Elama
We returned on Sunday to a beautiful St. Petersburg, Russia. The weather has been perfect, and it has been great to start reconnecting with family and friends after such a long stay in the US. Olga took the picture above, in the park across the street from our flat. We are thankful for the many [...]
As many of you know, Elama is our camp in Russia. We’re gearing up for the summer, and a team from Athens, GA returned yesterday from building two pavilions at Camp Elama, in Russia. Click here to see a slide show of their first few days. Pictured above is the large pavilion which will be [...]
We are actually in the US (in Texas right now), having a great visit with family and friends. We have good news about our embryo adoption. We have finished all the paperwork and have scheduled the transfer for June 4th. If all goes as planned, we’ll return to Russia, pregnant, at the end of June! [...]
Continue reading about A Postcard from Russia — Spring Awakenings at Elama
Sergei Tovstopyat, John Bull and I went to Camp Elama today to look things over and make a few decisions about the upcoming work. Sergei is building brick stoves in cabins 2 and 3, so we took at look at that work. We also were deciding how to upgrade the water storage system, where to [...]
Camp Elama is slowly thawing out; Spring is here, yet the snows remain and our work preparing for the summer has begun. We have a good leadership team in place and exciting plans for the summer. Back in December Sergei and John laid foundations for two new buildings, and in May and June we’ll have [...]
This may not look like very much, but it is the fruit of much loving labor and the beginning of something great. This picture was taken recently at Elama, our camp in Russian Karelia. These are part of the foundations of a pavilion and summer kitchen we’ll build next year. St. James UMC in Athens, [...]
Four yeas ago I officiated the wedding of Maxim and Anya Zakharov. Two years later they asked me to oversee their dedication of their first born girl, Pelegea. This week they asked me to do the same for their second daughter, Miroslava (who is a real cutie, above). It’s a blessing to have been here [...]
Continue reading about A Postcard from Russia — Dedication of Mira
In August, at Elama we hosted more church groups and camps, and the last of our summer teams have returned home after a very successful season of ministry. Above at Elama, Sergei Tovstapet and Olga Barzhura baptize Leanna, one of the young ladies from Street Cry’s rehab center. Sergei and the girls from the rehab [...]
Continue reading about A Postcard From Russia — Summer’s End, New Beginnings
In previous postcards we’ve mentioned the camp we have use of: we’ve named it Elama, the Finnish word for Life (pronounced EH-lah-mah). Before 1939 it was a Finnish health resort, after the war it was a Russian children’s camp before closing about 25 years ago. We’re slowly bringing it back to life, and this is [...]
Continue reading about A Postcard from Russia — Elama, Camp Life
This is some exciting news — we have been given use of an old children’s camp! It was a Finnish estate before WWII, and after the war it was a children’s camp. It’s located in a beautiful lake, about an hour and a half north of St. Petersburg. We have use of about 15 acres [...]
