Tuesday, June 4, 2013: Day 9

Sorry I didn't write yesterday - I'll do my best to remember everything. We started at Madonna, where there's a parsonage and an Orphan Grain Train shipping site - we went there last year, and there was a barn that they were in the process of renovating so that they could store containers there. This may have been one of the highlights of the day: we were able to see how much work they've done on the barn since last year, and it was AMAZING.


Before pictures, 2012:

After pictures, 2013:

New roof! Or at least the beginnings of one.

The outside of the barn.

They have walls up, a floor put in, and a makeshift ceiling on, and when we went yesterday, there were parts of a shipment in there! It was so cool to see that project have progressed so much! It really makes me excited to see my church's orphanage and how much more they've renovated. 

After Madonna, we went to Svoniki orphanage. We had gone there last year, and it's the one run by a Canadian pastor and his wife in an old farm house. Last year when we went, it was cold and rainy, so we were inside. Yesterday, though, it was beautiful and sunny, the kids were having lunch outside, and it was wonderful. We saw some kids from last year, and met some new ones.

One of my highlights from that orphanage was walking with Sandra, the house mom, and 2 kids down to the chicken coop. As we were walking, she pointed out the various animals in their "animal garden," as she called it, and she told me a little bit about how much the animals help the kids and how therapeutic they are. 

Side note: One of my long-time dreams that I don't talk about much, for whatever reason, is to use horses as part of a therapy program for kids who have been abused or have special needs. It's one of those dreams that I never see taking off, but then again, I'm composing this entry from Russia - dreams happen, even if you don't expect them to. 

Any way, I told Sandra about that dream, and she and I chatted lightly about animals and kids - it was a really neat experience. Leaving that orphanage was hard - I was telling Jackie and Allen (the couple on the trip with us,) that I have super mixed feelings about not seeing kids at the orphanages. The good this is, they're possibly out and adopted and party of a loving family. On the flip side, they may have outgrown the orphanage, when we get to the special needs orphanages, they will have possibly passed away, but no matter where they are, I'm not reconnecting, not getting to see them again, and that's so hard for me. Already, at the 2 orphanages we've been to, there have been little faces replaced by other little faces. The only thing I can do is pray those kiddos are alright and that they're safe, wherever they may be. I suppose this is also another opportunity for me to say that we just have to put our trust in God, and believe that He and His angels have every single kid in their care.

When we got back to the lake house, we each packed a suitcase of clothes, baby blankets, and toys. That was pretty neat! Which leads me into today's events.

We crossed over into Russia today - we were pretty tense going through there. This particular border has been known to take a couple of hours. On top of that, each of us was taking in a suitcase holding children's clothes, toys, blankets, and a stack of Braille Bibles. The mafia is fond of taking stuff such as that, which is why we stopped sending containers directly into Russia and started taking suitcases in like we did today. Tension wasn't eased by the fact that they were scanning suitcases today. We didn't have anything dangerous, but if our contents look suspicious for any reason, it could hold us up for SEVERAL hours. 

By the grace of God, the only person who got held up was Karen, and it was because she had 3 boxes of sidewalk chalk that looked like bullets under the scanner. However, a brief opening of the suitcase revealed to the very pleasant security guard that it was simply sidewalk chalk, and let her right through. We were out of there in under two hours, which was a new record for that particular border. Not bad!

Right now, we're headed to the abandoned baby orphanage at Luga. We're not sure if we'll get in - their equivalent of state inspection is today, and having us there would just create a huge mess for them, understandably! So we don't know what's going on yet. More later...

Later...

Oh, my goodness, what a wonderful afternoon! We ended up being allowed into Luga. We made many little friends, anywhere from ages 0-3. Michael made a little friend named Vicca:

Michael and Vicca

She definitely had an obsession with cameras! (If you take a look at the picture, you'll see she's got a tight grip on Michael's Canon!) She was a lot of fun, super smart, too! She was repeating our names, and she did such a great job! I was also reminded that my name in Russian is pronounced "Styephanie." It makes me smile.

