Wayne's Blog

For many months our reconstruction/facility upgrade project has consisted of paperwork and negotiations. That all changed last week when we concreted of a 216m2 section on the roof our warehouse.  Finally,  we have something to show for all our efforts. This 20cm layer of reinforced concrete will become the floor of the new biodiesel production room on the 2nd floor.  This is a massive step forward for us. It brings us closer to having a production facility worthy of showing to visitors. It’ll also become a showcase for potential financial partners of future projects.

One aspect of our vision for Community Transformation is to create a type of  ‘School of Bioenergy’ to demonstrate  how multiple sources of renewable energy (biodiesel, biogas and biomass) can be created from locally sourced materials and/or utilised at one site. These energy sources can then be integrated into other income generating streams, along the way providing energy independence.    Future projects at this site will include: 1) Grain drying, storage and oil seed pressing; 2) Integration of  biogas, mushroom growing and biofertilizer production; 3) Biomass chips/pellets production for heating.  All of these directions will be exciting developments to our enterprise but… back to present.

The race is now on to finish the hangar construction on time.  This stage will cost $30,000 for materials and $15,000 for the work.  We would appreciate your prayers and investment into completing this project.  Every little bit helps and will be reinvested back into the community.

Once completed, we’ll have one of Ukraine’s only legally commissioned and currently operating biodiesel facilities.  At our current production levels we are already employing 7 people. Increased production will allow us to take on new workers and influence more lives.

Please pray for:

• Finances and financial partners for this next construction phase.
• Protection from evil, corruption and foolishness
• Mercy for quick commissioning (Redtape here is a licence for serious corruption)
• Continuing favour and understanding with our local business partners
• Increased oil supply

With the fall of the Soviet Union, the Ukrainian ‘sport culture’ has been in steep decline.  There is no money in the government and sport is nowhere near the top of the priority list.  The result is a life lacking physical activity, team work and other skills for millions of Ukrainian kids.  Also, the ‘street’ after school has become is a major moral influence for this generation since parents are busy making ends meet.

Praise God! Some big things are happening in Kaharlyk as we push forward to our vision to influence the lives of hundreds of local boys and girls through developing cricket in our region.

Our JUGS bowling machine has FINALLY arrived! I’m glad the saga of bringing it through Ukrainian customs is over.  It is the first bowling machine in the entire country and is already being used to train our local batsmen.   There has also been quite a lot of excitement from our Indian friends concerning the machine. I’m predicting, that we’ll be having visitors more often to improve their batting skills.

The construction of the fully-enclosed outdoor batting cage here at the church is almost complete.  The warehouse, where we train during winter has a terrible leaking roof that is proving impossible to fix without drastic (and expensive) measures.  The water makes batting less enjoyable but it makes bowling slippery and dangerous.  So, as soon as this outdoor batting cage is ready, we’ll move everything to the church for the summer months.  I’m sure local passers by will take quite an interest.

By far the biggest breakthrough for cricket (and sport development) for our region has been the Kaharlyk mayor’s agreement to our proposal to put in a sports field (maybe two!) in a new area of town! The surveyor should be out there within the next couple days.  Then we can begin ground preparation work.  A field will be a major asset in our efforts to work with kids locally but there is every chance that it’ll become the home of cricket in Ukraine.   By hosting visiting Ukrainian (and even international!) teams we’ll go a long way to putting Kaharlyk on Ukraine’s tourist map!

To make this 3 hectare dream become reality we need:

1. assistance in levelling the ground (not a simple task) approx $3000
2. money for grass seed ($15000 for 3 ha)  MOST IMPORTANT NOW!!
3. a serious ride-on mower. ($7000)
4. God’s continuing favour (politically, organisationally and weather wise).

If you’d like to invest in this project please contact me via email.

Its been six years since  we’ve  started distributing Samaritan’s Purse Box Christmas presents.  In cooperation with local government social services, we make a list of children with special needs, orphans, children who lost a parent and needy families. To start with we had 40 kids. This year we had 203 children come!

