Tuesday 30 September 2008

Good morning!

There's a face to greet you in the morning!We took Carol to the market,(like several weeks ago now I know! I have been lazy) so I downloaded her pictures and finally managed to post them. We never bring our camera to the market so we never get pictures like this.  

We mostly figure that the meat market is probably a part of culture here that is most  different from any thing in the States. Other then this, there isn't to much that is really interesting in the market. I have never been to a farmers market in the states, but I would imagine it isn't much different. We buy our meat from the grocery store on styrofoam trays wrapped in cellophane. There might  not be any difference, it could be cut from the same cow. But I feel a little more comfortable. 

Sunday 21 September 2008

Kiev

If Peter Williams built a castle


This isn't all that great of a picture my photoshop couldn't really fix it either. But it is interesting. This is an escalator to the underground metro, I am told it is one of the deepest in the world. Some of the escalators or a ten minute ride.


After we dropped off Carol at the airport we kind of wandered around the city and discovered we happened to be there the day they were setting up for races. Unfortunately the races were the next day.But we got to see the race cars, which Benjamin was pretty excited about.

This is a mural at the entrance of one of the many orthodox churches in Kiev. As I took this picture I wondered how many snap shots I happened to be in that people have taken all over the world. You can never know.


Inside the gate

this is a building off to the side, where they had souveniers and bathrooms, and stuff. I thought the window was pretty

From what we could gather from the inscription written in old Ukranian we guessed this is a part of the original foundation of the church. The date on it was around 1090 which was shortly after the Greek orthodox church first evangelized Russia. When the Greek orthodox church got to Russia before the Catholic church, which caused money from Russia to go to the Greek orthodox church, which made the Catholics mad and so they excomunicated the Greeks. Because they can decide who is going to heaven and who is not. The church buildings are beautiful, but peoples hearts are so empty. It is sad, But people don't turn very easily from something that is so deep in their culture. All we can do is offer the truth and let God work in peoples hearts.

This church is 900 years old. It also dates back to about the same time as the previous picture.

visit from Grandma

Sorry I haven't been keeping up with my blog while we had company. For one I have been terrible about taking very many pictures, much less downloading them and posting them. Andrew's toe is much better, He was already on his feet the day he got home, It was still pretty swollen but he could hobble around on it.
Carol seemed to enjoy her time here. She was glad to finally get to meet the christians she had heard about and been praying for, for so long.
And Adele and Benjamin enjoyed their visit with their Grandma too.

Hide and seek

This is Adele's birthday party. I got her two big toys rather then a lot of little ones. The stroller you can see was a hit with her, and you can see Benjamin playing on her giant ball in the back ground. They both enjoy it, but the ball was definately a hit with Benjamin.

Then on her last day here, they made brownies together. Carol had brought some bakers chocolate from the States, so they were extra special.

Tuesday 2 September 2008

travels and toes

          Benjamin and Andrew just left for Kiev to pick up Carol from the airport. They will take the overnight train tonight and and be there in the morning. Carol's plane should be arriving in the afternoon sometime, and then they will be back on their way down here. It is a very long trip to travel overseas, not so much because of the flight time, but because once you got to Kiev you've got to wait for the evening train. And your body is trying to tell you, you are supposed to be in bed. Carol is pretty nervous. She hasn't flown to often in the States much less overseas, especially by herself. We excited to have her, and a little touched that she was willing to brave the treacherous airports and hairy flight changes, and venomous security checks just to come see us. 

           Benjamin was pretty excited to go, Just dad and him. He has been planning to help Carol with the luggage, for a week now, since that would be the manly thing to do. Then when it came time to go, he started to get a little homesick. This is the first night he has ever spent away from me. I must admit I already miss him too.

          Andrew thinks he may have broken his toe just before he left. It wasn't swelling or anything, But he said it hurt pretty bad. He hurt it about twenty minutes before he left and it hadn't changed color or anything. He said he would be fine, but he took along the Arnica gel and some ice. If you don't know what Arnica gel is, it is really neat gel that helps any kind of internal injury to heal, its pretty neat stuff, the only homeopathic medicine Andrew believes in. Tonight he will be on the train so he shouldn't need to walk much, but tomorrow in Kiev he is going to have to be on his feet most of the day. I don't know what you are supposed to do about broken toes. You can put a cast on a foot but not a toe.  If he is hurting bad enough he might be able to find a doctor up there. 

          So they are off to a little rocky start, hopefully things will smooth out soon