FBC Missions

It seems like we’ve only just arrived, and now we are preparing for our last few days here. We’ve been so busy that it has been hard to find time to update everyone, but I’ll try.

We ended our work week last Friday by having a short day in order to have some extended time together as a team. After we finished plastering walls for the day, we cleaned up and met in the guest house. This is is on the 3rd floor of the BLTC where the 5 guys on the team are living. It includes a cozy kitchenette for us to gather, have a snack and just spent some time encouraging one another, debreifing the day, and praying. Later, we had dinner at the Watson’s. It was a wonderful, relaxing evening. Joy prepared a Russian/American meal with shlashleek (sp?) which is like shish-ka-bob, pulled pork, bbq chicken, beans and rice, and salad. She found a cheesecake at the Costco-like store and topped it with fresh raspberries from the street market. We enjoyed the relaxation and fellowship.

The team has worked really well together, everyone offers a different strength and this has helped us in many areas; Kurt is our “master plasterer”. He has shown many of us how to do the job, but when it comes to the final layer, we prefer Kurt be the one to smooth it all out. He practically completed the second coat by himself. We were thankful for his willingness to step up to the work we felt uncomfortable with. What a trouper! Julie has tons of energy, always looking for something to do. When she ran out of things, she power-walked around the room! She’s always ready to pitch in when she sees a need. Mike is the easy-going, go-with-the-flow guy. He’s willing to tackle any task that is before him, plastering, helping with the ceiling, and even running to the Russian version of “Jerry’s”. I’m sure this is a lot to take in for his first short term mission experience. John’s been our ceiling guy. He’s been measuring and marking for days, and now he’s drilling the ceiling to prepare to hang the metal bars in the dropped ceiling. He must be getting one big stiff neck from all this work. It’s nice to have such an expert in the crowd.

Randy has been helping thoughout the construction site. He has also been the banker;it’s a bigger job than it seems. We knew that we needed to bring cash with us to purchase supplies, but what an eye opener when some of the dollars were rejected by the bank because they are not “new” enough. It’s lead to a lot of juggling, but he’s taken it in stride. And Mark is the ultimate diplomat. He’s been working with 2 Russian men on the project plan. It’s a sensitive area and he’s been terrific at getting everyone on the same page so that we can be effective as possible while we’re here. It’s no small task. And I just sneak around snapping photos of everything. I can’t wait to share some of these with you when we return.

This weekend was packed full of things to do. Saturday we traveled about an hour out of Krasnodar to Axtirka. This is the location of the rehabilitation center we’ve heard so much about. This is Sasha’s ministry. He takes in serveral men who have signed a 6 month contract. They must agree to remain sober, work the farm, attend bible studies and many more things. These men are willing to give up everything in order to be a part of the center. There are currently 5 men living in very, very small quarters and raise most of the food they eat. We had the opportunity to walk around the site; check out the hot house of tomatoes, vegatable garden, sheep, cows, ducks, chickens, roosters and so on. It is very small, and archaic by our standards. I don’t know if there is anything in America to compare it to.

After a look around, we went into the house to meet the men. We told them a little about ourselves and they shared their stories. They have all had some sort of addiction, and have led very difficult lives. One man, who walks with a cane told us that when he was released from prison, they (I’m not sure who this is) took all his papers. “Papers” are vital in Russia, without them you do not exist to the authorities. This means the man is unable to get the medical attention he needs. He’s in constant pain yet he is comforted knowing the Lord is with him through this. We stayed for several hours listening and praying with these men, and with Sasha, who has sacrificed many things in order to support this ministry.

After leaving the farm, we went to Sasha’s house where his wife Tanya has prepared us lunch. It was late and we were very hungry but hardly ready for the feast she prepared. We had duck and rabbit, fresh vegetables and breads. And when we ate as much as we could, she brought in two desserts and tea. We were stuffed when she brought in the Russian chocolates which we all sampled. We could hardly move. We stayed for a long time as they shared with us their ministries. Aside from the work that Sasha does in the rehab center, Tanya is a massage therapist. This is different from the American version; it’s a combination of physical therapy, occupational therapy and chiropractic medicine. Her skills are highly sought after, and she also has 4 children and is only a few weeks from opening a fitness center which she hopes will help support her family and Sasha’s ministry. This is an amazing lady who has had a difficult life yet still seeks to serve the Lord. Her sweet attitude touch us all.

