sent photos of, there's many of the work at the house they are working to clean up and repair. 

You can see some of the kids who live there.

Here they are eating at the house the guys are staying in (except Garry- he's in his room at our house). The newlyweds are in the little house- old summer kitchen, and Hannah is staying with Margarita, who speaks English- she's helping with the house cleaning-with the glasses in the photo of three ladies above.  

So if I get more photos of concrete pouring that was happening today I will share them with you. 

Day two- Friday

 I talked to Garry twice, last night my time, when he had been unable to sleep for several hours and it was 4 in the morning in Ukraine. We talked for a while. He said they had arrived around nine am Thursday in the village. 

Elena made them a big Ukrainian dinner the first day. They got started working, although Garry said they were like zombies all day with virtually no sleep since leaving Canada.

They were able to work on the shed build, Garry hopes to get it mostly finished before the team leaves next week. Jack and the girls are working on cleaning and fixing up the original boys house, which is not the job that was planned, but one that needed doing. Apparently there's a lot of mold, mildew and broken things there. A family of refugees with seven kids have been staying there and it seems after four years there's some problems.

Garry said he hasn't been there but they told him that they have done a lot of cleaning and wallpaper removal, I believe. I'm hoping for photos tomorrow. Hannah has not been able to cut hair as planned because her tools are in one of the missing bags I think. They hope to get the missing suitcases on Monday, someone has to drive 350 km there and back to get them- but not all the way back to Moldova.

I talked to Garry at the end of the day (lunchtime here) and he said they had gotten all ready to pour concrete in the morning Saturday, the trucks won't be able to get all the way to the build because the ground is too muddy. It hasn't rained since they arrived but it's been quite wet, he says the winter wheat fields look great. They couldn't order any cement trucks to come today, but they're supposed to start arriving at eight am tomorrow.

Garry said the war is more noticeable than last fall for the team (and more than when he was there in the spring.) They have heard some drones flying over the village and the sound of the Ukrainians shooting them down. Phil made pork chops, potatoes and carrots for supper, and at one point there was a boom that shook the house. Probably a shot down drone exploding. 

They think they have all the supplies they need after Jeremy made several trips to Epi Center the first two days. The problem is the big box hardware store closes when there's an air raid warning, so at one point he was considering driving to a different city when it re-opened and he could purchase what they needed. 

Garry told me that after talking to me early in the morning, he fell in a deep sleep until Jack woke him up at eight am. He said he had a headache most of the morning. It sounded like no one slept well, so hopefully everyone is getting a restful sleep tonight. 

  

In the village

 I found a photo of the van they took from the airport to the border. It was a ten passenger van I was told before the trip. They did arrive in the village. Garry sent some photos, and he phoned in the middle of the night here to ask which bag he was supposed to give Daryl to use for the the English classes he's doing in Ukraine (Thanks Esther for the SEI destined swag she bought for 2020, that she gave us last summer to go to Ukraine sometime) . I guess I need to put names on everything in the suitcase. 

Photos labeled - Two new tractors (I'm assuming new to the farm, not just out of the factory)

It looks like they were checking out the cement pouring that has been happening before they arrived to work on the build. Garry had mentioned before he left that it was behind schedule due to the rain that's been falling at the farm. But you can never complain about rain in Ukraine if you are farming!

I'm sure I will get photos of actual team members and people soon. I'm sure they are going on virtually no sleep as they would have arrived in the village sometime this morning... but I haven't really talked to Garry yet. 

I did get sent a photo of one of our Sashas,  Garry did write for this photo that he nearly died a couple months ago of a perforated ulcer . I knew I was asked to pray for Sasha when it happened. Looks like quite the scar.  It's good to see him smiling again. 

 

Almost there

 Well, Daryl and Garry met in Toronto as scheduled and found most of Jack's crew before they flew into Moldova. The person I didn't realize was coming, Craig,  had flown into Chisinau earlier in the afternoon. He had spotted their driver that was going to take them to the border with a sign the said GERRY.

After a short delay, with two of their suitcases not making the flight, they decided to go ahead and leave instead of getting a hotel and seeing if Jack and Hannah's bags would arrive at midnight. Max and Adam were getting close to the border, but they would have to wait a while before seeing them. They sent a photo around the time the plane landed.

