All smiles at the Nashville airport where we began our travel journey together
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First stop: NYC's JFK
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Joel and Clint getting off the plane (I think in Russia?)
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Sara and Mar on the bus headed to Karachaevsk after a long travel day
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First view out of the Moscow airport
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Some of the gang waiting to endure the Aeroflot. Yeah, all smiles here.
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My first Russian meal
The hosts Sara & I stayed with our first night had this spread set out for us even though we got to the house after midn
Our host and his mom
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First bed in Russia at the hosts' house
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First Russian bedroom
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Russian gas station
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First view of the snow-capped mountains on the drive to camp
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Village along the way
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Another village along the way
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Setting up camp in the middle of nowhere. When I say nowhere, I mean nowhere...
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The camp outhouse before it got gross. Total nasty-ness.
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The view of our camp
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Our friend Walter - German, translator, hilarious dude
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A wonderful surprise - the trampoline. This keeps kids busy for HOURS!
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Close up of a cutie pie
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First friends at camp - Kate, Oksana, Mar, Sara
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Cutie pie Esther (first pic of many!)
Esther is Walter and Natasha's daughter and the "camp kid." If you've ever been to a camp, you know there's always the "
We love Frisbee!
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Spencer giving John a haircut.
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Our water supply for the week. This stream was right behind my tent.
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"Special Army Tents" that do NOT keep the rain out.
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Campers 1
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Arthur, Clint, Dinislam, & Valerie worshipping
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Our wonderful song leader, Vicka
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Campers 2
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Clapping Esther
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Natasha being a kid again on the trampoline
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Joel teaching
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Bibles & Tent
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The White Group with Roma
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The Red Group
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Who you lookin' at?
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The Blue Group with Lena
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Dinislam is the pastor of the small church in Karachaevsk we partner with.
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Sara & I with new girl friends
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Kate
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Just hanging out
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Roma & gang preparing their team cheer and song
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A cute little camper
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Dima the camp doc
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We love Sasha (and no, we won't bring you to the USA with us, dude!)
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One of our translators and friends, Luba
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Chowin' down under the tent
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Borshe, a traditional Russian meal we had the first day.
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Solitude in the mountains 1
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Solitude in the mountains 2
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Girls love to pick wildflowers.
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Elisa after playing the clothes-pin game
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King of the Mountain
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Sour Cream & Sunburned Sara. Long story.
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W&N's living room where Sara and I slept when it poured rain Monday night.
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The view a few steps down the road from W&N's house
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W&N's house. They graciously opened up their home to Americans for 3 nights.
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Oksana in the car after the Monday Night Adventure.
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The 4 of us piled into the back of Dinislam's car after Monday Night's Adventure
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A random picture. I'm not sure why I took this on the way back to camp Tues morn
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There were about a million loose horses we had to dodge on the way back to camp.
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Natasha and Esther hanging outside their big tent.
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Overview of the camp
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Susha & Elisa during a team building game. One of my fav pics.
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Camp again
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Team building games
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Roma and friend
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just thinking
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Camp again from a distance
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Mar & Valerie, another one of our amazing translators.
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Me after I braved the Trust Fall activity.
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One of my favorite meals - herbed chicken noodle soup.
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Trusting others.
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Team building games 2
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My other favorite dish - salmon and potatoes. Yum!
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The camp kitchen under the big tent. A team worked to prepare us all tasty meals
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Outside the kitchen
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Team building games 3
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Future Russian soccer stars.
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The boys.
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The horsemen. This is the second biggest story of camp.
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Rapheal, W&N's middle child, deep in thought w/ Uno cards.
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Christina is contemplating her next Uno move.
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Christina and friend
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Camp girls
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Clint teaching the Russian teen leaders during a special time just for them.
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Mar & Karina, one of the little girls I love! We played a lot of sports together
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Practicing worship team - Dima, Walter, Olek, & Slavak
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John & Spencer are snuggle buddies! This is where they slept most nights.
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The mountain gate.
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Oksana loves the piano!
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Celebrating going through the mountain gate!
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Susha and someone's little baby
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Another mountain gater-er
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The campers LOVED writing notes for each other and drop in the post each day.
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Camp schedule and Polaroids
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Old-school (but very handy) Polaroids the campers took home at the end
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Russian Scripture
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Sunbathing outside the tent on a hot afternoon
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Roma - always with a huge smile - sportin' his team color
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Sevita feeding Luda during the Blind Lunch.
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The Karachaevsk church makes these cool tobagans that my church sells to raise $
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Dima is a leader with his peers and a gifted musician.
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Clint's new Facebook profile picture.
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Clint & Joel, tent-mates
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Sara & Mar, tent-mates and the only 2 American girls who went.
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Joel teaching again
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Raphael lookin' tough
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More team building games
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Raphael and Oksana
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Dinislam's car that we went off-roading in during the Monday Night Adventure.
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David, W&N's oldest child, with freshly picked wild strawberries.
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Russian license plate. Quite different than American ones.
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Hanging out in the big tent w/ Rasheed & soccer boy one afternoon.
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Playing in the field 1
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Playing in the field 2
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Cartwheels
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The field
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Camp and mountains
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Kids crammed under the big tent on Monday night when it rained.
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Small group time at camp in one of the many fields
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One of our meals. It may not look amazing, but it was actually quite tasty!
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The only bridge we had crossing the stream in the middle of the campground.
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Camp games
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Overview of camp from a trail past the outhouse
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Soccer kept us busy a lot.
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Can't get enough of that game.
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Playing in the big field 1
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Playing in the big field 2
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The field 2
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Dima worshipping.
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I love campfires.
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Worshippers
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I love campfires 2
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Olek is so cool. Very talented kid.
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Team building games
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"How are we going to figure this out?" the whole team ponders.
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A group at my station trying to accomplish "All Aboard"
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The outhouse. Don't get too close. It's really gross.
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Laundry hanging out to dry
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Luba hanging out w/ us all during team building activities
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Mar & Natasha
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That's me getting some water from the stream behind our tent.
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We all loved volleyball! This is where the USA team clobbered the Russian team!
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The outhouse... again. Why did we take so many pics of this thing?!
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Some of the campers and adults before we all left camp. We stayed to the end!
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Oksana, Vika, and Kate
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Some building in Russia
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It became normal for large animals to get in our way on the roads.
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Interesting building in Dombai
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Dombai from the gondola
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Going up higher on the mountain via a ski lift. It was so quiet and peaceful!
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We had just made fun of this cheesy sailor hat... and saw a man wearing it later
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A view from above
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Our group on a subway escalator in Moscow
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Moscow McD's menu. That place was sooo hot and crowded!
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Walking to Red Square
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Moscow at night 1
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Moscow at night 2
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