saying goodbyes...again

We are finally at that point where the summer is coming to a close. We leave for the airport in about an 45 mins and it is crazy to think that we will be on our way back to the states in a matter of hours. This last week has been so great catching up with old friends hanging out and having some time to debrief a little and start to process our experience this summer. The journey home is going to be a long (and I fear rather emotional) trip mixed with sadness of leaving people and excitement of seeing family and friends.

There are so many thoughts racing through my head right now as I know I have not even begun to describe our experiences here in Latvia and Russia adequately and wishing to express everything that we have seen and done and all the people who have touched our lives in such a brief time. This has truly been one very interesting and very amazing summer. The Lord have moved in so many more ways than we could have ever imagined and it has been such a blessing to be here see Him be glorified!

Thank you so much for all of your prayers and support and for keeping up with us, it really means more than you know!! All the pictures have been uploaded now, so you can find them from the links on the right and hopefully can have an image of what all we have been up to!

moscow young people's camp

July 28 – August 2

Moscow Young People’s Camp 2008! This is going to be similar to the post on Wesley Days from Camp Wesley in Latvia in the sense that I will give a brief overview of camp and then delve a little into specifics. As expected, not much time to write each day and way too much to express everything that went on but I plan on hitting the highlights!

Monday (28th)
We took a bus to camp and met up with the team for planning and preparation between the Russian leadership team and the American team to work out last minute details. Michael went to the train station to pick up Zina which was such an awesome surprise when found out she was going to be able to make it camp! (Just a reminder, Zina is Kira’s – Pastor in Kirov – roommate). The “camp” is more of a retreat center with a dining hall and a large auditorium. There are several floors with rooms that are kind of a mix between hotel and dorm rooms. The look more like dorm rooms, but each has two beds, one table, two small nightstands and one closet. They also each have their own bathroom and shower so that was really nice. The building itself seemed pretty old, but it was the perfect place to have a more seminar-based camp. I was rooming with Zina too so that was really exciting. Brandon and Michael were paired with two of the guys from the Missouri team. We all had a time to hang out after the meetings and talk and I can’t say enough how awesome this team is from Missouri. They also had a LOT of peanut butter and animal crackers, but I promise that’s not what made them so cool :)

So camp officially started on Tuesday the 29th and went through Saturday August 2nd. Here is an overview of the schedule (and I use that term lightly as usual). Tuesday and Saturday were slight exceptions with registration taking up the most of the day until picking up in the schedule at 3pm for the first talk on Tuesday and camp ending after the morning devotion on Saturday to head to the church dedication.

8:30am breakfast

9:30am devotional time (we met all together in the small room and then read the devo by ourselves in our booklet and then split up into small groups to discuss and pray)

10:30am 1st session of the day (usually in the auditorium and had some worship followed by a talk by someone)

11:30am chai (tea) break – sometimes games as well

12pm 2nd session (again in the auditorium) a talk by someone, sometimes with worship beforehand)

2:00pm lunch

3:00pm 3rd session (auditorium) worship followed by a talk by someone

4:30pm games/chai

5:00pm 4th session (auditorium) worship followed by a talk by someone

7:00 dinner

8:00 5th session (auditorium) worship sometimes followed by a talk by someone

9:00 evening event (differed from night to night…with an international night where each country planned something to share and Korea, the Ukraine, Russia, and the States were all represented)

11:00 time for bed (though of course this happened not even one night as every the night event went past this time and then people hung out afterwards, but it was a good effort)

Hopefully now you have a general idea of camp, however know that there is much more to be told of the relationships that were built both with the American and Russian teams and the details of everything that happened over the days of camp! The Lord was really at work this past week, despite a lot of frustrations between teams and trying to break the language barrier (thankfully we had three translators and a forth on the last day!) but it is so evident that He moved among the people there and the camp really made a huge impact on the lives of everyone there.

pictures from moscow...

just a preview of the pictures from Moscow! more on facebook (from the links on the right under pictures) from Syktyvkar, and Moscow before and after the young people's camp. of course not all of them, but just a sample!


at St. Basil's in Red Square in Moscow

the return to riga...

