Last year, while riding “The Tube” in London, I was amused to hear the announcement at every stop warning passengers to “Mind the Gap” as they stepped off the train and onto the platform or off of the platform onto the train. Depending on how well you were paying attention, the gap was small enough to miss altogether but big enough to trip over as well. So mind the gap. I’ll come back to that in a moment.
We finished just yesterday our second major outreach of the summer here in Russia. Tim Dunn (actually Timothy Dunn on Facebook if you are looking for a new friend with lots of great pictures of our summer here) shares this album with you of our week together. We conducted a day camp at a school that is run by some our ministry partners here in Novosibirsk from the Catholic Church. As you know, they run St. Nicholas’ Orphanage and Kid’s Club where our mentoring and sponsorship programs are alive and well. While children from St. Nicholas’ Orphanage were present at our camp for a few days, the focal group of this outreach was the kids from the school. Most all of these kids come from families though we learned more than a few have trying circumstances at home with parents that fight, homes that are influenced by alcohol abuse and the worldwide epidemic of divorce.
Even with those problems in play, we saw a gap between the orphans we have worked with in past camps and the kids from this school. A bit more trusting. A bit more responsive. A bit less fearful. Victoria Barker wisely said on Day 2, “it’s more like we are reinforcing these truths in their lives instead of introducing them into lives.” The themes we discussed daily with the kids regarding choosing healthy friendships and avoiding unhealthy friendships landed truly on fertile soil. I suspect our impact was deeper and greater initially with this group than with any other we’ve worked with. Obviously, these kids had less filters to overcome in order to hear our message than the orphans do. It was truly time well spent this week as we learned much and made significant advancement in the lives of the 30 plus kids entrusted to us by the school and their families.
This week did something else. It showed us the gap. I mean the relational, development and spiritual gap between kids who have family and those who don’t. It reminded us that our work with orphans is so important but it also painfully slow. There are no shortcuts to closing that gap. The only way to do it is to daily walk in fellowship, friendship and community with the fatherless the Lord has brought into our care. My appreciation for our Mentors has grown exponentially the last month as I have seen them say with words and show in deeds a kind of love that truly does not hurry, perseveres through tough times, and never, ever lets go.
As we move into our 3rd camp of the summer with a group of at risk youth, we are aware of, praying about and minding the gap. Please join us in those efforts.
Thank you all,
Rob, Traci, Benjamin, Nate, Aidan and Anna as well as Tim and Sheila and Victoria
Paul, Dan, Toby, Todd and Dante joined our “family” plus Olga, Ruslan, Nastia, Zhenia, Lena and Andrey to work with a wonderful group of school aged children.
Rob Browne Director of Russian Operations |
|
678-935-0220 x103 Direct 404-518-5646 Cell 678-935-9674 Fax | 1911 Grayson Hwy, Ste 8-344 Grayson, GA 30017 |
That’s kinda life for us right now. One team finishes on Friday, leaves on Saturday, another comes on Sunday, starts on Monday. We’re not whining but we are wheezing a bit for sure. The pace is extreme but the fruit is already visible.
Andy, Olivia, Denny and Nathan finished the first outreach of the summer at City Orphanage #11 on Friday after an amazing week. Most of the kids we worked with have been part of our mentoring program for a few years now so when Bible stories were shared, they knew them. When principles were stressed, they could attest to their really working in their lives. When prayers were prayed, kids joined in.
Attached is a picture of a young man that all in our ministry, Russian and American, love dearly. You can see a YouthReach International video about him by clicking here. During an activity we did on the last day, we used Vitaly as an example. The kids drew a line separating the asphalt area we were on. One side was the side of Life. On that side we asked the young people to write words that are descriptive of things that are living giving. Family, health, friends, education, hard work, hope, forgiveness, Jesus, and love were just a few. On the other side of the line we asked them to write words descriptive of Death. Addiction, hatred, drugs, gossip, pride, evil, Satan, and lying were some of what they wrote. We sought to demonstrate to them how important it is to walk fully on the side of life. Below, Vitaly straddles the line between life and death. The activity had him walk a number of ways a number of times with a number of different challenges. You can see from the faces of the kids in the background that that they were all “getting the point” of what were saying. Avoid people and situations that seek anything for you other than God’s very best.
This wonderful team left us at 7 a.m. on Saturday morning and after a glorious day of air travel realities got home to St. Louis just before 2 a.m. local time. Ouch. Not a word of complaint though. They are all eager to take on the role of encourager, prayer partner, and voice there for the ministry God has entrusted to us here. Thank you Andy, Olivia, Denny and Nathan. You all left us a lot better than you found us. We appreciate you greatly. Denny produced a YouTube video which serves as a pretty good overview of the week. Check it out here.
