july 10-12

July 10 – 12
Thursday was a more relaxing day for us and most of the day was spent at Kira’s apartment planning for some of the things we will be doing over the next couple of days. We met up with Sasha again and walked around and met with the pastor from Zena’s church and walked over to the riverbank and the eternal flame (a statue with a flame that never goes out where couples who have just gotten married go to lay flowers) a talked for a while we walked along the edge. We went by the store and then back to Kira’s for a late dinner. Sasha joined us and is really open to talking to Kira, and us, which is really cool so pray that those relationships keep growing!

Friday was an early morning and a very late night. We left Kira’s around 7am to catch the train out to the woods where the Pentecostal Camp was going on. It was the last night of camp, so it was kind of interesting jumping in, but everyone really welcomed us. Right after we got there they had morning worship and we each shared a little bit about our testimonies and Kira spoke for a little bit as well. We played volleyball for a little while before lunch and got to talk to some of the youth. One of the little girls, who was around four, Sophie, gave Brandon and I each these stuffed animal key chains in between playing with the dog and running to hide because she was so shy. Another girl camp up and gave me a bracelet and little bead lizard she made during the games after we had only talked for a few minutes. And by talked, I mean I told her the Russian words I knew and she kept telling me how to say everything else in Russian. It was incredible to see how open and loving they were. The language barrier was rather difficult to overcome since Kira was really the only one who could translate, but we know the Lord speaks to us and though us regardless of language. Lunch and swimming took up most of the afternoon along with small group devotions. In the evening there was an outreach concert that the town had been invited to and a band played, other people sang, people danced, and there was a drama to the Lifehouse song Everything (which is so moving no matter how many times you see it). Some people spoke in between the different acts, and Brandon was one of those people so he spoke and Kira translated (and by the way, Kira is a wonderfully quick translator). After the outreach event we had dinner and then a bonfire where more skits and songs were done and lots of “thank you”s from the pastor to everyone who helped him at camp. Around 1:30 in the morning we had some sausage, bread and coffee (which was much needed to warm us up because it rained during the entire bonfire time) and hung out around the fire trying to talk to people. There was no curfew since it was the lat night so a lot of the youth wanted to stay up all night, but Kira, Zena, and I called it a night around 3am and headed to our tent for a few hours sleep.

Saturday (today) ended up being a day to recuperate. We got up around 7ish and had breakfast and such before saying goodbye to everyone a little before to come back to Kirov. The plan was to go to the children’s cancer hospital after we returned and cleaned up, but Kira was unable to get a hold of the hospital so we couldn’t go because she has to be invited to go so we are going to try again on Monday. Since that didn’t work out, it left the day open until around four when some youth that Kira had met came over to hang out because they wanted to improve their English. So we talked to while with two guys both named Arthon, whose English were great, and Mary, who was a bit shy, over tea and playing the guitar. We ended up meeting up with another friend of Kira’s who knew English and her boyfriend at a cafe for a quick dinner. Kira headed back to the apartment while the rest of us went for a walk around town and had a chance to talk and see some awesome but very random fireworks. I got to talk to Mary for a while and the Lord really used the time and it was so exciting to see Him open doors. Pray that these relationships keep being built and we make use of these opportunities and see them when they pop up!