The city of Yaroslavl in December is so different from the same place in September when I was here last time! I actually cannot see much of it as the snow keeps falling all day and piles of it are waist high in some places. It slows down the traffic but—not the pedestrians! People seem to move even faster covering their faces from the blizzard – it is minus 18 C (0 F) outside. My hosts here, however, didn’t worry about the evening event attendance. Fr. Pavel, the Diocese Missions Department Chair, was confident the classroom will be full tonight and his only concern was that the participants would not freeze there. All I can do is to make my presentation as energetic and inspiring as possible – I also need to stay warm in this 18th century church basement. [Read more…]