So...I met this guy Zhenya and his friend Stacia online. We talked about me going on a missions trip last summer when it looked like Moscow with Cru wasn't happening...so I got Stacia's Christmas card (why? I have no idea) right when I was deciding what to do this summer. One thing lead to another and Zhenya is picking me up from the airport in Perm two weeks ago!
So week one I was here at the base, helping out with the program for the students. We prepared skits and watched a couple very intense dramas that were awesome. I helped lead worship by watching Dima's hands change chords and mumbling Russian when I could, and also by washing dishes as a team (Dima is from Perm, Rachel is Brazillian, and then there's me). So mostly during this week I washed dishes, prepared meals, and just helped with whatever, I even bought Zhenya's sister during one skit about modern day slavery. (That felt really strange)
Week two was a little crazier. We got on a bus to Nizny Tagil, crossed into Asia and did a whirlwind week of service and sharing. We visited some four different children's homes, although we weren't able to perform at all of them, and we also went to two remote villages with Bibles and to share. The first village involved 30 kilometers of walking, crossing back into Europe on the way! So after two days of camping out next to a beautiful lake and an abandoned Orthodox church destroyed during the time of Communism, we came back and our last day we helped out with a kid's camp put on by the church we were staying at. Mostly we just played with kids that day, it was great, and it really reaffirmed that I have a call to work with young ones. One ten-year old even said I should come visit the family!? The week was completely unreal in some ways. At one point I was on a train with Russian soldiers, which, although none of my Russian friends were nervous, just took a while for me to get over. All in all though, God definitely used us. We had a handful of decisions for Christ between the villages and the children's homes, and definitely spread the Word and God's Love!
Of course the whole trip was actually for the five students we had with us, to expose them to service and missions. :) Max is one of the most eager and hard-working young guys I've ever met; Rita talks like a machine gun and loves everything. I connected really well with these two (it helped that they spoke pretty good English), even though Max was certain that I hated him because I wouldn't respond to probing questions in Russian before 11am.
This church we worked with, alongside the organization I've been working with, strategically tries to get to every village in the region with the gospel. They were involved, and even the night guards were sold out for God and wise men with words of encouragement for us. Sunday was surreal, there was a worship team that was half normal team and half Metal band, and all of these Russian Grandmothers have their hands in the air singing along. And then after the service the lead singer talks to me for a bit, and turns out she works for a Russian Tank corporation (as in, military tanks). I concluded that Tagil is something like Texas...only in the Ural Mountains. But God is moving here, and it was really awesome to be a part of it!
On to Moscow!
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