The Russia Story

The journey began on the morning of July 16th, 2009 in Midland, TX. My roommate, Paul, and I headed over to Andy’s house to pick him up. From there we headed to the Midland International Airport. Our flight to Houston left at 10:30am that morning. About an hour and a half after the Uganda missions team from Midland Bible Church flew out of the same airport. In Houston, we had about a 3 hour layover, so Andy and I got lunch, then walked around the airport for awhile and then just sat at his gate for awhile. Due to my trip to Uganda, I was flying a different airline than Andy was, so we were actually on separate flights from Houston to Amsterdam, before getting on the same flight again to Moscow.

After landing in Moscow, it was now mid-afternoon on Friday, July 17th, and we were nine hours ahead of Central Time. One of the Agape employee’s met us at the airport, got us into a taxi and off we went. After 1.5 hours of “impressive” (a.k.a. somewhat frightening) driving, we arrived at the Agape guest flat (flat = apartment). It was hot and cramped with all of our luggage plus the four of us. Lisa and Louise had just gotten into Moscow as well after spending the previous three days touring St. Petersburg.

Saturday was spent sightseeing with our guide/translator, Grishya (greesh-yah). We went to the Red Square, saw the Gremlin, and a bunch of other places throughout the course of the day. We came back, took a shower (not knowing when our next one would be), and then headed over to the Agape Medical Center for orientation.

None of us had ever seen what the medical center looked like—and we were very impressed. It’s a very nice facility with very nice people working inside. We met Dr. David DeShan and his wife Cindy, who had been in Russia most of July and who were leaving to go back to Midland, a couple days later. We had some supper, went over some final details, and then Andy, Kostya (coast-yah), and Grishya (our two male translators) took a taxi back to the apartment to get all our luggage and meet us at the train station. Lisa, Louise, Sveta (svee-etah), and Reilya (ray-el-yah), and I walked to the metro (metro = subway) and headed to the train station.

Our train left the station a little after 9pm on July 18. It was hot and cramped, but it wasn’t unbearable. The A/C only worked when the train was moving, so every stop it would get really, really hot (and there were a lot of stops). The train ride lasted a total of 24 hours as we headed to Volgograd.

When we arrived in Volgograd, Pastor Nicolae and his wife picked us up. We miraculously managed to fit 10 people and 20+ bags into his little van, and headed to the church where we would spend the night. It was hot and cramped in the van, but we were beginning to get used to it.

It was about 45 minutes to the church and the last few were on a very bumpy roads. We had no idea that was just the beginning of poor road conditions we would experience over the next few days. We unloaded into the basement of a very nice church. It was just finished in December 2008 and still had a little bit of that new church smell. Even though there was no hot water in the single shower, we were just thankful to have the shower. And it actually felt really good since it was so hot outside.

The following day, Monday, we went sightseeing in Volgograd. The first place we went to was the location of The Mother Land Calls (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Motherland_Calls). There is a huge complex there as a memorial to the Battle of Stalingrad during WWII (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Stalingrad). It was an incredible and inspiring place to visit, to say the least. We spent at least an hour walking through there, after which we went down to the Volgo river where there is another WWII memorial. There is a factory that built mills, and it is the only building that is still standing from the assault on Stalingrad. It was bombed out, but definitely an amazing sight to see. After that, we drove to another little park, where there is the Eternal Flame that was lit many, many years ago in honor of the fallen soldiers.

Following the sightseeing, we returned to the church where we ate supper and finished packing up. Monday evening the pastor and his wife and daughter took us to the camp. To get there, we had to get on the ferry to cross the Volgo river and then getting to camp was also an adventure. The camp was located way out in the “boonies” along the Volgo river, and to get there, we had to drive on a “road.” I use the term very loosely because it was hard to consider it a road. The best way to describe it is to imagine like you’re riding a really old roller coaster made of dirt and sand. We literally lifted out of our seats on some of the humps and bumps. I don’t think I’ll ever forget that road.

