In the spring of 2009 (if my memory hasn’t failed me – and many of you know that happens quite frequently now), a camp, Elama (Finnish for "Light") was purchased by a Christian organization from the U.S. The sponsoring agency for this camp in St. Petersburg is MIR (the charity organization that helps us secure our visa’s, letters of invitation, etc.), which is headed up by Mike Cantrell, an American living most of the time in StP. Last fall I was made aware of this camp and the needs they had in preparing the camp to be used for Christian camps during the summer; so my church, Emmanuel Baptist Church of Ruston, very generously gave money for paint and to help purchase a riding lawn mower for the upkeep of the property. On Saturday, April 17, my team, along with John Bull (2-yr. missionary in StP) and Sergey (employed by MIR), traveled to the camp for a work day.
We met at Parnas metro stop at the end of the blue line – note the “illegal” photo I took of my 3 other team members on the last leg of that journey (L-R Sasha, Anya, Ann
e), since we were the only 4 people in our car or the surrounding cars - I say "illegal" because you are not allowed to take pictures on the metro. From Parnas we traveled 2 hours outside of the city to the camp – passing the mostly still frozen Gulf of Finland, and several beautiful lakes. The last leg of the journey was a dirt road that reminded me of many old dirt roads back home – in much need of a good grading. When we arrived at the camp we were greeted with many acres of snow-covered land – most of which is a part of a national forest that was created after Russia took the land from Finland at the end of WWI. I was excited to find out that because of the large riding lawn mower we had helped to purchase, they were going to be able to maintain trails throughout a large portion of the national park property for the camp participants to enjoy.
Anne Brashier and I were put to work in building 2, and Anya soon joined us as we cleaned out the rooms, boxed up the miscellaneous stuff found there, swept, mopped, and then scraped paint, all to help prepare for a team from Georgia that is coming in two weeks to stay at the camp and do painting and construction projects. Sasha Newman joined John Bull as they began scraping the exterior of building 3. Sergey in the meantime was finishing constructing a stove in building 2 so that people could use the buildings in the fall/winter/early spring months when the cold is really set in.
After two hours of work, we broke for lunch, which John and Sergey prepared over an open pit – yum, Russian bar-b-que! The main part of the meal was pork shashlie (shish-ka-bob), and there were also hot dogs, chips, fruit, etc. After we ate the wonderful meat (using
our fingers – messy and WONDERFUL!!), we made smores from the fixings I had brought from the states – you can’t get graham crackers and marshmallows here (again, very messy and yum!). Everyone enjoyed the meal and then we went back to work for the remaining time.
About 4pm we left to return to the city. We all smelled like smoke, some of us had wet feet from walking in the snow and mud, and we were all worn out, but boy we felt good! We had spent a day working to prepare a site for God’s ministry in the company of fellow Christians who also enjoy working for our Lord. What better way to spend a beautiful spring day? It reminded me of the mission trip our church took to Poydras, St. Bernard Parish, Louisiana last summer – we painted the children’s wing of a church damaged during Hurricane Katrina – and enjoyed the hard work and time of fellowship together.
Much of what we do here in StP is about building relationships with the hurting, needy children; but sometimes God lets us get in a get our hands dirty doing something really difficult and physical. As we left the camp, I told Anne and Sasha – “You two have seen and done things today that no other ministry team that has come with me has seen or done – enjoy the fact that God has used you in a special way!”
From Russia with LOVE!
Nancy and the Team
We met at Parnas metro stop at the end of the blue line – note the “illegal” photo I took of my 3 other team members on the last leg of that journey (L-R Sasha, Anya, Ann
e), since we were the only 4 people in our car or the surrounding cars - I say "illegal" because you are not allowed to take pictures on the metro. From Parnas we traveled 2 hours outside of the city to the camp – passing the mostly still frozen Gulf of Finland, and several beautiful lakes. The last leg of the journey was a dirt road that reminded me of many old dirt roads back home – in much need of a good grading. When we arrived at the camp we were greeted with many acres of snow-covered land – most of which is a part of a national forest that was created after Russia took the land from Finland at the end of WWI. I was excited to find out that because of the large riding lawn mower we had helped to purchase, they were going to be able to maintain trails throughout a large portion of the national park property for the camp participants to enjoy.
Anne Brashier and I were put to work in building 2, and Anya soon joined us as we cleaned out the rooms, boxed up the miscellaneous stuff found there, swept, mopped, and then scraped paint, all to help prepare for a team from Georgia that is coming in two weeks to stay at the camp and do painting and construction projects. Sasha Newman joined John Bull as they began scraping the exterior of building 3. Sergey in the meantime was finishing constructing a stove in building 2 so that people could use the buildings in the fall/winter/early spring months when the cold is really set in.
After two hours of work, we broke for lunch, which John and Sergey prepared over an open pit – yum, Russian bar-b-que! The main part of the meal was pork shashlie (shish-ka-bob), and there were also hot dogs, chips, fruit, etc. After we ate the wonderful meat (using
our fingers – messy and WONDERFUL!!), we made smores from the fixings I had brought from the states – you can’t get graham crackers and marshmallows here (again, very messy and yum!). Everyone enjoyed the meal and then we went back to work for the remaining time.About 4pm we left to return to the city. We all smelled like smoke, some of us had wet feet from walking in the snow and mud, and we were all worn out, but boy we felt good! We had spent a day working to prepare a site for God’s ministry in the company of fellow Christians who also enjoy working for our Lord. What better way to spend a beautiful spring day? It reminded me of the mission trip our church took to Poydras, St. Bernard Parish, Louisiana last summer – we painted the children’s wing of a church damaged during Hurricane Katrina – and enjoyed the hard work and time of fellowship together.
Much of what we do here in StP is about building relationships with the hurting, needy children; but sometimes God lets us get in a get our hands dirty doing something really difficult and physical. As we left the camp, I told Anne and Sasha – “You two have seen and done things today that no other ministry team that has come with me has seen or done – enjoy the fact that God has used you in a special way!”
From Russia with LOVE!
Nancy and the Team
2 comments:
Thank you SO MUCH for helping with Elama. I wish we could have been there. I'm very thankful for all you've done. -- Mike
Thanks Mike, for allowing us to participate in this ministry. I am praying that God will lead some of our people to come early next fall to help with some of the construction. I'll put that "bug" in their ears when I get home!! At the very least, we will continue to support the camp financially.
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