Happy New (School) Year! What a joy it is to meet with a fresh classroom of students and to share faith in Christ with their inquisitive minds and hearts!

On this trip, I will be doing that in St. Petersburg, Moscow, Vladivostok, and Rybinsk, covering eight of the eleven time-zones of Russia and all three historical Church traditions – Orthodox, Catholic, and Protestant. Nearly half of my audiences will, however, be non-religious – university students, schoolteachers, and general public. My local ministry partners did a very good job of setting up my events on each day of my three-weeks-long travel – up to three presentations per day! While on the road, I will also continue teaching my regular online apologetics class at Belgorod Seminary (not having to get up at 5 am due to the eight-time-zone difference from Minnesota!) – to my first- and second-year groups of MDiv students.

On my first ministry trip to Kyrgyzstan back in May, I was only able to see its true jewel, Ysyk-Köl Lake, from my car window as we were driving along its shore for six hours each way to the town of Karakol. This time I am enjoying four full days of teaching at the Christian Family Camp right on the lake shore and with a gorgeous view of the Tian Shan mountains. My audience is also amazing – over 120 people from Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, and Russia gathered to deepen their faith in Christ and to get trained in sharing it with others.

Greetings from Pereslavl-Zalessky, two hours northeast of Moscow! I am spending most of my time here in “promo”, PR and advertising for my future visits in this area. The city is almost as old as Moscow and is known for its Christian culture and education. Apart from visiting its beautiful churches and monasteries on Plescheyevo Lake, I am making contacts with local teachers, priests, pastors, and lay leaders–making arrangements for my events in the fall. The interest is huge! Historically, the city has been somewhat isolated for many years by the railroad from Moscow bypassing it. As the legend has it, some local merchants, fearing the competition, bribed the construction company to plot the railroad away from their markets. In our days, there is a little more flexibility and freedom in public and private schools’ curriculum, and for scheduling what will potentially open doors for our ministry.

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.