Final Touches on the Playground Restoration Project

Before and after of the old swings complete with new bearings and paint.

Yesterday, I put the final touches on our Playground Restoration Project by painting the new benches and the repaired rigid swings (you can see all the past posts about the playground by clicking HERE). The group from Pryluky made these last repairs and additions to the playground before the Children's Festival. We definitely couldn't have done it without them.

A splash of color for the new benches

We've been planning this outreach for a long time now and I'm so happy to see everything done. The paint we put on this Spring hasn't held up against the summer sun and humidity as well as I would have liked, but it's still a huge improvement. The children, parents, and grandparents really enjoy the repairs and additions that were made and through this we have become closer with a lot of them. It has definitely opened up doors for sharing the Gospel. I'm excited to see how God will use all of this.

Before and after of the suspended balance beam

While I was painting yesterday, several children came up to me and asked all sorts of questions. They asked things like, "What color will you paint that?", "How long will it take the paint to dry?", "What else are you going to build?", "Do the paint fumes bother you?", and so on. The question that took me by surprise came from a little boy. He said, "Why are you doing all this? Is it because you like children?" I said yes and kept painting, but I started thinking about his question.

This bench had been completely destroyed by vandals at one point.

Why did I do all that work? There have been plenty of times when I was frustrated because fresh paint was ruined by kids throwing sand or ripping down "wet paint" signs or by people throwing litter all over the ground right after I had picked it all up. It can be discouraging when not everyone appreciates what you have done, but I didn't do the work to try and please everybody. So why did I do it?

Jesus said, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these." Matthew 19:14

And he said: "I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever welcomes a little child like this in my name welcomes me." Matthew 18:3-5

I did it so that the children would have a safe place to play, that they might come and through outreaches like the Children's Festival come to know the name of Jesus as Lord and Savior.

Children's Festival

Maxime dressed for a fashion relay race.

Yesterday we held a Children's Festival on the playground outside of our apartment with the help of eleven people from Calvary Chapel Pryluky. We also cleaned up the playground, added four new benches, repaired the old swings, and added a suspended balance beam before the festival. I can't believe how much we accomplished in just one day. The festival was a huge success in that God's word was taught and the name of Jesus was made known as our Lord and Savior to about fifty kids (not counting about fifteen or so that came late or simply just watched the other kids participate). It doesn't get much better than that.

Songs and prayer to gather the children.

The team had five stations with four rotating groups broken down by age. The theme was, "Jesus is the way, and the truth, and the life". There were crafts, Bible Teaching, worship songs, activities, and face painting. The festival ended with songs, a prayer, and a water balloon toss. Words can't really describe how much God blessed our time with the children and with everyone from Pryluky, so I'll let the pictures do most of the talking.

Edna and Olya discussing the festival.

We were happy to see that several mothers and grandmothers thanked us for our work on the playground and for the festival. It was interesting to see how many people in the surrounding apartments were all watching and listening to the music from their balconies. A few people watched the festival from the benches on the playground, including our neighbor Olya (who also helped us out with the cooking). Olya and Natasha, the woman whose husband died last week (see post), said they both want to come to church with us next week. Praise God.

Max and Dominic uncovering an ancient walkway and border.

Max and Yana painting the street with John 14:6.

Kolya and Max replacing the bearings on the old swings.

Dasha and Dasha. "Jesus - the way, and the truth, and the life!"

Max and Sasha securing a balance beam.

Building new benches.

Testing the new attraction.

Sasha finishing the benches.

"God loves you!"

Tanya with her group on the new benches.

Max teaching about salvation only through Jesus Christ.

Natasha painting faces and hands.

Dasha, Vika, and Tanya with happy faces, literally.

"Jesus"

Maryna helping lead the kids in a song.

Water balloon toss.

You can see the rest of the photos we took by clicking HERE.

New Swings (more fun, less dangerous)

Today I decided to put up the two swings we had brought from California. The kids had never really seen swings like this before and were a little uneasy about how to use them at first. All the swings I've seen here are either rigid metal or wood. They won't give if a child were to walk in front of one that was in motion. (Dominic witnessed this first hand when he saw a man accidentally get hit in the face by one of these contraptions.)

These are the typical rigid metal swings you see on playgrounds here.

