September 4

Visiting the Orphanage

On the first of September we went to the school-opening festival for Katya at her orphanage school. Katya is 15 and in ninth grade so she is living in the family home but would otherwise still be in the orphanage, and she commutes back for school. Her new director wants all the proper legal documentation done for her to be living with us. She has asked me to PRAY THAT SHE CAN STAY HERE.
I saw the building and her room there, and the girls in it now. The building was really, really nice, with chandeliers and a paneled auditorium, and the bedrooms were twice the size of what she shares with me here. All the kids were very dressed up, as were the teachers, and they sang songs and did a funny skit about starting school. I had only seen the rural summer camps, which are primitive, and thought the orphanage in the city would be like that.
I told Katya they had a very nice building. She just shrugged and said, “they’re renovating there like we’re renovating here.” But it isn’t because the children at her orphanage are being starved or kept in poor conditions that she so wants to stay here, it’s just that having a family instead of an institution, and knowing God, make such a difference.

What Am I Doing?

Pray for figuring out what I should be doing. I thought I was going to be with three girls here. But there’s only Katya right now: Sasha has to decide, and the third girl probably won’t come for quite some time, I don’t know how much before my departure on Dec 1. And now there’s the possibility of losing Katya. So it’s very up in the air. I have several offers to help at the MK school, visit different orphanages, etc., and I’m studying, helping around the house, learning to cook Russian food, and spending time with Katya.
Masha, who helped me go to Estonia, has been to America as a translator on Gulia’s program and she is trying to contact Gulia’s director for me. Pray I can get through to them and see her. I also need to meet Galina; I’ve been looking around for a church to recommend to her.

Dancing at Russian Church

This Sunday I went to Lucia’s church. It was huge, several hundred people. They were singing with incredible joy, waving flags, and a bunch down in front dancing, singing, “Jesus is risen! Jesus is risen!” Of course I have to join anything where people are dancing : ) They took my hands without a question. Russians look so dour and somber in public, it was amazing to see them that happy. I was really encouraged that it was so big and apparently entirely free of American input; they had found a Russian way to have a church today.
The service was from 11 to 2, with a Russian length sermon. I would have enjoyed that more if I could understand more of it. There were children everywhere. People were in and out and up and down and standing around the sides throughout. They blessed the children again as they sent them out for Sunday school. Kids who had been at camp sang a song they wrote. Then there was a baby dedication. Then a bride and groom came forward and said their wedding vows! (They’ll go have their own party afterwards and get the judicial marriage; since it has no legal weight, a church wedding is only added on by believers – but I never expected it to be included into the Sunday morning service!)