River of Joy ~ Crimea

Welcome Visitors

2011-08-28T15:05:00.000-07:00

This Spring/Summer perhaps the biggest project we finished was the
Beit Shalom (House of Peace) Guest Cabin. This cute little cabin is outfitted
as if it were a fine, howbeit small, hotel room to sleep one or two people.

The name came from a small "Shalom" plaque my friend Dr. Yuliya Vyaltseva brought us from Jerusalem. We have mounted it above the entry door. Our hope is that everyone who stays with us has a peaceful and joyful stay. "Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful." John 14:27

Before (when it was a woodshed)

~~~~~~~

Our first visitors at Beit Shalom were

Rich and Sherrel Richmond of Newport Oregon

Rich had done his share of yacht racing and was a successful real estate

broker with Sherrel's able assistance when God called them to Ukraine 14
years ago. They have now held dozens of children's camps and created many
other evangelistic events as, "The Least of These."

Their Mission statement is as follows:

Teaching children to associate unconditional love with Jesus Christ, so they will seek Him the rest of their lives.

In the beginning The Least of These ministry focused on orphaned children in Ukraine. About six years ago God called The Least of These to minister to the Tatar people in the Belogorsk Region in addition to the orphan children in Crimea. Through evangelistic children's programs and camps we are reaching the lost and forgotten children for Christ. We have successfully partnered with local churches, seminaries, and Bible schools enabling nationals to minister to nationals.

It seems fitting that the first children's camp other than our own River of Joy camp to be held at River of Joy in Crimea were the first to use Beit Shalom.

The Least of These was also the first camp to make use of

our new picnic area on the west side of River Road 6.

The Richmond's used the cabin for leadership huddles and morning prayer.
Perhaps the peace surrounding the cabin inspired them. The camp was successful
and the Richmond's gave the cabin a five star rating.
~~~~~~~

River of Joy Camp followed TLOT camp. It saw the arrival of Christine and Julia Reed. You might say they were acting as advance scouts for a huge family that we believe will be relocating from Beaumont California to Ukraine to serve with us at River of Joy Crimea. Of course Christine and Julia stayed at Beit Shalom.

Christine and John Reed were mother and father to six children

when they began adopting orphan children from Russia and Ukraine.

Now they have 15 children! To read more about the Reeds

visit this article in their home town newspaper.

http://www.pe.com/localnews/stories/PE_News_Local_D_reeds08.3f6b2c8.html

After bringing in some nice gifts, playing with Sasha, the 18 year old orphan from Donetsk I plan to write about in my next post...who is here with me still, many questions, visits around the neighborhood and a quick visit to the coast, Christine and Julia had to leave us. We are looking forward with joy to future vsits and to meeting more of their awesome family.

Visit their Blog by clicking here: http://smilesandtrials.blogspot.com/

Christine, Julia and Alexander (Sasha)

The Reed family

~~~~~~~

The Beit Shalom guest cabin has a calling both to be a blessing and to bring people who are themselves a blessing in for a visit. We felt what I can only say was a tug on our heart from the Lord to invite a special lady of joy from Kherson. Natalia Safonova was to be our next Beit Shalom visitor though she didn't know it yet.

Natalia had called us several times.. She was always so up, so joyful she seemed to be a river of joy herself. We had just been through some personality struggles here and if God was calling her in to reverse that curse the timing was perfect.

Before I called her I spoke with a mutual friend and found out she could not even
afford train or bus fare. We got her agreement and sent ticket money North.

When Natalia walked into Beit Shalom she said she had found heaven. By the time she left ten days later her ministry to our local female believers had renewed our house church and the spiritual life of our group had made giant strides.

Natalia's own story holds the secret of her infectious joy. After the former Soviet Union fell the economy followed it down. Natalia's big apartment house was one of the victims. It got to be so run down it was to be torn down. Everyone was given another place to live except somehow Natalia was forgotten in the relocation. She became a street person. During her homelessness she was touched by the plight of the homeless. She got her documents in order finally and though she still does not have a real place to live, she has a shell of a room. When she meets other homeless people she had come to know she takes them in. Now her apartment shell is a home of the homeless. She sleeps five people in a tiny two room flat, two of them in her own room with her. Of course her food is almost constantly borscht or porridge and bread but she has a powerful ministry to the homeless. She has learned to know their spiritual, psychological and emotional needs first hand. God has given her extraordinary joy. During my week-long stay in the hospital she was my first to reply helper. I was not easy as I am not at all used to pain or sickness. She was ready to give it up several times but she hung in on God's instructions. She says God REALLY loves me. As I write this she is in the village visiting the ladies from our home church. She is back for her second stay at Beit Shalom. Soon she will leave to go back to Kharkov where she will go to court to get new living quarters
no doubt for her AND her homeless guests.

PLEASE PRAY NOW AND FOR AT LEAST A WEEK LONGER THAT NATALIA WILL HAVE A LIVING PLACE ASSIGNED HER.

An amazing symbol of renewal came when we were having home church.

Galya, a sister who had repented during a series of lessons in the

very room I now call home 8 years ago said she wanted to be

baptized. She had come in from a far away town,

not really knowing why.

Suddenly we all knew why.

It is late in the season. Burulcha is running low

but clear. Galya has been obedient. Baptism is

a symbol of Christ's death, burial and resurrection.

More than that it is a matter of obedience.

"Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,'

will enter the kingdom of heaven;

but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven."

Mathew 7:21 NASB

~~~~~~

Our next visitor at Beit Shalom was Dr. Wilson Turner.

Wil is a former YWAM professor at School of the Nations

in Hawaii. He graduated MIT and worked for Hewlett Packard as

an electrical engineer before that. Prior to coming to Ukraine

he lived in the wilds of Oregon. He is nearly 80 years old,

the son of a pioneer family and is serving the Lord in Ukraine

as an apologetic specialist lecturer in the scientific community.

That basically means he shows the scientific reasons

why evolution is not a reasonable explanation

for our existence, but God is.

Wil was here looking at our problem with the well pump in the top well.

His thought that the underwater well valve was stuck turned out to be right.

