Monday, June 28, 2010

Yalta

For the first time in fifteen years, we made it to Crimea a very well-known resort area in Ukraine. Russians regularly enter the country to vacation here. Some are building houses in Crimea. We weren't in prime tourist area but were close, so took advantage of the opportunity to go to Yalta
This is what you see as you ride along the highway, glimpses of ocean, villages nestled on the mountain side, vineyard after vineyard.
One of my favorite things, a lighthouse in the port. I'm guessing there should be a second one around because a village had the name of "Old Lighthouse."

A person doesn't know how familiar, familiar things are until he sees them in an unusual place. This is the only place we've seen parking meters in Ukraine.
This is what caught Kent's eye. There was also a major display of other hot street bikes with costumes for individuals to get pictures on them. A picture cost around $8. He got a keychain for a souvenir instead.
For the same price as the keychain was another place where Lena donned a costume and we took pictures on our camera. It was MUCH cheaper than the $8.


An interesting boat at anchor.


Politics . . . this is the reason we were more apprehensive when Russia invaded Georgia. Crimea is officially its own little nation within the nation of Ukraine. The only restriction is that its laws cannot contradict Ukraine's laws. There are stories of Crimeans being given Russian passports. Here's a political sign recommending Crimea's union with Russia.


My family teased me about taking pictures of signs in such a place. But they do somewhat reflect the attitude of the country. This one says "with belief in the future."

Hats off to . . .


this lady and her parents. She's Ukrainian, attended a holiness church in Colorado, lived in the US for 12 years and then returned home to a house that drug addicts had used, all falling apart, and with no inside water. They hauled trash off the small property by truck. Today the house is more than halfway to being what a small house in America would be. They returned for the sake of showing God to their people. They told stories of being interrogated. They carefully watch every kopeck in order to fix their house up. Every inch of their yard that isn't needed otherwise is planted as a garden.

Picnic in the Village

One place that was hard for Katrina to get to while we were gone was Mikhailivka, a village where we had children's services regularly. In order to re-group our group of children we had a combined picnic/service for the second meeting.Looking up at wildflowers. A child had just romped through them making a beautiful unique shot against the sky. But of course that romp lasted seconds and I'm not quick so I had to settle for just the flowers against the sky.
Relaxing on the grass.
What better thing is there to do at a picnic than play with a mobile phone?
Lena put the smiles on these cupcakes for me.
Cuddling

Charity and Nathan's Wedding

Charity and Nathan Purdy got married on June 12th. Bethany has posted a lot of beautiful pictures on her blog. Here are a few wedding pics that Allona and I caught that I haven't seen elsewhere yet.
The Bride's Bible being used in a quiet time before the wedding.
Caught a not too wonderful self-portrait of mother and daughter on the wedding day.
Charity and Nathan could not live through the picture-taking without a few words with one another. Her phone battery had died but she used someone else's phone to chat with her sweetheart in the middle of everything.
Nathan's dad. Some others may have gotten this pose.
And last but not least . . . a tender, curious moment between the Bible bearer, Davey Drummond and flower girl, Natalie Seeley.

Grandkids

We made another trip to the US for Charity's wedding. When we told her we were on our way, she said she was making a list of things for us to do. It was an extensive list, five pages long!!! But God helped us to get a lot done. Most of it was working and cleaning the trailer on the Penn View campus where they are living.

Everybody helped some. David Neil came over and washed a window I couldn't reach. Kirk came and worked on moving towel rods. Seth changed the front door handle. Kent washed some windows. Lena babysat Davey and Dandan.

She took them outside, played with them and stopped to snap some cute pics. Here they are.
Dandan

Davey
the pair