Wayne's Blog

It probably wouldn’t surprise you to hear that someone with Australian blood likes too keep warm.  I love my toasty warm ugg boots.  But somehow I’ve become a heating system addict.  I just can’t help but share the warmth!

Ask anyone in our church, when pastor Vanya (that’s me) does house calls, the first thing he does after entering someone’s house is goes for the nearest radiator to check if it’s working.

It all began with the year long gas/heating project 8 years ago.  2001 was the year of the heating project.  At that time furnaces had an aura about them (oh magic white box that produces heat for my house!)… that is until they started breaking down!  Then we started opening them up and learning the nuts and bolts about keeping them running and everbody happy and WARM!

I never thought that my experience would develop into a ministry!  Over the past few weeks, I’ve fixed or regulated numerous furnaces and heating systems.

Tolik reconnecting wires on Baba Katya's electric furnace

Babushka Katya, is nearly blind. Her electric furnace blew and was without warm for nearly a week during -15 oC temperatures.  That’s pretty serious. I’m glad we were able to rectify then problem.

Icicles on the outside air inlet, low water pressure, clogged water filters and heat exchangers, electrical ‘brown’ outs, burst radiators, burnt out heating elements, air pockets.

The biggest problems is actually caused by Kaharlyk’s extremely poor quality water.  It creates a lime or iron/rust deposit that eventually clogs up the furnace heat exchangers (incidently the most expensive part).

Thankfully the church (and our home) heating system is running well. The only glitches have been to do with electricity. So, we’re ordering stabilizers and a back up power supply that’ll see us through a couple days if the power is out.