Today was our last day in Orsha.  Tomorrow we will pack up and drive back to Minsk as we prepare to head home.  Our time has gone quickly and we have grown to love the Pastor and his family, Sergei and his family and people from the church.  We are going to miss them.  We are already looking forward to returning!

Today was much like the other days.  We slept in a bit, got up, had our quiet times, ate breakfast and showered.  It was a quiet morning as we waited for time to go to Baran.  There is a new church building in progress and we went over to see it and pray over it.  We met the 2 brothers who have been building this facility.  They have been working on it for over a year, all by hand and mostly with their own money.

We went inside to look around and then gathered in what will be the worship room.  We formed a circle for a time of prayer and then sand a hymn together.  It was cool to have had the first worship time in the building even though it was still block and mortar.  We then broke up and did a prayer walk.  We prayed in each room and around the building.  

The church is set in a beautiful location on top of a hill that overlooks the city of Baran.  We each took a time facing the city, praying for the salvation of Baran.  It was a very moving and special time.  After some conversation about the other church start ideas we said goodbye and headed back to Orsha.

The plans for the evening were 2 fold.  
1) Go hang out with the youth group again for more games and singing
2) Banya (not sure about spelling)

Hanging out with the kids is self-explanatory and I had no problems with that.  But I had dreaded Banya all week because I didn’t really know what it was all about.  All I knew was it is like going to the sauna.  The fact that we were told we could wear swimsuits “if we wanted to” was enough to make me really nervous.  I think the European tradition involves a different outfit...or the lack thereof.  :-) 

It was the coolest experience ever!  I loved it and can’t wait until the next opportunity to go do Banya.  It involved cold showers, a cool water swimming pool and a very hot steam room.  You simply alternate going from one to the other.  We took a break after the first hour to drink tea and eat fresh fruit and of course, cookies.  

Sergei gave Mark, Bro. Danny and me the full treatment before our 2 hours were up.  The tradition is to take branches with leaves (kind of like our oak leaf branches), soak them in water in the steam room and then whip and beat each other with them.  That sounds really comical but that is what they do.  Sometimes they would take them and hit their own legs ad chest as they sat in the steam room.

Sergei had as lay on our stomachs on the upper level of the steam room, which was the hottest spot, and he then did his magic.  By the time we were through we needed someone to come get us because we were so relaxed.  It was amazing.  We began our walk back home and it was almost 10:00.  The sun was still up and it looked to be late afternoon rather than late in the evening.

When we got back home we found Natasha preparing more food.  Tonight we had Belarusian pizza and it was awesome.  Late night food and late night conversation.  Good times.