Thanks for all of you who gave and prayed toward making this another great year of "...visiting orphans in their distress" (James 1:27) and blessing abandoned children with two weeks of games, lessons, crafts, recreation, and the love of Christ! THANKS AGAIN! We couldn't do it without you. The following are the trip journal and highlights. It's impossible to list all of them, but here's enough to put a smile on your face and to REJOICE with us in this ministry! Also, if you'd like to join us at Liberty Ridge Church on Sunday October 21, 2007, we will be having a Russia presentation and pictures during the entirety of the service.
First of all, we had a GREAT TEAM this year from Liberty Ridge Church! Warren and Cindy, Ruth and Linda, Paul and Curtiss, Nicole and April, and myself and Lisa! We blended well and appreciated the opportunity to be united in the cause of blessing the orphans. Thank you for your prayers as we wrestled with relatively few illnesses and maximized many opportunities to serve each other to the benefit of the children.
Second, I want to thank God for our interpreters: Sergei, Anya, Yanna, Sveta, Yulia, and Katya. They did an incredible job translating all our letters, interpreting all the Bible lessons, and being our mouthpieces for two weeks as we spoke and shared with the children. HAT'S OFF for the translators! I also want to thank God for CHILDREN'S HOPE CHEST, our partnering agency which is responsible for our care, connection, and overarching ministry of all that we can partner to do to reach orphans at their greatest point of felt need and to give them the blessed hope of Jesus. HAT'S OFF to the Colorado-based and Russia-based team of Children's Hope Chest! It's a joy to partner with you on the slogan mission for orphans: "Confidence to fly with a safe place to land." (You can read more about the multifaceted face of this leading ministry agency to orphans worldwide at hopechest.org)
Third, I wanted to include a day-by-day PRAISE report. Some of you recieved this by email, others from my blog site, and others a hard copy in the mail. Because of you and your prayers, you can share the blessing of this ministry! I hope you'll find joy in your contribution to all that's listed below!
Mon-Wed August 6-8, 2007. Travel. Seattle-NY, NY-Moscow, Moscow-Ivanovo. We do give thanks for traveling mercies and the occasional naps needed to adjust to all the time differences. I was pleased to discover we had last year's driver "Alexie" on the long road trip. He's a safe driver. Except for one hickup of the van overheating, we got to Ivanovo region in good time and settled into our rooms with plenty of time to get a good night's rest to start the camp.
Thursday August 9, 2007. We reunited with the kids in Vasilevsky! 8 out of 10 of us have been to the orphanage prior so we were reunited with our dear friends. 2 of our team (Curtis and Lisa) got to experience for the first time the faces behind the letters of these children! Now, not ALL the children were there that first day. Due to some remodeling factors at the orphanage, over 25 of them were awaiting until the following Tuesday to arrive. This bummed us out at first as we were prepared to see ALL the kids. However, we chose to remain positive and jumped right in with the camp we've prepared for those children who WERE present. After a brief half-hour of shyness, the orphans warmed right up to us and we had a big wrestling match with a bunch of stuffed animals! Linda did the lesson that day on FRIENDSHIP WITH GOD and the memory verse was 1 John 4:11. We did a craft where we made a jewel cross and put it on a necklace. We also partnered up as "friends" and did an old-fashioned three-legged-race. The duct tape we used however pulled a lot of hair off my legs--- ouch!
Friday August 10, 2007 Cindy's lesson today was on David & Goliath! She taught on how the kids can grow to have a strong heart for God, despite our size. The memory verse was Isaiah 41:10 and 2 Thessalonians 3:3! We also used a portion of this day to prepare the ground for a big gift for the orphans: A portable pool! After crafts today, we leveled the ground and the children were all very curios about this huge 18' diameter pool that was taking so much time to fill up with water. While it was filling though, the kids took us to one of their existing swim holes... a muddy tributary next to a cow farm. Likely not the "cleanest" water to swim in, a number of us braved what might lurk in the cloudy waters and swam anyway! This was also a special day for Lisa and I. Lisa got to spend some good time with Tanya (our sponsored child) and really connect with her. Lisa has been writing Tanya for years and now was able to connect with her!
