Getting ready

We have a work team coming here from BC - they are scheduled to arrive on the 20th - just a few days away! They are coming to work on finishing the barn remodel for the trade school. Garry hired a couple of local guys this week and they dug the foundation for the milk house addition to the barn, and were building forms yesterday with the wood that arrived here on Thursday. Cement will be poured on Monday, keep watching the blog for updates!

Building form for the concrete

Boy's house

Right now there is a new couple at the boys house, the New Hope Center found some orphans to live in the

houses for the winter, and got some new house parents for the boys house. They have a 12 year old daughter, and only one boy there now, but there are four orphans at the girls house. One of the girls wants to come to the trade school next year, most of them are attending the village school.

The unfinished interior of the boys' house addition is getting done now. There will be 3 bedrooms, planning to have 3 boys in each room. The new kitchen/great room will be nice when finished, as you can see in the photos I took this week.

  The bathrooms are getting tiled and ready for use. One bathroom was done last year when the boys were living there during school. There will be 3 bathrooms one for the house parents, and one more near the boys' bedrooms. There will be a private living room in the older part of the house for the house family next to their daughter's bedroom. She attends the village school, there are 5 students in her class . 

 The father has been doing most of the work, with New Hope buying materials. While we were there, more supplies were delivered for the cabinets and stove. Garry helped carry some stuff- in Ukraine the truck delivers stuff, but not into the house!

They seem to enjoy life in the village, they have gotten a dog and some chickens in the shed for eggs, they are getting four eggs a day now, from 11 chickens, but I think I heard that two are roosters, so they won't be laying any eggs.

Garry gave them some corn for the chickens

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.

Farm Show in Kiev - Field Trip photos!

We took a field trip with our second year students! Luckily the two of them fit in the back seat of the van with Maria (Masha) our translator, and we had a good drive, stayed overnight in a hotel before spending the day checking out the show. We looked at getting train tickets, but they were sold out for a Thursday night return to Zaporosia, it is a school holiday week in Ukraine.

We arrived before it opened at 9 am

Looking over equipment outdoors before opening

Maria, Max B and Andrey with combine

Can I get one?

Many foreign exhibitors were there- some from China

Max sitting in a tractor

Me with Maria

Andrey trying a John Deere 

Milking the only cow at the show

Max had a couple bags of brochures and pens by the end of the day

Andrey taking photos of a farm model with his phone

Checking out another piece of machinery

What's happening this year with the trade school?

You may know that we are in a holding pattern for this year, no new students, and only two students back for year two of the program. John Wiens is in Canada now doing fundraising for the trade school, and we have a group from BC who are raising money and plan to send a team to help with the barn remodeling spring 2014. We plan to have a new group of students start the program next fall, and with the farm up and working to support the program and provide a better work experience for the students, even start a new trade track for students.

The program is undergoing some growing pains from last year, we hope to make it cheaper to run. Last year we gave the students, room board and pocket money, but most of them left us this year because even though we offer a government approved certificate, they could not receive the stipend the government pays monthly to orphans under the age of 23 attending trade schools. Most of our orphans from last year who completed the certificate are attending other trade schools this year, so they can get their monthly cash payment.

Maxim Boradim, our orphan from the "handicapped orphanage" who is not disabled at all, is living with us and along with Andrey (our Max's brother) doing the second year of the course with Garry. Masha comes out on Thursdays to translate, they are working on further balancing of feed rations and will learn to artificially inseminate cows. Masha is also helping Maxim Boradim with his schoolwork as he is attempting to do a correspondence course to finish high school. Orphan students that are labeled handicapped are not allowed to finish the last two years of high school in Ukraine- or even get a drivers licence.

Sweta, who did not finish and went back to Kramatorstk is working at a store there. Max Korabel was working for the local farmer, but quit and moved on to parts unknown with his girlfriend after they got paid this summer.

Our non-orphans from last year, were Alina, Andrey and Verinika, who was baptized this summer. She is studying to take exams to get into a veterinary university in the the spring. She is being tutored by Masha in Ukrainian language and a lady from Zaporosia in Chemistry and Biology. Her parents were worried about Garry paying the bill, but they are happy with it now. They are worried about their only child moving away.