36 hours and counting...

Less, actually. I could figure it out, but I'm too tired. In general, Dan and I are both exhausted. The last week has been jam packed and Dan, the introvert, is particularly struggling to stay engaged to the end. Please pray for us tomorrow - our last day here in Russia and a VERY full one. We'll have lots of goodbyes at church, of course. Dan is preaching and in the afternoon teaching a class for the bible school the church runs for new believers (people newly baptized need to attend once a week for at least a year, though there is a two year program - anyone is invited). In the evening I will lead - and Dan will help me (I hope!) - the youth meeting. The theme will be relationships, dating and marriage. And of course, there is still all the packing and getting things in order here in our apartment before we leave.

Yesterday we had friends over and watched the opening of the Olympics. Last night and today we've been watching round-the-clock news about the situation in South Ossetia. Needless to say, it's sobering to hear about war and to see and hear the reactions of our Russian friends. We have a friend from another city staying with us right now and it's hard to tear him from the television - it's a gripping and distressing situation. BBC news gives one view of the conflict, if you'd like to read up... of course, the angle of the Russian television here is a different one. It's very hard to know where truth is, but it's certainly true that people are dying and the conflict is escalating.

Thanks for your prayers - please pray for strength to make it through tomorrow and finish well. We want to make sure to say our goodbyes properly. Pray for safety on the journey home. And do pray for peace in South Ossetia.

Though it will be hard to leave our friends here, we are also really looking forward to seeing many of you soon!

Lucy

Lucy downtown.

Comparing CNN, BBC and Russian news on Southern Ossetia.

With our good friends, Kostya and Luda.

Countdown to America!

Well, we can't believe how quickly the summer has gone by. Just 4.5 more days and we'll be getting on a plane bound for Chicago (well, first Frankfurt, then Chicago!). These last weeks - this past month, in fact, have been jam-packed. If the first few weeks of our summer started at a leisurely pace, we have more than made up for it in the hectic, activity-filled weeks of July and now into August.

Last week - after being back at our apartment in Ekaterinburg long enough to catch up on a little sleep, enjoy a hot shower and do some laundry - we took a bus back to the city of Chelyabinsk, a few hours south of here. This is the city of Heaven's Open church and the regional CCX (student movement) group. We had already spent much of July with many friends from Chelyabinsk who took part in one of the 3 camps we participated in. So it was nice to be able to spend a week with people already "mid-conversation", so to speak. Rather than just catching up, we were able to go deeper in our conversations and relationships, which is always gratifying. We spent Sunday with Heaven's Open church, where Dan preached. They are so grateful for the partnership they have with Alleluia (and many of you!) through us. I wished that day that many of you could have been there to experience the contradictions of faith here: a weak church, yet so strong in their faith in so many ways; a poor church and yet so hospitable and overflowing in generosity.

The communion table.

Dan preaching last Sunday.


Praying for a church member with cancer.

Friday we celebrated Pr. Ilya and Anya's 7th wedding anniversary with them, their families and many close friends (both theirs and ours). It was a rather impromptu gathering - they invited everyone within a few days and only finalized things Thursday night - but still 21 of the 23 invited guests made it. Proof that Russians are an event-oriented rather than time-oriented culture :) They said 7 seemed like a significant year biblically speaking... and they just wanted an excuse to throw a party! Another reason for them to celebrate this year - they have just announced that they are expecting their 2nd child at the end of February. It is a real demonstration of faith and joy for this couple - who are stretched financially, even by Russian standards - to have another baby. It was evident to us, though, as we looked around the party Friday night how key the ministry of this family is. They have one of the healthiest marriages we know, either side of the Atlantic, which sadly couldn't be said of many of those gathered to celebrate. Russian society has some crippling disfunctionalities (to use an American word), and families inside the church seem to suffer almost as much as those outside. It is reassuring to us to see Pr. Ilya and Anya living a practical faith that gives hope to the people in their congregation.

Pr. Ilya & Anya: 7 Happy Years!

Celebrating Ilya & Anya's anniversary.

We'll try to update some more in the next few days with stories of the last few weeks. This week is a busy one! For now, go over to our Picasa web albums and take a look at the newest photos from the last week & a half. Pray that our final days with friends and the church here in Ekaterinburg would be meaningful and not simply bustling. Pray too for our preparations for Sunday: Dan preaches and then leads a bible class in the afternoon; I will be leading the youth meeting that evening.

