More Pictures from Odessa Ukraine Trip

Senior Pastor Igor Bandura and his wife, Anya. They have four children: Daniel, 11; Irinia, 8; Emilia, 3 and Timothy, 16 months.

Dr. Tony Neal, left, with Pastor Igor as they look over the Harvest Sunday decorations at Grace Baptist Church, Odessa, Ukraine.

Checking out the apple orchard. Pictured are Terri Bolt and Gail Jenner. Note the plastic bags tied around the feet to protect from the mud! After four and a half years of very hard labor, the orchard produced apples (2 varieties), pears, and apricots this year. A refrigerated holding room in the barn is under construction so they can store the apples and sell them during the winter for a better price. The apples are absolutely delicious!

It was a cold and windy day when we visited Grace Farm as you can see from this picture. From left to right, Gail Jenner, Allan and Pat Wright, Pastor Igor Bandura and a sliver of Valarie Pusanov, the Farm Director. We were very impressed with the greenhouse and the grain operation. This year they planted 5 tons of wheat and harvested 95 tons. They also harvested 5 tons of barley.

Igor Kucher, Professor at the Odessa Baptist Theological Seminary, explains the history of the Catacombs of Odessa to the Joshua Team. The Catacombs were used by Ukrianian partisans during WWII during the occupation of Nazi troops. With Mr. Kucher are Danner and Tony Neal.

This Sunday in Worship, Allan Wright shared with you about the children at the Shelter singing for us. Pictured here are Vanya (left) and Bogdan who sang a duet for us. Both boys are 11 years old. Vanya has been with the Shelter since he was very small. Bogdan came to us about 4 years ago after his mother tried to sell him to Spanish gypsies for drugs. A woman who is a member of Grace Church heard about this and brought him immediately to the Church for safety. We do not know all of the children's stories. Some come to the church through government agencies and some are found abandoned on the streets or in train stations. Grace Church provides for their health, education, and spiritual upbringing. The children live in a family environment and are loved greatly.

Joshua Team Arrives Home / Harvest Sunday Pics

These two children came out onto the dias at the beginning of the Harvest Day service and introduced the worship service. You can see to the right a portion of the decorations for the service and we'll share more and more pictures with you as they are downloaded!











Members of the First Choir with Music Minister Daniel Terenko directing, during Harvest Sunday service.






Below is Dr. Neal warming his hands over the fire. The flames are real; however, the fish were!

The creativity of the decorating team was fantastic. Every where we looked there were wonderful ideas and presentations. The pictures don't do them justice.




We would like to give a BIG Thank You to Dick Wade for coming to pick up the Joshua Team in the WHBC van. It was great to see him outside the Customs Hall at Dulles holding up his WHBC sign! Another Thank You to Carol Bennett for her assistance in acquiring our tickets for this trip. She was a great help in finding us the lowest cost tickets on the best connection to Odessa, Ukraine. As the saying goes...you can't get there from here...especially on a direct flight.


We also would like to thank all of you who gave gifts of requested items and those who gave to help defray the cost of the trip. We were able to leave funds with Grace to help cover the expenses of the 2 or 3 vans they used to take us around the city and out to their ministries as well as cover some of the food cost for feeding eight people 3 times a day.


The Team cannot say enough about the generosity and hospitality that we experienced on this trip. Allan and Pat Wright will be sharing their personal experiences with WHBC this Sunday and on October 12, Gail Jenner and Danner Neal will share their insights. Please be patient as we download pictures and get our time clocks back into sync. We have much to share with you and wish to give our best efforts to convey "heart" messages. It will be very difficult to put into words. We have had some life changing and heart altering experiences these past 10 days.





















The church was decorated with hay bales, bird houses, all of the crops that were harvested from the Grace Farm and other abundance of God's mercy.



This shot is an attempt to show you the creative decor at the top of the display...a crane on a nest, as well as "trees" growing apples. The young couple to the lower right are the son and daughter-in-law of Ira and Vova Balaban, hosts to the Wrights, Gail Jenner and Terri Bolt. They are expecting their first child in early spring 2009. Also in the picture are members of the Youth (ages 16-28) Group as Pat Wright shared the letters from our W&M students. You can also see Terri Bolt in the far left corner as she videos the church and Youth.

There was a bumper crop of apples this year at Grace Farm. We all agreed that they were some of the best apples we have ever eaten!

Leaving Friends

The Team arrived in Vienna, Austria today at 4:00 pm. Some of us napped on the plane and some of us reviewed or wrote/journaled about the week.

It was a very emotional good-bye for both groups: our Joshua Team and the leadership team of Grace Baptist. We came together at 11:45 am for lunch and fellowship. We shared stories and laughter. Vadim Yakim, the Youth Minister, shared the reaction/response of the Youth to the presentation (by Pat Wright) of the letters from the William & Mary Sunday School class. Then when it was time to leave, we had group pictures on the steps of Grace and began the process of getting bags into vans for the trip to the Airport. The surprising thing I think for us was the level of emotion from our host families and from the church leaders we interacted with this week. We expected to be a little sad at leaving, but didn't expect the tears, hugs and expressions of love from many of the others with whom we had worked during these six days. It was apparent that connections had been made when one of the Deacons shared that his heart was "crying". Lifelong connections and friendships have been made in this short time together.

A Joshua Team trip is different than most mission trips. You don't go to "do" any particular project. You go to listen, learn, share, open yourself to new ideas and thoughts, and understand new concepts and ideas. In many ways it is much harder than physical labor. The two teams had many hours of discussion and prayer together. We learned that our two Churches are very much alike, even though we may be in different growth phases. We learned to listen across cultural lines and to take the time to speak with and through a translator when needed. Even that didn't slow the exchange of faith and ministry ideas.

We look forward to seeing you soon and telling you some of our "heart stories." Soon there will be displays of more pictures than you can imagine as well as DVD's of their worship services and events.

Dick and Glenda Wade will be meeting Pat, Allan, Terri and Gail at Dulles Airport tomorrow to bring them back to Williamsburg. John and KJ will stay over in Northern Virginia and head home on Friday. Danner and Tony are staying in Vienna until Monday for a brief vacation.

God's blessings to you. Thank you so much for praying for the Team.