John Wiens' legacy in Ukraine

John baptizing our Maxim Rudei 2 years ago in the Dniper 

As we start this new year, we are sadden by the loss of our friend and the visionary behind the trade school, John Wiens, who passed away on January 14th. He fought a six week battle after discovering he had cancer. John was the missionary with a dream to help orphans by starting a trade school, it is so good that he was able to see the first school year. John and Ev had signed up for ten years of service in Ukraine, and in the six years they were here had founded a church New Hope in Zaporosia and worked with orphans and started an outreach to graduated orphans in the city, and the trade school, where John hoped to have more tracks than the dairy one, he was very excited about a possible baking track in the future. He once told us he had three things he'd like to do in Ukraine, establishing the church, the trade school and a rehab center for alcoholic men.

John spent several months this fall traveling Canada  and speaking in churches and to groups raising money to complete the barn renovation so the school can restart this fall with the needed facilities in place, and we excited to report that the barn will proceed as planned. One of the reasons for the barn is that the students will not only have the experience of working on the farm, but that the milk sold will help pay the daily expenses of running the school in the future.

Here is a link to an interview John did with an American dairy contact this fall about the trade school
 http://dairyline.com/wpbackend/?p=7043

and here is an article recently published in the Mennonite Brethren magazine about John and Ev and their work in Ukraine (John was with their mission organization)
http://mbherald.com/dairy-farms-and-church-plants/

How to donate for the trade school project

As missionaries, we are self-supported, but the trade school project is not. The hope is once the barn is finished and has cows milking, it will be able to provide for most of the money to run the trade school in the future.

If you would like to donate to the trade school farm project, you can find out how here : This is foundation that was set up for the trade school project  by John Wiens and friends and has board members from Canada.

 http://canadianresourcesformissions.com/donate/

or through EFCCM World of Hope projects (The Evangelical Church of Canada Missions, who we serve with ) If you download the booklet there you can find our projects, trade school barn in Ukraine, buy a stall or a cow, or our village VBS send a kid to camp, along with other wonderful projects around the world.

http://www.efccm.ca/wordpress/world-of-hope-announcement/

We are very excited that we have had donations and have a work team coming in the spring to finish the barn, watch for progress reports!

a new year

Well, it looks like the barn renovations should be done this spring so the trade school can have a new class of students in the fall! We have had a number of donations in recent months that should cover building expenses, although more cows will need to be bought to stock the barn in the coming years. There is a work team coming from BC March 17-27th to work on the project.