Friday Evening from Pokrov

We leave the orphanage in a half hour.

The day has been good with team members following up on relationships and having conversations with kids. I prayed with Karina and Galya today. They are sisters. Karina left the orphanage last year. Galya will leave in the fall.

Crafts were great.

We had chess and checkers tournament today. The Russians swept the checkers tournament. Dani tied a Russian teenager for the chess championship.

Our lesson went well, with many teenagers in attendance and the full message ended with a call to action. "What will you do?"

We leave with happiness for the way the week went, but with sadness as we will miss the kids. Karina just came by to say good-bye to me as she returns to her dorm. I am sad to see her go, but she is doing well in school. She said that the first three months in the dorm were hard, but she has adjusted. These are truly friends.

Blessings to all of you.

Thursday Morning Update from Pokrov

The past few days have seen some interesting relationships develop. We've had a lot of fun, provided meaningful lessons, and met some great kids.

Ilya has been at the orphanage for less than a month. What a friendly young boy. Don had a good conversation with him and was sad to see Ilya leave this morning for camp.

Kate developed a relationship with Misha. He left for camp this morning also.

I've been able to talk with Klara and Galya a little about where they are going next year.

One highlight is that we were able to participate in the graduation ceremony for those leaving the orphanage. There were representatives there from a major telecommunications company in Moscow. We presented each gradute with a duffle bag to use when they leave the orphanage in the fall.

We've played frisbee, marbles, soccer and a number of Russian games.

Our lessons have stimulated a number of conversations about God and what it means to know Him. We are excited to see what will happen today and tomorrow.

Continue to pray for us. Today we'll visit the lake for a picnic after our lesson.

Monday In Pokrov

We had a good flight. Everything went smoothly and most of us were able to sleep on the plane.

Sunday afternoon we drove to Pokrov and unpacked, met our translators and had a wonderful dinner. The surprise treat was that a professional choir was eating in the restaurant as well. They sang three songs while we were finishing dinner. They were amazing.

Today is almost over. Many of the kids were in Moscow for a Russian holiday. I visited Nadya's grave, which was a very emotional experience for me. Nadya committed suicide in November, and I had become very close to her over the past four and a half years. As I knelt by her grave and looked into her eyes (in the photograph on the grave), I remembered the good times and smiled, but also cried as I knew that it was really true. I would not see her again.

We played some games arranged by the orphanage's sports teacher. The Russians beat us in almost every game.

We played ultimate frisbee and even got some of the girls to play with us.

We also managed to get in our program of a Bible lesson and some Russian praise songs. All of the kids who were here at the orphanage participated. I have to go now as the bus just pulled up. I'll try to update you tomorrow.