The border was closed when the got there, apparently Hannah played violin while they were waiting. I don't know what else she had in her backpack, but I think her stuff and Jack's including his work boots were in the missing bags.  They had to walk through the border with the suitcases, to meet up with Adam and Max in their vans..

 Five hours later I found out they were two hours from Kirvoy Rog, so about four more hours to the village. That was about 9:30 pm here in Manitoba, so getting to be sunrise soon in Ukraine. I'm sure they will post photos I can show you tomorrow. 

 

One day

 In about 27 hours I'll be dropping Garry off at the airport in Winnipeg. This morning he's finding additional things for the farm in Ukraine. The parts they needed for the tractor hitch and skid steer were too heavy for one checked bag, so he has to pay for a second one, so new inflations for the milkers and breeding supplies are going in bag two now. 

I did find my old suitcase with all four wheels, so that's a start. I just decided there seems to be one more person in Jack's team than I thought. Hopefully this all works. I'll let you know as I find out here at home, as he travels.. 

One week

 This time next week, Garry will be getting close to the village, Max and Adam will meet our group at the Moldovan border crossing. They will get a ride from the airport to there via hired van, it will be late afternoon and we'll see how far the are able to drive that night. They may stay in Kirvoy Rog, where Adam lives and Daryl will stay, it's about two more hours to the village. 

For now we are trying to figure out packing his suitcases, or suitcases, as he has a 24.5 pound part to go to Ukraine. We had a nice family Thanksgiving on Monday.

AS you can see, Garry has not had a haircut since he was in Ukraine in March. It's really bothering him, but he's sticking with the only in Ukraine thing. 

Packing

 Garry has been helping the boys with harvest here, they are now finished except for combining corn. Garry leaves for Ukraine in ten days, so we're starting to pack his suitcase. I'm still waiting to see the biggest item he's bringing Max, an axle for the skidsteer, before deciding how many other things are going to make it to the village this time. 

The first part of the trip- until the 31st- he'll be joined by Jack's BC team, so keep them in your prayers. This year, Jack will be joined by Phil, for the third time as cook, Jeremy and his bride Rachel, and the other new team members, Clay, Harm and Hannah. They will travel in with Daryl Porter.  Garry will return with him next month. Daryl is going to visit pastors and do some short English outreach weeks like our Summer English Institutes we used to have in Dnipro.

Max and the guys were busy planting winter wheat when Garry talked to him last week, they had gotten a good amount of rain. They have even sold some wheat, that will be going to the port at Reni for export, the price is better than it was, but they have to pay for transport, and the price of diesel is high in Ukraine, like everywhere.

I'll try to update the blog as often as I can starting October 20th, when Garry flies out of Winnipeg at noon. 

Summer's over

It's not the best excuse, but we've had an enjoyable summer. Garry's dad came out from Ontario in July for two weeks of fishing. Of course, Garry has been out on the lake most of the summer. I flew to PEI for a week with our daughter and granddaughter, keeping up our book theme with Anne of Green Gables this year. 

 In June we flew out to BC for Jeremy's wedding to his bride Rachel. That's us in the photo at the reception after the rainstorm. We (and you through the blog) know Jeremy from his many trips to Ukraine with Jack, he does all the electrical work. 

 For you west coast people, Garry is visiting Jack right now in Salmon Arm and will be at Broadview Church on Sunday September 13th! Victor Dantsev will be there too, I believe for a little Ukraine reunion Saturday evening. Jack is putting together another building team to go to village with Garry, he's leaving here October 20th and traveling with Daryl Porter to stay a month is Ukraine. Jack's guys are staying a week I think.

They plan to build another livestock shed like last year, you might remember Garry built the trusses when he was there in the spring. They were planning to work on the new bakery building, but Max tells us that the student builders have nearly finished it. However, there are  some much needed repairs to be made in the apartments that were part of the classroom renovation in 2016. Apparently, ten years have been hard on some parts of the building. 

This year, there were good crops, because they had rain, but aren't able to sell wheat, so they have lots in storage on the farm, even if they can find a buyer to sell it to, the price is about a third of world price, because everyone has lots to sell. There are disruptions in the ability to export to foreign markets because of Russian bombing. Gas and diesel are expensive, pretty much as much as here. The corn silage was made in August, they hired the same custom operator as last year. 

