Final Russia Mission report from Pastor James - Thursday 6/17 and Friday 6/18
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Summary: God answered our prayers and things were very smooth and sweet today.
Details: Shortly after I emailed my blog last evening, I was asked to leave the internet café. There was a party for high school graduates, and they didn’t want Americans around. I hiked back to my room and waited for dinner. Again, dinner tends to be slight and served on smaller plates. Sleep was a very welcome thing!
I woke again just after 5 AM and began my lesson plans. Today we will spend much of our time working on our drama of Matthew 1:18-25 and 2:1-12. The theme for the day is about the cross and our memory verse is I Peter 3:18.
We had a brief meeting with the bishop at 8 AM. He is a very humble man and I find it hard not to like him.
Xenya returned after one day’s absence. Nastya was not there because of a hairline fracture in her arm. Her aunt did not return. Then Ksenia left at noon to travel with her parents. I gave her a small gift and she hugged me. She is a very graceful young person. We have been watching clips of the Jesus movie for children. I need to check with Kelli to see if we have this in English. It is distributed by ChildrenforJesus.org.
We had a team meeting after the children left at 3:30 and agreed that something had shifted in the spiritual environment today. Teaching about the cross, I expected more resistance and for the children to pay less attention. It was just the opposite -- they paid very close attention and they were very tenderhearted. After I explained about Jesus paying for our sins and offering us the gift of new lives, I asked who wanted Jesus to keep his promise for them. Everyone raised their hands. We will talk more tomorrow about the resurrection and the new life we find with our risen Lord.
Tonight at 6 PM we had sashleek (marinated meats cooked over a fire) cooked at the home of a congregant. Wow! This was world-class grilled pork, marinated in mayonnaise, garlic, onions and a hint of dill. I couldn’t believe how much he was cooking. And then we ate almost all of it with fresh vegetables from his garden.
I was in bed again by 10 PM, and glad to have had my fill with dinner.
Friday, June 18, 2010
Summary: The camp ended well and we said some tearful good-byes.
Details: I was up at 6 AM, and prepared for a shortened day with a final program.
The English session and story were on the resurrection of Jesus: Why does it matter? Because of the resurrection, we have a relationship with God and not just a sad religion. Nastya was back with a cast on her arm, but Anton was missing with a fever. Our program went well and our skit about the birth of Jesus was well received. With Anton gone, I had to play Joseph.
It is fun to give presents on the last day, and so I had hats knitted by Brandy Pollick for all of the kids. I had bracelets for the girls, and chess sets for the boys. Each child also got a class photo and a few trinkets.
When it came time to say our goodbyes, my two 13 year olds were very emotional; Valya and Xenia both asked me if I was coming back next year. I didn’t know what to say except “I hope.” All of my other students are 11 years old. Misha wanted a hug and bowed to me. Yasha could not look me in the eye, but hugged me and said thank-you for coming. Nastya with the broken arm hugged me and asked me to come back again. The other Nastya hugged me and sobbed please come back. Dima, a man in his early thirties embraced me and said thank-you. I reminded him that in Christ, we will meet again. Heli (age 16) had done an excellent job translating for me. She is finishing high school and I told her to remember us if she needs to come to the USA for a year living abroad for her English degree.
After we picked up our things, we took two vans to a terrible place. We went to the Levashovo Memorial Cemetery -- a KGB secret until 1989. This was the mass grave for more than 40,000 people executed by secret police in 1937-1938. Their sentence? They were unfaithful to Mother Russia. Their crime? They were Christians and Jews, Finns, Poles, Germans, not true Russians by birth. This was Russia’s attempt at ethnic cleansing and there are many other known cemeteries like this, and very many more suspected but unknown. Executions and burials continued at a slowed pace through 1954, bringing the number of suspected victims in this cemetery to more than 46,000. We could only pray “Christ have mercy on the victims and the perpetrators.”
We visited another Ingrian Lutheran church on the return from the cemetery. We had dinner at the church, and I typed this last blog entry before returning home on Monday. Pray for us, we leave here at 3:30 AM, our first flight is at 5:50, and we get back to Salt Lake at 8 PM (5:30 AM Russia time).