I am happy to say that I enjoyed a nice shower this morning

thanks to that diagnosis and to Sasha, the agile

18 year old who went down the well to press the

button that unstuck it.

~~~~~~~

Our next Beit Shalom resident was that 18 year old

who climbed down the well,

Alexander (Sasha) Romanchenko.

Sasha is a remarkable young man. He was raised almost entirely in a Schola Internat. That is a Ukraine state-run orphan school. Children who graduate from such schools have the equivalent of a 6th grade education. Sasha and his younger brother and sister were born to alcoholic parents. They used to send the children begging for drinking money. Sasha became the care-giver to his two younger siblings early on. Eventually their parents got so abusive the three children ran away from home. Sasha remembers spending that winter in a zemlinika. That is an underground dugout shelter hiding place the children made to keep warm. They scrounged firewood and used a hollow log for a chimney. Later they all were admitted into a Schola Internat. Sasha developed a dislike for the worldly lifestyle.
He went to church at a young lady's invitation. There he repented and learned more about our Savior's love. He is still a babe in Christ but he is enthusiastic and seems to be sincerely committed to the Lord.

During the first month of his stay at River of Joy

Beit Shalom guest cabin was busy.

Sasha slept in one of our simple tents.

He slept well there.

Julia Reed pitched in from the beginning of her stay with us.

Some old pipes we had laying around

helped Sasha to build a horizontal bar for his workout.

He is quite an athlete. He can do tricks on the horizontal bar

that I didn't know existed. Later, on a mission to buy a part

for our well pump, he rode a bike to Belogorsk,

20 hard kilometers from here, in just 40 minutes!

One very rainy Sunday Sasha decided to help

control the runoff. He used my jacket

as he worked...hard. He worked like an American!

I have never seen anyone else here work so fast.

And the runoff was handled. Sasha got it done in record time in the rain. Now we have an underground drain pipe that takes runoff rain water down to the garden. during his time with us Sasha improved the path between buildings, built a cabinet for a propane tank, built a pretty cool dog house and ran many errands. In general he made himself useful.

Sasha also had a good time with Julia playing water games in the heat, swam in Burulcha creek, visited the top of our cliff, went to town and helped me shop for building material, in the process thoroughly enjoying himself, and visited Sudak with Christine and Julia and I...his first seaside visit. He began to chat with Rachel Reed on Skype, using Google translator (and my notebook). He bought an English learning course book and plans to concentrate on learning English now.

After the trip to Sudak Sasha wanted to go back to the sea.

Sasha checks out a Theodocia bas relief commemorating over 2500 years as

a Crimean port city. The Lord used this city to teach me how to be an effective missionary back in 1994...long story.

I don't know how strong Sasha's prayer life is but we were soon on our way to the sea again just as he wished.

Lena from Donetsk region (where Sasha hails from) called saying her church was doing a youth conference at Orgenikidza, a small beach town near Theodocia here in Crimea. She invited me and made it sound so attractive I thought it may even have something useful for me. I decided to go and take Sasha.

Sasha had a ball. He bought lots of souvenirs, went swimming in the sea every day. After a swim he brought me a medusa (jelly fish) to feel....yuk! He was touched by the skits, messages and music at the youth conference. We stayed three days and two nights at a school being rented out for sleeping rooms. Of course that was too little time for Sasha but I had more than used up any money I had allocated to the excursion and was eager to get back home to a more comfortable bed.

Then Sasha moved to the Beit Shalom guest cabin. He was honored.

Sasha has gone back to Donetsk on the train. Tomorrow he starts his second year at

cabinet makers technical school.

~~~~~~~

River of Joy Camp ~ July 8 - 17, 2011 NEW EDIT

2011-07-12T11:51:00.000-07:00

This year we followed the TLOT camp at ROJ. We had only a few days to get our
camp ready, but some of the tents we just left in place. The grounds were left clean
thanks to a attentive TLOT staff.

Our ROJ camp has focused on young school age children. This formula works well for
the Christian workers from Brilliance and Dnieperderzhinks who have come in to help
us for the past three years. .

Chief among our ROJ Camping staffers from up-country

is camp Diretor Olga. She has a great sense of humor but takes the

camping ministry seriously. She learns new methods every year

and our camps keep getting better and better.

The theme this year was, "City of Light." On the first night

the staff dressed up and took on the roll of city officials.

We had 30 children at ROJ Camp this year.

We had planned on 33 but...

The evening meeting is a time of presentations, skits, praise and worship and testimonies.

The weather has been hot during the first few days of the camp, but the cooler evening air

invigorates the meeting. It is popular with ROJ campers.

Avenir leads worship. Avinir is a Bulgarian who lives in Southern Moldova.

His family became refugees in Moldova during the second Balkan War

in 1913 when Turkey took much of the Bulgarian territory and

and the lives of Christians there were endangered.

At River of Joy camp life long friendships are established.

River of Joy is a place of peace where children of all ages can get alone with

their maker, all the while enjoying God's beautiful creation. Vlada here is actually

the niece of our camp director. She had behavior problems in the first camp this year

but she repented during the ROJ camp and she has changed considerably.

Her aggressiveness has softened in the Savior's presence.

The children learn new things, like how much God loves them and

how to smile for a photo, something unusual for a Russian child.

The boys got a full taste of God's love for them too. Smiles

got more frequent and friendships flourished.

We learned God's Word together and worked to

learn it better than the other team did. Learning together

and working together made it work in and for us.

Memories of our beginnings here.

2011-07-09T00:13:00.000-07:00

Back when we bought this property, thanks to money sent us by Northern Ireland International Children's Charity appeal, the look of the grounds was quite different. Over the years, step-by-step we have been cleaning the place up. Malone College students helped us by removing

that messy barn in the foreground of this photo.

As we find more memories we will continue to edit this post, so stop back in

to see what else we had before we upgraded.

back in the USSR!

2011-07-07T06:34:00.000-07:00

I just got back from an adventuresome trip to Predniestrovia, the Moldovan break-off Republic
between Ukraine and the Dniester river. I visited my friend Marik Fashevsky where I enjoyed
the fellowship with his father Roman and the food preparations of his mother, Ludmila.

The whole trip was mostly about renewing my welcome n Ukraine, which wears out more frequently
now that Internal affairs has determined not to register the K (cultural) visa. Now I must leave Ukraine
every three months if I am to stay legal. Legal is a status my heavenly father wants for me so I gather
from the pages of Holy Writ (Titus 3:1,2). So as I told Roman and Marik I will be seeing them more frequently now. Perhaps the Lord will show me a way for this quarterly break to bear fruit for His kingdom.

I was nervous about this trip because it was my first with an unregistered K visa and since customs and border police are part of Internal Affairs it could be that the same people that refused to register the visa in the first place might find some reason not to let me pass through the border control.

I was also having to leave between the end of the The Least of These children's camp and the River of Joy children's camp, using money for the trip I would rather use to serve the Lord as a servant of healing to Ukrainian children and their families. The ROJ camp begins on the 8th, just two days after my return from this whirlwind trip.

So on the last day of the TLOT camp I left for Simferopol. I had some nice fellowship with the COJCFG church family Sunday Morning in town, ate lunch with Mitaxia and Dr. Laura near church and caught the train to Odecca that afternoon with the help of Oleg Loboda. The next morning at 8:30 when I disembarked I asked the Dovidka (Information desk) when and where I could catch a bus to Tiraspol Predniestrovia. She said the soonest I could catch one would be at the central Bus Station at 1:35. I had to catch city bus 84 at the train station first though. I waited awhile to catch that bus, found central Bus station and went
in to buy a ticket.

The ticket agent told me I could catch the 9 AM bus! I looked at my watch. It was 8:55 AM! I bought a ticket, her last one for that bus, and got on just before the bus took off....AND BOY DID IT EVER TAKE OFF! The bus driver had a lead foot and his smaller bus had a stiff suspension. On the little chuck-hole ridden highway it was like a bucking bronco training session. I was in the far back center of the bus trying to keep my rear end on the seat. My attempt was far from successful. Maybe I should have awaited a later bus.

We filled out some standard Arrival / Departure cards on the bus. That can be a real challenge as you bounce off your seat at high speed.

On the Border
They did as they always have done at that border and called out the "Grazhdan America" (me) for special attention after our baggage had been scanned. I had to get off the bus and go into a tiny office and tell an older uniformed border guard what I was up to and why I was leaving Ukraine. I told him and he blessed me! I left feeling as though the prayers that have been offered for me about this trip are being well answered.

The Predniestrovia flag

features the hammer and sickle symbol on a red field

with a green stripe across the middle. Christian ministries

are seemingly undisturbed there so what the symbol

really means remains a mystery to me.

One thing I enjoyed about Predestrovia the first time I visited her

villages is the way people decorate the gables

on their otherwise unassuming houses..

The owner of this house must have gotten a new scroll saw with his load of lumber

So the evening of July 4th I met Nikolai. He was interested in a spiritual

conversation. We talked about such matters until Midnight. I had a nice rest

and the morning of the fifth Marik took me to the Tiraspol bus station.