So we have been away from the internet for a while so sorry for the long delay since the last post! We are back in Riga, Latvia at Dan and Courtney’s now however and will be here until we fly back to the states on the 7th. I hope to be able to get some pictures up from our time in Syktyvkar and also from the camp in Moscow today or tomorrow and to post about camp as well.

Here is a somewhat short version of our time in Moscow before camp. Sorry still for the length…

July 25-27

Friday (25th)
After settling in at the seminary we went to lunch with one of the students there and then had a bit of time to relax and read and nap while Michael went to the Embassy. We met up with Kira and some of her friends from Florida and a group from the States that went on the Emmaus walk with her for dinner. The place we went was on this street downtown that is blocked off and has a lot of souvenir shops and touristy things (even two Starbucks, sounds like home, huh?) so after dinner we parted ways and Michael, Brandon, and I walked around and bit of shopping before the next day when we would be with the team from Missouri so we could make sure we were able to go everywhere we wanted to and cater to the team the next team. Deciding it was too early for bed, we ventured around the metro stations and walked a ways home to see the city at night and it was well worth it.

Saturday (26th)
We met up with Kira and the team from Missouri at one of the metro stations close by and then wandered to the open market for some shopping. The market was awesome and had just about anything you could want; clothes, food, souvenirs…and the further you went in to it (and it was massive) the cheaper it got and the more like a lot of garage sales combined together. We spent a couple of hours in there and needed every minute of it to make it around to everywhere. Next we ventured down the same street we had been on the night before and really got a chance to get to know some of the team. We made a stop at a mall as well (which, wow, was huge. I mean like 8 stories. With every possible store you could imagine, an internet cafe, food court, bank; even a Build-A-Bear. It was impressive to say the least.) We took a boat ride around town and got to see a lot of what we had seen from walking around from a different view and it was really nice to be able to sit and talk with people and get to know them before camp began.

Sunday (27th)
Mike Stallion (who we had been planning with and who was the leader for the Missouri team) split his team up for church in the morning. Some of them came to the seminary for the Russian Korean service (they had a girl on their team who had been in Korea for the past five years doing mission work so she was going to translate) and the rest went to other churches in the area. To everyone’s surprise, the service was not in Korean, but Russian because they had a guest speaker for the day. This was also a surprise because the guest speaker was Pavel, the pastor from the church in Syktyvkar that we had just spent the week with! What a small world it is. After the service we had a traditional Korean lunch (which was rice and vegetables and spicy sauce with even more spicy sauce/vegetable mix to put on top on the side. It was so delicious! And dessert was rice cakes with nuts in them which were also pretty tasty. Everyone met up at Red Square in the afternoon to walk around and see Lenin’s tomb and St. Basil’s and then take a tour of the Kremlin. It was a very touristy day indeed, but a lot of fun. The team is great and after talking about the plans for the youth camp we were pretty excited about what was in store for it! The majority of the team went to the ballet (it was Don Quixote) however the guys opted out so Brandon and I joined Mike and three of the guys Trevor, Kevin and Jesse to chat at this very hidden, very local, cheap little restaurant wedged downtown in an alley between Tiffany & Co. and Dulce & Gabanna. The team has been staying at the church in Vnukovo (which is where the dedication will take place on Saturday) so we parted ways for the night with plans to meet up at camp the next day.

july 23-24

July 22 – 24

Tuesday we walked around the town and went to the national art gallery with Anya and Ksysha. The gallery was really cool because there was art from all over the world and a lot from Russia and specifically the Komi Republic, which is where Syktyvkar is located. We went by a small souvenir shop before heading home to change to go work at the church again. We had a lunch of homemade borche and rice and meat made by Olga at the church. More firewood was to be cut and stacked so most everyone worked on that and Brandon and Vova started building the new fence. We worked until about 8:30 or 9 and then Michael went to the pastor’s house and Brandon, Ksysha, and I went to Vova’s house (Nastya’s dad). We hung out there for a while and got to talk with Nastya and see pictures and hear stories of them when they were younger and use the internet as well. It was good to get to talk more with her and share stories.

