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Hello dear family and friends,

We all crammed in the bus with our mime and music stuff and 10-12 huge bags with the donated clothes and gift bags for The Orphanage and boys "special school" in Ussurisk which is basically like a McLaughlin Youth center but where the boys all stay for 3 years of training.

We also had knitted blankets for the orphanage that a community in Kenny Lake made for the children. The orphanage directors are always surprised to find that Americans can actually make things with their hands!

We all have been amazed again and again how RUSSIAN Vanya looks........ why should that surprise us ?!? Today the orphanage we visited was the one Kristina and Jaala Gionet were adopted from and Vanya said it was most like the one that he came from in St Peters'burg. He said especially the way the children were dressed with the boys wearing shorts with thick sock-tights under and the cute shoes. Last summer there were 50-60 kids in the orphanage and now they have 90! The director said because of hard economic times many parents cannot care for their children. The group we worked with gave great hugs and were so excited about EVERYTHING!

BROOK SAYS SHE WANTS TO BRING HOME ALL THE KIDS...... Please MOM!! Many of the kids were teasing Jess and Josh about getting a jumpstart on their family with a few of the kids. :) The kids loved seeing the Sign language song performed by Maria, Sarah, Destiny, Alison, Gabriella and Lucky. And also Paul telling funny stories.

The special school was more difficult to get a response from the boys as they were hardened and we had to go on faith believing that they were getting the message. Victor the youth pastor from Kamchatka gave his testimony to them giving them hope as he had been in prison before himself. Many of the boys were from Kamchatka. We did the Everything mime, Marionettes and locked in a cage and they were really attentive. The boys had learned the English word "Beautiful" and said it to our girls repeatedly. :) Maria was excited because a boy talked to her in Russian saying he reads his Bible and she could understand the Russian. Then he said he wanted to marry her to which she responded... NeeYET. (NO).

The cook fixed us an incredible meal meal with Blini, pelmeni, salad, fish, Russian bread. The cook has worked there for over 30 years and she wanted us to eat it ALL! Ryan said this Russian food is good but I can't wait to get home and have a hot pocket!!!! (Just kidding)

Thanks for prayer. We are all tired and want to finish strong.

Were looking forward to our last 2 final nights.

Blessings,

The Russia 2010 REM team

Hello to our Family and Friends!

It's Destinee and Alison! We have the fantastic opportunity of writing the greeting tonight, all the way from Vladivostok!

Today was an eventful day. We had the opportunity to visit 'Sails of Hope', a home for kids who need to spend time away from their families. (Kind of like a foster home, except a more similar setting to an orphanage). We got to see the kids perform traditional songs for us, and we ourselves got to perform some as well. (songs, mimes, Brooke and her batons (awesome!) and our sign language song). The kids were divided into two homes, the second one being for kids who need more help, physically or mentally. We did crafts and handed out Valentines, which the kids all enjoyed. All the kids were open to the Lord and sang along to our Christian songs. They were really loving and sad to see us go.

After that we spent some time handing out the fliers for our big concert on Friday. We were outside the whole time and passed out 400-500 fliers to college age students. It was freezing cold, and some people got annoyed at us, but we completed our task and survived without a single case of frostbite.

We drove back to the hotel. Igor, our lovely bus driver (who has been driving the bus for REM for many years), decided it would be a fantastic idea to let our one and only Destinee drive the bus. (He obviously doesn't know Destinee very well (: ) So poor us had to sit there screaming while Igor lets go of the wheel and the bus spins out of control. (Not really, she did okay...for driving on the wrong side of the bus, and Igor was in complete control of the wheel. She wasn't even in the drivers seat, he was). Nonetheless, we all made it back to the hotel safely and without a single mark.

(Mom, I promise I did okay. Everyone in Russia drives just like me, so pedestrians/cars almost getting hit is pretty normal. -Destinee)

We came to the hotel and decided to initiate Nathaniel into manhood. We took him to the barber and he got a buzz cut. (Dear Nathaniel's parents, it looks good, we promise!)

After a few hours here, we walked to the youth center and hung out with the Russian youth for a while. We had one Russian give his testimony, and Moses also gave his. (He did awesome and will definitely make a great pastor someday). We played a game, and then practiced our mimes, and perfected our mime and sign language song in black light. (Mom, you should be so proud of Destinee, Lucky, and I. Not only does everyone know it perfectly, but we took it another step further and are doing it in black light which makes it about a bajillion times cooler! -Alison)

All in all, its been a really good day. We're all a little exhausted and in need of a good nights sleep, but we don't have anywhere to be until noon tomorrow, which will be nice!

Thanks for all your prayers!

Love,

Destinee, Alison, and REM.

Greetings Loved Ones,

...and Happy Women's Day! Today is the Russian holiday that is fondly known as Women's Day. It is a close relative of Valentine's Day, but focusing only on the special women in our lives. The R.E.M boys found that they had more than one special woman in their lives. They surprised us with a heartfelt serenade and chocolates after a long day of joyous work.