Some sad news, though, about the Luga baby orphanage: the government officials who visited today told the director that they're considering shutting down the orphanage and moving the sixty babies into an orphanage of one hundred babies for a total of 160 babies. The main reason behind this is so that they can report a lower number of orphanages. No care for the infants, the workers, the renovations on the building, anything. Just the statistics on the number of orphanages. Maybe I'm just over-sensitive, but that seems rather heartless, to me.

On a much happier note, we went from Luge to Tolmachevo orphanage, which is home to kids from age 4-16 or 17. We didn't see much more than about 6 of the kids, but the small numbers make it easier to connect with them. Michael got a GREAT picture of me and my little 4-year-old friend, Masha:

She's a cutie, and she knows it, too.

Today was the first time we, as a group, gave a Bible story to the kiddos! I gave the story of David and Goliath, James gave a very, very short message, and Rachel said a prayer. The format was from a children's message I wrote for a class this past semester, and I happened to tuck it in my Bible for whatever reason. Well, that reason was Russia. I had the Bible story paraphrased, I had a message, and I had a Bible verse and a prayer to pull it all together. It went beautifully! Nickoli translated, and the kids were captivated. It was a really moving experience.

Giving our Bible lesson!

I also gave away my first Bible, to a 7-year-old named Dasha. She wasn't as out-going as Masha, but still very sweet. Giving Bibles away is such a special moment for me - really makes me smile.

Now we're headed into Saint Petersburg to check in at our hotel and eat at good ol' Pizza Ollie's! (And there's WiFi! Hooray!) It's been a wonderful day, a great start to the Russia portion of our trip.

My Group Devotion, Given in Russia

Psalm 145

Great Is the Lord

A Song of Praise. Of David.

1 I will extol you, my God and King,

and bless your name forever and ever.

2 Every day I will bless you

and praise your name forever and ever.

3 Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised,

and his greatness is unsearchable.

4 One generation shall commend your works to another,

and shall declare your mighty acts.

5 On the glorious splendor of your majesty,

and on your wondrous works, I will meditate.

6 They shall speak of the might of your awesome deeds,

and I will declare your greatness.

7 They shall pour forth the fame of your abundant goodness

and shall sing aloud of your righteousness.

8 The Lord is gracious and merciful,

slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.

9 The Lord is good to all,

and his mercy is over all that he has made.

10 All your works shall give thanks to you, O Lord,

and all your saints shall bless you!

11 They shall speak of the glory of your kingdom

and tell of your power,

12 to make known to the children of man your mighty deeds,

and the glorious splendor of your kingdom.

13 Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom,

and your dominion endures throughout all generations.

[The Lord is faithful in all his words

and kind in all his works.]

14 The Lord upholds all who are falling

and raises up all who are bowed down.

15 The eyes of all look to you,

and you give them their food in due season.

16 You open your hand;

you satisfy the desire of every living thing.

17 The Lord is righteous in all his ways

and kind in all his works.

18 The Lord is near to all who call on him,

to all who call on him in truth.

19 He fulfills the desire of those who fear him;

he also hears their cry and saves them.

20 The Lord preserves all who love him,

but all the wicked he will destroy.

21 My mouth will speak the praise of the Lord,

and let all flesh bless his holy name forever and ever.

In the Lutheran Study Bible, this chapter is referred to as the "Mission Psalm," and seems to fit our trip, to a T.

David models a perfect mission trip in this Psalm. He begins and ends by praising the Lord, which should really be a daily example for us. David then spends several verses meditating on the works of God, and for Christians, the sacrifice of Christ should be a main poing of concentration as we remember the works of the Lord.

Verses 14-21 remind me of our own message, the purpose of this trip. Although our first and foremost goal should be sharing the love of Christ, these 8 verses express our second purpose: sharing the loving care and mercy of our "Oтец," (Father,) in heaven. And David finishes with the hope that we take with us on all of our missions, both overseas and back in the States:

"Let all flesh bless his holy name,

forever and ever."

