Journal Excerpt: March 22

"Another good day at Barskoye: we played lots of games and bonded well with the kids. ...  We were sad to see that one of the boys, Max, would be gone for the rest of the week but got to play a bit of soccer with Arkasha.  We threw snowballs and went sledding for a while until we were all exhausted.  During the rest of the day, I made friends with Vika (the little grinning one) and tried to understand Anya and her spoiled ways: she would always cry and bite when she didn't get what she wanted.  I taught her some patience by playing War slowly and she laughed and got the hang of it.
Our team meetings each night are always incredible (despite sitting on the floor).  We always have a chance to have a few people talk about their day, then each person encourages another whom they've been assigned to for that day (which always encourages tears) and then we pray.  Those three agenda items always take two hours and it makes for some very important and appreciated team bonding time."

Pictures!

Journal Excerpt: March 21

"We arrived in Barskoya which seems to be an almost entirely residential town.  We were led upstairs to a small room with eleven students looking at us curiously.  There was no teacher.  So we awkwardly made our way to the front and jumped in.  Our interpreters were actually very helpful, eager to please, and ready to lead.  The lesson was a bit slow but that is expected for the first day.  After, we played soccer outside (I scored three goals!) but it was very difficult and tiring as we were playing on compacted snow and ice.  We played catch and threw a few snowballs at each other.  All afternoon was a sort of unstructured game time that we filled with Uno, Blind Man's Bluff, and various running around.  It made for an exhausting but fun day."

Россия

My team's trip to Russia was a time of stretching, understanding, and pouring out of love.  The Boaz Project ministers to the orphans that are abandoned to the state's care because they have been shown time and again that they are not worth caring for.  My team went not to change that in one week, but to join the long term work that is being done there and to allow ourselves to be broken by the things that break God's heart.

We arrived on Sunday morning (March 20) and immediately piled into a bus to drive the three hours to the city of Vladimir.  The Boaz staff introduced themselves and were great at keeping us awake to help us make the time zone adjustment.  Arriving at our hotel, we wasted no time in unpacking and meeting our interpreters for the week.  Mine was a young man named Yuri, a web developer who was studying English at his university.  We were to work together with my ministry partners Luke and Celeste (and their interpreters, Andre and Juliana) at the Barskoye Gorodiche trade school for agriculture.

Our typical day there (which took up Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday) looked like this: the six of us would arrive around 9:30 and meet the kids in their classroom.  We would teach the Bible lesson, usually starting with some kind of game and ending with a craft with the actual lesson woven in between.  Then we would play games outside (mostly soccer) in the frozen tundra and later in the afternoon shift to games (like Uno) indoors.  We would play until about 5 when we would leave to make it back for dinner and a team meeting.  This schedule comprised most of our time there.

On Saturday we were able to spend some time as tourists in Moscow, buying souvenirs, seeing Red Square (including the overwhelmingly beautiful St. Basil's Cathedral), and even a Russian circus. Sunday we flew out and arrived back at Taylor at 2AM on Monday morning.

With this overview in mind, my next few posts with excerpts from my journal should make more sense.


Also, the title "Россия" is "Russia" in their Cyrillic alphabet.

We're Back!

My main official job was to see the team safely back to the States and I can now say that I have completed that successfully.  After near 26 hours of being up and moving, we arrived in Upland at 2AM last night.  It's still sort of amazing that we went so far for such a short period of time.  As we continue to process it and get back into the swing of work, I will be reviewing my journals and posting tidbits here for you to see how it happened.

Thank you all for your prayers!  They were deeply felt and appreciated!

Itinerary

Since we don't have internet access in Russia and I won't be posting until we're back, here's a rough itinerary that you can follow so you know how to pray for us each day.  All times are local times and seen on the 24 hour clock. 


Sunday, March 20
10:10   Team arrives Moscow

Monday, March 21
VBS Barskoye
VBS Seslavskoye
VBS Vladimir Childrens Home
18:00 Dinner at hotel cafe
19:00 team meeting

Tuesday, March 22
VBS Barskoye
VBS Seslavskoye
VBS Vladimir Childrens Home
18:00 Dinner at hotel cafe
19:00 team meeting

Wednesday, March 23
VBS Barskoye
VBS Seslavskoye
VBS Vladimir Childrens Home
18:00 Dinner at hotel cafe
19:00 team meeting

Thursday, March 24
VBS Barskoye
VBS Seslavskoye
VBS Vladimir Childrens Home
18:00 Dinner at hotel cafe
19:00 team meeting

Friday, March 25
VBS Barskoye
VBS Seslavskoye
VBS Vladimir Childrens Home

19:00 Interpreter farewell dinner

Saturday, March 26
7:00 Bus from hotel to Moscow

Sunday, March 27
12:55   Flight to Atlanta

Countdown to Departure

A mere two days lies between my team and our trip to Russia.

We've had our last team meeting on Monday during which we received our assignments of which orphanages we're working at, who our ministry teams are, and who our roommates are.  And unfortunately we found that one of our team members was unable to get the paperwork for his passport through the system on time and will not be joining us.  It was difficult for him to tell us and difficult to see him go.

But we are ready to get going and glad to get our assignments.  Two groups are working at two different orphanages in Vladimir one for younger kids, the other for older.  I am part of a small group that is working at an orphanage called Barskoye which houses children with mental disabilities.  We will all be working through a VBS curriculum that was specifically designed for these orphanages by my fellow team leader, Megan.  She has gone on this trip twice and I believe wrote these curricula as her Christian Ed major practicum.

In the meantime, we have plans to make a last minute trip to the store and then we head out early on Saturday morning!

Thank you for all the prayers and support!