Pictures

Lots more pics are up in the picasa web albums - but I haven't finished putting notes on them. I will try to do that tomorrow. In the meantime, here's the link:

www.picasaweb.google.com/lucy.wynard

Blessings,
Lucy

Upcoming Events

Here is a quick update on what we will be doing over the next few days (7/28-8/5).

This weekend Alexi Shilin, one of the leaders in the Christian Student movement in Russia, will be visiting us.

Om Saturday we will be going to two different picnics. These provide great opportunities for relationship building.

On Sunday I will be preaching at the Living Word Church.

On Tues we will be meeting with leaders of a Christian Pre-school in Yekaterinburg

On Wed we will be attending a prayer/blessing meting for a Christian Ministry to street kids (children who have runaway/been orphaned and live on the streets) They have just started to build a new building in order to provide housing for these kids . They have asked for our support and prayers.

Since this is our last week, there is more of a rushed feeling. There are lots of people that we would like to spend time with, so most evenings will be spent either visiting someone, or having guests for dinner

Next Sunday 8/5 we leave for America. Please pray that God will bless and guide or activities over the next week.

Thanks
Dan

NOT so hot...

Europe Bakes in Summer Heat Wave...

We just happened to notice this on the BBC news page and wanted to let you know that, ironically, the temps here have dropped to the low 60's and even 50's. We've had to plug in a space heater to keep warm - in fact, last night we were without electricity for about 3 hours, probably because too many people in the building were doing the same thing! Strange Russian weather.

We're back in Ekat.

Hi everyone! We just got back from Chelyabinsk where we spent most of last week taking part in a church camp (so, not actually in Chelyabinsk). God really blessed our time there. Some of the highlights include:

• Conversations with people (always a highlight, and this time was no exception). Dan had a number of good mentoring talks with people. Lucy managed to quickly establish some relationships and also had a number of significant conversations. These times of connecting were wonderful.
• Dan's evening talks on the themes of mentoring and discipleship. He examined the relationships Jesus had with his disciples and specifically with Peter, and at some of Paul's relationships as well. The testimonies at the end of the week seemed to indicate that people were discovering real biblical truths about how we build God's kingdom through our relationships.
• We managed to mostly stay healthy and survived the rustic camp conditions - for which we are grateful and just a little proud of ourselves!
• Seeing one particular relationship that in the past year has been healed/reconciled - one which a year ago seemed irreparable.

We had some extended time with Pastor Ilya Sluzin and his family before and after the camp. Ilya is really overwhelmed with everything happening in the church - he's the only staff member and knows that he needs to find partnership, a team or co-worker, if he's going to be able to continue in ministry for the long haul. Please be praying for Ilya and the church.

Lucy will post some pictures and perhaps tell a story or two tomorrow, but we just wanted to update you and let you know that we're back in Ekaterinburg.

Thanks for praying!
Dan & Lucy

Prayer requests & map link

Here are some prayer requests for the next 10 days:

• My talks to go well - that the translation would be clear, my words on target and people would be challenged and motivated to invest in the lives of other Christians.
• Good conversations and relationship building opportunities for both Lucy and me.
• Good weather - meaning: no rain, mid-70's and a nice breeze to keep the mosquitoes at bay.
• Wisdom in talking several couples through various counseling situations.
• God's blessing on my time spent with Pastor Ilya. This week is the main chance that I have to talk and pray with him.
  

Also, Lucy looked up the map link for those of you interested in seeing where we'll be. We'll be somewhere near Satka, Russia - west of Chelyabinsk (Челябинск in Cyrillic) and south of Ekaterinburg (or Екатеринбург). Click here to see the map.

P.S.

I've posted lots of photos online, with captions, at the following site:

http://picasaweb.google.com/lucy.wynard/RussiaSummer2007

At the same site you'll be able to find honeymoon photos and wedding photos, for those interested.

