Black Sea Camp

Pastor Bandura, his wife Anya and their two youngest children, Emily age 4, and Timothy age 2, took us out to the Black Sea Camp to see the progress on the new shower house and the steps leading from the lower to the upper camp areas. The Walnut Hills Joshua Team who visited the camp in September 2008 can remember the climb up the hill.

The new steps were designed by a landscaper from Lancaster, PA. He and several of the young men who were raised in the Grace Shelter dug out the areas with shovels. Then using wheel barrows, buckets, shovels and hand tools, they completed what you will see in the following pictures. Anya's idea is to plant Hosta and other ground holding plants along the sides of the walkway when the hand rail is installed and a future "dream" is to have a wooden deck with benches half-way up the hill for a place to rest and to have wonderful views of the Black Sea.

This summer there will be between 700 and 800 youth and adults using the camp. One session will be for a ministry to the blind and sight impaired. This mission will pay only for the food that is eaten during the camp session and Grace will cover all the rest of the costs to provide an outreach to this segment of their community in need. For many it will be their first chance to have a "vacation" and to go to the beach.

Right now there are no more construction teams scheduled to come and work this summer. One is slated for September. What could each of us do if we came to work and help? There are various jobs from painting to planting, tiling to tearing down, helping to healing. Pray about what you could be doing to assist the work.

Enjoy the photos

This view allows you to see the height of the "hill" from the lower camp area up to the top level. The stairs are in a series with chat walkways between them. Care has to be taken for the drainage of rain down the side of the hill and the erosion of the soil. It was determined that this style of construction would hold better than poured concrete that had to be secured with rebar. You can see the space on each side of the stairs where Anya wishes to plant flowers and hosta.

Mr. Gow the master planner / landscaper who designed the stairs. He came with a team from SEND International to do the construction work this week. You can see one of the wheelbarrows in the picture that they have modified on the front to be able to carry it up the stairs when filled with dirt or chat. (Any volunteers?) Also in the picture are Anya (Ann) Bandura and the side of Pastor Igor Bandura. In the background are the concrete steps to some other cabins and construction debris from the new shower house.

Look closely at this picture and you can see Sergei and Misha carrying a wheelbarrow full of dirt up a section of the stairs to the upper area of the construction site!

View of construction method. You can see how they dug out the dirt to make the path wider for the stairs.

Sergei (seated) and Dima work to smooth the dirt and chat in each step. They are doing this with a piece of lumber, a shovel and their hands. Both young men grew up as orphans in the Grace Church Shelter. Sergei was conscripted into the Army at 18 and Dima went to the Art Institute. Now they are both 22 and working in their spare time to help the church. Dima also serves as a translator for English crews.

Close up of Sergei and Misha carrying the load of chat down the steps from the upper camp to dump into the steps. Note that Misha is not one of the younger men!

To the right is an exterior view of the new shower house under construction. The exterior will be covered with stucco when completed. The team from SEND International laid ceramic tile on the floors and walls of the men's and women's sides of the showers and of the toilet areas.

Construction area outside of sleeping cabin and across from the new shower house. Concrete steps in background lead up to another level of (yellow) sleeping cabins

John Proctor caught in sudden rain blown in from Black Sea, standing in front of the old kitchen shed used before the new cafeteria and kitchen were built.