The first three days in Moscow, followed by five days in Siberia, were very intense! I cannot believe I am only one third of the way through my trip. Hopefully, my next four days back in Moscow will give me some rest – there I will have “only” one presentation per day and no more rides of 300 km on beaten-up, local Siberian roads.

I did my first FaithSearch Discovery event on the evening of my arrival in Moscow in the open audience setting of a very popular presentation hall in the center of the city. The room was packed beyond capacity and the Q&A session lasted almost as long as the presentation itself. The adrenalin rush from presenting straight off the airplane after 13 hours in the air helps to deal with the jet lag and tunes me up for the whole trip.

The following weekend was packed with presentations and travel outside of Moscow. As I learned a little later, it also kept me out of trouble in the city where riot police were catching random pedestrians during the protest demonstrations and marches on Saturday. I prefer traveling at will in Siberia.

And I did. Each day they took me to a different town or a youth camp to present for a variety of audiences: young and old; farmers and city intelligentsia; clergy and professionals. Those villages and small towns are rarely visited by speakers from outside the region, let alone somebody from a different continent. The reception was always very warm and people were very open to receiving the Gospel with Evidence, as well as sharing their questions and life worries.

The trouble is that in Siberia they don’t count distance in kilometers but in hundreds of kilometers, and their roads – outside of a few state highways – do not allow for any reading or sleeping. On most trips, I usually rest during travel – here I have to rest from it.

After two extra-long layovers in JFK and SVO, and red-eye flight to KIV, I was met and greeted by my good friends and ministry partners in Moldova – Roman and Emily with their two most wonderful kids! What a joy to spend time in sharing and prayer! What a joy and a privilege to teach in the city library for an open audience – both believers and non-believers from the area. Partnership across the denominational and ethnic borders – with Russian and Romanian Orthodox churches – enabled us to reach out to a wider spectrum of the population in the city of Orhei.

On my first day of ministry in Chisinau the Lord blessed me with a three teaching/preaching/sharing opportunities almost back-to-back. First, after the morning Liturgy and with absolutely no warning, I was called up front “to give a word” on the Gospel reading of the day. Luckily, it was the story of Thomas the Doubter and I felt totally prepared to do that – I often use it as an intro to the FaithSearch Discovery presentation. It also worked as a teaser for my presentation at a Youth Church that night and half a dozen people from my morning “event” joined it along with their kids and friends. A less formal event around the table for yet another audience filled the day time. Sundays often end up to be the busiest days of the week.