SURPRISE!!!

That smile says it all!

From: Anne K.
Date: Sun, 17 Jun 2012 03:19:07 -0700 (PDT)

What a birthday!!!  Saturday, June 16th, I awoke to my sweet husband wishing me a happy birthday.  Then Becky and Marcile had a card and gift for me to open...all this before breakfast!  Each day we walk from our guest house to the camp building for breakfast.  Today the door was closed and I wondered why...all the Georgian workers were waiting inside the door and sang happy birthday to me in Georgian and then in English!  They presented me with a Georgian pine cone and balloons on my chair.  We had fried eggs and pancakes, cheese and bread for breakfast.

After breakfast, Brian drove us to Batumi.  What beautiful scenery!  We stopped along the way at Petra to see the ruins of a Byzantine castle that once protected the beautiful coastline.  Brian is a real history buff and a great tourguide.  When we arrived in Batumi, we parked and walked through a beautiful park that was right on the Black Sea.  The beach is made up of rocks - no sand, just rocks.  Sid, Becky and I shed our shoes near water's edge and stepped into the Black Sea. It was cold but felt good. There are waves, but nothing too big...except when we turned to go ashore and then a big one came and soaked us!  In the hot sun we dried fast.

At Petra: (L to R) Sid, Anne, Lori, Nathan, Becky and Marcile

We had Brian's Georgian brother-in-law with us and he wanted to take us to a traditional Georgian restaurant.  We walked and walked but finally found the one he wanted. He thought it was a few blocks from the water but it turned out to be well over a mile!  (Pre-meal exercise!)  They ordered "lemonade" for us - pear, mint, vanilla, lemon, and all carbonated. Then the food started coming.  First, our favorite, tomatoes, cucumbers and onion with a little olive oil. Then came osteri (goat stew), two kinds of sauces, mtsvadi (pork kabobs), kachapuri (which is like cheese pizza) and kinkali (dumplings).  We were really stuffed after that (actually before the dumplings).  Everything was so good.  Oh, and of course, wonderful bread.

We stopped at a grocery store named "Goodwill" and bought some things like water, Coke Zero and some fruit. Then we drove back to "Ur". Along the way Brian stopped at a stand that sold ladders, brooms and mops made from bamboo.  The mop is simply a 'T' and you throw a rag on the floor and use the T part to push and clean.  (No, I didn't get one to bring back!!)  We got back to the guest house and rested for a few minutes.  Took time to call home and talked mostly to answering machines!

At 6 p.m. they were going to show The Chronicles of Narnia to the neighborhood children.  They just got into it and a storm came up and the power went out.  We were still at the guest house.  After the downpour, we walked to the camp and had tomato soup (with potatoes in) and bread for dinner.  After dinner they presented me with a cake that Lori somehow bought while we were at the Goodwill.  They sang to me again and we all had cake.

To end my birthday, the Lord sent a rainbow!  But then, the Georgian young people started singing and dancing.  What fun we had.  It was a truly memorable birthday, that's for sure.  

With gratitude,
Anne

Answered Prayer and the 'Sid's Clothes' Relay

From: Anne K.
Date: Sun, 17 Jun 2012 03:14:15 -0700 (PDT)

We made it through the first week! Each day got a little easier. We really appreciate your prayers. The energy level of the younger students has leveled off and we know that's an answer to prayer. The younger classes have grown a bit each day. The adult class is steady with ten or eleven plus some of the workers come and go as they can to 'audit' the class.

Our classes go from 5:00 to 7:30 with a 15-minute break. Each day the kids play games after class. Everyone gets a treat courtesy of Rob an NC grocery. We hauled a bunch of donated treats across the ocean. They are really appreciated. The game in the picture is a relay where each kid must put on a set of Sid's clothes, run around a pylon, and take them off. They were washed and given away.

We are looking forward to next week!

Sid's Clothes Relay in Action!

Our Member Missionaries, Nathan & Lori

From: Anne K.
Sent: Sat 6/16/2012 1:37 AM

It has been great working with Nathan and Lori. Although they live in Germany, much of their work is in eastern Europe and western Asia. This requires a lot of travel. Lori is trained in teaching English, and her job includes helping rookies like us to survive and thrive in a difficult environment.

Nathan's forte is construction. He has been heavily involved with the camp since the beginning. He has to work with unfamiliar materials, measurements, manpower, and methods. There are no Home Depots down the street. Work teams need to be trained, locals need to be supervised through a language barrier, hard physical work needs to be shared, bureaucratic obstacles overcome, and all while being a godly example.

