Kazakhstan!!!!!

Hey everybody,

We found and internet cafe in Karaganda, so I'm going to send out a quick e-mail to all of you. Please feel free to post this or send it to anyone who I might have missed or who you think will enjoy it.

All of our planes connected and we got to Almaty at about 1 in the morning. Dima, our contact, met us at the airport, and we went to a very nice hotel to sleep off the jet lag. Kazakhstan is 12 hours ahead of Montana, so with your sleeping in yesterday, I'm wide awake in tomorrow (Good luck with that sentece.) We had a tourist type day on Saturday, and were able to see a lot of Almaty, as well as eat some local food (YUM!!!!) On Sunday we made our way up the mountain to a junior high camp. Oh, those kids stole our hearts. It reminded me of camping in Montana. Tents, no running water except the river, but we still had so much fun, and the kids were really receptive to the messages about relationships with their parents. Even though we couldn't speak Russian, and they couldn't speak English, we had some awesome times together playing, swimming, eating, fellowshiping, and sleeping. We were with them until late Monday. It was so hard to say goodbye.

Next we took a 10 hour train ride to Karaganda. The train was so nice with running water, a shower, and matresses on the beds. I felt human again. So right now I'm in Karaganda with the rest of my team, all of us frantically e-mailing people. I also got to meet Dima's family, Masha his wife, and Mark his two year old son. Very cute. I'm going to try and convince Masha that he needs to come home with me. We'll see how that works out.

The plans are still a little sketchy, but I know that we will have some ministry time at a church here in Karaganda for a couple of nights, and then we'll move to Atbasar to do some work there. I think it is in Atbasar that Dima started a church.

Please continue to pray for our team as we travel, minister, and grow together. The people here are wonderful, treating us like kings and queens. And their love for the Lord is refreshing. Like I said, even though we can't communicate well some times, we have Jesus in common, which is enough.

I can't wait to give you all more details of my trip when I get home on the 19. (Thanks Mom for picking my up.) I also thank you for you prayers, and ask that you continue them. They are so vital to what we are doing. Thanks, and again, feel free to pass this message on.

Love you all,

Dawn