Potential Whatevers

Twas the night before the night before Christmas,
and all through the apartment...
the guys ate ice cream...
Well, that's what we've been doing tonight. We're here until lunchtime of the 26th and then we're heading up into more northern Siberia for a while. Then we'll return to Krasnoyarsk here on the 2nd of January. Then on the 5th we'll be heading to Ulan Ude, just next to Lake Baikal. It should prove to be quite the adventure!

Okay, I'll try again...

Twas the night before the night before Christmas
and all through the flat
all the boys were all eating
Until we were all fat
On ice cream and sausage
Pilmeenee* and bread
And fighting off sleep so that this could be read
I hope all are well, as we have been here
Likely next time I write you
Will be sometime next year
Thanks for stopping by the blog here today
May God’s grace and peace be with you always
Well, work hard for God and remember us here
And Merry Christmas to all and a Happy New Year!

*Pilmeenee is spelled phonetically for the use of pronunciation. It is like a small perogie that has some meat, usually pork, inside. It is similar to the Chinese wonton, but smaller. It is one of the commonly eaten types of food that are common to Russia…We ate it almost everyday on our first week here… O.o
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We were down by the river today looking at ice sculptures... it's a big deal here and you can see them everywhere downtown. It's quite spectacular. Thank you all for the emails and comments... I love you all, and I sincerely hope you have a great Christmas back home. Here we're going to be celebrating Christmas twice. Jan 7th too.... :D Anyways, Merry Christmas and Take care everyone! Thanks for readin the blog!
Grace and Peace
Brother J

December 22, 2006
The start of a new day…yesterday was our very last program day for about 5 days which we’ll spend enjoying a North American Christmas and recovering from the last while of programs. I’m personally hoping to rest my wrist. Way back when we were pushing a car that had been stranded near Bogotol I’ve been having a bit of trouble with my wrist…Not serious…but annoying. It’s like if I had sprained it…I just can’t lean on it or bend it very far… Still prayer for our team’s health in general would be appreciated.
I had a really good time with Zhenya this evening. He plays guitar and basically just as well as I can. He’s been learning North American church songs and doing them transliterated…So we were able to sing along with some of them and it was a really great time of sharing songs and music. He doesn’t often get to play guitar since nobody around here owns one. That is too bad for there are a large handful of guys who would love to play guitar more if they had the chance. It really is great how much fun we had…I think I ate too much bread just before bed though…lol, it’s these late snacks they give us… *sigh* But the cheese spread is just so good!!!
It has been really good to see how much God has been working…Everywhere we turn we see God doing something great. And yet… strangely in all that God is doing it’s possible to feel alone. I’ll be missing my family this Christmas…it’s the first one away from home. Well, my immediate family. So to all, Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year.
From Russia with Love
~James

December 21, 2006
To ARMS TO ARMS! ‘Tis been a battle of sorts here in recent times. For the last three days we have had programs in places where we are to make no use of ‘propaganda’ of any kind. Which means, ‘You cannot speak of Jesus’. So most of the programs we did were mainly concerts to keep the people interested. Right at the end however, we played ‘One Way’… Jesus, you’re the only one that I can live for. The kids loved it, and we’d always catch a few who were dancing along with it… some were even singing it! In fact, yesterday at a college we were asked for an encore, and so we played Awesome God for them. Truly God is awesome that He has brought us into these places that for so very long have been absolutely closed to the Church.
We’ve been spending the last few days in a city named Dubinina. The church here is seemingly young. Most of the church leaders have been Christians for less than a year! It’s incredible the passion that they have. The director of Children’s programs in the area is named Zhenya (Zh = J in bonjour)…He was saved somewhere in the last 5 years I believe… I remember him talking about 2001 being a key year for him. Each of the people is an amazing testimony of what God can do with a person’s life. Most of the guys that we’ve worked with, less than a year ago were near the end of their life because they were doing so much with drugs. But God has completely turned them around. In Canada so often I’ve found my spiritual life kind of … complacent. Average and meh… But you can’t do that here. If you were to try to live life in the middle here, you’d get dragged right out of the church by your own mediocrity. Here you must be on fire for God if you want to do anything for Him. I sometimes imagine what Canada could become if we were as on fire for Christ as are the Christians here…. Wow…. It’s strange… our being here has given them a fresh potential in the area. Many places that they normally could never go into see our team from Canada and say, ‘Great! I never knew the church did anything good! Sure, come on back!’ Most people around here have been brought up thinking that the Baptists were some kind of small cult. But now they’re beginning to see, not only that we’re a lot larger than they thought… But also that within the Church, Russia’s people will find their only hope for their existence…the only way… the One way… Jesus.
Oh, how I need to be desperate …. We need to be desperate to see God work. This is a battle… And we have everything we need to win. We just need to ask for the help. We need to look past the simple physical problems and see that there is so much more at work right now. May God ignite in all of us a fresh passion from the Holy Spirit for the lost. May today be found fresh for you!
Grace and Peace
~Brother J

December 17, 2006
Well, we’ve arrived after getting delayed/lost for an hour… We’re in a fairly large town here and we’ll be here for about…4 days I believe and then we’ll be heading back to Krasnoyarsk… It’s hard to believe that in just a short while, it’ll be Christmas. We had a good service at the church that we had been staying at. I was a bit grumpy though as I didn’t get enough sleep… I have the foreboding feeling that it’ll happen again too. It’s actually after midnight… so it’s the 18th now… crazy. Speaking of crazy, I’ve come to the conclusion that Mexican movies are crazy as well…
It’s strange… though I know very little about the couple where Bryce and I are currently staying, it does indeed seem slightly Mexican… I don’t know why. Perhaps it’s because this is truly the most simplistic home I’ve seen yet. I was grumpy again this evening… Bruce and Olga were talking with Bryce and I… and it was in one of those moments that I felt very…alone. Alone and different. I strongly dislike moments like that… Because it makes me feel very small and useless. I hate feeling useless. Oh well… I realized it was like Sam in the Fellowship of the Ring. He’s not useful, and most people overlook him. It doesn’t seem like he could play a signicant… if any part at all… in the story. As it turns out, Sam is who keeps it going in the end when all hope fades. Perhaps… perhaps I was born for a moment. Just in order so that when that one day comes… that one moment that I can truly be useful…that I WILL be … I wonder.
We’re all useful in our own ‘special’ way I suppose. And hey, thanks to all who are saying in your heads, ‘He’s not useless!’… It makes me feel better when your prayers are headed this way. Anyways, I’m gonna let Bryce do some journaling. Have a great night sleep! Farewell and Namarie.
~Brother James



December 15, 2006 (EVENING)
Well, it indeed was another long day… I’m beat. We had a program at an orphanage and then we went out to a village in the area. It was not sure if the gospel had ever come there… There were about 15 people, but always some going and coming. One in particular who would come and go was drunk. He was covered in tattoos, had fairly dark skin and desperately wanted to sing a solo that evening… The audience was not about to grant his request… It really was too bad that man was drunk… He has an amazing story to tell I am sure. He was telling James L outside about how he had been in prison for 17 years and on death row at one point. On his back is a huge crucifix tattooed with some women kneeling on either side. On his front is a huge tattoo of Mary. He was claiming to be a Christian to James and then he wanted to go and get his tarot cards and tell his future… It was very interesting. It’s sad to see what people do to themselves… But what is really amazing is when God displays His power in places that are so bound by sin, Satan and despair. I hope salvation comes to that man, and to all his village there. That would be so awesome! We’ll have to learn what God does one day… I wonder…

