First Day of Full Ministry

Hey everybody! Justin here. Thanks so much for your continued support and prayers for our trip. We spent some time this morning praying for all of you and thanking God for the opportunity to be on this trip and to work with our brothers and sisters from Resurrection Church.

We just finished our first full day of ministry... and it was definitely FULL! Up at 5:30, over to the girls' apartment at 7:00, children's day camp from 9:00 - 1:00, a quick lunch and back for English Club at 3:00. We just got home, fixed a quick dinner, and are heading off to bed. It's 11:30, so I'll have to make this quick...

The team is really doing great. Everybody is giving their all and doing what they can to make our time profitable for God's kingdom. The schedule for this week is really going to be grueling, but it is also going to be a lot of fun. I overheard Kristen talking this morning after day camp about how one of the little girls had gotten pretty attached to her right from the start and had been her little shadow all morning. It really is fun to be able to enjoy and serve these kids. We had a few kinks to iron out, including practicing the songs and making sure we keep an eye on the kids so that they don't wander off... but all in all it went off really well.

One thing for prayer... Tyler sprained his left ankle REALLY bad playing frisbee with our friends at the church. I'd post a picture, but it's pretty graphic. He's still hobbling around, but he's a trooper. It's changing colors and looking worse and worse. He's not one to take it easy, though, so hopefully it will heal quickly.

Chris and I met with Maxim, the pastor of the church, and he told us a little bit about what the church is facing, currently. They have had to move meeting places several times in the past 5 years, and now the building that they are meeting in just was sold and so they have to move again later this year. They asked us to pray for a future meeting place and for the possibility that they might be able to buy some land where they might be able to build a permanent church in the future. It is fortuitous that both our churches are going through building changes at the same time.

For lunch we had our first cultural meal at a restaurant that none of us could pronounce. Lindsay was the bravest of the group, as she just pointed to a random item on the menu and said, "I'll have this one!" It turned out to be a fried meat & mayonnaise concoction, but it was fun to try something new.

English Club went pretty well, but we have a lot of little adjustments to make for tomorrow. The beginner class was a little more advanced than we expected, so Matt, Kristen, and Ashley are going to have to step it up a little bit tomorrow. We have very little free time this week, so please pray that they will be able to do everything that needs to be done.

For our spiritual time afterwards, Matt did a great job of sharing his testimony, and there was some good discussions afterwards. We will continue to build relationships throughout the week.

Well, it's almost midnight, so I'd better get to bed. Thank you for your continued prayers and support for the team. If you would like to send an email to anyone on the team, please send it to KazTeam@gmail.com and put the team member's first name (and initial if to one of the Kristen's...) in the subject line. Your emails are a tremendous support for the team, so please take a moment to do that if you can.

God's grace to you all,
Justin