No Colored Butter – Mon, Oct 15th

We were all excited when we got up to experience our first day in the Baby Home in Lomonosov. After breakfast we had a short devotion time and prayer before heading out. Our small bus arrived at the hotel at 9am to take us to Lomonosov. Everyone was ready and on the bus as we headed out. It was about an hour drive this morning due to more traffic today.

A little after 10am we arrived. The director was in another part of the building and met us in her office. She was warm and pleasant and seemed excited to see a 7 year old as part of our mission team! We brought in all our ministry suitcases and shed our coats before taking a tour of the building and the groups. In one of the rooms upstairs we were able to observe the speech therapist working with a couple of children on their language skills and recognition of colors. The therapist was anxious for us to see what she was teaching the children although the kids were a little shy with a bunch of people in the room watching!

Already, our time was running short and that morning we only had about 50 minutes with the kids as time was taken up in the tour. Actually, as we toured, we picked up a few kids along the way as we were told that these kids would be with us this morning. We brought out a few activities, but didn’t get to complete what we had planned for that first day. The kids were taken from the activity room at noon so they could have lunch and a nap. Our team left to go to the church to have lunch as well. Unfortunately, the nap wasn’t included!

Pastor Andre went all out in working to serve us and accommodate us at his church. Three ladies in the kitchen worked to fix us a three course meal which included soup, a main dish, and tea and cookies. It was great, but for most of us it was more than we were used to eating. It was a lovely lunch prepared by loving hands. We were blessed!

After lunch we took our bus to the Children’s Hospital which was just a few blocks away from the church. We made our way into the room and started preparing our activities. Soon there were five kids that entered and a little shy of us. These kids had to stay in the hospital for various reasons, but most had energy and were ready to do something fun! Dasha started off by telling the Bible Study she had prepared from the material we had given her. She did it all from memory without looking at notes and all in Russian of course. The kids listened as small seeds of faith were being planted. Our story theme was about Joseph and the multicolored coat given to him by his father. During the week we planned to tell different portions of the story of Joseph and his brothers.

After this, we began some crafts that the kids seem to enjoy doing. One of the crafts was an activity that served as a snack and a craft activity at the same time. Our craft related to the Bible Study. Making the connection with the multi-colored coat we had planned to have juice along with bread and butter colored with various colors of food coloring. We showed what we planned to do to the head nurse and our colored butter idea was not approved. Haley Nevil, a trip participant who had nursing experience, told us that sometimes food coloring will affect medical tests as this coloring is passed through. We hadn’t realized that. So, there was no colored butter for the bread to be given to the kids. A few of us ate some colored butter so at least they would get the idea.

At the end of our time, we were told by the head nurse that the next day, we should plan on only an hour. Of course, we had planned to spend two or more hours with he kids, but that seemed too much for her and I don’t think she was too sure about what we were doing. She kept coming in and observing. So, maybe we needed to rethink some of our plans.
On the bus one of our volunteers form the Transition Home, Tall Anya, suggested that we have a tea with them tomorrow so we could sit down and discuss why were there and what we planned to do during the week. It was a great idea so we made plans and arrangements on the way home with Pastor Andre via cell phone. After checking with the staff at the hospital, they were in agreement. We were looking forward to a new beginning the next day!