T.E.A.M. Ukraine is a ministry of the Evangelical Free Church of Canada Mission

It's been a quiet week for us here. On Tuesday morning, we took birthday cake to the classroom to share with all the students. They eagerly shared cake and had a short break from their lesson! Sharing birthday cake with the students We keep our brains working by studying our lessons each day and then when we can take no more, we go for a walk, maybe 1.5 miles. Today we went a different direction and walked about 2.5 miles. One encounters many unusual things along the way, as you can see. It really is a farm village. There are dogs and cats wandering everywhere, as well as chickens, ducks and geese. Today we even saw turkeys in one yard, but we didn't think to take any pictures. Vova's very practical "car"  Garry stopped to chat when he drove past us and said that they were loading a truck with sunflower seeds around the corner. We walked over to observe for a few minutes, and again didn't think to take pictures. Oops. Well, it's...

On Saturday, we had some firsts for our time in Ukraine. We got mail! We received our Prayer Journals from Gleanings and a Christmas card from our daughter Ashley. There was a sticky note attached to Ashley's letter, but we had no clue what it said. We gave the note to Max after supper and he told us that they are no longer doing mail deliveries to our community. We will have to put a new address in our next newsletter and then everything will go to Victor in Dnipro. This is too bad as many people in our village do not own a car and will have to make other arrangements to get their mail. Going back to Friday, we received a very special blessing from a Bible College that we attended. They invited past students to receive RightNow Media free of charge! That is an amazing blessing! I have looked at having it available in churches we have been in and it costs close to $100/month. To receive it for free is amazing! We have conferences, Bible studies and all kinds of information avail...

Oh, if there was any easier way to learn a new language! To be able to download it or put in a flash-drive would be much easier, but then again, how might that grow us as God intends? The key is to take it one day at a time and know when you need a break. It's hard to be patient when we live in a world that drives us to want everything right now. One of Shannon's ways of relaxing is doing puzzles. We (mainly Shannon) finished a 1500 piece puzzle that had a picture from Bern, Switzerland. Maybe one day we can go there and take a picture from that same location. That would be pretty neat. The completed puzzle   Most of the housework is done, at least on the inside. Shannon is cleaning around and prepping the windows to run a bead of caulking around them to keep any unwanted drafts out. On Saturday, we were able to call our granddaughter Emme and wish her happy birthday as she celebrated her 7th birthday. We are so thankful for modern technology that allows us to n...

One of our main things to do right now is to learn the Russian language. We have had two lessons with a tutor and it is challenging to say the least (from Scott's perspective). One person said that they don't envy us and that is because it is a very difficult language to learn. The alphabet is 33 letters and many of them look the same as ours, but that doesn't mean they sound the same. Learning a new language is definitely a brain stretching exercise.  Studying Russian One of the ways to give us a break, is to make a puzzle, although Shannon is the main one working on it. It is a beautiful landscape photo from Bern, Switzerland. Maybe one day we will visit this location and take a picture ourselves.  The chief puzzle maker  The sometimes reluctant puzzle maker The puzzle is coming together Once a week, we walk out to the dairy barn and get some fresh milk. Scott is not a big milk drinker, but Shannon was raised milking a cow and has thoroughly enj...

Since we last posted a blog, we have kept busy and on the road too much. On January 9, we went to visit Pastor Andrey from the Morningstar Church that we attend. We enjoyed getting to know him better and his wife, Nadya and their three precious daughters. We spent most of the afternoon getting to know each other better and learning how the Summer English Institute (SEI) played a significant part in him coming to know Jesus as Lord and Saviour. SEI is doing conversational English and this was what Shannon was a part of in July 2017. Lives are changed through this ministry and if you are interested in considering this ministry, contact us and we will give you information to contact Daryl Porter who is the EFCCM Director for Europe. You would be committing to four weeks in July and preparing 15 lessons to share with upwards of 80 people this summer. There are many different ways to present the English classes. Listen if God is tugging on your heart! Later in the week, I wa...

Things have been a little quieter for us since the beginning of January. We continue to do things around the house and we have been out a couple of times to visit with others and that has been great. We closed out the year down on our hands and knees cleaning the tile in the house. We don't know what all was on it, but whatever was stuck to it, was stuck to it! Teresa had tried vinegar before, but very little came off. We ended up using a muratic acid mixed with water and it did the job. But did the mixture ever smell! The first time Shannon did some trial spots, the smell of the acid was very strong. Before we went at the rest of the tile, we bought some good rubber gloves, scratch pads and some dust masks. Then we went to work. We should have also found some knee pads, as tile and knees aren't meant for each other for long periods of time. We did a fair bit of cleaning on December 31 and then completed the task on January 1 and was it good to be done. When we completed the ...

Since our last post, we have been into the city of Dnipro often. On Saturday, December 22, there was an event at Nellie's church where they hosted a youth/young adult event that focused on how we live out our lives as Christians in the work place. The main speaker for the night talked about being who we say we are, whether or not the choices that go with that are easy to make or not, even if it costs us our job. Lots of good thoughts for all of us to think about. I was a little nervous about the ride home as it was raining, but it stayed above freezing thankfully.  Youth speaker On Sunday, we were back into Dnipro for church. After church, we went out to Puzata Hata for lunch where they serve some very good Ukrainian food. We all enjoyed our meal. When we got home, we walked out to the dairy barn to get some milk. Scott has never been a big milk drinker, unless it comes in the form of ice cream, and then his appetite for milk dramatically increases. Shannon was ra...