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We pulled into beautiful Pocatello at about 3:00 a.m. on Monday night. Mike's mom met us at the airport in SLC to drive us back and my wonderful wife, Sarah, surprised me by showing up with her. It was so good to be back together with our families and on familiar soil. Sarah made me chicken pesto pizza last night and it didn't even cost me my camera. It has been a little difficult to readjust our clocks to Poky time but I think we're all getting there. Overall we are so glad that God gave us the opportunity to be part of this mission trip. There is a lot to process in our own minds from the expereince, but in debriefing together it's obvious the Lord has used this in some good ways and has expanded our vision for serving Him with our lives.

If you attend UBC, you'll see a brief presentation this Sunday morning on our trip. The plan is to take a Sunday evening in a month for a more detailed account.

It's been encouraging and humbling to hear that people were reading our blog and praying for us while we were away. Sorry for the break in posts over the weekend. We didn't have internet access after Saturday morning. Thanks again for your prayers.

P.S. The picture shows the American team at camp. As you can see, we've changed a little from the experience. Must be the kashi.

The Longest Monday Ever

We are waiting at our gate in the Moscow Airport as I write this. Because we're chasing the sun we have a 34 hour Monday ahead of us. 11 hours flying to Atlanta, 4 hour layover, and 4 hours to SLC. Yikes! Because of the timing, I expect this to feel much longer than the trip over.

To catch up on the past couple days . . .

Saturday we left camp and rode in a very crowded bus for two hours to Tambov. We stayed that night at the central church after spending a couple hours walking around the city. It felt like the Hilton after the accommodations we had at camp. I'm not complaining about camp - it was what we expected and we loved every minute of it. But it was nice to sleep on regular (although very hard) beds in a finished room.

On Sunday morning we were on our own for breakfast. We found an outdoor market a few blocks away and picked up some delicious mushroom and potato filled pirogues. During the church service they brought us up on stage to introduce ourselves and sing a song. The whole team crowded around two microphones. I hope Luke and I didn't bring down the quality of the team. We had a little time to shop for souvenirs that afternoon, drank some tea with our friends from camp, and attend the evening service at church. At 8:45 we boarded the train for Moscow and began the long journey home. It was hard to say goodbye to our friends and there were many teary eyes (for the record, it wasn't just the girls). Our translator, Anya, chased us as long as she was able to keep up with the train.

We arrived in Moscow at about 7:30 and headed straight to the airport to kill time. Unfortunately we also killed some healthy rubles. We needed to eat breakfast so we sat down at a regular looking cafe in the airport. The food was mediocre but expensive - about 750 rubles each (the exchange rate is 25 rubles to 1 dollar - you do the math).

Our flight is about to board so I better shut this down. Thanks for your prayers this week. We can't wait to fill you all in on the details in person.

The Best News

Good news! Dema, the young boy we asked you to pray for, prayed to repent and receive Christ today! Mike shared more with him and the other guys in his tent this afternoon. By the end, Dema and one other boy wanted to pray a simple prayer that acknowledged they are asking Jesus to forgive them of their sins and be the king of their lives. Thanks for praying for him and the other campers and for sharing this joy with us. Please continue to pray that they would be established in their new-found faith and that their faith would prove genuine over time.

In other news, Katie dominated the basketball court today. We played several games of lightning with the Russians. I think she won 5 in a row. I would like to say I wasn't playing at that time, but I was. She kept getting me out over and over and over again. It was a humbling experience and I suppose that's a good thing.

Part way through the evening meeting tonight a serious thunder storm rolled in. The rain dumped in thick sheets and the lightning was cracking close. After a few minutes, the power cut out. We actually stayed in the tent and continued on by using flashlights for another 15 minutes. Although we assumed it would be cancelled, they still wanted us to do our skit. The stormy darkness and pouring rain on the tent roof made a great backdrop to our skit that had a serious tone to it. Eventually we headed inside and finished the meeting. Afterward, we played a hilarious new game called "viking king" that we can't wait to import to America. It's the perfect game for late nights at camps in thunderstorms.