Hello All! Thanks for your recent posts and prayers.

The team finished the roof yesterday. We also loaded all the windows into the house, cleaned, the third floor, braced the roof for stability, moved the dry wall up to the third floor, unloaded the safet and facing board into the house, pulled up the water tanks to the attic, and put braces between the studs on the third floor. Basically, we completed everything we set out to do this week.

The weather we beautiful yesteday. The sun was very bright but the breeze from the Eagle Village mountain was steady and swift. The view on the roof of Eagle village is incredible.

We had a wonderful lunch over looking the Black sea at Laspi. We had pork skewers and salad. It was wonderful. Ira took us to a Greek Othadox church that overlooked the Black sea. It was amazing!!! Eagle village sits in front of a mountain and the black sea is behing the mountain. The soil in Eagle village is great for vegetables and fruits (grapes).

After we said goodbye to Sergia’s family, we headed back to Yuri’s. He took us to the Lighthouse by the sea for dinner. The food and view were incredible. Yuri showed us how Ukrainians dance after dinner! He has been watching too much Saturday night fever…go Yuri!!! Just kidding.

We are headed to Kiev tomorrow. It has been an amazing trip and we will never forget it. Thank you for the prayers. We will see you guys in the states!

Thanks Yuri, Ira, Sergai, and Artuuv! We blessed the house with one final prayer!!!!

The Four Amigos

Hello All:

We finally had a day without any rain. The house is drying very quickly since it has some covering. Speaking of the roof, we finished a little more than half of it yesterday. YAHOO…Our goal on Friday is to finish the entire roof before we head back to the USA.

Sergia T. looked like Spiderman today hanging off the roof and putting the first row of shingles on. We need to prayer for him today. He will be taking a train today to see his family. He has not been home for several years. Pray for his safe journey and new beginnings with his family.

The four Amigos are now three today but Sergia will be there in spirit. He will be taking a train at 2PM today.

We visited an orphanage in the evening today after we finished up. The kids were very excited. Terry had so many toys that it looked like Christmas. We had tears and laughs with the kids. This orphanage had 200+ kids and was located in the city of Setaspopal.I personally have never been to an orphanage before. My heart was moved for these kids. If you are reading this blog, please say an additional prayer for these children. They are all God’s people and need so many blessings. A small prayer will go a long way for these special people.

The four Amigos thank Forest Hills and their church members for this opportunity to help build the Hope House. We have been moved every minute in Ukraine….we have plenty of picures and stories to share with everyone.

Until tomorrow….we thank our families for this mission trip and pray all is well while we are gone.

The Four Amigos!

The four amigos had a great day yesterdy. The rain finally stopped after lunch. The skies opened up and the rays of the sun warmed our faces. This land is so beautiful. We can see for miles when you are on the roof of the house.

We installed all the sheathing and boards on the roof in preperation for the roof shingles. We will shingle the roof tomorrow.

We worked through lunch yesterday since the skies were clear. It was a blessed day. Thanks for your prayers and emails. All is well here in Hope Village.

Yuri took the guys to the local suana for a treat on Jim’s B day to end a fantastic day.

We are very blessed to help these families. We may visit orphanage tomorrow (Thursday).

We love and miss our families!!!

The Four Amigos

Hi All:

The four Amigos had a fairly good day yesterday. Yes, it rained again yesterday but this time all day long. We think it is going to clear up today. We are celebrating Jim’s Bday today. He is 39 today. Go Jim! We bless the Amigos today and we are thankful for these men who are taking time out to help the HH vision.

We unloaded all the sheet rock yesterday, stacked, and covered it. We firmed up the roof for work today. We hope to put the entire roof on today.

We were introduced to the mission house by the construction site. We knocked down a concrete wall and built a wood one in the kitchen. We will work on the mission house if it continues to rain today. We are praying that the weather holds out but we understand the blessing of rain for this country.

We are eating very well and Ira and Yuri are a great Host and Hostess. It is God blessing we are here. Thanks for your prayers. We love and miss our families.

The 4 Amigos!

The four amigos arrived at the job site at 9AM and got going quickly. The BOB did a great job putting up the roof joists. We focused on the rest of the walls on the third floor. The 3 story condo will be a great place after it is finished. We had a good day with Arthur and Sergei. Ira helped treat the wood before we put the walls up. Sergia also prepared the windows on the second floor. I assume they will arrive soon!

We finished all the walls and seccured the roof rafters with cross boards. We will put the roof on tomorrow. The rain slowed us down today but God allowed us to finish without getting hurt. The roof tiles arrived before we left so all the materials are at the site to finish the roof!

Please keep us and our families in your prayers!!!

