Tag building, a growing church family and the start of week 3.

The last 48 hours have been an emotional rollercoaster, but an amazing testimony to how God brings people together for his glory. Friday night was the start of our Airport trips the other side of the city (in the swanky new arrivals terminal) . I really appreciated some quality time with my wonderful brothers Pieter and Sergio. We talked about many things (some deep lessons from life, and some not so deep things like how to grow apples and pick them in a proper way). Pieter has sown unsparingly into the orphanage work. He is now reaping the fruit of a life well lived for God. Those he has invested in are now having their own wonderful families and blessing Pieter with them.

On Friday evening we welcomed 6 great fellas from Gwersyllt, and started tucking into pizza as midnight approached. Blurry eyed, early Saturday we said goodbye to John D, Rob, Nick, Dennis and Ken. I thank God for each of them, their work, their encouragement and genorisity to God's people here in Odessa.

They leave behind much more than a load of pristine and perfect metal work. They leave behind a legacy for a future generation. When people ask - who built this wonderful home, they will say - good men who put their heart and soul into it because they loved Jesus Christ and they love people.
Saturday morning we also collected another 4 fellas from Gwersyllt.

The new guys got stuck in immediately in the basement - this is tag ceiling construction.

Sunday morning we started by praying together; for the week, our families and churches at home, and the church here in Odessa. I had the privilege of preaching the good news of Jesus Christ and how we can have a new start in him (as individuals and churches). Praise God one of our young friends from the shelter at Church publicly commited her life to live for Jesus Christ. God is good. We then had lunch with our good friends pastor Igor and Svetlana Kucher. It was wonderful to hear of both what God is doing in Ukraine in his church, and the great possibilities of the growing orphanage and transition house work in the future. This afternoon we went for a walk and did all the "touristy things" in the city center. We also drank some seriously good coffee for 60p.

I will post more of our final week's projects tomorrow (internet providing), but for now there is a need for rest.Yours with love, gratitude and now also with the Barry White voice, BLOGSKI.

We are winning (we think)!

Good evening blogski friends,
It is fair to say we have been working like trojans today and feeling some of the effects of doing so.
Emlyn started the week singing like a BEE-GEE but alas he now serenades in the BARRY WHITE register. It is hard not to laugh when you hand him a requested tool and he says in the style of THE KING OF ROCK AND ROLL "thank you very much". This is rock and roll basement building - life on the edge ! The dust and damp is a contributing factor to our aches, pains, frustrations and ailments, but praise God we are winning !!!!

The metal work in the second hall is going up apace. We also plasterboarded the rear hall and completed the rear corridor today. All in all the end result looks terrific but it has taken some perseverance.

 I will post full photos tomorrow.
 Here are some snaps from the last week...
Sunday evening the youth band led us very helpfully at church.

We were really pleased to hear our young friend preach and to see that grace church is giving opportunity to young preachers - he is wearing the beautifully handmade national costume.

Last week we were of course at the stunning opera house -designed by Fellner & Helmer,.

Yesterday afternoon was our trip to the camp.

This was the view from the top, the cross that can be seen for miles around. It is a happy holiday home for many children and families who come to hear about Jesus Christ.

Every day these three chaps are guarding Emlyn's bed.

The children generously gave myself and Emlyn their treasured soft toys to say thank you for the gifts that we brought. We have learnt from experioence that this is their opportunity to give, and we do not want to take that away from them. They are cheerful givers and we are humbly grateful to be trusted to look after such treasured possessions. 
Speak soon, much love from blogski and cuddly friends.
xxx

Week ONE KOMPLETE

Hello friends, just back from church. The rainy season has definately arrived !!! As one of our Ukrainian friends said, we can thank God that the thunder has not come (yet)

After another morning of encouragement at grace church, superb translation from our faithful friend Viktor and the choir on finest form, we had a wonderful lunch at church. Over lunch we met with church leaders and celebrated God's goodness in bringing us together as gospel partners. God is doing great things in Ukraine. To mark the 500th celebration of the reformation last week, Christians in Ukraine planned to meet in Kiev city center. Their estimate of 100,000 people gave the police and authrorities some concern, but in reality they needn't have worried. Nearer 500,000 turned up but there were no issues. God is good! Today is a day of opportunity for the evangelical church in Ukraine. Peter was also with us for lunch and was reminiscent of the times when things were not so easy for Christians. The bible says make the most of every opportunity, this is something we need to rememeber in the UK. I fear in days to come missionaries will be sent from Ukraine to England because of the tragectory of our nation. God has ways of humbling the proud, scattering the church and growing the church in the reality and honesty of hard times. Maybe the season we are entering in the UK will require us to listen more carefully to our friends in Eastern Europe who have gone through hard times before us, and therefore show the 24 carrot maturity of tested grace.

