Today’s post is from one of the other team members, Doug Blake:

Well today we were able to wind down our trip after tying up some loose ends at the site (thanks to Chevy & Sergei). After a late breakfast, our team visited Balaklava – an old hidden Soviet submarine base inside the mountain. How facinating it is to know the secrets that city had under Soviet rule! They took things every much as serious as we did in the US, during the Cold War era. We also took time to visit the Panarama Museum depicting the historic battles in Sevastopol’s past. That city has quite a history and is one of the older cities of Ukraine.

We are currently on our long train ride back to Kiev. I think we all are bringing with us a little piece of Sevastopol, the people, the experience, and most importantly – the cause. What an incredible week this has been! For those of you who have not yet made this journey, words cannot describe the impact you will make on the lives of others. Also words cannot describe the impact on yourselves as you live the experience! (This coming from a first-timer.)

We will arrive in Kiev late morning Saturday, and will depart late afternoon for Amsterdam. Meanwhile Troy’s team should be arriving about an hour after we depart Kiev to continue the journey where we left off. May the new team have the blessings of good weather and safety just as we had.

Thanks to everyone for all of your prayers and blog responses as these have been a great encouragement to the entire team. Thanks to Yuri, Ira, and Sergie (and his wife) for taking such good care of us. We are counting down the hours that we can be reunited with our family, friends, and loved ones. Take care and we’ll see you soon.

Another beautiful day was provided to us and not a second was wasted. We completed the concrete pour today. The pour went well with no major problems. Despite the hard work and long days the team is still in high spirits and having a good time. It makes a difference when the work you are doing is so worthwhile. We also had to dig 11 holes for fence posts. Let me tell you, the ground is not sand. I think the land that the mission house in being built on holds every rock in Ukraine.

I don’t say this to brag but to illustrate just how important every team member and every group that makes this journey for God, the Children and HopeHouse are. Yuri told me today that the work our team has completed in just 4 days would have taken them 1 month to complete by themselves.

We all wish Troys team safe travels. We will be praying for you guys that are leaving on Friday. You are in for a treat. The hotel is wonderful.

To be continued

The construction is coming along smoothly and according to schedule. We had a long day today but everyone has poured all their energy and heart into the work we are doing. I am very proud of and thankful for each member of the team. We completed the form work today and we are ready to pour concrete tomorrow which will complete the foundation so Troys team can start blocks. We quit work at 7:15 to eat dinner in a local restrauant. The food was incredible as always. There is not much to report as we filled the day with work. I was asked to list the team members, we are: Doug, Larry, Richard, Jim, Chevy, Francis, Ronnie and Bill. Please continue your prayers as they are continually answered. We have all had an amazing trip so far, no work injuries and have been blessed to see many areas of this great Country. We have also been blessed with incredible weather for the work we are doing.

All is well here in Ukraine. We had another productive day at work. It rained in the morning so we were able to get some rest and do a little sightseeing until lunch. After lunch we managed to pour all the concrete for the footings. Wew should have everything ready for Troys team to start laying block and building the walls. We have officially layed the cornerstone for Hopehouse mission headquraters in Ukraine. Dinner was amazing and then the team had a ping pong tournament. Everyone sends their love and many thanks for the continued prayers. We have also enjoyed reading everyones comments, thanks for taking the time to write. They mean a lot to us. Yuri and Ira have been terrific as usual. They say hello as well. Goodnight!

Our first day of is complete and everyone is worn out. The team accomplished a lot today. If fact, we finished so quickly that Yuri had to leave to go to get more materials so we would have work to do tomorrow. Did he think we came to watch or work? Our team is great, all the guys are having fun and they all work very hard. After work we went to visit the local orphanage. WOW, what a great bunch of kids. There was one in particular, she was 7 years old and her name was Sasha. She was full of life and so adorable. However, its with great embarrassment that I have to admit that when it comes to soccer – Ukraine is 1 and USA is 0. The boys were awesome, they were just toying with us and still killed us. When we got there, they wanted to play their 6 against 6 of us so we accepted the challenge and we weren’t much of a challenge. They had so much faith we would score that they let their goal keeper bring the ball down and left their goal unguarded. It was a lot of fun though and I think the kids really enjoyed beating us and that’s all that matters is that the kids had fun and can talk about the day they destroyed the funny Americans in soccer. And to be honest it was probably pretty funny to watch. ITS NOT ABOUT US. We will tell more later, we have another tough day pouring the concrete foundation tomorrow so I am signing off for now.