Apt. tour part 1 & plans for next week

Dan and I are off to Chelyabinsk tomorrow (Saturday) afternoon and will be gone for about 10 days, probably. The bulk of that time we'll actually be far off in the countryside at a church camp. The camp will focus on the theme of discipleship and mentoring - preparing the church for the primary focus of the fall. Dan will give 5 or 6 talks (I'm unsure - and it may change anyway, depending on weather & such!) on this theme. He's pretty excited about what he's prepared - talks focused on the Gospels and Epistles revealing mentoring "moments" from the lives of Jesus, his disciples, and Paul. Based on the outlines I've heard, I'm excited too :) I am also glad for the chance to spend some quality time with this church, a group of people that includes many close friends of Dan. On the other hand, I will admit that I'm a little skeptical about how well I'm going to be able to handle the elements. 6 days of going to the bathroom in the woods, bathing in the river, sleeping on the ground, eating camp food, braving mosquitoes and the heat... you can pray that I will find it all easier than I am anticipating so that I can concentrate on relationship building. Dan and I are also supposed to come up with some community-building afternoon activities - which we haven't really done yet! We may just play a version of baseball. We shall see. I will have Dan write a list of prayer requests later today or before we leave tomorrow - but just wanted to give you a "heads' up" about our silence for the next 10 days.

I also promised apartment pictures - so I have included a few below. This is our humble home in Ekaterinburg - and you're all invited to visit!

This is our main room. A standard question in Russia is "how many rooms do you have". When counting rooms, you don't include the kitchen, shower or toilet - all of which are normally quite small anyway. So we have a 2-room apartment.



Our main room is also our bedroom - as you can see below. This bed is NOT very comfortable - the sofa is old and needs a lot of extra padding - which we do by layering whatever soft we have in the apartment on top of it!
Here is our second room. If we cleared out all the stuff in it, we could just about fit a bed in there I think. But as is it serves as a storage and reading room. There's a big closest/shelving unit, a couple of big plants which Dan got as housewarming gifts (and which he likes to have out-of-the-way!) and we moved a chair in there so someone could retreat and read when they wanted to.



Just to keep you in suspense (and because we need to go out now) - I will save part 2 of the apartment - the non-rooms parts! - for tomorrow morning.

Many blessings - keep commenting!
Lucy

A Russian-Swedish Wedding

Dan and I have had a busy week! I'll work backwards, though - this weekend we had the opportunity to celebrate with our friend Sveta, a long-time associate of the student group here and member of Living Word church. She has been translating Dan for a long time and is the best! She married a Swedish pastor, Andreas. Andreas and Sveta met when his church began a partnership with Living Word church and he brought a group of youth here to Ekaterinburg. Russian (Protestant) weddings are always quite an affair - with lots of food and lots of music, skits, toasts, games, etc. We were at the ceremony on Saturday for a few hours and the reception yesterday (Sunday) for another 7 hours. Many of Andreas's family members had come from Sweden for the celebration so everything took place in two languages and had the flavor of both cultures in it. It was quite an experience! Here are some pictures from the celebration:


Sveta & Andreas at the front of the church during the ceremony:

The mini-reception downstairs immediately after the ceremony:

Kostya & Luda Taranov (good friends of ours), Anna (a former CCX student), me & Dan (very hot!!) at the reception on Sunday night:

More friends enjoying the reception, though not the heat, at the restaurant "Venice" last night:

On Friday we had the opporunity to speak together at the young persons' meeting at Living Word church. "Young persons" or "youth" in Russian can mean anything from young teenagers to older singles in their 20's or 30's. This group is mostly college students and recent graduates. Dan and I both spoke on 2 Corinthians 5 (one of my favorite books and chapters of Scripture). We had asked for a translator because otherwise it takes us much, much longer to prepare for a talk since we're both out of practice in Russian. But the translator was late so Dan had to do the first 5-10 minutes in Russian. He did fine and in the end I think we both almost wished we'd simply done it in Russian. The translator is still learning his craft and it made it more stilted than I think it would have been if people had simply put up with our grammer mistakes. Oh well! It still went well and we were glad for the opporunity to do a joint speaking engagement.

Today we're off to spend some quality time with Kostya and Luda Taranov (in the photo above with us). Kostya is the owner of a Christian bookstore run out of Living Word church and one of the lay leaders of the congregation. He is also helping to get a potential church plant in the south of the city off the ground - working with the missionary that Dan mentioned planning to meet with. The leaders of Living Word church are looking at Kostya as a potential pastoral candidate down the road. We have a good connection with Kostya and Luda and enjoying the opportunities we have to invest in them and spend time with friends.

