Minsk 2002 Ministry Journal February 25th-March 15th, 2002 Before the Trip This is my second ministry trip to the former Soviet country of Belarus. In 1999 I was here in from mid-April until the first week of May. This time it is earlier in the year, so it will be colder. Minsk is the same latitude as Edmonton, Alberta, so it is hundreds of miles north of where I live in the Twin Cities. In February of 2001, I was sitting with my friend Rodger Peck in Dallas at a Boot Camp describing how much I enjoyed being able to serve and train leaders in other parts of the world. Rog said, "If you ever do that again, I'd sure like to go with you." I said it would be a joy to teach with him, and we stopped and prayed right there about it. Within a few months, the invitation to return to Belarus and teach Church Multiplication at the International Leadership Academy (ILA). God was beginning to answer prayer! We began our process in the late fall, both of us sending out letters to family and friends. Our prayer for support was two fold...many prayer warriors and $4,500 each to pay our own expenses and the expenses of the students we will teach. For both of us, the support came in slowly at first, but by the time we left, God had provided all we needed! I did get a little anxious about the financial part, but the Lord gently reminded me "Trust Me" each time I started to worry. In fact, the last day before we left, a great deal of money came in through my home church of ChristLife. There are over 20 people who contributed toward my trip, including people I would not have thought would give...many are older people and I know they gave sacrificially. Many will pray sacrificially, too! The North Central Conference Board of Church Extension gave $1,000 in tithe...others gave as much as $500, some as little as $10. Every gift is appreciated! The teaching materials I used in 1999 I tweaked a bit to hopefully make it better. The Russian version got upgraded a bit, too, but it is still not the finished product I want it to be so it can be used over and over again. The week before it was time to leave, I got very sick...a big flu that has been going around at home...high fever, bad cough, bringing up gunk, extreme weakness. I was beginning to wonder if I could go, but knew the Lord had not brought me this far to not let me come. But, oh, was I sick! I felt my weakness and inadequacy keenly...praying for the Lord to heal me and asking others for prayer. I'm so grateful for the prayers of brothers and sisters. A highlight was being prayed for by the leaders of ChristLife on the Sunday before I left. Prayer's going to make all the difference. Monday, February 25th--Tuesday, February 26th The last things are packed (I hope) and I'm ready to go. I have my computer, a bunch of books and teaching materials. One big suitcase is full of medicine donated by others, a bunch of crayons and markers I found for a good price, 10 of my "Surprised By Grace" book, 25 Russian New Testaments provided by my dad through the Gideons...a big load of things they can use! I'm still feeling weak and coughing a lot, but get on the plane about 1 PM. They were able to check my bags all the way through to Minsk, something I couldn't do last time. I met Rodger in Chicago...it was nice to be able to travel together with him. While we were waiting in Chicago, we noticed several people around a young woman...here was an Olympic gold medallist! She was a speed skater from Germany. It was exciting to see a real Olympic gold medal! Found myself praying we'd have a gold medal trip. Rog and I talked a lot on the plane about lots of things. It will be good to have a friend as a teaching partner this trip. The flight was long, but good. The first leg was to Frankfurt, then a layover of over 2 hours and finally on to Minsk. The time jump is 8 hours, so we left home on Monday and arrived on Tuesday. We both made it through customs without any problems...something I was grateful for because I had a big suitcase filled with medicines, crayons, markers and peanut butter (all are in short supply here). Later they said that getting through customs like I did was unusual. I had prayed for the Lord to make me "invisible" so those things could get through. He did! After we got to the airport we waited for awhile...wondering where our ride was. Finally, I recognized a man who had been a student last time I was here. Sure enough, it was Boris and another man named Nicolai. After an hour's drive back to Minsk, they drove us to the offices of Campus Crusade where we handed over most of our money--$2,000 for the expenses of our students and $700 for our living expenses while we're here. It felt good to let someone else have it! The exchange rate here is 1,650 rubles to the dollar. They gave us 30,000 rubles (about $17)...and we were ready for some Belarus shopping! We got to the hotel and checked in...our room was one of the recently remodeled...simple by our standards, but functional. We have a TV with a couple English channels this time...last time we had none. Makes it seem a little more like home. Once we get email...it will even be better. We went to sleep about 8 PM...we'd been up about 24 hours by that time, so we were ready to snooze. Wednesday, February 27th We didn't have anything scheduled until 3 in the afternoon. We slept until after 8 AM, then went down to get breakfast. It will be the same every day...a couple of eggs sunny side up, one kind of cheese (kind of a mozzarella), a