At the dacha.


Dan and Lucy near the city center in Chelyabinsk.

Many more pictures online...

Here you can browse the few hundred pictures we've already taken this summer... and even more from last summer. They are grouped into albums which should be pretty self-explanatory. Enjoy!

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

For some stories and prayer requests, read the post below.

Back From Camp #3!

Friends & family -

Lucy and I are back from 3 weeks of camps. conferences, adventures and more.....
It was a great time and despite some of the difficulties (see posts below) we were both glad we were able to attend. As expected the highlights of the time were the conversations we had with people. We all had lots of time to reflect on who God is, where our lives are going and how God does or does not influence us. One example was a conversation I (Dan) had with an old friend whom I had not seen in many years. He and a few other friends had started up a small Christian business only to see their friendships destroyed when they came under the stress of having to work and make tough decisions together. He was very open in sharing with me about the brokenness in himself and his friends. Because that was at the center of how they treated each other that ate away at both their friendships and their business.

Lucy had the opportunity to pray with a young women that had been married about a year. This woman had experienced a deep betrayal in friendship resulting in public disgrace at church and was at the same time struggling to feel loved by her husband. She felt unable to trust or forgive. By the end of their walking, talking, and praying she said she was feeling hopeful and excited for the first time in a long time.

Dan, Ilya, Slava and Edik -old friends.

The last week was spent at a Russian student conference. It had been several years since we had attended a national student conference such as this. There were some old friends and lots of new faces. It was really encouraging to see how God continues to remain faithful to this vital work after so many years. One huge need that stood out was for new national staff workers. Many of the Russians who have been working with CCX (the student movement) for a number of years are now moving on to other things. There is a huge need for a new generation of leaders to be raised up to replace them. Please pray for this and the funds to support them.

Yura Mark

The main speaker at the national student conference was a man named Yuri Mark, a Ukrainian theological professor from Kherson, Ukraine. He talked about the difference between people on a journey - with clear goals, principles, and life perspective - and those who are simply wandering or stuck. He challanged all of us to think about our own journeys and how to shape our lives in light of the goals, principles and perspective that our faith gives us. He also gave some great seminars on contemporary evangelism.

Alyosha, the new General Secretary of CCX, interviewing
Dan and 2 others about their experiences in the student movement.

Thanks for your prayers! We're off to Chelyabinsk today for a week spent with some of these same friends - leaders from Heaven's Open church and CCX. Pray for Dan as he is speaking this weekend at church and for our time with some of the lay leaders of the church still recovering from deep wounds of sin in their recent past. Pray for energy and focus - we're both lagging a bit at this point in the summer.

Blessings,
Dan & Lucy

Back to Kyshtym

Dan and I are leaving in about an hour and a half for the bus station. We'll take a bus to the city of Kyshtym, not far from our campsite. Someone will meet us there and we'll go by car to camp. We're excited to go back to friends & conversations we were "in the middle of", so to speak, and next week to see so many old friends at the National Student Conference. But we're also both fighting colds and feeling very tired. So please pray that we would have energy and that our bodies would heal! Here's our schedule & a couple of prayer requests for the next two weeks:

* This weekend (July 18-20) we'll join the evangelism camp already in progress for the last few days. Pray that non-Christian students would accept the gospel and/or continue to be involved in Heaven's Open Church or CCX (the national student movement).

* Next week (July 20-27) is the CCX national conference. We'll be seeing old friends on staff and hanging out with staff and students. This is a difficult time for the student movement here - staff numbers are shrinking and pay for staff was just cut due to lack of income. Pray for the staff and student leaders from around the country to be re-engergized and refreshed by their time together. And pray for new partners for CCX! (Let us know if you're interested - we can get you connected!)

* The following week (July 27-August 3 - ish) we'll be going to Chelyabinsk to spend time with Pr. Ilya and others from Heaven's Open church and CCX. Pray that we will be good listeners and encouragers. Pray also that we would be able to pave the way for a team from Alleluia! to come next summer.

In early August we'll head back to Ekaterinburg, but we'll be offline probably until then. We LOVE hearing from folks so please comment or send us an email. And we do rely on prayer, so please pray.

