Three weeks after I got married, I boarded a plane to Russia - without my husband. The trip was planned through the International Mission Board (IMB), International World Changers. We flew from Atlanta to New York. Then on to Moscow where we had a 10 or 12 hour lay over. I was extremely lucky on the plane from New York to Moscow: the seat next to me was vacant! I stretched out and slept the whole way. It was fabulous.
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| Melissa Leatherman, Tommy Peck, and Joey Gibson waiting to board the plane. |
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| Kayla Morgan, Whitney, and Luke Leatherman |
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| Views from an airplane are so picturesque. |
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| My first airplane dinner was quite good. Lasagna...mmmm. |
Since we were in Moscow for a very length lay over, we decided to leave the airport and see the city. We went to a square type place that had beautiful buildings and architecture.
It was also the place where all the weddings took place. We saw no less than 10 newlywed couples while we walked through the courtyard area.
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| Me and Whit |
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| Some everlasting flame... |
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| This says Moscow in Russian. |
After we took a 2 hour plane ride and landed in the smaller city where we would be staying, we had to ride a bus with the rest of the World Changers to our hotel. Needless to say, the bus was packed.
One of the mission projects we worked on was cleaning up the local park and witnessing to the local students who were also helping.
Thankfully, there was a McDonald's within walking distance to our hotel. These kids entertained us one day during one of our frequent trips.
We ate every meal out together somewhere as a group.
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| Paul can throw Maddie high. |
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| Allie snuggles close to one of the translators under an umbrella. |
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| Just too silly not to include. |
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| Me and three of the translators. |
Another ministry site was located along this mud road 2 hours away from our hotel.
We even had to wait for the cows to move.
Once we got to the kids camp, there was lots to do.
All the dishes had to be washed by hand in tubs of water that had to be changed frequently.
Potatoes were a staple at every meal and they wouldn't get peeled by themselves.
When the work was done, we were able to play games with the campers.
Then we sang songs. This was really cool!
Back at the hotel, we had worship in this tent every morning.
Another ministry site was a run-down hospital. Our task was to scrape and paint the windows. This was my first experience with oil-based paint and it does not come off as easily as latex based paint. I think I was red for days; even my hair had it in it.
One day we got to site see so we took a boat back.
The boat ride was rather long, so we passed the time playing cards.
The last night we were there, we gave all the translators flowers and had worship outside. This was my favorite night.