couple of kinds of meat (braunschweiger and a fatty Canadian bacon), some salads, some orange juice, some small pastries. Most people drink tea...coffee is usually instant. It's a good filling breakfast. We had a good long season of prayer together...crying out to the Lord for His strength, wisdom and anointing to teach these two weeks. We are dependant on Him for it all! We also went over our lesson plans for the first few days...our great challenge is make sure we are teaching Biblical and universal principles, not just American/North American ideas. Boris came over and took us to the school. It is located in a different place now...a church called Bethlehem. It is out on the edge of the city, on the west side. It's farther out from where the school was before. It has a large new building...very beautiful. There we met Sergei, the new director of the Academy. Some things have changed...only one of translators from my first trip is still here. Two are now in the US, one is not connected to the school anymore. We had a good orientation time with Sergei and another man named Gleb, who is coordinating our "cultural experiences" while we are here. We showed Sergei all the contents of my big suitcase...and his eyes lit up. They deeply appreciated all those items. Many of the students don't have good health, and the medicines will be especially helpful. Belarus was deeply affected by the nuclear incident at Chernobyl, and many people suffer from it. I'm grateful to those who donated these things...a gift of love. After our orientation, we headed back to the hotel and headed out for supper. It is cold and windy...Rodger didn't have a hat on, so we tried a restaurant close to the hotel. All the menu items are in Russian, no one spoke English, so we gave up. There is a small grocery store close to the hotel, so we brought a couple meat "pasties"-sausage fried in bread-and couple of cups of ramen noodles and some shortbread cookies. So, our first "meal out" was ramen noodles in our room! After supper, a knock at our door brings us a couple of pastors from the US. They are finishing their teaching assignment. We have a pleasant visit with them. They've enjoyed their time here. They also are going to give us the computer they've used for email...at last we'll be able to connect to home. Thursday, February 28th Our first day of teaching! I've met my students in a picture...now I'm looking forward to meeting them in person. We are introduced in chapel...the students are surprised when I greet them in Russian! I bring greetings from our family and church, extending my hand to them. They all extend their hands to me in return. I'm teaching in a Sunday School classroom...pretty small, but at least I have a small blackboard to use. My translator is Anatoly, a man in his late 40's. He's been a translator for a couple weeks at the school, but has done much work like this in the past. He speaks three languages. His wife is an English teacher. He is very professional and very good. I'm going to enjoy working with him. I meet most of my class...two are sick today. I have 11 students. Our first hour I spent just getting to know them. I asked them to tell me about their families, their home town, their ministries, what they hope to do after they graduate from school and what they want to learn from this class. I have 3 women and 8 men...Luda, Maria and Natasha are the ladies. The men are Sergei, Vladimir, Oleg (two), Georgiy, Alexander, Alexey and Ivan. Most of them are in their early 20's and have been Christians for only a few years. Ivan is the brother of one of my students from 1999. Almost all of them are from small cities and villages, and their ministries are mostly in villages. I'll have to tailor my teaching to help them in that kind of ministry. Lunch is in the cafeteria at the church. We have soup, a piece of baked chicken and some vegetable salad. I think it will be this way each day. Our teaching is four sessions of about an hour each day. We're done by about 1:30 in the afternoon, but I'm pretty tired by the end of the teaching day. This afternoon a man named Vladimir comes and sets up email in our room. He even sets up my computer so I can get email like normal! I connect to a server here in Belarus, it finds my email on the web and then sends it through to Outlook...we are happy campers! Email is such an important link to the outside world and to home. There are no English papers here, so we have to get our news online. It's a luxury we didn't have last time I was here. We took Vladimir to dinner at McDonald's...what an interesting man he is! He is a journalist who also does translation work. His testimony is powerful and fascinating...so many people here have incredible stories of their spiritual journey that brought them to Christ. He was also a wealth of information about his country and people. McDonald's is always so crowded it is hard to find a seat. A value meal is less than $3 here. Shirley and the girls tried calling, but they had the wrong number. So, I called them. Sure was good to hear their voices again. We talked about everyday things, but so meaningful when we are so far from each other! We went to sleep glad that we can now have contact with the outside world. Friday, March 1st Our second day of teaching...and half my class is gone! Three were sick, three more left early for the ministries over the weekend (some travel over 250 miles away to serve in their churches each weekend). So...I only had