We have arrived!

Well, we made it! Here we are in Kiev, Ukraine after a 5 hour lay over without food or sleep. We left home at 8:30 am on Wed. and flew to Chicago where Rich and Carol, Jack and Greg from Minnesota met up with Darlene and Tom from Michigan. That afternoon , we flew to Frankfort, Germany, arriving at 5:30 am. At the price of a Euro vs a US dollar, Tom and Greg had a hot dog (Frankfurter) for around $16. Rich bought 3 ice cream cones for a cool $20. Dar and I took a nap after the lo-ooong air flight.
We left Germany for Kiev at 9:30 and flew to Simferopol. Matt from Hope Center in Kerch met us and the last leg of the journey in the van. Great to be here! We arrived at Hope Center a little after midnight and greeted people then to bed for some much-needed sleep.


The morning coffee and breakfast at 10:30 am started our busy day on Friday. This is a picture of a school in a small village near Kerch. These beautiful little children welcomed us as we gave some packs of fruit and some received Children's pictural Bibles also. What a joy to bless them with smiles and hugs.
We had lunch and a meeting about the work trip projects. Darlene and Carol will be going out to 3 orphanages for various meetings and special activities, as well as feeding programs and helping to host a Ladies Tea. On May 1st we will be visiting the maternity hospital with many gifts. Please pray for all of these precious times when we will have the opportunity to help and "love on" the children and adults. Darlene and I will be teaching a basic sewing class tomorrow. We had a nice scenic walk by the shore of the Black Sea at sunset tonight. End of Day 1 in Ukraine!