Dear Papa God,

Thank you for the opportunity to share your love and the love of Christ through our actions and your Word on this and all future missions we may embark on. Bless our efforts so that we may be joined by even more brothers and sisters in Christ when we join you in heaven.

In your name we pray,
Amen.

June 2, 2013: Day 7

Today was very nice, very relaxing. It's definitely going to be different from last year, in that we went from our buys, fast-paced week in Russia to our slower, more relaxed week in the Baltics. That's switched around this year, so moving into our fast-paced week may be somewhat of a challenge.

Any way, after our breakfast in Tallinn, we drove to Parnu, where we were able to attend a Lutheran church. The service was in Estonian, but we were able to pick things out like the Lord's Prayer, the sharing of the peace, and the benediction. We also had Communion, which makes Latvia the only Baltic State left for me to have Communion in - don't think it'll happen on this trip, though.

Caitlynn also sang in church, an English hymn, and she did a wonderful job, beautiful addition to the service. I had an unintentional performance myself; when the congregation had filed out, we were waiting for the pastor (he wanted to recap his sermon for us in English,) and I st down to play Für Elise on the church's grand piano. I had my back to the door, and as I was playing, a tourist group filed in, completely unbeknownst to me. THAT was embarrassing...

We were able to eat out, and then once we got back into Latvia, we stopped at the Baltic Sea and swam. Well, more like waded. The water never went much past my waist, and the further out we got, the closer to came to hypothermia (I am, of course, exaggerating, but it was extremely cold,) so we stayed pretty close to shore.

Ilze (our driver's wife and hostess while in the Baltics,) prepared a wonderful dinner for us tonight, and then afterwards we took a dip in the lake. Now I'm sitting outside, watching the sun set over the lake, full of good, homemade tea, enjoying the beautiful piece of creation.

Tomorrow will be our last full day in the Baltics - we'll be going to Madonna, Latvia to fill suitcases with things for the people in Russia. We don't send containers to Russia from Orphan Grain Train anymore because the mafia goes through it and completely rifles and pilages the contents. Instead, we send them to the Baltics and then find people, like us, to move the contents safely across the borders. Seems to work much better.

Grita, Juris's (our driver,) HUGE German shepherd, is laying so peacefully next to the house, the family across the lake is swimming with their kids, my bug spray is keeping away the evil mosquitoes - I'm juts a really content person right now. I think I'll finish up with my devos and some plans for my group devotion in Russia, and then hunker down for the night.

Side note: Tonight we learned that Oklahoma City got hit, again, with even more tornadoes. Prayers for those people back at home who are suffering from so much pain and loss - may God give them comfort in their time of grief.

June 1st, 2013: Day 6

Today was excellent - would have been completely prefect, except I've been working pretty hard to keep a head cold and a fever away. i woke up after 7 hours of solid sleep, which is much more than what I normally get at school, but I still felt exhausted. As soon as we got in the van to drive to Estonia, I was asleep for a good 2 hours.

At our pit stop right before the border, I bought 1.5 liters of water - it was gone right before we got into Estonia - about 5 minutes later. That was then followed by a 2nd 2-hour nap, which seemed to help for a while.

When we got to Tallinn, we went to Bethel church. (This was the church last year that I was able to give extra funds to thanks to my generous donors!) They run a children's shelter, both a day center (after school program,) and a rehabilitation home. The improvements from just last year alone are AMAZING!!

2012

2013

The director was so happy with the improvements and has high hopes for the future of her kids, and she believes they have the power to make a difference in Estonia.

Our prayers for these once-hopeless children as they grow and learn and mature into young, productive adults are greatly appreciated by Miriam, the director.