Sunday was a special day for all of us. We split into small groups and attended the 4 different church plants in Krasnodar. They are all small, 12-30 people attending. At each one, whichever team member was there, was asked to speak to the group; tell a bit about ourselves, our church and why we were here. It was touching to know that these people are so interested in us. And it was so special to see these sisters and brothers in Christ worshiping the same God that I know. Their love for the Lord is evident. I felt blessed to be able to share in their worship time.

In the photos below, Kurt is talking to one of the worship leaders at a church that meets in a cafe. Notice the bottles in the background. And Randy and Mike attended at church which met at the BLTC.

Afterwards we all got together for a very nice lunch in a restaurant in town. The dishes they prepared were from several different countries; Romainia, Hungary, and I’m not sure where else. But it was very good. We all loved the presentation so we took pictures of our plates. I’m sure the waitress was thinking “Crazy Americans”.

After lunch we went for a walk down town. They closed the main street to car traffic so everyone comes here to walk in the street, shop, get an ice cream, and people watch. It wasn’t much different from any other big city, except everything was in Russian, and some of the old building still showed a hammer and sickle of the Communist party and some ironwork contained the double-headed eagle which is the symbol of the Tsar. Julie and I spent time with Zhenya, a young women from one of the Bible studies we attended. She is also a translator which was tremendously helpful. We had fun just doing what women all over the world do; shop and talk. We met up with the team for coffee at the Latte’ Matte’ - sort of an upscale Starbucks. It was a relief to get off our feet and share our shopping experiences. While we were there, John noticed an interesting ball cap on another customer. It had some fish on it and some Russian words. Joy found out that it was from a restaurant in St. Petersburg, Russia. Before the guy left, he gave John the hat. That’s one way to get a souvenir from Russia.

Below, John, Kurt and Mike are checking out a map of Russia. They were tickled to find one in English.

Below, Julie and Mark are checking out our location on the world map. Zhenya, the translator is in the middle.

Then back to the Watson’s for a light dinner time to relax, chat, and plan for the upcoming week.

Whew! Was this long enough? Thank you for being interested enough to read to the very end. We have a few more work days left, lots of chances to meet with our new friends. I’ll share with you again in a day or two.

God bless you,

Elizabeth

It seems hard to believe that it’s Thursday already. I’ll try to catch you up on what we’ve been up to.

We’re finally learning our way around here. Julie and I are staying with the Watson’s and the men are staying in a guest house here at BLTC. We meet here every morning for breakfast and a time for prayer and devotions. Julie and I are only about a mile away. We can take the tram almost to the door of the BLTC. The other morning Julie and I thought we’d walk. It’s a fairly simple route, should be no problem. We got to the right street and knew that we just needed to watch the building numbers and we’d be there in no time. We were talking and enjoying the sites; interesting architecture, morning market, people on their way to work. Out of the corner of my eye, I was watching for the house number - 34…87…134… I’m looking for #167. Before we know it, we’re at 170 and no sign of the BLTC. We look across the street, nope, just #203. Great! Now what. We walk a bit further, ask a few people and are assured we are in the right place. We finally come to the end of the road and a tram station. Julie asks a man boarding the tram if he knows where to find #167. He tells us to get on the tram with him. We do, retracing our steps. We had been on the opposite side of the street from the BLTC and had walk much further than we needed. Seems that across the street from #167 is #35. Oh well, it was a beautiful day for an adventure. We took a lot of grief for it. I guess we reinforced the idea that when women get chatting, we are oblivious to everything.
We’ve had many people here at BLTC translate for us. Many of the staff speak fluent English and there are a few translators on staffas well. Not to mention that our own team member, Julie Cox, speaks Russian. It may be rusty to start with but she has had many opportunities to sharpen her skill. We’ve all learned a few words, and I’d give Kurt the most credit for trying the hardest to communicate. Kurt has his Russian phrase book handy all the time. When speaking to any Russian, he’ll pull it out to find a word or two to share.

Julie, John and Kurt, preparing plaster. Mark is working behind them.

Everything takes a little money. Randy, our banker, handles that for us. We have been so fortunate to have so many supporters who have enabled us to purchase all the supplies we need for this project. Randy is counting out rubles so Mark can purchase the supplies we need.

