The last two weeks in Belarus and Russia were probably the most intense in many years, in terms of teaching and travel. I was moving from one city to another every other day (or night) and taught two and even three times almost every day. Praise the Lord for wonderful and caring host families and communities! [Read more…]

The joke I was told in Katowice – a coal mining region of Poland – goes like this: “Why are miners making their tunnels under Catholic churches? – They are looking for a foundation of their faith.” I will definitely use this as an icebreaker next time I teach my “Historic Foundations of Christian Faith” class there. And I need to make that “next time” happen sometime soon – to take advantage of a whole number of invitations from their Christian and secular universities and churches.

It seems our material as well as the whole approach to faith from the point of view of historic evidence is not very common here. Even in the Warsaw seminary, I was the first one to teach it in many ears! It was definitely worth it to “walk an extra mile” (flying from MSP to WAW with a stop in SVO!) to make an extra effort of overcoming the culture barrier (including some Catholic traditional teaching) and to get into some expense (I had to pay for the PowerPoint^® presentation translation into Polish)!

I praise the Lord for wonderful friends and ministry partners He was sending my way throughout my travel and stay in Poland! My train is now taking me East, towards the city of Brest on the Belarus side of the border.

Will see you later, Poland!

Day one. First, I left my laptop at home and only made that discovery at the airport. A dear friend John, my early morning ride to the airport, had to make that trip twice and I didn’t even miss my flight.

Well, I didn’t miss that one but, due to a delayed departure from JFK and, consequently, late arrival to Moscow, I did miss the other two – to Warsaw and then to Katowice. It was a long day of hurrying and waiting, cancelling and re-booking, praying and praising the Lord for eventually bringing me to my final destination only two hours later than planned.

I had plenty of airplane food (there was a Great Lenten menu on Aeroflot flights!); airplane rest (stretching across empty seats!); and airplane entertainment (no comment!) with ample time for refreshing my first presentation for the teachers in Katowice Pedagogical Institute.

I am so looking forward to it as well as to my all other events in Poland, Belarus, and Russia!

Three countries in one week, connecting the Black Sea with Baltic Sea! I finished my Ukrainian journey by training a of group Odessa Preobrazhenskiy Cathedral catechism teachers and missionaries to use the FaithSearch Discovery curriculum in their work in local schools, churches and communities. They absolutely loved it! Due to the conflict (actually, a war) between Russia and Ukraine, all direct flights between the two countries are cancelled. I had to make a stop in Minsk, Belarus, on my way up north. It was only supposed to be for a change of planes, but a local youth ministry seized the opportunity and arranged an event for me in their city Cathedral between my flights. I have not seen such a hunger for the truth of God for a long time as they have in Belarus, sometimes called “the last dictatorship in Eastern Europe.” I am so glad the Lord made that presentation possible!

St. Petersburg in December is not the most weather-friendly place on the planet. It is wet, windy, and almost completely without sunlight. Luckily my schedule there was so full that I didn’t even have a chance to enjoy much of the “Venice of the North.” A quick run from a subway station to the University door; and then back under the gloomy skies through up-to-the-ankle wet snow was quite enough to appreciate the rough beauty of this city.

As a Moscovite by birth, I was happy to jump on the overnight train and to find myself on the streets of Moscow the next morning. Actually, I didn’t see much of it either as most of my events on this trip took place in the suburbs and towns within a 50 miles radius around it: Kolomna, Mytischi, Ruza, Zhukovsky, Reutov, Podolsk, Kashira, and others. As always, the school teachers were the most receptive audiences – and the most grateful. They know exactly why they need to know this material and how they will apply it in their History classrooms. My city youth and general audiences usually had two or more hardcore skeptics and agnostics who were making my presentation even more dynamic and fun. Seminarians and Bible college students, on the other hand, wanted to go into some deeper study of apologetics and biblical archeology. I love switching gears!

Thanks to many people praying for me and helping me practically on this trip, I was able to avoid extra stress and heavy lifting. I feel almost 100% recovered from my recent surgery at this point.