Once we got checked into our hotel, the "kids" in the group went into "Old Town," the main tourist attraction in Tallinn. About halfway through our adventure, I started to feel a bit dizzy and shaky, so I downed another 1.5 liters of water, which sort of helped. The group stopped for a marvelous dinner, mostly of pasta, and we ha a nice time chatting and relaxing. By the time we got back to the hotel, I was shot. A nice warm shower, some juice and meds in my system, and I'm good for the night. I'm hoping tomorrow I'll feel better - makes it harder to enjoy the trip when I feel like this... :/

May 31, 2013: Day 5

We just left the Sākiai orphanage - our first kids on the trip. Right now, they have 37 kids, from 4 months to 17 years old. When we went, most of them were in school, but we got to interact with the younger ones for quite some time. I made a couple of really cute friends, one who was about 7-months-old (super active, smiley little girl,)

and another little girl who was about 3. (She's the one sitting closest to me in the picture below.)

She looked a lot like my curly-haired friend that I met last year:

and she was the right age, but the director said that she knew of the girl (pictured above) who I was speaking of, and said that she's been adopted by a new family! Praise God! In fact, the new friend I made today has also been adopted, and is waiting for her new family to come and pick her up. Another moment of praise! As hard as it was to put her down after cuddling her and rocking her, I take comfort in knowing that someone else will love her and make her their priority - her future is bright, and so leaving her is not difficult. 

Tonight is an exciting field trip: Concordia University's a capella choir is singing in Riga, and Caitlynn, both my roommate on the trip and at my apartment this summer, sings in the choir, and will be joining them for her final college-career concert. I'll also get to see my friends Steven and Natalie, fellow Improv actors with me at Concordia, and I'm so excited to see them! They're like older siblings to me, and I can't wait to heart hem sing and then give them a gigantic "Steph hug."

Today has been (and promises to continue to be,) a good day. All previous stresses from airplane travels and airport woes are behind us - we're off to a great start! :)

May 30th, 2013: Day 4

Today we spent most of our day traveling; we went from Latvia into Lithuania. On the way, we stopped first for lunch at the pastry shop in Latvia that we stopped at last year. We also stopped at the largest Lutheran church in Lithuania, the same one that the youth group goes to.

Largest Lutheran Church in Lithuania

We were also able to visit the church's humanitarian center, where they have youth group meetings, church meetings, and the Orphan Grain Train distribution center for this area. 

Inside the Humanitarian Center

When we got to the hunting lodge, we were able to meet up with the youth group again! There were five who came to visit, and we talked, played "Jungle Speed," and then "Monkey in the Middle." We had such a great time, and I'm so grateful for the opportunity to reconnect with some of my friends from last year! Here's some pictures from hanging out with them:

The other success was that Pastor Reehl was able to connect with some Lithuanian pastors and set up shipment details for Orphan Grain Train containers! This is exciting because not all churches are accepting/believing of the fact that we can or will ship a huge container full of free resources. The idea behind a rich country sending clothes over here seems too good to be true. 

However, Pastor was able to communicate with a pastor who runs a rehabilitation center for those who struggle with addictions to alcohol and drugs, and he was so excited about this opportunity for his people - there was no hesitation in accepting the container; what a blessing! Communicating the love of Christ through donations and shipments is only possible when pastors/leaders are willing to accept the help. Pastor Reehl set up 2 new shipment sites - a huge success, and all the glory to God! :)

May 29th, 2013: Day 3

It's all just one big adventure, full of mishaps, mistakes, and some failure, but mostly excitement, unexpected joy, and some surprises!

We stayed in Dublin last night, as updated on this blog previously. Originally our plane was supposed to leave this morning at 6 for Frankfurt. Our departure time got pushed back to 6:50, so we boarded at 6:30. Our plane left Dublin at 7:40. Originally, when our flight was leaving at 6:50, our connecting flight to Riga was going to leave 20 minutes after we landed. Well, we left 60 minutes late, so we missed our flight to Riga.

United provided us with meal vouchers, since we're in the airport for 8 hours. While we were waiting for the vouchers, there was a security breach of some sorts, and we were cut off from the rest of the airport - we had a small room to stand in and wait until they diverted us through another terminal - about a mile away.

