From Russia

Well, our group is all here. Our team of 19 (four of us were already here) arrived at about 5:00 AM this morning safe and sound. They had a long but mostly uneventful trip. Two of our containers are still in England, but should be on the way soon. Fortunately, the contents of those two containers were not overly important for our building projects. Most of the group spent Saturday getting their legs under them...they also got all their souvenir shopping in. My daughter Alli, along with her summer mission partner Jess, are hosting the young people from our group at their apartment tonight for dinner. Last count, they had 18 coming...how they will all fit, nobody knows.

Several of us spent part of the day shopping for a new generator, air compressor, and some other miscellaneous tools that we will need. Mike B, Dan M, Chuck W., and myself are headed out tonight to get a head start on our roof project. We haven't attempted anything of this magnitude before so the guys are wanting an early start. We will have our own church service early in the morning and head to our job site. The bulk of our group will be attending the Smolensk Christian Church for services and then head out to Desnagorsk in the afternoon.

I sense the morale being very high with this team. I believe this could be our best group yet. We have a nice mix of "veterans" and some excited newcomers as well. Buddy Thigpen has a unique gift of making a group feel special and needed. I know they look forward to the Fellowship Team every summer.

It is such a thrill to see what God does on these trips. I hope you will be praying for us daily. Lives are forever changed on mission trips. This is my prayer for our group - especially for our young people. That is one of the cool things about having our new Student Pastor on this trip. I have to close, they are closing up shop here...I can't wait to see the kids in Densa tomorrow...we are praying for you and miss you. Will try to blog again in the next couple of days...