Thank You, Ronald Reagan

Jeff and I arrived at the Dulles International Airport customs counter at about 10:30 p.m. on Saturday to the news that former President Ronald Reagan had died. It seemed fitting that Reagan, the U.S. president who crushed the "evil empire" of the Soviet Union, died the very day we returned from a religious trip to now-independent Russia.

All praise for the change of events that made our trip possible ultimately goes to God, the ruler of all nations, and we certainly could not have gone to Russia without the financial support of our brethren in Centreville. But Reagan's policies opened doors that let me preach in Russia, without a doubt one of the greatest privileges of my life. I thank God and all of you for the wonderful blessing of the past two-plus weeks, and I thank Ronald Reagan for his leadership of this nation during the Cold War.

The few souls in Russia who are committed to God may seem insignificant in a nation so large and still so committed to its traditions of atheism and Orthodoxy. But just remember that as far as any of us knew only a decade ago, not a single Russian was a Christian. Now the men and women who we once saw as "godless communists" are known to us as brothers and sisters.

I hope you enjoyed reading about them on this Web log as much as I enjoyed meeting them and telling their stories.

I believe God has used the United States of America to create new opportunities for spreading the seed of the gospel. But I also believe our nation has begun to lose her way, and God just might use some other nation to humble us lest we turn back to Him.

If that ever happens, we might face the kinds of obstacles to serving God that are now before brethren elsewhere, including Russia. Our trip there strengthened my faith and determination to please the Father, whatever circumstances may befall us as a nation or me as a child of God, and I pray that God increase that strength within me.

I pray the same for all of you, my brethren at Centreville and throughout the world. "Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong" (I Cor. 16:13).

Time To Fly

This will be my last post from Russia, unless I get inspired again after I hit the button to publish it. We've checked out of the hotel and are relaxing briefly at the Internet cafe before heading to the airport. It's about noon now, and I figure we'll leave here at about 1 p.m. The trek to the airport is about an hour, so that will give us three hours at the airport before departure time.

I'm not looking forward to the 12-plus hours on airplanes and the changeover at Heathrow. I hope the shorter leg from Moscow to London will not be too bad. On the way here, there were very few people on that flight, so Jeff and I each had an entire row to stretch our legs and relax. We may not be so lucky today, however, because it's Saturday, potentially a busier travel day.

The leg from London to Dulles will be dreadfully painful on the legs and back, if our first experience is any indication. We flew a much larger jet on that trip, but almost every seat was taken. The movies didn't serve as a good distraction, either (you can only watch "Welcome to Mooseport" so many times, and the other selections were pitiful). The selection for the return trip looked much better -- the first two parts of "Lord of the Rings" -- so I hope that hasn't changed in two weeks. Maybe I can watch both episodes. I'll be thinking of you if I do, Mom.

This morning, I went back to the streetside shopping area near the mall. We went there yesterday and I bought my hat for a mere 150 rubles ($5), plus the guy threw in an extra pin for the hat. Jeff took my photo, and the man at the stand jumped in and threw his arm around me. Guess he wanted to be in the picture with the Russky Redneck, too!

I came with suitcases full of vitamins, clothes for a young boy and other gifts for the brethren in Russia, and I'm returning with my suitcases even more full of trinkets. Everything is so cheap here I just couldn't help but buy. I'm not even sure who will get all of the gifts yet. I'll probably have extras.

I couldn't find a t-shirt or sweatshirt for you, Dad. They had a really cool "McLenin" t-shirt. It featured one of Russia's most infamous leaders cast against the famous McDonald's "M" on the front and the phrase "The Party Is Over" on the back, with an image of the Soviet symbol cracking and going up in flames. But they only had medium and extra large at every stand, and neither looked like they would fit. I got you another souvenir, though, and I'm pretty sure you'll like it.

And I got you a cool book, Mom. It's in Russian, so you won't be able to read it. But you probably know the book by heart anyway, and I thought it would make a nifty conversation piece. Maybe I've given it away now.

Well, I'm about out of time on the computer, so I better post. Love you all, and I can't wait to see everyone.

Two Different Worlds In Russia

The tour of Moscow today offered a completely different view of Russia than the one we gained during nearly two weeks in Nizhny.

Although it is the third-largest city in Russia, Nizhny is dirt poor ... and very dirty. Moscow is very much like capital cities in the United States, including Washington -- prim, proper and polished. We saw the seedier side of the city our first night in Russia, when we made an impromptu overnight stay with a Christian because we couldn't get train tickets to Nizhny. But Moscow appears to be very much like Washington: pockets of poverty (probably broader and more extreme than in the District) but also areas of great wealth and stunning architecture.