Saturday August 11, 2007 Ruth shared today about how we are Created by God to be His child and the memory verse was John 1:12. Ruth spent a lot of time learning a special song to reinforce this important truth to the children. Translators Yulia and Sveta helped sing with Ruth as the song was taught in Russian and I played the guitar. It was a beautiful song and the kids grew to enjoy it! The craft included fingerpainting a unique print to represent God's special unique gifts and traits in everyone of us! We had relay races after tea time which were also a lot of fun! Another interesting thing that happened is that Lisa and I were invited to Lydia's house, just around the corner from the orphanage. She let Lisa and I enjoy her homemade sauna (wood-powered stove in a small birch structure.). We lasted about 20 minutes as we are not use to going to saunas but we appreciated the hospitality. Just when we kind of needed to get back to the orphanage for tea time, Lydia invited us into her home "real quickly" she said. Well, it could hardly be "quick" as we found out that she had prepared an entire rabbit stew and a homemade berry pie! Needless-to-say, we enjoyed another brief stay and ate--- even when we were not hungry! I might add here that every day after the lesson, we would have a time of small group interaction with the kids with about 2-5 questions to answer to reinforce the truth of the lesson. Ruth's discussion questions focussed on the kids relationship to God through their heavenly Father and the way to heaven through Jesus! We emphasized the importance of this relationship, which most of the children have received at one time or another during one of our camps. However, we had some new kids at the orphanage as well as others who needed assurance of salvation. Not a whole lot different than running a VBS in the states, we found it our privilege to open the Word to these dear kids and let the Holy Spirit do his good work in their lives!
Sunday August 12, 2007 This was another day and extra special in some ways because we got to see all the remaining kids previously unable to get to camp! Anatoli, our orphanage director had arranged this and Curtis did the lesson on "Teamwork!" He did a great job and the memory verse was Romans 15:5. We went out to the existing soccer field and had a soccer game with some of the older boys, soon to graduate from the orphanage! It was great because they absolutely out-played us! At lunch, the orphans went to the cafeteria and Anya, our lead translator, prepared a nice picnic for us out on a hugh grassy field. As I looked at this field approximately 2000 meters long, I couldn't help but think how fun it would be to land an airplane here some day. It would be perfect for that! We laid down blankets and had to put on a little repellent, but it was a delicious lunch with various deli meats, fresh cheeses, Russian rye, freshly cut cucumbers and tomatoes, and a box of chocolate wafer cookies! MMmmmm MMM! We ate plentiful! We also began to comment amongst ourselves just how much food the Russians were serving us. It was certainly more than in years prior. So much for any thoughts of losing weight on this trip! I had some extra time with two girls that I had written over the last year: Oxana and Sveta. These two gals are graduating soon and so I got to encourage them to remember what they have been taught and to cling to the Lord while they are away at their tech school. They promised to write and I did too and I let them know that I would faithfully pray for them. On the way home from seeing the kids that day, we ate dinner in Suja (pronounced Shoo-ya) and then enjoyed a long but leisurely walk back to our hotel (to burn off those calories!).
Monday August 13, 2007 Well today was a great day to have Nicole teach her lesson: "God's Presence in our lives!" was her topic. The memory verse was Psalm 16:11. The girls spent extra time today painting their nails and it was also fun celebrating April's birthday, for she had just turned 16. The pool was done filling up this day and so we got to play in the newly filled clean pool! At first, the orphans viewed the hoses and filter going in and out of the pool and were a bit uncertain. Then we got in and began to play and you know, they were still a little shy about joining us. So we had to pull out all-the-stops. Curtis got out and backed up about 20 feet and we got all the children's attention. Then Curtis proceeded to run, jump over the pool's edge, and then did a BELLY FLOP into the water with splashes going everywhere! This broke the ice and the orphans began to see the pool as a real fun thing to swim in! From this moment on, the pool was used quite often throughout each hot day for different groups of kids as the pool could comfortably hold about 8-10 children and adults! One favorite game in the pool was to create a whirlpool. Because of the circular nature of the pool, it worked perfect to run in a circle in the pool and then collapse and let the current swirl you around the edge! It was a lot of work getting the pool there and filled up, but we were all stoked once it was all set up!
