Day 1 success!!

hello readers!
here in moldova, the clock is just striking 9:38. behind me on the dining room table, supplies, gifts, candy, hygeine products, cds, peanut butter , etc. etc. etc. are spread across the table. the team is in "day 2 preparation mode", and i'm sure they are doing a stellar job. it's a lot like santa's workshop right now, and we are all the little elves (out of costume, however), running around making lists and checking them twice. i've volunteered to be the blogger for the night, so here i sit in the black leather chair, surrounded by voices and hands in preparation to bring joy to our kids tomorrow. but for now,let's sit back and reflect.
saturday night passed by quickly with a short dinner at mcdonald's. we came home and woke up a few hours later. some of us piled into a van and drove out to the country where bill lovell gave a nice sermon on making good choices "for the long run"as opposed to the short term. we were blessed by brent'samazing violin playing abilities. he had an encore!!!
the rest of our sunday was busy. we visited Internat 2, the school where the kids spend 9 months of their year. we saw the new beds (hey hey team 2~~~) and we saw a few classrooms. next we drove out to the summer camp and spent a shorttime acquainting ourselves with the kids and grabbing a few to bring along to the last night of the franklin graham festival. we got through an entire night with 30ish orphans in tow and somehow managed to get them all back to their camp in one piece. it was an act of God. and not to mention that some of them accepted Christ as their Lord and joined our family!!! we were so thankful for the chance to take them, since it was a first for them all, and for this country as well.
after some rearranging on our parts, we set off for camp today. leanne gave a wonderful devotional about having confidence in God and his way of doing this camp rather than our own plans that seemed to be flopping again and again. what foreshadowing!!!! it was an enormously wondeful day. kids found new american friends and vice versa. music was better than ever with a piano playing by greg and a violin by brent. english was a huge hit with karen and loreen and ralph. letter writing with marilyn and nancy and loreen brought a new flavor to camp. the dancetime was totally fabulous,thanks to hannah and courtney. they even had some of our older translator boys out there interpretatively moving for jesus!!!! oh yes, i took pictures! i know there were many amazing conversations going on and kids were being prayed for all day long. bob even led one of the older girls to Christ this evenign. Praise the Lord!!!!
So at the end of Day 1, it went well. As always, Satan finds a way in to distract and discourage those who are threatening him. Thankfully we continue to walk in victory, knowing this week is all about God and he will havehisway.
Will you pray for us, for the kids, and for our ability to flexibly allow this week to work out as it should?
We miss you and wish you were here!
Ashley