We finally arrived at camp, still with a little bit of daylight left. The church had spent 2 days setting up, and when we arrived all their tents were up. All the kids came out to welcome us and say hello. After a few quick hello’s and introductions, I jumped on the project of getting the tents setup. The years and years of camping with my family growing up, and having to setup and take down the tent countless times finally came in handy. Amidst the darkness, heat, mosquito’s, and tents we had never setup before, things went pretty well all things considered.

The next day, both Louise and Lisa’s air mattresses were flat. Upon inspection, I discovered that some sharp objects under the tent had poked through the floor of the tent and into the mattress. I covered up the sharp objects, and attempted to patch the mattresses with the patches that were provided in the box. I was successful with one, but the second one was tough due to the location of the puncture. I didn’t trust the stability of that, so I gave my mattress to Louise and took the bad one. I slept a couple nights on the ground (which wasn’t all that bad) before getting some super glue which helped fix the patch. There was still a problem with the valve though, but I managed to engineer a temporary solution for that.

The daily proposed schedule was as followed:

7:30am – wakeup
8:00am – morning exercise (stretching)
8:30am – devotions (just us Americans w/our translators)
9:00am – breakfast
9:45am – morning lineup (announcements and such)
10:00am-12:00pm – the two teams alternated between a one hour discussion/lesson period, and swimming.
1:00pm – Lunch
2:00pm-4:00pm – the two teams alternated between one hour sessions of english lessons and sports.
4:00pm – swimming
6:00pm – supper
8:00pm – chapel
10:30pm – snacks/campfire/discussion
11:00pm – lights out

Now, I can tell you right now that the actual schedule everyday was always different. Mornings usually were on time, and generally english and sports were, but after that it all went to pot. After a few days, chapel wasn’t starting till almost 9pm.

Another interesting thing that happened was that after the first morning at “Morning Excercise” (where we just did basic stretches and stuff to some upbeat music), the camp director asked me if I could lead the exercise’s every morning using American music I had on my iPod. I couldn’t really say no, so, I did. It definitely was not a normal thing for me to do and successfully pushed me out of my comfort zone, but it wasn’t too bad. I’m not exactly a workout sort of person, and stretching is not my thing, so I just copied a bunch of what I had seen on the first day, as well as making up some additional stupid stuff.

Andy and I were in charge of games. Andy has 8 years of camp experience, and knows lots and lots of fun little games. While we would have one main game during the day, it was helpful to have these little extra games when necessary. Volleyball was definitely the most popular sport to play at camp.

I can’t tell you much about the english lessons since I never participated in them. But I can tell you though that the ladies did a great job with them and I know the kids enjoyed it immensely.

I was able to share my testimony two times. The first time was around the campfire on the second night with just one of the 3 teams. I didn’t realize how hard it would be to go through a translator, and so it was pretty pathetic. I did get a chance on the 2nd to last night though at chapel to share my testimony again, but this time in front of everyone. This time, I prepared beforehand by writing it all out. This was much more helpful as it made it flow better and I think it was easier for the translator as well since I knew exactly what I was going to say.

The food was pretty good at the camp. Regardless of the hot weather, they served us hot soup for lunch and supper every day. It would usually have some chunks of meat, potatoes, and some other veggies. Sometimes it had noodles in it and once or twice we had rice (I love rice). Breakfast was interesting. We had buckwheat a few times. Buckwheat is very plain and tasteless. Putting sugar on it greatly increased it’s enjoyability. And we also ate a lot of bread. A lot of bread.

Everyday, one of the staff would take all the water containers back into town to fill up at one of the water pumps (it was fed by an underground aquifer). Usually, Andy or I (or both) would go with them to help. It was always an adventure to go on the road into town—sometimes getting stuck in the sand, or helping someone who was.

Almost everyday, I would go swimming. It was very refreshing to get in the cold river water, and it was the only way to get “clean.” The only downside was that I had to walk through sand to get off the beach (obviously) and so my feet would be covered with sand on the walk back, and it didn’t do any good to wash them off until I got back to camp. I have never liked sandy feet. Especially wet sandy feet. Needless to say, I got over that pretty quick—but only because I had to.