Tuesday August 14, 2007 Today we took one day off for refreshment as well as to visit the new Ministry Center in Ivanovo. We started by going to the town of Suzdahl (famous for their Orthodox cathedrals) and enjoyed some site-seeing, souvenirs, and a delicious 5-course lunch at a great restaurant. On our way back, we visited the Ivanovo Ministry Center. This is an answer to prayer! We had seen this briefly last summer, but it has come a long way since then. This center will provide many graduating orphans in Ivanovo Region opportunity to get training, affirmation, and encouragement! They can come to the Ministry Center for further education, relaxation, spiritual instruction, appropriate dental care, and experienced training in independent living at Tech Center schools, along with affirmation and interaction with healthy Christian adults who will work at the center as both paid and volunteer staff. We were pleased at all the new equipment and furniture that was coming in and that it would officially launch September 15th of this year! Pray for this new Ministry Center! This center is a bright spot for graduating orphans in a world and culture that for all practical purposes is statistically very discouraging for orphans! Before we departed for dinner, we got down on our knees in the newly remodeled family room and asked God to fill this new center with many needy orphans needing encouragement and blessing from this Christian ministry!
Wednesday August 15, 2007 Camp starts again! Today we start week two of Camp with my lesson that was "Fly High with Jesus!" and I was all set with 60 rechargeable airplanes. However, today got off to a slow start. We were suppose to do our lesson in the later morning as usual. However, most of the kids were gone doing something (we didn't know what) and a majority of the soon-to-be grads were in town getting some new clothes for leaving the orphanage. So, we rebooted our plan to do something after lunch and then it got real hot outside. So the kids begged that we could go swimming instead of staying inside for the lesson where it was really warm and humid. Naturally I wanted to accomplish the lesson when most of the kids were content and present, so we rebooted again our plan to do it after tea time. The day cooled off and there seemed to be enough energy w/the kids to do the lesson, so we all assembled. Our memory verse was Hebrews 12:1-2 and we talked about how with God, they too can fly in life, even soar! I've always loved the trademark-vision that Children's Hope Chest has for orphans---- "Confidence to Fly with a Safe Place to Land." As a pilot, I really resonate with that. These kids need to FLY! So, for our crafts we built model airplanes that have a rechargeable battery to power the propeller. We had them write their name on one wing, and then, their dream job or career on the other wing. It was a hit! All the neighbors came to watch too! We walked out to the field and flew them. A few of them crashed, and we replaced most of them with new airplanes, but most of them took off real high! Some of them never returned! My favorite was Alena's airplane flight. She had accidentally busted her plane on the walk out to the field and she was sad. She told me about it and I couldn't help but give her my plane. We charged the battery w/the 30-second charger and launched it. It climbed and climbed and climbed. Then, it just climbed out of sight! She ran over 400 meters in hopes of it returning to the ground but it never did. She was a bit sad that she lost the plane, however, I reminded her (via the translator) that perhaps her plane was like a "prayer to God," and that she could expect God to help her fly high in life, even higher than she imagined! She smiled again after receiving another plane. Naturally, this was my favorite episode of the day.
Thursday August 16, 2007 This was the day where we focussed on the children's relationships with each other! April taught today on "Friendship with Others" and our verse for the day was Proverbs 12:26. The kids absolutely loved the craft of weaving their own 'friendship' bracelets. They were a multi-colored bracelet and even many of the boys enjoyed putting one together! The recreation that day included the Circle Game of which we got some good participation and laughter! We put the swimming pool to use again today since it was so hot. We even had a secondary swimming excursion that Lisa and I got to attend with approximately 6 of the girls in the Family Group down at the river. Lisa and I enjoyed extra time w/Tanya during this time and our favorite part was playing in the inner-tubes in the water!