Wednesday, our last day in Syktyvkar, was spent packing up most of the morning after sleeping in and having a brunch of scrambled eggs with meat, cheese, and tomatoes. We went to the church around 3 for lunch and tea with the pastors and Anya. We spent the next bit of time preparing for everyone else to come for the picnic in the evening. There was a lot of cutting cucumbers and tomatoes, washing potatoes, and skewering shasliki (this time chicken that had been marinating since the day before). The boys also took on the quite manly task of ensuring flames to cook over. When everyone arrived, we had a small time of worship and took communion together. The pastors had gotten us each a small gift to remember Syktyvkar and them by so they gave it to us then. The people of this church are just so loving and the whole church family is really just that, a big family. We sat around the makeshift table outside (flat wood on crates with tablecloths) and sat on blankets on the grass and shared a wonderful meal together of shasliki and sausage and loads of other things. It was a great time talking and laughing and just being present with other believers. After dinner we played a couple of games before having tea and making sure everyone had put their pictures on Ksysha’s computer and all email addresses had been exchanged. We said some sad goodbyes before making our way back to the flat. The people here have such a good heart and will be missed a lot. We had our farewell tea with Ksysha before bed since we had to leave so early for our train, which was quite sad since we’d spent so much time with her and she had done such an amazing job translating for us.

Thursday was an early start, leaving the flat by 7am to make it to our train. The pastors and Vova picked us up and then Nadya met us at the train station for one last goodbye. Michael, Brandon and I had tickets for the four person compartment, and ended up having the compartment to ourselves so we used the forth bed for our luggage which was really nice to create some more room. Not much to say for a 26 hour train ride…we read, talked, snacked, slept, and repeated. Thankfully it was pretty cool on the train and we had a breeze because our window couldn’t close all the way (we couldn’t open it more however).

All in all we are safe in Moscow and looking forward to the youth camp that starts on Monday!

july 20-21

July 20

This morning church began at 12 and the service was great. The building and the people just made it feel like family. We sang some songs from the hymnal, Michael, Brandon and I each spoke briefly before Olga, the pastor’s wife, spoke on community and what the church should look like. Ksysha translated the whole service, which was such a blessing. She has really done such a wonderful job of making sure we understand what is going on and including us. We sang some more songs and talked with people after the service and made some plans for later to meet up again. There was still some leftover soup and kasha from working the day before so some of us had lunch and tea there at the church before heading home. We had about 2 hours before we were meeting up with people again so we had a short Russian lesson, started some laundry and had a quick nap to be rested. Around 5:30 we met up with Anya, Nastya, Sasha, Vika, Misha, Nadya, Dima and his sister and her boyfriend at a Christian cafe for a pizza dinner and some more fellowship. It had finally cooled off a bit so we decided to take advantage of the weather and walk home. We stayed up chatting and putting out clothes to dry (which for some reason all turned blue) for a bit since we had no early morning plans. We were pretty tired though, so everyone went to bed pretty soon in our cozy ninth floor flat (which makes for great exercise when the elevator is slightly more than sketchy).

July 21

We slept in this morning and hung out around the flat before Anya and Nadya came over and we all went to lunch at the bellini cafe. Pavel and Olga (the pastors) came to pick us up around 3:30 to head about an hour outside of Syktyvkar to a Komi church. While there we shared a little about ourselves, prayed, sang songs and just had a wonderful time with the women of the church. The pastor there spoke a little English and since Ksysha wasn’t there to translate, she and Michael translated and it worked just fine. We sang some songs in Russian, some in English and some in Komi. The pastor of the church’s uncle had translated the Bible into the Komi language not too long ago (about 1981) and that was a really cool story to hear since the Komi people have their own language and culture and now they have the Gospel. The women of the church were a lot of fun and really encouraging to see new believers despite their age. They were encouraged by our youth, and we were by their wisdom. We walked down to the river (a journey all too similar to our last trip to the river in Syktyvkar, which I will not recount, only this time with mostly little old women) to wet our feet and watch the sun. When we returned, we had cake, bread and jam, and cucumber sandwiches with our tea and learned a little of the Komi language while practicing our Russian as well. It was a great experience being able to fellowship with the women in the Komi church and we ar so thankful that the pastors presented this opportunity to us!