Blessings,
Lucy (and Dan)

Camp Pictures & Update

The view from our camp site:


A mother-child afternoon activity:


Pr. Dan and Pr. Ilya catching up:


The worship team getting a little help from an aspiring musician:


Our evening campfire & part of our circle:


Well, we're briefly back in our apartment in Ekaterinburg after an interesting week at camp. It was full of both wonderful and terrible experiences! Among the highlights (and lowlights):

* We shared our camp site with a number of snakes, both venomous and otherwise. One woman was bitten and had to spend a few days in the hospital. A couple of others were bitten but only by garden snakes.

* The mosquito population at this camp site is significantly higher than the place we were at last year, which made our evenings especially challenging. It was almost humorous each night looking around the circle of folks constantly swatting themselves and their neighbors as Dan valiantly tried to preach effectively. He now has a new record for number of bugs swallowed during a sermon.

* Lucy had cases of both heatstroke and food poisoning. If there is anything more miserable than food poisoning itself, it's food poisoning in the middle of a wilderness filled with mosquitoes and snakes and without clean water or a conventional toilet. Enough said.

* Once again, we had some fantastic conversations and opportunities to build significant relationships. We continued relationships with folks who need encouragement, prayer and just a compassionate friend to talk to. Believe it or not, this makes up for everything above!

* This may seems particularly hard to believe, but the spot we are camping in this year is truly beautiful and restful and there were some times of real joy as we relaxing with the people from Heaven's Open Church, who have so little chance to enjoy the outdoors or spend so much recreational time together during the rest of the year.

We had originally planned to come home for a week in between this camp and the national student conference (at the same camp site) but were talked into staying a little late and going back early (yes - we are just that crazy!) to be a part of the student evangelistic camp going on now. We came back to Ekaterinburg Monday afternoon and will return to the campsite Thursday or Friday. Please pray for us this week that our bodies, minds and souls will recover in this short time at home. Also pray for those at the camp still this week - especially for the non-Christian students taking part in the camp - which has a Lord of the Rings theme - to hear, understand and receive the gospel. There is also a team from a church in London there to help for the week. Pray for them as few of them speak Russian or have been to Russia before. Several of them also had food poisoning.

For more pictures from camp, check out our Picasa Web Album. Thanks for your prayers!

Off to camp!

It is late Saturday night, we are all packed and ready to go. Tomorrow morning we leave for the Heaven's Open church retreat. For those of you who do not know, this is when we head off into the woods, and spend a week camping, studying, praying, sharing, worshiping, and resting together with folks from the H.O. church. This is often one of the highlights of my (Dan's) trip, not because I enjoy camping or anything remotely similar, but because of the relationship building that goes on during this week. It is a time to seek God, to contemplate, to worship and to experience a unique form of fellowship. It happens because everyone leaves their day to day lives behind and focuses on God. Lets face it, our lives (whether in the US or in Russia) are hectic and loud. There is so much screaming for our attention it is hard to stop and just listen to God's voice. It is difficult to just sit back and experience Him and only Him. That's why this week is so importyant for me personaly and for everyone in attendance. It provides the time we need, at a pace that is benificial, to make contact with God. To be restored, encouraged, or changed.

I am also keenly aware of how much both Lucy and I will need your prayers this week. We go in order to participate and be a vehicle by which God will touch peoples hearts. But we are imperfect tools that need your prayers and the blessing of the Holy Spirit. Some ways that you can specifically pray for us.

• Pray for me (Dan) as I will be preaching each evening (mon. thru Sat). The texts will be from 6 different moments in the life of David. We will examine how our choices can have such a huge impact on how we and those around us expereince God. Pray that God will speak powerfully through me.
• We will also do a lot of one-on-one counseling. Pray that we will understand people clearly as they share with us and that we will know how to respond (in Russian) to their needs. Pray that God will give us the strength to encourage and engage people throughout the week.
  
• Many of these conversations come at the end of the week and may feel rushed. Pray that we will be able to connect with people early thus leading to more in-depth conversations.
• Pray for us personally, that God will also allow us to rest and be touched by Him and others at this camp.

Next Update will be in a week when we return from the retreat.