For this event we split them up into different age groups and sing songs, read Bible stories, do crafts and games. After having some snacks they get their presents. As usual, there is a lot of excitement amongst the kids.  We serve coffee and cookies to the parents while they are waiting for their kids. It is a big step for them to even step into our building. So, by serving them and blessing their kids, we are are trying to breakdown barriers.  We pray that the seeds we sow will grow. And all glory be to God.

Operation Mobilisation (OM) works in over 110 countries (including Ukraine) and sends missionaries from 100 nations! That probably makes it of the world’s most culturally diverse organisations.

Since Olya and I are integrating into OM, the team from OM Ukraine decided to send me along with Stefan, a South African doing church planting in Odessa, to the International Leaders Meeting (ILM), which was held this year in Bangkok.  Once again, God miraculously provided the finances.  So, we flew away for more than a week of meetings and networking with another 350  leaders from the OM world.

It was a real privilege to attend this gathering.  After being in semi-isolation in our ‘village’ in Ukraine for the last 15 years, it was a wonderful experience to meet so many people loving Jesus in so many different cultural settings and ministering is so many different ways.  Unfortunately, because of the work being conducted in very ‘sensitive’ countries, I can’t publish photos of some of fellow missionaries on the web.

ILM was a major immersion into the OM world.  As a result, both Stephan and I were overloaded with information about what can be done to help the missionary initiatives that are operating already in Ukraine as well as possibilities for the future.

I made lots of new contacts and quite a few new friends.  It was especially fun to rub shoulders with a bunch of fellow Aussies.  That is not something that I get to do very often.

God had special favour on me despite me loosing my voice on the second day of our stay!  With the help of  my Kaharlyk ministry video,  I was able to share from the stage  about work in Ukraine.  Also, on the last evening I got second chance to share, this time about our biodiesel enterprise.  For a country like Ukraine that has never been in the lime light, getting ‘air time’ TWICE was certainly NOT the normal thing.

Our enterprise activities fit amazingly into OM’s strategy of Business4Transformation (B4T). The goal is to bring B4T into the main stream of OM’s missions thrust.   I’ll be writing more about B4T in the future but for now I’d ask you to pray for for the Lord to connect us the strategic partners that we need for our enterprise in our calling to bring community transformation to our region in Ukraine.  Through B4T there are opportunities to reach far beyond our region.

My time in Bangkok flew by very quickly and to be honest I only left the hotel on a couple occasions.  Doing touristy things isn’t much fun without Olya.

Useful websites:

OM International

Our OM Australia web page

OM Ukraine

Business4Transformation (B4T)

When you see the layers of ice on the windows you know that the a lot of your precious warmth is escaping.

Praise God that we’ve been able to see out this winter’s big freeze.

We have come up with a system that keeps our heating bill to a minimum.  But replacing the windows still remains at the top of the priority list of things to do at the church.

They say that you loose 30% of your heat through the windows… and we have lots of big windows.  With recent worship services and Golden Oldies nights filling our hall, we have again been reminded that God brings people … and that we need to expand.  Praise God for this! So, hopefully I’ll be able to brag about some new windows in the near future!

With this winter’s deep freeze, we knew that the ice would definitely be thick enough to play cricket on the local frozen lake.  Admittedly, we had to postpone the game a few weeks for the conditions to improve from “RIDICULOUSLY cold and windy” to “simply very COLD!”

The pitch conditions proved to be extremely slippery for the batmen and there were innumerable acrobatic displays as the striker tried stay on his feet after slashing at the ball.  To the unaccomplished, our gentlemen’s game may even have looked like a strange version of pinata .  Next time we’ll need to sprinkle a little sand at the batting crease to give some traction.   There were also a few instances of nearly loosing the ball when it become buried in the more than a foot of  snow outfield!

After the game, we retired to the church building where we had a good time of food and fellowship in our newly renovated ‘cafe’/fellowship.

Not sure if we’ll start a winter cricket league but at least fun was had by most.

Wayne's Ukrainian Driver's Licence

Well, my six-month project to earn a Ukrainian Driver’s Licence has finally ended.  By the Mercy of God I passed the test  … on my fifth attempt!

