BC Trip

 The last week of April, while we were waiting for the ice to melt on the lake, we took a drive out to visit Jack and Victor in BC. Day one we drove to Matt and Kari's, our son wasn't home, but Garry had fun playing disc golf with Kari and two of the girls since we arrived around dinner time and we played board games before bed. 

In the morning we woke up to snow, and drove through a couple inches of it halfway to our next destination, Daryl and Molly's in Medicine Hat. We had a nice visit with them and met their daughter and family, and their pastor.

The next day we drove to Salmon Arm, where Jack had invited some former work team members for a BBQ that evening. I got to meet several of the people on the teams that have been to Ukraine with Jack since the war started.

1. 

 We spent two nights with Jack and Trish, and got to see Jeremy's house he's been building, and Neil's farm. 

Friday we drove to Chilliwack to visit Victor and his family. Both of Victor's sons live there with their families, we had a big Ukrainian meal made by Victor's wife Lena at their apartment, and said hello to his mother in law. A few hours later a feast at Dan and Stacy's new house (where we spent the night) with Denis and family. We visited again with Victor and Lena in the morning before driving back to Salmon Arm. 

Victor's mobility has gotten worse due to his MS, but it was good to hear what he's heard for Oleg and the village. Unfortunately, another of our students, Andrey, is now in the army. 

We visited with Richard, whose been to the farm in Ukraine many times, and toured his little farm and had a delicious dinner with his daughter and her family. We felt like we might not eat again for days after this weekend! We slept at Jack's again and visited with him and Tyler before church in the morning, where we showed a couple of slides and talked a bit. Garry asked people to pray for Nikolai, who we hadn't heard from in a couple weeks (he had gone to the front).  After church, we had an opportunity to go with Neil and Bonnie to go see our friend Ed Peterson, who is from Steinbach, but lives out there (Ed was on some building teams too). 

After lunch at the church, we started out and made it to Brooks Alberta, where we had our only hotel stay of the trip, and as we were driving through some snow north of Calgary, I got a message from Nikolai. He's alive and well and asks for more prayers. We made it back to the farm in time for Garry to vote in the election Monday evening.

Since we got back he's been helping the boys with spring field work. The ice melted on the lake on the Sunday night we were driving back. Fishing season doesn't really start until next weekend anyway. 

Hayshed

 

Max sent some photos of the finished hayshed!

You can see there's still lots of straw in the straw pile this year. 

Here's one of them getting the metal up to the roof. I'm sure Max and Andrey were to ones up on the roof. Garry said nobody else wanted to go up high. He said they really missed Nikolai, who was drafted into the army, when they were building the shed, because he's helped with so many of the building projects, and is always ready to work. 

Here's a photo Nikolai sent around when he was deployed to the front, after six weeks of basic training. 

Kontakt- our new mission organization

 

We are officially part of Kontakt Canada, if you want to check out our new mission organization, they have a website Canadian Christian Mission Agency | Kontakt Canada . Soon there will be way to donate on the website to Hope for Each but as you probably know we want your prayers much more than your money! 

Garry is getting over his trip (he had a little jetlag- upset stomach last week yet. After just a couple days of fishing, he is landlocked (this year he's not taking a ladder out to the ice.) He's been working on some steps down from the deck, and maybe finishing the railing out there. 

He is planning a drive out to BC after Easter, to visit with Jack and Victor. When Max sends him a photo of the finished hayshed, I will share it with you. 

Back home again

 Garry arrived back in Winnipeg Wednesday afternoon, his plane was an hour late. We had a houseful of family (since it was March break for schools) until Saturday. He's almost over jet lag, he says. He did catch some pickerel before the season closed this weekend. 

Garry says he must be getting old, because the trip is harder now. He also said people seem less hopeful in Ukraine that the war will end well.

Goodbye

 

Garry has left the village and started his trip home. However, I have some more photos sent to me by Marina, our friend who's living in Ontario now, who was on this trip to visit her home and husband in Zaporosia. Marina and the guys in Kirvoy Rog (and Dnipro) have been hearing the shaheed drones going to the cities with the Russian attacks while they were there. However in the village Garry has not heard any. 

With Sasha Borchuk

In the cheese house

Garry did get a suitcase packed to bring home, he was showing me clothes and asking if I wanted them on video chat. He also packed a suitcase with clothes for him to wear on his next trip back to the village that he's leaving there. Our room is empty now so Alona and her children Danil and Sofia, who have been sleeping in the living room, can move in. Her husband has been drafted into the army. Nikolai is currently moving to the front lines, so pray for his safety.  

Tomorrow Adam will drive them to Moldova, where they will find a hotel for the night and fly out on Tuesday. Garry said everyone says that it seems he just got there and he's leaving already. 

Trusses

 So Garry's time in Ukraine is drawing to a close after the weekend, and the effort to finish the hay shed has been going well. The only thing that won't be done before he leaves is putting the steel on the roof. They can't get the steel delivered until next week. 

They got the trusses finished and the welding done, and put the wood around the top of the cement posts on Wednesday. Wednesday morning they realized that the new hay shed is a little longer than the old one, so they needed one more truss, so Garry got to work building one from scratch. 

He had to hustle to get the truss done because he was going to the notary with Oleg to sign something so he can sign for Garry on things in his name. It's been a problem for paying taxes and other official paperwork. Garry said they even had a translator to explain everything at the office. He said it was nice to talk to someone in English (besides me on messenger). 

Anyway they got the wood around the top of the shed as darkness fell, because they had a crane for Thursday morning to lift the trusses into place. They got all the trusses into place and a good deal of the bracing in place. 

Since everything was the same size they were cutting 2 by 4s off on the ground and handing them up for the guys to nail on. Thursday Garry was doing most of the cutting while Max and Andrey were nailing up top. 

Friday the guys were finishing that while Garry went to the dentist.

 

Garry got some photos of a pheasant that was near the barn while they were working.

He's been tired from working on the shed all week, and now his mouth is sore (he's getting two implants done), so he says he will pack the suitcase tomorrow. Marina and he will meet up with the guys on Sunday and they will all be going back to Moldova Monday for the flights back on Tuesday. Garry's back home Wednesday. Three weeks will have flown by for him, and he's already planning a trip in the fall.

Meanwhile, it's March break here and I'm expecting company for the week. 

Cranes

 A sure sign of spring, the cranes are back in the village. Or the crane, Garry says it's quite friendly, you can get about ten feet from him. You may remember there were a pair of cranes, they even had a nest on top of the water tower four years ago, and three years ago, the students were sending us photos of their babies. Unfortunately, one of the pair was lost when she landed on the transformer (and knocked out power to most of the village) in the summer two years ago. So now there's one lone crane, who hunts for mice in the straw bale pile.