Moscow has beautiful apartment complexes, including one where it costs $2,000 to $3,000 to rent a small space, according to the guide on the bus tour. They have an embassy row. And the campus of Moscow University rivals any of the big schools I've seen in D.C. or throughout the United States (save the West Virginia University campus, which is unrivaled in the world!!!). My photos won't tell the story because I had to take most of them from the bus, through glass windows and with electrical wires and car tops in the foreground. But I hope they will provide some insight.

Masha said the reason for the disparity between Moscow (as well as St. Peterburg) and other cities like Nizhny is the control Moscow has over revenue in the nation. Most of it goes to the two biggest cities, and most popular attractions for foreigners, and the rest have access to limited funds.

Sounds a bit like the pork-barrel political system in the United States, only on a much larger scale and I suspect with fewer people pulling the strings.

The 'Foreign Tourist' Surcharge

Thanks to the genorosity of Tom and Masha, Jeff and I managed to make it through most of this trip without spending much money. But that all changed today. Not only is Moscow about twice as expensive as Nizhny (for food and everything else), but we also have faced the "foreign tourist" surcharge.

I read about it briefly in the book Kimberly bought before we left. I don't think I really appreciated the impact it would have on our wallets, though. To tour the Moscow museum, we paid 60 rubles each for Tom and Masha (about $2) ... and 150 rubles ($5) each for Jeff and me. The difference in the surcharge was even greater to tour the Kremlin -- 70 rubles ($2) for Tom and Masha, 350 rubles ($12) for Jeff and me, including an extra fee to take photos. And because backpacks are not allowed inside the Kremlin, I had to pay 60 rubles ($2) to put my backpack in a bin. Masha's tab was half that.

The free market at its worst, Russian style.

Thankfully, there have been no surcharges for meals, public transportation or for the bus tour of Moscow (150 rubles each, or $5). But we ruled out taking a taxi straight from the hotel to the airport both because of the price and the surcharge. I personally hate the idea of lugging three bags each through the subway system tomorrow, but we will save quite a bit of money as a result.

For anyone who is curious, the tourist tab for our trip is coming from our personal funds, not from the money provided by the church for us to do the Lord's work here. And that is as it should be on such trips.

No Photos Of Lenin's Body

We toured Moscow today and ended up with a splendid day of blue skies and white clouds. But I had really wanted to take a photo of communist leader Lenin's preserved body and didn't get to do so because Red Square is closed.

The city is prepping the square for Russia's Independence Day (from the Soviet Union in 1992) on June 12. Bummer. I did take a couple of photos of the square from the perimeter, but they won't be as good as they could have been had we been able to walk the square.

Jeff also was disappointed because he did not get to see the New Testament manuscripts in the Moscow museum. They have manuscripts from the 9th and 12 centuries, and he had sent an e-mail a month ago asking about making an appointment to review them. He never received a response, though, and try as he might today, he couldn't persuade the administrators to arrange a viewing. It looks like he may be able to request photo facscimiles of the pages he wants by mail once we return to the states.

The highlight of the day was stepping inside the Kremlin. The interior itself wasn't all that great, save the giant "tsar bell" and "tsar cannon." But just the thought of Americans being able to walk inside the Kremlin still amazes me.

As for the sites on the inside, visitors are not allowed to get near the facilities used by President Putin, and once you've seen one Russian Orthodox church -- there are several inside the Kremlin walls -- you've pretty much seen them all. I was actually more impressed with the church we saw in Nizhny Novgorod than the one we entered inside the Kremlin. The one in Nizhny is an active facility, while Masha thinks the ones inside Moscow's Kremlin are just museums.

After we toured the Kremlin, we took a bus tour of Moscow. We made two stops along the way for photos. One of them was outside the Kremlin and across the river, and the view of the walls and the churches from there was much more impressive than from inside. The other stop was at the highest point within Moscow. They had two ski jumps there, just as they had one in downtown Nizhny, with a makeshift beach below the ramp area. Kinda cool to see ski jumps inside the city limits.

The bus tour was about two hours, and all of us were exhausted by then (about 6 p.m.), so we returned to the hotel. We finished dinner at about 8 p.m., and I headed straight to the Internet cafe to update everyone before I head to bed.

I needed this busy day in Moscow. Took my mind off of how much I want to be home. I'm not thrilled about the hours ahead of us on airplanes, but I am very thrilled about the prospect of seeing all of you and telling you more about Russia.

Thanks for reading the past two weeks and for commenting occasionally. Hearing from all of you made the homesickness more tolerable.

Longing For The English Language

In the list I posted last week of things I miss most about America, I forgot to mention perhaps the most obvious: the English language. It's interesting to try to speak Russian and to hear it as well -- Masha asked, for instance, whether we think she and Tom sound like they're arguing when they talk because of the intonations in the language -- but I want to hear my native tongue again.