December 15, 2006
Last couple days here actually have been ‘relaxing’…we had a later morning and a program later in the day. Pastor Sasha here is the twin of Pastor Andre in that little village area with the snowstorm. Recently I’ve been the klutz of the team. I banged my head on a wall yesterday really hard and it levelled me… and I had only got 5 hours of sleep the night before… so I wasn’t sure if that dull pain was from the wall or from sleep deprivation. Never the less, I did get some better sleep last night. The first night it was very cold. So this time I came prepared with all these extra clothes… and then we didn’t even use them! This time there was heat…. Oi! lol. That’s life. Then in the night I put a blanket against the corner of the wall where my head was because I was sleeping and then I smoked my head on that wall too! So then I rolled over and took Bryce’s elbow to my face… wow… it’s been amazing hitting my head on everything…I can’t wait to get more sleep. The girls I think have arrived which means I should go and have breakfast real soon…
Oh, right now we’re staying in a Baptist church that isn’t finished yet. What’s interesting is that when Bruce was first here, this building was only a dream. Russia for the longest time would make a church meet on the far edge of town in a shack away from people… so the change is absolutely staggering that we are in a LARGE Baptist church, but they were allowed to build it right in the heart of this city of 60 000 people. Go figure! Only God can accomplish things like that.
Praise God that he’s still working! He is still working today!  Grace and Peace…
~ Brother J

December 13, 2006
Dima was up at 9 to make sure we had time to shower and to eat. We had a good time saying our goodbyes and then we went to the church to hear Pastor Sasha’s testimony. Apparently he used to be into a lot of ‘healing’… healing by demons… that kind of thing. And he told us the struggles and the story of how he met Jesus. It was really very exciting! It reminded me of both testimonies I’ve heard from Native people from northern Canada who have had spirit troubles…and also of the early church in Acts. He had aquired a huge library of these occultic healing books and certificates, and one day God got a hold of him and he went and burned them all in the back yard… then he gave up all of his former life and wealth and decided to live as a poor worker of Jesus. Wow. It was an eye opener for all of us, and it was hard to let us go.
Now we’re on the road back home. We’ll see what today brings. Take care!
Grace and Peace
~Brother J

December 12, 2006
This became a wonderful day to get out many of those issues that we had as a team built up from just being around each other too much. It was a good venting morning. We spent most the morning doing prayer, personal work time, and putting things right again. It was refreshing and yet strangely draining all at once. In the afternoon we went to a school, with mostly youth attending. It was one of the best programs we’ve done to date. It was really fun to do, and it turned out that all that had stayed at our program could have just gone home, as school was out, but they had chosen to stay. So for those that did stay, we felt very honoured. After I had carried some of the equipment out afterwards, I stopped to look at a curious stained glass art piece in the stairwell. It was of three Russian cosmonauts floating about a deep red sun. In the middle of the sun was a small man with a flower in his hand. It looked like something out of some Greek myth. It was interesting in any case. As I was looking at it, there was this older lady down on the main floor who began yelling. I turned to look and to my surprise, she was yelling at ME! I didn’t know what to do… ‘Uh…’ I muttered…’Yanee, pannee, my-you, Parruski’… Which is basically I don’t understand Russian. She looked at me really funny, and then a young boy, Victor’s son, Victor, had come up the stairs and told the lady that I was one of the Canadians and then grabbed my arm and whisked me up the stairs. I recall seeing the teacher look somewhere between confused and embarrassed. I was for a while too, until I found Olga and James and got them to tell young Victor thank you for saving my life. It turns out that she thought I was Russian and was wondering what in the world I was doing in this school… She wanted to know who I was and why I was there at all. ‘Ha!’ I told James, ‘I’m blending into the culture…. Even with my pompom toque!!!’
It was my triumphant moment for the day.
After we went back to the church where I was given a little teddy for a present to remember them by. I think it’s a Christmas tree ornament. And then Rhys and I finished the song about the duct tape Perspectives bag…to the tune of ‘A little More’ by Skillet. It’s quite interesting, and I hope some of you who want to hear it will get a chance to listen to it.
James and Molly came with AJ and myself to Natasha’s. After a while of waiting, Dima showed up to unlock the flat. We visited for a good long while there drinking tea and eating. It was exciting to hear about how they had grown up. Please pray for Dima… he’s searching but doesn’t really want to be a Christian right now…His mom is a strong believer. After almost all was said and done, AJ and I visited with Dima and Natasha after James and Molly had left. Natasha got out some paper and crayons, and we each drew them a picture. It was really fun, but it left me very tired. Oh, I gave Natasha a cd of some of my songs on it. She was really happy and kissed me on the cheek. Haha, she told me that since AJ and I were sons there now, we were entitled to special treatment. Dima was happy to call me a brother. That was really great. He’s near 30 now and is in the army… it’s weird having a big brother… I’ve always been the oldest until recently… it’s a really strange feeling. But pray for him… He needs the Lord. He needs fulfillment. He’s sick of life in the army…He said that AJ and myself were the first kind faces he’s seen in over a year. Pray for him. We went to bed … sometime before 2. I’m not really sure when we got to sleep.

