4th of July Celebration

Sorry I haven't posted in a couple days. The first couple days seemed just more of the norm. On the 2nd, we continued deep cleaning the craft room during the days and then played games in the evening.

On the 3rd, we went to the sea in the morning. This actually had a couple of purposes. First to relax. But most importantly, the other organization that is here now is hosting a camp for the kids from the Kerch Internat. This is the big, "state" run, orphanage in town. Many of these kids have come to one of our camps in the past and know some of us interns or know Matt & Sarah from different ministries that were done throughout the year. The kids had a hard time figuring out why we have not been involved in their camp. Why Matt doesn't come to do bedtime stories, etc. They have been asking for time to spend with us. So we went to the sea during their swim time to spend time with them.

On the 4th we went to the super market to get our celebration food for later that evening. In the afternoon we held our church service because Sunday we are going out of town. Tommy was our music pastor and Matt again did the "sermon." We talked about Forgiveness. Next we will have a little more of a bible study formate as each of us is going to do some reading about selflessness and bring to the group what God has put on our heart.

In the afternoon, we prepared for our evening cookout. In addition to preparing the food, we decorated with an American Flag, and a red, white, and blue paper chain. We had marinated chicken, and veggies on the grill. Sarah, Meghan, and Tommy made a fruit salad. I cut a watermelon up to look like a basket. Sergey was in awe has he had never seen someone do something like this to a watermelon. It wasn't even done well, but I guess it is only something we do in the States. Perfect for a 4th of July celebration. We made Ranch Dressing, which also doesn't exsist here. and I made Punch. Normally we make this with Kool Aid, orange juice, and Sprite. But at the store we accidentally grabbed the grapefruit juice instead. It made it a little interesting. But it worked.

After dinner we invited the Ukrainian Staff for ice cream with raspberries and some type of berry that is "blue." Not to be confused with blueberries and they definitely were not that. They wrote up a small "speech" to congratulate us on our celebration. Then requested that we say our pledge of allegiance and national anthem. So we did. Apparently this is quite amazing as no one here can sing their own national anthem. And they joked about the fact that their president may not even be able too. Some of us struggled a little with our words, but together we figured it out just fine.

We played a game waiting for it to get dark, and then pulled out the red, white, and blue glow sticks (which all night long I kept calling glue sticks -- I guess I have been spending too much time in the craft room.) And build a fire to make s'mores. Only we didn't have any cookies (which we use instead of graham crackers - they taste similar). So it was just marshmallows and chocolate. Worked for us.