October 15, Monday - Part I

Part I will cover October 14, Sunday. Part II will cover October 15, Monday. We were gone all day yesterday to Progrinichny, a small town of 12,000 in the northwest corner of the Primorski- Krai region of Russia. It is right on the China frontier. We could see the hills of China in the distance. As my pictures are uploaded you will see the barrenness of the land on the way from Ulganay to Progrinichny. There are hundreds of thousands of square kilometers of arable land, as far as the eye can see. Only a small portion of it is cultivated. We drove on good roads, poor roads, past many in progress construction projects (highway and bridge), dirt roads, gravel roads, potholes, etc. until we came to the church where 36 year-old Oleg Vyatkin has faithfully served as pastor for the last 17 years. We had lunch after the service with Oleg and his gracious Russian-Uzbekistan wife Feruza and their three beautiful children: their son Vadim (13), and daughters Anna (10) and Alicia (4) in their three-room apartment. Oleg began the church in the heady days of post-Perestroika when there was an especially enthusiastic response to the Gospel.

We worshiped in Russian with a four member praise band, beautiful worship songs, overhead power point projector with a ten year-old (guess) serving as the operator. Very beautiful and moving. A true Revelation 5:9 moment - "...you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation." Probably 60 saints with lots of children gathered in a 25' x 40' room, children milling all about. Pastor Steve preached on "You Are Somebody's Fool" from 1 Corinthians 1. The saints were very responsive and thankful after the sermon with their words of thanks and appreciation. Steve is heavily invested in the church here as demonstrated by prayer, counsel, miles, dollars, and visits. After the service I gave out lip balm, toothpaste, hand lotion, soap, and crayons. I'll always remember the simple expressions of the Russian women as I helped them open the top on the Chapstick lip balm. Winter is right around the corner,so they will be well used.

After lunch we headed with Oleg to two alcohol/drug rehab centers out in the country - one for men and one for women. Oleg's church in Progrinichny supports these centers. We saw some of the staff and residents of the rehab centers at church a few hours earlier. There were four residents in each of these centers - amazing places where they grow all their food. Imagine the sense of dignity that such an arrangement provides. In the kitchen of the women's shelter there were at least 12 bags of potatoes (50# each) stacked in one corner. Sure hope the floor was constructed for that load! When we arrived at the men's shelter, a man was crouching on the ground knocking the dirt of the last crop of potatoes for the year. The men still have six fields of beetroot to harvest, a staple in the famed borscht dish. Believe it or not you could sense the community in both shelters - real warmth, friendship, and hope. We prayed with both the men and women for God's blessing, Gospel hope, and bright futures for them as they complete their program. As were leaving the women's shelter the sweet couple who are in charge (Sasha and Lena) asked Steve to pray that God would open Lena's womb. They are maybe in their late 30's and have been married three years. A very tender moment...

We closed our day with dinner with Tatiana and her two beautiful children: Victoria (7) and Alexi "Loshi" (2 1/2) in their simple three room house. Tatiana and her husband Alexander are both police officers; he was at work and we were unable to stay until he arrived. The meal of roast goose, mashed potatoes, pickled green tomatoes, forest mushrooms, pickled pickles, salad of carrots/cabbage (i.e. cole slaw), sliced bread, and water from the heart of a birch tree. Except for the bread, Alexander and Tatiana grew or gathered every dish of the meal. The pictures tell the story. As Alexander is not a Christian, we encouraged Tatiana on how to live with him with prayer, wisdom, and quiet example (c.f. 1 Peter 3). Her eyes brimmed with tears as she affirmed she loves her husband dearly but she yearns for spiritual conversation with him about the things of God.

So much for now...I will tell the story of Saturday later tonight.

Grace and Peace, Mark