I loved turning on the TV in our hotel and being able to find some channel other than BBC or VH-1 where they speak English. And I've been listening to CDs on Stephanies stereo -- thank you so much, Stephanie!!! -- for two weeks now. It will be so good to be home and know what people are saying everyday.

Even better, now when Kimberly tells me I have a "tone," I can tell her that's just the way we Russians talk. (Tone, intonation, get it?) Masha tells Jeff he couldn't possibly pass for a Russian, by the way, because he dresses like an American and is far too happy. I, on the other hand, fit right in. At dinner tonight, after I messed my hair up a little, Tom and Masha said I had the Russian expression down pat.

I am the Redneck Russky!!!

A Rainy End To Our Trip

Touring the sites in Moscow tomorrow probably will be cold and damp. The temperature was about 50 degrees when we left Nizhny this morning, and it's expected to dip as low as 41 tonight. The high for tomorrow is not supposed to top 60 ... and the forecast calls for rain and wind.

We're hoping for occasional breaks in the weather for photo ops. Our flight doesn't leave until 5 p.m. on Saturday, so if we don't get any photos tomorrow from Moscow, maybe we'll have another chance Saturday morning. I sure will be bummed if I come all the way to Russia and can't get any nice photos of Moscow. One thing working in our advantage is our location. Moscow is so far to the north on the globe that daylight starts between 4 a.m. and 5 a.m. and continues until 10 p.m. or after. So maybe we can find a good weather window in there somewhere.

In any case, we've had great weather most of the time here, so I am thankful for that.

Another note: Heard today that they had a major computer malfunction at Heathrow airport in London, and the air-traffic controllers had to direct the planes "manually," whatever that means. It caused major delays at Heathrow. So Kimberly, if you're meeting us at the airport, you might want to check our arrival time before you leave the house.

Second Lecture In Dzerzinsk

The same three people who attended the lecture in Dzerzinsk on Saturday returned yesterday, according to Jeff, and Sergei again came to Nizhny for the Bible study.

But it looks like Sergei's interest may be superficial, at least for now. He gave Jeff a note and asked him to read it later. Making sense of it through the broken English is difficult, but it does not sound like he has much interest in faith at this point. Sergei also had told us on Saturday that he thought his parents would attend a lecture if given more advance notice, but they declined. I don't recall the wording of the letter exactly, but his mother's attitude in particular was much like that Tom described earlier this week about most Russians: You can't trust preachers.

Tom, in fact, said he does not usually approach Russians by telling them he is a preacher. He gave us that insight after Jeff talked to a man inside the Kremlin in Nizhny. The man, who spoke broken English, told Jeff he does not like people in general and then added, "especially preachers." That's why Tom just tells people instead that he wants to talk about the Bible. That sounds like a great approach to me.

Back In Moscow

We arrived by train at about 6:30 p.m., checked in at Hotel Gamma (yes, named after letters in the Greek alphabet, and we passed Alpha and Beta on our way), and just returned from dinner and a walk.

Trust me, the walk wasn't my idea. I hate taking walks in the United States for "fun," and I definitely wasn't thrilled about the idea in a country where you walk probably an average of a mile every time you want to go somewhere -- even if it's just from flat to bus to final destination. Nothing is right at a bus stop; everything is at least a small hike. I am thankful to be feeling well enough to walk more than a few yards from a bathroom, however.

I'm writing from an Internet cafe in the lobby of our hotel, which looks like a high-class joint ... until you actually get to the room. We're on the 27th floor, only one floor from the top. The room has narrow and short twin beds and just mattresses with no box springs. The bathroom smells wreaks of raw sewage. We can't decide whether to keep the door open and hope it airs out or keep it closed to spare us suffocation in our sleep.

Jeff and I are in one room and Tom and Masha in another one on the other side of the hotel but the same floor. Masha warned us that the look of the lobby could be deceiving, and boy was she right. But Jeff really had her going at dinner. He asked her if she and Tom had tried the jacuzzi in their room yet ... or watched the big-screen TV mounted on the wall. Then I told her about our huge canopy beds. It wasn't until Jeff mentioned the kitchen that she realized we were lying through our teeth (always a good way to end a missionary journey, huh). She said she's always told her friends she is naive enough to believe any lie. We may just have some fun with that newsflash tomorrow.

We also had a chance to tease Masha a couple of nights ago for her English pronunciation of the word "bitter." It sounded like she was saying "beat her" ... and the context of the conversation was one of the Christians here whose husband was a drunkard, so that wasn't out of the realm of possibilities. We kept telling her how to pronounce it, using the word "bit" as a guide. She pronounced "bit" just fine, but when she added the "ter," the pronunciation just fell apart. Very funny stuff ... but probably one of those had-to-be-there moments.

