“Somewhere over the Mediterranean” …or the Black Sea – depending on which route my plane from Istanbul to Moscow has chosen to fly around the war zone in Ukraine. It is hard to say from looking out the window. Instead of the usual three-hour flight, it will be a five-hour one. All in all, I will have spent fully sixteen hours in the air by the time my A321 lands in Sheremetyevo airport. Plus, there were two, two-hour layovers and a nine time zone difference… you do the math and try to imagine what is happening now in my poor disoriented mind. Luckily, some good ministry friends, living not far from the airport, graciously agreed to stay up late and to host me for the first night on the ground.
I am especially thankful to them for giving me a few hours of rest and comfort in their home because on the very next morning I am presenting at the Apologetics and Missions Section to the annual — and rather significant — Christian forum called “Rozhdestvenskie Chtenia” (Nativity Readings). I timed my trip specifically to attend it this year and to make as many new ministry connections as possible in Russia and in the Russian-speaking parts and communities around the world.
On my Week Two, I will teach classes in Public Schools and Universities of St. Petersburg. Week Three will take me across five time zones to the East, into the Chita Region of Siberia, historically known for its labor camps, prisons, and extremely harsh winters. The local Diocese suggested that I will be better off fighting the cold now rather than coming to teach in the spring and being eaten alive by some endemic super-small flies they call “moshka.” In my twenty years (yes, this year!) of ministry, I have learned to always trust locals. I wish I had the Internet on this flight to AI-test their claim of Chita being the “sunniest city in Russian Federation.” It may be true, but then, from where do they also get all the snow on the ground?