Drying our clothes in time for camping...

Where in the world...

These are the places we'll be living and serving during the months of June-August 2008. Click on the markers, arrow, etc. for more information. If you zoom in you will find more things to see. If you zoom out you can see where we are in relation to Moscow, Kazhakstan, Western Europe and the rest of the world! Click on the link to the larger map to have even more fun exploring.


View Larger Map

Sunday Singing

A Busy Weekend

It was so great to see everyone this morning at Alleluia! (For the rest of our readers, we had the chance to talk briefly at our church in Naperville via webcam.)

After adjusting to life back in Russia, things are starting to take off. For example, today I (Dan) led a seminar in church on the ten commandments and the importance they play in our lives. About 14 new believers - people who came to faith in the last year - attended. It was refreshing for me to see and hear their eagerness to learn about God. They had lots of insightful and difficult questions - like, "How do I honor parents who have spent most of my life hurting me?"

We also went to the youth meeting this afternoon/evening. (As an aside, any church activity here seems to be about twice as long as its American counterpart would be - so the youth meeting was 2 & 1/2 hours long.) One of the interesting observations we had was how many similarities there are between Alleluia! and Living Word church, our church here in Ekaterinburg. For example, the pastor announced to the youth today that he plans to start having a second Sunday morning service in the fall to accommodate the growth the church is experiencing and make room for more people to bring their friends and neighbors. He also challenged the youth to step up and serve more. He hopes to have youth-led worship services perhaps once a month, also beginning in the fall.

Saturday we spent the day outside the city at the home of one of the elders, along with Pr. Leonid (the senior pastor at Living Word). We grilled sosiski (hot dogs), had tomato and cucumber salad, and drank hot tea - a VERY typical Russian meal. We spent our time fellowshiping and discussing all sorts of topics, eg.: how does one observe the Sabbath (Pr. Leonid was working on his sermon for today!), the American presidential elections, the influence of the church on the culture in our respective countries, the difference in prices between Russia & America (everyone wants to know if it's true that our economy is in crisis) and how to keep bees! (Pr. Leonid has two hives that he tends and keeps on Kostya and Luda's land. We find in Russia people have the most interesting and useful hobbies!)

This week we'll be spending more time with various people and preparing talks, etc. for the camp next week. Thanks for your prayers!

Dan & Lucy
Clockwise: Luda, Lucy, Dan, Pr. Leonid, Kostya at Kostya & Luda's house outside Ekaterinburg.


Pr. Leonid & Kostya after tending to the bees.


Luda keeps a fantastic garden, something many Russians do - it's usual to have a plot in a communal garden or at the "dacha". You can see the bee hives at the back of their property.


Pr. Leonid sat outside for a while to work on his sermon for Sunday morning.

A Typical Sunday Morning...

We thought we'd walk you through a typical Sunday morning worship service at our church here in Yekaterinburg. So here's what this past Sunday was like:

10:00 - (ish.) Introductions and an opening prayer**, followed by a half hour of singing**
10:35 - "Children's" sermon (it's sometimes aimed at the children, but is often a mini-sermon of it's own) - the theme this week was stealing and how it harms the church and leads to punishment.
10: 45 - Brief greetings to guests (us included) and the sermon. The text was Mark 2 and the theme was evangelism.
11:15 - Song of response**
11:20 - Second sermon (sometimes on a totally different theme, this time more of a response to the first sermon).
11:40 - Prayers** - any member of the congregation can share a request or write it down to be shared from the front.
12:00 - Final announcements & sending.

** Congregation stands.

You might notice:
a) The service was 2 full hours long.
b) We stand for about an hour of that time.

If you'd been there on Sunday you might have noticed some other things. For example: the passion with which the congregation prays - it gets loud & fervent! - and the central role prayer plays in the worship. The worship leader prays a short prayer between each of the songs, for example and we prayed the Lord's prayer twice during the service. You might also notice, as we often do, the seeming disconnect between different parts of the service - multiple sermons on totally different themes and texts, for example. This is in large part because lay leaders on the elder board are most often included in the preaching rotation - but rarely coordinate their sermons with one another.