Friday August 17, 2007 FIELD TRIP DAY! Wa hoo! Today is the day everyone has been looking forward to--- it's FIELD TRIP DAY! This was a hit last year as well as this year! We rent a bus, take the kids into Suja park, ride the Ferris wheel and spin-monster, go row-boating on the Suja river, and top it off with a 4-course meal at the nice Cafe! Anya our translator and lead director did a phenomenal job arranging the details. Everything went as planned. We laughed, we yelled on the rides, we took pictures, we drank Coke, and we created some great memories! At the end of the day after the meal, we gave all the children their gift bags and they got to share the excitement for another hour of all the little gifts they received (thanks to a lot of folks at LRC who contributed to the gift bag projects!). At the end of the day, they were smiling and quite happy. Tanya told me at my table, "This is the best day!" After dropping off the children, we ate at the Hotel that evening and then headed over to visit an old friend "Galina" in the flat next to the Hotel. Galina is the mother of our orphanage director, Anatoli. She is so sweet. Well into her seventies (if not eighties), this dear widow climbs eleven flights of stairs to get in-and-out of her flat (apt.). She also has a garden, which she loves to show us each year. Then she loads us up with homemade jam and cucumbers and squash. Such a dear old friend, we just love to visit her. Cindy helped assemble a gift bag for Galina as well.
Saturday August 18 Paul Rogers got to teach today and we all love to hear Paul Rogers. Usually he starts with a good joke or two and some folks even laugh! This year he and the kids enjoyed the same thing, and it was pretty funny. Paul then spoke on how God's love is unconditional and his memory verse was Romans 8:28! We had a good discussion spiritually with the kids on this one, especially during small group time. Dima, a 9-year old new orphan at Vasilevsky, responded "medium" when we asked the question: "How much is God's love toward each of you?" When Dima said, "medium", it opened our small group up to a good discussion to talk about further Scriptures on how BIG God's love is. We think Dima and the other children walked away with a beautiful truth about God that day. Then, the craft-time was a real hit. April thought of this idea to make pillows. We brought the stuffing and covers and they all went to town making pillows--- even the older boys! At this moment, I had what you might call a "sacred moment." As the kids were sewing their pillows, I grabbed my guitar and started playing some background music--- I believe it was the melody of "Shout to the Lord." Warren grabbed his flute and played the melody. As we were playing and watching all the kids sew their pillows, it was as though I saw the blessing of God on these dear orphans. They were so content, so engaged in the project. All the Americans were interspersed amidst them and the translators and there was talking, laughter, and fellowship. I guess that's what I saw at that moment--- fellowship and intimacy that went beyond language, culture, etc. It was a beautiful sight and we continued to play the song over and over as we were all reveled in the moment of being together. It gave me a fresh appreciation that indeed God was giving us grace to truly "... visit the orphan..." and bring some relief to "...their distress." (James 1:27). On a different note, this trip to Russia did afford me one opportunity as a pilot to contribute to a vision I've had for years called ForTheOrphans.com. So, on the way home that evening, I was able to make prior arrangements to meet a pilot and a builder of airplanes there in downtown Suja at his hangar. My friend and fellow aviation enthusist Jimmy Sauter discovered him on our 2005 trip. Sergio is an engineer and pilot who is 6' 5' with bright blond hair. He is building what he and his company hope to be some of the future airplanes that general aviators in Russia will soon fly. His hanger/factory was well tooled and impressive. We had a great discussion and I shared his enthusiasm for next year's government goal in 2008. Russia will be releasing the new civil aviation laws sometime in 2008. Russian aviators have been waiting for this for it is hopeful that the new Aeronautical Laws will make General Aviation for civilians of small planes less prohibitive. The current laws are still from the Soviet era, which makes it considerably difficult for mere civilians to just hop in an airplane and go flying. For example, they need to plan about 2-5 days in advance and have a "flight plan" approved. The nearest office to do that is in Ivannovo, 40 kilometers away. So a faxed request or personal visit is necessary. Certainly workable, but not necessarily convenient. I also got to tour Sergio's latest plane prototype, which he hopes to successfully market in Russia. It looked like a nice plane, similar in size and horsepower to a Super Cub or perhaps an Aviat Husky, but with pop-rivets instead of flush, and sporting a well powered Subaru diesel. I was also extremely impressed that he fabricated his own propellers right there in the factory--- he had an entire jig tooled just for props! It seemed no stretch that he could manufacture a half-dozen airplanes at a time from the looks of his operation. My only regret was that I wasn't going to be able to be around when he test-flew the new prototype the following Saturday. This model was the third prototype, which had a larger engine and a more generous cockpit. He mentioned the first one had weight-and-balance issues and the second was somewhat underpowered. Overall, I was grateful to have had some contact with another aviator in Russia. I was also glad to hear that aviation is moving in a positive direction.
