Week Two.

Last Sunday, A team from Grand Parkway church in Houston came into town and we met up with them Monday morning on our way out to an orphanage called Loopahinka. This was Grand Parkways 4 year to go to Loopahinka so as soon as we got there, they started recognizing the kids. They showed us our rooms, fed us lunch, then introduced us to the kids. Then, we went outside to play. We brought out the string to make friendship bracelets and the girls loved that! After we played outside, we went back inside to play games until dinner. After dinner, we made a fire and had smores with the kids. They had so many smores, I am surprised no one got sick. We got to talk to one boy, Ivan who always seemed to be alone. He had only been there two weeks and said he hadn't really made friends yet. He said he only had to be there for a year before his parents came back to get him and when we asked him why he was there he said because he made bad grades in school. 

Tuesday morning started with crafts. The kids got to decopodge little boxes and then make scrapbooks (Grand Parkway had pictures of the kids from the past years). After lunch, the boys went off to play kickball/basketball and the girls did hair and nails. For hair and nails, only two girls showed up. Margret, from Grand parkway told her story and how the Lord has helped her through all that she has been through. After they did the nails, Diana started asking a lot of questions and after talking for about an hour, she accepted Christ. After that, we had the kids paint wooden crosses. We tried to talk to them about the meaning, but they were just making jokes. After the crosses, we had an evangecube (a cube that folds showing the story of Christ) on the table, so we got to share the gospel with a few of the boys. Ivan had never heard this before so we got to talk to him about what he thought. After dinner, we had a valentines party where everyone had bags and we could write valentines. 

Wednesday morning, we left loopahinka. Before getting to our next orphanage, we got to go to peterhoff fountains which was really beautiful. The next orphanage we went was nikolsky. This orphanage seemed to be a happier place than Loopahinka. The little kids wanted to be played with and have their pictures taken. The older kids seem a little more distant though. They have a lot more than the kids at loopahinka so are less interested in what we are doing. After dinner, we did the smores again. Most of the kids came around for this and enjoyed it. Melissa (another intern) and I got talk to two older girls, Sasha and Lusya. They are both about 16 so will probably be graduating soon. 

Thursday we started the day with tye-dye shirts and then decopodged boxes again. The kids are in and out but most of them will come in for the crafts. We had the evangecube out again, and a boy named Victor asked questions about it. At Nikolsky, a lady from town comes in to lead a bible study so he had been reading his bible and after talking with the team, he accepted Christ. After dinner, we had a big carnival and handed out a lot of candy. 

Friday, we did crafts in the morning again and then after dinner, we had a valentines party. We left Saturday morning to go do some sightseeing and shopping with the grand parkway team. and Sunday we got go to a church that was in Russian and English. We did some more sightseeing and then we had a farewell dinner with the Grand parkway team and the translators. 

I know this is a really long post but this has been a really long week! Tonight, we will be going back to Nikolsky and will be there until Friday.

Prayer Requests: 

-Being at the oprhanages, everything is a lot busier--If you could prayer for breaks that we would have good time with the Lord

-we will be back at Nikolsky and we pray that we can form deeper relationships over the next week and be bold to have conversations about the Lord