Dear Friends,

Well, Russia was incredible. We had such a great time of ministry. We were able to clown every day at "kindergartens". These are schools for children 4-7 years old. They were timid at first, but totally delighted by the time we finished our first skit. It was a joy to minister to the children and give them THE BOOK OF HOPE. They were so happy to receive it. The children's edition is so cool. It is written around the Wordless Book colors and is full of pictures and games. The kids loved them.

Travel was long getting there. We left on Monday and arrived at our hotel in Bryansk on Wednesday about 3 AM. We slept for a few hours and jumped into makeup and off we went. Besides ministering in schools, I had the opportunity to do a class for the children's ministries leaders at the church we served. We were able to take them supplies donated by the kids in our church and One Way Street Puppets. I became great friends with Sveta, the (very mature) 16 year old girl who is the Kids Church leader. She went with us as much as possible as we did the schools and I trained her a lot on the bus on the way to the schools. I had a very life-like monkey puppet (donated by One Way Street) that I took to give to the Kids' Church. She loved it and played with it all week before she knew it belonged to her!! I asked her, "If this was your puppet, what would you name her?" She said, "Lucky"...so Lucky she was! (she got to stay in Bryansk) We also trained a young man, Andre, to be a clown. He was a "natural". He clowned with us at Kids' Church on Sunday and fit right in immediately. When we left Bryansk, we went to Moscow and met with the people from the two churches we served last year in Russia. I was able to give gifts to two ladies who want to do clown ministry. We supplied them with costumes (one donated by Connie Lyons--THANK YOU), wigs (donated by Cherri-Oats--THANKS CHERI), makeup, and all the accessories. We also were able to give them magic tricks donated by One Way Street Puppets, and Children's Church supplies and puppets for the two churches we served last year. What a joy it was to see their faces as they received these gifts. Sorry, I was not able to get pictures of this because of the situation we were in when they were presented... a whole other story.

Anyway, thank you so much for your love and support of my trip to Russia. Many people gave their hearts to Christ at our evening meetings, and I trust that many more will because they have in their possession The Word of God--THE BOOK OF HOPE. The gifts and training of kids workers and clown ministers will also spread the love of Christ far beyond what we could do in our short time there. I could not have done it without your gifts, prayers, and support. God bless you.

Debbie