five students. We talked about vision (a difficult concept for them to grasp since they have lived under political domination for so long), how to discern God's will, and leadership styles. They did a good job understanding how each person is different and how that affects the way they influence others. Still, some of the concepts are not easy for them to understand...it is a challenge to teach well so they can learn well! At lunch, our friend Vladimir the computer guy came to the school and told me how much he was enjoying reading my book. I had given him a copy of "Surprised By Grace" to read. He gave me some wonderful compliments on my writing (exciting for me since he is a journalist by trade) and asked if I could help him in some way to get his testimony in print. I'll sure see what might be possible...I hope to be an encouragement to many emerging writers in every way I can. After classes we met a young man named Sergei, our guide for the night. We took him to supper at "Patio Pizza" and had some interesting pizza....they have some different toppings than we do. Two pizzas and a pitcher of coke was about $6 each with a good tip. We walked to a large beautiful hall where we saw Tchaikovsky's ballet "Sleeping Beauty." It was very well done...great music, colorful costumes and great dancing. The place was full...this kind of event is apparently important to folks here. Tickets cost from $2-$5...we had great seats on the main floor in the middle. We got back and weren't sleeping, so checked our email (we do it several times a day!) and then watched a movie on Rog's computer. That also made us feel a little closer to home. Saturday, March 2nd We didn't rush to get up...breakfast at 9:30, worked on some articles we both had to get done and rested. Sergei met us at noon. We walked to several places...it was a cold, windy day! We went to a souvenir store, then to a WWII war museum (they were under Nazi occupation here, one in every four people in their country died in WWII). I had been here before, but I'm still moved by the drama and horror of war. After the museum, we walked about Art Park, a place with souvenirs and paintings. Rog is looking for a chess set, we both are looking for gifts for those who are supporting us. We can get some good deals on Matruska (nesting) dolls and other things. We just compared prices this time. After lunch/supper at McDonald's we went to a huge department store (the "Goom") and looked at some things. Rog and I want to get Russian fur hats for family members...we'll see what kind of prices we can get. We both got some nice pairs of socks for about 50 cents each. Some things are really priced cheap here...but the average wage for people is $60-100 a month, so they have to be. We got back about 5 PM and spent the evening preparing for our ministries of the next day. We've been here about a week...almost two more to go. Sunday, March 3rd Anatoly picked me up at 8:45 this morning. We drove to his city of Zhodino...about 60 miles away. The roads are much like our roads. The city is about 75,000 people, famous for making huge dump trucks for mines. I meet Anatoly's wife Ludmilla and daughter Olga (she's 15). We have bread, honey and tea before church. Both Anatoly and Ludmilla love my book! She wants to use it in the English classes she teaches at a school. We talked about somehow getting it translated into Russian. That would be a huge answer to prayer...to help people "see Jesus" in other languages would be a dream come true for me. Whatever You want, Lord. We went to their church, Salvation Baptist Church. Their Baptist churches are actually much more like ours in terms of theology. The church has about 50-60 people. I am glad to see mostly younger adults and a good number of children and teens. They have a good ministry in an orphanage, and a number of girls from there are at church. The pastor is a young man named Paval (Paul). He's still in seminary. His family lives in Zhodino, but he studies at the seminary and lives in Minsk several days each week. I am surprised to see how well he speaks English. He tells me I will preach twice (you've got to be flexible) and strongly hints at some things he wants me to speak about. We sing some hymns that I know, and so I sing along in English as they sing in Russian. We sang "Wonderful Words of Life," "Draw Me Nearer" and another hymn I know. They also sang a couple choruses on an overhead. I preached the first part of my message (the Lord led me to speak on the theme "Come to the Cross), then we had communion. The bread is in a loaf broken in pieces and a common cup with real wine. It is served much like we serve communion in our churches. Then I preach the second half of my message. The people are receptive and I feel the Lord give me liberty to preach. After the service, Paval asks me to stay and visit with a baptism class. Three people are preparing to be baptized, which is a very important step for discipleship here and not taken lightly. Paval asks me a number of questions, allowing me as the guest to "teach" the class. It was a heavy morning of ministry, but fruitful and satisfying. We head back to Anatoly's home. We have a wonderful lunch of borsht (beet and cabbage soup famous here) with rice covered by pieces of pork, and of course, tea. It is very tasty. We visit for awhile, and then I head to bed for a nap. I have a separate room, and sleep come easily. For supper we have crepes filled with cottage cheese, a favorite of