Magic, Adventures, and Russia.

I've been pondering this for a very long time. I've always wanted to be Russian. Ok, not always, but a long time. My roots are European, but I think the closest I get to Russian is Romanian. Russia has always felt magical to me. Everyones idea of Russia, is cold, dark, and suppressed. I've met people from there and have studied Russia well. It's such a fascinating place to me. Magical.

Six years ago, a young eleven year old Belarusian boy came to stay with my family. He was scared, knew no English, and was very far away from his country. Long story short, we bonded with him. Sergei is a huge part of our lives. Though we haven't seen him in 3 years, he still writes us, and we write him.

As far as adventures go, I feel as if I'm about to take one. We can no longer bring the Belarusian children to us, so why not go to them? There is a camp in Belarus that the Belarusian children go to for a normal summer camp. We go to share the love of Jesus with them, and to share our personal stories with them and mentor them. Sergei is going to that camp this year. The camp is July 9th. By then, Sergei will be 17, and I will be turning 19 there, if I go. This is where my heart has been for awhile, and I am excited about this opportunity. The adventurous part about this trip is, it will take me three days just to get to Belarus, and if I am caught talking about Jesus guess where I go? Yep, to prison. That scares most people, but I think it's kind of awesome.
Anyway, I just wanted to share. Sergei sent us a letter recently along with some pictures. I can't believe he's going to be 17 and graduating. In Belarus, the grades only go up to 11. I wish that's how it was here. Hopefully I will be able to go back with him after camp to meet his family and see his life there.
I better brush up on my Russian.