Here are a few pictures:

First week back

Observations:
* There are more & more signs of wealth here in Russia - expensive cars and big malls - but it still doesn't seem like everybody has access to it
* Everyone is carrying a cell phone - and often talking on it
* Prices of everyday items have really gone up - eggs have doubled in price since last summer - yet when we go to the "mall" supermarket there are 67 working cash-registers and each of them has a line behind it
* Driving, or just riding in a vehicle, is an even more hair-raising experience than in the past because the number of cars on the road just keeps increasing
* The church leaders here seem tired and overwhelmed - but we haven't had enough time to tell yet if that first observation is accurate
*Life has gotten much more convenient - we managed to buy a cell phone SIM card, a mattress, a new shower fixture and switch our internet connection all in ONE day (unheard of efficiency in the past!)
* Life still takes longer here than it does in America

We haven't hit the ground running, per se but we didn't expect to. It's partly that Russian culture, in stark contrast to American culture, is just not as interested in "planning ahead". Things happen as they happen here. Which is not to say that they never plan, but when it's not necessary to plan - they often don't. We didn't arrive here with much of a set agenda for our time in Russia. We know a few of the general things we'll be doing, but much of what we do day-to-day is either spur of the moment or will get worked out now that we're here. The senior pastor of the church here in Yekaterinburg just arrived back in the city from a two-week intensive seminary course in St. Petersburg. Now that he's seen us and greeted us, he's ready to sit down at talk about what we'll be doing this summer. And it's not just because it's us - the Belarusian group coming to visit next week have times for events planned (so they can be advertised) - but they don't know yet what those events will be! It's just a very different way of approaching life than we're used to. We want to be of service however we're needed and so we do our best to go with the flow. We know it would impose stress on our Russian church partners for us to insist on a plan before they are ready! We are, though, looking forward to sitting down with Pr. Leonid this week and hearing his ideas for us.

Please pray for:
* Our meeting with Pr. Leonid that it will be fruitful in figuring out the best ways for us to serve the church in Yekaterinburg this summer.
* Dan has spoken with Pr. Ilya from the church in Chelyabinsk and he asked that Dan choose the theme for his talks at the church camp/retreat in July. Pray for discernment as Dan prepares those sermons.

We're Here!

Well, we're here and in the throes of jet-lag. This year has seemed worse than normal, perhaps because the journey here was easier than normal and we got lots of sleep on the way. Now we're working hard to get our bodies to sleep, wake and eat on an appropriate schedule! We are truly grateful, though, for such an easy trip here and for the nice, clean apartment that welcomed us. Today (it's 5am) we'll go to church and then have friends over. We were glad for the phone call yesterday warning us that they planned to come and spent time with us after church - now we just have to figure out what to feed everybody! Among the guests today will be Sveta, a long-time friend of Dan's, and her husband Andreas. If you followed this blog last year you will remember that we attended their wedding last summer. Andreas is a pastor in Sweden and they are here for just a week, so we're very happy that their time here coincides with ours.

I'm going to try and get another couple of hours sleep before church, but wanted to check in.

Blessings,
Lucy

Summer 2008

Russia Mission

In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. Philippians 1:4-6

A whole year has *almost* passed, we're just a few days away from our 1st anniversary, and another Russia trip is upon us! This year we will leave on June 11th and return to America on August 11th, giving us 10 weeks in Russia. We're excited about seeing friends over there soon and so glad that you'll be praying for us and keeping in touch!

What we will be doing:

We will spend our 10 weeks mentoring, teaching, listening, encouraging, and strengthening church leaders and Christian workers in the Ural mountain regions of Russia. This will take place through seminars, conferences, church services, one-on-one discussion and personal friendships. Specifically we will focus on serving alongside two churches, Heaven’s Open Church in Chelyabinsk and Living Word Church in Yekaterinburg. We’ll also be part of one, possibly two, camps that the Christian student movement, CCX (Fellowship of Christian Students), will host.

How you can pray:

Pray that God will give us wisdom in making choices about where and how to spend time.

Pray that God will use us to give encouragement, strength & vision to the Christians we spend time with.

Pray for good cross-cultural understanding & humility, especially as we teach God’s word.

Pray that God will provide the financial resources needed, especially for the student camp.

How you can give:

Simply write “Russia Mission” on your love offering envelope or give your check, made out to “Alleluia”, directly to Pr. Dan.