theirs. They have two cats who are part of the family and a dog who stays outside. We talk of many things. Anatoly loves art, and their daughter is studying to be an art critic in Minsk. He had set up exhibitions for artists a number of times in Germany and other places. I find they had a fascinating story in how they came to Christ. They've been involved in many things. Their home is quite nice, probably an upper middle class one. Yet, they lived for 12 years in one room in a hostel, so they have seen life from both sides. It was a thoroughly delightful day...Anatoly and Ludmilla are wonderful hosts, and they enjoy hosting people in their home. I'm grateful for the chance to stay with them and get to know them better. Monday, March 4th The day is gray and snowy as we drive in to Minsk. Anatoly has a Ford Fiesta. We stop for gas...about 50 cents for a liter. Cars here cost about $3,000 and up for a newer one. Used cars can be bought for $1,500 or more. Yet, the price compared to income is much higher than our cars. Today all my students are here! I meet Oleg and Alexey for the first time. A young man from Anatoly's church named Michael comes along....I think he will sit in our classes. Today we talk about coaches and mentors, the importance of prayer, the Jesus Model of leadership, and a message on the importance of a clean, sanctified heart. We end the day in the sanctuary of the church, inviting them to pray for the Lord to sanctify them. Rodger's class seems to be much more verbal than mine...they pepper him with questions. Mine is quieter. I'd like mine to be more verbal. We'll see how they continue to open up. When we get back to the hotel, we find that we have to move from our room...they are plastering and painting our hallway. So...we move down the hall to a room that we actually like better. Rog and I head over to a pizza place at a hotel near here called the "Hotel Planet." We get a two small pizzas and something to drink for about $5 each...a good meal. We head back to our room. I'm reading a book by Robert Webber on "Ancient-Future Faith." Its heady stuff but really good. Shirley and Aubrey call about 10:45 PM...about 2:45 in the afternoon back home. Looks like they will be able to call for about 30 cents a minute...a pretty good rate. Elise wasn't there...she is taking her first driver's class! Even from half a world away, that's a scary thought. :) They've had a good time without me...a good Friday night event at church, a movie Saturday night. Still, we're very homesick for each other. Tuesday, March 5th Today is our fourth day of teaching. We'll cover five lessons in four sessions. We've got more material than we have class sessions. We start with a quiz...all my students do very well. I had told them what to study for in advance, because so many of them had been absent. Today we talked about developing goals, dealing with problems, conflict and family issues in ministry. Most of them are not married, but I know the material on family will be important later. Today they asked more questions and I can tell that they are beginning to apply my material more to their own ministry situations. The issues they face are very similar to our in so many ways...music, respecting old ways but wanting to try new methods to reach people for Christ...these are familiar issues! After classes, Anatoly drove us to the Lufthansa office. We were able to change our plane tickets so we could go home on Thursday the 14th instead of Friday the 15th. The ILA headquarters had given us the wrong dates to buy our tickets. The change cost us $150...more than I want to pay, but worth it to get home. Rog and I walked back from there...a long walk home of over 3 miles. We are enjoying the walking here when the weather is decent. We stopped at a restaurant for supper, bought some shoe laces at the Goom, stopped by the grocery store and then home...guess we're getting to be domesticated Belarussians! Wednesday, March 6th Today was my birthday. I had a good time with the Lord in the morning, thanking Him for my years of life, my many blessings, and all He has done for me. It gets sweeter and sweeter each year I walk with Jesus! I had a good birthday. Anatoly had told my class that it was my birthday, and they all sang "Happy Birthday" to me in English, Russian and Belarussian! They also gave me a beautiful plate with a scene from Minsk on it. Then at lunch Rodger's class and mine joined together to sing "Happy Birthday" to me in three languages again! Rog's class made me a birthday card. It was nice. Anatoly had managed a folk group at one time, and he gave me a tape of their music...beautiful! Our teaching went well. My class is asking more questions and discussing many things. We have decided to become a church planting team to reach a city called Smalyavichi-two of my students are beginning a church there. It has no evangelical church in it. So...all our lessons will have the practical application of trying to reach this city for the Lord. After classes for the day we took our students out to McD's for something to eat...just for fun. Cost Rog and I about 95,000 rubles (less than $30 each) to do it, but it was something fun we could do and our students really enjoyed it. When we got back to the hotel, both Rog and I were feeling a little queasy, as if something we had eaten wasn't sitting too well. Our lunches each day consist of some kind of soup, a salad of cabbage, beets and onions and a piece of meat. Yesterday we had "pigs