Zdravstvuyte from Russia! Week One (entry 2)

Priviet from Russia!!

It was so good to hear from a lot of you via email. Thanks for all your prayers and concerns. It has been an amazing trip so far. Our group has bonded really well and Buckner’s Russian staff are such great people. I’ve spent the last week at a camp located outside of St. Petersburg with about 50 Russian orphans. It has been so incredible that words cannot describe what it was like, but I’ll try.

The age group of the kids was from 5-13 year olds and of course they loved us as soon as we saw them (the older kids take a lot longer to warm up to us, or so I’ve been told). Our group did a tremendous job with the Vacation Bible School and everything worked so well, praise God. In the afternoon, we had free time with the children and I taught them how to play football (American football.

The kids, of course were the best part of the trip. They were constantly jumping all over me and asking me to throw them up in the air. I’d usually have at least 3 or 4 kids hanging from my neck and arms and since I’m the only guy (the other 9 American interns are girls) all the boys wanted me to play with them. The kids are starving for male attention because all of the caregivers are women. I had an opportunity to get close with a number of the boys and just hug them and play with them and build them up. One little boy in particular had a special bond with me because we saw each other when he was in Dallas and I told him that I would see him when I came to Russia. His name was Vitaly, please pray that he gets adopted. I’ll never forget on the first day when we arrived, he remembered me and what I said back in Dallas. After the first day, when we were all waiving goodbye, I looked up and saw Vitaly smiling down at me from the balcony with a look of shear joy. It’s a moment that I’ll probably remember for the rest of my life.

The orphanage that we visited (#2) has some of the best caregivers in all of St. Petersburg, but the kids are still so starved for attention and just basic love. Any time I’d go anywhere, they’d want me to hold them or play with them or just hold their hand and smile at them. One little girl named Ella stole my heart. She’s 10 years old and lives in the orphanage with her brother Kostya, she has bright blue eyes and blond hair (always wears a bandana), such a cute little girl. I didn’t even meet her until the second day and even then she was very shy and would hardly let me touch her. Slowly she warmed up to me and I got to spend some time with her during our Bible story time and craft time. By the end of the week she wanted me to hold her during our times together and would sneak a kiss on my cheek from time to time. When we left this afternoon, I wrote her a little card and she gave me a big hug, while holding back tears. Words really can not express the love I had and have for this little girl. She is so sweet and innocent and I pray that a Christian family will adopt her.

Well I gotta go cause I’m holding up the group. My time so far has been challenging and so rewarding. We start again on Monday at orphanage #9. Till next week, we remain Strong in Christ,

- Benjamin (Venya)