Baptism

Today was Stas's baptism day!! It was rainy all evening yesterday and the forecast wasn't looking so hot for today either but you gotta do what you gotta do! We got to the beach and started gathering sticks for the shashlik afterwards and there were big drops of rain and ugly dark clouds. 

We were praying for the rain to just stop and by the time everyone arrived and it was time to begin it was brilliantly sunny! Praise the Lord!! 

Steve shared a short message on why we do baptism, translated by Max who is one of the Pastors of our church. 

It was quite funny because as Steve and Stas waded into the very cold water Stas jokingly turned back when he was about knee deep. His friend Dima (who was baptized a few months ago) ran down to the water, turned Stas around and gently pushed him deeper into the water towards Steve. There was a metaphor for something or a life lesson in that action, for sure!

You better believe I was crying with joy when he came out of the water!

Four of the five Pastors of our church were present (and the fifth Pastor sent his son as a family representative) as well as a group of friends including Olya, the widow of Lyosha - the man who had a big hand in starting these boys off on their path to Christ last fall.

And afterwards we celebrated on the beach, playing games and eating vast amounts of shashlik chicken (Canadian style, of course). 

And then the rain came back! Only briefly, but long enough to soak everything!

The sun came back out again and we wrapped up our baptism party afternoon on the beach.

GREAT NEWS!

Monday evening Steve took some of the Molochansk boys along with him to a small group that happens at our church, as he usually does on Mondays. Stas (below in white) had given his life to Christ a while ago and has been contemplating baptism for over two months already but it was very hard for him to fully grasp how much God loves him and forgives the things he's done. 

After the group Monday evening Stas decided that he was ready to be baptized and so we told him to invite all his friends and we'll do it this upcoming Saturday at the beach! We were a little uncertain about the protocol surrounding our church as Steve had previously asked about baptism classes but none are being offered currently or in the foreseeable future. Steve was able to share with the pastoral team this evening and they are excited about how God is working in Stas's life and they will be part of everything on Saturday. We're just so excited!!!

#JustYouth May

Steve came up with the idea for our #JustYouth game while we were driving across Spain a few weeks ago. We chose eight delicious food items and eight gross food items. We sold the delicious items for increasing amounts and then turned around and paid people increasing amounts to eat various gross/spicy foods. We had no idea how well it would work out but everyone LOVED it. It was actually hard to get rid of the first items because the prices were too low! No one wanted to eat gross things for so little money! 

Straight coffee beans:

Steve pretending to be grossed out to play up the current food item:

Eating the contents of two tea bags:

Cinnamon powder:

Sriracha sauce:

Selling a cheeseburger:

Eating wasabi:

Selling a cake that I baked that day (there was a bidding war for it):

I was really surprised at how well the game went and we'll definitely play this one again! As usual Steve shared a message and we ended the evening with hanging out, coffee, tea and cookies. 

Next month is our three year anniversary of #JustYouth so we're planning a celebration of some sort.