CBU-Novgorod: Finishing up the camp…

       The Lord has been blessing our team in amazing ways.  Not only are we sharing our faith and the truth with the teens but we can also see a marked difference in the actions and reactions of the children.  It is obvious to us all that our team was put together for a reason because we work so well together.

The group working with the little kids, Theo, Matt, Lauren and Sarah have been making amazing progress in changing the attitudes of the smaller children. After putting on a Good Samaritan type of skit the kids were asked what they thought about being kind to each other and they were challenged to do something kind for the staff of the orphanage.  The next day, when asked what they had done none of them had anything to say.  They were asked why they hadn’t done anything kind and a boy replied with, “I don’t know how to be kind, no-one has ever been kind to me.”  That statement stopped the team in their tracks.  The concept of not understanding kindness had never occurred to them.  It really just shows how lost these children are and we ask that you will continue to lift them up in your prayers, that God helps them to find value and truth in what we’re sharing with them.

With the teens?  Wow. God has opened to door so wide it’s impossible not to stumble through it with the Gospel.  Chris, Danny, Bekah and Jackie have been accepted into their group so intimately that yesterday they attended a Russian HS graduation for one of the girls.  She had no family attending and when she saw them there the joy was evident in her face.  On Monday, while walking by the river and doing their best to work faith and God into a conversation, one of the teens blatantly asked if they were Orthodox or Protestant and that led to an hour and a half conversation.  It is a beautiful thing when God takes control.  The teens are open to sharing and talking and the team hopes to be planting seeds.

Thank you for praying for us.  We need it.  Pray for team unity as we finish our trip.  Pray that God will guide us and that we will continually seek His glory.  See you in a week!