Quick Team Update

So I have a few updates for you all.

First and foremost, the team is leaving very early in the morning for the Far East Catholic Youth Conference in Nakhodka. While there we will be sharing in the conference with Catholic youth from many different countries. In addition to simply participating in the conference, we will be witness to the vast expanse of Catholicism to the other attendees. Many have only been to mass once or twice or don’t know many Catholics their own age (our age) so they will be happy to meet us.

That being said, there may be an interruption in the blog once again. I will try and keep updating the blog with how the conference is going as well as catching everyone up on how things went in Lesozavodsk, but no promises. We will be back in Vladivostok next weekend.

Next, I have found a good way to share a lot of pictures with you all. Soon I will start posting links to albums in Picassa that will have pictures from our trip. All you will need to view the pictures is the link that I post on this blog. I am not sure when I will actually be doing that though since internet is very limited and uploading lots of pictures does not always work.

Finally, please pray for our safe travels and good health. 

Today in Vladivostok

By Chris:

So, interrupting the posts about last week’s activities in Lesozavodsk, today we walked a bit through Vladivostok, got a nice view of the harbor and the big bridge (my inner civil engineer was fascinated) and then headed over to the orphanage to play with the kids. Here is a view of the harbor from the road we walked along.

After crossing the bridge you can see on the right of the picture, we walked a bit to the orphanage. We got there right as the kids were going outside. They were so happy to see us! We played around with kids anywhere from 1 to 3 years old. Some of the kids couldn’t stop smiling. Other kids you could tell were just happy to have someone to hold onto, even if they weren't smiling. Here are some pictures. 

After some playtime we went inside and helped to feed the kids and hold the newborns. One thing I noticed was how beautiful the eyes of all of the babies were. It is weird for me to notice that since I don't usually notice the eyes on people, but these kids just had the prettiest and most innocent eyes. As Rachael put it, "it was like staring into the eyes of God." It brought the team a lot of joy to see how something as little as our presence could mean so much to these kids. At the same time, there was kind of a bitter feeling behind it as we realized that these babies don't get the attention that they deserve. It was sad to hear many of the children crying as we left because they all wanted to be held again.

After the orphanage we had lunch and relax time. In the evening we went to the Orthodox Cathedral for Vespers. It was quite the experience. Though the Catholic and Orthodox faiths seem kind of similar, the churches are very different. In that same vein, the vespers services were very unique. Maybe it was because everything was in Russian, but the whole prayer seemed so foreign to me. It was pretty crazy. That being said, the singing of the priests and choir at the Orthodox Church was unbelievable!! They chanted and sang like we had never heard before. 

Tonight has been pretty uneventful. The dryer broke down, so we have been all creating very interesting ways of getting laundry done. Katie and TJ washed a few things by hand, most people dried things on clothes lines (how old fashioned right?), and I am using an iron to dry my clothes. I wouldn't really care if they were wet, but we have to pack up for another trip tomorrow, so I need all of my clothes dry! The iron is working alright to dry the clothes, but it doesn’t get it quite as dry as you would think. Additionally, as my mother will tell you, I do not like nor am I good at ironing anything. On the plus side, all of my clothes-including socks and boxers-are being nicely pressed and wrinkle free. 

Lesozavodsk: Day 2

Monday was the first full day of camp. The men woke up and made breakfast at the church. I enjoyed this male bonding time as we prepared breakfast for the ladies. They were always so happy to come over from the apartments to a hot breakfast.

After the team—which consisted of the 13 FOCUS members, two sisters, and our two translators, Victor and Yury—ate and cleaned up, the kids came in for breakfast, songs, and a couple of talks. Each day Father Steve would talk to the kids a little bit, then a team member or two would give a short talk about our faith. The topics of the talks ranged from the creation story all the way to love of the Father and heaven. I gave my talk on the first day, which was about prayer. Some of the talks the kids really seemed to understand and get. Other talks the kids seemed hyper and inattentive. It was hard to tell what was sinking in since we couldn’t understand their responses. Victor and Yury did a wonderful job of keeping up with us translating our talks and questions to the kids. For many of them, hearing about Catholicism was a new topic that they didn’t know much about.

            After all the talking the kids got rambunctious, so we took the guys outside. The girls stayed inside again to do some crafts. I am told that the little girls were very loving and generous in sharing with the team the bracelets and pictures they made. Outside the boys got dirty! We took them to a field and ran free with them playing baseball, football, Frisbee, and Tyler and I even taught a few of the boys how to set up a tent. Though new to them, the older boys seemed to really like the American football. After tossing it around for a while, Matt and TJ organized a game of “Ultimate Football.” Basically we played ultimate Frisbee with a football instead. It was great to see the boys start to build team spirit and sportsmanship in an organized sport (which they don’t play very often).

            After lunch, a few more songs, and a talk (mine), we all went to the river. The kids could not contain their excitement and were bouncing off the walls. Down the hill from the small parish there was quite a big river that ran through Lesozavodsk. It was nice to go out swimming with the kids and relax. Unfortunately, being in Russia, the water was quite cold. Matt and Tyler, both from Minnesota, both admitted it was pretty frigid water, so you can only imagine how this Florida boy felt getting in. I did it though! We also skipped some rocks, gave shoulder rides, and played lots of “rock, paper, scissors.”

            The day ended with a few more songs and the kids were shuffled out as the team finally got a moment to breathe and relax. We then prayed, had mass, ate dinner, had a holy hour, and did our debrief for the day. It was a completely full day of activities, and we were feeling pretty tired, so we all crashed for bed. 

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. 

"Pick up your cross and follow me"

     So one of the things the little kids (and some of the not so little kids) really liked was having the male team members put them up on our shoulders. This turned into quite the experience throughout the week with a lot of highs and lows to it.

We obviously enjoyed serving the kids. Putting them up on our shoulders was a fun way to interact with them and let them have some fun. All the kids were asking us to do it. We were often happy to comply because it brought so much joy to the kids.

     As the week went on they learned the English way to ask us was to say, “sit down please.” I later learned that they didn’t even know that “please” was just the proper manners, but thought it was part of the request. Anyway all through the week the guys couldn’t go more than a few minutes outside without a small Russian hand tapping us and hearing, “sit down please.”

     This soon became more than a fun activity for the kids. While the kids were enjoying rides, the team gained new crosses to bear. First, after a day or two of carrying kids around on our shoulders, we were all a little sore. It was really hard to say no to the kids, and they were really persistent, but our shoulders got tired. Secondly, as the boys realized the shoulder rides were going to come to an end as soon as camp was over, they began to fight over our shoulders. Usually this was no big deal, but occasionally they boys would start pushing and shoving over a simple shoulder ride. Boys will be boys, right?

     These challenges actually gave us a new perspective on things. The fact that the boys were so persistent in their asking and were fighting over us shows how much of an influence we could have on them. It also shows, unfortunately, how few of them have a strong male presence in their lives. Sister Stella pointed out that where we were was a poorer neighborhood with a lot of one bedroom apartments (the female team members can share on that later) and very broken or difficult family situations. We understood that the kids really craved our attention not only because we were Americans, but because we were going to give them lots of attention.

     As for the shoulder pain, both Brian and I mentioned the same thing one night at our debriefing: it was the cross that we had been asked to take up. Jesus had to carry His literal cross on His shoulders for quite a ways with no energy, food, or sleep. The pain in his shoulders must have been excruciating.  Not to say that the children themselves were burdens to us, but we certainly felt the weight in our shoulders. Though not as heavy as Jesus’s cross, the kids on our shoulders brought us a little bit closer to Christ’s Passion as we felt the strain on our muscles. This mirroring of the Passion gave the men of the team strength to carry one more kid. Though thinking of our Lord carrying His cross did not relieve the pain in our backs and shoulders, it did give us the mental drive to say, “Yea, I’ll do it for the kids.”

     Carrying the kids was a defining point of everyday for the male team members. We now all have stronger muscles, yet we have also grown spiritually from the experience. And at the end of the day, seeing the joy on the kids’ faces as we agreed to pick them up onto our shoulders was worth every second of struggling we may have had. 

Return of the Team

By Chris:

WE HAVE RETURNED FROM CAMP

So yesterday (Thursday) was the last day of camp for the kids in Lesozavodsk. Today the team made the 6 hour train or van ride back to Vladivostok. You will all be happy to know we have arrived safely and are resting up (and doing lots of laundry) after our week of summer camp.

I think I can speak for the whole team when I write that our experiences in Lesozavodsk cannot be put into words. The time we spent with each other and with the kids—the good, bad, and strange—will be time we never will forget.

We have a couple of days in Vladivostok now before we head out again. While we are at the church (where there is internet) over the next day and a half I will try and capture each day into a blog post. I want to try and capture each day because each day brought new surprises! You will see them labeled “Lesozavodsk: Day #” for each day. I may also throw in some shorter posts that apply to all of the days or one specific experience. I have, as always, invited anyone else from the team to write something, which I will mark or post separately with due credit. Team posts may come later though because, like me, most of the team is emotionally, physically, and mentally exhausted and can’t seem to find the words to describe our time at camp.Additionally, I will try and post maybe one of two pictures of the group with the kids in Lesozavodsk, but I cannot post many at this time.

I am glad to be back on the blog updating you all again. Please continue to keep us in your prayers.