july 19

July 19

Today we met up walked over to the church and met up with several members and the pastors to do some work on the church grounds. Their church is not a typical church building, but rather a house where the upstairs is the sanctuary and the downstairs is the kitchen and fellowship area to have tea. It is pretty awesome. There is a pretty big backyard as well for more fellowship events. There were a lot of us there so we were able to do a good bit of work. We took down the fence in the backyard to put up a new one (which hopefully we will be able to do on Monday or Tuesday). Brandon used the weed eater and cleared most all of the backyard (this time with no stork following around behind him) for most of the time we worked. There was a lot of wood left over from the fence and from a house that had been torn down behind their property, so the girls mainly worked on making the firewood and stacking it. The pastor sawed the logs and planks, Sasha used the axe on the stumps, and we carried and stacked the wood to stock up for the long winter ahead. They have been able to use the wood from the house though for about seven years now so it has been a huge blessing for the cold and snowy winters for the church. We took a break for lunch and then finished working around 5 and had some tea and more fellowship time.

After saying goodbyes until the morning, we went back to the flat to grab our bathing suits and meet up with Anya, Nastya, Sasha, and Vika to go to the river for a little swim. We took two taxis out a ways and were let out and then the adventure began. We walked down a street, which turned into a path, which turned into a field, under some pipes, through another field, which turned into a dried up river, up a hill, through some gushy mud like substance that they claimed was sand (I am still skeptical of this), which led to a small river that we crossed to our final destination of a small island of sand in the middle of a deceptively powerful current. We swam for a while and played something akin to badminton but with a small ball. It was a really fun and relaxing time to hang out with new friends and fellow believers. After the sun began to set, we followed our footsteps back we parted for the evening and went back to the flat for some pasta and veggies (and much needed showers!) around 10pm. Today has been a great day and we are really excited about the service tomorrow!

july 17-18

July 17 – 18

Thursday, we spent most of the morning packing up and saying some last minute goodbyes. Kira’s train didn’t leave until after our bus did, so the three of us and some friends went to the bus station to say our goodbyes before the 8 hour trek to Syvtyvkar. After a very long and sweaty ride, the pastor and his wife from the church greeted us and led us to where are staying. Sushka, a youth from the church who is studying at the university in Kirov, that we had met in the Pentecostal camp is letting us stay with her at her flat and will be our translator for the week, as she is studying to be an interpreter. We went to a small cafe last night for bellini’s (pancakes like crepes filled with meat or fruit or salad or some kind) and then unsuccessfully tried to buy our train tickets for Moscow. We decided it would be best to do in morning and called it an evening.

Friday we met up with some of the youth and the pastor to get our train tickets for Moscow (we leave in the morning on the 24th and will arrive in Moscow in the morning on the 25th). The pastor left us for the day and the rest of us walked around the city, visiting the main square, the center of the city, and some memorials from “the great patriotic war” as they call it and the war with Afghanistan. We had lunch at a small cafe in town before going to meet up with another member of the church. We visited with Dema, a young man in the church who is ill, and talked and had tea and cake and watched some videos from the church and got to look at a lot of pictures of their church. After a long stay, we parted for the day and got some groceries on the way home. we had some pelmini for dinner and have just chatted for the rest of the evening until making our way to the internet cafe in town. Keep us in your prayers as we are getting to know the people here in Syktyvkar!

july 15-16

July 15 – 16

Tuesday Brandon, Zena, and I went to the circus/park to meet up with some friends and ride some rides and walk around. We walked around the pond for a while and then some of us rode the Ferris wheel. The pastor’s wife and her daughter and Brandon and I rode in on car and I’m not going to lie, it was a bit scary to be on the quite old ride, but the view was well worth it. It was a great time to talk and relax in the afternoon and further relationships. The weather here is quite toasty, even for me. It almost feels like Alabama. While we were at the park, Michael and Kira went and got a pedicure because he had really been wanting one since Moscow so that was good for them to do that.

We all met up later in the evening at the children’s cancer hospital to do ministry there. I went through the story in Matthew about the birds of the sky and the lilies of the field and how if the Lord takes care of them, how much more will He take care of us? We made flowers out of paper afterwards and it was so great being able to talk with this small group of kids that are just longing for love. Some of the mothers and one of the grandmothers were there with their kids, but not all. The kids ranged from 2 years old to 10 years old and were just like all other little kids I’ve met; they just want to have fun and be loved. We sang “This is the Day” in English and Russian, and Kira even had Brandon and I sing it in Spanish to add to the international flair which was perfect for emphasizing that while we may speak different languages and come from different cultures, there is one God. We talked a played for a bit longer and it was just such a wonderful time altogether there.