Sunday August 19, 2007 Today was a great day because we got to hear Warren share his gift and his message "Make a joyful noise unto the Lord!" Warren's memory verse was Psalm 147:1 of course! The craft was a homemade percussion "shaker" and the lesson on learning the tin whistle! Here is where a real praise from God took place: We didn't think that the older boys would enjoy that much learning how to play the tin whistle, however, the Lord opened up an incredible door. The older boys like RAP music and some pretty hard screamin' rock. So we thought, how will they enjoy this instrument, the tin whistle? Then, on the boom box, as one of their songs came on called "A little this, a little that" by some grunge band from Germany called "Rothstein", a very distinct melody could be heard at the very beginning of the song. Warren, being the professional musician that he is, IMMEDIATELY replicated that melody on the tin whistle as the boys were hearing it on the CD player. This prompted tremendous enthusiasm to learn the tin whistle! For the next couple of hours, Warren helped them learn a song on this whistle and we all marveled at how quick they picked it up and the joy they were experiencing as they were learning it! This was so cool as it gave Warren a real neat way to connect with the older boys! On another note this day, we had music lessons and I got to teach some boys how to play the guitar. We had 5 students and I taught them some basic chords. I was happy with the class and the general enthusiasm to learn. One student, Artoyn, wanted to learn the chords to a fast dance song called "Alleluia! Alleluia!" which we sang almost every morning to kick off the day of camp. I was blessed to see his continued interest. However, on the last day of camp when we were saying goodbye, I got a surprise. "Artoyn," came up to me with a translated letter. It said, "David, thanks for teaching me guitar. I have decided to make it my goal in life to learn the guitar." I was stoked! This was the coolest thing to hear on my last day with the kids! I look forward to sending him more resources. Perhaps Artoyn will be a worship leader some day in the church in Russia!
Monday August 20, 2007 My wife Lisa was really enjoying her first trip to Russia! Many little miracles had to come together for her to come with the team this year. They happened! Lisa was also really enjoying the camp and it was now her turn to teach. Lisa taught today on "Lighten the Load" and her memory verse was Matthew 11:28. She did well speaking on how we need to leave our burdens with Jesus and take upon Jesus' "yoke" burden for it is light. It was a key message for the kids to hear and they appreciated it. The craft time included making large "bubbles" with their bubble making kit reinforcing the idea that God can lift their burden. Some of the bubbles they made were HUGE. We also played balloon games where we would have relay races with the balloons and various games popping the balloons! We also had a number of Americans and orphans swim together one last time in the new pool since it was the last day. Overall, it was a great way to wrap up camp. At this point, we were also feeling "light" in the sense that we had contributed two weeks of our lives to these dear kids. We were all a little more "clingy" today, as we knew that tomorrow morning would be officially "goodbye" day. We thanked the Lord for his grace to complete the camp and that the caretakers, directors, cooks, translators, and even the custodian (Alexi) all did their part to make this a special two weeks for the orphans. We had gift bags for the director, all his assistants and caregivers, and the part-timer workers and custodian. "We thank you God for a smooth camp" was our prayer as we drove back to the hotel that evening.