 Summary of week 1.

We have completed  2842 miles on a 'plane, 4 walls, 3 portions of ceiling, 21 beautiful meals, 1 opera, several souvenier purchases, too many boxes of busicuits, 6 chapters of Joshua, the delivery of 3 large loads of gifts to wonderful children, 1 city tour, sveral purchases of materials and tools, 1 delivery / carrying of many OSB boards and 40 bags of 25k cement,  and numerous belly laughs. Apart from that we haven't done much!

In a nutshell, we've achieved way more than we thought we could, and are raring to get cracking on the rest of the project. We're looking forward to the 10 guys coming next weekend, which will give us extra impetous tomorrow in a damp and dust filled basement. Thank you for being with us, as we hit the business end of the work, please pray ...
1) that we get ceilings up sharpish and that  all the complex alignments match for doorways, recesses and maintance access.
2) that we are a huge encouragement to the awesome people here who live to the glory of God and to love those who are struggling.
3) that we continue to work well as a team (it was great to hear from one of the pastors how our team ethic was a huge encouragement to him - and that he knew when he saw us at work that this work would soon be completed.)
4) that we can encourage each other in God's word to live lives of adventourous faith with great courage and stickability. 
5) that as we preach next weekend we will encourage the church to take fresh steps of couragious faith as they elect new leadership teams for the next generation.

In all these things we look to GOD who can do immeasurably more than we can think or imagine. I encourage you to listen very hard in the UK. If you listen carefully enough you can hear the sound of 6 men having their afternoon sleep. The walls are moving as we speak, but the heavy breathing is very jsutified.
 Big love to you all, BLOGSKI.  

Fab Friday!

Hello folks, so sorry for the drop in communication. It has been a combo of 3 things ... drop in internet / electricity, a busy schedule and the need for r+r after a long day. We have been trying to make the most of the opportunities knowing that the weekend will bring wet weather.

We are just back from visiting our friends at church. This is always the highlight of every trip and tonight will go down in the memory for some time.

We were able to introduce our new friends Ken and Dennis, I think they went down pretty well :)

We were also able to share some small gifts which we pray will be useful for every day life in the Big house where 30 growing children need the odd thing or other here and there. All the gifts were a hit, but especially the 40 high school musical bags (thank you Kelly Ann - you star) and funky water bottles to take to school. We also heard about one or two needs, (things like prescription specs which are not at all cheap) so if you want to help, we would be keen to hear from you.

The building work has come on a storm. The guys are smashing the program, and doing an immaculate job in record time. Rob is the brains of the outfit ! He has clever lazers and everything ! The light show is completed by Emlyn's fascination with producing sparks with a grinder, it really is like Nov 5th every day of the week...

Apart from having way too much fun, we've managed to finish a number of walls and the massive sports hall ceiling is coming on really well.

Working with your neck stretching to the skies with an SDS is not the easiest all day. These guys are complete stars, and their heart to do this both for God and the kids is what motivates them - He is certainly enabling them above and beyond, there is a real buzz in the basement, and it isnt just the chorus of Makitas, stanleys and xtremes giving it some, it is the joy of doing something really worthwhile and having a complete laugh doing it!.
Some of us are being tested in our concentration...

Last night was pretty awesome with a trip to the Opera. Andre (who sings in the chorus) kindly arranged for us to have tickets  for a beautiful version of Madame Butterfly. Some of the guys had their own interpretation of the libretto, ("Bloke fancies woman, goes off, theres a bit of pollava and women tops herself just like in every opera (but manages to sing like an angel as she does")). Give or take - not a bad summary.

As always the hospitality is as warm as an electric blanket in the sahara, and the food is humblingly good. Lydia seems to have adopted a new method of making us eat 5 helpings. She now just wanders around the table piling our plates, knowing that we are often slow to go back for a 3rd helping when there are several more being kept hot in the oven. You have to bear in mind that there are a minimum of 14 of us for lunch each day.

