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!