Some good things must come to an end --- but not all good things.

Hi dear friends, we are at that stage where all the goodbyes (except those who take us to the airport) have been said and it is time to review our fortnight. What can we say...
1) We have achieved way more work than we hoped to , praise God.
At the begining of our trip there was partial metal work up in the two large rooms becuase of the team who worked so hard in December.
These two large rooms  have now been completed in walls and windows.






At the beginning of the week...




At the end of the week.

Please forgive that there is no lighting in the photographs, we thought it better to help Igor take them into storage so he didnt have to do all the tidying up by himself after we had gone. You will see that we still have work to do to complete the ceiling, this is waiting for the go-ahead on mains drainage for transition house (but it should be imminent). Now we have "squared" the room off, the final phase will be much easier. Note too the ventilation openings we have kept open for air curclation (a pump will take inside air out and outside in.) One of the main challanges in this room was that the far wall had several pipes along it and also needed sealing (as an outside wall). After sealing we then completed the metal work, then boarded.



From this room there are two large  doublewidth doorways to the second larger rec room...








Again the hardest work here was the windows being "boxed in". John D and Nick did a superb job on this.

  

The completion of these two halls was the work Peter hoped we would achive during our trip but ...praise God ... there are 3 more areas to tell you about.

1) We managed to complete the main corridoor from scratch (stud wall with borrowed light, metal work and boarding.) 

This leads to 

2) a changing room. At the beginning of our time it looked like this...

Now thank God it looks like this...

This is a lovely light room. This completes the walling in that half of the basement. 

We were also thilled today to break the back of the parrellel room and make a huge difference to what will be the kitchen for communal events. From small beginnings when it was in a real mess, Emlyn, got rid of a huge amount of structural obsticles and debris (his ears will be ringing for some time). Today we completed 75% of it from scratch (metal work and boarding with vent holes)

We are so pleased with what has been achieved, which well exceeds our own expectations. To see Peter's draw drop when we showed him the extra space we had managed to redeem was priceless. 

At lunchtime we joined by pastor Igor Kucher and pastor Roman Kalashnlkoff, who kindly hotfooted it over from their lecturing and duties at the seminary. We all agree that pastor  Kalashnlkoff has the coolest name we have ever heard of, and we wander if anyone would ever step out of line in a church business meeting if we had such authoritive names in the UK :)

It was a really precious time of fellowship. We exchanged prayer points, our encouragements and faith steps. Grace church is about to plant a new church, which was wonderful to hear about. It also has a wonderful opportunity to visit the local military base and college in order to speak evangelistically about the 500th anniversary of the reformation. Please pray for the young people and others as they prepare to take part in these amazing opportunities.

We managed to give our wonderful cook, Lydia and Elena flowers as tokens of our love for  all their servant heartedness this trip. We have eaten like Kings. All of us are on diets next week.

We were also presented with souveniers of our time here, notably a lovely lazer cut candle holder in the shape of the church. We were told it was to remind us of Grace church and to pray for them, We assured our hosts that we need no reminding to pray for them, as they are very very dear to us.

This has been an awesomely successful trip.

Here are my top 7 reasons for saying this.

1) We got to spend qaulity time with the people we are doing the work for, and the people who will live here. Our times with the children were really really special, full of fun. They know us all so much better now, and their confidence, appreciation and affection towards us will keep us going a long time.

2) Sergei and Vikor were awesome in translation. The reason our fellowship has been so rich and precious with our church family here, is that these two fellas are brilliant, sensitive and servant-hearted in what they do.

3) Our mealtimes have been just great, awesome banter with John B C and superb times with Peter, Lydia, Sergei, Igor (builder), Viktor and Alex.

4) Every mealtime and tea break begins and ends with prayer, these are a very significant part of why we feel so blessed and overwhelmed by God's goodness when we are here.

5) The team work, team spirit and cooperation has been amazing. Even to the point of sharing medication as well as pliers, snips, saws, tables, ladders, drivers, screws, metal, boards, and extension leads.

6) The stamina of the guys has been mammoth. Not just the work they have got through, (sometimes with illness, aches, pains and hurting bodies) but the amount of people we have met and conversations we have had. They are a first rate bunch to be on a mission trip with --trying to encourage other churches and followers of Jesus Christ. Mission accomplished boys... our mantra has been " WE CAN SLEEP ON THE PLANE HOME" We are nearly there... get your teddy and security blanket at the ready.
7) Our morning fellowship times. There is something massively precious when blokes get together to study the bible, and trust each other enough to open up and discuss life together. I praise God for the spiritual encouragement these guys have given me this week.
We give all the thanks and praise to God for all this and so much more. As this trip comes to an end we go home motivated to walk closely with God, reminded of our motto text for this week...

 Galatians 6:9-10 

 Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. ¹⁰ Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.

The trip comes to a close as the sun goes down on Odessa, but the bible reminds us that we have eternity with our wonderful friends. One day  there will be a home full of people who thank God. They will come from every country, but their native language will all say the same thing ("SLAVA BORG") "Praise GOD". As night time falls here, our hearts burn brightly with God's goodness. This little house is a taste of heaven and a taster for heaven, and there the good times will never end, for there, the eternal "city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp." Rev 21:23

For all who look forward to that day, the best is yet to be, and not all good times end, in many ways they are just beginning.

Logging off for this trip.

Why not come with us next time? Go on... it might be the best thing you've ever done!

Bye for now...

As always, thank you so much for being with us, 

BIG APPRECIATION

BLOGSKI