December 11, 2006
Bogotol the village was called. The Pastor there was Andre…and we arrived for tea, chocolate and to sing them ‘It is Well With My Soul’. From there we went to our first program run by a lady who can speak very fluent French. France French. Indeed it seems like a very romantic language. We had some issues with the sound equipment which got us, moodwise, off on the wrong foot. It was very good though that the kids there were very fond of balloons. We made a bunch of different balloons for each of them and after it all was said and done, they sang us a song. But a song I had heard when I was a kid. ‘Higher, Higher… lift Jesus higher’… That was really special. Unfortunately, because we had to enjoy their wonderful hospitality we ended up being very late for lunch. So late in fact that we came in, prayed, sat down, ate 0-5 bites depending on how fast you could eat the hot stew (Rhys for example ate 0… I on the other hand ate five… but I burnt my tongue…), and then got up, put on our coats again and left. A huge snowstorm had blown in and it was very windy and brought with it, obviously, very much snow. Being it was so stormy, we drove fairly slowly and found a car that had just gone into the ditch. James L stopped his car and we got out and started trying to help him. When that didn’t seem to be working, we flagged down a big Russian jeep. After a few attempts, including snapping the tether line, we eventually pulled and pushed the car out. Back on the road, we found that now we would be an hour late. So when we arrived in our last program location, a small community hall, we very hurriedly began to set up our equipment. And right in the middle of it, the host lady came in and said that we must stop what we were doing and enjoy some tea, chocolate and cookies. So we did… you dare not argue with a host lady. So, eventually, about 2 and then some hours later we started our program. It went really well. We couldn’t stay a long time afterwards because we didn’t want to get snowed in or anything and we still were hoping to get to the banya. So, in the dark night we followed large trucks down the highway. There was blowing snow everywhere, the snowdrifts were crossing the road, it was hectic and scary driving… But we all made it safely back into town and by 10:30 we were
arrived at the local banya. It was nice. Basically to explain the banya, it’s hotter than a sauna, with drier heat, an overall lack of clothing…and leafy branches to thwack yourself with. Obviously there is a girl side and a guy side, so that made things more comfortable. But sweating with 5 other men in a small little room dodging the leafy birch branches that were swinging everywhere was really quite interesting. Oh, here’s a helpful sidenote… If ever you are having a Russian shower… turn off the hot water first. It can get very, very hot and in a very short amount of time. In you are not fast enough you can burn yourself. Just thought I’d let you know that…because it hurts and you don’t want to do that. Anyways, it was a very enjoyable experience. It was wonderful for the pores. That night I planned to go to bed right away.
We arrived home after 12 and so we were sure that our host, Natasha would be asleep. Nope. Turns out that her son had arrived that night from a 3 day train ride. That meant that there would not be an early bedtime. We stayed up for a while and enjoyed more tea and each other’s attempts at each of our strange languages. Natasha’s son’s name is Dima…(deema) and he was really great to talk with, though that night it was a lot shorter than I’m sure he would have liked to visit. Praise God there would be only one program for the next day. *sigh* Yes, in case you were wondering I miss you all back home every once in a while… God has been good. We’ve never had to experience the oppression that people like Pastor Andre have had to deal with. And yet we have the opposite issue. Let us not continue to be complacent…live every life as it were you last moment. You may not get another chance. Grace and Peace
~Brother J

