Our conference photos, part 1

I have had these uploaded for a while, but haven't gotten to sort through and caption them. Do you still want to hear about our trip to Rovno back there at the end of May?

I don't have any photos from the trip there. It was long and tiring. We had train tickets from Odessa to Rovno, but first we had to get to Odessa. We had planned on dinner at MacDonald's there, then a nice sleep on the train, and arriving in Rovno the next morning. Hah. Our bus broke down, and we didn't make it to the train on time. Rovno is kind of a dead spot on the train schedules, so we couldn't just get tickets on the next train; there wasn't one for a few days. And everything else that even went near there was full. Finally--to make a long story short--Will got us tickets for the next day on a train to Kyiv, and then we took a marshrutka from Kyiv to Rovno. So, instead of getting there well-rested on Thursday morning, for a nice relaxing day before the conference, we arrived that evening in time for a late dinner and collapsing into bed. So, not that bad after all, but we were well-baked and exhausted.

We woke up feeling much better the next morning, though. The Agape school students were already there, and other people were starting to arrive. The whole day was set up for free time and fun and fellowship. Our children pretty much stayed on the huge inflatable jump-thing all day long and made friends with everyone. We enjoyed the lovely setting and talking to tons of people, many of whom we hadn't seen for a year or hadn't met before.

That evening the festivities really got started with graduation for the Agape school.

Bogdan and his little friend Nastia
(Her parents run the Kramatorsk adaptation center.)

Jaan and his friend Miroslav, one of the graduates

The whole graduating class

Eating cake after graduation

Tattoos?

Accordion, guitar, and... water bottle!
(Until 1:00 am, right outside our room.)

Pretty!

The next morning, I think.

Last year Will really enjoyed Jan's teaching. Apparently, this is the man we named our son after, in advance.  I was really glad to get to hear him, too.

Jaan and Miroslav again

Very thankful for this!

One of the guys who lives at the Rovno adaption center (I think?) works at a coffee shop. He brought good coffee and machines and was very busy the whole time. We loved having that right outside our room, too!

More later....