The first summer (2005) of SunRise had 144 children, what a blessing. We were told
we would only have 50 students, which was ok with us because having any students was good. On Monday, it was a different
story we had sea of children walking into the building and was it great! The Peace Team members helped get
the signed in, to the right areas for class and give out t-shirts. The children were from the ages of 6 to 17 years old.
Each morning the children came together as one large group to sing songs, get camp news and
meet up with other class members. The Youth would lead the children in songs like Jesus Loves Me. After the opening
the children would move to the three different areas. Each class had a hour for English class and a half hour for games and
arts & crafts. The children would join bakc together again at the end of the day to sing more songs and talk with new
friends.
The last day of camp we had a festival with field day activities and awards for each child. Each class
had a different color on and played games as a large group.
This summer....we had as many or more students. We had a 15min walk to camp, where the students would make
us at the gate using all the english he/she knows. We had the same areas games, arts & English class. Five
adults from New Jersey came to Smolensk for the first time to teach at SunRise. We were able to have camp for a whole
week for two hours each day. We were blessed to have the Russian Youth from last years team help at SunRise again.
Dasha G, Julie, Dasha, Ilya, Alina, Dasha and Anya helped each day to take the students to class. Without those Youth
helpers the students would have not got to class.
For our third summer we are still praying about having SunRise at the Dubrovinskaya boarding school plus computer
skills for the children. We pray to have SunRise for two weeks and longer hours. We never know what will happen but
we are open to change!