The 4 Amigos

Tired but inspired we ended our 4th day of work in true band of brother fashion. The work load seemed to ease as we were blessed to work along side of Maxim, Dima, and Ira. What a treat to not only see the families of past Hopehouse trips but to work with was truly an inspiration. These men are the kind of men deserving admiration and respect. Their love for the children and the Lord is unwaivering.
We built and installed half of the roof trusses. That was fun! Tomorrow we plan to complete the roof and stand load bearing walls on the 3rd floor. It was a good day. When you are working for Jesus, nothing is impossible. Jesus is absolutely sufficient.
After work we had another treat in true Yuri style. We got to see an old friend, Dimetri. He took a day of his vacation and prepared shish-ka-bob over an open flame. Not only was the food amazing, fellowshipping with Dima is something we always appreciate and look forward to. its time for us to go to work so we will close until tomorrow. God bless and please keep us and the familes in your prayers.

B.O.B.

It is Tueday, and what a beautiful day indeed. The weather here has been phenomenal!!
The third floor walls are up. The outside sheathing is almost complete. The third level flooring is complete. We also started working on the roof trusses and will try to have that completed before we leave.It amazes me that no matter what country you are in, there are dancing nails. Some of our thumbs and fingers have suffered from missing them.
Though our bodies are sore, and we are tired from labor, we were enouraged to press harder. Yuri set up an orphanage visit for this evening, which consisted of an age group between 6-18 years olds. What an encouragement! As we spoke to them they listened with enthusiasm. After the orphanage visit, we visited our friend Maxime. We had worked on his home last year. We had a great time laughing and fellowshipping with him and his family.
As usual the Band of Brothers have proven to test ones ability to stay sharp.Constant verbal abuse and sarcasm rules the air, but that is what binds us together.
Okake, must go now as Yuri is tapping his watch. We love and miss you all.
B.o.B.

Good Morning Friends,

We are about to leave Yuri’s for our day of work here on Tuesday. Yesterday we had a long day and accomplished a lot. We completed the floor on the third level and enclosed the walls most of the way around. We all worked hard and had plenty of laughs. It is truly a pleasure to serve God in this capacity. We, the Band of Brothers, presented Sergei with a plaque as a symbol of our love for him and his family, as well as, appreciation for his commitment to Hope House and the children. Sergei is looking forward to the two new additions to his family in the spring as he and his wife are adopting two children. Thank you all for your prayers and replies.

Greetings from the ukraine. What a blessing to be our friends yuri and sergei. Today, we worked on a 3 family hopehouse. Please pray that God fills the home with children that grow up in a christian family. We were all to tired to play ping pong but look forward to some games this week. Our brothers rob and ken arrived from turkey and are ready to work today. Please pray that our work here glorifies God and that we are good witnesses for his son Jesus Christ. God Bless.

B.O.B.

Hello??? Can ya hear us now? Our signal is back…finally! It’s hard to imagine our trip is coming to a close. The last few days have been very busy but so rewarding. We’ve been blessed to see the face of Jesus in every orphan child.

Friday we visted 2 orphanages in Sevastopol. Our experiences at both were incredible. The first was mostly teens that were very receptive to our message. We added another rockstar to our tour, Austin Madge. Him and the backup singers: Alicia, Taylor, Katy,Casey, Deb, and Olivia sang “Can’t Bring A Good Man Down”. The kids loved it and so did we.

Our second was a special needs orphanage that afternoon. Our beloved Rick stepped up to the plate to play Lucifer (aka Troy)…we all knew he had a little devil in him. Kudos to Rick!

As the face painting team (Kim A., Linda, Olivia, Brittany, Bailey, Katy, Toye, Leslie, Taylor, Kim J., and Georgia) left their mark on those angelic faces, one chose to leave a little more. A girl whose feet were bleeding because her shoes were to small brought out the compassion of that team. Candace felt led to give her the shoes on her feet…but they were too small. Georgia tried as well…too big. Linda’s were a perfect fit!

Dinner that night was extremely special. We shared the night with 5 HopeHouse Families and were entertained by through singing, poems, and a lot of love. It’s beautful to see the hand of God work within these families.

Saturday was another busy day! We traveled 2 hours to Simferopol to visit a large orphanage. Many of the returning team members were very happy to see some children they had connected with in the past. Several of the children were graduating that day and wore special red sashes. We felt very blessed to share that day with them. The second orphanage was the one that the building teams ususally visit in Sevastopol. It was awesome to hang out with familiar faces.

