Teen Kindness and Paddle Boat Week

Today we spent the entire day with the teens again. Our lesson on the Fruit of the Spirit was Kindness - loving people the same way God loves them. We went to the local ponds and rode the paddle boats. After lunch we worked on our scrapbooks again. Our service project today was making sheets for the ABC Kids at the Baby Hospital. The kids were excited about showing kindness to the abandoned children in this way. Enjoy the pictures...

Bowling and Service Projects

Last Friday we had a great day with the teens. Our word for the day was Patience! We learned that patience is the willingness to wait until later for what we want right now and also the willingness to tolerate (and love) those people who really annoy us. (They tend to give each other a lot of opportunities to practice patience). We cleaned the windows at the worship room and picked up trash in the playground and garden area as well as all the way around the building where the worship room is located. We also worked on our scrapbooks, sang and went bowling. Enjoy the pictures...

More Photos from the Teen Retreat

For four days we had Bible Classes, craft time, lots of time at the beach, and a variety of games - not to mention a lot of good food. Every evening we had a devotional on the beach - they even let us have a fire each night! We also had a talent contest (which turned out to be mostly a lack of... contest)! All in all it was a great retreat.

Berdyansk Teen Retreat

The Teen Retreat in Berdyansk was wonderful. We took 28 folks for four days of camping, classes, and fun in the sun (and under the moon). Our theme for the Summer is "The Fruit of the Spirit" and all our lessons and devotionals were related to this topic. We purchased shirts and Lora embroidered them with the logo and the kid's names. The kids were well behaved and everyone thoroughly enjoyed our time in Berdyansk. Hope you enjoy the pictures.

Friday with the Teens

We had a great day today with our middle school kids. We are studying the Fruit of the Spirit and today's lesson was peace. We had about 15 kids attend. The most exciting thing they did today was begin making scrapbooks of our summer together. We had lunch together, then played Wii and other games in the worship room, swam, rode ripsticks or played together outside. We were together from 9 AM until 6 PM. Enjoy the pictures.

Horseback Riding and Service Project

Every Friday this summer our teens are having special events and service projects. Today we went horseback riding at a riding club here in Gorlovka. The kids loved it. When we finished riding, we had lunch at the worship room. After lunch we painted the fence around the playground. The kids did a great job all day. We are studying the Fruit of the Spirit and today the lesson was "joy." The kids learned that there is great joy in having fun together and in doing a great job working together.

Teen Lock-In

We hosted our first lock-in with the new youth group last Friday night. They were incredibly excited about it. They stayed up until about 6 AM and then all crashed until 8 when we made them get up and clean the worship room. We played Wii, Play Station, many other games, had a devotional and, of course, ate half the night!

Neighborhood Service Project

A babushka in the building adjacent to ours has been working hard this spring to make her garden beautiful. Recently I asked her if she would like a fence like the one around our garden; of course, she was thrilled with that suggestion. Last weekend we built the fence and then the neighbors painted it. Our youth group kids helped me build the fence.

ABC Kids

Here are some recent photos from the ABC program. Thank you for continuing to bless their lives through your generosity.