It was good to have him along as my grevna were no good for the fare.

he told me to assure my friends that he would be able to

receive them any time after July 26th when his

current guests will have left.

At the Border Again

As we approached the border I had my departure paper all ready to go

and saved back my Ukrainian Arrival/Departure slips for the Ukraine side.

I was called out and went to see what the Moldovan customss wanted. They told me there

was a problem because my Moldovan entry visa had not been registered. I told them

that Marik had assured me that if I did not stay in the country 24 hours I did not

need to get registered. They tried to frighten me. Told me that the 24 hours

"Sutki" starts and stops at 12 midnight. I asked them, "What should I do?" One said.

"go back!" I said. "That does not work for me as I have a train ticket bought

from Odecca to Simferopol. If I go back I could miss the train. I said Marik

had lots of experience bringing in people. I wanted to register my visa but

he said it is not necessary. I asked if the 12 o'clock change is something new.

They asked me my business in Predniestrovia. I told them of my work

with Ukrainian kids and of Mariks similar work. They said, "It is a good thing you

are doing. just leave a little gift for coffee for our boss and you can go." I laid down

200 grevna. Later I texted Marik and he was saddened by this.

On the Ukrainian side there was no call out! My visa was processed with the rest.

They did throw me a curve of sorts however. They stamped my departure slip rather

than my passport with the visa stamp.

Anyway, I am now good for another 3 months.

...and the work goes on.

Love & Blessings,

David

The "BIG STORM" Day ~ "a little child shall lead them"

2011-06-30T09:31:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we were to have had a huge storm. I had earlier scheduled

in a few builders to help me fix a few details, but the weatherman here

was telling us to expect a BIG STORM. We had been getting some

rain every day all week, The day was to have put a real capper on

the week's weather, and not exactly what we
wanted for a tent camp.

I cancelled the work day.

The day turned out ... P E R F E C T L Y ! ! !

A few cloud flotillas sailed by in a deep blue sky, warmish but not hot.

Just delightful.

Someone must have prayed about the weather.

The children at TLOT camp were off to the mountain on a happy excursion.

I decided to go part way with them, then break off and go visit a Tatar who

had told me he had some riverside property for sale one day when

he was delivering potatoes from his garden to us.

Along our road I had fun running ahead and then catching their action

as they marched singing up the little dirt road I walk down often

to the bus stop or to our little country grocery store.

But then came a fork in the road and the trail that leads to our cliff and other

heights broke off left. The children started up the trail. I started to go the

other way but my little friend Ivan grabbed my hand and pulled me along.

It seemed like a 'God thing' so I didn't resist.

"...and a little child shall lead them. "

Isaiah 11:6b

I put off my real estate talk and began to muse on some of the

Biblical passages that mention children.

For ye were sometimes darkness,

but now are ye light in the Lord:

walk as children of light:

Ephesians 5:8

Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children;

Ephesians 5:1

For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him,

that we may be also glorified together. Romans 8:15-17

The Holy Scriptures mention child or children over 1500 times!

Children must be very important to Father God.

Today it sprinkled. The children took another hike anyway.

Love and Blessings in Christ,

David

Jesus, however, said,

"Let the little children come to me, and stop keeping them away.

For the kingdom of heaven belongs to people like these."

Matthew 19:14 ISV

CONTRARY WINDS and TENT CAMPING

2011-06-28T23:11:00.000-07:00

We had some winds blow us about this week. Wind is a blessing or a problem depending upon its direction, its force and our preparedness for it. The rushing mighty wind of the Holy Spirit drove the early ekklesia forward with supernatural power. For most it was a great blessing, but for Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5) business as usual cost them their lives. When the wind of revival blows, the Spirit born and led are moved, but those who are playing at faith are buried by their own hypocrisy.

This is the largest sleeping tent used this week. It sleeps nine girls.

Saint Paul's voyages across the Mediterranean sometimes met with contrary winds like Euroclydon (the East wind) which came with force and drove the sailing vessel along or forced a run to safe harbor. A wind that God hurled over the sea (Jonah 1:4) forced Jonah to stop snoring and abandon ship for less comfortable transport. But Jesus, who also liked to sleep in boats, when He was awakened by his frightened disciples, just commanded the wind to stop. Tt did. I prefer Jesus' way of dealing with wind issues. I would rather sail than bail to live in a whale of a jail. But Jesus always did what the Father wanted. Jonah was a rebel.
When he was unceremoniously washed up on shore, something smelled fishy about the rebellious prophet.

More girls tents. Guess they left for breakfast in a hurry!

This week winds brought rain and even hail at one point! It made for some wet picnics now and again. We had a series of wind generated power failures that day. A patio umbrella flew into a lamp post and the lamp post was brought down. Later everything was repaired. We learned a few things about preparedness.

The brightly colored "4 man" tents to the right are the ones I bought last week to replace

the ones that were stolen. They actually only sleep three. A 4 man rating may be about Asian sized people.

The tent of meeting is an old Soviet Army Tent. We are praying for a nice

modern one like the ones the Norwegians gave Krasno Armiesk church for

village evangelism. Well, at least this one is not likely to be stolen.

Other catastrophes were more about the modern way of manufacturing for planned obsolescence. I already wrote about the gas regulator failure after less than three years of service. We had a door hardware failure after two days, and honored guests locked in their room as though prisoners. Praise the Lord we were able to release the guests and after an unsuccessful repair that repeated the embarrassment we found the man who sold us the door hardware was willing to replace it at no charge. The regulator replacement only ran about $5. But with gas prices so high, taxi fare to town and back was the big expense ($20),. OK, some days I wait for a bus for hours and only pay $1.50 - $3 RT. I honestly believe one purpose for which God created Ukraine was to teach us patience. Experience is the toughest teacher. She gives the tests first and the lessons afterwards. Love & Blessings, David

A STEP AHEAD JUST IN TIME ! A NEW CAMP!

2011-06-25T01:07:00.000-07:00

Getting ready for camping season this year was a challenge beyond imagination. Thank the Lord we had an involved building crew who worked up until the first day of camp, waiting weeks for their paychecks without complaint. "The Least of These" Camp started at 1 PM on the 23rd and that is exactly when we had the site ready (except for the balustrade and the water feature... art came after function as we raced to finish.

The first mid-day meal (obed). Borscht on the menu. 44 children and 18 councilors were well shaded by the new ROJ 3 meter by 4 meter umbrellas which God had lead me to JIT.

This first meal was prepared on backup.

We had a gas explosion as the propane tank regulator was not doing

its job, This was to be only its third year of use! They just don't make 'em like they used to. The little street stove was toasting in the middle of a dangerous fire! I ran for the new hose and hosed down the tank. Vitali, who heads up TLOT in Ukraine, encircled the garage to turn off the gas. Later Vitali drove Rich Richmond and me to buy a new gas & electric combo stove/oven. It was a long search through three stores. Not one had what we wanted. We started talking about alternative solutions. Not giving up I called Ibrahim, a wheeler/dealer Crimean Tatar who knows Belogorsk well. He sent us to "Garant," and we bought the stove we wanted there for cheaper than we had seen less desirable units elsewhere...seems to be a pretty good one even if it was made in Turkey. Rich has some gas stove experience so with his help we installed it. TLOT also chipped in for most of the cost! THANK YOU LORD! I ran back to town in a cab for a new gas regulator (which we finally figured out was the problem) while Rich and Vitali rejoined the children and before the evening meal we had a working unit going in our archway/veranda. Now you're cookin' with gas (and electricity).

