My Catechism training classes in Moscow coincided with the V-Day parade rehearsals and subway crowd was brightly colored with military uniforms. This kid looked tired as his mom was apparently taking him home after a long day of marching.

First time in the Stavropol Region of Russia, and I am learning so much about its history and its present. The name of the city is very telling: it means “City of the Cross.” What a blessed location for Christian ministry! The local Diocese set me up for at least two teaching sessions each day and is graciously handling my lodging and transportation.

At least, that was the plan.

The very first day required serious adjustments to my schedule due to a Governor’s order sending all school and university students home because of “unfavorable weather conditions.” Locals looked to the skies, interpreted this as a Ukrainian drone threat, and, of course,followed the order.

However, by the time we arrived at our first school, though the students were gone, over 70 teachers and staff gladly invited me into their conference room for a class on the “Historic Foundation of the Christian Faith.” They would never have found time for such a gathering in their busy school schedules if not for the “weather.”

I suspected something similar might happen to my afternoon class at the Technical College. Sure enough, the dean called to apologize for a change of plans. Instead of meeting one small group in a classroom, we met at the dormitory with all of the students. Rather than sitting idle in their rooms due to canceled classes, they joined a conversation on the most important topics of life: its origin, its meaning, and its destiny.

On day two in Stavropol, it was raining but very warm. By then, my hosts had found plenty of audiences for me; we pivoted to schools and organizations under federal jurisdiction that aren’t required to follow local mandates. My evenings are equally busy meeting with pastors and ministers, both local and foreign, who have arrived in Stavropol for a celebration this week. I may even be able to include Baku, Azerbaijan, in my mid-summer teaching trip this year!

Four days into my trip, I already had six teaching sessions and preparing for one more tonight at the Theological School in Minsk, Belarus. So far, most of my audiences were university (or university-age) students – local and international. Most of them with no or very little church background but very eager to learn and to ask questions “about gods”. I had much fun adjusting my message to be clear and relevant to an IT student from China, a medical student from Zimbabwe, a linguistics student from Belarus and a law student from India at the same time. Luckily, most of them already spoke pretty good Russian and I only occasionally had to help my interpreters with certain theological or cultural terms and concepts. Working in small groups truly helped deepen their understanding of Christian teaching and the place Christ needs to take in their life.

An overnight train will bring me to Moscow tomorrow morning for two presentations almost back-to-back: at the University of Culture (outreach) and the Synodal Missions Department (training). I am still not certain where I will be staying for the next four days before taking off for Stavropol in Southern Russia. First ten days of May are traditionally spent in “dachas” (cabins) and I am pretty sure some of my friends will offer their empty homes for my lodging.

I hope and pray that the oil storage fire in Tuapse will be put off by the time I arrive to the area, or, at least, the wind does not change and will blow away from where I will be travelling and teaching for the last week of the trip. My audiences in the region (Stavropolye and Northern Caucasus) are expected to be very diverse: from clergy to military, from schoolkids to university faculty and from parishioners to general audiences.