It was a long way, but we finally made it. We got on the Saturday evening flight, much to our delight. And it was a special delight when they gave 4 of us seats in first class. It was a long flight and we we were definitley ready to move on to the the next part of our mission trip - MOSCOW and KRASONDAR.
We arrived knowing our luggage had arrived before us. So we found the “lost and found” desk, filled out some papers and then found the storage room and our bags. We were all pleased to know that each and every bag arrived. Just after we finished that, we found Tim. It was so good to finally see him finally/. He had been patiently waiting for us at his aunt’s house in Moscow. He was there to meet us and take us across town to another airport and our flight to Krasnodar. We went to a domestic ariport where our Aeroflot flight would take us south. This was our next cross-cultural experience;we discovered first hand that Russians do not wait in line. It’s a bit of chaos where assertiveness and sharp elbows are required to make it to the desk, or through security check points, or even to the airplane.
A few of us got on an early flight to Krasnodar, and the others followed on the late night flight. We exchanged some dollars for rubles, and then had our next cross cultural experience. We knew our luggage weighed too much and we would have to pay for the overage. We discovered that there is an official and “unoffical” way to pay for excess bagagge. Either way, it cost us a bit extra on Aeroflot.
We finally arrived in Krasnodar. Julie and I (Elizabeth) are staying with the Watson’s and the rest of the team is living in the guest house at the BLTC. We all met there after breakfast on Monday and spent the rest of the day talking to many of the BLT staff, and others associated with the planted churches.Mark met with Evant (sp?) to discuss the work plans. We’ll discuss the details at our team’s meeting later today. We did have the chance to get into our work clothes and unload tile from a truck, but that may be the extent of it today. A large portion of what we hope to do is develop relationships. I think we’re off to a good start. As I sit in this office and type, I can hear the team downstairs talking and laughing with many of the Russians. I’ll join them as soon as I finish this. Tomorrow will be our first real work day and tomorrow night we have been invited to the home of the pastor of the Open Door Church. I pray this we are able to adequately communicate and that develop a wonderful relationship.Please continue to pray for us - that our team remain strong and healthy. That we show compassion and respect to each other, and everyone we meet. And that God works beautiful things through our work here.

God Bless,

Elizabeth

Yes, we are still at JFK airport. Due to some airport traffic in New York, we didn’t make our connection to Moscow on Thursday. We were on Stand By for Friday, but no luck. We’ll go on Stand By again today. Worse case scenario is we depart on Sunday, which is the earliest we could get confirmed seats.

We are handling the delay fairly well. We know that God has a plan for us and JFK must be a part of it. We are laughingly referring to it as our “JFK Ministry”. We have encountered some great people, passengers and airport workers alike. We know that God is putting these poeple in our paths and it’s a blessing to be able to talk to them, laugh with them, help them and share the purpose of our trip with them.

Like the interesting man from India traveling with with his young daughter. After waiting in line for so long, he was finally next to go to the ticket counter. But the little girl was miserable because she had to use the bathroom. We can help! Julie took the little girl by the hand and down the hall just as dad was finally called up to the ticket counter. That made for a very happy little girl! Somehow, the dad trusted us enough to let us help his little girl. I’m glad we could be of service.

Or the man that Mike spoke with in line. He was angry and frustrated by some problem he had encounter. Mike just talked to him about where we were going and what we were doing, how long we had been delayed and how we were handling it. By the time it was the man’s turn to go to the counter, he was calm, not as angry, and ready to speak to the ticket agent a little more civilly. Not that anything in his life had changed, but maybe just a little less angry and frustrated than before.

It’s time to do some more JFK Ministry, aka wait at the airport. I hope the next posting is from Moscow!

God bless you all for being faithful prayer partners.

Elizabeth

I finally finished packing. I checked all the various “packing lists” I’ve collected over the years put in everything I thought I’d need into the suitcase, then took half of it out. I think I’ve included everything I need but I’m sure I’ll discover I’ve missed something - I’ll live without it!

Our team will meet at the airport at 4:45am to check in for our 6am flight. Before we go through security, we’ll spend some time in prayer with our family and anyone else who comes to see us off. You’re all welcome to join us. No? Ok, I understand.

So many of you have financially supported us, encouraged us and prayed for us. I feel like you are all a part of this team and we are thankful you are on board. I’ve always said that there are goers and there are senders - both are critical to a missions success. Thank you for being a part of this ambitious mission. I know that no matter what we encounter or accomplish, whatever success or failure we face, God is in control. There will be blessings in it all. And you are one of our blessings.

The next posting will be from the land of cyrillic alphabet! What an adventure! I hope to post photos, too.

God Bless,

Elizabeth, “team scribe & photographer”