Today the team was divided by gender, and headed their separate ways. The girls visited a special family close to the REM Ministry. Besides having children of their own, Lena and Losha look after many different foster children, and have also adopted a few. In all they currently have 13 children. The girls played with the children and engaged them in some "Women's Day" crafts. We had a BBQ and cake for Natasha, one of the youth group leaders for a church here. It was her birthday! The language barrier did not seem to be a problem. We taught some of the adults a song in English and they sang with us in Russian. We were able to spend time outside with the children on a playground made of pure ice. This slippery surface did not slow down the kids in the least. We enjoyed their vibrant shrieks of joy as we chased them from one end of the backyard to another. The little boys asked us about all the American computer games they knew... in Russian. We relied entirely on hand gestures to get out "ninja" (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles), "Star Wars", "plane", and "cars" (racing games). They were very enthusiastic. it was a blessing to see how the Lord was continuing to bless many children through Lena and Losha. Their hearts are so full of love for these children. It was a blessing to see how faithful the Lord is to those who listen to his calling.

The boys visited the homeless shelter, Living Hope. They ministered through crafts and games while helping them celebrate Women's Day. The boys also learned the value of a nice warm coat because they had to walk everywheretoday.

We are very excited for tomorrow, when we will be going to a large orphanage with over a hundred children. We thank you for your ongoing prayers.

God Bless,

Maria and Gabriella

R.E.M 2010

Hello family & friends,

What an enthusiastic team and we are appreciating each personality oh so well as we spend day and night with each other! :) The photo attached we took as we were leaving the amazing Inchon airport in Seoul. The flight ended up being 2 hrs. into Vladivostok With a little turbulence and butterflies in our stomachs which some enjoyed and others definitely did not. We made it safely to Russia and enjoyed our literal 10 foot ride on a bus from the airplane to the building for passport control. Praise God going through customs was so uneventful a couple of the kids asked after we got through when we were going through customs!!!

With great tradition we stopped on our way from the airport at the "Shashleek" barbeque and even met some of our other Russian friends there. Yum! Ask your kids for details.

When we were in the town we walked to a local store "magazine" to get Russian snacks. Then we went to the train station and saw the great architecture and some Russian sailors. We walked down to the train tracks just as some traditional Russian music was playing loudly and the snow was falling. It was like a scene in a movie.

We are having so much time thinking about why we are here and how much God loves us. And many of the kids have been saying how much they appreciate their parents and actually miss them already....Parent to parent I think that is a miracle on the first real day of our trip and shows what is in the hearts of this team of kids and how they are searching and really wanting to please God.

Today we visited our first orphanage. Kosy & Gabriella & Moses & Paul got the kids thinking and laughing at the Marionettes mime and we also did the Family and Everything. We made Valentine hearts in honor of Woman's Day and Valentines Day. The children wanted our autographs and their sparkling eyes and smiles after getting over some shyness were a gift to us.

Our devotions together tonight talked about how God gives us EVERYTHING pertaining to life and godliness (2 Peter 1) and several of the team members have been getting closer to God through personal confession and trusting God.

Whew...... thanks for your prayers. Our days are full........Just a little glimpse.

Love to all,

The 2010 REM Russia team

March 4, 2010

Dear parents and friends,

Yes it's true. We have passed the international dateline and arrived in Seoul, Korea safely.

We made the trip pretty uneventful, although the second hour of the flight was fairly bumpy. All the kids didn't realize how long 11 hours really is in the same sitting position but they did great. Destinee had a little motion sickness on the descent and presented us with a nice gift bag when we unbuckled to leave the plane. She is doing fine and was last seen chowing down some bland food at the Iuncheon airport. We are getting our hotel vouchers and taking a bus to our hotel where we will get some rest. The kids are tired but excited.

Parents and friends, plesae pray for us tomorrow as we enter Russia and need prayers as we pass through immigration and customs.

WE are still "Daring to be Great".

Thanks for being a part of our great adventure.

The 2010 REM Russia team

Dear family and friends,

We have finally left Anchorage on our adventure with God , "daring to be great".

We have arrived in Seattle safely after a pretty bumpy ride down. Kids all slept an hour or two on top of the 28 bags the first group brought. Altogether we are bringing 1700 pounds of humanitarian aid to the orphanages. Think of it, almost one ton. During the recent Haiti earthquake one country early on pledged 85 tons of relief. Your gracious kids have already brought 1% of that. Now that is really daring to be great.

We are all checked into Korean Airlines and due for a 1 pm departure from Seattle.

Kosy Isakson's sister came to the airport to send us off. Check out our updated team photo on facebook "Rem Alaska"

Blessings to you all. Thank you ahead for your prayers.

We love and miss all of you,

The 2010 REM Russia Team