Saturday the 20th

Had kind of a crazy day. I got up and did all my chores. Went down to church at about nine thirty and finished setting up for kids club. We had a good time with the kids who stayed till about twelve thirty. I did the games and a very long review game, as usual, and Dad taught a lesson about the Tower of Babel. We rushed home afterward, and got changed to go to the city. Our family walked down to the center of the village and caught a bus to the county seat then took a taxi to Cherenots. Dad got to get in a good witness to the taxi driver, who was an Orthodox, more or less, like most Orthodox in this country they almost never go to their "church." Ya, I do not remember if I said but our van has been down since last Sunday. It has a problem with the radiator for the transmission. Not a big problem, but no one in this country is going to work until after Chirstmas [January seventh] so we can not get it fixed at the moment. Anyway, we went to the city today to go to a big Amway meeting, which a new guy in our church invited us to. It was all in Russian but Dad got to speak about the Lord for about 12 minutes to over one hundred and fifty people. Praise the Lord!! We did some Christmas shopping after and took a taxi home. Dad got to witness to the driver again and he really recieved it. Praise the Lord for a good day.

Tuesday Through Friday

Nothing much, did school every day. I got a little sick this week but it is nothing. Idid not run much after Tuesday but had a nice ride on Wednesday. Other than the fact that it was raining and the wind was blowing really strong. I did some wraping and planning for Christmas too. Also we spent the nights of Monday, Tuesday, and a little Wednesday decorating the tree. It has over one thousand lights on it!!! Sweet!!!

Monday the 15th

We did some sceintific experiments today and we found out what most of you all ready know, that I am a Vegetable!!! Ya, who would have thought. It is amazing what happens to even the best of us!!! We also put tree in the living room. After we shaved it to a ''very small'' twelve feet across and ten feet tall!!!! We trimmed it after we got it in the house and it looks really nice now. Not like the usual Charlie Browns that we get.

Sunday the 14th

We had good services today. I brought Samuel to church for the first time today. He is a really good friend of mine. Actually he is a puppet, but do not tell him that I told you that; he would be very upset!! The kids in my mom's Sunday school class could not figure out how he talked!!! Well he was a big hit. I am going to bring him next week. Believe

Saturday the 13th

We went to the woods to pick out our Christmas tree today after we did kids club. Kids club went well, a good amount of kids came out and there was a good spirit. We braved the cold and looked for a Christmas tree for about two hours finally finding one that we really liked. It was about thirty five feet tall though!! No problem, we sent Dad up to cut the top off and I pulled it to the ground. We [with much difficulty] pulled it through the forest to our car and with much effort got it on to the roof. After we got home we measured it, a meer fourteen feet four inches!! Small right?? Well it looked great so I guess that is what counts. Rock on!!

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas everybody!!!! Have a great day, have fun, serve God, and remember who we are celebrating!!!! The King is born. I will "go back in time" and fill you in on the 13th through the 24th later. This pic is from last year; I do not have any from this year yet.

Friday the 12th

Tonight Mom was not feeling good so I made the pizza. Well, sort of, we got the crusts already made I just did the rest. I can make the crust, but I did not tonight. And guess what??? No one died after eating it!!!! No really, I am not a bad cook. I had a good tome doing intervals in the afternoon before pizza. The wind was super strong!! To give you a gross statistic, I spit at a right angle to the wind and my spit went eleven feet before it hit the ground!! At least the wind was at a right angle to me while I ran so it did not affect me that much. While I was running my reps an older man came by "trying' to ride a bike, but the wind was so strong that he kept losing his balance and almost falling!!! Well, he started to just walk and when I ran past him [while he was still riding] he started yelling at me and calling me a stupid idiot because I did not have enough clothes on!!! I had on my running tights, shorts, long sleeved T, short sleeved T, and earmuffs, but I guess that was not enough for him. He then went on to say how dumb it was to be running anyway, this is a guy that I have never met before!!! Anyway, I am used to it as it happens all of the time from all different people. Oh yeah, this picture is from last year. We do not have snow yet.

Week in UA

OK, well I had a good Monday through Friday. Monday I did school and finally got to run. I have been off my usual schedule for training and it feels great to be back on it!!!! Tuesday was just a normal day with school and running. Thursday my Dad, brother and I went to the city to visit with a new convert named Arkady. We had a great time and were able to talk about the Lord for a while. We also met his wife for the first time. She is really nice and needs prayer to be saved. Oh, did I mention that she is from Turkmenistan(spelling)???? Ya, pretty cool huh?? Her brother [Kaka, not the famous footbal player] is staying with them at the moment and he made us his "famous" recipe of plove. It's rice with vegetables, mushrooms, meat and a lot of spices. Sometimes it has beans too, but not normaly. Anyway, it tasted really good and we had a good time. By the way, this man came to church last Sunday, but he only knows Russian so he did not get a lot out of it. Please pray for him. Got to go.