Tuesday August 21, 2007 Wow, it's the last morning. We packed our bags and loaded the van to go back to Moscow. However, on the way back, we stopped at the orphanage to give our last letters, hugs, and good-byes. We did and we were blessed that they were all just as anxious to hug us close and say their wet-eyed "good-byes." I had some extra AA batteries to give to all the kids and I flew the Radio Control model airplane one more time for about 10 observers. Unfortunately, it wasn't one of the best flights. So, I glued it back together and gave it to Dima and Denis who live in the same room together. They mentioned they would hang it on the wall and that perhaps "we could fly it next year." Now this morning our translators were on full duty. Last minute letters from the kids and last minute letters from the Americans were being written simultaneously and they were translating like crazy sitting down with their pens whizzing along from Russian-to-English, and English-to-Russian. They did SUCH a great job! We had had a special party for the translators the night prior where we thanked them for their great work along with little gifts from us for the friendships we've developed during the journey! Naturally, as noon grew closer and lunch was served, we all began to feel the reality that it was now time to say Goodbye. It was emotional of course, and rightly so! Most of us including myself found it quite difficult to actually load the van to go. But I always love this time as well. It's a time where we can celebrate all that God gave us together over the two weeks and we confirmed all of it with the amount of hugs we encountered, just in the last 6 minutes of saying Goodbye! The translators again were right with us translating and re-translating dozens of times, "I love you" "God bless you" "Write me soon." Wow, what a blessing of a camp... we were thankful for the experience and we knew that what we did and what we felt that moment was indeed "in Jesus Name" and would not be forgotten. Our cameras were thoroughly charged and were clicking madly. We have no less than thousands of pictures from our digital cameras to document the entire trip, even these last few minutes of blessing, as well! The van departed with lots of waves and some of the kids running along side the van until it went out of sight. It was quiet in the van for about 10 minutes. A great time of reflection and a great time of just committing all those dear children over to the hands of God until the next time He crosses our paths again. "Thank you Lord for our children in Vasilevsky" was indeed our prayer. Upon arriving back in Moscow that evening, it was a quieter evening just resting. Tomorrow will be a day of general touring and picking up last-minute gifts and items for coming home. Everyone appeared to sleep well tonight!
Wednesday August 22, 2007 The day started early with a good breakfast as we were going to begin our tour at 8:15am. The translators met us and we went to the Memorial Museum of World War II. Most of the team so thoroughly enjoyed this last year, we desired to observe this again. Russia lost between 20-26 million soldiers in this war and this museum does a phenomenal job replicating the events and battles of World War II. After the museum, we enjoyed a nice lunch near Arbott Street. Arbott is a famous main street in Moscow with plenty of entertainment and booths to purchase all kinds of souvenirs and such. We brushed up on our 'bargaining' phrases and then shopped. After shopping we took the Metro Transit to the infamous Russian Circus. While having seen this circus years ago in 2000, I was at least as impressed as the first time. A great blend of trapeze, gymnastics, choreographical dance, and animal tricks with bears, dogs, and tigers. After a day of all this, we were ready to take off our shoes and go to sleep. Tomorrow we would head back to the United States.
Thursday August 23, 2007 TRAVEL Final Thoughts & PRAISE Dear Liberty Ridge Church, financial and prayer supporters, neighbors, friends, and all who read this in email, hard copy, or my blog site: THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU for your support and prayers. Because you gave from your heart and gave of your time to watch our children, our homes, our pets, our overlooked responsibilities while we were gone, the GOOD NEWS of Jesus was shared and FELT among some of the abandoned children of the world! Because of you, a smile was put on the face of an orphan in Jesus Name! Because of you "a cup of cold water in His name" (Matthew 10:42) was delivered and did not go unnoticed! Because of you and your prayers, we experienced team unity, relatively few health issues, and a confidence to make a difference in the life of a child! Thank you Thank you Thank you! What can we say to all of this? THANKS GOD! And stay stoked. David David Underwood Ps: If after reading this, you may feel prompted to come with us next year. Why not come with us? Please call or email if you want to be put on the "I'll think and pray about it" list for Russia Team '08!