Enough for now! More pictures - of our apartment and the city - to come soon. Many blessings,
Lucy (& Dan)

Meeting God in a lake

One of the highlights of our summer trips to Russia is always the one on one conversations we have with people. This past Monday we took a trip out to a lake in the middle of the woods to spend time with some old friends. It was very hot, so the first thing we did was go swimming. While in the water, I (Dan) got into a conversation with a man who had just gone through a very difficult 18 months. His family life is at best, fragile. His faith had been challenged. He was questioning, "Where is God in my life? What are the next steps for my ministry? What does God want me to do? Will he take care of me and my family in our present circumstances? Will he ever heal the pain that I have had to go through?" Talking people through these types of thoughts and questions is what i feel I am really gifted at. These are honest questions. These are good questions to ask. Often, talking them through with someone else's help and guidance can be the path that God gives us to finding answers to these key questions. I did not expect to be treading water for 90 minutes talking with this man, but sometimes we need to take the opportunities when they present themselves. This is part of the fun of working in God's kingdom.
Dan

Russian Lifestyle

Below is a picture of a typical Russian apartment building. These Soviet era apartments are found everywhere in Russia. They are the places where most Russians live. Since hospitality is so important in Russia this is where a great deal of ministry takes place. Meeting someone, small group, church events etc... all take place more often in homes rather than in public places like restaurants. In fact many Russian Protestant churches do not have their own building.

Pr. Ilya and Anya

On Tuesday we meet with Pastor Ilya Sluzin (Heaven's Open Church, Chelyabinsk Russia), pictured here with his wife Anya and son Grisha.

Making Shashlik

We just got back from Chelyabinsk. Monday was spent on an all day retreat with several of the Leaders from the Heaven's Open Church. Here is a picture of Slava Motov and Vadim Babashkin cooking Shashlik (Russian Barbecue).

A Note from Dan

Hi everyone

Just finished our first Sunday back in Russia. It was great to be able to worship with our Russian friends once again. Already lots of invitations to minister in many different settings are coming our way. Pray for wisdom in making good choices. It is Sunday evening right now and we are heading to the city of Chelyabinsk. It is a 4 hour bus ride on a very hot, sticky day – we aren’t particularly looking forward to it.

Some plans for this week include:

* Tomorrow we will be going on a one day retreat with some leaders from the Heaven’s Open church.

* Wed evening meeting with Pr Leonid (Living Word Church).

* Friday morning we will be meeting with a man who is starting up a new church plant in Yekaterinburg. He would like to pick our brains for ideas and advice.

* Friday evening we will be speaking at a Youth group meeting.

Life seems to be picking up very quickly! Thanks for your prayers & notes of encouragement.

Dan

We're here!

Privetstvi! We’re safe and sound – and slowly become better rested – here in Yekaterinburg. The journey was exhausting and relatively uneventful. We arrived Monday morning at about 5am local time and were finally “home” at 6:30am, about 30 hours after leaving “home” in Chicago. We pretty much went straight to bed and slept all day. (Dan only slept 9-10hours, but I’m still recovering from an awful sinus infection, which is my excuse for sleeping 13 hours!) Believe it or not, we were still tired enough to sleep some last night and today have managed to stay awake all day – a small triumph. We took the short walk over to Living Word church this morning and spent some time there drinking tea and catching up with Pastor Leonid. It was a wonderful way to begin! Our schedule and activities are growing clearer – and more options are still on the table, including a possible series of informal café & bible study evenings for young people. Dan will also lead a few seminars – Pastor Leonid particularly wants him to lead one again on preaching principles, something that “always needs improving”, as he said. Our bodies are adjusting to a hard and awkward “bed”, different food and a major time change – we find it takes a little longer for both of us to acclimate than it used to. But we are glad to be here – it does feel like home. We just wanted to give you a brief update to let you know we’re here and how to pray, so I will sign off for now and perhaps let myself indulge in sleep J Many thanks for your prayers!

Pray…

• That together with the church leaders here and in Chelyabinsk, we will be able to make wise decisions about how to spend our limited time.
• That God would show us what ministry together looks like.
• For our health – backs and necks and noses and throats are all vulnerable for us.
• And thank God for safe travel, a great meeting with Pastor Leonid and sleep. And for a working internet connection!

Moscow world's most costly city

(from BBC world news, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/6761487.stm)

You might save on vodka, but little else comes cheaply in Moscow

Russia's capital, Moscow, has been named as the world's most expensive city for expatriate staff to live, for the second year in a row.

London climbed three places to second in Mercer Human Resource Consulting's 2007 Cost of Living study.

Asian cities Seoul, Tokyo and Hong Kong completed the top five. Paraguay's capital Asuncion was the cheapest.

The report measures the cost of 200 items such as housing, clothing and food in 143 cities on six continents.

The most expensive place to rent a luxury two-bedroom unfurnished apartment was Tokyo, at £2,110 per month, and the cheapest Johannesburg, at just £490.

And while a coffee in Moscow will set you back £3.14, in Buenos Aires it will cost less than £1.

The high cost of accommodation and a favourable exchange rate against the US dollar were the key factors behind Moscow's continued dominance of the annual cost-of-living survey, Mercer said.

See a comparison of key cities in the survey

It was a similar story in London, where property rental prices and the weakening US dollar saw the English capital rise from fifth place in 2006.

Mercer senior consultant Rebecca Powers said there had been significant changes since the 2006 rankings of the annual survey.

"These are primarily due to exchange rate fluctuations - in particular, the weakening of the US dollar and strengthening of the Euro," she said.

Across Europe, a stronger Euro pushed up the premium paid to live in many countries, notably Germany and Spain. Six European cities were in the top 10.

Israel's largest city, Tel Aviv, was found to be the priciest city in the Middle East, with a ranking of 17th (up from 24th in 2006).

Cities in the United Arab Emirates such as Dubai and Abu Dhabi slumped largely because their currency is pegged to the ailing US dollar, Mercer said.

Dollar's decline

Asia had four of the top-10 most expensive cities in the rankings, with the Japanese city of Osaka taking eighth place. Australia's largest city, Sydney, was the most expensive in Oceania, taking 21st place.

In Africa, the most expensive place to live was Cameroon's largest city, Douala, which ranked 24th.

Zimbabwe's capital, Harare, was excluded from the survey this year. It is caught in a spiralling economic crisis, with the world's highest inflation rate of 3,714%.

In North America, you will still have to fork out for a bite of the Big Apple - New York was again the most expensive city, but it dropped five places to 15th. Other US cities also experienced sharp falls.

"The change reflects a reversal of the situation experienced this time last year, when the majority of US cities climbed the ranking due to the strength of the dollar," Ms Powers said.

In South America, Sao Paulo (62nd) and Rio de Janeiro (64th) were the most expensive places to live, but both slumped by more than 20 places each.

Asuncion in Paraguay was the cheapest of the 143 cities ranked for the fifth year in a row.

It was joined by Pakistan's largest city, Karachi (142nd), and Ecuador's capital, Quito (141st), at the bottom of the table.

Back to top

COST OF LIVING AROUND THE WORLD
	Rent of flat	Bus/tube ticket	Music CD	Intnl paper	Cup of coffee	Burger meal
Moscow	£2,057	N/A	£12.77	£3.24	£3.14	£2.47
London	£2,000	£3	£12.99	£1.20	£2	£3.89
Tokyo	£2,110	£1.32	£8.13	£0.66	£2.33	£2.77
Copenhagen	£1,182	£1.73	£14	£1.64	£2.55	£4.99
New York	£2,057	£1.03	£8.96	£0.84	£1.93	£2.93
Beijing	£1,461	N/A	£11.29	£2.06	£2.32	£1.36
Sydney	£1,048	£1.01	£10.05	£1.81	£1.41	£2.60
Vancouver	£700	£0.98	£10.06	£1.64	£1.42	£2.18
Johannesburg	£490	N/A	£11.19	£1.68	£0.98	£1.40
Buenos Aires	£720	£0.18	£5.81	£2.99	£0.91	£2.24
Source: Mercer Human Resource Consulting

Russia Trip 2007

Dear Friends - Dan and I have set up this blog as a way to keep you more regularly posted on our activities in Russia this summer. We'll post pictures and give you updates along the way. Right now we're counting down the days till we leave - 12, for the record. We fly out of O'Hare on June 23rd, arriving in Yekaterinburg on June 25th. We have a lot to do before we leave, though! Thanks for reading - keep watching this space! - Lucy (for us both)