in a blanket" for our meat. When we told them what we call a hot dog wrapped in bread, they all laughed. Rog threw up and both of us had kind of a dizzy headache. Gleb, who is coordinating some of our activities, also runs a high school ministry for teens from all over the city. He had asked us to come speak at their Wednesday night English club. Rog was feeling worse than me, so I told him to stay home and I went. We met at Jeff Laughlin's home...he is the head of Campus Crusade for this nation and had done some incredible ministry here. He has built a new home on the outskirts of the city. It is huge by their standards and probably about 3,000 square feet. Over 60 teens crowded into his main floor! It was like so many youth meetings...music, some silly games (I "danced" with a girl with a big balloon between us, the goal to not let the balloon drop) and then I gave a talk as their special guest. Friday is "Women's Day" here in Belarus...sort of a Mother's Day, Sweetheart's Day and Secretary's Day all wrapped together. It is a national holiday. So, I talked about the women in my life--how their love means so much to me and how it is a picture of the unconditional love of God. I wove the gospel into the talk (that's what Gleb had asked me to do) and it was received well. I had a huge room full of wall-to-wall kids. It was fun! Then we gave a carnation to every girl and gave them a big ovation, and ended the evening with lots of food and more loud music. Afterwards several teens came up to visit with me, speaking pretty good English. They all wanted to meet Aubrey and Elise. Gleb said they are welcome to come spend a year in Belarus doing youth ministry with them. There were two young men from the US there doing that very thing. We took a cab home and I got back about 8:30...a long but very satisfying day. Rog was feeling better, so we walked over to the grocery store and got a bit to eat. Rog bought me a bag of potato chips for my birthday. We rested and talked about our day. It was a good way to spend a birthday. Thursday, March 7th Today we begin the second half of our teaching schedule. Rog and I are close to being on schedule, but our time flies by so fast in the classes that we wonder if we'll get through it all. Today we decided we would form a church planting team to go plant a church in a city called Smalyavichi. It's a factory city of about 18,000 about 30K from Minsk and about 12K from Zhodino, where Anatoly's church is helping sponsor it in a kind of "mother-daughter" style. We talked about spiritual mapping-how to identify the spiritual barriers and opportunities unique to that area-as well as how to develop prayer teams and prayer strategies for the ministry. We then developed a profile of our Ministry Focus Group-young adults ages 15-30 who are in need of friendships, healthy relationships, and help with life's problems. We dubbed them "Smalyavichi Sasha and Sveta" and talked about how we would begin to reach them. So we moved in our teaching day from picking a city to plant a church to developing a spiritual map of the city, prayer strategies for the city and its people, and a profile of the people we are focusing on to reach for the Lord. My students are bright, thoughtful and attentive as I teach them these principles...I can see they are understanding the process I'm leading them through as I teach them. Rog and I got back and napped for a little while...we've been here 11 days, and we're feeling the drain of pouring out our hearts every day and living in a foreign land. We went out for supper to a nice restaurant. I had a big bowl of milk soup with a main course of almond chicken with rice. The price was about $6...pretty inexpensive. We did a little shopping...the city downtown was crowded with many people. Tomorrow is "Women's Day"-a national holiday-so many people were out shopping. We looked at music CDs at one store...you can buy music that we would find in America for 4,000 or 8,000 rubles...about $2.50 or $5.00 each. On the way home we stopped at the grocery store to pick up a few things. Many people shop daily here...both by financial and travel necessity. Some thoughts about life in our hotel. Our room is comfortable but not real large. On the TV, we get cable...we can listen to news in English on BBC World and sometimes on a German station. There are maybe 10 channels all together...a European version of ESPN, MTV, several stations in Russian that have talk shows and game shows (it's interesting to see their version of "The Weakest Link"). One channel has American TV shows dubbed over into other languages. I've seen "JAG" dubbed into Italian, and "Gone With the Wind" dubbed over in Russian. Somehow they're not the same! Rog had brought some DVDs along with him, so we've watched a few movies and the best of "The Andy Griffith Show." That makes it feel a little closer to home. Shirley called late tonight...sure was good to hear her voice. Its only a week now until we'll be in each other's arms again and I'll be home. Rog and I are both plenty homesick. Friday, March 8th Today is "Women's Day" in Belarus. The streets are almost empty as we drive to school. People will be sleeping in and spending the day with their families. Rog and I bought a carnation for each of the women in our classes, in the office, and for the cooks. They all enjoyed the flowers very much! It was also Anatoly's birthday, so we sang for him. I have sure appreciated him...he is answering my prayer that the Lord