I had been given lots of different advice as to what I could or should have done to make it happen faster.  And the pressure was on because my Australian Driver’s Licence was about to expire.

It was another case of  “what-you-think-you-have-the-right-to meets Ukrainian bureaucracy“.

In the end, I couldn’t just trade my Aussie licence in for a local one.  I had to go through the entire process: pay for the driving school (and wait the 3 months) + pay for the fuel + licence processing fee + sit the test (five times).  I’m told that many choose to ‘pay’ extra to pass the theory test first time round.   Maybe that explains a lot about the way Ukrainians drive!

During my first attempt (needing a score of 18/20 to pass), I was shocked that there were a number of questions that had nothing to do with driving a car. There were questions about rules for trucks, buses, … aeroplanes and submarines etc. (you may detect some sarcasm).  I was happy that at least I had a choice of whether to take the test in Russian or Ukrainian.  My understanding of Russian grammar is much better than my Ukrainian.

So, after failing the first time with a score of 13, I decided to bite the bullet do all of the brain work.  I found a website that had 93 sample tests’ and it gave explanations when you answered incorrectly.  You can ask Olya how frustrating it was for me to go through more than a  thousand questions and learn why hundreds of my answers were wrong! Believe me, you could feel the tension level in my home when dad was studying ‘road’ rules that day.

Nevertheless, over the months, I did learn a lot about Ukrainian road rules (and many other things ) and am glad that God had mercy on me and LET me pass the test … without an unofficial speed-up payment.  I think that it was a good example for the locals (especially the guys and girls whom we are discipling) that you don’t have to take a ‘short cut’ just because it’s there.

After I passed the final question, the lady who runs the local transport department was ecstatic!   She could now boast that an Australian passed the test in Russian… as if I had joined a secret club or something.

FYI, local traffic cops come in regularly to sit the test… with varying levels of success!

Yep, winter has really turned on a show this year!

Olya - off to get some groceries

Plenty of snow and it is really REALLY cold.

Olya and I arrived back Ukraine to be caught up in a winter like few can remember for decades.  It got so cold last week school was cancelled.

There have been more that 130 fatalities due to the cold. More than Some 1,800 people had been hospitalised, and 75,000 people had sought warmth and food in over 3,000 shelters across Ukraine.

It has been so cold that large portions of the Black Sea have frozen.  This hasn’t happened for 30 years!

Life suddenly becomes much simpler when the temperature drops to -3o oC.  Stay indoors as much as possible. Enjoy and beauty of your warm house (+22 oC).

The cold has also caused problems in our church furnace house.  We even had water pipes freeze and then rupturing.  Praise God for Oleg, one of the quiet servants in the church.  A couple hours later and we had the water back on.

frozen Black Sea

The real issue is the lower than usual gas pressure in the natural gas grid.  This has caused havoc with the automation of our church furnace.  So, I have been going out to the furnace has several times a day to check up on and restart the furnace.  So, some our ministries at the church have been cooler that normal.

That reminds me of a Siberian joke:  “We have Winter twelve months of the year. All the rest is Summer!”

With God’s grace the deep freeze will pass soon enough.  And we’ll be able to get out on the froze lake to play some cricket!

A big thank you to everyone that made our first ever trip to the USA possible and a success.  (Photos below)

Olya and I had a great time meeting new people and sharing about our ministry of Community Transformation in Kaharlyk.  We also were fed and FED! and drank way too much coffee   Definitely spoiled. We also did a lot of travelling over the two weeks  including 4 states, 7 flights and 3 road trips.  We ended up sleeping in 9 different places (it was all a blur, but I don’t think we slept more than two nights in any one place).

We also got to see some world famous landmarks like the Grand Canyon, Ground Zero and the State of Liberty, but our biggest highlight was seeing so many friends, who are actively involved in ministering in Ukraine, in their native American habitat.

We made new friends and are praying expectantly about where the Lord is leading.  There was a high level of interest from people in the churches where we spoke.  As a result, I would love to share in more churches in the future using my story to challenge young people in particular about living life as mission and transforming communities with the Gospel.

If you’d like to get involved with our ministry please contact me.

Here are a some photos of our trip: