Conference Day 2

Today (Monday) was alright. Just alright. As I already learned, there are some not so good days on mission trips. The team was kind of scattered and broken up, some not in so good of health, and I just wasn’t feeling it today. Also the weather has been bad

            Highlights from the day: Holy Hour, a couple of talks, Mass, group time, and three small meals. The first talk by Father John about Sacraments was great. He broadened our understanding of what “sacrament” means and how they affect our daily lives. The second talk, Church History in Russia, was a little bit hard to follow, but had some interesting facts. I am probably the wrong one to write about history since it was my least favorite subject. Small group and free time has been nice as we get to hang out with our newfound friends. Unfortunately for most activities I am still adjusting to listening to things while they are being translated. It requires an even greater deal of concentration.

            I think tomorrow and Wednesday will hold good things and help everyone grow spiritually. 

Conference Day 1 (Sunday)

So like the week at Lesozavodsk, I will try and make one post for each day we were away trying to capture the day. Unlike Lesozavodsk, I will actually type these posts up while I am at the camp so that they will be fresh and all done as soon as I get access to wifi. So right now as I write this it is actually Sunday July 28.

            Anyway, today started early as the team, the sisters, and all six of the brothers at the monastery in Vladivostok headed to the bus station to make the trip to Nakhodka. The bus ride was uneventful and the roads weren’t quite so bad. I was able to sleep, although a few bits of jostling sent me face planting into Brian’s shoulder. Not the best way to be woken up.

            So the International Far East Youth Conference is being held at what I am told was a former summer camp for kids 20-30 years ago. There have been some mixed reactions from the team on the living conditions. Admittedly the bath and shower conditions are pretty bad (and that’s coming from a guy), but our rooms are spacious, we are being fed three meals a day, and the company is pretty nice. At the conference we have our band of 13, both sisters, our translators (Yury and Victor) are back, along with the 6 brothers from the seminary in Vladivostok (2 from the Philippines, 4 from Indonesia), with 2 more priests to help Father Steve, and a large handful of Russians from around the greater Eastern Russian area. We are on a lake (sort of) and a short walk from the beach. The camp has some sports stuff (nets and a field) and quite a nice playground, but is lacking in certain areas like limited shower facilities and a pretty bad toilet situation. It is also pretty humid, so many of our rooms just feel moist

            Today we did not arrive until lunchtime. In addition to Sunday Mass, our meals, and evening prayer, there has been a lot of down time to get all settled in. The schedule for tomorrow looks pretty jam-packed, with only 1 hour off for sports and a few coffee breaks scattered between activities.

            I am sure many of you are wondering how a Catholic conference works with so many different nationalities in attendance. Well first, the beauty of it being a Catholic conference is that the Catholic Church truly is universal. Even if I can’t say all of the prayers, I can recognize them as ones I know. Also this bond of faith makes everyone immediately connected in a special way. We can all enjoy a Mass or prayer together, even if half of it is in a different language. The physical presence and fellowship is what counts.

            Another rather fun anecdote of this, and my high for the day, was singing. My mother is probably shocked at reading that, but yes Mom singing. A few of us were hanging out in the brothers’ room playing music and stuff (they all speak English). Then a couple of our new found Russian friends who had been working on the music for tomorrow come in and start playing music for us. Soon we all started singing together the most random songs, and even sang one of the worship songs in Russian and English simultaneously. Despite the lack of the actual verbal communication, everyone seems to be getting along great and enjoying their foreign friends. 

The Great Mosquito Massacre of 2013

By Chris

            So this part of Russia is very humid. My fellow Floridians know that with humidity comes a ridiculous number of mosquitoes. The team, which opposes being bitten by mosquitoes and other critters, has staged many a mosquito hunt over the past two weeks. The major hunts started in Lesozavodsk at the camp. We accidently let so many mosquitoes in one night that we spent 10 minutes of doing nothing but trying to hunt and swat the bugs. With that practice, the team has gotten quite good and killing mosquitoes en mass. Being at a summer camp type of place for the conference, the need for the great mosquito hunt continues nightly. I wish I brought anti-itch stuff. 

Lesozavodsk Day 5

Final day of camp was completely opposite from the previous day. Somehow the kids just seemed better behaved and fun to be around. Part of this may have been because we were outside for 90% of the day. We walked across the bridge and made a campfire on the other side of the river. There we went swimming, played some sports, ate lunch, and made s’mores. Maybe it was the big chocolate bar or maybe it was the cookie we used to hold it all together, but that was the best s’more I have ever eaten. Who would have thought I would go to Russia and get the best s’more ever? Props to Tyler and Victor for making the perfect s’more roasting fire.

            The water was still ridiculously cold. That’s all I really remember about the water.

This is the team with the campers outside the church

            Here’s where camp got sappy. The whole team on the last day really made an effort to connect with the kids and love them and go the extra mile for them. For me, I met and bonded with two of the little girls, Paulina and Merina. Since the guys and girls had been separate all week, the girls were wanting to hang out with the male team members, and vice versa. For some reason, Paulina, who is nine, wanted to hold my hand; additionally, she insisted that Merina, her close friend, hold my other hand. The girls were both really cute. They tried to teach me some Russian—I failed miserably! We walked to and from church holding hands and laughing as we tried to avoid the mud puddles. Back at church for the last round of songs, Paulina insisted that my one arm be around both her and Marina. I complied, as I had with all of their requests. When I got my hand over onto Marina’s shoulder, she reached up and just held my hand. I realized from the look on her face and the grip on my hand that she just wanted to hold on to that moment, and the whole week with all of the team. I don’t know about her home life at all, but it seems that she and Paulina and most of the little kids really felt safe and at home with us. I don’t know how this is possible, but after only half a day together I developed such a strong bond with those two little girls. I could practically feel Jesus pouring his love for them through me.

            I know a lot of the team had similar experiences with other kids on this day. Saying goodbye got really difficult. The kids all gave us hugs and high fives and a few of the girls cried. Part of what made it so hard for the team is that we have no idea what those kids are going home to or where their lives are going. We will probably never see any of those kids again or know how much of an impact we made on their lives until we get to Heaven. That was sort of the theme of Father Steve’s homily that night. We had an impact on those kids, but from here on out all we can do is just pray for them and have faith that Jesus will take care of them in our absence.

            This hardly captures the day that we had. I can’t put into words how amazing this last day of camp went. The whole week, and especially this last day, will stay with me forever. But of course after the kids left it was back to business: cooking, cleaning, and organizing stuff. I fixed up all of our leftovers with Tyler while the rest of the team cleaned up the church and apartments for our departure early the next morning. We were glad to return to Vladivostok to be back with the brothers in our larger rooms with more toilets and clean water. 

Lesozavodsk Day 4

Wednesday stood apart from Sunday through Tuesday. First, it rained. All day. Nonstop. We were able to take the boys to the Orthodox Church and the Pro-Life center in the morning, but the long walk in the rain cause a lot of the boys to just leave us and go home. I have never been in an Orthodox Church before then, so it was quite a new experience for me. I felt like a fish out of water. The pro-life center was actually pretty nice. It was just a room in the hospital, but the woman in charge had a lot of useful diagrams, models, and explanations for the kids to help them understand. One neat thing was that the hospital placed the pro-life office just up the hall from where all pregnant women have to go to get information about how to behave during pregnancy as well as tests and other minor prenatal care. That means that every time the woman came to the hospital to get checked up, she would have to walk by the Pro- Life office.

The afternoon was rough on everyone. The boys got very rambunctious because they were stuck inside all afternoon with us. They were hyper, but we didn’t really have the space to entertain them. All of the kids, even the girls, seemed to be more hyper and disobedient on Wednesday. I don’t know if Emily put something in the kids’ tea or what, but the team just couldn’t seem to keep up with the kids. This wore on all of us. By the time the kids left we all felt dead and defeated, at our wits ends. I can’t really describe the feeling, but it just seemed like the whole team was kind of just slipping out of the groove of things after working so hard for three days.

