What we'll be doing in Russia

The trip is getting very close. The excitement at our house is nearly palpable. We've recently heard from the orphanage director about her plans for our time there. Here's a rundown:

-Help the kids with garden work
The kids raise their own vegetables and I think they're very proud of it. And it's so delicious and fresh. I'm sure I could learn a thing or two about how to raise a garden.

-Mushroom hunting
On our last trip, we had an unforgettable day at one of the nearby parks going after some mushrooms. But you have to be very, very quiet so you can sneak up on them. After gathering mushrooms we had a fantastic picnic. We're very excited to do this again. It's a great way to have fun and to connect with the kids.

-Visit Dolbiylova, the village
This is the place where we spent the day having a picnic (another one, yes), climbing rocks, hiking, and then having a second huge meal. They had to roll me back to the orphanage. But it was a lot of fun and our hosts were very gracious.

-Banya
Quite an experience. We've written a bit about this before. Suffice it to say it's certainly an interesting and culturally enriching way to bathe.

-Visit the schools and observe classes
We're very excited to see how they do school over there. Being a big supporter of education, I'm always interested in seeing this sort of thing. Visiting classes will also give us a chance to talk with the kids a little more about school and their education/career goals.

The director told us a little bit about what to expect from the kids and how to interact with them during less formal activity time.

-Older boys will like guitar, soccer, crafts in wood shop
-Older girls will like makeup, nails, etc
-Younger kids will like anything!

Needless to say, activities like this are a must. When you have a language barrier on top of emotional barriers, having something to do with the kids is a great way to connect and build a relationship.

doma international

Hey, have a look at this! It's from my brother and sister-in-law's non-profit called doma international:


"At doma, we are looking for 50 people to commit to just $50 per month for just 6 months. Help us lay the foundation for exciting things happening in HIV/AIDS baby houses in Ukraine, vulnerable kids and pregnant women in Uganda, and trafficked teens in Ohio. Contact me at daniel@domaconnection.org.

At doma we believe that care and compassion is more contagious than disease and despair. Be contagious."

For more, check out my brother's blog:

danieljclark.typepad.com/my_weblog/2009/07/make-a-small-commitment-to-a-big-change.html

Weak = Strong

It's easy to feel tiny and inadequate when dealing with the fundamental and heart-wrenching effects of children growing up without a family. Through sending letters and visiting once a year with material, financial, and emotional support, there is really only so much we can do. The first time we visited Russia, we visited 7 orphanages, and I cried the entire trip for one fundamental reason: no matter what we do, these children don't have a mother or a father.

The reading and sermon at Bethlehem last week was over the text we chose when asked to lead a team session on our second trip to Russia. In 2 Corinthians, Paul is thankful for for his weaknesses--when he is weak, he is strong. I get that. When we get too caught up in ourselves, our plans, what we have to offer, we lose sight of our true goal: sharing peace and wholeness with 29 precious children. Our goal is not flashy or impressive. It doesn't command media attention or draw thousands of people to the mission. In the words of Pastor Felde, it is pretty unremarkable, really. We are simply hoping to be a part of restoring basic human dignity to a few sweet little souls.

Now that we have some people joining us (yay!), it's easy to feel a bit more pressure to impress. We want to show them the beautiful Sovietsk we've experienced. We want them to look into the eyes of the children and see what we see. We hope we can share the life-giving experience of spending time with our Russian family. We want them to fall in love, just like we have.

But in acknowledging how small we really are, in understanding our weakness, we don't have to 'strain for effect,' either in creating an experience for the travelers or in reaching out to our children in the orphanage. We can simply, humbly keep our eyes and hearts open and find ways to meet some needs.

"My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness."

Whenever I am weak, I am strong.

Day Three

On the third day of our trip, we typically get up kinda early and have a good, hardy Russian breakfast before departing the hotel for Sovietsk. The drive from Kirov to Sovietsk takes somewhere around ninety minutes. It goes by quickly because of the anticipation of seeing the kids and orphanage staff again and besides, the scenery is pretty nice.

When we first arrived at the orphanage on our last trip, the kids were very shy (some of them never stopped being shy). But it didn't take Katya long to warm up to Sarah again. She remembered Sarah from our previous visit a year and a half before. I had never met Sergey in person, but had exchanged a few letters with him. I wouldn't consider either of us to be conversationalists, but I was happy to meet him and I think the feeling was mutual. We also met some of the caregivers, orphanage staff, and of course, Galina, the orphanage director. She led us on a tour of the building and its grounds (a beatific setting, I must say) and then showed us to our rooms.

By then it was midday and time for lunch. We shared with our hosts a meal of borscht, potatoes, fresh vegetables, and fish. As is customary, following the meal I delivered a (somewhat awkward) impromptu speech telling them how excited we were to be there and how very delicious the food was. Galina also delivered a speech thanking us for coming. We were then directed to follow Galina to her office for a meeting to plan to the upcoming week. There wasn't much planning, really. She mostly just told us what we'd be doing for the next four days, which was fine with us.

Then we divided up by gender. I went with Vadim Petrovich, the wood shop teacher, and Sarah went with the sweet-voiced needlecraft teacher, Yelena. Part of the plan for the week was for the two of us to learn some skills from the kids. I would learn how to make things out of wood and Sarah was supposed to learn how to make things from thread and needles. Vadim Petrovich, who's an older gentleman, treated me and Misha (our translator) to a thirty minute PowerPoint presentation about all of the skills he teaches the kids in his shop. The presentation was unexpected, but actually quite informative.

After the presentation, we were able to spend some down time with the kids. There weren't many around at the time (most were away at summer camp) so we just sat down in the common area where the boys were hanging out and tried to strike up (and sustain) a conversation. Not a terribly easy task, but I think it was a good start toward getting to know each other.