[SENT VIA EMAIL FROM RUSSIA]
Let me start by thanking many of you who prayed for us today (and yesterday) as we were stuck at JFK. After fixing the brakes on our plane (apparently those are an important feature) we then sat for four hours and at one point were nunber 34th for take off. Gotta love New York.
After about 10 hours or so on the plane, we landed in Moscow and much to our surpirse found all of our luggage had arrived. A major victory for the Russian Federation!! We met up with Tony the Blonde, a Russian Young Life leader who joining our team, and jumped a chartered bus to head north.
This is where the day becomes REALLY hazy. We drove and drove and drove some more. I’m pretty sure we must be closing in on the North Pole at this point. It’s currently 1:15 in the moring (on Tuesday I think) and we still have another 2.5 hours till we reach Yurievets. About a half an hour ago we dropped off the Holuy team (now renamed the Minstry Center Team) in the town of Ivanovo. It was a quick goodbye as it was raining cats and dogs as we transfered the luggage from one vehicle to the next.
Now we’re back on the road driving northeast… probably approaching the Bering Straight would be my guess (I jest).
To kill the time, here are some exciting stats from the trip so far:
1 person threw up (they were happy afterwards)
2 Sunrises have been witnessed
5 Translators joined our bus ride to Yurievets
7 foot long sauages and 5 loaves of bread was consumed by 27 people
9 hours on a bus with 2.5 to go
10 people went into the Russian woods to go pee
and 54 peices of luggage arrived unscathed
What’s next on the agenda? We’ll check into our hostel in a few hours (3 or 4am), watch another sunrise (it’s starting right now) and sleep till 10 am. We’ll then walk across town and meet the orphanges for lunch!! Can’t wait.
Inside trader tip… the team would love to get personal emails from home. On past trips, it’s always been the highlight of the morning when we do mail call. We pass the Blackberry around and read… it’s fun to see the smiles break out. If you’d like to bless a particular team member, please feel free to write them a personal email at yurievets@comcast.net.
Blessings,
Andy