Praise Him

Praise the Lord for being so good!!!!!!!! We had a great Sunday serving the Lord. I can't write a lot right now, but will fill you all in later.

I ate the whole thing!!!!

Thank Him for His Grace!! Praise the Lord for all he has given me. I have a great salvation, family, church, friends, house, health, schooling, clothes, animals, stuff, food, oppurtunities, past, country, on and on. God has been so good to every person in the world, but espically to me. There are no words to express what he has done. The human mind will explode if it thinks about it for to long.

My family and I were in Romania for the day and had a great time fellowshiping with the four other missionary families that were gathered together. Praise the Lord that we were able to get together with these families that are doing a great work through God's power here. Got to go.

Next:

OK, we had a good sleep and then woke up at six to a nice blanket of snow!! Yeah, it was not much but it was enough to make the tent fly sag, real bad!! Had a breakfast of champions, hot dogs and oatmeal, and packed up our stuff. After driving out the tot road to the "highway" we found that during the night or early morning the road had been blocked off by the large wooden gate being pulled across the road and locked with a padlock!! OK, now what?? Well, what else, break down the gate!!! Yes, we pried the large log apart, slid it out of the chain and lock, drove the car through, and "put it back in place." [More or less] Problem solved. We drove to the turn to go down the mountain road and got to another locked gate. We went inside the hut next to the gate and were told that no one was allowed to go in during the winter. Well, we told them of all the experience that we have had climbimg wise and they finally let us go, after we paid them 25 grivnas. Problem solved. Driving up the road the snow started to get really deep and the scenery very pretty. Then we came to a big tree down across the road, we would have to park and start hiking from here. Well, we started to back up and the car just lifted up and slid into the ditch because the snow was so deep that it kept Dad from being able to stear the van. OK, make a plan, "Get out of the ditch." Simple right?? One hour later we were partly out of the ditch and here comes a forester's truck. "Hey, can you all help us??" "Oh sure, we are going to get a chainsaw and then we will pull you out." Yeah right!!! They came back all right and cut up the tree, but then they just drove away. Manners are not to big in this part of the world. Well after another hour of work we had gotten several of the boulders and all of the snow out from under the van. [Remember that all of this in in thirty degree weather.] Well, here comes a large SUV and it is a Lexus!!! "Can you pull us out??" "Sure" Praise the Lord!!! Well these people were rich, which is probably the reason why they were allowed to come in the road, because no one was supposed to remember?? We got out after a while and were shhouting glory. Problem solved.

Now, it is 11:15 and we are wet and tired but unstuck and Praising God. No climbing today, especially as it is snowing really hard. The other option, drive back to the "highway" and do some easy hiking. We did it and had a great time crossing rivers, eating, and looking at the mountain that we did not get to conquer, YET, just wait. A lot of other things happened on this trip but I don't have time to tell all.

Conglomeration

Praise God for His Grace!!! Good Sunday, about 25 out to morning service. The afternoon was good with about 15 teens in attendance, and yes my team won 4 out of 7 games of volleyball!! Of course!! LOL School at the beggining of the week. Thursday Dad and I spent the morning helping to pour a foundation for a widowed lady whose house was destroyed in the flood, then we hightailed it to the house and grabbed our camping gear. We started out on the drive but after about 1.5 hours the road got really bad [if that is possible!!] because it had all been washed out by the flood. It was gravel and dirt with huge potholes where we could go only about 40 K's an hour!! Nice huh?? We got to the mountain [ the highest in Ukraine] at about 5:30 and then back tracked down the "highway" for about 5 K's and went down a logging road to find a nice clearing for a campsight. After finding a place for our tent [a nice mossy spot with pines for protection] we got a fire going; set up our tent; and had a nice dinner of Ramen, carrots, hot dogs, and hot chocolate. We got to sleep at 8:40 as there was nothing else to do, and had a nice time of getting our sleeping bags warm as it was in the low twenties. And, I will continue this post later!! Ha ha

Kiddies Need the Lord

Good Saturday. Praise the Lord for all seven kids that came out today!!!!! Only one of them is saved, but they all heard the Gospel. The games all went well [of course they did,I lead them!!]. Only joking!!! Team "Leaves" beat team "Grass" out of all the game scores combined. We had a lesson about the first part of Noah's life. Afterwards Dad, "D", and I went to "Hoboville", the county seat, and had a good time running errands. It is really called Novoselitsa, but in Russian it is spelled "Hoboce^liu,a" so we call it Hoboville. Later in the day Dad and J.J. caleaned the church yard while Mom and I cleaned out a backroom in the church to use as a Sunday school room. Mom decorated the room after we was cleaned it out and it looks GREAT!!!!! Pray that many children will come to know Jesus in this room.

