CBU – St Petersburg: Three more days of camp

With only three days left of our camp in St. Petersburg, we are amazed at the relationships being built. The kids have settled into a routine of a daily skit and games in the gym, followed by group time with the teenage guys, teenage girls and younger children and ending the day with a trip to the park to play games. Keeping with the Olympic theme, the daily skit has reoccurring characters who are competitors in the “Olympics of life” and “the trainer” who is always there to guide them. Each day’s skit has a theme or moral such as … Continue reading

CBU – Novgorod: Second week of camp

Hello friends and family! I have a lot of exciting things to report for the Novgorod team.  We are still very busy and time is flying by.  On Sunday our team had the privilege of attending and participating in a service at the church where we are being housed.  On behalf of our team, Megan, Sean, and I lead the church in worship.  It was truly beautiful to hear everyone worshiping even though we didn’t speak the same language.  After worship, three of us had the opportunity to open up to the congregation by sharing with them our testimonies.  Needless … Continue reading

CBU – Novgorod: Building friendships

The past few days have been such an adventure…we haven’t even had the time to update this blog on time 🙂 On Wednesday at the orphanage, a group of musicians came to play for the children and teach them a bit about different instruments and sounds.  The children had a blast!  After the children’s dinner, we took them to a park nearby and had a group kicking around a soccer ball and a group picking flowers and making “flower crowns” for the girls.  While there, we learned a few Russian games that the children love to play. On Thursday, we … Continue reading

CBU – St Petersburg: An update from the guys!

God has been blessing us in so many ways and it has been amazing seeing it play out in everyone’s lives.  We have been doing tons of different activities with the kids and it has been thoroughly tiring, but we are all still excited to see what God has in store for us and the kids. The biggest achievement in the last couple days was the story of a three year old little boy in the Transit Center named Sasha. When we had first showed up he was so unresponsive to anything and it was really hard on the girls … Continue reading

CBU – St Petersburg: Almost done with the first week of camp

Months of planning had come down to May 14th, the first day with the kids from the transit center. Naturally nerves were there but so was the Holy Spirit. We were warned by one of our translators, Masha, that the kids would be shy and we naturally thought that they would take a while to warm up to us, but this was not the case. The day was blessed with plenty of laughter and games. In our small groups the kids really opened up about what they liked about the day.   We were so thrilled with their responses. When we … Continue reading