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

DON'T FORGET Car wash & breakfast THIS SATURDAY 9th September, please come along and support the work in Odessa

I love it when a plan comes together.

I don't have a pimped up Van, but a very "middle-aged" family estate. I don't have a cigar but a Bic biro has just moved out of the corner of my mouth ... I couldn't help saying it with a big smile... 

"I love it when a plan comes together"...

(as another guy signs up for OCTOBER)

Many of you will know that the transition house project has been a "GOD thing and not a man thing".He  has inspired, instigated (in the hearts of people) and progressed this from inception till now. His provision has been astonishing. In 2016 when we thought we were nearing completion, God prompted us to start an extra phase to convert the basement at transition house for community space, recreation facilities and learning / study space. We want transition house to be running at MAX capacity and be fruitful in doing so. 

What is transpiring is nothing short of amazing. Just like B.A. and his buddies, a few bits of metal and some OSB is transforming a dusty storage space where things were discarded... into something much better - a living space for precious young people (made by God in his image) to grow, learn, develop and be nurtured for lives of fruitfulness. 

October 1st -21st will mark the big push this project needs when men from the UK will fly out in a desire to do as much as they possibly can to get this place up and running as soon as is practically possible. Our job is to do what we can. To that end we have been praying for £27,000 for materials (what was calculated to get the basement converted and complete some other jobs on the building). Was this an Impossible task...?  especially when people had already given much, and maybe some had grown a little weary with this big project which has taken so much already. 

Our GOD doesn't ever get tired, and for each new obstacle in his purposes he gives his people fresh resources. Since that prayer was started we have seen God provide nearly £20,000 for materials. He has encouraged not only those of us who go out to work, but those who are faithful in seeing this project through in Ukraine. God is good, he always has been and always will be. 

What are we praying for now...?

1) The remainder of the funds to come in so that our BIG PUSH team can have as much material to fit in OCTOBER as their hands and limbs can cope with.

2) WE NEED THE A-TEAM - WE need a bigger team on this!!!!

We have 13 guys signed up so far, many have been out many times before. A couple more fellas have got in touch with me in the last 24 hours and we are trying to get them there, but ideally we need more hands on deck folks!!! This is a big task !!!

 I wonder if someone reading this can wangle a week of work to do something of significance with us. Yes on a simple level it is cutting , shaping and screwing metal... sawing OSB board and making some straight walls out of it. 

BUT ON A MUCH BIGGER LEVEL... we are part of a bigger plan (GOD's PLAN).

• Joining this team helps us have a small part in changing people's lives for the better.
• Joining in this team gives us an opportunity to encourage a CHURCH which has a wonderful heart for people who need help. They say "you can chose your friends but you can't chose your family". Maybe so... but I'm so glad God chose my brothers and sisters in grace church to be part of his family ! I want to do everything we can to encourage them to not grow weary in doing good. 

Maybe you feel insignificant - a bit of a small cog in a big world.

You are just the sort of person this team needs. We are all small cogs in this, but held together by GOD, and what he accomplishes when we all pull together is something quite awesome! He has this project in hand. 

In 2017, a crack commando unit was sent to Ukraine by a God who loves people more than we can understand. These men promptly escaped from a maximum security minibus to the FONTANKE underground. Today, still wanted by their wives to complete jobs at home they survive as soldiers of no fortune. If you have a problem, if no one else can help, I wouldn't bother giving them a call....

but..

If you want to be part of something worth while, which may have eternal payout... give us a call, we'd love you to be part of the A-TEAM

Thank you to our faithful supporters, you know who you are -- and God does too. (Matt 6:4)

Praying with you,

Paul

Dates for your diary - Car wash & Breakfast, Team trip

Autumn trip

The next team trip from Woodgreen to continue work at Transition House, will be from Sunday 1st to Saturday 14th October

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

A huge day of progress with a brilliant ending.

