what an awesome reunion that would be...

Our church sponsors our orphanage through Children's HopeChest... this organization strives to meet the needs of orphans across the globe...

That being said, when you sponsor through Children's HopeChest, you get the opportunity to write to your sponsored child. They have made this process very easy, and all you have to do is go to the HopeChest website. Write

If I am honest with you, I must tell you that I do a horrible job of writing consistently. There are so many kids that I want to communicate with, and usually I get in the trend of writing about 10 letters in 1 day, and then I won't write again for a few months. I have made a commitment to try and be better about this. If I write a few letters a week, I can correspond with all the kids...

Let me tell you -- sometimes, our letters are the ONLY time that these sweet kids hear about who Jesus is besides when our teams are there (and that is maybe once a year)... so I would say this is VERY important...

One of the tendencies I have is to only write again once I get a letter back. And the kids are not good at writing back -- either time constraints, or they don't feel like it that day... they just don't write that often. After talking with some of the Russia staff, I realized that it's really not about whether I get a letter back or not, but it's about these kids knowing that they have someone that cares for them. The discipler for another orphanage said that when she goes, the kids ask her if they received any letters, and it breaks her heart when she has to say no...

Let me tell you a story that one of the HopeChest staff told me... it totally put a new perspective on writing letters to these kids...

There was a sponsor that faithfully wrote her sponsored child once a month for about 3 years... she NEVER got a letter back. As far as she knew, the girl didn't get her letters, or didn't care.... but she wrote. What a faithful woman. The little girl ended up getting adopted to America. Her new family contacted the woman that had sponsored her, and told her that the only thing that the little girl had wanted to bring from Russia was a pile of letters from this woman. Of course, the woman had no idea that they meant this much to this child, but she knew God was calling her to just be faithful.

What a beautiful story... I think it speaks to all of us (not only about writing or sponsoring a child through HopeChest) but about being faithful to what God has called us to... even if it seems like it's not making a difference -- you never know what God is up to!!!

If you are interested in sponsoring or writing a child, please get in touch with me... and if you already do, please write.... write.... write and write some more and write about Jesus!! -- you never know what little heart God is touching through you... even when you don't hear back.... what an awesome reunion that will be in the heavenly Kingdom one day...

not a home

Ok, so this has been on my mind for the past few days...

There is a sweet sweet girl named Anastasia (Nastya) that we met on our first trip to the orphanage. She formed a really strong bond with Erin, and it has been really cool to see her grow up. She is a beautiful girl, and has such a sweet spirit. She is graduating from the orphanage this year, and will be moving to the city.

That being said, while we were there, one of the women that work at the orphanage told us a little more about her situation. We were told that Nastya inherited a flat that had been her parents when they were alive. Because she is old enough to leave the orphanage now, she can have this flat. At first, I thougth, "What great news, she will have a place to call her own after all of those years at the orphange!!" -- but then we heard the rest of the story. The flat is in very bad shape. Apparently - almost unlivable. Because it has been vacant for so long, there have been homeless people that have used it as their shelter (using it for all sorts of things), and also it has not been kept up through all of these years by the government. I am not even sure of the details, but I think it needs quite a bit of construction work (new door, probably new floors, definitely new wall-paper or paint, etc.) And also, we learned that flats to not come standard with bathroom facilities, etc. That is not a home... I have not seen the place, but I know this sweet girl will need a lot of support to make her flat livable.

The sad fact is that if she is not able to renovate this flat, she will probably end up in the public housing for orphans that attend technical school. We have heard some very hard statistics about the orphans that end up in this housing. The percentage of girls who are sexually abused, mafia interaction, drugs, etc. skyrockets by putting a teenager in this environment.

I am not even sure what I'm saying -- I guess awareness is the key... Please pray for this sweet girl... she would have to move in sometime right before September, and I have no idea how this orphan girl is going make it ready... BUT God is good and He is faithful....

SO - If you know of anyone who would be willing to support us in helping this sweet girl, please let me know... we have some contacts in Russia that we trust wholeheartedly, and they could probably help her with the right resources. Thank you so much and again, just be praying.

