Home, sweet home! I have just landed in Minnesota and my head is still spinning after 12 hours in the air and 9 time zones difference. At least, I did not have to adjust to the weather – it is almost identical to that of Moscow. I also had a special mid-air treat – bumping into missionary partners from Bryansk who were also returning to the states on Aeroflot. Small world. Great God!

Back in and around Moscow, my week was tightly packed with teaching at churches, public schools and universities in proportion of 1:2:3. It is not that difficult for me to book as many events as I can physically do having developed so many friendships and long term partnerships in those organizations and institutions in the area. It also helps that more that 14% (20 million) of the whole population of Russia (146 million) that spreads out for 11 time zones resides in this one city and its suburbs. There are new audiences waiting for me on every subway stop and on every commuter train (elektrichka) station. It was great to be able to sleep on the same pillow for that whole last week after covering hundreds of kilometers on buses, trains and airplanes from where I started three weeks ago and changing my lodging accommodations almost every day!

I started in Kolomna with teaching a class on the “Historic Validity of the Bible” to a classroom of fourth-graders. They’ve been studying the course using my textbook and were just excited to meet the author as I was to teach from it. Their teachers were sitting on the back row and making notes for the discussion that followed. In fact, many of their questions were answered by the FaithSearch Discovery presentation I offered them first and the conversation quickly turned from teaching methods and techniques to the most fundamental issues of life and faith. While speaking at the parents’ conference at the end of day I had these teachers’ full support and understanding of why it is so important to teach the basics of Christian faith to their youth in school.

On three separate occasions, I had a chance to give first run of my new presentation “Intro to Communication” based on my Master’s course taken at Bethel University. I built in some FaithSearch Discovery material into it but presented historical and archeological evidence of the Bible in the context of the communication process. We also discussed such topics as “How to present the message just as effectively as Jesus did?”, “How do we know that the message is valid and is not ‘lost in translation’?’ and many others. I tried it on different audiences and got very good and productive feedback for further improvement of the presentation.

Two lectures in my Alma Mater (Moscow State Pedagogical University) that they broadcasted to their distance-education audiences and recorded for a more detailed discussion in seminars also strengthened my relationships with academia and opened the door to other student audiences all over the country. I am looking forward to teaching the Word of God to future teachers and researchers on my next trips to Russia and other Russian-speaking countries. I already started planning my next trip in May that will, God willing, include Moldova and, of course, Moscow.

I am already half-way through the trip and the Lord graciously keeps me safe, strong and healthy. I keep moving upstream the Volga River having started from its delta in Astrakhan where my suitcase (with all my cables and other computer accessories) caught up with me after spending an extra night somewhere between JFK and Sheremetyevo. Praise the Lord, Pastor Benjamin had extra cables to connect my notebook, projector and sound system and I was able start my first FaithSearch Discovery presentation on time – three hours after I landed on Russian soil. Almost fourteen hours of sleep and very nice airplane meals on three flights from Minnesota to Astrakhan gave me plenty of energy for the presentation and the Q&A session that night. Two young skeptics were following me all the way to the pastor’s car as I was answering their question and providing them with references for their subsequent research in the matter of faith. God bless their hearts!

My next morning started with a joyful nose of the worship service at the Pentecostal church that supplied me with enough power for a teaching event after the service and for a great walking tour around this historic city. A mixture of Muslim and Christian motifs in its past and present has given this whole area of Sothern Russia a very special look and flavor.

Four hours on a minivan across the endless steppe that vividly reminded me of my trips across the plains of North Dakota brought me to the capital of Kalmyk Republic – the city of Elista. It would have been a typical and most boring Soviet-times provincial town if not for a huge golden Buddhist temple – hurul – the largest in all Europe, in its very center. Kalmykia does not have much to offer economically and is trying to build its path to prosperity by attracting pilgrims and tourists from all over the globe to this “world wonder”. That, of course, created quite a stir in local churches and even in secular communities such as schools, colleges and universities. My presentation on the historic foundation of Christian faith including some comparison references to other religions were met with great interest and appreciation. I must go there again sometime soon to reach out to even wider audience as their church and education leaders have tasted our material and saw the impact it is having on the event participants.