They called this a four burner stove top, just imagine!

Think we could get by with a smaller unit?

Marina stirs the chicken soup. It was very good with

a thick slice of homemade bread.

This, "roughing it,"is almost more than I can take.

In our previous Blogs you may seen pics of this former woodshed

during reconstruction. It is at last finished. with a huge picture window

and just the right furniture from Northern Ireland Children's Charity Appeal,

added to mission tile and river rock, it got a five star rating from our first guests.

Amazingly we were able to accomplish this with only about $6000.

The Beit Shalom (House of Peace) Guest Cabin derives its

name from this recent gift from Dr. Yuliya Vyaltseva. She bought this

tile in Jerusalem. We hope guests who stay at Beit Shalom

will experience the peace of God and remember to

pray for the peace of Jerusalem when they see

this message tile over the entry door.

The new picnic patio is lit by three small,street lights.

It is nice having tea here on cool summer nights

Land fill for it came from our water feature excavation and three

loads of river gravel brought in by local boys with an old Soviet Army vehicle.

The patio is functional but not finished. It is missing a balustrade,

flagstone paving to be laid in sand above the present white

gravel layer and steps to a barbeque that we plan to build down left.

Getting this all done in the time we had after money arrived was not done at the normal Ukrainian pace.

I worked until 11 painting one night. The next day I saw the guys working at an increased pace themselves.

We are disappointed in one old friend here who said he could get the insulation work done and houses painted before camp but did not do it, so we still have some gray walls that haven't got finish plaster on them yet. Still we have seen the hand of the Lord leading us to materials and people throughout the process of this phase of building. Next steps in our building plan include the first family children's house!

I want to give thanks to our Lord for His wonderful guidance and providence

during this time of testing. I saw His hand at work in providing transport

when I thought I was left alone by the side of the road, and in the fun ways

He lead me to the furniture and materials we needed to make this happen.

Thanks too to our friends who put up with a sometimes grouchy

old missionary and for their own efforts that helped

make this part of our vision come to pass.

Thanks to Judy Martin and our other friends

in Northern Virginia who raised money and got it to us,

to my loving, gracious and generous mother Ruth Marion,

to John and Christine Reed and family who may be joining

us soon here and gave generously, to all of you who helped

to the full extent God lead you to.

Thanks to Rich and Sherrell Richmond and,

"The Least of These," staffers,

who have been great first time guests that make

our inadequacies their clue to be of help..

Next Blog should be more about camp and the people

doing camp here now.

Trust in the Lord and lean not on your own understanding.

In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your paths

Proverbs 3:5,6

Maranatha (Hang in there!) David

False Impressions

2011-06-13T01:43:00.000-07:00

Visitors to Crimea from the West get a false impression of apparent wealth
and well being of the people here from the way people are dressed on the street. Particularly, young people, who often live in a torn up dormitory or other severely substandard housing, tend to invest in a few articles of nice, flashy, or fashionable clothing so as to make a good impression in spite of their difficulties. Our cook Marina, who with her sister and two children lives in Belogorsk in a tiny cheap rental with an outhouse. Marina dresses in bright cheerful clothing. She asked me to buy her a Nokia classic mobile phone last Winter and paid it off in several months by setting aside a day's pay each week. I wish she would use it less when she is on the job but she is happy to feel a part of the modern world with a phone like mine. I should be ashamed that I had felt deprived because I had no iPad like one of my American colleagues.

I am no clothes horse but in an architectural way we are doing the same thing here with our building project. We have begun to make an impression that is misleading. Looking at the artistic reconstruction of old buildings and our use of mission tile you could get the impression that this mission is rolling in dough. In fact quite the opposite is true. We try to build only when we have money, so building has been sporadic, halting and slow.

When all is finished this arch is

the hillside entry to the farside picnic patio breezeway.

We buy used roofing tile dirt cheap and scrub it clean so we can make a good impression on visitors. We employ tile, hardware, doors and windows we received in humanitarian aid containers, and old building blocks and bricks we inherited from previous owners of this property years ago when we bought it. We use free stones from the creek for our rock facades and employ cheap local builders for most projects. We do feed our workers so as to make them satisfied with a low paycheck. That's where our cook comes in.

In the Spring when we start preparing for children's camps we take on larger projects by faith. Our faith is rewarded, but not always without difficulty. This year we have been trying to build a picnic patio and are turning an old woodshed (foreground above) into a tiny guest cabin. This is to make the site ready for visitors, more camps and orphan housing construction. Money is needed for this and some has come in, for which we thank you who have given. YOU ARE THE BEST, But somehow recently the money has gotten stuck on the way here. It seems that not everyone who helps us in the West has committed to do so when we need the help, but only when they feel there is free time available. So as I type this we have our first camp workers coming in a week, No groceries for camp purchased, foundation personnel unpaid, workers, who we usually pay weekly and feed daily, waiting for unpaid wages, some miraculously free fish in the freezer and 55 dollars in pocket to buy camp provender feed 8 people this week and buy necessary building materials.

Marina holds up a big Ctavridka,

a smaller relative of the Bonita!

Marina bakes bread well. We also have 37 small fish in the kitchen that a fisherman who came to the all night prayer meeting last Friday left in our fridge freezer! He called me after forgetting them the next morning and said they are ours! Is it a prophetic happening? We may be on the brink of a miracle, certainly such a fish miracle in itself is not near on the scale of Jesus' Loaves and fishes miracles, but a miracle of the Lord's providence just the same and for me it is a sign of His involvement! I wonder how far the Lord will make these stretch or if He has something else in mind. A faith walk is always an adventure.

Its after lunch now. We fed 5 grownups and two children with these fish, potatoes, bread and a green salad.

There were two fish left on this plate

The cats under the table ate tails.

Stay tuned for a blog about the all night prayer meeting.
Love & Blessings from Crimea, Ukraine,
David

Moving on with all our might, while its day and not yet night

2011-06-08T12:34:00.000-07:00

Today was easy when it wasn't hard. I woke up at 1:20 AM, worried. (I know it is wrong to worry, but old habits are hard to break) . It was about money. Yesterday I finally got the money I had sent myself from my account in California. That account gets my social security check. So I take the part of it that is not needed to pay off my credit card debt and send it to myself in Crimea. That system went well for awhile but the last two months it took more than a week to get to me and required my repeated attention to make it over. Once the money arrived I started buying building materials. Yesterday morning I purchased 7 sacks of plaster, 8 panels of wallboard, 25 sacks of concrete, two ceiling lights, a sack of potatoes and a lot of hardware, then rode with the delivery back to our site. The ride was in a Uazik truck. Whats that? It is old Soviet Army vehicle that now does duty as a delivery truck. It is no luxury vehicle for sure. Elim, the Tatar driver told me he wants to sell it (He is asking $2000 for a truck that must be at least 30 years old). Anyway all these items in the truck were asked for by my crew. If they knew I was so low on money I would not be able to pay them on time, they might have shut up...naaaah. They love working here. Check out these pictures of what we have been building.

Ivan and Vlada did art in the shade this morning.

Vlada didn't want her picture taken I guess. OK we are

going to get to the building pics next.

Andrae arranged the fill dirt in the future picnic patio.

Where did we get all that dirt? Well, from everywhere.

Did you ever notice how much of this planet is dirt?

The local "stadia" gets its mid-day milking just

down from our picnic patio. While I was photographing Andrae

I noticed a neighbor lady milking her cow. Looks like milk is

a good dietary element if you need to put on some weight.

She rides a scooter up and down our road. Imagine that!

