From Jeff:

Greetings from Russia,

I've attached several more pictures for your enjoyment with my hope of giving you another taste of the Russia that I'm seeing everyday. It's difficult to imagine less than twenty years ago both of our nations were at a point of war.

We are currently watching the Russian / Spain Euro Cup game. Spain is up by 3 points and its looking as though Spain might win, so far. Our Russian translators are totally mesmerized with this game as though they have a wager on the game. Paul has bought more herring and now "Red" caviar and keeps trying to get Bear to eat it with no success. I tried it and actually the caviar is okay, but I think I prefer the herring a little more than anything else.

Most of today was about the same as other days with a little different flavor. The difference today was going to the "Forest", which was about a 20 min drive out of town to a local wooded area that had an abandoned soccer field. Most of our time was spent playing various games with the kids, which gave us an excellent opportunity of building a common bond with them.

I've noticed some of the kids that were shy or a little more distant than other kids on Monday have started to become very friendly over the past day or so. Quite a few want their picture taken and also going out of their way to play, or try and talk to various people on our team.

Hope to send you another email soon.

In Him,
Jeff











From Paul AKA Pasha

Today was another long day (Day camp starts at 11 and today went to 6) but it was not as hard as yesterday as we went to the forest and played some games in the afternoon which broke up the day better. Tomorrow we will go to the river. Probably not in it but there is a park next to it that we can use. We went to the local store this evening after dinner and and then watched Spain beat the Russians in soccer. Bear is not enjoying the caviar, Anya and I are really the only ones that like it. It is very salty but has a good flavor. Sorry you can't be here to enjoy all the culture. Today at lunch they served liver. It was mixed with some spices and had a much milder flavor than how it is prepared there with onions. It was tolerable but not something I would order from a menu.
It sounds like the next couple of days are nonstop action. After dinner tomorrow Bear and Dirk are going to be interviewed on a local christian internet radio. After Day Camp on saturday we will do an evangelistic outreach through music in town and sunday is a full day as well. Continue to pray fo us not only to be effective and God honoring but to sleep well also.