I'd love to tell more, but we are in need of some rest, so hopefully over the weekend the internet will be better and we'll be able to upload some more photos.

Big love to our familes, friends and supporters. God is answering your prayers in an awesome way. Thank you for being with us,
BLOGSKI

Tremendous Truths for Tuesday.

Hi great friends, supporters, and prayer trojans.
Today has been an awesome day when the privilege of being part of this great project has really hit home. We can summerise it in 5 truths.
1) It is a great privilege to provide good people with good things to do good work for God (who is always good). We had the privilege this morning of presenting our friends at transition house with the gifts for materials and tools that the church and friends in the UK sent us with. Exceptional gratitude was communicated to us, but our hearts were full and united  by how awesome our God is in providing for his people. We are very grateful to the generosity of the Barrane foundation and the churches  in the uk which enabled us to contribute to the provision of much needed resources at such a critical time in the project. We were able to present our great brother, friend and foreman Igor with some wonderful new tools, which will grately help us rattle up some walls and ceilings over these next 3 weeks.

We are thinking of asking the diy store to buy this photo off us for their Christmas advertising, with the caption "new toys make big boys very very happy!".
Truth 2) Ukranian markets sell everything !. To acquire tools and materials today (at great prices) Pieter Kindly drove myself and John accross the city where we entered the street market quarter. To say it was "eyeopening" is an understatement. You could buy any pet that was required, (whether to walk, eat or dunk) - I particulraly enjoyed the terrapins and tortoises. We think we counted 15 stalls selling tropical fish and numerous others with fairytale castles and plants for said fish to live a happy Ukrainian life. Of course next to the fish were... yes you guessed it ...the power tool stalls.. (I think we hid our surprise very well.)
 Pieter is a shrewd man. After entering "Aladdins cave for big lads in overalls" and signing the store card entry for maximun discount, we purchased one item and looked at several (hundred). We then exited the shop to repeat the process in several stores just to see if any of the store owners would buckle under the pressure and offer further discount at the prospect of multiple sales. They did and we exited as very happy bunnies, with a new Dewalt SDS drill light enough for ceiling work, a new angle grinder ideal for metal work, new intellegent drivers (ideal for boarding), and various magnetic spirit levels,  and drill bits ready for the mission ahead.
Truth 3) Ukrainian driving is ... unpredicatable. On our journey home we encounterd a section of road wherby due to road works, 6 lanes converged into 2. The large Ukranian man who drove the large artic truck decided he had chosen the slightly slower of the two lanes and so used a local custom / "temparary throttle system", in the hope that every time he dabbed the accelerator, someone would be gentlemanly enough to move out of his way. They weren't, and they didn't !!!! ...but praise God we escaped the carnage that ensued. There is always mess and mangle in this world when it is every man for himself !! We were grateful to be reunited with a team where everyone is united in one purpose, and where God brings people together to construct and not destroy.
Truth 4) We should be thankful for water and electricity. Thank GOD if you have both today. Yesterday we were without water, today it was electricity, (at least for a good portion of the afternoon session)  which just makes you appreciate how precious these things are - you can't do a whole lot of building work (or anything else for that matter) without either.
Truth 5) God is bigger than all the ups and downs of life. As we awoke this morning to put the kettle on and meet for our bible study this was the view outside our room...

As we started a new day we studied  Joshua chapter 2. It is all about a new day for Israel in God's forgiveness and a new day for anyone who trusts God in the mess of this world. Verse 11 says this..."for the Lord your God is God in heaven above and on the earth below." Joshua chapter 2 is about how God uses insignificant people in his gloriously big plans. Rahab, is known only for being a prostitute and a nobody up until this point. She is normally not into trusting men too much (it comes with her profession) ...but this new day she  trusts two men from God and puts her trust in the God who offers sovereign protection as we trust ourselves to his faithfulness. Reading the story in the big picture of the bible we see that this was the best of days for Rahab, her faith was exceptionally wisely placed. In Matthew  1:5, we are reminded that she was engrafted into God's big plans, and after being rescued by the good news of who God is, married Salmon, became the mother of Boaz, and ultimaely the line which produced the greatest tesminoy to God's faithfulness to all generations, the birth of Jesus Christ. As she professes that God is good, so her life becomes a staggering story of the God who loves to take messed up people and turn them into a lasting story and trophy of his protection and possesion. In turn she posseses all the privileges of a God who never ever, ever. lets down those who trust in him. Today is another day when God is faithful, his mercy is new every morning and his faithfulness lasts from one generation to the next. As a bunch of messups, we as a team have been blown away by God's failfulnnes in forgiving us, and bringing us together in his great purposes. God is good, however "not good you are", turn to him today, you can trust him,  he loves to accept those who do.

