Driving School

We recently started talking about getting our Ukrainian driver's licenses (we drive on our California licenses with temporary international permits) and realized that we need to make sure we could pass the test in Ukrainian. (Before that we have a lot of paperwork to do so we probably won't even start to apply for a license for a year). We saw that a friend had a diver's ed. manual so we talked to him about it and he gave us this DVD for driver's education to help us.


Maybe this is why it seems Ukrainian drivers don't take driving laws seriously.

Potato Season

dThe end of August marks the beginning of potato harvest. If you ask people what they did over Independence Day weekend most will tell you that they dug potatoes.

This week we fixed up our root cellar to get ready for our potato harvest. We fixed up some old pallets we had lying around to hold potatoes and beets and carrots. I replaced the light fixture with one that wouldn't allow moisture into the light bulb contacts.


Liese dug up her potatoes today. That was part of the deal, she could plant them if she dug them up.

Evening for Senior Citizens

This week our church had its monthly evening for senior citizens. We had a smaller gathering than normal but everyone seemed to enjoy being there and we had a couple new people come. Wayne spoke for a few minutes about the sermon on the mount as part of our summer series of short teachings from the bible.


Next week we are going to have a meeting with everyone who helps with these evenings to try to build a team and share the responsibilities of this ministry. Our goal is that more people in the church would take on responsibilities and that instead of one person organizing each event there would be a team of people working together each doing their part .

Kucherenko Wedding

Sasha and Oksana got married on Saturday. This is them at the tank in the middle of Kaharlyk.

Sasha helped us remodel most of our house last summer and as we worked I asked him about his relationship with Oksana and if he was ever going to ask her to marry him. He said yes, that he already had the ring and was waiting for just the right time. I asked him when the right time was. He replied that he wanted to propose on the tank in the middle of town but that Oksana wouldn't climb up on the tank with him. 8 months later he finally convinced her.

We offered to do premarital counseling with them and had a lot of fun talking about marriage. We also realized that there is very little in the way of premarital counseling resources in Russian/Ukrainian so we have decided to compile our own from various books and courses that we've read.

The wedding was in the park and the weather was beautiful. They had their cousin dress up as a cherub and walk the rings down the aisle which made for some fun pictures. I was in charge of sound and Liese sang a couple songs with the band. I also was the DJ at the reception which turned out to be more stress than I thought it would be as I was given songs in various categories but since I didn't know the songs (I don't stay up on pop music, let along Russian and Ukrainian pop music) often the category wasn't helpful and I ended up playing Russian Roulette with my ipod. But people danced, the rights songs were played at the right time and the Beatles even got a song in.

Road Trip

We got home this afternoon from a road to to Chernigov and Priluki. We went up to Chernigov to teach the midweek bible study at the church there as Jake and Anya were in Zhytomir having a baby. The bible study went well and we got to see the new apartment where they have their midweek bible study. We hung out with Chris and Reenie and it was really great to just relax and eat and relax some more.

On Thursday we drove from Chernigov down to Priluki. We figured that since we were on that side of the Dnipro we might as well stop by and say hi to everyone. We spent the afternoon with Vlad and Zhana and the Onanko family who used to be our neighbors when we lived in Priluki.

The Onanko family with their twins Masha and Vanya.

Vlad and Zhana's daughter Anya. She had her second birthday on Thursday.

After the evening church service a bunch of people came over to Vlad and Zhana's and we all hung out until nearly midnight.

Tomorrow is Sasha and Oksana's wedding and I've spent the evening putting together a slideshow for their reception as well as getting music together for the wedding and dancing music for the reception. I get to be the DJ. Look out.

Baptism

We had a baptism today after the church service. A babushka that started coming to our church through the senior citizen's evenings was baptized, as well as man and his wife who have been believers for a few years but have recently begun to take their faith seriously and have been coming to our church for about 6 months.

Nothing to write home about

Life since the last blog post hasn't seemed very blogable. Not that it hasn't been uneventful, just that there isn't much to write about. So I won't write much but this is what we have been up to:

- played guitar on the worship band every week for the last month
- taught chapter 9 of Hebrews in two parts
- planted grass in our yard
- moved most of huge pile of dirt in our front yard that was from our septic tank
- finished building and painting a cupboard for our bathroom
- built book shelves for my desk
- made hamburger buns in the breadmaker
- took our washing machine to the repair center in Kiev
- talked books and conference planning with Jake Knotts and Bruce Crowe over lunch in Kiev
- saw Paul and Melanie Billings on their way to the airport
- studied psalm 34 & 103 at the home bible study
- had a closet drywalled in our bedroom
- cleaned up old doors to install in new bedroom clost
- bought all the materials for a new front gate
- had dinner with our friends the Torrences
- picked up the Silvas from the airport
- worked out a design for the cover of Christian Beliefs by Wayne Grudem which should go to the printer in early September
- made apricot jam

Embracing Ukrainian Culture

Being as vague as possible is one of the aspects of Ukrainian culture that we have embraced. It is great being able to not answer a direct question but sometimes it annoys my family.