After lunch it was clear that Sasha would finish the

guest house roofing today. See how nicely it matches

our other new roofs?

Lenur got smart on a hot day and

found work to do in the shade

between the guest house and garage.

Sasha was the hero of the day when he finished the roof.

These "Tatarski Cheripitza" or terracotta mission roofing tiles are abundant

in the Crimean Belogorsk region. They can be bought cheaply but we had to scrub

them with wire brushes to get years of mold and grunge off of them.

We enjoy the result of our labors however and these roofs

should last many years more.

This week we also had fixed a problem with our electricity .

Tomorrow I plan to go to town and pay the man who fixed it.

Please pray for our finances. As I suppose anyone who has ever

done any building can tell you, building work is expensive.

We seem to be constantly coming to the end of our resources

but God is faithful.

I spent time this morning cutting stray limbs and gathering

smooth stones from our little river - cleaning it up some too.

After lunch I got caught up on my shuteye.

Stop back bye again soon, David

May 21: No parusia but providence & peripity trumps perspicacity

2011-05-22T04:55:00.000-07:00

This week we learned a pastor from the US Midwest predicted Christ would return on May 21, 2011.
The words of Jesus Christ forbids any prediction of the day or hour by man or angel, or even himself.
"But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father." Mark 13:32. BTW, our Father's name is not Harold Spring unless I have been misinformed.

HOWEVER there was an occurrence this week that points to the fact that we are living in the "last days." Some athiests got wind of pastor Spring's errant prediction. They threw parties they called mockingly, "Rapture Parties." These parties are themselves proofs, not of any exact day or hour, but that Christ will come SOON! Mark 2 Peter 3: 3&4 where it reads,
"Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation." Before you discount this thought based on atheist rejection of creation itself, be mindful that creation is only one translation of the Greek word "Krisis," that was used in the original text and which can also be translated, "formation."

I had wanted to make this a really restful Sabbath but the guys had left the place a mess and I had a worker left here. Oleg Loboda, my young, old friend was working on Saturday because he had taken a day off Thursday to do Jail ministry. I fixed him lunch. Tempura fried chicken, River of Joy potatoes and broccoli in mayonaise sauce. He liked it lots. After lunch he did a little more plaster work and left in time for the 3:15 bus. I settled in. But shortly came a knock. Constantine invited me out to a table in our yard where his family, a guest from Sudak and Alina were celebrating Dasha's 14th birthday. I joined them of course.

We had a good time and then I was at last free for the day so I thought. The gravel truck had deferred until Monday and Alina was feeding her geese. Tolik was off working on the coast. Nothing more could bother me. Sigh.

Another knock! Daveeeed! Alina's way of announcing herself. "Entre Vous!" The door half opened and Alina said, "David there is a Kamaz full of gravel out there (Pointing to where the cows get their mid-day milking). Probably it is yours!" I went out on the road to find the driver, Lenur's short statured grandpa hiking up the road from his gravel truck. After the obligitory handshake I expressed my surprise at his early visit. He said he tried to phone Lenur but he was not answering. I knew that already because Lenur said he would be here Monday morning early to help grandpa. It was up to me to get the gravel close to the work then.
I showed him where to back in and went for wire cutters to open up a gap in the fence.

He expertly backed and turned and got the gravel close to the future picnic ploshad. Back down near the road I paid him among a herd of milk cows returning to the village, but as soon as I started back for pliers to wire the fence back together, some cows followed me through the gap in the fence! Herders followed them through shouting excitedly. Cows started running all over mooing and bellowing and raising a ruckus. There went my quiet Saturday.

This was today about 15 hours after the hole in the fence incident. The cows were moving much faster on the way home last evening. The gravel came at least a ton short. Not the first time I've been cheated during building activities here.

Finally the cows left through the same gap. That is, all but one left. One cow started up the hill on our side of the fence parallel to the returning herd...moving towards our entrance gate. Her herder shouted at me to let her out. I did that willingly. My patch of the fence began shortly afterward. It was not in any way expert but I did get it done before nightfall. The cows seem to be staying on their side of it today anyway.

Last days prophecies in Isaiah mention Sabbath keeping as important. I hope to get there next week.

Building in May 2011

2011-05-19T21:24:00.000-07:00

Building went into high gear this week. Last week we were still just getting started

In preparation Alina gardened and Sasha moved a mountain .

In 2011 Spring came late. Money for building

seemed to come in coordination with weather changes.

To become a guest room the woodshed is getting higher walls.
Using a hand saw, Lenur is sawing off a chunk of "rakushka"
a sedimentary stone commonly used for building here in Crimea.
It has air holes in it and has pretty good R value because
of all the air holes in it. Its not every day you see a man cut
stone with a hand saw.

the woodshed will become a place for guests!
Firewood, tools and dog had to be relocated.

The excavated dirt from around the woodshed is being used for fill

to level out the picnic square, the area we are preparing for campers

to eat their meals out of the way of foot traffic.

To get there you must go through two arches.

This is where the dirt is going. The future picnic square.

Gravel for it arrives today

Soon we hope to pave it with flagstones

The gray patches area above the arch is where

the penoplast insulation panels have not yet been put in place.

They will substantially lower our heat loss next winter.

Andrae prepares a concrete pour for the picnic square perimeter.

Andrae is a talented local builder but he confesses to being a materialist. Please

pray for his salvation. The white painted cabin behind him is where I live. We plan to

give it a new mission tile roof this summer.

Lenur and Sasha raise the roof of the woodshed as it becomes a guest room.
It is small but will have character and a huge picture window onto a beautiful garden.
The building in the background is the garage..or more accurately for how we use it

our builder's warehouse.

Well, I need to go fix breakfast. Please pray we get this done in time for camp this year.

Blessings, David

Oleg Loboda and I go way back. I knew him early in my Crimean ministry.

He and his wife Oksana met as coworkers on our laser team. As I right this he is playing

and singing to men in prison. l;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;

He is a talented composer of Christian children's songs andhas very popular band.

He akso has two children now so he works in the building trades to make enough money.

The insulation material is very light. It will be plastered over.

Out of my comfort zone then traveler's angels!

2011-05-08T12:14:00.000-07:00

This morning It was cold and drizzly here in Crimea. I could have made it to the 7:25 AM bus to Simferopol on time but decided not to. I waited for the somewhat less convenient 10:10 bus knowing I would have to make a bus change to get to Simferopol. I was 15 minutes early at the bus stop. By the time the bus arrived, 8 minutes late, the bus stop was full of people as was the bus...standing room only. As I climbed on the driver was arguing with a passenger. I would usually mention that I was going to Balka (the next little village) but needed to connect to Simferopol. I just said, " Balka." I got off at Balka to find people huddling out of the rain in the bus stop. They informed me that the bus I wanted had already come and gone. But they suggested I shout at the next car. An old Moskvich came. They all shouted and the driver stopped. They shouted at him, "Zelenogorsk" as I ran to get in. I didn't know I wanted Zelenogorsk. I thought Simferopol but I was on the way to the next bus stop where the bus to Simferopol SOMETIMES stops for a few minutes.

Ten minutes later we saw it WAS there waiting...for me? I shouted, "Thats my bus!" The Moskvich driver parked about 20 feet in front of it so as to block it from leaving I guess. I was unable to get out of the car (no handles on the passenger side). The old driver, who had refused payment for the trip, ran around the car wavng at the bus, to let me out. I thanked him, ran for the bus and engaged the bus driver in a short explanation while I paid for the trip to town. I MEANT to say, "I am having an adventursome trip." Because the words for adventure and revival are similar in Russian I said, "I am having a revival-like trip!" That turned out to be a prophetic word. I was on my way to pray for Hussein Amanov's mother. She was healed two+ years ago when I visited her with my then 86 year old mother, but her legs had started hurting her so badly she cannot walk. I was on the way to pray for her again.