I stuck my whole last week with Volgograd’s Evangelical churches: teaching a course on Apologetics at their Missions School, preaching at their communities and presenting at Volgograd teachers’ conferences. It was so great not having to hop on another bus or train or van or plane at the end of every other day! Teaching at the International Church attended mostly by exchange students from Africa was surely the highlight of that whole time in Volgograd – FaithSearch International has now extended its mission to yet another continent!

I have already seen Volga River fully covered by ice at its mouth and I have seen it freely flowing less than a mile downstream from Volgograd hydroelectric station and am seeing it again today frozen over in Saratov. I have just spent most of the day with a group of Baptist leaders training them to present the FaithSearch Discovery in their churches. I will spend the whole day tomorrow with public school teachers and Orthodox Catechism trainers before catching a red-eye flight up north. Good-bye, Volga! Hello, Moscow River! Ӏ

My friends in Moscow have been asking me lately, “How bad the cold has to be in MN that you are fleeing from it to Russia?” What can I say? It will be about the same -25 C in most of Russia in February, and all I will need to do once I am there is simply to change the perspective from “we will all freeze to death” to “there are some places in the country that are even colder today.”

I am taking off tomorrow for three weeks of teaching and preaching in churches, universities, schools and colleges in “Southern Russia.” In the past, I have used this as a euphemism to avoid scaring my family when I was in fact visiting Chechnya, Dagestan, and some other… not-so-safe areas of the country. This time I will actually be going all the way south, to where the Volga-River meets the Caspian Sea (which is actually, the largest lake in the world). I will start in the city of Astrakhan and then move upstream (with quick side tour to Elista) to Volgograd, to Saratov, and then to Moscow. Southern Russia does not mean it will be much warmer in those areas (you may remember the story of the battle for Stalingrad).

My only hope is for the Lord to send me good and caring friends and ministry partners who will help me to stay healthy and to move around safely.

After all was said and done—with delayed flights and an unscheduled overnight stay in Tokyo—it did not take that much less time flying over the Pacific Ocean than it would have over the Atlantic. Praise the Lord, I still made it to Kamchatka on time—two hours before I was scheduled to speak at the Conference opening ceremony. I am glad they let me change my clothes right in the City Hall Director’s office, as all other speakers kindly looked the other way. I am also glad my laptop battery lasted through my whole presentation and died seconds after I finished (there were no electric outlets anywhere near the lectern to plug it in). After spending the whole night changing planes in the Vladivostok airport and then in flight to Petropavlovsk (loosing two time zones in the process), I was too tired and very disoriented to realize how low the battery charge was. Praise the Lord for taking care of these little things for me when I am not able to!

I am also grateful to Him for my hosts here! I have a very comfortable private “cell” to stay in their church-house, with three meals provided and somebody always willing to give me a ride to my next venue—whether the State University, the Teacher’s Continuing Training Center, the Medical College, Army base, or Penitentiary Department, etc., etc.

Speaking of which, I just cannot believe how interested and engaged my audience was—prison guards, security officers, and other penitentiary staff—when I presented FaithSearch Discovery at their training conference! My hosts were extremely worried and warned me many times about this “tough crowd”: that they might be difficult and even offensive to the message of God’s love and mercy.

I was reminded that what they see everyday does not necessarily represent the best of humanity but that most of them are well trained professionals and officers who value professionalism in others very highly. That turned out to be the key. My appeal to their rationality and logical thinking got them on the track of making discoveries—step by step, one after another. “Tough crowd,” eh? If God is for us, who can be against us?

My last two days in Kamchatka were divided among an Evangelical church, a Medical college, a military base and an Orthodox group—totally different audiences within fifty miles around Petropavlovsk. There was, however, also something the same in the audience each time: a sense of surprise and joy of discovering a new and important aspect of life: life with God. The title of one of C.S. Lewis’ books which contained these two words kept coming back to me as I looked in the eyes of the people in the audience: cadets and officers; students and teachers; lay leaders and clergy.

Praise God, who is able still to surprise us—and those who hear His Gospel—with His joy and with faith in His truth! 

I am leaving for my next three weeks in Russia on December 1^st and will be back right before Christmas. My destination this time is the Russian Far East, which means I will be flying West all the way across the Pacific Ocean. with a change of planes in Japan. I will be crossing only (!) seven time zones vs. seventeen time zones if I were to fly over the Atlantic and then across all Europe and all Asia. I am already getting a little lightheaded even from merely listing all these locations, directions, and destinations! [Read more…]