would give me a translator who would not just transfer my words, but also communicate my heart. He's done a great job. Today we talk more about vision, values and mission statement. I have the class work on a mission statement for our church in Smalyavichi. Like most church planters in our country, they also struggle with these issues. Yet, we come up with a mission that looks something like this: "Heart of Jesus Church's mission is to bring God's love to the young adults of Smalyavichi to help them find healthy relationships with God and others and God's answers to life's problems." Later we simplified it to "Bringing the Heart of Jesus to the young adults of Smalyavichi to find hope and help for life." The teaching went pretty well, but I can tell we still have so much to cover! Anatoly will be translating a week long seminar for pastors on cults starting next week, so today I had to say goodbye to my new but very dear friend and brother. That was hard. Rog and I feel that he is a key contact the Lord has given us to further the ministry of church multiplication in this country. Tonight we get on a train to Moscow for a day of seeing that city. Rog is excited to see it for the first time, and I'm looking forward to seeing it again. We ate supper at McD's and came home to do laundry before we go. I'm sure my underwear and socks will be dry by the time I get back! Saturday, March 9th We got on the train Friday night and rode it all the way to Moscow, arriving about 9 AM their time. We traveled in a sleeper compartment...small, but four people could travel together. Gleb was our guide for the trip. We had a good visit with him on the train...he too has a powerful testimony...so many people have come to Christ from such different backgrounds! He began to read the Bible to see if there was any truth to it, actually hoping prove it wrong. Now he leads an English Club/Bible Club/Youth ministry that is reaching dozens of teens in the city. We spent the day in Moscow. It was a sunny day, and for one of the few times we had pleasant weather. We saw many things...a diner called the "Starlight" that looks like a chrome Denny's from home. It caters to English speaking people. We walked to the train station to the Starlight, where we had a good breakfast. From there it was lots of walking and some rides on Moscow's famous subway system. We saw Red Square. Rog and I both bought some of those famous Russian hats with the flaps...Rog for his boys and I for myself and my dad. We toured the Kremlin, the walled fortress where Moscow began. It became known as the citadel of atheistic communism. Yet, inside those walls are five cathedrals! They are full of paintings, icons and other things. The Gospel is in pictures was in the Kremlin...a testimony to the power of the Good News. We also shopped in the Goom, a souvenir section of town called Arbot Street, had coffee in the food court of a multi-level shopping mall (if you'd have changed the names on the stores into English, it would have been any shopping mall in our country), toured a large Orthodox Church...it was a full day. One painting in the museum in the lower level of the church really stood out to me...a powerful painting of the 24 elders of Revelation bowing down to the Exalted Christ, laying their crowns at His feet. It was awesome...I wish I could get a copy of that. We also listened in on some of the worship service...much different than what we are used to. At the train station just before we left, Gleb helped me buy a phone card, and I called Elise to say "Happy Birthday." It cost about $6 for about 6 minutes, but it was worth it. It was hard to be so far away from her on her 15th birthday. How the years go by so fast! Sunday, March 10th The train ride home was bumpy, and we didn't get a lot of sleep. About 4:30 AM, Gleb got off the train at Baresov, his hometown, about an hour away from Minsk. He wanted to see his mother for the day. At the train station in Minsk at 5:45 AM, Taurus (yes, like the car, but pronounced differently-"Ta-ross") met us and we got a cab back to the hotel. We snoozed a little, did our email and got ready for church. We both spoke at Bethlehem Church, where we have been teaching for the Bible College. The church is only about 9 years old, but it has grown from 9 people to several hundred people with a beautiful building. Their vision is to have a church with a senior citizen's center and an orphanage. Pastor Ivan is assisted by his son, and several members of their family are deeply involved in the ministry. Rog and I both spoke. I felt the Lord leading me to retell a story about John standing at the Cross and give an invitation to salvation. Their service was full of music...several hymns (including "How Great Thou Art" and "I Surrender All", two or three choir numbers (including a rendition of "Majesty"), at least 7 special numbers, two poems...several times of prayer...and three sermons! The service was two hours. There were many children...Ivan said that 75% come from unchurched homes. As in most Russian Baptist churches, there were many older women. The people thanked us for our messages, and the pastors invited us to come again. We were both weary, but the Lord helped us minister. After church we went back to the hotel. Rog was feeling sick and slept for awhile. I had a bunch of emails to wade through, and then I slept for awhile, too. The trip to Moscow is a lot of fun, but really takes it out of a person. After supper (we went to