Wednesday (today) we slept in and had pancakes for breakfast which was prefect. We spent most of the day at the apartment (because Kira had to meet with an accountant) cleaning and doing laundry. We had a small service tonight where Michael spoke a little of his experience with communion and what it means to him, and then we broke bread together as a church body. We sang some hymns and ended with the Lord’s prayer in both languages all together, continuing our theme of worshiping the same and one and only King and Savior who shed His blood for us on the cross.

After we had the service, we had a lasagna dinner while Kira went to a friend’s house. Tonight was Zena’s last night here and it has been a sad day of goodbyes and exchanging of gifts and letters. We have really gotten to know her and it is going to be quite different without her around. She has really made an impact in our lives in the short time we’ve known her! We took her to the train station tonight around 11 and it was sad to see her ride away.

Tomorrow Brandon, Michael, and I leave for Syktyvkar for the week and Kira will go to a conference about the Emmaus walk. We will all meet up in Moscow on the 25th for the youth camp there. I’m unsure of the internet options in our next location, so we will update as soon as we get the chance, so have no fear if it is a bit before an update. Keep praying for us as we are completely unsure of what is next to come in our journey!

On a completely unrelated note, we hear that Syktyvkar has the largest indoor cross-country skiing arena in the world…so this is going to be interesting…

pictures from russia!!

just a few pictures from our time in kirov, russia. see more pictures with the link on here under pictures or on facebook.

top to bottom:
* russian orthodox church in kirov

* at the children's cancer hospital with Ksusha

* making paper flowers at the children's hospital

* at the pentecostal youth camp...Brandon, Zina, Lauren, Kira

july 13-14

July 13 – 14

Sunday morning we had a church service/bible study at Kira’s apartment. Two gentlemen joined the five of us and we sang some hymns and Kira went through some scripture and we had a time of prayer. Kira did the lesson in Russian, so it was a bit difficult to follow, but we read the scripture in a circle and read in whatever language was our own so that was pretty cool and the same with prayer. After lunch Kira and Michael met some people to go see a movie, and Brandon, Zena, one of her friends Katia, and I hung out at the apartment for the day. After the movie, everyone returned to the apartment for a big group dinner where we got a chance to talk with some youth over tea and hang out with them so that was a lot of fun. The Lord is moving despite the language barrier for sure. We have created a language of gestures and sounds to communicate with Zena that has some Russian and English words but mostly just noises and it is so hilarious to watch from the outside but it make perfect sense to us. Pictures and diagrams are also frequently used. It’s kind of like playing a mixture of Pictionary and Charades to have a conversation.

Monday (today) we had some errands to do and bus tickets to buy so we spent the later part of the morning and early afternoon out and about town. We met up with some friends after a quick Russian fast food dinner to hang out for a while Kira went home for a bit. The place we went to was a billiards, bowling, restaurant, hangout place and was really quite nice. We played Russian billiards which is similar to pool but with all white balls and one dark ball and played on a much larger table with smaller holes. You can hit any ball with any other ball and you just count how many each team hits in to see who wins. The guys played (and I played a little as well!) and the girls talked over some cokes and we all shared some sushi and it was a great time of believers and non-believers hanging out together and us being able to share the love of Christ through just “being” and speaking when the opportunities come up. After billiards we came back to the apartment for tea and cookies to meet up with Zena and some other friends.

All in all our time here is going well, despite some difficulties in language. But the Lord is moving despite all of the barriers that come up. The only way to describe our time here so far is to use an often-overused phrase that a friend reminded us of recently. God works in mysterious ways :) and we are so thankful for that!

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!

more new pictures!!

Here is the link for some more pictures from wesley days at camp!! They are just a very small sample again but hopefully you'll be able to experience a bit of what we did!

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2248509&l=d51d0&id=7001107

We also added a section under our profile on here that has the links for all the pictures we have uploaded for easy access. I hope that it is helpful in viewing the pictures!

