International language of love

I will place a post about our last day sometime later today (tonight). I will tell you this - it has been an excellent week. Excellent. Very smooth, no hitches thus far, great attitudes and hearts. We're sad, and yet excited and so very touched. But, we're also really tired. It's after midnight and last night's blog entry left me with four hours of sleep. I need more, so I can not give you as much right now. So, here is an abbreviated entry.

I realized today that we have not been entirely truthful over the past few days. We had planned a fairly typical mission trip VBS program. Break the kids up into different ages, have three or four workers in each, let them do the entire program, blah, blah, blah. But, we have not done that this time. The reason was because again, nothing survives first contact with reality.

We arrived at camp #14 - the older kids - and were told the ages of the kids were different than we had been told. So, we had to break our four static groups into three rotating groups. Because they had such good facilities, the sports rotation was always on the soccer field, the Bible study either outside (weather permitting) or in the chow hall, and the crafts were at a couple of pavilions and pic-nic tables. Each met for 40 minutes and then switched.

I know, I know - 40 minutes of Bible study for kids? Am I crazy? Yes, I am, but let me say this - it worked. Within the Bible study time, we had a number of activities to keep the lesson going. The sports always worked and they ate the crafts up. T-shirt painting, hair & nails for the girls, leathercrafts, frisbee decorating, etc. The kids loved it! We arrived at the camp at 10:30 (it's about 1 1/2 to 2 hours away from the hotel) and only had until 2pm (their lunch time).

So, everyday, every team member did all three things - Bible study, sports, and crafts. One of the greatest unintended results of this was the closeness between us and the kids. The director at #14 said he had never seen the kids get so bonded so fast! God is so good! Through an unintended change, God brought us all closer together.

After lunch, which was at yet another camp, but without any kids that we worked with, we would head to camp #40, but not without a great meal (it really was) and a brief devotion. We would meet on an unused soccer field and sit on the old wooden bleachers and re-charge.

When we arrived at camp 40, the kids were always still inside. We set the puppet stage up on a playground ... something that made a great puppet stage. I wish you could all see the kids react to the puppets. They would squirm and shreak and clap and it was so sweet and tender. These kids really loved the playfulness of the puppets. We had been able to get some Christian puppet skits, in Russian, and we used an Mp3 player to play them, so the kids could understand the skits. Afterwards, we would head into the areas of each age group (we were broken into four groups that only mixed at the beginning) and work with the kids.

Crayons, markers, hats, shirts, tambourines, all manner of things were made by these kids. But, they always opened with a Bible story. We had taken the Bible story, gotten permission from the publisher of a children's Bible to enlarge the Bible stories we wanted. We made enlarged color copies and changed the words from Russian to English and then laminated them. Now, they can be used over and over by the Buckner leaders that are there!

The only time this was not true was with the more challenged children. I say challenged because honestly, after the first day, we all thought they were angels. Very active angels, but angles none-the-less. With them, we just loved. Played and loved. At one point, several of us found ourselves sitting in these little chairs, all in a row, all humming songs with the children who had adopted us.

After camp 40, we would make the 90 minute or tow hour drive to dinner, and then back to the hotel for de-brief, then a shower, then bed.

I will post some more tomorrow, but I wanted you all to hear what we have been doing. You'll hear more if you are at the reflection service in a couple of Sundays so I don't wan to share too much more.

Keep checking the blog and we'll be home soon!