Five days in Kyrgyzstan were definitely not enough and I will definitely be back sometime soon. All three schools I had a chance to teach at surprised me in a very positive way by their students’ academic levels and their interest in learning more from the world history and biblical evidence. Despite of rather significant differences in cultures (Kyrgyzstan is predominantly Muslim) they were very open to seeing the evidence for Christ in ancient archeology, early New Testament manuscripts, and secondary sources. My local ministry partners even managed to secure a pass for me to the Russian Airforce Base to address a class at their community school with almost constant accompaniment attack helicopters and fighter jets flying loudly overhead.
My street address in the city of Bishkek was “Jibek-Jolu,” which translates as “Silk Way,” historically connecting ancient China with Europe. Travelling along the most beautiful shores of Issyk-Kul Lake we were passing long caravans of semi-trucks travelling in the East-West direction on the same, historic path. Kyrgyz are proud of their 3,000 years of history and our historic approach to faith fits perfectly in their mindset and culture connecting them to biblical truth of God.
A four-hour-long flight to Moscow across three timezones brought me not only to a much colder region, but also to a much more modern, high-paced, urban environment. Yesterday, for example, I preached at the 8 am Liturgy service; taught at 12 pm Adult Sunday School class; presented at 3 pm and 6 pm events, leaving the church for a late supper with the priest’s family in the city of Mozaysk. Naturally, our conversation around the late tea ended at 1 am in the morning, and I needed an extra strong coffee to start me on my travels and for classes on the opposite side of Moscow.
The city of Korolyov is somewhat of an equivalent of NASA’s space center in Houston, and my commuter train is taking me there as I am writing this. It is an official day-off in Russia and most of the people on the train seems to be travelling to their dacha’s (cabins) or garden plots. Hopefully the church in Korolev will have decent attendance and will be worth my travel. I will then do an evening live broadcast on Radio Maria and hop on the overnight train to the city of Bryansk, six hours southeast of Moscow.