a nice restaurant where I had delicious milk soup with flour dumplings like my mom used to make), we went over our remaining sessions to teach and our final exam. Too much material, not enough time. Lord, help us teach the things these young leaders need to know! Monday, March 11th We began our final week here. Today we headed down the home stretch in our teaching, focusing on cell church materials. Gleb is now my translator, and it was a bit different working with him. He is more expressive in his translation. My students had some good testimonies from the weekend, including one from Smalyavichi, the city we are "planting" our church in as a class! After classes, email and a little rest, we headed to supper at an Mexican restaurant and then some shopping at the "Goom." Rog got a beautiful tea set for his wife for about $24, and I got a bunch of things for Shirley, my girls, my mom, nieces and sister-in-laws. I'd love to bring something home for so many, but there's only so much space. I also found a book about Minsk in English with awesome pictures of the area around out hotel and other places. It will make it much easier to describe Minsk! Some more thoughts about people here...generally, Europeans are thinner than Americans. They walk a lot more than we do. A lot more people smoke here...and they smoke everywhere! We've been sick a few times in places where we've eaten because of the smoke. It's also common to see people walking at all times of the day and night with a bottle or can of beer. Alcoholism is a big problem here. All the hotels have casinos in them. Single homes are rare...the city is full of high concrete apartment buildings. Hundreds of thousands of people live in them...I think we Americans would really have a hard time with this. I asked if there are any Christian radio stations, magazines or similar things here. There are none. I did see a Christian newspaper, though. I found out that the "Four Spiritual Laws" booklets in English and Russian that I brought over (thanks to a Gideon friend of my dad and mom) were actually printed here in Minsk! It's a small world after all. Tuesday, March 12th Our last day of teaching. Tomorrow we give the test and have our "good bye" ceremony. I had to cover a lot of ground, but I got through all the material I wanted to and felt we touched on all the most important things. We talked about qualification of leaders, choosing leaders, training leaders, how to have a cell meeting, how to multiply cells, and a bunch of resources for cell ministry. The students did well again today. I sure have enjoyed them. I had a special surprise...I ran into Vitaly, one of my students from 1999! He was having his car fixed (the church has a mechanic's ministry on their grounds) and had a nice visit with him. What a treat to see him again. After school we headed to Art Park to buy souvenirs/gifts for our donors and those who gave to help me on this trip. Sergei, who had taken out as our guide before, was our guide and helper. I bought 120 Matruska dolls and 100 pens...and my suitcase is full! But, every time the folks see the dolls, I'm going to ask them to pray for Belarus. For supper, another special treat. Valery and Irina, two of my student from '99 and now married with a son, met us for supper at Patio Pizza. Ivan, Valery's brother and a student in my class and his wife Dina (she's in Rog's class) came along, too. What a blessed reunion! They are now going to seminary and planting a church in a city with no evangelical church. I asked them what they learned in our class in '99 that had been helpful. They shared many things...their struggles and problems trying to plant a church, the things from our class that had helped them...I was so proud of them and wished so much I could help them. Valery does have email, and so we decided we would try to keep in contact through email. Maybe I can have a coaching relationship with him. They asked me when I was coming back...wished that we could come train pastors. We said we would pray for the Lord to make it possible. We had pizza and a good season of prayer. They also gave me an update of many of the students from our '99 class. A number of them are planting churches! Hallelujah! Ivan said how much my materials had been helpful to them...I'm so thankful to the Lord to bring these materials to them! Back to the hotel...time to pack. Can we get everything in? Hope so! Wednesday, March 13th Our last day at the school. We met with Jeff Laughlin, head of Campus Crusades' ministries here in Belarus, in the morning before heading to school. Rog and I both want to help the church planting ministries here in Belarus. We feel that if we can coach a few key planters, invest relationally in a few key leaders, and do training seminars for pastors of existing churches, we could really amplify the things we're teaching at the Bible College. Plus, I wanted to know from Jeff if the planting manual I wrote in '99 could become their regular curriculum for this course and if so, we could do a much better Russian translation of it. Jeff was very interested and encouraging about our ideas, and I think we may be able to implement some. Our students have wanted us to come back and continue to train them-they are eager for us to return. We'll see how the Lord leads. As I prayed about in '99, I'm still seeking the Lord to know whether I should invest heavily in one foreign nation to foster a planting movement, or travel to many countries to train leaders. "I