Our trip in pictures...

So, here are some pictures from the trip, if you have Facebook, you can check out TONS more! :) I have about 100 in an album and Michelle has a ton too! There are plenty of sweet Russian faces to look at.... but here are a few of my favorites!

This is a picture out Blythe & Michelle's hotel room window our last night in Moscow (at about 11:00pm might I add)... one of my favorite things in Russia are the sunsets, so this was a great way to end our trip...

This is a great picture! Chris and Aaron in their cowboy gear with 2 of our translators and one of the graduates! :)

Chris enjoyed those s'mores a little too much I think! Priceless!

These are our Texas-style s'mores that we brought and then cooked in their little toaster oven! They were a big hit! Along with the chips & queso!

I love this girl! It was her birthday the day we saw her and she turned 12!!!!!!!!!!!! I can't believe that she is so old.... she is precious!

We got to see Igor & Danil!!!! They were not in the 2 groups that got to come to the city from Solotcha, but God is good, and we got to see them the day before we left! Pray for Igor (left) as a family from our church is in the process of adopting him & his siblings... and pray for Danil that God would move a family to adopt him! He is one of the sweetest boys I've ever met...

I love this picture! This is sunday morning walking from our hotel to the Baptist Church in town.... getting ready to worship with our Russian brothers & sisters!

Great picture of Aaron and some of the boys at the bowling alley! I interrupted their game for a photo-opp!

John, Artyom and Atrur!!! Sweet little ones:)

YAY! So happy I got to see sweet Nadya! Last year she was at camp during our time at Solotcha! Again, she has grown so much...

I love this picture of sweet Masha! I love seeing her... she has one of the sweetest little hearts!

Blythe and Sasha! Sasha is new to Solotcha from a different orphanage... she is so sweet!

ALOSHA! We love him.... what a cutie! He was so excited to see the team... especially Chris!!!!! :)

Day 6: My, how you've grown...

Today 20 kids from Solotcha got to come to the Ministry Center! Right when they got their, we loaded up and took them bowling! This is a bit of a tradition for them.... each year we take all of the older kids on a bowling and pizza trip. It was SO good to see some of our favorite kids!! Valdemar was there and he must have grown a FOOT since the last time I saw him in December. Also, Sergei was there... and I didn’t even recognize him... last time I saw him he was average height, kind of lanky and looked like 14... now he’s 16 and looks so old. The cool thing is that he was still super involved, and even gave Keith his phone number so that he could contact him the next time we are in Ryazan. It was great to see the kids from Solotcha today. Again, we just keep saying that there is not enough time. My heart longs to go to the orphanage, but I know God is sovereign, and we are bringing Him glory through sharing His word with these graduates. After the Solotcha kids left, we took the graduates to the Coffee Bean for dinner and coffee!! It was an amazing sight to see the graduates laughing and our team members smiling and talking for hours. God is good.

There is still so much more to be done. Tomorrow is our last full day here. It’s hard to believe. We are going to a camp to visit some small children (yay!!) that our friend Viktor works with at the Rybnaya orphanage. We are so excited to see these little ones! Pray for our time with them and pray for the rest of the time we have here with the graduates, staff, and friends.

There have been many great conversations with grads, kids and friends alike about the God we serve, and the one who paid our debt... please pray for each seed that has been planted, and for more opportunities to share and cultivate relationships!

I can’t believe our trip has almost come to an end....

Day 5: Now this is Church!

Day 5: Now This is Church!

Today was a day set aside for us to meet with some of the local churches! We went first to the Baptist church in town, and even though we could not understand the language, it was very cool to worship with our brother’s and sister’s in Christ! Oh, and not to mention we ate some real Russian fish soup.... joy! ;) Then, we went to Slava’s church that afternoon. It was very cool because there were people from 3 different churches (actually 4 including us!) meeting together to praise Jesus! Some of the people were from Nigeria - they are studying here in Ryazan at the medial university and really have a heart for the Russian people. It really was a great day. One of my favorite moments from Sunday was singing “Open the Eyes of My Heart” and hearing words being sung to Jesus in all of our different languages.... now that’s Church!