Seriousness has not been part of this group too much this week, however a miraculous thing occured last night.As you know, Troy had hurt his back earlier this week and had been laid up in his cabin for the past few days. After our worship Chad, Marty, and Gene went to his cabin and prayed over him. He got up immediatley after and felt healed. He walked around the ship to find Rhonda and the rest of us so we’re could all see the miracle God performed. God is amazing.

Deneen, just wanted you to know, after 15 plus years of never being rained out today we were in hail. Our last orphanage of our mission was full of hail and rain, but it was still a special time for all. We had to cut out all our music and skits, but we were still able to share God’s love and found out that many teachers and children there were Christians… an added bonus to say the least!

There are so many individual stories to share and we will all be talking your ears off as soon as we return…

Please continue to pray for us as we start our 7 hour bus ride back to Kiev tomorrow morning.

We miss you all,
33 Amigos, Yuri, Ira, and Yuri no. 2

We’re back! No internet for a day, but we are back with a connection and ready to fill ya’ll in on our wonderful day yesterday.

Yesterday we docked in Kherson bright and early. We loaded up the bus with all our gifts and supplies and headed to our only orphanage of the day. When we arrived we were surprised to find that the orphanage was celebrating all the children’s birthdays that were in the spring time. We were given a wonderful show of dancing and singing from the children. Because of the celebration we remained indoors which enabled the team members to have more one on one time with the kids while the photography team caught the smiles of each precious child. Props to the poloroid team: team leader Jan, David, Marty, Jill, Luke, Chris, Sandy, and kudos to Olivia for pitchin’ in where she was needed. We’ve decided that we left there with happy hearts because the orphange seemed to be a happy and safe place for those wonderful kids.

Argh! Pirates attacked! When we arrived in the dining room of the ship for dinner, we were surprised to find that our wait staff had turned into pirates and ransacked our tables. Our dinner consisted of flaming meat, Cassie catering to our every need by serving us(that’s what you get when you don’t tip pirates), and Marty dancing around in a bikini top. Yes, you read right. Our lovely waitress Katja caught Marty of guard and left him so many shades of red we can’t even keep count.

After dinner we all met for a wonderful night of worship and sharing. We have come to find out that we were truly blessed with our very own rock star this year. Deb has been leading our worships with her angelic voice on and off the ship. Marty gave our devotion last night and made us realize that we are looking into the face of Jesus with each child that crosses our path. We shared captivating stories and images about how we have been blessed thus far.

As we have asked you to pray for our team, please continue to lift us up and pray specifically for our health as some have encountered minor stomach ailments and Troy has thrown out his back which is especially important as he heads to Africa from Amsterdam on our way home.

We miss you all,
The 33 Amigos, Yuri, Ira, and Yuri no. 2

Well besides roomates locking each other “Inside” their rooms (we won’t mention any names cough Rhonda and Gene) we awoke to a bright sun shinny day…our first. We heard through the grapevine that in 17 years no mission cruise has ever been rained on…well I guess we were the first and until today had missed “walkin in sunshine”!!! Guessing that we know those beanie hats and socks came in handy with the recent cold (40 degrees). We all decided that next year we are including sunglasses, baseball hats and sunscreen to ensure warmer days ahead!

Today we docked in Zaporozia and traveled to an orthopedic orphanage…home to about 80 kids all with bone or joint problems. They were between the ages of 4 and 15 and came from other orphanages for treatment of broken bones, scoliosis, or rheumatoid arthritist. It was incredibly wonderful to see these beautiful faces waiting to be loved…but even more painful to know the love they are not gettiing. This encouraged our hearts even more so…and in ways we could express His love…and a little of our own.

We gave the orphanage games, balls and sports equipment which gave us the opportunity to have a little fun. I think ALL the boys were blown away watching Andrea (head of our rec team) spin that basketball on her finger…guessing they thought a girl could not do it! Candace and Jenny played parachute games with giggling preschoolers…you should have seen those faces under the cloud of that chute! Forgotten Boyfriend Austin (sorry we forgot to mention he was the boyfriend in the skit yesterday), Rick, Chad, Troy, Chris, Alicia and Gene kept the boys entertained with soccer, karate, football and a variety of other sports. The kids loved it…and after all the desserts we’ve been eating the exercise is coming in handy!

Dan Dan Our Karate man spoke to the kids and demonstrated a few Karate moves. While doing this he told them how we are all weak without Christ. It was a testament of faith to kids who are physically week and want to be strong.

While all that was going on a few team members were asked to step inside the orphanage to speak to the 12 kids that were bed ridden or unable to go outside. They gave them a few gifts, sang, as well as performed the skit about Lost sheep. Joe, our shepherd, does a BAA..ry good job searching for his herd among the kids (they think it is funny they know where it is and he doesn’t) while Jill read the story. Amazingly a young boy inside started talking the moment they came in. As Ira interpreted we came to realize he remembered the team from last year and kept saying Sheila…who was unable to be with us this year. Proof once again how these short visit impact these kids in ways we will never know.

