Saturday in Russia

They were interviewed for an English class




This is the church they preached at in Morshanks on Saturday.


Paul told me that they both aren't feeling well since Breakfast and might have eaten something that they aren't used to. Still they went to preach. Upon arriving Paul was told he would be preaching to. On the fly! I know Bear told him that could happen. Tomorrow Bear preaches and then they are off to the orphanage to deliver the slippers.

Friday

Wow. That about sums up our week. We finished teaching this afternoon. It has been a whirlwind of a week. The Russians don’t give you a lot of feedback when you are teaching. It is difficult to tell if they are learning or if you are boring them. Yesterday, they finally opened up in the afternoon. After lunch we had some time to talk and they were asking us questions about our church and how we handled children’s ministry and things like that. They let us know that they appreciated what we have been doing. We gathered together in the evening for a casual party with some ice cream and soda and candy that we picked up from the local grocery store. The store is about the size of our Winco with a large variety of items to choose from. We are hoping to bring back some of their candies for you to sample after we return. Most of the attendees were able to be there last night at the party. I had bought some red caviar to try so I brought it out as well. We shared it as they told some stories about growing up and what kind (red or black caviar) that they liked the best. Despite my best efforts I was not successful to get Bear to sample it. In fact, he has resisted all offers of any fish in whatever form I encourage him to try. There is still time but it is not looking like it will happen this time. It was a year and a half ago but the flavor of the black caviar chips (more like croutons) must still remain firmly imbedded in his mind. We have not been sleeping well but that is partly due to the fact that we quickly realized that we would complete the class material a little earlier than what we expected. This allowed us to teach some things that we hadn’t planned on before we left. They have a large population of Jehovah’s Witness here so Bear was able to prepare some teaching material to assist them. I was able to put together a class on creation that included information from some discoveries about fast forming geological structures during and after the Mount St. Helens eruption in 1980 as well as a scriptural basis for a young earth from Genesis 1 and 2. They were very receptive. Needless to say, this meant a few late nights working, and with interrupted sleep patterns it has been tiring. It is a good type of tired and we can tell that you have been praying for us. I can’t imagine how we could have done it any other way.


Tomorrow we will get to attend a wedding here at the church and then will travel to Morshansk to preach at Pasha’s church. He is now the pastor of the 1st church so I believe both churches have combined and will be there tomorrow night. On Sunday we will preach at pastor Anatoly’s church (2nd Baptist here in Tambov), take a look at the building site where their church is being constructed, and then deliver the slippers to the orphanage, then back to the church for a surprise. Our suitcases will be pretty light on the way home. It is getting late here so I will close for now. Thank you all for your prayers and we are praying for you back home as well.

pictures

SLEEPLESS IN RUSSIA

From a physical standpoint, Paul and I are struggling to get sleep. This is a blessing and cursing. The blessing is that we spend that time either talking or studying. The downside is that we are walking zombies. All in all though, we can’t say enough about the Grace of God that has been shown us on this trip. God is sustaining us and caring for us beyond what we think at times. The food has been superb. I think after three visits here they have found what we Americans like to eat and what we don’t like to eat. They have been gracious hosts who are always looking out for our needs. Sunday was a blessed day. Though we missed our Church family at home we were treated with sweet fellowship here in Tambov. I was able to preach on the Justification and Sanctification of God that Sunday and we were blessed with a number of special music pieces from the body. Sure has been a while since I heard an accordion in the service. They sing beautifully and you can sense their love for the Lord. Today, (Monday) started our teaching segment on the Theology Proper or the Doctrine of God. Needless to say when Paul and I teach there seems too much passion and discussion. We started our time with devotion out of Ezekiel 1 and the prophet’s vision of heaven and the throne room of God. I really felt need to set the table with focusing our attention that we as preachers and teachers of the Word of God are first and foremost worshippers ourselves. Teaching and learning about God is much more than an academic exercise. Our lives and hearts need to be affected and scorched by the awesomeness of God. I then gave the students a writing assignment in which they were to define God. This exercise evoked a lot of discussion and laughter. It is important that we don’t take away or add something to God that is not declared in Scriptures about who He is or else we create idol worship which leads to wrong living. After all that, the bomb dropped. Someone brought up “free will” and that man had the ability to choose heaven or hell. Let’s just say it erupted in a passionate but civil discussion on such matters to which at the end of it, one Russian brother described our discussion as fiery. After lunch Paul did a great job on the different names of God and how that helps us understand Him. These students are very sharp and are pleasant. Continue to pray for their hearts and ours. Pray also for our sleep and how we communicate our Precious Lord. Pray for our translator, Anya, she is exhausted as well and does a good job not only translating what we are saying but with the same passion that Paul and I share when we teach. We send our Love and our Prayers to you back home. Make sure you greet one another with a Holy Kiss. Of all people I received one from my dear friend and fellow Elder Paul. What was he thinking? Still yet to figure that one out and no it wasn’t on my lips (thank the Lord). Until we see each other again, Slava Bogo,
Pastor Bear

“Be Still and KNOW I Am God.”

