The Russian team is back!!!

After the first 2 days in Siberia, there was no time to access the internet, the team was so busy... now here we have more posts from Brian who is very dedicated and for which we are very thankful... Picking them up after an 11 hour flight home, we all got home between midnight and 1 am. Brian had to get up 3 hours later to fly out at 6 am on business and he managed to post this accounting of the trip that night!!! Phew! Thanks Brian!!! We are blessed. Of course Josh will be posting his pictures hopefully soon... Stay tuned!

Sunday, March 29, 2009

Heading Home

We flew back to Moscow on Friday morning to spend a day there as tourists. Here we are standing in front of the GUM mall in Red Square Moscow.

This mall was stunningly beautiful inside and out. Ok, can you tell which ones are the dummies?

Standing in front of the Russian National museum on Red Square. Ask Matthew and Josh about their "souvenier".

For a little historical perspective, here is a picture of Vladimir Lenin (bad Vlad) walking in almost exactly the same spot in Red Square circa 1920. Notice the building in the background.

Watching the changing of the guards at the WWII unknown soldier memorial.

Yes, we had lunch at McDonalds.

Russian mouse art.

My big girls and I.

Taking a wild Metro ride.

On the way home.

Our Last Day

On this day, our team split in two parts. Nate, Josh, Matthew, and I went to the Teen Challenge center in Kultan to speak about the having strong families through following the biblical plan for family life. The message was presented to about 150 men and 30 women present at the auditorium. The message seemed to be well received although it is sometimes hard to tell when speaking through an interpreter.


We were given a tour of the campus which has meeting buildings and residential buildings set in a beautiful rural forested location.

Another wonderful meal was served up at Kultan kitchen. The homemade pelmeni was unbelieveable. For those of you who have not had the blessing of spending time at a Siberian table, pelmeni is a little like ravioli with a meaty filling. It is a Russian speacialty and we really enjoyed it.

Veggie art.

Now that's some snow!

Wednesday's Work

Jessica playing for the kids while we sing.



Colleen leading a game of "Simon Says".

Matthew playing catch with dolls.

Another great Russian tea party. We really love these.

Posing with the best cook in Russia after our last meal at the church.

Driving a bus on these streets requires a good driver.

Let me introduce you to Sergei, the best bus driver in Russia.

More music and singing.

Buddies.

More buddies.

Sisterly love is the same in any language.

Here we are visit the "Source of Life" orphanage project in Taijina. The fund raising letter that I sent to some of you was for this building. The vision for this building is to build four apartments within it for four couples to live in with up to ten orphans each. This will work as a type of Christian foster care. The first apartemnt is expected to be done in April.

Our tour guide and head of this project is Pasha. Pasha was the first man to complete the Teen Challenge program in Siberia. He had a vision for using this building for this purpose and now he oversees the work being done by current Teen Challenge students. Here we see a room being plastered.

Admiring the completed girls' bedroom.

Glow in the dark wallpaper art.

Emily is standing in the very spot where there years earlier I had installed a door. Hey, where's my door? I guess this one looks better.

Pasha showing us the furnace.

Gym art.

Olympic training.

A Busy Tuesday

Josh's puppet was lots of fun.



Simple play.



Dolls for all.


What could be better.


Walking the streets of Novokuznetsk

Nate filming the church's building.

More visiting.

Colleen telling a story.

Dolls being studied.

Visiting with Alexander's family. They were such a great family. We felt that we had known them forever. Here, his oldest daughter is giving each of us a little gift that she had made. They were so cute.

Mine was a little green turtle. Alexander suggested that I could use it as a hat.

Hand games.

"Mattu" trying out a Russian kettle bell.

"Ok Mattu, let me show you how it's done."

Girls' games work in any language.

All of us together.

Here we are., Lord, send us!!!!

Monday, March 23, 2009

We have been very very busy here and it has been really awesome for everyone. This post is about what we did on Monday. I'm sorry that it will be so short, but I have not had time to really do it right and we also have very limited opportunity to get online. Also, the pics are in reverse chronological order.

Above is Josh with some children that we spent time with. They were all so happy for us to be there and we are so looking forward to seeing them again this afternoon.



Here, we are doing a lesson with the children.



