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No Police No Toys No Work No Car No Fear Some Encouragement

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The other evening, Jesse, Marie and Broderic decided to climb the unfinished apartment “structure” that is down the hill from us.  They decided to do it at dusk so that no one would get scared and yell at them ‘cause it was dangerous.  :)  Well, it wasn’t dark enough.  Someone called the local police.  So I called them too.  Anyway, the kids loved it and dragged two other local lads up with them.  Accomplishment produces a fine feeling. 

I was talking to two lads Friday night.  17-20 year olds.  We brought some Lego down and plunked it on the billiards table.  30 minutes later and they were still fitting blocks together.  I asked them if they had played with something similar as kids.  (We are talking 10 years ago.)  I expected them to say that they’d played with Chinese look-alike stuff.  But instead, one of them said that he’d never had any toys at all in his childhood and the other said that he’d played with a truck that someone had given him and that was all. It took me aback a bit.  I’d forgotten the poverty in the villages of Ukraine.  People don’t plant vegetables because they like gardening.  Rather, they prefer eating to the alternative.  Money for toys doesn’t exist! 

Easter coming up

Ukraine celebrates Easter one week after the rest of the world this year.  Sometimes we have a gap of a few weeks.  Anyway, right now, we are five days out from once more celebrating in a unique way the resurrection of the One who is “altogether too wonderful to me” as someone is singing as I type.  I had a dream last night of singing His praises as I waited to bat (I’ve come to the conclusion that I’m stuck with cricket dreams for life).  I had put earplugs in and I realized as I sang my enthusiasm for Jesus that I was singing totally off-key.  No one seemed to mind, so I didn’t either.  I sometimes get a sense of just how PRECIOUS He is and it overwhelms me with peace.  Jesus is our resurrected perfect God!

Work continues.  I invited a couple of the students who work with us on the work site to come round tonight as we look at John 15.  I hope they will find it interesting.  Most go home for the Easter break.  There are several though who must either come from really bad home situations who end up staying in Rzhyshchiv.  We are developing relationships with about 10 students and sowing seeds into their lives.

Pris is in Kiev.  She spent the night there with a few ladies and I’ll meet her to do our monthly-shop, (I’ll pick up some building supplies while we are at it.

Last night, someone was at the site and moved a few things around… real strange.  We have decided to bring the tools home each night until we can lock it up.

Must run…

Weather

I often pick up neighbours on my way to work and if someone was willing to bet me, I’d put money on the first thing talked about being the weather.  It is one of those subjects that is safe and gives no surprises.  We can be fairly certain that the conversation will continue along lines that we have walked countless times.  And if we are lucky, there will be something extreme that we can express some emotion over and take a quick venture into the territory of “the adventurous”.  Complex and fascinating are the workings of the human mind. 

So…  Yesterday we were working on the roof of the building project.  We saw hot periods where we wanted to strip off, rain, snow, hail, wind, calm, and cold periods where we were glad we hadn’t taken too much off.  Talk about a colourful day weather-wise!  Adventure over.  :)

March already

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March already… incredible! We’ve been waiting for the weather to ease up, but just when we think we might be in for a let-up, the temperatures drop again and the snow falls! I like waking up to snow falling from the perspective of beauty. But there are guys we’d like to spend time with on the building site with whom we’ve developed relationships and building outside can’t happen just yet. Soon. Soon it will be spring!

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