SPU and Interns: Final days of camp

With only a few days left of camp, it is with joy and sadness that the team and interns are getting ready to say goodbye. It has been such joy to get to know the teens who are physically or mentally disabled. For them, life is bleak without any future. In the Russia, if you are disabled then there is no hope for you. You are an outcast in society. Locked up in an orphanage or in your own small apartment. If wheelchair bound, you cannot go anywhere since there are no ramps and elevators do not always work. Most … Continue reading

SPU and Interns: First week of camp at the Gulf of Finland

Greetings from the Gulf of Finland! The first week has finished and everyone is doing great! The SPU team and our interns are enjoying their time at the camp, as they get to know the teens they are partnered with throughout the day. It is challenging, yet very rewarding to see the impact they have on the teens and staff. Since there is no internet at camp, this update is done by way of a phone call! 😉 Everyone sends their greetings and appreciates your prayers! Please continue to pray for good weather: there has been lots of rain the … Continue reading

Interns: Had some rest and now off to camp again!

Hi everyone! It’s Shannon! I am doing really well and cannot wait to go back to camp tomorrow (Monday), but am so glad I was able to get some rest these past few days back in the city. I also got to do a bunch of laundry since everything was sandy and smelled like campfire. It was hard to say goodbye to the kids, but it was so good to see that so many of them had such good families to go home to since Savannah and I rode home in the van with some of the kids. I can’t … Continue reading

Interns: Just finished our first session at camp!

Priviet family and friends! These first couple of weeks have been full of so much joy and chaos, and although we are exhausted right now, we could not have asked for a better group of kids and staff to have been working with throughout our first session. Right now we are back at the hostile in St. Petersburg for the weekend to get some rest and to wash our clothes, but we will return back to camp on Monday with the three beautiful SPU girls. We can confidently say that we wholeheartedly fell in love with every single kid at … Continue reading

SPU: Finished training, tomorrow we meet the kids!

Privyet Friends and Family! After completing our training in Russia we are excited to embark on our next adventure: BABIES! We will start helping at the HIV Baby Orphanage tomorrow. What we have learned: These first few days have already been an eye opening experience for us as we have learned much from the people of Russia. In our training we learned about the Language, History, Religion, and Culture. Through learning the history, we were able to understand its large impact on present day culture and people. This morning, we had the opportunity to attend an Orthodox Church service: a … Continue reading