Hopefully, this is the first of many reports. I have taken a Summer Camp team of eight young people to minister in the Baptist Union Camp outside Ufa. They represent three churches of the Northern California Coalition three guys and five girls. Four have been here before. Ken and Melissa are leading the team at Camp due to their age and experience. Of course, each one has been recommended by their pastor and supported by their church.
It’s fun going with college students. I have learned how to deal with light on the plane when I try to sleep. Sleep masks cause my face to itch. But if you sleep wearing sun glasses, you beat both problems. Thanks Stephen for that lesson.
I’ve started the team learning how to make balloon animals. They are taking to it very well. Of course, the activity breaks down with shooting the broken balloons at one another. We finally had our first official team meeting with me. That’s not the way we would like, but circumstances dictated this arrangement. I am impressed with these young people and see God’s hand in his choices for this trip. We seem to be jelling well as a group.
At two we’ll have lunch and then tour the city with Nastia. Emiliya, our regular translator, is busy registering us. The government is quite strict in reporting where foreign visitors are in their country. We hope to exchange money for rubles and buy a guitar. Maybe there will be more shopping as well. We will return for dinner at the Office at 7:00 pm.
Tomorrow the Team will head to Camp and will make preparations for the children coming on Monday. Our young people are excited about this prospect. They are ready to serve the Lord.
However, I will go to Uchali to visit Nadir’s church. We’ll stop in Belorisk as well. This trip will take me into Asia over the Ural Mountains. Then, we will return Saturday, to witness a Baptism Service The House of Prayer on Sunday. (This is the largest Baptist Union congregation in Bashkortostan located down the hill from the Office.) On Monday we will arrive with the Children at Camp. I will update you later about my journeys through Bashkortostan.
Now, I am writing Friday morning. We’ve had breakfast, showers, and have packed for traveling today to Uchali for me and Camp for the team. One group has gone to the market to buy water and supplies for camp. Ken will be going to buy a guitar for camp. I have discovered that I left some files at home. I have two expository sermons with me. I will have to do some from scratch. My wife Bonnie, is helping me find the other one at home and will scan and send it via email. Praise the Lord for the use of the internet.
We had a great walking tour yesterday. I’m glad I had some days walking three miles every day I was on our Michigan vacation before I came. Ufa is very hilly just like the terrain near my in-laws home. We saw the White River and some parks along one of the banks. Then, we went to two banks to exchange our money. It was quite a sight twelve of us standing in and around these establishments talking in English. After we had some rubles to spend, we went to MacDonald’s. It was too busy, so we walked across the street to Mado’s. It was much quieter. Can you guess what we ordered? Yes, you’re right. It was Pepsi and ice cream. I tried to be good and only water without gaz (carbonated water) but there was an extra Pepsi and chocolate ice cream. Well, you can’t let that go to waste. I passed on the Pepsi but devoured the ice cream.
Ken and Melissa are doing a very good job leading the group. They don’t need me for the day to day function of the team. I’m the emergency outlet and advisor. That suits me just fine.
Some of the team is having difficulty switching their body clocks. They tend to want to sleep when they should be awake and be awake when they should be sleeping. After our walk yesterday and our dinner, most of the team took a nap from 8 pm until 1 am. Then, they were awake. They’ll get it.
Thanks for praying for us. God is blessing and going before us through the Holy Spirit’s power. You our family and friends are in ours.
Submitted by Bud Haskell