Hi friends, hope your day has been productive. We met early this morning to study and pray. I would love to say that we were bright and early, but sadly the voices around the table were a bit Barry White.  During the day we had several visitors, from ventilation experts to interior designers. despite all the diruptions and numerous comittee meetings (some more helpful than others), we made significant progress. We are looking forward to showing you some before and after photos hopefully tomorrow.

Hero of the day award goes to Joe who sadly contracted the lurgy some 24/48 hours ago/ It had been doing the rounds, and the dusty environment isn't particualy helpful to reccouperation, He was right to rest out this morning, but praise God he was sufficiently recovered to crack on with drill and OSB board in hand this afternoon. Sadly for this heroic effort he got some sawdust / small splinter in his eye from chopping a full size OSB board with the circular saw. I thought over dinner he was emotional at the privilege of being with us, but it was just a collection of his injuries and illnesses. Please pray for a swift recovery.
Heroine of the day award goes to Katya.
A number of people have their home at  transition house at the moment. You will have heard of us talk about Lydia and Peter, who faithfully feed us as if we are never ever needing to eat again. You know all about John B C becuase he is already famous. We have met a wonderfull brother this time called Viktor. Originally from Germany, he is a gifted man of God. Having a background in law amongst many other things, he has been a wonderful foster carer and now is using his time to work on elecrtrics gardening and maintainance at TH.. He has faithfully been mowing, raking and repairing the lawn all week (and I mean all week) with German efficiency. It is the most loved piece of grass in Ukraine.. (Viktor is in his favourite red Buyern Munich tracksuit in the photo). Then there is a wonderfully talented couple Sergi (in the hat - who also has had the lergi) and Elena (Helena), who have a little boy Nazaar. They are a gift to God's people here, not least in the superb translation work that Sergi does for us. The fellowship with local beleievers has been extraordinally special here this time, and much of it is down to Sergi's brilliant translation and spiritual gifting, as we have communicated and prayed with various folk.This evening was super special, becuase there are 3 other friends who live here who had planned a special thank you to the team for all the work they have put in over their trips. Katya, Lena, and Vicka live at transition house, and joined us after dinner. It was wonderful to get to know them a bit better and hear a little of how their friendship has grown both through the work of "hope house" and now here. They are wonderfully close, great sisters in every respect. Katya had made us 2 cakes as a special present. When I say "cakes" what I really mean is the mother of all cakes. Katya has a diploma in pastry/ cake making/ cookery and boy was the evidence  impressive.

The only way I can describe one of the cakes is...
Imagine about 8 layers of beautiful spunge cake (all different) filled in each layer with creamy filling, fresh fruit, jelly / trifle., and topped with creamy marshmallowy yummyness. I'm not sure the men have any room left in their stomachs for several weeks, but I can assure you the cake went down really, really well.
Thank you Katya, Lena and Vicka for a very special evening, we really appreciate all the effort you went to and thank God for each of you and your story of His faithfulness.
This is the happy photo of us all together...

a

A superb day with wonderfull friends, a humbling ending. The privileges are all ours.
Talk tomorrow,
Blogski

Wow what a great and big wordlwide family we belong to.

Tuesday 
Hi friends, so sorry we didn't have time to scribble a blog yesterday. We spent the day in the blistering sunshine at the black sea camp. When I say blistering our complexion resembles something between cerise and lobster red for those familiar with B and Q paint range.
The camp has been a holiday home for many many 100's and 1000's of children and young people over the years. Many of them have not experienced a holiday like that by the sea before. It is a stunning place of natural beauty.

Here young people have heard of the greatest news on earth for the first time, the unconditional unrestrained love of God in Jesus Christ. In this truth we all discover our true identity. On top of the cliff top upper level of the camp is a cross, which no doubt can be seen by ships way out in the black sea.