December 10, 2006
Day off day… in theory that is… We went to the Baptist church in the area called ‘Living Waters’. It was a great time. Our team did a couple songs there, and on the spot they asked me to do a song I had written! Crazy! I did ‘Sunshine in the Rain’ as Bruce had been talking a bit about communion and about Bridgrooms and Brides… I was missing my Bride to be back at home. So I did that song because it was about Karina and it was about my Saviour. It was a great time. Afterwards, we visited until around 4… the service had started at 11. At 4 we were sick of sitting around eating… For real, we had been having tea all afternoon with different groups coming in to spend time with us. At 4 we all went outside and we had a snowball fight between Canada and Russia. We were quickly overwhelmed, haha, so some of the fellow Russians helped us out. I got one in the face real hard near the end. lol, it was a lot of fun, and I’m glad we did it. Afterwards we went inside to warm up and… You guessed it… had more food and more tea. *sigh* I was telling the rest of the team… I don’t remember what it means to be hungry. And I’m quite sure if I wasn’t filling my being with food all the time, I’d be losing a good deal of weight with all the walking and stairs and programs that we’ve been doing. But as it is, there’s no end to the food, and so there simply is no way I’ll be able to fit these trousers if this keeps up for much longer!!!
The same gal from the first program we did in the cinemas was there today. Her name sounds a lot like the French ‘vwala!’ …I think it’s the short version of Valintine. Russian language has a LOT of short form names. In fact they found out that my full name here if it were in Russian would be Yakov Blainavich…there was a short form of Yakov too I believe.. but I don’t recall it now. It’s crazy how much a name can change here.
After everything around 5:30pm we started heading back to our billets to relax…except for AJ who wanted to work on chalk art. In fact at 9, he’s still not home here yet. When I got back, Natasha was wanting to feed her dog, Gelda. I figured, sure I’ll come for a quick walk down to see your dog. She asked if I needed a fur hat. I told her I’d be fine with my little cap. I did take the mitts she offered though as I had left mine in the van. Well, the little walk was over 2 kms one way. Through the neighbourhood, out into the edge of the town to where there were hundreds of sheds and garages. I escorted her all the way down attempting to chat in my very very broken Russian. It was interesting. Eventually we turned into a small ‘alley’ which was fairly wide, but all of it was deep snow except for a small footpath that had been packed down. My ears were beyond freezing at this point and so I had pulled them under my hat. (It was because of the wind… the temperature was dropping to near -25 tonight) We walked a ways down this alley until we reached a small wooden gate. She unlatched it and let me come through. It was a garden! Well, I mean, it was still all snow.. But it was a large fenced in garden. Her dog stays there in a dog house and guards the area. Most of the dogs around here are treated a lot different than we would treat them in Canada. They’re treated a bit like semi-tamed wolves. They wander through the streets and through yards, but some are regular pets, and some are completely homeless, and then some are guards on the prowl. Anyways, Natasha stooped down and called the dog…no answer. She poured out all the food she had with her and called again. No answer. So she shrugged and walked away to leave. So I started to call the dog. ‘Here doggy!’…… Curiously, it was answered… I didn’t see her dog… But there was a low growl….*rrrrrrrrr* … I repeated the process several times enjoying the low growl and then we left. About 7 minutes later walking, I heard something coming; walking up behind us. I spun around when it started getting close, and there was a dog! Natasha let out a cry and started to pet the dog that looked a good deal like a german shepherd crossed with some other dog with black floppy ears. It was scared of me, but it enjoyed being with his master for a little bit and then she clapped her hands and sent the dog back home to do guardwork. Strange.



