Safe in Russia

I Have arrived safely in Russia. It was an uneventful trip. Right now I am trying to get over jet-lag (it is an 11 hour time difference here) and organize a few things for the summer. Many of you know that Lucy and I recently sold our apartment in Yekaterinburg and are in the process of buying a new one in the city of Chelyabinsk Russia. There were some snafu's that have held up the process, I will be working through a lot of those issues on Thursday when I travel to Chelyabinsk (I am staying with friends in Yekaterinburg right now).

Today's agenda involves
• Getting a local sim card so that our cell phone will work.
• Getting my passport and visa registered.
• Figuring out how I can connect to the internet.
• Seeing old friends
• Trying not to fall asleep until 10:00 PM tonight
• Observing all the changes that have taken place in the past year. It is amazing how it seems like it can take forever to see change happen, and then tons of change comes along seemingly overnight.

Thanks for all your prayers.

Dan

And he's off...

Dan's plane should be in the air by now - he's flying overnight tonight to London, from there he'll fly to Frankfurt and finally to Ekaterinburg, arriving eary Sunday morning local time (around dinner time Saturday night here in Chicago).

It was harder to say goodbye than I would have expected - I think partly because the recent Air France crash brings up all my irrational fears about flying and because I just haven't gotten enough sleep lately so I'm extra emotional! Dan will spend the two weeks between now & when I arrive figuring out our schedule for the summer, reconnecting with church leaders in both Ekat. and Chelyabinsk, spending time with good friends from both churches and generally getting the "lay of the land". As many of you know, our apartment in Ekat. was just recently sold (yay!) and we now own an apartment we've never seen in Chelyabinsk, so Dan is hoping to get a chance to go and check that out, though we don't expect we'll be able to live in it at all over the summer. We might be able to help get it live-in ready for the fall so Pr. Ilya & his family can move in. We'll see! I have to finish up my last week of summer classes (Greek Exegesis) and then I make a quick trip to Nebraska to see my family over the 4th of July holiday (all of my siblings will be there -a highly unusual occurence!). I leave the evening of July 8th for Russia. Hopefully I'll be able to give you an update once Dan arrives & gets settled in. Thanks for praying!

"Why Do You Go to Russia?"

The other day my 4 year old nephew asked me, “Why do you go to Russia?” I get asked this question a lot. It is a good one, and I enjoy answering it. The quick answer is “Because God told me to.” This however is rarely enough of to satisfy my nephew, let alone an adult! If I dig deeper, the answer is because it changes so many lives: mine, those of people in Russia, and some of yours as well.

How are lives changed? It begins with the impact on my own life when I make myself available to God. When I take my eyes off myself, and begin to develop a concern for other people, I learn to see, love, and value people as God does. So many of the changes that God has wrought, the blessings that he has bestowed, the miracles that I have seen him perform have happened when I have made myself available to God and started serving others. I can’t imagine what my life would be like, how small and feeble my faith would be, if I hadn’t said “yes” to God’s invitation to go to Russia. Often people are amazed when they learn how much time I have spent doing missionary work. They assume that I do this work because I am spiritually mature – but the truth is that I am spiritually mature because I do this work.

Then there is the joy that I feel as I see how God changes the lives of people in Russia. There can be nothing greater than seeing people, who have lived lives devoid of real hope, feel and taste for the first time what life with God can be like. Take Alexi for example. Alexi was a young Russian man I met several years ago. He attended a camp I was participating in simply because he wanted to practice his English with a native speaker. Going in he didn’t expect a life changing event. After spending a week living and talking with Christians he commented “I never knew just how much joy I was missing out on in life!” I remember praying with Eduard, a man who was facing heart breaking family difficulties. Afterwards he commented that for the first time in ages he has felt a sense of peace again. Or the story of Alexander, a pastor in the village of Revda. Alleluia once gave him $200, as a gift to be used to meet the needs of his family. I remember how blown away he was by this miracle from God, as he viewed it. He commented that “the lottery has nothing on God’s church when it shares such great blessings.”

I could go on and on, sharing story after story. The heart of missions is in relationships. It is the privilege of being a part of these lives, seeing and getting caught up in what God is doing, that makes me want to return to Russia year after year. You can be a part of these relationships too. By giving, reading along with our blog, praying for us, looking at pictures of the people we get to minister to – you can begin to take part in the lives of people on the other side of the world! And I predict God will amaze you with how much those people and their stories can impact your life and faith. This is one great way you can move from spectator to participant.

Financial update: So far we have raised just under $3,000 for the Russia Mission fund. Thank you to everyone who has given! We need at least $4,500 but would like to raise as much as $12,000 (or more) to assist God’s church in Russia.

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