With deep gratitude in our hearts, some more walls and ceiling metal in sutu, and some shiny new tools in our kit bag. We have a good God. We have had a great day in his big plans. You are part of his goodness to us, thank you for your prayers and support - you know who you are, and hopefully you know how much you mean to us.  Much love till we chat again, BLOGSKI.

Off to a great start!

"Chello from Ukraine"
We are here safely friends, after an eventful journey. Everything was fine until our arrival at the clapham junction of the airways, Istanbul. The weather was more akin to Manchester, and the torential rain seemed to throw the airport into chaos. Having arrived at our gate (212 if I remember correctly) we were then told to relocate to another (303 if I am not mistaken), before the same genlemen raised his hand to propose a trip the other end of the airport (gate 400 and something, I don't remember now - it is all very blury). We did eventually take off an hour and half late, leaving our welcoming commitee standing expectectantly in Odessa for the same length of time.Those of you who know Istanbul airport will know we succeeded in getting our stepometer quota for the month.  Praise God it didn't dampen anyone's spirits for 3 reasons. 1) We met a lovely guy who was travelling around europe sharing the good news of a new start in Jesus Christ. I was able to exchange details with our new friend with the promise to pray and keep in touch. Through happenstance in God's timing we had our own little Sunday service outside gate 400 and whatever. 2) John Davenport and Emlyn kept us supplied with confectionary which balanced / complemented the cheese (6 different ways) diet we had  recieved from turkish airlines, and 3) the smiles of our welcoming comittee made up for every inch of Istanbul airport we have explored (a number of times).

Here are 5 things we are praising God for today.
1) We have been thrown out of our normal rooms. This is a good thing... Transition house has made significant progress in our absense, both in building work and function. There are some new guests fully enjoying living on the second floor, and so we have been relocated to another part now in use for the first time. Praise God this place feels more like a big community every time we arrive.
2) The work which has been done in our absense is top notch. 3 Ukrainian gentlemen have worked solidly over the last month transforming the basement dining area from less than a shell of a room to a beautuful and trendy place to be. The floor tiling continues today, but this is a picture of what it generally looks like. You will see that the spacers are still in situ in the beautiful parkay type floor.

3) You will see from the large imposing shadow on the left that the "BIG MAN" was with us this morning. It's fantastic to resume fellowship with IGOR BANDURA, in the basement and celebrate all that God has done through the mission.
4.) WE ARE ON TRACK TO FINISH THE BASEMENT, COMPLETE THE BUILD and APPLY FOR A LISENCE BY THE END OF THE YEAR.  This is nothing short of staggering considering the extra phases we added to the project.
5) ROB HARRIS brought his new toy for us to play with... a lazer ... which not only gives off a pretty disco effect but saves us hours on marking out new walls and ceiling profiles from a blank canvas. This is the main reason we have had a great start and much progress on our first Monday. Not the best photo but hopefully you can see the clever red line which has transformed our lives.

We have had a brilliant start to the trip.
Emlyn is back in situ with his favourite angle grinder...

This is the "special" grinder that has an "on-off" switch which is

 more erratic than Boris Johnson's hairstyle. 

We have a great team system in play already, 1 team working on walls in the main back corridor and 1 on the ceiling in the large recreation room. Our Ukranian friends continue to work like trojan's creating tilling which makes even Rob's laser look wobbly.

We have started this morning as we mean to go on...