 The camp has been a refuge for the hurting, balm for the distressed, and a haven for those rocked off their feet by a fallen and broken world. It was our privilege to just go and spend some time with the children and friends from church. Our fun started with an extended time of  volleyball. A game with the children, and then with some rather more aggressive Ukranian gentlemen who took things rather more seriously than we had signed up for. Thankfully Peter's BBQ came just in time....
Cooked on the charcoal, he had a small mountain of marinaded chicken and pork which could've kept us going for a very long time (days, maybe weeks rather than hours).

Lunch climaxed in toasted marshmallows, before a communal game of UNO with the children. It was absolutely brilliant. Little ones who maybe just a year ago were too shy to say a word, or maybe even look at us, were giggling their heads off and yelping with delight when they made us pick up cards. It was amazing to see how well they are developing and growing up, even translating for us so that we understood the jokes. All of it was kind-hearted gentle and caring of each other. They are a huge credit to their house parents and a delight to be with. The children then wanted me to go up to the top of the camp with them, so we had a race up the several hundred steps to the swings. I hope my knees may just about recover in time for my summer holidays. When it was time for us to go, the children were so keen to tell us how much they would miss us.

During the evening I had the massive privilege of spending some time with Julie and Alfie Mosse. I have met them briefly a number of times in Odessa, but it was so wonderful to spend some time getting to know them much better. They are a faithfull and talented couple who have been pioneering supporters of the Odessan church. They have a wonderful passion for the gospel, and the local church, a transparent honesty and integrety. As missioners with Send international, Alfie is a professor and Julie with her masters is an expert in teaching English. They are currently supporting a church plant initiative with their gifts and warmth. Talking with them was one of those occiassions where affinity and shared passion was so quickly established that there was massive mutual encouragement. Our hope is that we will be of mutual help as we pray together with one heart for that fledgling church. Please join us as we pray. The establishement of a new gospel work in that area, would be massively strategic.

Wednesday.
Today was back to work in the basement, and I believe we achieved more today than any of our working days here so far, praise GOD. I hope to give you a full rundown with pictures on Friday before we leave (*time and internet providing). Suffice to say, we now have a number of areas looking much more habbitable. Star turn of the day goes to Emlyn who was working with a sledge hammer and axle grinder trying to remove one extremely thick piece of structural metal from the floor of the room we are about to start work on. The banging and chiseling started before lunch, and went on during and after. The whole place shook with every blow of Emlyn's persistance, but still the thing wouldn't budge or bend. SO ... he resorted to yet more grinding until the sparks resembled something on bonfire night. I think he was a little bit miffed when John Davenport took all the glory with the final, vital fatal sledgehammer blow. Don't be dissolusioned Em, I'm sure you losened it a lot, those hours of work must have done something other than produce the worlds greatest pyrotechnic show.

This evening I had the wonderful privilege of spending time with the baptist minister here in Fontanke. Here is my wonderful brother Sergey Kirchun

He gave me a guided tour of his wonderful church building, which is being built by the sacrifice and commitment of his congregation. Sergey is a faithful brother who depends in faith for the things that he has, and the blessing God is giving to growing His church in Fontanke. It was a really special time of fellowship as we shared stories, laughs, and experiences of pastoral ministry. I was so encouraged to hear of how he is training men to preach, handle the text well, and youth leaders to love their bibles.
Our tour included ...
The classroom where preachers and youth leaders are trained.

The first hall the church met in on this site (after the house they met in crumbled down the cliff into the sea)

and the area where they collect clothes and food for Crimea region and those in need.

 The church hope to turn this in to a small living area / guest appartment for refugees or pastors, as their limited funds allow. Pray that God will provide please for this church, and thank him for such a great, gracious and humble man who depends, leads and encourages this gospel community to live by faith. I was hugely encouraged and challanged by my time with this lovey guy and his incredibly generous heart. Our evening drew to a close with a precious time talking to God about how much we appreciated being brought together... two guys from very different situations but with the same gospel ambitions and same wonderful providing God.

That's all we have time for today, thanks so much for sticking with us. Chat tomorrow,
BIG LOVE
BLOGSKI