Our afternoon 6th-8th grade Bible Class with Frankie teaching.
Olya (Univ student and teacher) in the middle of 2 campers
It's dinner time! We had 2 snack times and dinner every day!
One of our devotionals during camp!This was a special time every day.
Sunday, June 1, 2008
Worship was at 10am – a long service to 12 today as a visiting American had a long sermon – good but long! Then I had a meeting with our workers for camp. We have 6 women from the Church that are teaching Bible Classes for the first time!!! I am very proud and excited for them! We have a great group of ladies working with us this year! Then we made sandwiches for the boy’s prison and had chili at my house for 6 of us. At 2 we went to the Orphan family home to celebrate with the Katya, who is 6 years old today! I got back from there about 4:30pm and had my English Bible Club at the Church building at 5pm. That ended well – that was the last class for this study. Then at 6pm, we had a good worship service and I got home about 8.
Monday, June 2
We started our Day Camp from 8 to 4:30 today with 7 students (ages 3rd grade through 8th grade). We had no idea how many to expect! It’s a fewer than we hoped for, but hopefully it will grow! We changed our schedule up because of the kids schedule and started our Devotional at 10 and our first class at 11 with just one class in the morning instead of 2. We had lunch and our 2nd class at 2:30. In between we played a lot of games and had a lot of fun!!! We finished with a devo at about 4:15.
Tuesday, June 3 – Jenise’s Birthday (daughter) and Yulya’s 4th Spiritual Birthday today, too!
Today we had 11 at camp and we did it all over again! A good day. Then at 6 we had our devo with 13 people. People stayed around until 9:30.
Wednesday, June 4
Again Camp with 14 today! We are growing. We moved our starting time to 9am. Camp is going really well. I took my first evening off after camp – no plans tonight!
Thursday, June 5
Camp had 12 today, but our 15th new camper was with us! We have had just great help from the church ladies and our young people! It has been a great blend and mixture of workers and has gone really well. Tonight at 6:30 Artem, Olya and I went to the Orphan family for a Bible study and we had all 3 older kids and mom and dad there. First we had our traditional tea and cookies. Then we got into a very serious Bible Study. Artem and Olya shared their conversion and faith stories, we looked at the conversion of Saul of Tarsus. We talked to the twin boys who were baptized 2 years ago at camp very serious about coming back to faithfulness. We were there until almost 10 and I didn’t get home until after 10:30.
Friday, June 6
Olya insisted that she would come and work at camp all day today, if I would take the day off and rest! Last night I was soooo tired! So, I got her to camp (our camp has been at the church building). There was plenty of help and they did fine. I then went to the market (I hadn’t been in over a week!). Then I came home and took a nap!!! Then I fixed lunch and ate. Then took another nap! I told you I was tired! I did take time to work more on camp stuff. There is always so much to do with the Bible Camp! I went back to the Day Camp at 4 and we finished up there – they did great without me! I guess that is good – sure it is! At 6 we had Frisbee with a great turn out of 16 people and we played 3 really good games – I played the first 2. Then we had a meeting at my house to look at another camp site in the same town on the Black Sea that we were at 2 years ago. It is a lot better place and offer than anything else we have seen and decided to change our plans and take it. We will leave on the 15th at 9pm and be there for 10 full days before returning on the 26th. That leaves me just 5 days to finish up here before moving back to the US, but God will provide a way! The last of our young people – Olya and Yura left my house at 10:30pm.
Saturday, June 7
It seems strange not preparing for Bible Clubs – last weekend was our last. With the Day Camp, there was just too much to do. And now I have one day to catch up on a week – really 2 for there is next week and our Day Camp. Sometimes it is easy to feel overwhelmed. I know that the Apostle Paul felt that way – 2 Corinthians is full of that for him – even though I do have to say that the trials that he went through were a lot more severe than mine!
Sunday, June 8
A good morning of worship. At 2:30pm Vika came to me very distraught and crying. Her grandmother, that has been living with them, passed away. I spent some time with her and wanted to go to the family, but families are very private here and it was not the thing to do. In the afternoon, I also went to where Ksusha was working (her grandmother too) and tried to speak some words of comfort to her, but she was dealing with it ok and was very busy at work. I spoke to our evening service about God’s comfort.
