Everyone was up and at ‘em a little earlier than normal today.  Last night during our 4th dinner, Nic said to me (also in broken English), “Terry, tomorrow…good breakfast.”  He wasn’t kidding…Natasha fixed a fruit cake that was out of this world.  I know right now you have visions of Christmases past and pictures of heavy, packy fruitcakes running through your mind.  That is not what I am talking about.  This was a fresh fruit fruitcake that was light, moist and delicious.  There were other awesome things on the table but that cake stole the show!

Following breakfast we finished packing and then we all gathered in the living room to exchange gifts, hugs and take some pictures.  It was hard to say goodbye to this awesome family.  We have so enjoyed our time with them and the people of the church.  None the less it was time to head home so we gathered outside by the van for one more picture, one more round of hugs and we were on our way to the Planeta hotel in Minsk.  

We arrived at the hotel about 3 hours later.  We unloaded, checked into the hotel and waited for dinner.  We had a nice meal together with all 3 teams from both churches.  Olya and Masha stayed around to eat dinner with us.  Following dinner we were asked to share some highlights of the week.  Bro. Danny was our team’s spokesperson.  We were then asked to share a couple of funny things that happened during the week.  The final question was for everyone.  Every person was asked to answer the question, “I am glad I came to Belarus because…  It was an emotional time as each person shared about what God had done in their lives during the week.

I was glad for 3 reasons.  1) I enjoyed preparing, traveling and doing the work with this incredible team God had put together from our church.  2) I needed to be reminded of the world view of God.  Working inside the local church, it is easy to get tunnel vision.  3) I was blessed to have worked with Katie and Emily.  It was a huge joy to watch God use them during the week.  

Following dinner we walked to a local grocery store for an ice cream bar.  I don’t know what the wrapper said or who made it but it was good.  We walked down the road to another WWII memorial.  As I said before, the memorials are everywhere.  It was getting dark when we got there so pictured didn’t turn out that well.  But it was a fairly large round hole or deep impression in the ground where the Nazi’s took several thousand Belarusians, men, women and children, and marched them down in this pit.  The soldiers stood up on the rim of the pit and opened fire, shooting into the hemmed up crowd until they were all dead.  The sculpture shows scared, naked people huddled together as they descended to their death.  

We walked around the area for a while doing some sight seeing.  I have decided to not go to bed tonight because our plans are to leave the hotel at 3:00 AM on Friday to catch our 5:30 flight.  I figure I have a better chance of sleeping on the plane if I don’t sleep now.  

It was almost midnight as we made a large loop around the area on our way back to the hotel.  There were people; young people, everywhere and they were all standing around in small groups hanging out together…drinking.  Alcohol is a huge problem in young adults in Belarus.

It is late or early depending on how you look at it.  I am going to go take a shower.