24 hours after they left, Paul, Dante, Dan, Toby and Todd arrived. 5 guys from St. Louis with hearts as big as any I’ve seen. As I type this, they are out with their groups discussing the dangers of pretending to be something they are not in order to be accepted by so called “friends.” The size of these guys in their physical stature (they raise them big in STL best I can tell) is dwarfed by their hearts. This morning they showed up at the school we are doing this week’s camp with 5 orphans in tow. I’ll not soon forget seeing these hulking men walking hand in hand with some of God’s dear ones who live at St. Nicholas Orphanage. Day 2 is underway and things are going better than I could have ever imagined.
Your prayers mean so much to us. Sorry you’re not hearing from me more but I’m hoping that these words and a picture here and there will encourage you to keep praying. If you would like to see daily pictures from our time here, befriend on Facebook Tim Dunn (Traci’s father) or Ruslan Asadov (our Russian Operations Manager). Both do a great job of uploading pictures each night after our day’s work.
Traci and our kids are doing great. I can’t tell you how sweet the reunions are with our Russian friends and Traci. A big one is coming this Sunday as one of her dearest friends in the world, Gulia Zulina, arrives from the way far north of Siberia with her two daughters to spend a few days with us. 12 of us living in one flat for a few days will be a kind of fun I have rarely thought of before. Stay tuned for updates on how that goes for sure.
Your generosity helped us get here and your prayers empower us while here.
We love you all,
Rob, Traci, Benjamin, Nate, Aidan and Anna
Rob Browne Director of Russian Operations |
|
678-935-0220 x103 Direct 404-518-5646 Cell 678-935-9674 Fax | 1911 Grayson Hwy, Ste 8-344 Grayson, GA 30017 |
A week ago NOW, we arrived in Novosibirsk. Our flat was neatly prepared with the TLC of dear friends complete with food in the fridge and ice cream in the freezer. After 11 years of gulley and rut expansion, the road in front of our flat was paved with new sidewalks and curbs to boot. Best of all, our Mentors have been eagerly awaiting this specific season of ministry fully aware that any success we experience this summer is because of a long winter of significant investment in the life of the kids within our reach. If we had any reason to doubt that God was going before us during this summer (and we did not) it was immediately done away with upon our arrival.
Our first team of the summer, from St. Louis, MO, arrived on Sunday morning. Andy, Olivia, Nathan and Denny are eager, well prepared and highly appreciative of the opportunity before them. We began our first day camp of the summer yesterday at a city orphanage where we have unfettered access to the nearly 50 kids who live there. We enjoyed getting to know each other better, talking about how to distinguish healthy relationships from unhealthy relationships and of course some games, crafts, and lots of laughter. A baseball game even broke out which, at this orphanage, is a treat indeed as many of their kids have taken a true liking to it over the last few years. The highlight for me during that impromptu game was seeing that the baseball bat they used was handmade by one of the kids in our mentoring program who is actually featured in the second half of this video. As we think about helping these kids move into professions one day that can support them and their future families, might The Siberian Slugger be a bat our children’s children choose for Little League games to come? Hmm…
It was a special treat for us as well to visit Reconciliation Church on Sunday and see so many of our Mentors as either members there or regular visitors there. Equally special was seeing there one young man who has been mentored by our volunteers for 4 years now. He informed me that he had visited another church that morning where another one of our Mentors attends. He was excited to be together with 2 groups of God’s people that day. What an evidence of God’s work through this ministry in his life. His name is Denis. He’s 18 years old. Keep him in your prayers please that he’ll grow to love God as he has already grown to love his people.
The weather has been great, the kids healthy and the reunions of Traci with so many here have been treasured. Our Mentors, church members, past Mentors, neighbors, friends and kids at the orphanage have all run to Traci celebrating the life that shines so brightly in her. I have been accused twice so far of having a wife half my age. That made this old dog feel pretty good indeed.
Pictures will follow next time. Just wanted to report for now we made it here without any incident at all, we have our first team on the ground and the good that has been being done hear year round with our Mentors is now being deepened a bit by the team who has come to join us. Truly, we have much to be grateful for…your prayers and generosity especially.
Thank you for them both,
The Browne Family
Rob Browne Director of Russian Operations |
|
678-935-0220 x103 Direct 404-518-5646 Cell 678-935-9674 Fax | 1911 Grayson Hwy, Ste 8-344 Grayson, GA 30017 |
