SEI going strong

Life has been busy with Summer English Institute (SEI) in full swing. We entered our second week today and there hasn't been much time for anything else. We are driving in from the village every day and putting on about 105 kms per day. We have four classes each day, Monday through Friday.

On Thursday after class, we held a surprise birthday party for Clay. Clay is from Prince Albert, SK and has been coming for at least 10 years. It was great to take some time to celebrate a milestone with Clay and enjoy some great desserts.

Clay's in the green and white Rider shirt celebrating his birthday


SEI staff at Clay's birthday

We were then back in the city on Saturday for the Annual SEI Picnic where there was an amazing turnout of present day students and students from past years, along with family members. There was lots of good food and visiting.

Lots of visiting at the picnic


The game of "Spot It" at the picnic


Intense action!


Picnic photo


Picnic photo

We were walking back towards our car when Alona asked if we would like to see an old church on the island where the park is. The Russian Orthodox Church was very small but ornate in its furnishings.

Shannon and Alona

We were back in the city again on Sunday for church as usual, but this time Scott was also preaching the message. It made it easier not to have a whole group of translators, as many of our SEI staff were in attendance.

Preaching at Morningstar church

We will continue to make daily trips to Dnipro for the next two weeks, except for this coming Saturday. Scott will be preaching once again at our church in Dnipro on Sunday.

There is lots to do when we get home as we make final adjustments for our classes the next day. We have some chicken chores to do when we get home and check on any produce from the garden that needs to be picked. This week, we need to mow the yard before it gets away on us. That will probably happen Wednesday, as some of the students are taking us to a museum after class Tuesday. It makes for another later day, but the goal of SEI is to build relationships and see what God wants to do.

After our final week of classes, we will do some final things around our home as we prepare to go home to Canada for 6 weeks for holidays and speaking in churches. At least it is only one day at a time! We will be thankful for your prayers for us and the rest of the teaching team.










Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Almost ready to go!

Image
We arrived back in the Cut Knife area on Friday and began to get ready for the final preparations before we leave from Edmonton Monday morning. We got the car washed up before we came out to the farm and then did some final cleaning once we got here. We hauled in our six 50 pound bags from the Seacan to do the final touches and to make sure we had what we really needed. The challenge is keeping each suitcase within the 50 pounds, but we did it.  Bags packed and ready to go! On Saturday, the car was ready to go (oil changed) in the Seacan and that gave us a few challenges. We went up metal ramps at first and then with snow on the tires, the car almost slipped off. We were able to back down and then we used some recycled rubber ramps and it still presented a few challenges with the snow, but it is in! Shannon DID NOT want to be behind the wheel of the car at all!  Going up the ramp We did it!! We got the car in, removed the battery and put blocks under the car sho
Read more

Alberta Road Trip

Image
What do you know! It hasn't been a whole week since our last post!! Serving at Manitou Lake Bible Camp (Wednesday, August 1) was a lot of fun, and a lot noisier than I remembered! There were 115 campers plus counselors at each meal. We spent the day cooking and cleaning, serving food and talking. 115 Hungry Kids! Wednesday's volunteers In the Dish Pit That evening our daughter, Rachelle, and her kids had a sleepover at our house on their way visit family and friends in various parts of Saskatchewan. We got packed up later that day for our own road trip to Alberta. We spent two nights visiting Rob and Cherise in Okotoks. They showed us the famous "Big Rock" near the city and took us to a honey farm.  On the Big Rock Rob and Cherise and Fin Sunday we were sharing at GraceLife EFC in Calgary. We had some great conversations about what God is doing in their neighbourhood and we met many friendly and encouraging people, including a lady who was
Read more

A busy week

Image
We have now been in Ukraine for three weeks and this past week has been busy doing a number of different things, some of them rather messy (for Scott). On Monday, Scott spent 2 1/2 hours in the attic putting spray foam insulation in the peak to keep out the snow. He got the sticky stuff all over his gloves, on his clothes and in his hair!! I was able to get some of it out using olive oil, but most of it I had to cut out.  The beginning of the spray foam job Now the snow will not get in, at least not here!        We drove out to the barn to pick up some wood to begin our closet projects. The boards were way to long to go in the van, so Scott had to use a hand saw and cut them down. It was almost dark, so it was interesting! Later in the week we went to Dnipro all by ourselves to do some shopping! Victor met us as Nova Lenia (a big hardware & houseware store) to help us get a discount card. We discovered that they were having a big sale starting th
Read more