Day 4: Happy Russian Independence Day!

Day 4: Happy Russian Independence day! haha! We started out by going to the Ministry Center! The first boy to come in was Sergei that we met at Solotcha a few years ago. He graduated at 16 and is now in the city. We thought that he was living in the public dorms, but we found out that he is living with his parents again... he went to the orphanage at a young age because his parents lost their parental rights because of alcoholism and other things... it just breaks my heart to think that he is living in that environment again. Anyway- we came in to the ministry center and a few of the kids started to come in. The older boys really started to open up and started hanging out more on this day. We then went to lunch, and then took a “trolly bus” which everyone renamed a “charly-bus” because it sounds like ‘charly-bus’ in Russian. That’s besides the point haha - so we took public transport over to the bowling alley. We took about 10 of the graduates bowling... it was a lot of fun! There was a lot of laughter and a lot of smiles! After that we walked through the city, and went to the Ryazan kremlin! The buildings and architecture are so beautiful. Walking around with the grads is a great time for conversation... they are really starting to open up!After that, we had dinner and came home to the hotel!

Day 3: Solotcha Kids!

Day 3: Again (I think this was friday) haha, we started with breakfast and then headed out to the Ministry Center! This was the day that we got to bring some of the kids from Solotcha!!! They arrived, and we were waiting for their bus... It was SO good to see them! They ran off of the bus to come give us big hugs! The first sweet face I saw was Alosha (Sasha's little brother) and he ran straight to Chris and gave him a huge hug! We also saw some of my favorite little 10 year olds! Lolita, Nadya & Nadya, Sveta, Masha (Valdemar's sister), Valya, etc. Blythe got a big surprise when Ana & Nastya got off of the bus.... it was a beautiful moment! They were so excited to see each other. There were 20 kids from Solotcha (about 10 kids that we knew and about 10 kids that were brand new that we’ve never met before. We played some games (Q-Tip wars) and did some crafts. We ordered pizza, and then by the time we looked up, it was time for them to go home..... it went too fast. I can't believe it... it really went too fast. There were many opportunities for good conversations and pouring into these kids. That night, we invited some of the graduates to La Plaza (our favorite pizza restaurant) to have a meal together. It was a lot of fun! And it was also Chris’ birthday, so we got him some cakes and had a celebration! Again, a few pictures from the day (don't worry, we'll post plenty when we get back :)

Day 2: We're here!

Day 2: This was our first day in the city! We woke up, had some breakfast and then headed to the Ministry Center! We had no idea what to expect, we just knew that once we arrived, we would meet with the staff, and then wait for some orphan graduates to arrive whenever they could. The amazing thing was that the first person that I saw when I walked in the door was Sergei. This is a boy that I met at the orphanage 3 years ago. He was one of the grads that I really hoped to see. He is only 16, and is living in the city now and going to technical school. We played some football (actually the boys did, and we chatted with the girls) and then we headed to lunch! When we got back from lunch, our friend Viktor was outside waiting to see us!!! What a great great surprise! We spent the rest of the day meeting all of the graduates, and then we hung out that night and caught up on the day.

Day 1: In Flight

I hoped that this update would come much earlier in our trip, but we do not have wifi at the place we are staying at like we'd hoped! So... I think I'll give you a short (actually, after typing it, it may be kind of long! haha) update of the trip, and how things have been going so far...

I can definitely say that trips like these are so hard to describe, so I will not be able to do justice to the stories we have heard, the sweet kids we have met, and the different spiritual battles we have seen.... that being said... GOD IS GOOD!

I'll try and post some pictures in between as well, so you can see what we've been up to!

We are at a coffee shop right now bumming their wifi and, if you read my last post, you know that i'm super happy right now, because I just ate the best cheese sandwich in the world (now I have proof, because Blythe thinks so too! hah)

Anyway- here we go...