Monday, June 9
We got off to another good start with VBS Day Camp. We are up to 16 registered and had 15 in attendance. Most of the time, we have had nearly all our campers coming back every day. Many times they ride across town and walk to us – sometimes 30 to 45 minutes. One of the girls who is in the 5th grade comes by 2 buses about 45 minutes away to come to our camp every day! In the evening, Artem, Olya and I again went to the Orphan family for our Bible Study. Tonight we studied many passages in the NT about Baptism and what God commands of us and the blessings He brings to us when we are Baptized into Christ. At the conclusion of our study, Inna (mother) said she wanted to be baptized! Then Victor (father) said that he wanted to be baptized too! The first we expected, the 2nd we were all taken by surprise. I think that Inna was more surprised than anyone else! I tried to encourage them to do it now, but they insisted that they wanted to be baptized on Sunday. I have been strongly encouraging them to come to church services, even though this is difficult for them with a large family and a small car. They said that they would come on Sunday, then we would go to a local river and baptize them! This is such a joyous evening as we have been working towards this for nearly 2 years!
Tuesday, June 10
I put these 3 days together, because nearly everything was the same about our Day Camp. It continues to go well and we hit a high of 18 on Tuesday! The teachers are doing great, we have had great help from our young people and the kids – on the whole – are doing great. We have had a couple of boys that have caused us some bad headaches, but that is normal, too! On Tuesday night we had our devo and as usual, that went well. Frankie led the devo this evening.
Wednesday, June 11
Wednesday morning, Frankie and I spent the morning at the funeral of Vika, Ksusha and Nadya’s (Ksusha’s mom) grandmother and mother. After the funeral, the family practically begged me to also come to the funeral dinner, so I did taking Frankie back to the church building to help with the camp. I returned to the camp, after the dinner about 1pm. Our Church ladies and young people did a good job of keeping the camp going while we were gone.
Thursday, June 12
Thursday was our last day of classes, as we plan to have a fun day on Friday! We had 14 today at camp.
Friday, June 13 – Anton’s 4th year Spiritual Birthday
One of the things that I haven’t mentioned is that several of our young people are going through exams at this time and are working around their exams to help at camp! I am very proud of how hard they have worked. These are such difficult and demanding exams – both at the school and university level. Today we went to the park for the morning and played outside games. Then after lunch we had games inside – we were going to have outside water games, but it rained – no fun having water games in the rain – you want to have them in the sun! In between I had to try and find a color cartridge for my printer. I thought I could just go to the store where I have gotten one for the last 5 years – but no, that would be too easy! They were out and didn’t have one! So I went to 4 different stores and NO ONE had one!!! What is going on here??? So I had to make our final rewards in black and white – ok, but not what I wanted to give to the kids! Back to camp. We finished with a nice devotional and awards presentation of best boy and girl campers. But everyone received a gift package put together by the ladies of the church and the kids really seemed to like that. We also gave each child either a full Russian Bible or a Children’s Bible Story Book – whichever they wanted. In the evening 10 of us played Ultimate Frisbee and that was good, but I was pretty exhausted afterwards! Then people came over to my house until about 10.
Saturday, June 14
Today is Ksusha’s 18th birthday! But is a sad, sweet day for her as she is still mourning her grandmother’s loss. Again, it is a day of recovery for me after Frisbee and a long week of camp. I worked on our Bible Camp again and more – there is just so much to do with this!
Sunday, June 15
Today was to be a glorious day, but it fizzled out. Again, I have had Father’s Day away from my kids. I don’t know where I will be next Father’s Day, but at least it will be someplace where my kids can easily call and talk to me! Victor and Inna, of the Orphan family didn’t come and bring their family to church today as they had said they would. I found out that Victor was called into work. So also, they won’t be baptized today. This was a real discouragement to me. I worry for them! Maybe tomorrow evening. My afternoon was long. Jenise, my oldest daughter did call at 5pm and that was nice. At our evening services we had 12. I had bought a gallon of fresh strawberries and took them to the church building with me and then after services bought ice cream, and we had them together. Then a thunderstorm hit and I took people home in 2 car loads – 3 decided to walk! It was really raining hard. At 10:30 Ben also called and Janessa and Butch left messages on my answering machine. So I did at least hear from all my kids today!
