January 1, 2007

Snovem Godem! Happy New Year! We were up until 5am this morning bringing in the new year with the Church here in Lesisebirsk. We wouldn’t have survived at all except that we were able to have a nap yesterday afternoon for a few hours. That and I slept for 2.5 hours in the van. Apparently Janelle and I were conversing in our sleep. And she was having a very strange dream about me drawing a beard on her face.

The team is all starting to recover from all the stress of travel lately. It was a good time here despite some of the difficult times. We’re starting already to mentally prepare ourselves for going to Ulan Ude. Bruce, who has been with us the whole time will be staying in Krasnoyarsk. We’ll on the train for near 27 hours. To think of traveling still fills my heart with a little dread. There’ll be 6 of us and a whole lot of equipment. *sigh*

Oh, and for everyone who has been praying for our health, my wrist is still a ‘thorn in the side’ sometimes. It is getting better, but it’s slow recovering. It’s not hindering my work here in the slightest… but it is annoying. ^_^ Coralie who had been feeling a little ill the last while is doing much better. Otherwise, we’re all doing very well!

It’s hard trying to sum up all the things you’ve seen and heard and experienced all in short blog entries. There is a good deal of overload that occurs when you’re trying to take in all of Russia at once!

Last night for New Years we arrived and visited for a while until they started a drama. It was a cross between the story of the little match girl who was having a hard time selling matches, Father Frost (Santa Claus at New Years) and the Christmas story. Very strange and abstract. As such it was very enjoyable as I often enjoy things a little out of the ordinary sometimes. Right in the middle of the drama, they broke things up and got us to all go and eat. I remember eating a lot of orange slices and trying some raw red fish. As far as fish goes, it was pretty good fish! Unfortunately, I still have a very difficult time appreciating the flavor of fish…therefore I didn’t a whole lot of it. Never the less, it was a great meal. This was followed by people handing out sparklers… Those metal sticks that you might see on birthday cakes sometimes? We all had one of those and we went from person to person, sparkler to sparkler lighting the room up here and there until the countdown was over. Then we went as a big crowd outside and started to shoot off fireworks. We saw some going off to our left, and some off to our right, and our folks were sending them right overhead. It was quite extraordinary to watch…to think we were watching fireworks all over town, in Russia. In the snow. Weird.

We did some music and drama in pieces for the rest of the ‘morning’ after that until about 4. We were able to go to bed by about 5:30. Now it is morning, and you’re all caught up for this moment. I wish I had time to tell you about all the other strange things that happened.

I will leave one with you…When we returned from that big trip, us guys went and slept for a few hours. When we woke up, no longer than 5 min later, a couple ladies came into our flat and started to tell us things in Russian. They thought they had the wrong flat… they were looking for Igor…We told them that he was out and then they started talking in Russian again. They didn’t understand much of anything we told them and vice versa…Even though we used gestures… I don’t they were the gesture type. What one of them did say was that she lived in that flat, and then she turned and said, ‘Go!’… I started to grab my bags and move them out of my room into the living room. Soon she understood that she had said that incorrectly. She came back and with a chuckle said, ‘I go.’… that made more sense. I had figured they came there to see Igor and to change or get something for New Years. Later that night, I found out that I was right. She had left some of her things there and had come to get them. Never the less, us guys were so confused for a morning. There is nothing stranger than waking up and finding a couple ladies walk into your apartment who try to tell you things that you don’t understand… or then again… being a couple ladies and walking into a flat you are familiar with and finding 4 guys who can’t speak staying there. Truly life is strange sometimes. But it’s the strangeness that lets us enjoy the things that are a little more normal… *_^
Go with God! Spogum!


December 30, 2006


Today was one of those stupid awesome days. Or awesome stupid days…. Whatever you want to call it. We had a rough start with the team… it was a long trip to a small town Yenesisk… It reminded me of Northern Saskatchewan as far as the people went… but it was a lot like the Yukon from 29 years ago. Crazy.

We did a program at an orphanage and we gave everything we had, and wow… it wasn’t pretty… That really discouraged me… But today went well over all. God is working… But as a reminder for myself, PRAY FOR VAELERA!!! He gets discouraged over the lack of fruit…spiritual fruit… But wow… it was great to hear both his and Alexi’s testimonies… that was all we needed for God to snap us out of our tired frustration.
Don’t worry… We’re still giving all we have… God will be all we need.


