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

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.  

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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. 

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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.