Last but not least we surpised Birthday Girl Kim Allen with an authentic Ukrainian celebration complete with birthday cake and accordian players. What an experience for us all to share…now if we could only get her to share her gift of chocolate candy…we all need to eat around here.

Please keep us in your prayers as we follow His path. Love to all and keep the comments coming they are so encouraging to the entire team!!!

—-33 Amigos, Yuri, Ira and Yuri No. 2

Well besides roomates locking each other “Inside” their rooms (we won’t mention any names cough Rhonda and Gene) we awoke to a bright sun shinny day…our first. We heard through the grapevine that in 17 years no mission cruise has ever been rained on…well I guess we were the first and until today had missed “walkin in sunshine”!!! Guessing that we know those beanie hats and socks came in handy with the recent cold (40 degrees). We all decided that next year we are including sunglasses, baseball hats and sunscreen to ensure warmer days ahead!

Today we docked in Zaporozia and traveled to an orthopedic orphanage…home to about 80 kids all with bone or joint problems. They were between the ages of 4 and 15 and came from other orphanages for treatment of broken bones, scoliosis, or rheumatoid arthritist. It was incredibly wonderful to see these beautiful faces waiting to be loved…but even more painful to know the love they are not gettiing. This encouraged our hearts even more so…and in ways we could express His love…and a little of our own.

We gave the orphanage games, balls and sports equipment which gave us the opportunity to have a little fun. I think ALL the boys were blown away watching Andrea (head of our rec team) spin that basketball on her finger…guessing they thought a girl could not do it! Candace and Jenny played parachute games with giggling preschoolers…you should have seen those faces under the cloud of that chute! Forgotten Boyfriend Austin (sorry we forgot to mention he was the boyfriend in the skit yesterday), Rick, Chad, Troy, Chris, Alicia and Gene kept the boys entertained with soccer, karate, football and a variety of other sports. The kids loved it…and after all the desserts we’ve been eating the exercise is coming in handy!

Dan Dan Our Karate man spoke to the kids and demonstrated a few Karate moves. While doing this he told them how we are all weak without Christ. It was a testament of faith to kids who are physically week and want to be strong.

While all that was going on a few team members were asked to step inside the orphanage to speak to the 12 kids that were bed ridden or unable to go outside. They gave them a few gifts, sang, as well as performed the skit about Lost sheep. Joe, our shepherd, does a BAA..ry good job searching for his herd among the kids (they think it is funny they know where it is and he doesn’t) as Jill tells the story. Amazingly one of the boys inside started talking as soon as he saw the team. As Ira interperted his words the team realized that he remembered the team from last year and kept saying Sheila..who was not able to be here with us this year. Proof once more that these visits do impact their lives in powerful ways!.

The attachment these younger kids made with us in such a small window of their lives (ours too) was the shining light we needed to remind us that God’s grace is always evident…even in the storms and despair.

Last but not least…we surprised Birthday Girl Kim Allen with a special surprise at dinner…Cake and accordian singers!!! What an experience for all of us to share…now if we can only talk her into sharing her gift box of chocolate candy with the team!!!

Please continue to lift us up as we continue on His path. —-33 Amigos, Ira, Uri and Uri 2.

Ahoy everyone! First we owe a huge apology for not ‘blogging’ before now…it is totally the password kings fault…Troy. We have arrived safely overcame a few hiccups going through customs, but have been blessed beyond measure.

Yesterday (Monday) was amazing and so moving. We were able to visit two orphange hospitals in Kiev. What a time we had with the kids playing around (Uri was having a blast…until he came away with a headache…after being hit with a wiffle ball!). Deb, Casey abd Lindsey kept the kids rocking doing the Chicken Dance. The skit team (Marty…played God, Troy…played Lucifer, Candace, Taylor, Georgia, Brittney, and the whip cracking director Jill) performed the “Everything” skit which brought tears to some of the kids and administrators. One boy even pulled up his sleeve to show marks where he had attempted suicide. Needless to say we came away receiving more than we gave. (look it up on Godtube.com to see Lifehouse perform it)

We have been spoiled with a bit of R&R today as we head down the river. Having to make ourselves enjoy five course lunches, delicious icecream, and a fabulous view. We just met the captain of the ship and are now anxiously waiting for dinner!

Please keep each of us in your prayers and the young lives we will meet along the way…33 Amigos Yuri, Ira & young Yuri