When we did finally get our vouchers for the meals, they were only 8 euros a piece, which, for today's exchange rate, equals about $10.37. That's not a whole lot to work with, especially for being in here for 8 hours. Karen, God bless her, got us all one extra voucher, and our total is 24 euros for the day.

Now, finally, we've figured everything out. It's 2:18 PM local time, and we are calming down a little bit, which is nice. More later...

Later...

Alright, we finally, FINALLY landed in Latvia. Oh my goodness, it feels wonderful to stretch out on a bed and to be out of the planes. After lunch, I took a nap on an airport chair. Benefit of being 5'1": I can curl up almost anywhere and fall asleep. I believe I slept for about 2 hours, and then we grabbed dinner and sat at our gate. Michael and I practiced some Russian - we've gotten decent..ish... at counting! We were pretty proud of ourselves.

Tomorrow we have a long drive into Lithuania - hopefully we'll be able to see the youth group kids from last year! Alright, finally bed time here - good night!

May 28th, 2013: Day 2

4:35 AM, Dublin Time

Yes, that says "Dublin time," as in Dublin, Ireland. Our plane evidently had some technical difficulties - not mechanically, thank God. Just some problem with our weather radar, and since we're expecting some bad weather between here and Frankfurt we needed to get it fixed. We should have landed in Frankfurt by now - hopefully we'll make our connecting flight, the one that leaves in five hours. For now, they're serving us breakfast, and we wait to find out what the next step is.

Beginning of Journal Entries!! May 27th, 2013: Day 1

And we're off! Flew out of Omaha, ALMOST on time, and landed in Chicago's MASSIVE airport. We've begun boarding, I believe, and so now we wait. Our flight leaves at 2:20, and then we're up in the air for approximately 8 hours. We're trying to figure out who's sitting next to who right  now - it's possible I'll be sitting by myself for the long flight, or at least apart from the group... We shall see!

Side note: I, in fact, did not sit by strangers until the flight home between Chicago and Omaha; I was so fast asleep for that flight, I didn't mind any way. But more on that later...

"The Signs Are In English!!"

The title of this post was my exact reaction when my dad picked me up from the airport yesterday, and the first thing I saw was a fried cakes stand, and it said "Cakes" in English. I could not, for the life of me, figure out why it was in English and not Russian. That's how I was thinking yesterday!

I am so grateful to back, but I can definitely already feel the withdrawal setting in. I miss the kids, the people who I traveled with, the language, the food - all the things I thought I wouldn't miss, I do. They all became a part of me this past week, and leaving it behind is hard!!

However, it is nice to get back to a place where I can order off an English menu to a waitress who speaks English, where I'm able to read the road signs, to see distance in miles instead of kilometers, to feel like I can wear jeans and a tshirt without looking like a tourist, and to drive in a semi-safe environment - in my own car, nonetheless!

I plan on working on getting my journal entries up between now and Friday night. I'm taking day 1 back in the States to relax at my dad's - do laundry, run errands, and get ready to head back to my apartment. Then I start work, and it's back to real life, almost as though none of it happened.

That's going to be the most frustrating part - merging back into a world that doesn't understand where I've been, who I've met, and why I feel like I'm still needed there. To the rest of the world, I'm just one more college kid who went on a mission trip and came back. They'll ask how it was, what I did, what my favorite part was, but they'll be expecting a brief, 5-sentence answer, and even that they'll forget as they go on with their lives. I can't really complain; I'm in the same boat when people who I love return from long trips. There's something about living in this culture that creates a sense of apathy toward the outside world. America has turned somewhat numb to anything beyond our borders, and that's hard to come back to.

All that being said, thank YOU for reading this. This blog will be a very significant tool in my debriefing process, and if anyone would like a presentation or to look at pictures or just to talk to me about my experiences, please don't hesitate to contact me! There's a lot going on in my head, and I'd love to share it with as many people as possible.

Blessings on all that you do!