The kids quickly got over their initial fears and started pushing these new "chain swings" to the limit. For awhile it was boys against girls as they competed to see who could touch the opposite overhead support with their feet first. Eventually the girls won out and took control of both swings forcing the boys to find other means of entertainment.

The girls have been using the swings non stop since I put them up. We are so happy that we could do this for the children in our neighborhood. We are even more excited about finishing the repairs we have planned for the playground and hosting a children's festival for all the kids the first Saturday in September. A group of people will be coming from the Pryluky church to help us do this so that we can share Christ with these children in both word and deed. Please pray that many children will come and have God's Word sown in their hearts.

Goodbye to Painting (for now)

Sasha painting while Maryna takes a break

Dominic stayed home from school today so that he could help with the painting on the playground. He was a huge help, but I think he was wishing he had gone to school by the end of the day. As usual, we had more offers of helping hands than we could accommodate. The smart ones like Maryna actually scheduled an appointment and Sasha made me promise to reserve a brush for her.

Maryna painting while the boys just stand around and watch (Interestingly enough, this happens a lot with adults, men stand around and watch while the women do all the work)

It took us all day, but I think we've done about as much as we can before we leave for California on the 27th. The rest will have to wait until we come back. There's still a lot we need to do, but the difference we've made so far is very encouraging. The children, parents, and grandparents really appreciate it and we have been blessed by the response.

Dominic helping Maryna with the spots she missed

At the end of the day it was such a blessing to look down on the playground and see all the children running around and playing as parents and grandparents watched. Hopefully the kids will be more willing to take care of the playground since they had a hand in bringing it back to life.

Maryna and Sasha

Although we aren't completely finished, here are a few before and after photos that show a little of our progress.

Caught Red Handed (as well as blue, green, and yellow)

Maxime painting the sandbox for the little kids

Today, I continued working on the playground with the help of the neighborhood children. All of their parents love the fact that the playground is getting fixed up, but I'm not sure how they feel about their children being covered in paint each day. No one has complained yet. In fact, one of the mothers gave me and Edna a box of chocolate and told us how much she appreciated us fixing up the playground.

Oksana finishing up the Ukrainian Horse on Tuesday (She still has blue hands)

Dasha, Masha, Yuliya, and Maryna posing by the horse

Anyway, all the kids love working on the playground. I do the repairs and they do as much painting as I'll let them. Apparently kids here never get the chance to paint. The adults won't let them. The word has gotten out that I'm handing kids paint brushes and paint and turning them loose on the playground. This has led to kids I've never seen before showing up and asking to paint. One girl today came from over a mile away in a different neighborhood to get a chance to fling some paint around. Another girl actually made an appointment with me to paint after she gets out of school tomorrow. I had to promise here a time slot and color. She wants to paint something blue. Is painting really that fun?

Leeza taking a turn painting

Dasha being very careful

Dasha's twin sister Masha completing the sandbox

Playground Restoration Project (Getting Started)

Maryna and Nastya putting on the finishing touches

Today was the day we had scheduled to fix up the playground outside of our apartment. Unfortunately, the team from Pryluky had to cancel at the last minute. (We are hoping that they can still come at the end of the month though to help with the big stuff.) We decided to start on the playground since all the children were expecting us to be working on it and we had most of the materials we needed. (I spent yesterday replacing the missing and rotting wood and securing everything that was coming loose on the climbing structure.) We figured there would be some kids that would want to help out and we weren't disappointed. There were more than enough kids who were willing to remove graffiti, scrape paint, and slap on the bright new stuff.

The only problem we had were the really small children who were drawn to the shiny new (and still wet) paint like flies on honey. Some parts on the structure had to be painted three times. Some of the parents just weren't fast enough to prevent their little ones from getting yellow and blue hands. I finally had to post some of the kids on the playground to guard the freshly painted climbing structure until I could put a barrier around it. Even then a few curious little ones had to be shooed away by the bigger kids.

We are looking forward to spending time with the neighborhood kids working on the playground together. Some of them made me promise to let them paint after school next week so it looks like I'll have plenty of little helping hands. Thanks to everyone who helped us out with the costs to begin restoring this once beautiful playground.

Before

After - Amazing what a little paint can do