Sometimes God just wants you to rest in who He is, to be still, to be in awe of His character and be amazed at His work. In those times the believer is utterly incapable of doing anything in his own power to change a situation. The believer in Christ must rest in His peace and walk in His faith. These thoughts summarize my experience in getting to Russia. Without evoking any power on my behalf, I had to sit back and watch God work. And all I can say is that He is truly amazing. He is so kind as to show His omnipotent hand by orchestrating many events to fall into the right place at the right time so clearly all one can say is “This is of God,” “Only God could have done this.” It has been enjoyable seeing Him display His gracious kindness to Paul and I. From releasing the passports, to allowing us to get on a plane without our passports in hand, to actually receiving our passports and being checked in and have everything run smoothly as silk, without any hiccup all I can say is the Lord has been utterly amazing. And so here it is, Saturday night and I get the privilege of standing before a group of believers and tell them about the awesomeness of God. What a great honor. I will share latter after such event, but let me recap a few events that we have been doing the last couple of days.

After 16 hours of train rides, Paul and I landed in Tambov with much expectation and love. The believers here are very excited to hear the Word of God and for our visit. They are dear saints who love the Lord Jesus Christ. They often reflect on their visit to Idaho and have asked about many of you. After such talk we granted the privilege to listen to a report given by the Regional pastor, Anyatoly, on the last four years of his oversight. As I sat there listening to the many things God has done in and through these believers all I could think of is what a mighty God we serve. In a state that has roughly 1.2 million, God has risen up 10 evangelical Baptist churches to serve this state and He isn’t done. There are two more cities begging for a missionary or a pastor to come and help establish a church. The problem is and we need to pray for, is that they have no one ready to go. Yes, they are equipping men, but this takes time and the need just has to wait. God has called many unto salvation and all the ten churches are in unity as they pursue a common charge to share Christ and make Him known to the people in this state. After the rejoicing and taking a couple of naps throughout the day, Paul and I went to a concert with the soul desire of striking up relationships with other college kids to share Christ. Our responsibility was to make sure they didn’t run out of coffee, which we successful at doing. We were also able to engage some in speaking about the things of God. We were sure the odd man out. Felt like we were the Grandpas of the group, a role that we were fine with. Also felt like a celebrity as many Russians wanted to talk to us and get our pictures. Go figure. All in all our first day here in Tambov has been pleasant and enjoyable. Looking forward to the rest of the week and no doubt there will be many opportunities to see God at work. To Him be the Glory. Until Next Time, being Still, Pastor Bear

Day Five

Their first full day in Tambov!

After greeting old friends at the train, they headed for the church for an enjoyable breakfast.

They gave Pastor Vadim the slippers. After being vacuumed packed, they need time to regain their shape. Next Sunday they will deliver them to the orphans.

They attended regional meetings with over 30 pastors today and in the evening they attened an outreach concert. Paul said they felt like grandpas surrounded by teens and twenty-somethings.

Tomorrow morning Pastor Bear will be preaching. When I get an update from them I will post it here. The visiting pastors will be staying in the church with them so they will be very busy every waking moment.

Paul said that he will have fairly reliable interent so you can email him with church related questions if you need to. (like how to turn on the speakers)

Day three

On Facebook yesterday, when we had our boarding passes to go from Chicago to Russia, I posted that walking in faith is exciting. I would like to tell you why I posted that.

From the beginning of planning this trip I was never really sure that I could take the time or afford financially to go. As the stock market got worse, I was even more concerned. I asked the Lord many times whether He was using these circumstances to tell me not to go. I thought to myself that I will plan for it but if one of the other SGA leaders wants to step in and go I will be happy to step aside and let them go in my place. It is really not a good idea for an individual to do this trip alone, so I didn’t want Bear off alone getting lost by himself. I might as well be there to help him get lost. Even though SGA takes care to provide travel support there are still opportunities for things to go wrong. I will encourage Bear to tell you about our experience last night when two non-russian speaking American men wander the streets of St Petersburg alone in search of dinner. Let’s just say that you should take a good look at what the doors look like when you leave the place you are staying, and you don’t know how to pronounce any of the street names other than Nevsky Prospect.

