CBU: The last days of training

An update from CBU Russia Team A: Incredible as it may seem, we have already been in St. Petersburg for 4 days! Our journey to Russia was uneventful! We were blessed to spend an afternoon in Heidelberg, Germany-tasting the local German food and enjoying the beautiful sights of the college town. We landed late at night in St. Petersburg, with most of our luggage! Kayla’s guitar however, did not arrive. We spent the next two hours filing paperwork to try to locate the lost guitar. We were able to sleep in a bit before getting up the next morning. Our … Continue reading

CBU: Sharing Jesus with the kids!

Wednesday began as kind of a rough day with the kids but thankfully Lauren had the right words to say to get the children back to their normal selves. We continued with the character trait of respect so our talk with the children tied in with the theme for the day. In small group we discussed the importance of respecting each other through our words and our actions. Thursday Noah’s Ark was the example we used to teach about excellence. It showed the kids that without courage, caring, diligence, and respect you cannot be excellent. Carley had the opportunity to … Continue reading

CBU: Celebrating birthdays!

Having decided to take our Sabbath on Saturday, we began our day by catching up on some much needed rest.  After a late breakfast, we headed to a local souvenir market to purchase gifts for our loved ones back home (and a few for ourselves, as well).  Our team really enjoyed bargaining with the local vendors and immersing ourselves in the culture.  We ate dinner at our favorite Russian café and enjoyed a relaxing evening of team bonding over popcorn. Sunday marked the beginning of our last week of camp, this time consisting of seven consecutive days at the Transit Center (prayers are … Continue reading

CBU: Beautiful children!

On Thursday we said good-bye to little Visilli. He has been declared an orphan and left the Transit Center for an orphanage. We were able to give him a gift before he departed and to share with him that he is never alone, that God is with Him and will protect him. Our gift and card brought him, as he so beautifully shared, “tears of joy”. Having this experience blessed Visilli and our team immensely in that while our hearts were breaking, God in his loving-tenderness reminded us that he is fully in control of all of our lives; that … Continue reading

CBU: Almost done with first week of camp.

The past three days have been a huge blessing! We started camp with the children on Monday and it went well! We introduced ourselves and slowly the children started to open up to us. We have learned so much from the children even though they have had many obstacles in their lives. Camp on day one was awesome to watch how the children participated in the activities that we had planned. We loved hearing them laugh with us and trying to talk to us in Russian even when we didn’t understand. We quickly learned to smile and nod, but the … Continue reading