Archives for 2013

It was snowing in Moscow. White was immediately turning wet as it touched the ground.

There was no snow in Saratov. It was the chilling wind from the Volga that reminded me of it was winter.

There was plenty of snow in Kostroma, both on the ground and in the air.

Winter is also in full swing in Chelyabinsk and Kurgan.

So far, all my presentations to students, teachers, and general audiences in all these cities took place on schedule, except for one event in Saratov when my flight was cancelled and the airplane returned to the airport from the runway. Praise God they found that something was wrong with it before we took off the ground! Luckily, my audience that day was able to come to my other three events in that city.

I definitely prefer traveling by train in Russia and last night in the train to Kurgan was actually one of the chances for me to catch upon  some rest and sleep. Of course, I am always energized and empowered by the responses of my audiences even if it is just one or two people who have a chance to express their thoughts and feelings after the event. It was indeed one person who came down the aisle last night at Chelyabinsk Word of Life Church to pray her first prayer to accept Christ as her Savior and Lord when their pastor made the altar call. It was just one person today at Kurgan Teachers’ Conference who wanted to tell me after everybody left the auditorium that this was the most important day in her life: “I was not supposed to attend this conference which is for the Intro to the Christian Culture teachers only (which I am not). I didn’t want to but my school principal made me. Now I know why I am here. I was asking myself these very questions that you discussed today for the last several days. I was asking God to reveal Himself to me, to show me that He is real and true. And today He did.”

Two other teachers almost forcefully took me across town to meet their supervisor and to insure that they will be allowed to use the training and the material they received today in their classroom: “Please talk to our boss and let her know that that this is indeed a reliable and trustworthy historic data, and that it was reviewed and approved by Moscow.” I certainly obliged.

Four cities down–Saratov, Kostroma, Chelyabinsk, and Kurgan. Two more to go–Pyatigorsk and Perm. Please continue your prayers for my travel and for my family back home.

“In Russia, I prefer traveling by overnight trains. I go to sleep in one city and wake up in another. Perfect!” I wrote this during my early trips to this vast country.

That worked fine back in the days when I was plotting my own schedules and routes, but not anymore. My Russian partners (universities, teachers’ training centers, publishers, etc.) are now paying for most of my travel within the country. They determine where and when I shall be presenting for their conferences, trainings, and other teaching events. The good old days—those of spending an extra day visiting with friends, or of doing some ministry “on the side” between formal presentations—are, for the most part, gone. In fact, my next trip will involve eight in-country flights (plus four from/to Minnesota) and only four trains! Yes, I am covering more landmass and reaching far-flung audiences rarely available to other missions and ministries.

But those Russian planes… Please pray for the safety of my travel and for the salvation of those I do all this travel for.

“In Russia, I prefer traveling by overnight trains. I go to sleep in one city and wake up in another. Perfect!” I wrote this during my early trips to this vast country.

That worked fine back in the days when I was plotting my own schedules and routes, but not anymore. My Russian partners (universities, teachers’ training centers, publishers, etc.) are now paying for most of my travel within the country. They determine where and when I shall be presenting for their conferences, trainings, and other teaching events. The good old days—those of spending an extra day visiting with friends, or of doing some ministry “on the side” between formal presentations—are, for the most part, gone. In fact, my next trip will involve eight in-country flights (plus four from/to Minnesota) and only four trains! Yes, I am covering more landmass and reaching far-flung audiences rarely available to other missions and ministries.

But those Russian planes… Please pray for the safety of my travel and for the salvation of those I do all this travel for.

Krasnodar translates as a “beautiful gift” and it was indeed to me, especially after Yakutia. It was so, warm, sunny, and green, that I was tempted to make a quick trip (a two-hour drive each way) to one of the best Russian sea resorts: Anapa on Black Sea! Alas, my time in Krasnodar was scheduled so tightly that I couldn’t even tour the city except for the rides to and from the airport, much less venture out on an excursion. St. Cyrill and Mefodiy (first Bible texts translators into Russian) Teachers’ conference gathered more than a thousand participants whom I had a chance to address with the message of FaithSearch Discovery.

Unfortunately, there is only one hub airport for the whole country of Russia–Moscow. Fortunately, this is my home town which makes travel and connections much easier! Back in Moscow for one day and then I was off to the city of Bryansk which popped up in my schedule in the very last moment. What a wonderful time to visit it again and to minister in the biggest Baptist church in town!

Back to Moscow again, and this time I was off to Petrozavodsk in the Northern Russia, namely Karelia, to participate in the 2^nd International Conference on Creationism. Our material, our presentation, and especially our ministry’s way of introducing and presenting the Gospel message to the secular Russian schools was something many in the conference wanted to learn from. On the other two days in Petrozavodsk, I also taught FaithSearch Discovery in three senior classes of their elite Lyceum, and did a three-hour training for the teachers of the city. Funny, how their Education Ministry is now responding to my requests for city-wide teachers’ conferences almost as-a-matter-of-factually – so different from their suspicion and skepticism when we started in Karelia in 2007!

Quick (tree days) stop in St. Pete on my way back to Moscow with one of the conferences I had some serious concern and even certain fear for–at the Public School Psychologists’ Conference. For some reason I believed they would be the toughest crowd I would ever encounter. The Lord, however, sent a group of sweet people my way who needed and wanted to hear the Good News of Christ just as much as everybody else. Or, maybe, somebody prayed for me on that day so that even these we-know-it-all-inside-and-out young (and not so young) men and women actually participated in the 

presentation with great interest and enthusiasm. They even gave me some new insights and ideas of how to approach those teachers and students who sometimes are unwilling to take the FaithSearch Discovery training for the reason of being “unprepared” or “uninitiated” in Christianity.

Stopping by Moscow again for a Part I of FaithSearch Discovery at the World of Life (WOL) Bible School, and then flying for one full day (two presentations back-to-back) at the seminary and at the teachers’ conference in Krasnodar. Yes, I have already been there ten days ago, but my schedulers here apparently didn’t mind me trotting the same path twice on the same trip.

I am back in Moscow tonight for Part II of FaithSearch Discovery at the WOL church tomorrow, and then quickly packing before my very early flight back to Minnesota. I am completely ready for going home.