Across the Border

We all went to Romania for the day, we had to leave the country anyway for the van [it has to leave the country every two months because it is registered in Germany]. Praise the Lord we had easy border crossings both ways. We got to do some shopping in Romania too because we can get some things in Romania that we can not get in the UA. Thank the Lord for good family time and safety on the roads, especially since the fog was as thick as mud.

This photo is not from yesterday but, it is a good representation of our awesome Ukranian roads!!!

Back to Normal

Wow, I am finaly blogging agian. Sorry to everybody for not writing in so long. Since I got back to Ukraine I have not been able to blog since the dial up is to slow to blog, but we just got "DSL" more-or-less. It is not really fast, but it is fast enough. Lets see, what have I been doing, school, school, school, OK, got in some nice running, I fixed my bike, got the "throwup" bug, got a cold, harvested appricots, helped my parents and brother pick our grapes and make over forty liters of juice out of them, helped out with the little kids at church every week, made a giant jack-o-lantern out of our 104 pound pumpkin, and a lot of other stuff. I am just going to put a lot of pictures of various things on the page. Signing off.

Mountain Climbing

I went mountain climbing in the Carpathian Mountains for three days with my dad!!! Cool!!! The mountain was called the Rock of Criaul and was 7,500 feet tall. We had a really good time and were safe[praise the Lord]. It rained for almost half the time so it was a little challenging but, it was not too bad. Although, Dad's pack started to rip when we reached the summit, so he had to stitch it up in the rain in about 40 degree weather.

Saturday

Figures, my day off from school and it rains!!! Ooh well. I guess if the King of the Universe wanted it to rain I should not be complaning!!! I took this picture and thought that it looked like a cool, still-life.

Up, up and away

Mom, Diah and I went uo the cable car here in Brasov yesterday!! The view was totally awesome!! You can see the whole city and lots of villages beyond. The photos do not do it justice. What a great God to give us all of this beautiful world!!!

Swish!!

We played basketball last night and had a really good time! Praise the Lord for good Christian fellowship!! I got hit in the mouth and was bleeding for a while, but it was cool!! One of the guys saw me spit and said: "Macky are you OK? Your spit is red!!" Duh, Mr. Surgio, It's blood!!!

OK I know that this picture is a soccer ball. [I am not too crazy!!] But, I just bought it. It is really nice to play with. Looks cool too!!

Back

Wow, my trip to Macedonia was great!! Praise the Lord that we were able to encourage the Brites, Preach in Thessolanica, and have a church service in the ruins of Phillipi!! We were able to get through all of the borders on the way back to Romania with no problem. Even though we were driving a van with no insurance, it was Macedonian. The scenery was awesome!!! It was very moving to be where Paul preached and worked. Thand you all for your prayers for us on this trip. I know that they made a differance.

Happy Birthday Dad!!

Dad had a good birthday on Thursday. I spent the day cooking with Mom. We had lasagne, home-made ice cream, garlic bread, salad, and cheese cake!! Yummy!!! Dad got some shin guards, web cam and other stuff. We had a great evening together as a family. Praise God for a great Dad!!!

Preach!!!!

Praise the Lord for a great street meeting last night!! We were able to give out hundreds of tracts and lots of New Testaments. I preached on the street in Romanian for the second time ever, although I have preached in the Church in Romanian before. Please pray for all of the unsaved people that heared the Gospel last night, that it would work in their hearts and bring them to salvation. I was able to talk to two teen boys about the Lord. They did not believe that there was a God but, I was able to give them some good arguments. Pray that they will come to the church and be saved. Logging out.

Still Keeping On

Last night the preaching was great!!! Praise the Lord that everyone is over the food poisoning.

Praise God that there are still good, Bible-believing Christians in this part of the world.

He Speaks

Had a great Sunday!!! The singing was great!!!! I am going to put some pics on but can't at the moment. Praise the Lord that a girl in her early twenties got saved in the morning service!!!! It was her first time out to church here but, during the altar call she came forward and got saved!!! Please pray for her, and for this church in Brasov.

What a Week!!!

Wow, this last week at camp was great!! The Lord really spoke to me in a lot of ways!!! I thank Him so much for the opportunity to go to this great, Christ centered camp. I got sick the last day but, who cares??? Everyone else did too!!!! I hope that you like the new lay out of this blog. Write more later.