Day 1: We left Houston at 5:45 on a straight 11 hour flight to Moscow! The flight was good, but it was actually very turbulent... At one point, Ricardo’s coffee spilled a little bit! haha But we made it to Moscow, and then got into our bus, and made the long 4 hour trip to Ryazan! What a long journey, but we were finally in Ryazan and we crashed at our hotel as soon as we arrived.

Scared...

Ok, so our church sponsor's our orphanage in Russia through an organization called Children's HopeChest. They have carepoints and Ministry Centers in Russia, Africa, and are now reaching out to Haiti and many more places.

The CEO of HopeChest, Tom Davis, has traveled all over to these various places and come in contact with hundreds of orphans, and children who are in need. His heart for the Fatherless and 'least of these' is amazing...

He decided to write a book with stories from some of his travels, in hopes to get people involved in the effort to bring aid to the orphan, and spread the good news of Jesus Christ!

Anyway- this is not an advertisement for HopeChest or Tom Davis, but I DID want to let you know about a book that I just read, and one that I am about to read.... Scared was inspired by true stories of children in Africa. I finished it Sunday, and closed the book as tears were still running down my face. I cannot tell you the last time I wept while reading a book.... don't get me wrong, I'm definitely what they call a "cry-er" haha... but this story was heartbreaking and beautiful all at the same time.

I will not give anything away, because I want you to experience it for yourself.... but I really encourage you to read it... Tom Davis said it himself, .... it is sad, but it is real, and it is what is happening to sweet children around the world....

So, because HopeChest works in different places around the world, Tom Davis wrote a 2nd novel called Priceless. It is about the devastation that the sex-slave industry is causing to tons girls in that country. I just stared it last night, and I can only imagine what is in store for me as I read.... these are real stories... these are things that are happening NOW...

I really encourage you to get these books, and read.... ask God how he would have you do about it. So Get It, Read It, and then do something about it.... there are tons of ways to get involved!!!!

P.S. I do warn you... these are not 'read in public' books... They will infuriate you, and move you to tears all on the same page... So, make sure you have plenty of tissue handy...

Oh, by the way, you overpaid...

I can't believe it is June 2nd.

I really can't.

We leave in 5 days! WOW!!!!! 5 Days!!! I am SO excited!

The past month has been a whirlwind of chaos, but life is good, and God is great!

One of the HUGE things that has been going on in the past month is obviously our trip to Russia, and trying to fundraise for that! I can't even explain to you how much God has provided. Again, and again we have seen his love through His provision. I know in my heart that this trip is exactly what God had in mind, because He has completely moved through His people to support it! We had a garage sale a few weekends ago and had SO much to sell... on Friday as we were setting up car-full after car-full kept pulling in to donate their unwanted items! THEN, to top it off, we made over $2,500!!! I know garage sale's can be a hassle... but what an amazing few days it was! It was great bonding time for our team.... we found some pretty interesting articles... hah, and also it was great to see people from our church body showing their support in ALL sorts of ways! Praise God for all those that supported through donations... if you are one of them, we so greatly appreciate you! Also, those who supported by giving their time! There were quite a few friends that stopped by just to lend a helping hand! Not to mention Hope Heald that came out and priced everything and was our voice of reason when it came to selling items!! It would not have been a success without her! One thing that was amazing to me is that even after all of our fundraising was over, we got a call from children's HopeChest and they said that we "overpaid by $600" so we're getting a refund....... now I'm kind of a math person, so i did the math and I just don't see how it makes sense... but I know that God is showing us His favor even in an event like this!

GOD IS GOOD!

I am overwhelmed when I think about all of the ways that God has provided for us, and I love that He always beckons us to trust Him, even in those moments when all seems lost -- because that is when we truly see that everything is His, and comes from Him..... and it is nothing of ourselves... He whispers to us, just wait, and trust in Me...

Thank you all for being the hands and feet of Christ to our team... and for your support prayerfully, financially, and physically!

We're packing our supply bags tonight.... Velveeta, Rotel, Salsa and all.... I'll keep you updated! Stay tuned for more specific ways you can pray!

Я вас силно люблю и молюсь за вас!