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We’ve been home for a week and a half now and things definitely haven’t been the same. I keep thinking about the kids that we worked with and how they have blessed my life. Most of the kids that we worked with have a hard home life, so many of the kids we’re difficult to work with because they act out, though some of it is a cultural thing with a lack of loving discipline. But over all the kids were truly a pleasure to work with. Each of us had a group of kids that we worked with and there were few kids that several of us worked with. But there was one of the boys that we all got the joy of loving up on. He got the camp name of Nubbly from Katie after a round of the “repeat after me” game. His real name is Vasili. Nubbly was one of the trouble making kids, there were several times that he got in to fist fights and broke one of the cabin windows, though no one was hurt.

Nubbly’s story is that though he has a place to go home to, parents and siblings, no one wants him. Pastor Zhuk and his family will often invite Nubbly over for dinner so he will have a place to go. But so much of the time Nubbly doesn’t have anyone to turn to. For the entire two weeks of the camp each of us got the opportunity to give Nubbly the love and attention that he so often goes with out.  After crafts, like so many other kids, Nubbly would show us his crafts usually with a bug in his hand. And through out the day Nubbly would often come up to us to show us his bug collection that would come in various forms.

It was so amazing to see the change in Nubbly over the course of the two weeks change from a kid that would cause trouble to get attention to a kid who know he’s loved. At the end of camp, as we were packing up to leave, Katie noticed that Nubbly was off to the side crying. One by one each of us make our way over to him to find out why he was crying. Nubbly was crying because the camp had come to an end and soon the kids would be headed back to their families and we would be headed back to America. Everyone on our team came up to Nubbly to give him a hug. It was such a blessing and a joy to be able to give Nubbly a big hug and tell him “I love you” in Russian over and over again, some thing he often doesn’t hear. We walked with the kids from Camp to the near by village from there there was a bus waiting to take us to Ufa. The entire way Nubbly walked hand in hand with Katie. When we got to the drop off in Ufa, where parents were waiting to pick up the kids, Nubbly didn’t know how he would get home but he knew that he was loved and when we really had to say goodbye and leave, Nubbly was a calm, smiling kid. Something that only could have happened with the genuine love that comes from a loving Heavenly Father and the servants that He uses.