When the bus arrived in Simferopol I walked quickly to a bus stop where buses to her suburb stop. The first bus (No.104) didn't stop when I flagged it! I grabbed the second bus...No.27. But when it got to Beloe it went to the other side of the village. There other No. 27 buses waited before making their return. I was still a long way from the Amonov home and it was drizzling. I muttered that I had made a mistake and the driver heard me, his only passenger by then. He said, "Whats wrong?" I said, I needed to go to the other side of this village near the highway." He said, "Then you should have taken bus 104." I said I flagged it but it didn't stop." He turned around and asked why I was going there. I said, "To heal a granny's legs." So for the second time since i have lived in Simferopol a bus went off route to take me where I needed to go." He also gave me back my bus fare and dropped me off near the Amonov home! I went in rejoicing at our Lord's grace. Granny was sleeping alone in the house when I arrived. Hussien was in church on the other side of the city. I knocked and shouted but no answer.

Finally Hussein's niece came across the road to let me in. Granny was curled up tight on the bed. When we awakened her she started crying. She turned over. I was looking at the face of death! Her white wrinkled face never looked worse. Her round frightened eyes were surrounded with deep black creases. she cried, "I am dying like a dog, unwanted and alone." I quickly anointed her with oil and commanded her to be healed in Jesus' name. She complained some more, but more quietly. She started feeling better, drank some tea her grandaughter fixed. Next I ahook her legs and commanded them to be healed. She said they started burning. I spent some time just touching her shoulder and listening to her, answering her questions. When I left she was much better, asked after mother Ruth. I told her about my wonderful mother. She sends her love. God is wonderful. She started repeating, "God give her health." The black circles had gone from her eyes and she looked way better.

She needs to be baptised but she has been afraid that her Muslim Tatar neighbors would ostracize her. Once again the fear of man has held sway in a life and nearly killed the victim. I hope to persuade Hussein to baptize her once she is mobile enough. She is not far from death's door even yet. She knows Jesus cares for her and that He is still alive. Please pray for Babushka Amanov...for her salvation and that she will take that so important step for a Muslim...to be baptized in water in the name of Eesa Mahdi (Jesus the Messiah).

"The World is too much with us..."

2011-05-04T01:41:00.000-07:00

My morning's meditation was about a Wordsworth quotation,

The world is too much with us; late and soon,

Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers:

Little we see in Nature that is ours;

We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!

Too much of my time is spent on getting and spending. If I could but accomplish all I must

do without chasing off to the bank or running around buying supplies... twould be superb.

Today I must go to the bank and see why they do not show the money in my account from the international bank transfer last week. I must run around and buy building materials and other stuff and top off my internet and telephone accounts as well. Sigh.

Yesterday I hosted a picnic barbeque with Olga Byvyaltseva. Dr. Yuliya Vyaltseva was also to have come. She had taken sick the previous day and stayed home. I thought of what a help these girls had been to me through the years. Olga for instance had helped in adoption work and had interpreted for me when I preached...before I knew Russian well enough to go it alone.

Now Olga works for an oil company. She makes pretty good money for here now...but what a ministry she is passing up to be getting that money.

I am concerned about Olga. She is already 30ish and still unmarried. It is hard to understand this as she is a beautiful blonde with dimples and has a fine Christian personality. Yesterday I took her photo a few times while we walked around the ROJ campground. (below).

Later after the picnic, after Roman sang and played choruses with us we took a taxi to Belogorsk where we were let out on the highway to catch a ride on a bus to Simferopol. I was going to Wil's to spend the night, get on the web like now, and spend money. Olga was going home. It began raining as we left the River of Joy site and I prayed it would be dry when we got to Belogorsk. It was dry, but several buses passed us by. I had not counted on full buses. It was the last day of a 4 day holiday and everyone was going home at once. It started to rain, then hail fell. Olga pulled out her beat up umbrella and it helped us a bit but I still got pretty wet as I was on the weather side of it. I was beginning to feel bad that I had not engaged the cab all the way to Simferopol when our driver reappeared. He took us to Simferopol after taking his dad home down a muddy road full of holes and assorted farm animals. I was grateful for another travel adventure as I bought some pelmenie for our table then meandered up the road to Wil's place.

Two Weddings too early

2011-05-03T23:54:00.000-07:00

When Sasha Burodin from Brilliansk, who now serves the Lord as a missionary in Kurskoe
asked if he could do his wedding ceremony/party at ROJ I agreed. However he decided to
do it on April 30th and his fellow worker Maxim Logunkov wanted to share in it with his own
wedding party. Wow, a double wedding sounds good but cannot be the easiest thing to organize.

It was not.

I asked the guys to reconsider about the timing. 'This year we had a hard winter...well pumps
stopped working and there are lots of things still not repaired.' Besides, the weather had not fully
turned warm. But these guys were determined and had already sent invitations...so we went ahead
with it. Here is what happened.

On the 29th the Tatar woman and her nephew who were to do the food preparation arrived
and the food came in shortly afterwards. But we had a flood in the kitchen and nearby toilet.
The sanitary pipes had backed up.

Just so you know I am still not quite understanding how to position photos in this so if the wedding photos appear somewhere below that is why.

It was a funny day. We had worked hard to make it nice...painting the houses a nice wedding white and cleaning up all the assorted pails and building apparatus. We had a drizzle in the morning but the weddings weren't supposed to start until 2 PM so we prayed for dry weather. God answered. Still it was a bit cool for some. The guys had built a temporary shelter for the pilov pot because it cooks on a fire outdoors. The food was getting done. Then about 1 PM the guys started playing the guitar and singing near the bathhouse. About 2 the wedding party came on in dancing to the guitar. They all gathered there in the yard and danced for maybe 30 minutes. Sasha's bride Elena showed up with a faded blue denim jacket over her bridal gown. This was obviously to be a real country wedding. I had dressed up in a suit and tie. Turns out I was overdressed.
I changed and took off the tie at my earliest opportunity. Russian for tie is "Galschtook" I always thought the sound of that word appropriate. It is how my neck feels when I have one on.

Maxim and Svetlana had known each other from childhood. Maxim grew tall. Svetlana did not. And now they are married. They stood apart at the altar...perhaps so their size difference would not be so obvious...didn't help at all. I tool their photo from below knee height on Svetlana's side. It made her seem only a head shorter than Maxim. Best I could do.

Two weddings, two pastors and two sermons. I was reminded of the anecdote.."A pastor dies and goes to heaven. St. Peter shows him to his eternal home. His new home in heaven turned out to be a humble cottage!
Next door though was a magnificent mansion. He asked about his neighbor. Peter said, That belongs to a taxi driver. "I don't get it" said the man of God, "I worked in the Lord's vineyard all my life and this man...well he just drove cars for a living!" Peter said, "When you preached people slept. When he drove people prayed."

We were going to have Edem, the Tatar electrician in to see if he could fix the pump at the center well that evening but when he called I put it off. The weddings were still going on and I was bushed.

Baluster, Paving Brick, Umbrellas. Weddings, and Two Visitors

2011-04-27T01:30:00.000-07:00

Baluster (above)

When Tolik saw the above design he said, "Yeah David, but why don't you draw one yourself?"

Well, when God directs my hand as He did here a design looks too pro to be my work.