Please pray for this couple as they raise a family away from their own families and strive to serve the Master Carpenter.

Bonding through Journaling

From: Anne K.
Date: Fri, 15 Jun 2012 04:55:17 -0700 (PDT)

One of the tools we use in our curriculum is "journaling".  The first day, at the end of class, we give the students a journal and ask them to tell us about their family (the first vocabulary is 'people' words) and to ask any questions they have of us.  In Level 1, the students write in their own language.  The journals are collected when they are finished.  We have a translator in each Level 1 class to help us, and that person translates all the journals into English.  We then take the journals and respond, asking other questions to keep the discussion going. The translator must then translate back into the native language.  At the end of the next class, the journals are passed out and the process is repeated.

This is a lot of work. Each conversation goes off in a different direction.  Some are hard to keep going and others just seem to take off.  These journals help us to establish personal bonds and often offer opportunities to share at least little bits of our faith and beliefs.  Please pray for these opportunities, and especially lift up our translators, because they are also in the group of folks who are working on the continued construction of the 'Camp Building'.  We only have to write once a day, they have to translate twice a day for each student in the class.

The Increase

From: Anne K.
Date: Thu, 14 Jun 2012 23:12:23 -0700 (PDT)

Our teaching curriculum is divided into Beginner (Level 1), Intermediate (Level 2), and Advanced (Level 3). Before the trip, only 6 people had registered, but we were gearing up for two Level 1 classes and one Level 2 class.  When we arrived, we were up to 10 registrations...but apparrantly the weekend prayer walk by the national workers did the job. The first day of classes found us with over 30 students, none above Beginner level!  We started with two classes and have grown to three.  Anne and Marcille are teaching younger students, Becky and Sid are teaching adults, and Lori has mostly older kids.

Professor Marcile co-leading the 'prayer increase' of younger students

Things are going well with our classes. Between preparation and “journaling” (more about that in the next post) our days are full and sleep is much appreciated.

We need extra prayer for the younger kids. Even though the lower age limit was supposed to be ten, there are kids half that age.  It takes an incredible amount of energy to keep things under control. We really do appreciate your prayers.

And on a completely different note...here's a photo showing our basic food groups: pasta, potatoes, and bread (the rice had already been passed to Marcile...)  OH, and lets not forget the sugar for the coffee!

Dr. Atkins would be appalled!

With gratitude for all the 'ropeholders',

Anne for the whole Team

A Heart for the Youth of This Country

From: Anne K.
Date: Wed, 13 Jun 2012 23:03:21 -0700 (PDT)

Let us tell you about a wonderful work going on in eastern GA.  Brian is an American who came to GA after being a youth pastor at a church in FLA. Brian ultimately married a GA-ian who was initially his translator. There are very few churches in GA and 80-100% of the youth end up leaving the church after high school. Brian had the vision to develop committed youth to become leaders and multiply the number of committed young people. (When we say "youth" we mean anyone of high school, college and early working age.)

Brian's joy is evident. "...the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,..." - Galatians 5:22

Over a dozen of these young leaders are here in western GA to work on completing the camp. They traveled a distance equal to the width of South Carolina to put in weeks of [free] manual labor. These young people are really committed to the Lord and His work.  They are on fire for the Lord - Evangelism is their middle name.  They are prayer warriors and have a boldness for sharing the Lord.

Many of them took time off over the weekend to do a prayer walk around the town to pray for the townspeople to come to our classes. It's working!  Please pray for these guys and gals.

Eager Students & Prayers for Evangelistic Outreach

From: Anne K.
Date: Wed, 13 Jun 2012 03:47:11 -0700 (PDT)

Time here in Georgia is moving fast, we are already into Wednesday.  We have had about 40 students of all ages.  Our youngest student is 5 years old and smart as a whip.  His name is 'Sa..', he attended in May when the other team was here and he knows quite a lot.  The oldest student is younger than we are, but not a whole lot.  They are both eager students and very conscientious.

We plan on an evangelistic outreach on Sunday evening.  Please pray on Sunday for our evening concert. (We are 8 hours ahead.)  We will be showing the Chronicles of Narnia one night this week and The Jesus Film for Children one night next week.

Thank you for your prayers. We can really sense the Lord's working in many ways.

THIS is the Summer Camp?!
We came here with a preconceived notion of what a camp under construction looks like.  Boy, were we ever wrong!