At this very moment LifeNets is sponsoring an English Class in the Carpathian Region of Ukraine. The program runs from July 5-20, 2011. Vasyl and Irina Polichko, directors, bring in children from Vinogradov and surrounding areas along with their orphans and street children that they take care of themselves.

LifeNets has chosen five people to go on the third such mission. Previous missions can be reviewed at http://lifenets.org/vinogradov. Those going are Oleh Kubik (coordinator), Natasha Kubik, Heather Kubik, Gregory and Stephka Zajack. Oleh Kubik who speaks both Ukrainian and English was born of Ukrainian immigrants. He teaches ESL (English as a Second Language) in the local school district in New York and works with Ukrainian immigrants in the Binghamton, New York area.

Natasha, Oleh Kubik's daughter, has  finished her second year of college. She has also worked with street children in Sri Lanka and India.  

Heather Kubik has been on several mission trips to foreign counties and has worked with disadvantaged children.

Gregory and Stephka are brother and sister from Southern California. Their father is of Ukrainian heritage. Both are familiar with some Ukrainian.

The purpose of the trip is humanitarian in nature. They are assisting a local pastor Vasyl Polichko who along with his wife Irina puts on this summer camp annually. They will be there to assist his camp program by teaching English and expanding the world of these disadvantaged children. They will be either exposing these students to English or expanding their knowledge of the English language. This will be done through conversation, writing, listening, speaking and singing in English.  They also will mutually share cultures with one another. They will also be involved with their activities of sports and travel and have every intention of making friends for life.  

Here's what some of the participants have to say about their goals as they leave....

From Gregory Zajac - 

"My goal in teaching these children is to give them the confidence to aspire for a better future life than they have today. I hope the fact that my grandparents came from Ukraine will help me connect with these children in a more meaningful way during my time with them. I also believe this experience will help prepare me for service in the Kingdom of God, when Christ will send us to far-off regions of the globe to teach his way to people who have never known it." 

From Heather Kubik -

"In Ukraine, I hope to experience a taste of the Ukrainian culture and get a better idea of where our family came from. While working with the kids, I am excited to work with them, teaching them English, but also learning from them. It will be interesting working around the language barrier, but I am excited to find ways to bond with the kids and enjoy my time with them. I will be teaching English as a second language through pictures and stories to the kids and plan to make it as fun as possible! I am also very excited to see where my grandparents grew up and meet relatives over in Ukraine!" 

Read the remainder of this story on LifeNets website at http://lifenets.org/vinogradov/july2011Mission.htm. 

LifeNets North Dakota Chapter Provides Sandbagging Support
For Bismarck Flooding and makes $1000 Donation for Victims 

by Pam Redline 

                                                                    LifeNets North Dakota Director

The worst natural disaster ever to hit North Dakota came upon our fine state.  Home owners, businesses, schools, and churches have gathered together, forging a common brotherhood to meet adversity head on.  The fast-rising waters of the Missouri River claimed properties as quickly as you can say "sandbag." 

Pam Redline

LifeNets North Dakota Chapter volunteers, Georgia and Colleen Faul, Herb Teitgen, Ralph, Pam and Britton Redline helped make sandbags in effort to help their community "wage war on the waves" as the water levels continue to rise. These LifeNets volunteers homes are not in danger. Other efforts of these staff include assisting with the delivery and placement of the sandbags to residents in need, unloading the trucks, and helping build levies, dikes, and berms, around citizen's homes.  Moving furniture from homes, or helping to remove carpet from lower levels is another way they have assisted. LifeNets North Dakota donated $1000 to the relief efforts.  

My friend Carrie just sent me an email which reads: "Thank you to all of you who helped us move..... almost all our belongings..... out of our home. We couldn't have done it without each one of you.  We are still battling water in our basement, but it nothing compared to the problems that others are having to deal with."  Carrie is a personal friend of mine whom  I met years ago.  Her home is one of those directly affected by the flood.  I am sending you more pictures, this is a very good video that will give you details of the flooding so far. (you can see this on our website at http://lifenets.org/nd/bismarckflood2011.htm).  Hogue Island is on the northwest river bank of the Missouri, on the Bismarck side of the river.  I have ridden my bike down in this beautiful area of the city when I was training for the LifeNets triathlon.  It is shocking to see that the roads I have ridden on, no longer exist. 

Sandbags

LifeNets board member, Cheryl Glasser, and her family live in a potential flood area though, at this writing, they have moved their belongings to the top floors of the house for protection. Cheryl said their sump pump began moving water from their collection tank just last week.  The basements and main floors of other homes, not in her region, have already been counted as a loss. 

Making sandbags, or "sandbagging" as it is referred to here (and shown on the right), involves one

Read the remainder of this story at http://lifenets.org/nd/bismarckflood2011.htm