Toward the end of the night, Father Steve gave a rally talk during his homily at Mass. He encouraged each of us to rest up, and remember why we were there. We each had to step it up for the final day of camp and be willing to break our comfort zones and even do what we didn’t want to do. It seemed to help us a lot. Then before our Holy Hour, he led us in the prayer that we received on prayer cards from the Little Sisters of the Poor in NY. Their pray cards with a quote from their founder really did comfort us as we began our Adoration.

I don’t want to make this sound like the whole day was horrible. We each had our own little highs for the day. I had quite the adventure making popcorn with Missy for snack. The kids loved it, but it took a little to figure out the trick to it with the pot and stove we had. Then, I kind of lit a towel on fire on accident. While I was shaking the popcorn it was dragging across the burner and started to char and then set aflame without me realizing it. We both flipped out, but managed the crisis and I did not burn down the kitchen. Or myself. Or Missy. I just burned the towel, so I think it was a successful day in the kitchen.

Needless to say, after this long day we all crashed and geared up for our final day of camp, praying that we could make our final impact on the kids in the final hours we had with them. 

Lesozavodsk Day 3

Tuesday at camp was very similar to Monday. The boys went outside and had some fun while the girls visited the Orthodox Church and the Pro-Life Center at the hospital, which is run by one of the parishioners. We tried to teach the boys American Football. Tyler really did try his best to explain it and Yury did a good job translating, but the kids couldn’t quite get it. I don’t blame them; American Football has a lot of rules. We ended up playing our Ultimate Football like Monday again.

After lunch and talks, the kids went down to the river again. It was this day that I took my turn to cook, so I’ll share a little bit about our living and community life in Lesozavodsk. Each day a couple of team members would leave the kids and work on dinner for the team. This was quite the experience each day. First, all of the water in Lesozavodsk was undrinkable. Sister Stella said it was bad enough that we could not even cook with it or use it for tea and coffee. Washing the dishes with it was all right, but they had to be completely dry before using them. We had a small kitchen to cook in with a tiny oven, a three-burner stove, and a sink. Given the size and water conditions, and considering we had to cook to feed 17, cooking became quite the challenge. I felt like I was on an episode of Dinner Impossible.

All challenges aside, I love to cook, so cooking for the team was quite a blessing for them. I think I (and all the team members that cooked) would have made my dad proud with the meals that were produced from that kitchen. Patrick volunteered to help me out in the kitchen. As a side note, Patrick did a wonderful job all week volunteering to clean up the kitchen before and after meals—which was the least favored job—and help get everything ready. He was a great help to me as we prepared . . . well I don’t really know what I prepared actually. It was some sort of rice, soup, meatball thing. Tyler bought us lots of random seasoning packets, but we couldn’t read what was in them, so each day the cook would be going around asking what everyone thought was in each packet based on the smell.

All in all the cooking for the week went great. We didn’t burn any food (I may have lit a towel on fire, but that’s another story) and everything was pretty good. The only thing I did learn was that Russia, at least where we were, does not have tomato sauce. The closest thing we could get was a weird paste that was a cross between Ketchup and sauce. It was rather sweet. Katie and I both took our turns at trying to doctor it up (she did better than I) and make it closer to sauce from home.

In the end, the team was very well fed everyday.  Dinner was also a great time to blow off the steam from the day as we, seventeen in number, gathered in the small front room to eat and share a family meal. A BIG family meal. 

Our Return to Vladivostok

Hey all. Sorry I have been away from the blog for so long. We all just got back to the parish here in Vladivostok from the Far East Youth Conference. It is dinner time now, so I am going to grab some grub. After, I have many posts to share both catching up from the camp in Lesozavodsk and everything that happened at the conference