These will be close spaced to form a beautiful fence around the picnic area to discourage children from wondering off into our (future) vineyard. BTW, please help us pray in good quality Concord grapes (here know as Isabella grapes) for a vineyard that can provide tasty grape juice (like Welch's).

Construction of the baluster will involve forming one from wood on a lathe, then making a two-piece form of a sturdy plastic or some quality cement aggregate. The form or forms will be filled with a concrete mix and shaken on a shaker table, as yet not constructed, so as to delete all air bubbles and make the baluster smooth

and ready for final finish and assembly. After the formed baluster dries sufficiently to be removed from the form it will go into a damp place so as to cure dry slowly and gain strength.

I will attempt to keep you informed about our progress.

Before I go on to show you some details of our designs for the River of Joy Picnic Veranda, let me ask prayer for the paving brick we need for it. Basically we need 150 square meters. The brick we need is 32 bricks per square meter. That is 4800 bricks. So far I have not been able to find them for less than
2 grevna per brick delivered. That means we need to find 9600 grevna ($1200) for bricks. Well within God's capabilities.

PICNIC TABLE UMBRELLA

Let me show you another design I was helped with this week. Did you ever notice God knows what He is doing? We need what might be called a, 'Market Umbrella,' to shelter our picnic tables from sun and rain. Unlike my native California, Crimea sometimes gives us more rain than is comfortable during camping season. So we need to protect the tables where the children eat. This umbrella is more than 2 1/2 yards square. We have no ready made source for such a large high quality umbrella and we need six of them, so off to the drawing board.

The Umbrella is square, with 6'7" clearance under the open umbrella and 7'wide.

Building them will involve serious materials selection for economy and toughness. The poles will need to be either a quality wood like teak (not readily available in Crimea) or steel pipe, or some combination thereof. The cloth material will be preshrunk canvas. We will need to get the canvas sewn by professional seamstresses or perhaps a sewing school to which we donated sewing machines some years ago,