As you may have already guessed, we were able to go skiing today. I took this picture because I felt I had to have proof of what I am about to tell you. At this ski area, there were lots of older Russian women who walk, that's right, walk up to the top of the hill in their fur coats and then slide down on these little sleds that look like a frisbee with a handle. It was so cool.

Skiing was so great. The hill wasn't big but it was very beautiful with white birch trees lining the trails. They didn't have a chair lift but only a T bar, that was interesting. Dave and his family ice skated on a pond at the bottom of the hill.






In the morning, we visited a large regional children's hospital. This is where babies who are abandoned immediately after birth are brought. People from the church come here to hold the babies otherwise they get no love because the workers only have time to meet their basic physical needs. We were each given a baby to hold for about an hour. When it was time to put them down, we all felt as if only five minutes had passed. As soon as we put them down, they started to cry, it was so difficult.

After, we were invited into a room where a beautiful tea had been prepared for us. There, the chief doctor of the hospital spent about an hour with us telling us about the hospital and answering questions we had. They made us feel like heads of state. It was very humbling. They were very happy that we had come to see them.

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posted by brian at 6:50 PM 0 comments

More from Russia

Monday, March 23, 2009

Our Sunday in Siberia has come and gone and we have many things to write about the day. It started with a visit with some children who were gathered to meet us. We traveled to their location and when we drove up in the bus, we were greeted by several of them standing outside the front door waving and shouting "Hello" in English. That warmed our hearts because we didn't really have any idea how we would be received. That first moment removed any doubts. The picture that was included in yesterday's post is showing Dave telling a story to the children. Of the roughly 100 children present, many were captivated by the stories and activities. Below is Matthew playing Simon Says. That was a big hit with the kids.

Next we went to the noontime church service which was great even though it was all in Russian. Another minor miracle was that the topic of Ilya's message was on the importance of parental involvement in the spiritual training of children. The amazing part is that I had prepared a few short words of encouragement for the church should I have gotten called up to speak and what I had prepared was also on that topic. Well, you can imagine how we felt when we started hearing Ilya's message from the translator. I'm thinking that we are running into too many of these little "coincidences" to consider them anything other than the providence of God.

The next thing on the schedule was lunch. And what a lunch it was! The wonderful lady in the kitchen has been serving up some great feasts. Below is a shot of the latest spread.

Next, we went with a group from the church to a neighborhood where there is a large concentration of drug addicts and people who are outcasts of society. A major ministry focus of the church in Russia is to preach the gospel to the large drug and alcohol addicted population. This being probably the single largest social problem in Russia, is also an excellent opportunity to share the hope of the gospel to people who experientially can understand that they have no other hope. For many of us who live a fairly comfortable life and feel pretty good about ourselves, it's easier to think that we are doing just fine without God. Here, the costumes of wealth, status, and style disappear into a vapor leaving the unvarnished reality that is in all of us without the grace of God.

So, every Sunday afternoon Ilya brings a group from the church in a bus to speak to people in this neighborhood. They invite those that they meet to come to church and ofer a ride on the bus. There were enough of us to split into three teams. Nate, Emily, Elizabeth, and I went with Ilya and and another translator. Matthew and Josh went with other translators including Ilya's daughter, and Dave's family went with Ilya's wife and other translators. Our group started by walking around outside the buildings and speaking with groups of people on the street. Because Ilya comes here every Sunday afternoon, many of the locals know him and speak to him as such. After a while, Ilya led us into the buildings.

I really can't describe what we saw in the stairways, corridors, and apartments and I don't have any pictures. What I can tell you is that Ilya knocked on apartment doors and he spoke to whoever answered. He asked them if they wanted to visit the church or if they wanted us to pray for them right there. Some didn't even open the door, some did but and were visibly drunk or strung out on something. Others were more curious and a few actually wanted us to pray for them including a man named Igri whose daughter was very sick in the apartment. I spoke to him with Ilya as interpreter and Igri and I really made a conenction. He was visibly moved by the words that we exchanged. Please pray for Igri and his family.

As we were waking down the apartment stairs to leave, we were passed by police walking up the stairs in the process of doing a drug raid. When we left the building, there was a van full of police unloading and people scatering everywhere.

