Day 3 at the orphanage began with 2 skits with the theme of having a relationship with God. The first skit focusing on heroes- Jesus being our true superhero. The second skit titled “Labels…Nothing But the Blood of Jesus” was shown without narration. Our main message was that we have all been called names, we all have burdens, and we’ve all been hurt, but Jesus takes these away and we are clean. Parachute time followed the skits as the day before which is always a hit with the little kids, and extra fun when the teen boys help out!
The little ones enjoyed another day of VBS, but the biggest surprise of all was their love for our paper airplane craft. While this wasn’t what we expected, the kids spent the most time decorating their own individual planes with stickers and markers, then laughing as they were able to throw them through hula hoops. Toward the end of our time with them, Genevieve assisted the older children in making braided rope bracelets- very popular as well!
After our time at the center, we visited St. Isaac’s Cathedral and enjoyed the view from 300 spiral steps to the top! It was a beautiful, unique way to see the city of St. Petersburg. Before we caught the bus home, Tatiana walked us to the statue of Peter the Great, allowing us to learn more of the history of the city .
On Wednesday night after our team VBS planning meeting, Tatiana was able to share the children’s stories with us. While this was difficult to hear, it allowed us insight into their lives, and to love on them more the next day! We are enjoying each moment we have with the children at the orphanage and are learning to be present in their lives in each and every moment.
Elene has provided devotions for us to read together and contemplate each evening. I wanted to share the one from tonight with you, because it was so timely. Unfortunately, the one copy was destroyed by Bethany’s apple core before I could copy it. In a nutshell, and my paraphrase, is that we may be tempted to feel like failures when we do God’s work. But we can be assured that His will prevails when we are covered in prayer. I really needed that.
(Written by Melissa and Claudia)
Day 4 – All glory and praises to God for a wonderful, smooth, and productive day! Our theme for today was: “Sharing Jesus to our friends and family”, exemplified through two skits. Our first skit was called “The Sticky Chair” -a hit with the cool kids (teens) and the tiny-tots (younger ones). The skit was about two friends, one a believer and the other not; but through tough and sticky situations (pun intended) the believer friend was able to share the gospel with the friend that was a nonbeliever. Our second skit was called “Jesus is Risen”, it is actually scripted by our very talented actor and team member, Nolan! This skit was a blast for all ages; instead of only having our team members act we were able to include the children as a part of the skit. After the skits, the tiny-tots and cool kids proceeded to their respective rooms, and there we continued on with our fun and shenanigans.
The tiny-tots began our mischief with eggs, but not just any ordinary egg… a scuba egg! The moment we pulled out the bag of plastic (Easter) eggs, the kids were beaming with joy. The excitement continued to escalate as we moved on with the next craft, origami boat with stickers! We had no idea that such a simple craft involving only paper and stickers would keep them entertained for over half an hour and bring so much laughter! Of course, we got slightly distracted when we stumbled upon a pack of mustache stickers…so all sorts of “managed” mischief broke out. We then took a break from crafts, played “Big Wind Blows”, “Musical Chairs”, and even had a mini-dance session to “Hakuna Matata”. To wrap up our day, we finished off with two more crafts; we call it the “Paper Plate of happiness” and “No-Sew Scarves”.
As for the “Cool Kids”, the day proceeded with a game of “chief”, a fun activity for all. Our day’s leader (and director), Nolan, brought in a bounty of copper wire- as well as a great story from his own life. Our day was filled with abstract wire sculptures, creatures, vehicles, names, and some… other interesting works of art (they’re teen boys for goodness sake). During this time we tried our best to connect with the teens through two truths and a lie. Not only that, Olivia was able to get her testimony out to a not perfect but satisfyingly attentive audience. We don’t know what our words did for all of these boys today, but the team hopes that in some way, we helped them understand our rather confusing but abundantly loving God. We all agree that these are sweet boys that will be hard to say goodbye to. We hope to live in the moment and truly enjoy tomorrow with them all. Your prayers are appreciated as we continue our adventure in Russia and in Christ.
(Written by Olivia and Elene)
Love these great pix! Keep up the great work! Hugs and prayers!
Love the pictures and hope you can add many many more of the interactions. Such a joy to see the faces of the kids and their enjoyment of what they are experiencing. God bless your group and every one of those children.
Great activities – love seeing all the pictures – you can see the pleasure, awe and happiness so transparent on the faces of these young people. Lots of prayers and strength to enjoy your final times spent together.
The kids’ eyes are just lighting up in those pictures. It’s obvious the team is having a huge impact.
Praying for you!