Worship was at 10am – a long service to 12 today as a visiting American had a long sermon – good but long! Then I had a meeting with our workers for camp. We have 6 women from the Church that are teaching Bible Classes for the first time!!! I am very proud and excited for them! We have a great group of ladies working with us this year! Then we made sandwiches for the boy’s prison and had chili at my house for 6 of us. At 2 we went to the Orphan family home to celebrate with the Katya, who is 6 years old today! I got back from there about 4:30pm and had my English Bible Club at the Church building at 5pm. That ended well – that was the last class for this study. Then at 6pm, we had a good worship service and I got home about 8.
Monday, June 2
We started our Day Camp from 8 to 4:30 today with 7 students (ages 3rd grade through 8th grade). We had no idea how many to expect! It’s a fewer than we hoped for, but hopefully it will grow! We changed our schedule up because of the kids schedule and started our Devotional at 10 and our first class at 11 with just one class in the morning instead of 2. We had lunch and our 2nd class at 2:30. In between we played a lot of games and had a lot of fun!!! We finished with a devo at about 4:15.
Tuesday, June 3 – Jenise’s Birthday (daughter) and Yulya’s 4th Spiritual Birthday today, too!
Today we had 11 at camp and we did it all over again! A good day. Then at 6 we had our devo with 13 people. People stayed around until 9:30.
Wednesday, June 4
Again Camp with 14 today! We are growing. We moved our starting time to 9am. Camp is going really well. I took my first evening off after camp – no plans tonight!
Thursday, June 5
Camp had 12 today, but our 15th new camper was with us! We have had just great help from the church ladies and our young people! It has been a great blend and mixture of workers and has gone really well. Tonight at 6:30 Artem, Olya and I went to the Orphan family for a Bible study and we had all 3 older kids and mom and dad there. First we had our traditional tea and cookies. Then we got into a very serious Bible Study. Artem and Olya shared their conversion and faith stories, we looked at the conversion of Saul of Tarsus. We talked to the twin boys who were baptized 2 years ago at camp very serious about coming back to faithfulness. We were there until almost 10 and I didn’t get home until after 10:30.
Friday, June 6
Olya insisted that she would come and work at camp all day today, if I would take the day off and rest! Last night I was soooo tired! So, I got her to camp (our camp has been at the church building). There was plenty of help and they did fine. I then went to the market (I hadn’t been in over a week!). Then I came home and took a nap!!! Then I fixed lunch and ate. Then took another nap! I told you I was tired! I did take time to work more on camp stuff. There is always so much to do with the Bible Camp! I went back to the Day Camp at 4 and we finished up there – they did great without me! I guess that is good – sure it is! At 6 we had Frisbee with a great turn out of 16 people and we played 3 really good games – I played the first 2. Then we had a meeting at my house to look at another camp site in the same town on the Black Sea that we were at 2 years ago. It is a lot better place and offer than anything else we have seen and decided to change our plans and take it. We will leave on the 15th at 9pm and be there for 10 full days before returning on the 26th. That leaves me just 5 days to finish up here before moving back to the US, but God will provide a way! The last of our young people – Olya and Yura left my house at 10:30pm.
Saturday, June 7
It seems strange not preparing for Bible Clubs – last weekend was our last. With the Day Camp, there was just too much to do. And now I have one day to catch up on a week – really 2 for there is next week and our Day Camp. Sometimes it is easy to feel overwhelmed. I know that the Apostle Paul felt that way – 2 Corinthians is full of that for him – even though I do have to say that the trials that he went through were a lot more severe than mine!
Sunday, June 8
A good morning of worship. At 2:30pm Vika came to me very distraught and crying. Her grandmother, that has been living with them, passed away. I spent some time with her and wanted to go to the family, but families are very private here and it was not the thing to do. In the afternoon, I also went to where Ksusha was working (her grandmother too) and tried to speak some words of comfort to her, but she was dealing with it ok and was very busy at work. I spoke to our evening service about God’s comfort.
