Off We Go!

I'm all packed and ready to go out the door.  My neighbor Lee is going to take me up to Christ Church to meet Chris Arveson and the van.  We have to be prepared for a lot of security measures but we're doing God's work and He will make sure we get there OK.  I'll post to the blog whenever I can get to a computer - the next entry will probably be from the hotel in Tomsk.

Keep us in your prayers!  Do Svedanya!

Getting Ready

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas.  Mine was a little quieter than I planned; I caught a cold the first of the week and had to stay in and miss all the services and festivities.  I definitely didn't want to get on the plane Monday sniffling and sneezing.  As Michele Clark told me, if I'm sick, they won't let me in Russia!  We can't have that!  I've stayed home, taken my medicine and drunk lots of fluids and I'm almost all better.  The last thing I would want to do is take germs to the kids!

I'm taking lots of other stuff to the kids, though.  Thanks to the generosity of all my friends I have three big boxes of presents to take to the orphans.  Now I just have to get my stuff packed!

Grace Stows Away

Grace Churchmouse is the mascot at Canaan United Methodist Church.  Grace runs all over the church looking for people who are doing nice things for the love of God, not to get any credit.  Grace has decided she wants to stow away with me and see what it's like to go on a mission trip.  I think she'll be making some reports from Russia, too, if she can find an internet cafe!

Procrastination and Thanks

Well, I've just about waited too long to post anything to my blog!  There's been lots going on and I was always going to write on the blog tomorrow.  There have been Christmas parties and concerts LOTS of snow!

I do want to take a minute to thank everyone who has donated items and financial support for this year's trip.  A lot of children's hearts will be warmed by your generosity.  I especially want to thank the patrons of Jeannie Shew's Salon for the many gifts they provided.  Of course, my church family have provided much support and I can't forget my friends Missy and Mona for their financial support and prayers.

I'm in the midst of packing all my stuff to survive two weeks in Siberia.  The temperature there today was -30F.  It was around 30F here, so that's a difference of 60 degrees!  That's a lot of long underwear!