This time around, my three weeks of home-stay between trips felt almost like a
“layover” between the flights. I am on the road again–and this time for longer than I have been in most of my travels. This teaching trip will be very different. First of all, it will not all be teaching. At least one third of my time in Russia I will be on the other side of the educational process.
As a PhD aspirant (candidate) with Moscow Pedagogical University, I will undergo the final steps of what has been a three-and-a-half-year-long process of research, learning, thinking, discussing, writing, reviewing, re-writing, reviewing, re-writing, etc., etc. Most of it was done either by correspondence from Minnesota or “in my spare time” on my trips to Russia: on the trains, in the dormitories, at the airports, and in host families’ kitchens late at night. On this trip, however, I am taking a few days as a sort of a “sabbatical”–to complete a very intensive pre-defense process and to actually do my thesis presentation on April 18th.
That is, of course, not to say that my FaithSearch Discovery teaching schedule is not as packed with events as usual. I will travel five time zones to the East of Moscow into the city of Krasnoyarsk for a week of very densely planned presentations in their universities, seminaries, churches, etc. I will then make two stops on my way back to Moscow for three-to-four days each: in Omsk and in Yekaterinburg (Western Siberia and Ural Mountains regions respectively). Again, those days are expected to be full of teaching and training events in both Christian and secular settings.
This trip was made possible by the Lord’s prompting to many who support the Russian Ministry of FaithSearch International. I am now asking you to continue supporting me in your prayers. For both, I am very, very thankful.