Now, the following is LAST YEAR'S HIGHLIGHTS!
Each year, a team of our church visits our orphanage in Vasilevsky Russia! It's an orphanage our church sponsors and it has been a tremendous blessing to serve these dear children! This report is about our latest trip!
Russia 2006 started really well. Ruth & April Halverson, Linda Pate, Paul Rogers, Ben Palm, Matthew Jensen, Nicole St. Peter, Sara Highhouse and I all arrived safely in Moscow and had a wonderful tour that Friday, June 16th.
We traveled Saturday June 18th to Ivanovo to pick up our translators--- three of which we had last year - Anya, Sveta, Yulia, and a new translator named Helen. They enjoyed being reunited with us and we got to Suja and settled at our hotel.
One of the things we had to adjust to right away was a change of plan. The Dept of Education made a decision that our orphans would be at different particular camp this week. So that took us by surprise! Consequently when we arrived on Sunday morning, we were a little bit shy to get involved because our orphanage had many new kids we hadn't met yet and we weren't sure which were "ours" or if they belonged to another orphanage. Starting off like that was a bit tough! We prayed and rebooted our expectations and hey, God did answer and were were off to be with our orphans at this new camp!
Monday we jumped right in with faith and we started our camp and things went very well for the first day. I think one of the exciting things about this new camp location is that we got to do a lot more swimming with the kids---- and the orphans absolutely love to swim. April Halverson taught that first day on prayer and perseverance and she prepared a craft mask and had a lot of fun! The first day was a total turnaround! It was so good to see what this camp was going to look like for 2 weeks and we had a lot more hope that things were going to be fine!
Tuesday Paul Rogers kicked off the day with a little magic show and did a great job and the kids really enjoyed it! He got the kids laughing and it was fun! We also got the kids reinitiated on what we did last year with "finger exercises"--- a rap beat song with your index finger - the kids had a lot of fun! Our discussion groups went cool too because we compared the "illusions" to how we can be deceived by temptation!
Wednesday Linda did the Gospel message and shared from John 14:6 and had a powerful time talking about the sin nature. Kids responded very positively to the good news and most shared that they, like last year, had made a commitment to Christ--- so we were grateful! Another highlight of Wednesday's camp was hanging out with the kids and doing more swimming! The kids were starting to really warm up and loosen up and getting used to the new team members we brought this year. Smiles, laughter, etc! For this we were very thankful because we were praying all the adjustments with the new camp would not take away in our bonding with the orphans and our team!
On Thursday we had Matthew Jensen teach with his hacky-sack! He had given all the kids a hacky sack and then he talked about comparing life to gravity. The hacky sack "coming down" represented our lives and--- God is the "master Hacky Sacker" Who keeps our lives up! We had some cool discussion on this! I think this illustration connected! The breaking up into small groups after the discussion was tremendous! We broke up the kids into 4 groups--- with a translator in each group and 2 of our staff members! We all left Thursday stoked.
Friday we did something really cool! We took the bus to the park and then to a nice café for a real sit down meal that they never get to do! They were so excited ALL DAY about this unique experience! I can't begin to explain how much joy we got watching them on the Ferris Wheel in the park, playing guitar and singing songs with them, and going to eat a NICE lunch at the cafe topped off with a big bowl of ice cream in a glass bowl! The kids were just floored! We also gave them a "gift bag" each at the end of the day just to show them that we love them! They had a wonderful time and were so thankful to be a part of this joyous day! We will definitely being doing something similar to this next year!