wanna be Your hands, I wanna be Your feet, I'll go where You send me, go where You send me..." Our last day at school was giving the final and having a goodbye ceremony with the classes. Our final was 30 questions with 100 points possible, plus a few extra credit points. Everyone in my class got an 88 or above. Two guys got over 100! Alexey, who was the "team leader" of our church plant in Smolyavichi, scored a 102. That was really gratifying. I gave all my students an "A" for the course. It was a pleasure to teach them. Gleb corrected the finals, and we had a bite of lunch. After that, I asked my class to come back to our room. I laid my hand on each of their heads and prayed for them individually. As He does so many times, the Lord gave me a special "word" for each of them...it was a sacred time and some of my students wept as we prayed. Our "good-bye" ceremony was a time of singing, many gracious words of thanks to us as teachers, some gifts, and a season of prayer. How is it that you can fall in love with people so quickly? I am VERY ready to come home, but will miss these young leaders and school staff a lot. I found myself praying for the Lord to let me come again in the future. Back to the hotel, and a little time of rest. Gleb picked us up and we headed to his Wednesday night Bible study at Jeff and Carol Laughlin's house. This time there were about 30 kids there. It was so much like an American youth meeting, but the teaching was more in depth and the students more attentive than they probably would have been at home. Rog gave a short testimony and teaching. Jeff and Carol took us through the drive through at McD's (Jeff said they are the largest American company in Belarus), and then back to the hotel. It is amazing what the Lord has accomplished through this family in just 10 years, testimony again that one person/family can make a big difference! Rog and I went out for the last of our shopping...some hats and I bought a little coffee. We got back and watched "Rocky II" with Dutch subtitles...another interesting experience. At 10:30 the girls called...they did it by themselves since Shirley wasn't home yet. It was sure good to hear their voices. Shirley got home and we talked a little...my heart is aching because I know tomorrow I'll be home and able to hold them all in my arms. Can't wait! Thursday, March 14th Our last day in Belarus...after 18 days, we get to go home! I'm so glad we spent the extra $150 to fly home a day earlier...can't imagine having to wait another day to go home. We finished our packing (I actually got down from four bags to three), ate breakfast and paid our phone bills. Mine was 63,000 rubles...about $37 dollars. It cost me 75 cents a minute to call to the US...worth every penny. Gleb and Boris came to get us, and we had everything packed and ready. The computer they set up for us was sure nice...a lifeline to home that makes things much more tolerable. We got to the airport and had one last adventure. The checkpoint before you get to the ticket window is a place where they ask you what you have to take home. They wondered about my computer (it is a "bearer of information" according to the customs slip-something I didn't know). Then they told me that I could only take about 10 dolls out of the country, or I'd have to pay 200% duty on them! Rog was going through a similar experience. Thankfully, Gleb was able to translate for us...the reason we had asked him to come. Then another lady came out, and they said we'd have to pay a 50% duty or a "fine." They took Rog into a small, dimly lit room (yes, just like in the movies) and suggested he pay them "whatever he wished." A large man in uniform and one of the women were in their with him. He gave them $30 for the both of us, and thankfully it satisfied them. We were both pretty tense. At last we got through there, got our tickets, went through the passport checkpoint, through the metal detector, and finally into the waiting area to board our flight. We both breathed a sigh of relief once we got on the plane...just get us home! The same thing had happened the first time I was here, but it is still unnerving when someone is holding your passport telling you that you can't leave with your luggage...unless you pay a "fine." So...I'm writing this on the flight from Minsk to Frankfort. Then Frankfort to Chicago, and hopefully home. Its supposed to snow 6-10" at home today and tonight. I'm praying desperately that the Lord will not allow the airport to be shut down in Minneapolis! In Chicago, I get through customs just fine...sure is good to hear the guy say, "Welcome home." We've had 6-10" inches of snow at home, so over 200 flights have been cancelled at Minneapolis. I'm afraid of not being able to get home. Finally, after a short delay, my flight departs. We get home at 11:30, and have Shirley run into my arms! Hurray! We wait for my luggage until 12:15 and Randy gives us a ride to his house. The weather is so bad that we stayed at his house overnight. At least I'm home! So many thoughts and memories of this trip. Even though international travel is not new to me anymore, every time the Lord lets me travel somewhere in the world to serve His leaders, it is a fresh, exciting, humbling and wonder-full experience. It was good being able to take this trip with a friend. I hope the Lord lets it happen again...and again...and again. "I wanna be Your hands...I wanna be Your feet. I'll go where You send me, go where You send me...." 12