that can sew thicker materials.

~~~~

TWO VISITORS

This week two guys stopped in, both of which I had not seen in a long time. Firstly Peter came. This Peter is not a big fisherman but a little beekeeper. He has something in common with the big fisherman though. He has seen the Lord! I will not repeat that story just here but Peter told me over coffee this trip about his personal encounter with, "Christ the Baptist." Some of us have yet to know Him in that capacity. John the Baptist clues us in as to that however in John 1:33. There it is written, "I did not recognize Him, but He who sent me to baptize in water said to me, 'He upon whom you see the Spirit descending and remaining upon Him, this is the One who baptizes in the Holy Spirit.' '' I remember when Jesus baptized me in the Holy Spirit. It was a most wonderful experience and the beginning of a great adventure. Let that story be told later though. Peter wants to fellowship in our home church. That church will begin, Lord willing (He is I am sure), a week from Saturday. That is because this coming Saturday we will be hosting a double wedding party at River of Joy.

Two Ukrainian missionaries are getting hitched. They are so poor as to need our help in throwing a traditional wedding party. We did one last year shortly before I left for the USA. For a little on that event see our website posted newsletter at http://www.riverofjoy-crimea.org/NEWSLETTER_AJanuary_2011-Pg2.html (scroll down to the bottom).

The second guy that showed up at River of Joy this week was Viktor Semichkov...father, or surrogate father, of 10 orphaned children. They live about 20 kilometers away in our Belogorsk region. He had come in riding his sport bike. Viktor is 55 years old, but by the great shape he is in you would never know it. He is training for a place in the Olympics! we talked a long time and I fed him lunch. He told of how his wife Natasha had gotten quite fearful of the children's health since Nellia was drowned last December and we prayed for her.

(see our article about that, "TEARS FLOW UNDER NELLIA'S BRIDGE) http://www.riverofjoy-crimea.org/NEWSLETTER_Jan/Feb_2011_pg3OK.html . I assuaged Viktor's own fears about our plans to collect funds to build their family a bridge over their small creek that easily becomes a raging river.

He formerly was afraid of the loss of security a bridge might bring. I told him I had thought about that and suggested we do a covered bridge with a modern garage door/opener on the far end so unwanted guests would still be stopped by the river. He was not aquainted with this "Technology"but agreed that it would make the family more secure than an ordinary bridge.

WHAT REALLY HAPPENED TO NELLIA?

Viktor corrected my understanding of what happened on that fateful day last December 10th. So far as he or anybody knows, Nellia was on the other side of the creek chasing the cow when the cloudburst filled up the creek in what we in the California desert would call a, 'flash flood.' Nellia was too young and inexperienced to understand that she would not be isolated from home for long by the temporary flood and in her fright tried to cross the creek at flood stage. She was a strong girl but the fast moving water loosened the stones on the river bottom and as they rolled against or under her legs she lost her footing, was swept away and drowned. When her body was found she had been badly bruised by the raging flood. The Semichkov family~type children's home was traumatized by her loss to say the least.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Please pray about contributing to the Nellia's Bridge Fund. Designated funds should be notated such on

a sheet of paper separate from the check itself. Go to http://www.riverofjoy-crimea.org/donation.html and follow instructions under Check Donor - See the dark Yellow Panel.

Plans for the picnic area.

2011-04-27T00:08:00.000-07:00

Hello dear friends, I am back in Simferopol for the first time since last Tuesday. I am still getting way too hard hit on the cost of internet in the boonies. It is runnng nearly $10 a day there. I go through my prepaid account like a hot knife through butter. Thus after a couple of days I wind up with no money left in my account and no internet access at all. This is the first time I have gotten online in days. During the hiatus however I got some serious drawing done for the next round of building at ROJ in Ovrashki (Canyon) or Kainaut, (which I am told means "Cliffs"in old Tatar).

The Lord has given me artistic talent which has developed somewhat over the years, but during this session I was keenly aware of the Lord's intervention in the creative process. This is not at all surprising as our Lord is the ultimate creator and all the best creations of man have His stamp on them. Let me share the Baluster pic here if I can figure out how it is done. In short the design was beyond my personal abilities. Only God can do such perfect designs.

Waiting for Tolik

2011-04-20T08:11:00.000-07:00

When it gets 'round to building season I can spend money faster than most women! (sorry). This morning Tolik was on his way up to a small village in the Krasni Gvardieskaya (Red Guard) region where he grew up. He needed to visit his aunt who raised him as a mother would. She has gotten ill and Tolik feels some satisfaction in looking after her, a kind of return on her emotional investment in him. He and I traveled together on the bus to Simferopol. He wanted to help me purchase a water pump from a store I know that specializes in such items.

We chose a pump that purports to be somewhat more powerful than our last one which has broken down for good after only two years. That occurance reminded me of my maternal grandfather's pump that supplies much water to his orange orchard. As I recall it worked for at least 10 years. Well I am hoping this new one will do better than 2 years. The increas in power makes me hope that once we have it installed I shall be able to take a real shower that amounts to more than a fast drip. We did spend some time talking with the store manager, explaining the job it has to do. Now to see if we got the message across. Tolik wants to save me money on the installation. That is good as I wound up having to chip in on his trip to see his aunt. Oh well.

Tolik will hopefully use the money for a visit tomorrow to a guy up there who has some paving bricks . If he can get me 4600 quallity clean aged 12.5 cm X 25 cm bricks for a grevna each and a cheap delivery, I shall be pretty well set up for paving the picnic area that we need in order to do two children's camps this year. Then I need to design the canvas market umbrellas and picnic tables, the ballustrade and lighting...lots of drawing...OBOY!

MY TRIPS TO TOWN

2011-04-19T12:10:00.000-07:00

I just returned from Simferopol. Yesterday I fast hiked almost a kilometer up our Burulcha creek road to the bus stop at Mezhgorie to catch the 7:25 AM bus to town. as usual it was standing room only full before we left the Belogorsk region, but I did get a seat. I got to town, bought some groceries to augment my stay with Dr. Wil Turner, the octogenarian apologetics missionary I usually stay with when I am in the Capital. I buy groceries out of self preservation. Will tends to buy cereal grains and beans, then cook them all together in one gelatinous mass. It is not to die of but it is not for anyone with a taste for real food. I am the designated cook when I visit and Wil likes it that way so we get along OK.

About noon the bank sent me an SMS showing the international Bank Transfer from Mike Longhi of River of Joy International had arrived in our account. I paused and made lunch, then got over after the noon break and got the money. I paid back Wil's loan that helped me take delivery on some mission tile for this summer's building at river of Joy site here at Ovrashki. Then I fellowshipped on the internet last night at Wil's. I can do internet faster in his city basement than my country canyon. I slept like a baby on Wil's broken couch and caught the 9 AM bus East on time. Got off in Krim Rosa and blessed a 3 year old with cancer with healing and money for his hard stretched parents. I was waiting for a bus at the Krim Rose bus stop when a private car stopped and gave me a FREE ride to Belogorsk. Hmmm, "Give and it shall be given you...." In Belogorsk
I bought a few groceries and paid a little over a hundred bucks for 800 more mission tile. I caught a cab home and the driver's questions lead to a chance to witness for the Lord all the way home.

After a nap Tolik brought me a hand full of parts that used to be our water pump at the center well. Tomorrow morning I plan to go to Simferopol again and buy a new, hopefully better, pump. Lenur stopped in and greeted me. I hadn't seen him since I returned from the States. Lenur is a Crimean Tatar...a good worker and a happy friendly guy as well. We talked about the Spring building we need to do before camps start. As soon as I can take delivery on paving brick we will start the picnic area. Plenty of work and money needs just ahead...sigh :-) Well I have to catch that 7:25 bus again tomorrow...its time to stop and go to bed. ~

Tax Time Blessings

2011-04-14T09:03:00.000-07:00

Today is April 14. This morning I took the 7:25 bus back to Simferopol. My first purpose this AM was to figure out why I went through so much money using the Mobile Internet Modem. It cost me 400 grevna (about $50) in just a few days! My favorite MTC mobile store has bit the dust. I went to the central store where you take a number and spent 40 minutes waiting for help. (This is why it has not been my favorite store). They said I had been using the wrong system. I told them I had always chosen the cheaper one but the techy seemed to think I was lying or stupid or something. He did something with my computer...not much. I renewed my account (another $200 grevna) and went off, saying I would be back if there were no changes, a stipulation to which he agreed.

Two days ago in Belogorsk had I topped off the same account, got a haircut and bought a few groceries, then fixed up a deal with the Post Office to call me if a parcel comes in. Later I got a ride home with Ibrahim. He is a good looking Tatar who has a gift of business in spite of a stammer. He wanted to come to work for me. I gave him a building materials request.

Just the previous evening I had heard from brother Roman, a roofer, that the mission tile (Tatarski Cheripitza) we have been using is now selling for 10 grevna each ($1.25) in the city! I have never paid more than 1 grevna each and hope never to pay so much as 10 grevna each.

That price news concerned me of course, so I told Ibrahim "I need more mission tile" and gave him my top price...."1 grevna each." Last night he called, said he had 2000 tile lined up and asked for payment. I didn't have the money for so many just now. Later he called and said the amount (from a demolition) is actually 2500 tiles! I called Dr. Wilson Turner and arranged for a personal loan to pay Ibrahim until money comes in. Today, while I am/was in Simferopol he delivered the first half of the tiles. They apparently have more of a ekru (yellowish) tint than most others we have used. We will mix them with the redder terracotta ones that we have already and it will look real nice on the roof. We are using mixed colors for the window border designs anyway. Tomorrow morning, Lord willing, I will check them over and make payment.

Today I talked with Lena Venomenovna on Skype, told her how much I have been sleeping with jet lag this time. She said she also has sleep problems when she doesn't pray. She says we are in a real spiritual war. I agree, I do need to pray more. Some other travelers say it often takes as long as a week to get over the 10 hour time difference from California. I am almost back to normal now.

Wil says the radiation from Japan is getting worse. He recommends a visit to www.stevequayle.com to learn more.

A BLOG AT LAST!

2011-04-11T04:44:00.000-07:00

I have wanted and prayed for a Blog for years. Now I have one! I must learn how to attach it to our www.riverofjoy-crimea.org website next. I suppose it will not be hard. This enablement was quite likely an answer to the prayer of
a spiritually gifted young lady who I am fellowshipping with on the telephone often since I have returned to Ukraine. Let me explain.

Yesterday, Sunday, the 10th of April 2011 I was at Wil Turner's place doing
my first high speed internet since my return to Ukraine from the States.
I had been sleeping in huge and various blocks of time since my return to
River of Joy site in Ovrashki on the 7th, experiencing serious jet lag and fatigue simultaneously. In short I had really needed some rest.

On that day I had at last gotten enough rest to take the bus into town, get my internet subscriptions renewed, met with my old friend Pastor Valentine Ivanov briefly. Then, shortly after a long walk up Wil's hill with a load of groceries, greeting my octogenarian friend and settling into his basement flat with my now connected computer helping me connect to mother, Judy, and others,
Lena Anatolievna called me from Donetsk.

She wanted to share her anointing, her joy, after the Holy Spirit had used her in affecting several miraculous healings of people with serious illnesses. The conversation was not entirely comprehensible as she was obviously spiritually inebriated. She did manage to pray God would heal my legs, or rather command their healing along with all other physical issues I shared...i.e. eyes.

I remember my own euphoria when I first encountered God's power and presence first hand. At a time like that the words, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." takes on fresh meanings.

Lena said she was drunk with the Joy of the Lord as she continued. She asked the Lord to fill my cup to overflowing and increase my effectiveness in the Lord's kingdom. I began to experience a series of shocks. The presence of the Lord was with me in a stronger way than I have experienced in years.

Immediately I walked into Wil's windowless bathroom where he had already explained the light was out. He surmised the switch had a problem. But I looked at the fixture and thought it might be the lamp. I removed the cover, screwed in the lamp tighter..."and there WAS light." then felt as though I had just then been empowered, walking in a new "get it done" anointing.

Today I took the bus back out here to our River of Joy site...or rather about a kilometer from it then walked in through falling hail. Now it is snowing huge flakes and I am sitting here in the new short sleave golf shirt I bought in California. Jet lag seemed to take me back a whole season!

About a half hour ago Tolik brought me the Lord's supper. His 30 something widowed sister, Irina, who is visiting us, repented yesterday! She has new joy...the joy of the Lord. Tolik said they sang and prayed until 2 AM this morning for the second day in a row. Mercy drops (or flakes) round us are falling! I just know we are on the edge of a great revival.

Burulcha creek is a full river today and the River of Joy is a wild river.

Lena from Donetsk just called. She is going for an MRI then she plans to visit the cancer ward at a hospital at 6:30 tonight (4 hours from now) to pray for patients with cancer. She asked for supporting prayers...Lord make her an instrument of your grace to those suffering souls. Heal all she touches I pray.

Well, I had better publish thie BEFORE it becomes a book. Please jump on in to the river of JOY. Blog with me here.