Saturday we had our day off at Suja - we had a wonderful day going to two museums and went out to a nice buffet lunch and just chilled. Our tour director was a historian and showed us all about Ivanovo's history. We got back to the hotel early and caught up on letters, made some phone calls back home, and got ready for camp the next day.
Sunday morning was great and it was my day to teach! The theme was "how to fly high with Jesus in Life". I had 60 model airplanes and got them into the kid's hands and they got to build them. After a short message from John 10:10, I also recorded the sounds of them flying the airplanes in the pasture. I had an absolutely wonderful day! My joy came from their joy! It made it such a wonderful day to watch the kids flying them. They put their names on one wing and then put a goal or career on the other. Some wanted to be a doctor, some a welder, etc and they wrote it on the plane and then threw them up in the air and all the planes flew so HIGH! They were chasing them--- all of them, in circles all around the cow pasture! Sunday was just a highlight for me and I felt like God answered my prayers.
Monday, Sara Highhouse did a phenomenal job talking about ROYALTY and how we are God's children. We used the Burger King crowns to have them make their own crown and they painted and decorated it just they way they wanted! They glued on sequins and other cool things and Sara did a wonderful job communicating what it means to be a child of God! Another great day with the orphans.
Tuesday, today, Nicole did an incredible job talking about purity and a neat little lesson on why commitment and standards in relationships are so important. The kids just ate it up! We were stoked! I was pleasantly surprised on how much the kids understood this concept and desired to save themselves for that future person some day. Nicole wrapped it up with a great craft. We built cars with the theme "Who's in the Driver's Seat" - is God in the drivers seat or are you in the driver's seat? The Craft went so well. The kids loved it and some of them spent over an hour and a half building and painting their own car! So, again, another van ride back to the hotel with the whole team smiling!
On Wednesday Ben did a great job teaching about UNITY. He was just talking about baseball teams and how everyone has to work together. So also God has gifted each one with a special gift or talent to benefit everyone else. He talked about how the body of Christ works together and how when unified, we can move forward and bless each other instead of against each other. It was another time of just playing around with the kids that day and talking about their goals and ambitions and including a quick word of affirmation for each one. Ben did a great job on this team and we were thankful for his word on unity!
Thursday came and wow, we couldn't believe it was all wrapping up! On Thursday our last day with the kids, the theme was "Preserving your Life for Eternity". Wow - what a special job Ruth did today! She gave a devotion on how God wants to preserve their lives and bless their lives and compared it to preserves (jam). She even included the gospel presentation again and kids were very receptive. The craft that day? We had them make jam! She talked about how washing the berries were parallel to Jesus washing our sins away! Then Ruth showed them how to mash the berries. Then she paralleled the mashing of the berries is like the tough times in our life where God uses painful circumstances - and mashing it to bring about His purposes in our lives. Later on that afternoon, Ruth cooked the jam and added the final ingredients. Finally, each orphan walked away with a jar of strawberry jam with his or her name on it! They were so stoked and happy and WOW was it cool. So what a great way to wrap up camp. Thursday afternoon was time to begin saying goodbye... It was spent taking pictures, hugging, and totally loving on the kids. Translators were right in the midst translating for everyone. Every one of us loaded up our memory cards on our cameras to the max. We were taking pictures everywhere. I know I personally have 50 pictures of Tanya and her brother and everyone else. We are just so thankful, we loaded up the van, honked as we all got in, and a few of us were wet-eyed as got emotional and said our "farewells!" I tell you - it was just a powerful ending. Hugging and waving until the van was completely out of sight. And then, a little quieter ride home with a number of viewing pics on our cameras and just pondering the whole experience.
We praised God - we did - and we thanked Him for what he had done in the last 2 weeks. With all the changes and all the different scenarios and surprises, we believed that we brought God great glory and that we ourselves were changed for better in the journey--- it was very cool! We thanked God big time for the trip to Russia this summer 2006. And we're already looking forward to possibilities next year!