VBS Day 1

We had our first day of VBS yesterday.  This year we are doing VBS in Vibity first, so that is a little different from last year.  We had about 35 kids including a couple of new children, but we also had some parents and one retired Air Force captain join us which was such a blessing!  We are hoping to get to work on the Soltsi church today with whatever work they have for us to do after we finish VBS.  Stan taught the story of the Israelites Crossing the Jordan River and this year we added a missions segment to the VBS program.  Mike spoke about missionaries and what they do and encouraged the kids to become missionaries locally by telling their friends about Jesus.  It is always amazing and humbling to see God using us to do His work!  

Crafts!

Thankfully the weather is cooler than it was last year!

Stan led the children across the Jordan River

Our retired Air Force captain also plays guitar

Soltsi

Crossing the Jordan one more time

Sports.  We always pray that some of the kids who hang around the youth center you see in the background will come over to see what is going on at the Soltsi church

Pastor Sergei leading us in prayer 

Drinking from the spring in Soltsi

We made it!!

We made it to Russia with all of our luggage and minimal complications!  :)  We went to church in Novgorod on Sunday and sang a couple of our VBS songs in Russian.  Gary gave his testimony which was such a blessing to everyone who heard.  Today we will be decorating in Vibity and Soltsi to prepare for VBS tomorrow.  We already have our first VBS challenge as the weather forecast is calling for rain tomorrow and it seems as if we will be indoors.  Please continue to pray for the team as well as for the hearts of the children who will be coming that they will be open to the gospel message and that we will be open to whatever God has planned.

Hopefully we will have some pictures to post tomorrow.  With a smaller team this year, there has not been quite as much time for picture taking!!!!