The group with Josh and Matthew ended up speaking with some children and then got involved in an impromptu soccer game. The picture below is of Matthew and Josh challenging the entire Russian team. Some of those children ended up coming on the bus and attending church that night.

That night, our team did a presentation for the children at the church and then gave out dolls and scarfs. They were very well received.


That night we met a very friendly 16 year old young man from the church. His name is Israel and is English was quite good. He was so enjoyable to talk to and he really hit it off with our young men.

Here, Matthew is making a dinner choice. Josh's comment on this was that the way to eat one of these fish is to "Close eyes; open mouth; repeat if necessary"


I leave you with this funny little story. Monday morning I needed to exchange dollars for rubles at the hotel ATM and, being the big spending American that I am, I seem to have drained the machine of every last ruble! Everyone else is coming to me for rubles now. Can you say entrepreneur?

posted by brian at 6:28 PM 2 comments

They arrived in Russia & God paved the way!!

This from Josh when they arrived in Moscow... they had no internet connection at the airport but Josh found this international keyboard available, so they each stood in line taking turns emailing and blogging, thus there was no time for spell check.... I'll attach below the details that Brian gave of one of the amazing things that God did for them upon their arrival in providing for their transportation for the 2 hour drive to the other airport to get their connecting flight... and for housing on the return trip through Moscow which had not been set up yet!!

Friday, March 20, 2009

Airport fever

Here i sit, amidst a bustling crowd destined to step onto a steel bird to be whisked away to far away places..i seem to be no differnt.

I am waiting for my connecting flight to NOVOKUSNETSK, Siberia. we seem to have spent more time hanging out at the airports, waitinn fo flights, than we do actually flying. I'm not complainin though, it`s kinda fun. the only hard part is that im so tired.

imagine a world where once it hits about 10 o`clock at night, it is immediately noon th next day...that's the world ive been livin in for the past few days. so needless to say, im prety tired.

the excitement never seems to stop. i ca't wait to tell you all the things that have already happened.

God has done some amazing things...and we have not yet arrived in siberia! can't wait to see what he will do next.

well, i guess i'm gonna go now..i think wearergoigto our gate to wai the next 2 hours till we board.

thank you all for yor prayers, ill see you on the other side.

JOSH

Posted by Josh at 9:23 AM 3 comments

Sunday, March 22, 2009

The longest day

After many many tiring hours, we have arrived and have started working. We have so may stories to tell already and we have only been here for one day! One thing that we have to tell you about is the minor miracle (major to us) that occurred on the way here. It happened like this. For about a month, our wonderful Russian teacher Galina has been working on getting transportation and accomodations [for overnight on the return trip] in Moscow with a Christian friend from Moscow named Nikolai. Everything was going fine until about one week before we left, she lost contact with him. Because it was too late to wait, we had to contact the church that were were going to visit in Siberia to see if they could reach Nikolai or perhaps make other plans. Well, they were not able to reach him either so they called their contact in Moscow named Victor and set up transportation for us when we were to arrive. Victor was going to pick us up at one airport and bring us to another. We were never able to contact Nikolai. We were told that Victor would meet us at the airport holding a sign with my name on it.

We arrived at the airport, we saw the man holding the sign so knew it was Victor. We went to meet him and discovered it was not Victor but we could not understand him when he told us his name. We loaded all our stuff into his large van and were off. As we were driving through Moscow traffic, we learned that his name was also Nikolai. Isn't that funny? After talking some more, which was very difficult because he knew less English than we know Russian, we learned that Victor was not able to pick us up because he had to work. Actually the only reason we were able to talk at all was because Nikolai has a lady friend who speaks English and he was able to call her on his cell phone. So, we passed the phone back and forth. Back to the story, Victor had called the church in Siberia to tell them that he had to work but that he had a friend who could help us and his name was Nikolai. Well, to make a long story short, this Nikolai was THE Nikolai that Galina had been in contact with. How's that for a miracle. We are now all set for the return trip and are very thankful for it. Here you can see us with Nikolai getting dropped off at the airport.

Here, we see Dave speaking to some children with the help of our translator. I would love to show and tell you more, but our schedule is non-stop. Keep praying.

posted by brian at 1:46 AM