One of the funniest things at camp was how many electronics they had. This was the last place I was expecting electricity, but they had a gas powered generator and boy did they use it. All the staff had cell phones and so there was always about 4-5 charging on on the ground near the kitchen. They also had 2 laptops, a projector, a loudspeaker, an electric keyboard, and a printer. They were all used effectively during the camp, but I just found it funny to see those things there.

This camp was also the last place I would have guessed that I would put my audio/visual expertise to use. But after a couple days, they found out about my skills, so they put me to work by having me set up for chapel every evening. This involved hooking up the loudspeaker, the keyboard and microphone to the speaker, and the projector and laptop. Simple stuff for me, but a big help to them.

The 2nd to last day of camp everyone went to Volgograd to do some sightseeing. It was quite a logistical effort on the part of the staff to organize and get everyone transported. It was lots of fun to hang out with the kids during it though. The main stop was at the Volgograd State Panoramic Museum “Stalingrad Battle”(http://panorama.volgadmin.ru/opis_eng.html) which is a WWII museum next to the old mill that I mentioned earlier. They have a huge (and I mean gigantic) panorama depicting the battle at Stalingrad. It’s a pretty powerful thing to see. The rest of the museum is filled with WWII history stuff. Unfortunately, it was very low light, and because of all the kids, we didn’t stay very long, so I didn’t get very many good pictures from there. My brother, Isaac, could’ve have spent days in that museum soaking it all up.

We left the camp on the morning of Thursday, July 30 and many tears were shed at the time of departure. I know I’m going to remember those kids for a long time. We boarded the train in Volgograd at 3pm and headed for Moscow. Thankfully, the return train was faster and had less stops, so the total ride was only 19 hours as opposed to the previous 24. We got back into Moscow on Friday morning and got into taxi’s and headed to the Agape guest flat. But this time, we were going to the new ones they had just finished moving into while we were gone. The new apartment was a great improvement. Ikea is a really popular in Moscow (they have 3 stores there), and almost everything in the apartment was from there. The first thing we enjoyed was ice cubes, and a hot shower. I think it took me a couple days to actually get all the grime off me. Friday night, for supper, we went to the Starlite Cafe. It’s a place that serves basically all american food. It was so amazing to have a hamburger and french fries.

Saturday, we went souvenir shopping in the morning/afternoon and then came back early in the evening as Andy, Lisa, and Louise needed to pack and get ready to head back to the U.S. They left Sunday morning at about 5am (I think; my memory at that time is very hazy as I just got out of bed to say goodbye and then fell back into bed a couple minutes later).

I stayed in Moscow myself till August 9th. During the week, I was working at the Agape Medical Center taking an inventory of their computer equipment and also going through a pile of old laptops, designating which ones to throw away and which ones to keep. Agape is one of the organizations that TechKnow Monks (the ministry I work for) supports, so by gathering the information that I did, it will help us in making future recommendations and understanding how we can better assist them. The internet connection at the apartment was down most of the week, which is why I was unable to upload my pictures for awhile.

Sunday, August 9th, I left the apartment at 2am to head to the airport. Thankfully I had no problems with paperwork or going through customs. My flight left at 5:50am, so I had about a 2 hour wait. Luckily, they had free wifi in the airport, so that helped the time go by faster. I then flew to Amsterdam where I had a 4 hour layover, and then I arrived in Uganda at 8pm on Sunday evening.

Summary

Visiting Russia was most definitely something I’ll remember for the rest of my life. For one thing, it was a trip that most people in this world will never have a chance to take. But it was also very impactful. I still find it so awesome how we may speak different languages, and worship in different styles, but we both serve the same living God, and wherever I go, I have a common bond with my brothers and sisters in Christ all throughout the world.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is my story of Russia. All 2,751 words of it.

(You can read about Uganda on my blog, as I’m updating that in real-time instead of having to wait till after the fact).