Monday, June 9
We got off to another good start with VBS Day Camp. We are up to 16 registered and had 15 in attendance. Most of the time, we have had nearly all our campers coming back every day. Many times they ride across town and walk to us – sometimes 30 to 45 minutes. One of the girls who is in the 5th grade comes by 2 buses about 45 minutes away to come to our camp every day! In the evening, Artem, Olya and I again went to the Orphan family for our Bible Study. Tonight we studied many passages in the NT about Baptism and what God commands of us and the blessings He brings to us when we are Baptized into Christ. At the conclusion of our study, Inna (mother) said she wanted to be baptized! Then Victor (father) said that he wanted to be baptized too! The first we expected, the 2nd we were all taken by surprise. I think that Inna was more surprised than anyone else! I tried to encourage them to do it now, but they insisted that they wanted to be baptized on Sunday. I have been strongly encouraging them to come to church services, even though this is difficult for them with a large family and a small car. They said that they would come on Sunday, then we would go to a local river and baptize them! This is such a joyous evening as we have been working towards this for nearly 2 years!
Tuesday, June 10
I put these 3 days together, because nearly everything was the same about our Day Camp. It continues to go well and we hit a high of 18 on Tuesday! The teachers are doing great, we have had great help from our young people and the kids – on the whole – are doing great. We have had a couple of boys that have caused us some bad headaches, but that is normal, too! On Tuesday night we had our devo and as usual, that went well. Frankie led the devo this evening.
Wednesday, June 11
Wednesday morning, Frankie and I spent the morning at the funeral of Vika, Ksusha and Nadya’s (Ksusha’s mom) grandmother and mother. After the funeral, the family practically begged me to also come to the funeral dinner, so I did taking Frankie back to the church building to help with the camp. I returned to the camp, after the dinner about 1pm. Our Church ladies and young people did a good job of keeping the camp going while we were gone.
Thursday, June 12
Thursday was our last day of classes, as we plan to have a fun day on Friday! We had 14 today at camp.
Friday, June 13 – Anton’s 4th year Spiritual Birthday
One of the things that I haven’t mentioned is that several of our young people are going through exams at this time and are working around their exams to help at camp! I am very proud of how hard they have worked. These are such difficult and demanding exams – both at the school and university level. Today we went to the park for the morning and played outside games. Then after lunch we had games inside – we were going to have outside water games, but it rained – no fun having water games in the rain – you want to have them in the sun! In between I had to try and find a color cartridge for my printer. I thought I could just go to the store where I have gotten one for the last 5 years – but no, that would be too easy! They were out and didn’t have one! So I went to 4 different stores and NO ONE had one!!! What is going on here??? So I had to make our final rewards in black and white – ok, but not what I wanted to give to the kids! Back to camp. We finished with a nice devotional and awards presentation of best boy and girl campers. But everyone received a gift package put together by the ladies of the church and the kids really seemed to like that. We also gave each child either a full Russian Bible or a Children’s Bible Story Book – whichever they wanted. In the evening 10 of us played Ultimate Frisbee and that was good, but I was pretty exhausted afterwards! Then people came over to my house until about 10.
Saturday, June 14
Today is Ksusha’s 18th birthday! But is a sad, sweet day for her as she is still mourning her grandmother’s loss. Again, it is a day of recovery for me after Frisbee and a long week of camp. I worked on our Bible Camp again and more – there is just so much to do with this!
Sunday, June 15
Today was to be a glorious day, but it fizzled out. Again, I have had Father’s Day away from my kids. I don’t know where I will be next Father’s Day, but at least it will be someplace where my kids can easily call and talk to me! Victor and Inna, of the Orphan family didn’t come and bring their family to church today as they had said they would. I found out that Victor was called into work. So also, they won’t be baptized today. This was a real discouragement to me. I worry for them! Maybe tomorrow evening. My afternoon was long. Jenise, my oldest daughter did call at 5pm and that was nice. At our evening services we had 12. I had bought a gallon of fresh strawberries and took them to the church building with me and then after services bought ice cream, and we had them together. Then a thunderstorm hit and I took people home in 2 car loads – 3 decided to walk! It was really raining hard. At 10:30 Ben also called and Janessa and Butch left messages on my answering machine. So I did at least hear from all my kids today!
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