We saw some stars out there on the way back… in fact, I think that was first time I had seen stars since I’d been here in Russia. It had been quite cloudy most of the time we’ve been here. So it was really nice to see them out. They were exactly the same as at home. ‘Zeeovs-dee!’ she said, proudly pointing to the sky. Alas, we made it back and then we went through some photos of friends, family and our travels. Then Natasha went to read a book and I went to journal. And now here we are. AJ returned a sentence ago and then I caught him up with everything I just finished telling you here.
Please pray that Pastor Sasha will be given wisdom in how to go about building a large church. Right now they have a huge building that is next to the church that they’re working on. But Sasha doesn’t know how in the world to work on a building or anything. He just used to sell things. PLEASE pray that God would do something amazing for the church here. Wow. Oh, and for anyone who wants their church to grow? Prayer… that’s what will set in motion. Any age so long that it’s heartfelt. That and small groups meeting to discuss and pray…. Pray….and be at peace!
Brother J

December 9, 2006
Wow… we’re tired. lol, we had only two programs yesterday, but they took a lot out of us… or perhaps it was all the food we had to eat… Whichever…
We did a program in a medical school last afternoon. That was really fun! They were attentive, and we found out after that it was a miracle that they didn’t stop us in the middle of the program. We were forbidden to tell them about the evening program, yet a few of them knew simply because of the massive advertising the church had done for us here. They advertised us on TV! The evening program was actually in the cinema. There was a massive room for about 400 or so. It had a very large stage and we were nervous just being in such a large room. About 120 people came. Something like that. But we were very pleased to find out that many of those who came, perhaps even 60 or more weren’t involved with the church at all and many of the things they heard they were hearing for the first time!!! Praise God that it went well. There were issues. I had a bad cough and AJ happened to pick out the only bad cord to hook up his drums. Yet when push came to shove, God pulled us through despite our potential to fail. My voice didn’t just hold out, it was better at singing than I’ve ever done to this day. AJ noticed that his drums didn’t work at all at the start of one of the songs, but it wasn’t imperative that he came in at that moment. Literally he was able to fix it about 1 second before he came in, and then he came in with a wonderful ring of cymbals. It was wonderful how God provided.
Afterwards, Bryce, AJ and myself were invited upstairs to listen to some other music from a fellow musician who had come to watch us. They went with him when the program was over. The rest stayed to visit with the people still around. I was on my way out and then Olga stopped me. Apparently there was a girl who had wanted to fellowship… that was what Olga said. I’ll have to ask about what else they had talked about. But we had a good visit. She realized quickly how different Canada and Russia are. But as Olga was translating for us, we were able to compare our stories of how God changed our lives and it was really very interesting. Many of the Christians here are first generation Christians, and if there were any other Christians in their family, it was usually their Babushka…Grandmother. I have to hand it to those Grandmothers. It’s a reoccurring story about how these women of faith never let go of what they had been taught when they were growing up, even in the face of the despair that Communism brought.
During prayer this morning I was suddenly reminded of the goodness of Christ… of the wonder of his love. I remembered the struggles we’ve been having, the difficulties… the pain… the fatigue. And out of the blue, I was thankful. It’s these hard times that truly let us find fulfillment in these tasks that God gives us. We can look back at the end of the journey and be glad that we didn’t have it easy. And we can see that he has not let even one of our feet step without his knowledge or guidance. It is so comforting to know that our existence has been choreographed and planned out in accordance with the free will that God has given us. May He remind You of his undying faithfulness. Truly He is more faithful than even the rising of the sun.
Go in peace
Brother J