October 21, Sunday

Great Lord's Day in Uganay. The church meets in what looks like converted industrial space. Steve preached from Galatians 5 on the "fruit of the Spirit." This was after probably 30-40 minutes of praise music. I was recruited to play keyboard for the band so that the normal keyboard player (Katia) could play base. She kept me straight on the music. See my blog picture of the sheet with the notes. I would say there were 55-60 people attending and lots of little children. This church shares a pastor (Mikhail) with a church in Nhohodka, so he would only be in Uganay half the time.

In the evening we had a youth group meeting. It was Eugene's 17th birthday, so we had "chai" and cake together. We went around in a circle and offered him a blessing. That's a tradition worth copying. He took it like a real sport. Alexi (married to Katia) led the meeting. He is a godly young father who Steve hopes will be integral to the church's leadership for many years to come. He seems to have all the character qualifications to serve in this capacity.

One amazing thing at the youth meeting was the integration of 16-17 year-old high schoolers with 20-23 year-old young adults. Two of the latter were Ina and Marcia, girls raised in a family of 22 adopted children. I did not get their last name, but Alexi Pavlenko says it means "windows" in Russian. We hope to go visit the family and meet all the children. I can't wait...

Later we had dinner with Alexi and Katia and their two girls Arisha (3) and Alicia (9 months). Family friend Katia was there as well. Alexi and Katia are wonderful parents; they model patience and instruction with their girls. We talked at length about the church and how God designed churches to grow toward maturity. We hope we might have a chance to share the "9 Marks of a Healthy Church" material with some church members before we leave (possibly on November 2nd).

A sad reality in Russia is the number of dads who die prematurely or just abandon their families. In the apartment Sunday night it was well illustrated: Alexi Pavlenko's dad died when Alexi was 11; Katia's (married to Alexi) dad abandoned the family when she was in the womb; Katia's (family friend) died when she was in the womb. Alexi's (married to Katia) parents are still married after 33 years. He is grateful for their devotion to one another. Pastor Graham knows the pain of his father abandoning his family when he was just 11. He believes God took that family tragedy and has used it to help him minister here in the Far East of Russia, a place of many fatherless children. Thing Genesis 50:20 - "You meant it for evil, but God meant it for good."