Another pronunciation note: I love hearing Masha translate prayers because of the way she says "Our heavenly Father."

Signing Off From Nizhny

Jeff and Masha returned to Dzerzinsk today for the second lecture at the library there. Tom stayed home to prepare a lesson on Isaiah for this evening, and I stayed home because I've been sick at my stomach since the middle of last night -- nothing bad but bad enough to deter me from bus and train rides for two-plus hours out of the day.

We all return to Moscow by train tomorrow, and I don't expect to post anything else to the blog before then. The train leaves at 11 a.m. and should arrive in Moscow at about 7 p.m. I just hope I'm still not having stomach problems for that trek.

We'll see some sites in Moscow on Friday, and possibly on Thursday evening and Saturday morning, before we head to the airport Saturday. Our flight leaves at 5 p.m. Moscow time, and Lord willing, we will be safely on the ground at Dulles late Saturday night Virginia time. If we find an Internet cafe in Moscow and I'm motivated to write, you'll here more from me. But I don't have much to say right now.

I'm ready to come home.

A Post For Elli

Hey Sister,

Mommy hasn't sent a note from you to me yet, but I thought I'd write to say hello anyway. I sure do miss you. Mommy tells me you're having fun with Maw and Paw in Memphis. I'm very proud of you and brother for being such a good girl and boy for Mommy during the past two weeks in Louisiana and Tennessee. I can't wait to see you in four days and give you a great big hug!!!

I have a surprise for you, too. They have all kinds of pretty things here in Russia, and I bought you something. I think you'll love it. It's fit for the princess you are.

Be good for Mommy the next few days, and have her type a note from you to me. Ya tibia lablu (I love you).

Daddy

A Bagful Of Russian Goodies

Jeff and I went shopping for trinkets in Nizhny today, and I filled my backpack with an array of items -- and without managing to spend much money. Everything here is so inexpensive.

It's easy to shop for girls and women because the stores of full of beautiful painted boxes and eggs, scarves, carvings, etc. The selection for little boys is not so broad. I think I managed to find something you'll like, though, Anthony, so Daddy has a surprise for you and Elli when he comes home in just four more days!!!

Masha had suggested that Jeff and I do as much shopping here as possible because the cost of living, and thus the cost of buying trinkets, is so much higher in Moscow. That will be the only place I can find one of those cool Russian hats, though. I hope I can find one so I can look like a true Russky Redneck. I'm also still on the hunt for an old Soviet textbook of some sort for Stephanie. Masha hasn't thought of anyplace yet where I might find one, and I haven't seen any used bookstores. And I hope to find sweatshirts and or t-shirts in Moscow.

They also have supersize shoehorns here. I don't even have to squat in the entranceway to put on my shoes, which is convenient because Russians don't wear shoes inside so we're always removing our shoes. I desperately want to find one of those shoehorns for Anthony and me. He has been fascinated with shoehorns ever since Maw and Paw introduced him to them while Kimberly was in the United Kingdom in April.

One observation about the shopping scene here: They sell women's undergarments at streetside stands and in the underground shops near the train stations. I saw one woman trying on a bra Saturday, presumably over her shirt but it's hard to say for sure because she had her jean jacket pulled out like a screen. I probably shouldn't notice such things, but it's kind of hard not to. Very bizarre.

Russians generally, and even some of the Christians here, are not the least bit modest in their attire. They seem especially fond of extremely tight clothing and low-cut jeans. That is one area where I see room for some spiritual maturing.

They Shoot Vegetables Here

OK, not really, but I did go "salad 'hunting'" at a cafe on the "walking street" in Nizhny. Salad hunting was the name of the meal I had. Not exactly sure what was in it. The menu said it had "the hen" (I'm guessing chicken) mushrooms, grapes, black olives and mayonaise. Let's just say I was thankful for all of the mayonaise because there was so much of it I didn't see much of the strange concoction as I ate it.

Jeff picked the cafe because he saw that it offered shishkabobs, but then he ended up ordering a pork chop with cheese on it. I was reluctant to order meat here -- never know how well they cook it in foreign countries -- but now I wish I had. I sample Jeff's meal and it was quite tasty.

Both of us got a kick out of the menu. It looks like the people on the cafe typed the Russian terms for their meals into an Internet translator and copied the automatic English translations word for word. One of my favorites read something like "language with a garnish." We're thinking that meant cow tongue because people asked us earlier this week if we had ever eaten cow tongue. I haven't -- and I don't plan to try it in Russia.