Anyway, our passports and visas were held up. The visas were complete on the 12th which gave us plenty of time for them to get to us before we left. I got a call from Harriet at SGA on Thursday the 15th saying that the Russian embassy in Washington DC would not release our passports and visa. No reason was given to her just that they were not being released. There was no problem with them but they just wouldn’t release them. On Friday I got the same call. Panic starts to hit. There is no way for the passports and visas to get to us before our plane leaves at 7:30 AM Tuesday morning. I called the travel agent to ask about moving our flight to the next day. The change fees and difference in rates would cost a couple thousand dollars to change by just one day. I had no idea how much this might cost in changing train tickets as well. The airline- Lufthansa – was unwilling to change anything in light or our predicament. Our travel agent called United (which was operating for Lufthansa) and said that we could board domestic to Chicago and then check in internationally once we had our passports. So, we asked SGA to send the passports and visas next day air to Chicago where we could meet someone to deliver them to us at the airport between flights. We had a 2 ½ hour window for this to happen and only if the Russian embassy would release our passports and visas on Monday. In my next conversation with United I was told that they would not let us board in Boise unless we had our passports and visas there. Now was a real quandary. We would not know if we were released for travel until Monday afternoon. On top of that we didn’t know whether we could even board in Boise without our passports (one agent said we could and one supervisor said we couldn’t). We were facing the very real prospect of either having to spend a lot of money to make this work or spending a lot of money and changing the conference dates. 17 pastors in the Tambov region had already scheduled their time for us to teach for a week and that would all have to be moved as well. At this point I realized that it wasn’t going to happen unless God wanted it to happen.

My prayer changed from God please make this happen to, Lord if this happens I know for sure that You want us there, let us be prepared and plan for everything to work out even though we don’t expect it to. I woke up early Tuesday morning with that prayer. Harriet at SGA had said that Russia had released our passports and visas and she would get them in Rockford, Illinois at 9:00AM. She would be at the airport to meet us at noon. We got to the Boise airport at 5:00AM and briefly explained our situation. The incredibly nice lady at the counter said, “Ok, we will just book you domestic to Chicago, you can pick up your passports up in Chicago and I will book your luggage all the way to St. Petersburg”. No arguing or pleading or looking pathetic (that is what our travel agent suggested). The reason that this was important is that if an airline puts you on a plane without all your documents then it is up to them to fly you back for free if you can’t enter the country. Booking our luggage through meant that we didn’t have to pick them up in Chicago and recheck them at the international ticket counter and clearing security again while still trying to make our connection through the busy Chicago airport.

Praise the Lord that He worked all these things out at the last possible minutes. I praise the Lord that He changed my heart in the process. I went from being scared about all the possible things that could go wrong, from business to personal, to realizing that this was His plan and not mine. That whatever happens is for His glory. That gives us a tremendous peace that wasn’t there before. Walking in the flesh brings all sorts of fears and concerns. Walking by faith is exciting…and reassuring.

We thank all of you for your prayers. God is pleased when His people pray. Continue to pray for us and for the pastors that will be at the training as well as Anya as she has to say in Russian everything that we say in English as well as take care of two rowdy Americans. God bless you all while we are praying.

Day two

Modern communication tools are wonderful!

The phone rang and it was Paul in St. Petersburg. After getting a room, they went for a walk and promptly lost their way. After trying to manage on their own they made a ten dollar phone call and were rescued. At 10pm (noon our time) they were safely in their room and settling in for the night after more than 24 hours without any real sleep. A cat nap here and there on planes was all.

Once the stress of passport delay and possible boarding problems were behind them, their only worry was if the vacuum packed slippers were opened, how would they ever get the suitcase to close again?

Tonight at 10 p.m. I will call and get the days plan. That will be breakfast time for them and then on to the long train to Tambov. It is an adventure just getting there. Keep them in your prayers with all the travel and long hours. Also for the Pastors preparing to join them in Tambov for their messages.

Cell Phone picture on the plane.

Day one

After a long and uncertain departure, they are on the first plane to Chicago.

There was a delay in the visas and passports, causing a threat about their ability to board.

Feel free to communicate to them here on this blog during their trip and hopfully (depending on bandwidth and time)they will communicate with us.

They are teaching a conference to pastors who have gathered in Tambov as well as visiting orphans with slippers to keep them warm and healthy this winter.