Camp update and childlike faith

Thank you for praying! Please keep it up. Camp is going well. So far, both days we have had a small group of kids, but that is fine, because we have a small group of workers, too.

Who is praying for the weather? Yesterday was HOT, but today I could feel your prayers as everything cooled off. A storm blew in, but held off for most of the day.

And for Bogdan and Will? Bogdan seemed to feel better yesterday, but then he was miserable again today. Will has finally found a medicine that helps with his allergies at least some.

Of course, the most important: please be praying for all the children!

This morning I led a group of children through the city to camp, with all of them chanting loudly in "Polish." (Karen, is it really Polish?) They love this game that one of the visiting helpers taught them yesterday:

And then, childlike faith: today's Bible story was about Adam and Eve sinning and temptations in life. When we got to church, a Forbidden Tree had grown up there. It was covered with all kinds of treats, but a sign at the bottom said not to take anything. Of course, Asya can't read, so I pointed it out to her, and asked her what she thought it was. "Presents!" But then I read the sign out loud. She shrugged her shoulders and said, "Oh, that means they just want to give us everything themselves later." The whole idea of temptation went right over her head, but I thought it was a really sweet reaction. When God tells me no, do I assume that it's because He wants to give me presents a little later?

Camp!

Camp starts tomorrow! Please be praying for the children, the workers, the weather and everything else that you can think of. I just found out that I won't be a group helper, I'll be a group leader... without my faithful helpers. So, I had to scramble to pull together the Bible lesson for tomorrow. Also, Bogdan has been teething or something, and he has been miserable. Since the teeth people get later are called wisdom teeth, these must be the anger teeth. Please pray that he'll be happier, or that I'll figure out how to juggle him and a whole group of preschoolers. And for Will: he has been feeling pretty awful with allergies. Thank you!

Continuing the theme

Photo of the day

Technology news

First, I took our children to the central playground this morning, and I was floored to find out that there is now wifi there. I felt like I was in America. I had my Kindle with me, optimistically hoping that Bogdan would give me a few minutes to read Anna Karenina. So, when I saw people out there with laptops, I tried to connect, and sure enough! It worked. Amazing. No more sending Will to Zaporozhya to reset my Kindle after it freezes up now.

And second, the AO forum that I have been working so hard on is open now:

In just the first few days, we've already overloaded our server. Overall it is going well, though. We're almost up to 1000 members: 996 at the moment, to be exact. It's going to be a great resource for the AO world! I have really been enjoying the fellowship there, and I've been learning so much about CSS and PHP and everything behind the scenes that sometimes it feels like my head can't hold it all. That full head is a very good feeling for me.

Third, tomorrow we're leaving technology behind for a day at our dacha. We haven't made it out there since we got back from our big trip, and we all can't wait to see it again!

Baptism

Today there was a baptism service. We hardly even know the new couple who was baptized, but it is very good to see them joining into the life of the church. I only got three photos before someone asked to borrow our batteries, and none of them were very good. Maybe I'll get some more pictures from Yana later, but here's one of my three for now:

(I also added more photos to the post before this.)

Florida pictures

We've been back for a month now, and I still haven't gotten around to posting many photos from Florida. Here are some. I hope to go back and fill in more there, at least from that one little overnight trip.

If I add more there, I'll edit this post and add them here, too, so watch this space....

EDITED: from here on, there are new photos. You can go browse through the whole album, but I'm including a few highlights:

3D hands

I don't understand the draw of Pinterest at all, but I got a fun idea from there via a blog, and we tried it yesterday:

Today we've been working on footprints, using the same general idea. Fun!

Talking?!?

For quite a while Bogdan has had a very few words that he says and a few that he signs. He understands what is going on around him, but really doesn't say much. He does discourse with all kinds of expression, intonation and gesturing, but all with his mouth closed, just making noises in his throat. It's really cute, but hard to explain. And it's definitely not anything we can understand. Then, yesterday he started saying a very clear "nyet" except that it's missing the T on the end. Just now, Jaan went outside, and Bogdan was left behind. Bogdan went to the door and yelled, "Jaa! Where are you?" ("Я! Де ты?") His first sentence!

Keeping cool

Here are just a few photos from the past week or so. It has been very hot here: 38C/100F today. We've been swimming a lot, and we got an air conditioner! (That last part was not just spur of the moment for this heat wave. We had been talking about it and dreaming for a l-o-n-g time.) Bogdan finally decided that we weren't trying to kill him when we put him in his baby float. Now he really enjoys running around in the water with it to hold him upright. Oh, and we've been drinking smoothies; that's the last photo.

The church really hasn't had any questions about Will's sabbatical. In fact, he's had a sermon ready for three weeks now and hasn't had to use it. So, we're enjoying more time with Papa around.

That's about all I can think of to write now. Photos....