going to church

For the last two months, Garry has invited the students to come to church with us in Dnepropetrovsk. The first week was when I was in the hospital (see the other blog if you missed my bout with mononucleosis ) and they stopped in to see me on the way. Last week when the team was here, it was raining and no one came. The students  walk the kilometer from their houses to our house on Sundays before we leave. As long as they don't have to work, and get here on time.

The first Sunday I was feeling better, only Nastya came, but most weeks there's three or even four crowded into the back seat, like in this photo. That is Nastya, Kolya, Sasha and Julia back there, our most likely passengers, although Valera and the other Sasha has come, too. Julia came for the first time three weeks ago, they rearranged the work schedule because she wanted to go. Most of the students go to the youth meetings on Sunday evening at the village church.  The two girls are excited about going to the Easter service next week. Here in Ukraine, we follow the Orthodox calendar, so it's not on the same week as at home.

Garry tries to get the students to New Hope Center Church in Zaporozhe for the monthly young life meeting on Saturday night, some of them end up sitting in the very back of the 5 seat van. Last week with Garry sick, a couple of the guys from the building team drove them, in the rain. (see more about the work on the house on the other blog). Good thing, with the cold rain, the police weren't stopping many cars, they mostly stay near the building, the Canadians had no problems with 8 or 9 people in the van. They did have to change a flat tire in the rain on the way home, after the music, message, and playing pingpong there and getting Big Macs at the drive thru. It is hard to see all the potholes on a dark and stormy night!

We hope to be able to get a full size van when we have more students next year, for getting the students to this and other outings. Most months we work around Victor's schedule and he drives us in his van.

This Saturday all the students took the bus from the village to Zaporozhe so we could go bowling. All the students were able to knock down more pins this time, and seemed to enjoy the outing, which included lunch at the mall. Most of them took advantage of some free time in the city before taking the bus back. Some of the boys spent their money on seeing the new Fast and the Furious movie. We try to do something as a group every month, and invite the group home parents.