December 29, 2006


We’re heading to a ferry right now. We got to Lessisabirsk safely despite the crazy roads and we were able to push another guy out of the snow… that was fun! The time here with Pastor Roma, Igor and Leanna has been great. All us guys stayed with Igor and his roomy in a rented flat. But even though we’d be getting back at 10 or later, he’d run over to the ladies’ drug rehab center and grab Leanna who was from Moscow. She understood a bit of English, and what she did know, she knew very well. Apparently she hadn’t had to use her English in 6 years so she had forgotten some words. We had a great time talking with them and we’ll see them again on New Years.

The spiritual battles here again have been fierce. Pastor Roma, for our first program had asked a army guy… I don’t remember his rank, but I know he’s in charge of a large amount of the military training in the area. Anyways, it was his responsibility to let people know about our first program, and only 15 showed up in a auditorium in City Hall made for 200. God still worked though, because now Pastor Roma has a chance to lead this army guy to Christ. Pray that that will go well.
In the afternoon we headed out to do a program in the school. Unfortunately, the psychologist of the school caught wind of our program and went into a fury about how we shouldn’t be allowed to be there. She called for the school security to come keep an eye on us, and so there was this big guy watching us. We never had a clue at the time, but he had a hard time with us because we walked on in, 4 of us bigger guys. I for instance walked up to this guy who was supposed to be looking real big and tough to watch for anything fishy was eying me so I walked up to him and gave him a big ‘Zrast-vutye!’ (hello) to wish he was caught a bit off guard and replied with a weak hello of his own. Anyways, when we started bringing in stuff that psychologist met us on the stairs and wouldn’t let us pass and we were sure we were going to be kicked out. But then someone else came to our rescue. Another teacher I think, and then the way was open. So we went in and did our program and then had a second one. It went really well. But meanwhile there was a lot going on. The lady throwing this fit went to her office and began to write out a letter of complaint to give to the city Judge. When Roma asked what she was doing she told him and then added, ‘When he gets this letter you’ll never be allowed in here again to spread your religious propaganda!’ He told her, ‘You don’t even know if we are. Come see for yourself. Then you can write your letter.’ So, for the second program, she sat at the back and began to write her letter of complaint. Our program was anything but preachy, and I’m sure she had a hard time finding things we were doing wrong. In any case, afterwards, she left in a huff and went to argue with the other teachers and James L.

The short of it was that God gave James L. the right words to say that completely destroyed the arguments that she had. She had complained that our program had no knowledge in it. But James argued that there were many things they could get out of it… despite that she wouldn’t let us speak freely about God. We were teaching that love is powerful and we should by love, and with love for each other. When we live for ourself, we ruin our lives. Sometimes we need help from others. She argued that we should have talked more about the trees that Canada has…James argued that there was time for questions, and they didn’t want to know about the trees. They wanted to know about why we had come all the way to this town, way out in the middle of nowhere. We wanted to teach them things that could help their life long after we had left.

Anyways, in the middle of this, the teachers showed up and were wondering why she was trying to ruin this great program that was put on… and then the kids came out and asked her why she was trying to stop the program that they had enjoyed. So she said, well, then I’ll do a seminar about how to get a man for you girls. Then they cut her off and said, ‘We don’t care about that… how come you think your programs are so much better. You have to try and ruin ours?!’ Anyways, soon she couldn’t take it and went off to finish writing her letter.

It was then that the vice-principal came out. She had been watching our whole program. She was very blunt. ‘So what if you taught about turning to God when nothing else works…if our psychologist tries to send that letter, I’ll fire her. I really liked your program.’

God rules!

That was a taste of what God is doing. Pray that God continues to have his way!


December 26, 2006


Well, we’re heading for Lesosebirsk…I’m not sure if that’s how you’d spell it, but it’s about 5 hours north of Krasnoyarsk. I don’t know what to expect up there except that I’m sure it’ll still cold. That’s life here…and we just hit a big pothole…This van we borrowed from Chad is taking quite a beating. Hence, ‘Sorry Chad’ has become one of our primary sayings here on the road. *BANG* ‘Sorry Chad’…You get the idea.
Well, we’ll see what the north brings… that and New Years. Apparently, they stay up all night… and all next morning