The crazy 32 hour day.

So at 3:00am on Saturday St. Petersburg time, we all left for the airport together.  After a slight baggage mishap in the St. Pete's airport (apparently we were only slotted for one checked bag each, but thankfully God knows these things so we still had our extra money to pay for the baggage), we thought we were on our way home.  We were late getting out of St. Pete's and late getting into Frankfurt. We missed our flight in Frankfurt and had to be rerouted.  Unfortunately, there was not space for all 13 of us to continue together.  Cameron, Jody, and I were put on a flight to Newark and then on to DFW, while Austin, Amelie, Riley, Aimee, Beth, Dusty, and Matt were put on a flight to Calgary Canada before going to Detroit and tomorrow to DFW.  Joshua, Shannon and Chuck were left in Germany and are supposed to be getting on a flight to DFW any time now.  I cannot speak for anyone else, but the adventure did not end there for my group.  We got into Newark with no time to spare and still had to go through customs and recheck our bags.  We meet an incredibly nice baggage checker who helped us retag our bags and pointed us towards our gate with a "RUN!" to emphasize our lack of time.  Thankfully our flight was delayed or we would have missed the last flight out of Newark to DFW tonight.  Unforunately our flight was delayed for over four hours.  Jody, Cameron, and I landed in DFW at 2 and are all safely home (as far as I know) almost exactly one day after we started.  However due to the fact that we followed the sun today with our time zone shifts, our day was 32 hours.

Please continue to pray for those who are still traveling.  They should all make it home by the end of Sunday.

Hopefully when our brains gets back together after sleeping, we will post about our time at the Harbor.

Starting home

Boarding plane in Russia. Frankfurt then Chicago then home! Our team will split into 2 groups in Chicago. One will arrive home at 5:30pm. The next will arrive at 8 pm.

tomorrow..

we will come back to America tomorrow. cant wait we wont go to sleep but i may sleep on the plane. I miss u all.

THE HARBOR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

i had fun at the harbor and made new friends. pray for a safe plane ride back home tomorrow.

This Sickness:(

My sister and others are sick so please pray for them.

Prayer Request (slightly urgent)

"And He said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my power is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my weakness, that the power of Christ may rest upon me." 2 Corinthians 12:9

It is 9 am here and our last day is about to begin. We are going to the Harbor again today. At least 3 of us are sick.  When I left the dorm to use the computer everyone was not up yet, but there are at least 3 so far (myself included). It seems to be a cold like illness.  Please pray for us during the next 8 to 10 hours as we are out.  Pray that God would use our weakness for His glory and His purposes.  Pray for team unity as we do not feel well and are tired.  This is one time that squabbles and fights can easily begin among us.  Looking forward to seeing you all soon.

"Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men." 1 Corinthians 1:25

Lisa

Recap of the last few days

We are not getting to update as often as we originally hoped, because our electronics are not connecting to the wifi at the university.  Tonight we have access to a computer all night long, so hopefully there will be plenty of updates for all of you. 

The missing bags were delivered on Sunday.  Only a few were clothing.  Most were supply bags that we could do without for a day or two.  Praise God for how quickly they did arrive. 

Sunday morning we were blessed to join a Russian/English congregation for worship.  The sermon was on Job, and to say the least all of us were impressed.  God definitely used this church to start our trip out right. 

After church, we spnet our first afternoon at the hospital.  The time there was spent getting to know the kids and seeing how many and what ages were there, as it changes often.  We used this information to prepare for VBS.  Most of the children at the hospital are young.  I think the oldest was 12.  The youngest was only a few months old. 

Yesterday (Monday) and today we spent mornings at the hospital and afternoons at the orphanage doing VBS.  It was my first experience working with a translator who has not planned with you, so I now appriecate how difficult this type of situation is on the teacher and the translator.  But despite our language barriers our time with the children was great.  Cameron taught the lesson on Monday over creation and it was quite theatrical at times to keep the young ones attention.  Chuck was privelaged to teach today.

For me there have been many aspects of the trip that weigh on my mind.  One, I see two little girls clearly.  Mesha, who has had someone close to her hurt haer greatly, and Lena, who i truthfully know nothing about.  Mesha smiles constantly and reaches out to any one who might show her affection despite her past. Lena is a little girl who sat in my lap and inmy arms while wild boys played all around and who said cheese every time I put a camera near her.  They weigh on my heart quite a bit.  They also remind me of a little boy from Guatemala who was my first experience with orphans and was who God used to ignite my passion wot work with orphans and others who are "undesired" by the world.  I pray that Lena and Mesha will impact me just as much as Danny first did and will be used to refuel me desire to work with children. I also pray that others on the trip will find their one child to fuel their care and prayers for orphans.

Other than this I have 2 prayer requests for you all.  First, the older boys at the orphanage.  During their lesson, they asked very hard questions.  They are obviously getting to an age where they need a "reasoned defense" of the faith.  In school they are taught so much that contridicts what we are telling them.  Please pray that they will continue to ask the questions they have.  Also pray that those who work with them consistantly will be prepared to answer them in a way that leads them closer to Christ.  Second, today the neeed to follw Christ was presented to the children today by Chuck.  Some of the children were very young, so the attentio span was not always there. Please pray that these children will take what they heard today and ponder it in their hearts.  Pray that they will ask question s if they do not understand and will grow in their love and understanding.    

Thanks so much for all your prayers.
Lisa