2 camping trips down...

I have never blogged...so my apologies in advance. We have been back from our 2nd camping trip for a few days now, and I must admit that it has been nice to have a shower and a toilet to use anytime I want! I was trying to think of what to blog about, and one story came to mind. This happened in between the 2 camping trips. I was in my room one night, reading my Bible and journaling, and Stopa (one of our favorite kids...with bright red hair and freckles) came into my room. He looked at my journal, my copy of the Upper Room and my Bible. Then he suddenly ran out of my room, and not a minute later ran back in. He had a Gideons Bible (in Russian of course) and a picture of Mary and Jesus that he was so excited to show me. So then, with the help of my English-Russian dictionary, he told me that he is Russian Orthodox, and I told him that I am Protestant. He just kept pointing to himself and saying "Tozha" which means "also" in Russian, so that I would understand that he, too, loved Jesus. Stopa is 16 years old, as are most of the kids that are currently in Orphanage #4 (which is where we are staying), and I worried about how quickly these children would accept us, if at all. The last time I was here, there were a lot of younger kids, and it was a lot easier to build relationships with them in a short amount of time. However, older ones are not so quick to trust. This specific interaction with Stopa happened early on in the trip, and I think that it was God's way of telling me not to worry so much because He is in control and instead of putting so much of my energy into worrying, I should instead focus on showing God's love to these kids. I continue to pray daily for God to prepare these children's hearts, and I see a little more trust from them each day. God is doing great things here, and I cannot wait to see what the next 2 weeks hold.
Claire