My usual threee-weeks-long teaching trip to Russia will be somewhat extended in time and significantly expanded in space this time around due to the invitation I received from a great ministry friend currently serving in Vietnam.

From Baikal Lake, one mile deep, to Issyk-Kul Lake, one mile above sea level!

My nearly straight-line, three-and-a-half-hour flight through Osh was canceled at the last moment. The shortest one available that day was through… Moscow: five-and-a-half hours to the west and then another four-and-a-half hours southeast to Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. After only (!) six more hours in a van with the other teachers and speakers for the camp, I was ready for my first presentation! The air around the lake was so clear (and thin) that even the tallest, snow-covered mountains looked like you could touch them with your hands. I was scheduled to teach only one class per day (plus endless Q&A sessions all day long). I spent the rest of my time simply sitting on the shore or under the shade, letting my head continue spinning after full days of crossing time zones back and forth.

Nearly all of my audience at the Bratya Youth Camp were in their twenties. That is, they were old enough to take life’s questions seriously, and young enough still to be looking for answers in all kinds of places. Spending five days on the picturesque shores of Lake Baikal—the deepest lake on the planet—was a perfect setting to explore in depth their quest for spiritual truth and the foundation of their faith.

I will be traveling through seven countries and ministering in five of them on this trip, not counting the United States. As always, this wasn’t something I planned intentionally, and I certainly didn’t set out to break any personal records (although I probably will). I simply responded to invitations from my ministry partners until my three-week summer schedule was filled to the brim. Of course, not every invitation from conferences, camps, and other events made it into my itinerary—only those that met my two simple conditions: 1) they had to be logistically reasonable (no gaps, no overlaps, and practical travel connections), and 2) they had to provide a full-time daily schedule (at least one event or session each day).