Lesozavodsk: Day 1

Sunday was our true kick off day in Lesozavodsk. We had all arrived very late Saturday night from the train and quickly set up our beds to sleep. Everyday the men slept in the small church, woke up, set up the church for mass or prayer, and made the ladies breakfast. The women came over from the apartments just before breakfast time for Morning Prayer. Then the day’s activities could begin!

On Sunday after breakfast and prayer we had a mass half in Russian and half in English. There was the same number of parishioners in this small church as there were Americans with FOCUS at Mass. Though small in number, the members of the parish had hearts of gold and more generosity than I have seen in any other parish. They were so excited that we had finally come. Apparently they can only have Mass once a month there, because they don’t have a full time priest. Giddy from sharing Mass with each other, we Americans and the Russian parishioners kept our translators, Yury and Victor, quite busy as we shared stories and listened to each other.

One remarkable woman, the oldest member of the parish at 87 years old, couldn’t stop exclaiming at how excited she was to see us. She told us all about her time in the Second World War, her conversion to Catholicism, and her love of poetry. She even recited some of her poetry for us—from memory! Though we didn’t hear every complexity of the poem (it was in Russian) it sounded beautiful and amazed us at how she could recite such poems from heart.

            After the parishioners all filed out, the kids began to arrive. It was quite a scene as we packed at least 10 of us and God knows how many kids into a tiny room to serve them lunch. Though the quarters were tight, the team didn’t miss a beat and, like a well oiled machine, we got every kid some grub. Then camp really began. Everyday camp started with Sister Stella playing harp and singing songs with the kids. We tried to sing along, but Russian is a hard language to sing in. When there were parts of the songs that had Latin mixed in, all the Americans suddenly chimed in though. It was amazing to see how much these kids, who had very little experience with hearing about God before, loved to sing praise to Him and to Mary.

            As with most days of camp, the guys and girls split up after singing and a short talk from Father Steve and a reviewing of the rules by Tyler. All of the guys went outside to play and the girls stayed inside and did lots of crafts and made name tags and other stuff I guess. I am not really sure what the girls did all day; girl stuff? Anyway the men went outside and got the first taste of playing with the boys of Lesozavodsk. They were so happy to learn to hold a baseball bat (most didn’t know how) or throw a Frisbee (they were better at this than I expected). The first day was a pretty free for all day of playing around outside the church. It started raining, but we kept on playing straight through the rain. I could almost hear the Credence Clearwater song “Have You Ever Seen the Rain” playing in the background.

            After lots of different sports outside and getting thoroughly soaked, the boys came in to sing with the girls and say goodbye. The team then picked up, had a Holy Hour, prepared dinner, and debriefed before parting for the night and getting our well-earned rest.