Photos

Day 4 - Monday, July 27th

Camp day 1As we ate breakfast at the dining hall the kids at HOM were already curious and excited about the program ahead of them. They were checking our week long schedules taped on various doors throughout the facility.

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Registration was split into 3 age groups, kids from surrounding villages came by 3 minibuses (HOM). There are approx. 68 kids from 6 to 15.

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Registration tent:

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Kids lining up outside the main hall before they enter.

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First day, first impression for everyone.

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Crystal explaining some rules (drawn by Andrea)

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Before the first bible story begins, the kids were ask to help "clean up" the stage before them. It was instantaneous to say the least.

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During the day we split into 3 groups and rotate through 3 stations: Memory verse, Games, and Craft. We will have pictures of those later from the leaders of each stations.

Before free time we presented them some game equipments we brought over. Badminton rackets, ropes, etc. All of them watched with anticipation.

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Soccer however was the most passionate sport. I can surly say they love it more than N.American kids love hockey hands down.

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(note: most played bare foot)

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Free time:

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Lunch time; Some of the children would put extreme amount of food in their mouth all at once... Food is extremely valuable to them.

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Afternoon, back to the hall for some singing and recap.

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Questions, they love to answer.

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Singing "Our God is So Big":

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Going through the Gospel flip book. Crystal introduced one of the color/meaning today (Yellow).

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After wrap up session, everyone had snacks outside. Here are 3 of the digestive problem team members:

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... and here is the eye allergy problem team member:

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I decided to try playing "football", Tiffany was better...

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Time to head home. As the kids loaded the 3 minibuses, they waved good bye. Some packaged their snacks as they don't want to eat it all at once. Like I say before, food is very valuable to these children.

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That wraps up Day 1.

As we wrap up Day 2 as of this blog post, please continue to pray for good weather here, it is starting to get extremely hot! yikes!

Day 2.5 - Saturday, July 25th

I've come to a conclusion that I won't be able to write and post all the interesting things happening each day but I will give you a few highlight moments. Hopefully this will force you to invite us to come and talk with each of you personally about our experience after we are back.Anyway here is Saturday for us:

We found out a chinese restaurant/take out spot just opened in town last month. We were keen to try out!  The restaurant was a chain store from Hungary. The cooks were a Chinese couple from Beijing. Yes, they are the only Chinese living in the city.

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After we picked up some supplies from a "super store" we went back to HOM for a birthday celebration for 2 of the kids:

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After dinner Vasya took us to a new house being built. Half of the house will be a transition home for 5 older youth, the other part will be his family's new home and a guest room/area. The front door you see below is actually to the guest room. (so the house is split into 3, majority is for the young adults).

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Since the house was still under construction there were lots of unfinished areas. The stairs to the 2nd floor was very sketchy. Here is Tomson helping Lisa down:

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This kinda sum up Sat. as we prepare for the week ahead...

Day 3 - Sunday, July 26th

Sunday we attended service at the Prayer house. The 2 hr service may seem long but it's quite amazing as we worship God in another language and culture. The 16 people choir (adults to seniors) sounds like something I would hear at a concert... it is truly amazing.IMG_2847

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Tomson also share God's word with the congregation there. He was 1 of 3 speaker that day. (sorry caught you when your eyes was closed....)

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In the evening we went to a house in the country side to celebrate Vasya's dad, Ivan's birthday with their family:

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The view is truly amazing... I have no words, not even pictures can describe how awesome the view is. Ivan and Tomson also had a discussion about how no one can deny the existence and beauty of God through His creations.

Ukraine Countryside

Ukraine Countryside

We had an authentic Ukrainian BBQ and there was a competition between their marinated meat vs Tomson's Canadian smoke spice meat.

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They BBQ differently than us; where we make more fire to "burn" the food, they use the charcoal and heated wood to slowly smoke/cook the meat... everytime they see fire, they pour water over it ... They treat the food with more care and respect... For the record, the photo above of Tomson and the fire is not him BBQing the meat. He is burning the wood to get them hot enough for the Ukrainian style BBQ!

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And this is Yana, one of Tiffany's new best friend :)

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... And what would a trip to the country side be without a stampede... I mean cows passing by...

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This finished our Sunday up as we head back and did final preparation of the week. As I write this we had just finish Day 1 of the VBS. What an awesome experience... More to tell in another post.

Arriva

As per the last post we arrived at HOM with no lost luggage or any hicups! Even in such hot weather (40c) Crystal didn't have any allergic reaction while we took the long 4 hrs(shorter than previous STM they say) van ride (Natural Air-Conditioned :). Thanks be to God!It will definitely take a long while before I can fully process all the photos but here are a few memorable (and light hearted) moments from our travel:

Thanks for the awesome send-off!

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Getting ready to board from Calgary to Frankfurt:

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Interesting story here with my air stewards. As he was passing out our meals he asked "Pasta or Chicken?" We were curious what is the pasta and what's in it and so we asked. He promptly replied "I don't know what it is. They don't tell us these things anymore." I couldn't stop smiling afterward...

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Arriving in Frankfurt airport we got off the plane and into the bus. We waited a while and surely enough Mr.Calgary has arrived in Germany.

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We took this picture of Andrea getting searched at Frankfurt because for some reason she was also picked to be searched in Calgary.

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Arrived at Budapest!

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We were greeted by Vasya, Vlery and his wife. Vasya drove the whole way back.

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F1 was also happening in Budapest this weekend:

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We stopped at a Shell station for some water as it was extremely hot! Everyone got a 1.5 L bottle except for Tomson who got a Fanta. Good choice!

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Everyone was sleepy, tired, and hot...

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After passing the Hungary border we waited at the bridge (there's a red line that divide the bridge between Hungary and Ukraine.

Our van waiting at the Ukraine side of the 1st border checkstop

Arrived at House Of Mercy!

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There are a few more photos here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/superesc/sets/72157621811608798/

Today we got to meet the kids and get setup, so photos of the kids and a Birthday party to come! Keep us in your prayers!