We are here!

Today is Monday and we are having a wonderful time. God has been answering prayers and opening doors for us.
We had a good flight and were only an hour behind schedule when we landed in Odessa. It was very exciting seeing Lela, Viktor, and Valerie. Valerie is our translator who is helping us set up our schedules with the different places that we want to minister in.
We were taken to our "hotel/church/kindergarten" and unpacked a little and ate dinner.
Later in the evening we were reunited with our sweet translator friends, Tolik and Igor. We talked and laughed until late in the evening.
Saturday morning, our team left to go to visit the boys who live at a place called Fontanka. This is the institution that Igor and Lela visit every Sunday. These boys are homeless and most of them are orphans. Some have escaped from orphanages and some just have no one to take care of them for one reason or another. The director and his wife seem to really love these boys. They are giving them structure, love, food, and an education.
We enjoyed playing soccer, volleyball, and other games with the 19 boys who were there.
After Fontanka and lunch, we drove out to Camp Viktoria to talk with the director about us coming to teach in the late afternoons. We were told that he would probably say no because they will have activities already planned. We have all been praying for God to soften the director's heart and we have been praying for God's will to be done. We want to serve where ever He opens a door.
The meeting with the director went very well and he gave us permission to at least come to their activities and possibly teach. We were even invited to come to their "disco" for that evening. I can't even tell you how excited we were about that! We had to leave and come back when it was time.
This will be too long if I tell story after story of happy reunions, so I will just say the reunion was very sweet and we were all so happy to see each other. The newby's on the team quickly made new, life long friends of their own.
On Sunday we went to Tolik's church and then shopping later in the day.
TODAY:
WHEW....sorry...I know it's long. I know family members are all wondering how everyone is doing so I want to put some detail in this post.
Our team had a great time doing activities, a Bible story, and craft with the boys. They loved every minute of it. Some had the "I'm too cool" thing going for a while but that mask was removed by the time they had to go in for lunch.

Our afternoon with our kids at Camp Viktoria was very rewarding even though we did not get to do anything organized. We spent a lot of time just bonding with them and getting to know them. Bill was able to share his testimony with the older guys who are very harden. I think they were counselors there. Once they all started talking they had a lot of questions for Bill and were very interested in his answers.

Thank you so much for your prayers. I will try to up date every day that we can. It isn't always easy to get into the office to use the computer but we will always try.
The team is doing great and they are willing to do anything that is asked of them. There is a lot of team work as we work on preparing for each day. Everyone jumps in and does their part.