 

The first day on school was September first, like every year, and little Angelika, Valentina's daughter had her first first day of school. I hear that she is really enjoying it, and here's a photo from that day. This year the village school closed and the children are going to a larger nearby village for school.

Update

 

Things are going well in the village, the rain has fallen this year, and the crops are growing well, they have not had to buy a lot of irrigation water this year. Here's a facebook video of they crops a couple weeks ago and they look great. https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1BW6zePzu6/

The first cut of hay was a little late, because the weather was so wet, but they got more bales made first cut than they got all last summer, and are getting a similiar amount of second cut. Video from first cut.    https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1AKSsvNZV7/

Alona is working with the cheese now, one of the ladies from the village quit; so here she is bottling milk in the cheese house.  They are selling gift boxes of a variety of cheeses now, and are working on a building for some bakery equipment they were given. John Wiens always talked about a bakery in the village from the project and now there will be one.

; 

Home again

 Garry made it back to Winnipeg on time with his suitcase and backpack- although he lost his tablet somewhere along the way. I picked him up at the airport with a bag of Popeye's spicy chicken and we were at the cabin two hours later. 

After 30 hours of plane travel, he was pretty tired, but he watched the Blue Jays and stayed up until bedtime. He woke up before 4 am, so 12 hours later, he is now napping. However he was putting the docks down at 6 am and has been out fishing (but not catching) already. The lake did melt before he returned! Hopefully he's over jetlag and staying in this time zone soon. 

Leaving Ukraine

 Wedding I found a couple more videos from our friends and staff in the village, just click on the orange words to see them (a new window will open). This first one is from yesterday's wedding ceremony, and if you use translate, you may get a little choked up like I did. Here's the translation- Yesterday, 28.04.2026 a new family was formed in our charity project. Andrew and Valentina do not know their own parents, family and shelter for them became the home of Harry and Teresa Verhug (our founders), who became father and mother to all participants of our project in the village of Nikolai-Pole. The wedding took place the day before Gary left back to Canada, now he's on his way. Andrew and Valentina are glad Gary was able to attend this celebration!

 I sent a crocheted wedding gift for them. Garry said it did make Valentina laugh, two peas in a pod in wedding outfits. She has a great laugh.

If you click on this one, it's another farmer Garry facebook post, you can see Garry during Saturday's tour. If you're on Facebook you can follow them, their posts are about the cheese, and celebrations. Tour

Saturday morning, Garry sent these photos, you may have seen that six people died in an apartment building in Dnipro, the fuel depot was hit also, and he could see smoke driving down the highway. I've gotten better at not worrying when he goes, I know the village is safer than the cities, and he's mostly in the village. 

Garry is safely back in Moldova (no van problems, hurrah!) for his and Daryl's flights early tomorrow (Thursday) morning. That's tonight here, since they are eight hours ahead of us in Manitoba. He's scheduled to land in Winnipeg at 5:30, just in time for supper.  Here's a photo of the pile of trusses, he plans to go back in the fall to help build the shed.

Busy Tuesday

 

Yesterday Garry was not feeling well. He said that he did preg check some cows with the ultrasound machine. He has been teaching Max to do it so he can check cows when Garry is gone. However, Garry went to bed in the afternoon and was feeling pretty sick when I called Monday night. I was glad to hear he was a lot better in the morning. 

Tuesday  dawned sunny but was mostly cloudy with a high of 12 Celsius.

They were hoping to plant corn Monday, but Sunday's rain delayed it again. They did get the pre-plant spraying and cultivating done today (Tuesday) but decided it was still too wet to plant when they tried one pass around the field. So they will plant tomorrow while Garry is enroute to Moldova for his flight Thursday morning. 

 

Today was the big day, Andrey is home from the army and he and Valentina got married! They have two kids, so I guess you could say it was a long time coming. They went into Zaporosia for their appointment at the official government wedding palace. 

They had a wedding party back in the village. Garry said Alona cooked a big dinner with roast pork and potatoes and salad.

Here's a few more wedding photos

Andrey will try to get a compassionate release from the army because his son Nazar is disabled and needs extra care. Angelika will start school in September, she is very normal. 

Garry finished packing his suitcase and will get a ride at 6 am to meet Adam and Daryl in Kirviy Rig for the drive to Moldova. I'm thanking God that he's feeling better for the trip home, he is supposed to land in Winnipeg at 5:30 Thursday evening.