from Jeff:

Hello,

Monday we had a day to ourselves as I mentioned in a prior email, so I've included more pictures of our time in Tambov. You'll notice a couple pictures with Vicki and Bear drinking a brownish drink from a plastic cup. This was our first experiment with Anya and Misha taking in the true Russian culture. Paul and I thought it wasn't to bad, but as you will notice... Vicki and Bear thought otherwise. I'm not sure how it is made other than it had a bitter-vinegar taste. One other picture of interest will be the Russian cross, which is quite different from our cross. The top part of the cross is where the sign "Jesus the Nazarene, the King of the Jews" was placed above Christ's head, the middle section of the cross is where Christ was nailed, then the lower half represents the two thieves. The right side of the cross pointing down is the thief who didn't repent, and the left side pointing upwards is the thief whom repented that Jesus said would be in paradise with Him that day.





Tuesday was the start of the Tambov day camp and it will conclude sometime Saturday. Kids start coming around 10 to 10:30 AM and we begin doing activities with everyone at 11 AM. Activities usually end around 5 to 5:30 PM with a wrap-up meeting with our Russian ministry team at 6 PM to work on our planning for the following day. By the end of the day, most of us are exhausted from the constant activities with the kids.







I've included pictures from Tuesday and Wednesday with several of the kids posing, playing a sporting activity, or something with crafts. There are a couple photos with everyone wearing bandannas, which we were using to do skits for the kids. We didn't know we would be doing the skits, so we were in a hurry to find something Monday evening... thanks to Google we got something worked out. Tuesday's skit was "Professor Noodle Brain and the Sin-eliminator", and Wednesday's was called the "Red Bandanna Club". Both of these skits presented one aspect of the gospel message that reaffirmed what we have been teaching during our craft sessions. Today, we were told by our Russian team that they noticed the kids reactions and asked if we can continue with the skits.





We also went to the zoo today, which we weren't sure what to expect. Amazingly, there were quite a few animals and other interesting sites. I was a little surprised how close we could get to the cage and not sure how cockroaches fit into the exhibits along with the snakes, and marsupials... Regardless, they give me the creeps. I know tomorrow we are going to the forest to do some type of sporting activity... hopefully we can survive the mosquitoes :)





Oh... Paul and I also experimented with herring tonight. I thought it was a little salty, but overall tasted pretty good. Closest that I could relate to it was something similiar to tuna fish. Paul and I think the others aren't taking in enough culture... but as Bear pointed out, "I'm living it now 24-7" :) We've also had some pretty decent meals although having cabbage soup four times in a row for lunch and dinner between Morshansk and Tambov was interesting, yet fun to experience if you get what I mean. We put in a special request for another typical Russian dinner, which is a baked roll filled with meat and cabbage... can't wait to have it I think it will be quite delicious. The breads, cheeses and meats have been wonderful... well except the bologna... another story for another time.

Take care and can't believe the week is going by so quickly.

Jeff