I cannot believe it has already been ten days since my last blog entry – so full they were with events and travel!
First, I flew over to the city of Izhevsk where I taught twice almost a decade ago to the local teachers’ community and at a church summer camp. This time the invitation came from one of those campers who wanted the “Gospel with Evidence” to be proclaimed to a wider circle of her family, friends, and to the general public. The Orthodox Diocese did their part by providing an excellent venue for the events – three presentations on Saturday and two more on Sunday. Passing a Museum of Kalashnikov and a huge ammunition plant on our way to that place every morning added a certain thrill to the whole project.
Back in Moscow for only a half-day, shortened further by a broken B737 readily replaced by two Russian-made Yak42s from the 1970s after a three-hour delay, but still enough for teaching an online class from a street coffee shop. Moscow has four airports and I’ve already travelled to or from three of them on this trip. I am glad I didn’t book my early evening flight to the city of Orenburg from the fourth one – I wouldn’t have made that connection.
“Fresh” from the red-eye flight, supplemented by a couple hours before the beginning of the conference at Orenburg Seminary, I enjoyed meeting lots of potential future ministry partners around the coffee tables. The Q&A after my presentation completely ruined their session schedule, as the flow of inquiries from the audience continued way over their time limits. God willing, I will be in Orenburg again with more time for them later this year.
Two more days in Moscow with exciting live and recorded broadcasts, as well as in-person presentations. Spring was already in the air, but I couldn’t wait to jump on my next flight – to an even warmer climate in Armenia. My two days in Yerevan so far have not disappointed me: each day is filled with a new audience and an historic place to visit. What an amazing country of centuries-old churches, gorgeous mountains, joyous people, excellent food and, yes, a hunger for the truth of God! Partnering with CRU on this segment of the trip has been a true blessing, hopefully to both parties. I have to switch from English to Russian all the time depending on the age of my audiences, but sometimes I am still working thought an interpreter into Armenian. Again, I am very grateful for being in very good hands of my ministry partners!
