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English class activities and an attempted break in

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December seems to be moving along at a fast pace. We are nine days away from Christmas and we have been keeping busy and there is more on the way. On December 9, we had our regular supper and devotional time with the Hope For Each students. It is great to be able to share about Jesus and the Christmas message. Christmas isn't a huge event here as their focus is on the New Year. Even for those who call themselves Christians, there needs to be a shift as to what is really important and that is celebrating the birth of Christ. From our understanding, the move away from Christmas to New Year celebration came out of their influence of communism and being a part of an atheistic culture for so long.  Student supper  Student supper  Student supper Our next supper with the students will be on December 23 and the staff will also be a part of it as we celebrate a Christmas meal and devotional together. We will probably also be taking students into the city for a Christm

Saying Good-bye Steve, Jo, Dez and August

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This past few days has had a lot of our similar activities, but on Wednesday night we were able to be a part of a surprise farewell for Steve and Jo Harder, missionaries in Zaparosia, who are from Manitoba. Jessica, a missionary from the U.S.A. and part of our small group (Jessica, Harders, Verhoogs and us) put on a great farewell and we were glad to be a part of it, even though we knew very few of Steve and Jo's friends from their seven years of ministry. Many of them shared about their friendship with Steve and Jo and how their lives made a difference.  The crew gathered at Steve and Jo's Farewell  Steve's floorball coach  A life touched by Steve and Jo  More sharing  Floorball team presentation to Steve  Steve sharing with his friend interpreting  A tasty cake that we all enjoyed  (left to right) Jessica, Jo, Cindy, Shannon We met Steve and Jo and their boys, Dez and August, when we first arrived in 2018. We have b

November's end draws near

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There is hardly ever a dull moment here. It seems there is always something to do. That must be why I haven't been reading any books lately!! Maybe winter will give us some time for that. Shannon is teaching English class for the students while Teresa is in Canada. She is finding it challenging, but fun. Her big fear is that one day she will forget and be late for class! The students get candy if they are on time. I wonder what Shannon will get if she is late?  Teaching English  The letter 'T' Some of the students came for tea and cookies last week. They must have really enjoyed themselves last time, because there were more of them this time! Word of mouth and personal invitations are powerful and effective! We had tea, coffee and hot chocolate (some had all three!) with our double chocolate cookies and we played a few games. We ran out of real cups and had to use paper ones! We bought more cups for the future.  Tea time  Tea time We have inst

House Transformation

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Since our last post, we had to say 'Good-bye' to our daughter Ashley. She flew out of Zaparosia on November 6 and then spent a few days in Romania before flying back home to Canada. We are so thankful for the time we had together with Ashley! Vlad and Valero did some more stuccoing on our house before they painted it. The house looks so much better now with the house painted white and the bricks around the base of the house painted black. It took them a little over a week to complete their work.  Vlad stuccoing  Stuccoing  Valero stuccoing  Starting to paint  House painted  House painted  House painted  House painted On Saturday, November 9, we put the last of our tough-chewing chickens into cold storage. We found out that they are only for soup or stew where the meat has lots of time to tenderize. We want to share some with the students and make some room in our freezer. We have had two more English follow-up on Su