 We woke after a sleep which searched  for quality knowing that quantity wasn't an option, (our meal last night of fully stocked Pizza was prepared for us to kick off after midnight  - and it was a little rude to travel so far and then retire to bed). We started at 6 uk time with bible study and prayer. It is a great thing when blokes do this together, and you couldn't get a more blokey book of the bible than Joshua. He's a guy with responisbilities bigger than he can handle, but as he trusts a God immensely bigger than his understanding, he discovers that he is walking into the inheritance and priveleges God has already won for him. We are doing the same, our God is doing amazing stuff, and we have the privilege of walking the journey in his massive, good, and worldwide plans. For your prayers, kind wishes and practical support we are deeply grateful. This idea of a transition house was a "crazy big" plan, but it was Gods' plan and so it is nearly there. He finishes everything he starts. Tomorrow we raid the trade stores for new tools, please pray that accelerates the work even quicker from hereon in. We could also ideally do with some running water tomorrow as we havn't had it for the majority of today. From a happy bunch of smelly blokes, much love and appreciation, speak soon, BLOGSKI!

Going places ! 3 reasons for an attitude of gratitude.

Hi friends, family and faithful supporters.
We'd like to encourage you to give thanks to GOD. He is awesome in all things, He does nothing badly and does everything to unimaginable perfection. For us as a team his provision and answer to prayer for our little project in Ukraine has been so encouraging these last few days. If anyone should have the attitude of gratitude today it is us.

REASON 1: A LITTLE ARMY OF GREAT WORKERS AND ENCOURAGERS
Many of us have been praying that we can give the work in Odessa a big push at such a critical stage. I am so pleased to share that 17 men are going out to Ukraine to work on transition house. Our desire is bigger than to build a few big walls and level some ceilings. We hope that in a small way we can encourage God's good people to keep going in the amazing work they are doing for children who need a helping hand and the care of a loving family. In a small part we hope to make a small difference to the lives of the 60 potential residents of transition house.

We have a great team provided by God and as we pack we are raring to go...

REASON 2: "ANY DAY YOUR FEET GET OUT OF THE BED IS A GOOD DAY"

I said to a dear friend a few days ago, "I hope you have a good day!". This was in the context of his many health issues, looking after his beloved wife who has been ill for some time (and will not get better), and numerous personal issues with his grandchildren and extended family. I regretted it as soon as I opened my big gob (my Nikes firmly implanted in it!) ... how glib, how stupid. His answer was astounding and gracious. "Thank you brother, to be honest we need to remember that any day our feet get out of the bed is a good day ". I want that attitude ! Today you are alive in God's world, he has given you breath. You may not have thanked him for that - but he did it anyway! Some of our team are matured like fine wines. They are getting on a flight with some small limitations (like knowing their next big birthday will be their 80th). They also however get on a plane with a BIG HEART full of GOD's love for broken and messed up world. Today is a gift from GOD. Jesus Christ has changed us from being a bunch of men who use to do their own selfish little thing, into blokes who have joy in working together in God's massive purposes. We know we don't deserve his grace, we get up today absolutely sure though that because of his forgiveness our lives are u-turned and we are going places with him. We just want each day to express appreciation and yes LOVE to him. Don't live today for selfish purposes, moping around thinking you are hard done by. When I do that I am the unhappiest chap on earth! Say today "for me to live is CHRIST", get over yourself and get stuck in.

REASON 3: WE HAVE AN AWESOME TEAM LEADER

Isaiah 41:10 says  Do not fear, for I am with you; do not be afraid, for I am your God. I will strengthen you; I will help you; I will hold on to you with My righteous right hand.
  The 17 of us will start each day looking to our team leader for guidance. He is the one who makes everything happen and although he calls us co-wokers, it's a bit like me when I was 7 and my Grandad pushed me in his wheelbarrow to his place of work. He's the one who does all the hard stuff, we just hitch a ride. Over 3 weeks we're thinking about how JOSHUA was encouraged to walk into the inheritance God gives his people. We do not win the victory, we piggyback on the greatest victory ever won. Our job is to obey and trust.

If you want to come with us on the trip, please keep reading the blog over the next 4 weeks and if you are up for it, why not pray with us, we would appreciate that more than anything. We pray to the same amazing God wherever we are on his little planet.

Pray for 

Oct 1-14th: JOHN, ROB, NICK, DENNIS and KEN
Oct 13-21st: MARK S, SAM, ALUN, PETE, MARK D, IAN, DARREN, ROB, CHRIS, and DARREN CH.
Oct 1-21st: EMLYN and PAUL. 

We're nearly packed...

It'd be great if you can come with us by following the blog.
GOD IS GOOD!!!
SPEAK SOON BLOGSKI