I arrived back in Kansas last Sunday and was picked up by a very dear friend. The last two weeks of my time in Russia went very fast. Including myself, 11 foreigners flew in to participate in OM's Global Challenge. We split up into three teams and went to surrounding towns and villages to run children's day clubs, English clubs, and minister to drug and alcohol addicts. My team traveled 11 hours by train to the city of Rubsovsk. We were there for 3 days and ran two 3 hour clubs in different parts of the city. Then we went to the village of Novorisiki where we ran a 5 hour 3 day club. Finally we ran a one day club in the village of Tishinki before going back to Novosibirsk. My heart was very saddened by the time we spent in the villages. Both villages had around 700 people. On the surface, village life looks very peaceful and wonderful. Every family has a garden where they grow vegetables, most have chickens, cows, dogs, cats, pigs, maybe even a goat. But under the surface it's a terribly depressing place, a place where people have no hope. There is no Church in Novorisiki, one man and his girlfriend gave their hearts to the Lord during our time there, but besides them there are no believers who live in this village. Alcohol and drug abuse are the norm, suicide is not uncommon, most young people try to leave as soon as they can, and there are many who practice witchcraft and sorcery. Like I said, from the surface it looks like a very peaceful and pleasant life, but in reality, they have little to no hope of anything better.
I'm still processing through everything that happened during my time in Russia and praying about how God wants to use these experiences. God has taught me a lot about how my presence matters and my prayers matter. I may never see the result of my prayers, especially in only a few short weeks, but I can be confident that they do matter. Naturally I want to practice my language skills, but I'm also learning that there are other ways that I can bless someone by sharing myself. While we were in Rubsovsk, I sang a song for one of the really small churches. Afterwords someone came up and told me that even though he didn't understand what I was singing because it was in English, he was blessed by it. Most of the kids didn't speak any English, but just a smile or holding their hand meant so much to them.
I may write another update even though I'm back, just to write out more of the things that happened while I was there.
