Day 3 + 4: Visitations and Food Delivery

On the third day, we visited the Mercy Farm to pick up snacks and food packages. We traveled in a van that contained me [Daniel P.], two mission team members and a social worker. After that we went to visit some of the families to deliver the food and snacks. Some of the houses we went to are mostly damp and lacking ventilation. Seeing it for the first time gave me a higher perspective on things. It made me understand more of the struggles in life that I have not even thought about when I was living in Canada. As we deliver to the families I could see the joy that came out of the families. This joy that I see brings much thoughts and feelings to my mind. I was glad that I have decided to go to this trip otherwise I would not be able to see and understand poverty and struggles.

The next day, we went to the Mercy Farm again to pick up some hot meals and bread. We got to have a look around the farm while we were waiting for the food. There were huge bakeries and kitchens that are used to prepare the food. Also there were huge greenhouses that contained rows and rows of plants. After picking up the food we headed off to some of the Roma Communities surrounding Uzhhorod. Like the last day, these communities gave me more insight. I saw that there was a serious lack of resources with high amounts of people living very cramped to each other. However, when we visited the communities, the people there were glad to see us and I could see the thankfulness they had when they were taking their meals. We visited two communities and seeing them made me understand more about the seriousness of the troubles and how God needs more people to go and help those who are in need no matter how big or small or how much they have.

Day 3 + 4: Growing Up Camp

The scorching heat and piercing Sun was definitely a massive challenge for the team early this week. On Monday it felt like 34 degrees (actual 32c), and on Tuesday it was 35c which felt like 37. The high temperature certainly drained a bit of our energy, but luckily we held our Week 1 "Growing Up" camp inside the warehouse area where we used to hold our VBS camp during the early years of our trips.

The "Growing Up" camp was held for the children here at the centre, and we had around 26 kids plus a few teen helpers. The three-day camp was themed around servanthood and had games and bible stories in the morning as well as crafts that they made for the staff here at HOM. In the afternoon, the younger group worked on a MakeDo project, and the older kids build different Solarbotic (STEM) projects.

The kids loved the projects, and we had a great time building them! It is awesome to see how proud they are at their accomplishment! We hope each of these kids will continue to grow in their confidence and know the potential they have in making a change in the world.

Tomorrow we will be presenting their gifts and their projects to the staff and parents! We can’t wait!

Quick Recap: Day 1 - Saturday VBS Prep session

On the first day at HOM, we had a leadership training/prep session with the teen leaders of the VBS camp (Week 2). We had a team building game and then off we went in prepping our station leaders and group leaders! It was a hot day, and all of us were desperately adjusting to the time change as well as to the climate.

It was awesome to see all the teens and kids again! There are quite a few new kids at the centre and we are all excited to get to know them in the coming week!

Day 2: Sabbath Day

Today was truly a day of rest. We went to a Ukrainian church today. Even though we did not understand most of what the sermon was about, we still felt God’s presence as we were singing and seeing great faith in the congregation. We did however, ask the speaker’s wife to explain an analogy that the speaker used. It was a money analogy and it was about motivation based on the people’s heart.

After that we got to spend lots of time with the kids and rested. First, we rested which then gave use the energy to spend lots of time and effort into playing with the kids. It was very fun. We were playing card games, did some trampoline and played some football (soccer).

Some things we invite you to pray for is to continue to have the energy to bring joy to the kids and that with our actions we will be able to show more of God’s love. Also for the to be a bit more bearable because the weather recently has been a bit intense. Lastly, we would like to invite you all to pray for this week as we are going to lead a discipleship class with the kids as well as a staff retreat that we will be hosting.

Travelling Day: We’ll get there when God wants us to be there.

“We’ll get there when God wants us to be there.”

This was my humorous response to the events that transpired at the airport this morning.

As our team made our way to the Edelweiss airline kiosk to check in our bags, we were told our tickets was cancelled. Yes, cancelled.

Yes, we had checked in already.

Yes, we even have our tickets printed with seat numbers on it, but no, we can not board this plane.

You can imagine our wide-eyed responses. This has never happened before, even the white-hatted YYC airport host who roam the airport helping travellers, was utterly perplexed at our situation. We didn’t know who to blame (most likely the booking website), but we had no time to dwell on the culprit and quickly went to Air Canada as a solution offered by the check-in personnel. Our new flight itinerary was going to be two hours later with a completely new layover location: London.

At this point of the story, our team would like to apologize to all those who came to pray for us at the airport, as we know this situation has undoubtedly caused a much higher parking bill. We were planning to pray at 2, but by the time we were done, it was 3-3:30. Instead of huddling at the chapel, we spent a moment in a corner by the airline kiosk and prayed for peace and God’s hand in this unexpected situation.

Little did we know, this was indeed a blessing in disguise.

As it turned out, the flight we were supposed to go on was delayed by more than an hour. We would not have made the connecting flight from Zurich to Budapest. We would have landed 10 min after our next flight has left. And even though our seatings were spread out due to the last minute rebooking, Daniel C. made a last-minute request at the gate, and we were all sitting together again!

In the end, after 25 hours, we arrived safely at HOM. Looking back, we are thankful for God's intervention and interruptions into our plan. He knew what we needed, and He made sure we got to where we needed to go in the way He wants us to take. Now we look forward to many more in the coming two weeks!

Now about the weather.... [Very Hot]

Packing Night!

Thank you everyone for coming to our packing night! Even though there is only four of us going, we bring along the hearts and prayers of the whole church; The team is our whole church and we couldn’t have done it without all of you! Thank you!

Tomorrow (Aug.8th) we will departing at 5pm, but we will be having our group prayer time at the Airport chapel at 2:00pm! We welcome all of you to come send us off in prayers!

Prayer Requests 2019

• We have fulfilled the donation goal and have also gone 2000 dollars over the goal. Thank you all for your support and prayers

• Praise God because we have also collected all of the materials we need and are going to pack it on this Wednesday 6:00 pm

• We are going to leave this Thursday, please pray for our trip and that God’s presence and guidance will be with us as we spread God’s word to Ukraine House of Mercy

2019 Team Progress!

1. We have raised $2180 for our mission trip. That means we need to have $9820 more to fund our trip to Ukraine. Please pray that we will be able to raise enough for the trip.

2. We have put up the promo board up in the main foyer. If you would like to help us for our trip, please go to the board and see what you can do.

The 2019 Team

Our 2019 Team is a go!

This year our team consist of Daniel Pun, Daniel Chow, Crystal and Calvin Sun! Daniel Pun will be updating the blog for this year’s team! More info to come!