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.