Enjoy!

july 8-9

July 8 – 9
We walked around yesterday afternoon and Michael fixed dinner later in the evening for the two of us, Kira, and her roommate Zena, who 18 years old and an art student and is hilarious. We are slowly learning some Russian and Zena is doing a great job of teaching us the language. She always gets so excited when we say the word correctly and it is so precious! Kira, Michael, Brandon and I went walking around some more after dinner, played some air hockey at the movie theater, and ended up getting some tea and some snacks at a small cafe and talking for a while before coming home to call it a night. Kira’s flat is great and very spacious, s we are all staying there during our time here. Kira is sleeping in Zena’s room (she has two beds in there), I am sleeping in Kira’s room, and Brandon and Michael are sleeping on the fold out couch in the living room. We prayed together and hearing Kira and Zena pray in Russian is quite moving. I can pick up a few words, but the passion behind them is what makes all the difference. You can tell just by their tone their urgency and love for the Lord. I’m excited to see relationships grow with them while we are here.
Today we had scrambled eggs for breakfast and the five of us staying at Kira’s had a bible study after breakfast about obedience to the Lord. Kira has such a strength and a heart of obedience that her example is such an encouragement. Zena took the guys and I around to a couple of second hand stores (thrift stores basically with clothes from Europe and the states) before we met up with Kira for lunch. We walked around and ended up eating at a small cafeteria type restaurant for students and workers that had traditional Russian food. Some of us had borsch, a hot vegetable type soup, is a local favorite and was quite delicious. Cabbage is also very popular and this drink, kompot, which is common and that looked like there were nuts floating at the bottom of water, but that tasted pretty good. We met up with a guy, Sasha, that Kira had talked to before but never met, in the plaza under the statue of Stalin and talked for a while and watched the skateboarders before grabbing some ice cream and walking around downtown. We went to the movie theater to play some air hockey, and got some dinner at a vegetarian friendly restaurant (Sasha is one), and found a place to go play Russian billiards together another night since it was getting late. Sasha is not a believer, but we think a path has been opened up to share the Gospel which is so exciting! Relationships are beginning to form and we are thankful for that.

from Russia with love...

July 6-8

We are safe in Russia after two very long train rides! Camp Wesley and Wesley Days were so amazing and we are quite sad to have left everyone there!! I can’t even begin to describe how much the Lord was moving there and with everyone at camp. The kids and the leaders were just such a blessing to me and the relationships that were formed are priceless. Being able to share with a few people who didn’t believe or never went to church and just Wesley Days was such a wonderful opportunity. The questions the kids had and the answers that Dan and Courtney had for our questions were so needed. We got to talk about a lot of different issues with both youth and older people in Latvia and from Lithuania and I just can’t even begin to describe it.
We can’t believe the first half of our journey is over and we have less than a month before we head back to the states. It’s quite crazy. We took a train on the 6th from Riga to Moscow that was 16 hours and after arriving on the 7th and meeting Kira (the pastor here in Kirov that we will be staying with and working with) and walking around for a bit we took another train from Moscow to Kirov that was 12 hours. We met up with another guy from the States in Moscow, Michael who is friends with Pat Whaley and will be joining us for the time as well. So here we are on the 8th finally in Russia. We will be in Kirov until the 17th then we will head on to Syktyvkar until the 25th when we will return to Moscow for a youth camp and a church dedication on the 2nd. We will travel back to Riga by train on the second and be there for a few days before departing for the States.
Pray for us during the transition and that we will be ready to serve in whatever way we can while we are here!

quick update....

We leave for Russia tonight!  

Camp was really busy, and without the internet it was hard keeping up with the blog, but we will be posting an overview of the week when we get settled in in Russia, so more updates on Wesley Days will be coming soon!

We are taking a train into Moscow and Kira will be meeting us there and then from there our next part of the journey begins.  Keep us in your prayers as we travel and prepare for this new experience.  Also, pray for comfort as we are really torn about leaving everyone here in Latvia. The tears have been frequent the past couple of days and our hearts are filled with sadness leaving behind so many new friends.  We are excited about what is to come, but we pray tat the Lord will be with everyone as Wesley Days are finishing up today.

We hope to update ya'll soon on more!!