Well the first day of the conference has gotten off to a great start. We have a full house and had to find extra chairs to squeeze in more people. The children’s program went as smoothly as you can expect with over 100 kids and many helpers who speak a different language! At the conference we have both large group key note messages and smaller workshops. One of the workshops we did was called “Life after Homeschooling” where we offered a panel of homeschool graduates (both Russian and American) and their parents. They shared how their transition to adulthood was and advise they have for younger families.
Here is a quote from one of the Russian families on that panel that we ministered to two years ago…

“We had to change our view of education. We now understand Education is a process directly connected to the knowledge of God. When our children’s heads are growing with knowledge but their heart remains small that is a destructive thing, they need God. When we took our son home from school he was very wise in his own eyes and we had to help him understand his need for God, he learned two things when we began homeschooling, his need for his family and his need for God.”

These families are just like y’all, they love their children and are just trying to raise them in the Lord. Please pray that His spirit would fall in a fresh way here in the former Soviet Union. Please also pray for me tomorrow as I speak to a group of non believing homeschoolers, that I can clearly weave the gospel into my talk.

Listen as Pastor Sasha shares what he learned at the Family Discipleship Seminar we taught at his church in Luga… Translating is our dear friend Boris 😉

Well, it is four days into our trip and we have been staying at this adorable church in the small village of Luga…

We were invited by the Pastor and his wife, Sasha and Katya, to come and host a Family Discipleship Seminar.  There are no known homeschoolers in this area but the pastor is interested and so are a few of the families who attend there.  We taught for 9 hours straight, including Q and A time over a delicious meal they served us.  It was a super full day and the families who attended were very open and receptive while discussing ideas related to Child training, family vision, discipleship, and education.  There was an older woman who serves as a caretaker of the church named Lena who kept us very entertained with her communications even though she spoke no English! It was a tearful goodbye when we left after spending three days with them. All 18 of us on our team slept inside the small bright blue country church so the accommodations were a little rustic as there was only one small closet with the toilet and no shower… But they fed us like kings and were very loving. They were so surprised that we would come all the way to their village to speak with them because they rarely ever have guests so they practiced all their pent up hospitality on us!

The members for this years conference committee came from all over the States. Tennessee, Nebraska, Michigan, Texas, New Mexico and Colorado are all the states represented by our team. Those from Tennessee and Michigan met up with the group at the St. Petersburg Airport while the rest of the team met at DIA to fly out. Our flights took us straight from Denver to St. Petersburg with the exception of a short layover in Frankfurt Germany. All 18 of us met at the baggage claim in St. Petersburg and rode a bus to SPCU(St. Petersburg Christian University) which is where we are staying. Thankfully, our travel went well, with the exception of a few missing suitcases that should arrive tomorrow. Here is a team picture in the St. Petersburg airport…

Hello Friends!

Well, the big day has arrived and we will hop on a plane in just a few hours.  We have a team of 18 converging in St. Petersburg to help with all the logistics of pulling off this conference and the two smaller Family Discipleship Seminars we will do over the next two weeks.  Friends, we are thrilled that over 200 parents have signed up so far to attend the 3rd Annual Family Education & Discipleship Conference in St. Petersburg, Russia! Please pray that our speakers (Russian & American) are led by the Lord and that their messages truly penetrate the hearts of all who attend.  We will be posting regularly so keep coming back to hear what the Lord is doing… and thank you for your prayers and support!

As many of you know we traveled to St. Petersburg in December to meet with our conference committee to make arrangements for the 2016 conference.  One of the biggest objectives for that trip was to pass the baton so that they will become less dependent upon us to move forward with a multi-denominational homeschooling and family discipleship support organization for Russia. That trip was super successful in many ways and we are seeing the Russians raise up and begin to truly take this vision and run with it.

So in less than 6 weeks we will head back to St. Pete to serve alongside them in the annual conference and to host two smaller seminars in the towns of Luga and Vyborg.  Right now we are in the process of raising the funds that are required to pull this off and so if the Lord burdens your heart to contribute, please do!  We look to Him for all our protection and provision.  In the wise words of Hudson Taylor, “God’s work done God’s way will never lack God’s provision!”

A great big thank you to all who came out to our 3rd Annual 5k Fundraiser!  It was a fabulous day of fun in the sun. Some have asked us what we are raising funds for… Great question! In the near future we have two opportunities which will require funding.  The first is hosting a leadership summit it St.Petersburg with local pastors and families interested in serving the area churches by forming a multi-denominational organization to oversee ongoing seminars and events as well as the distribution and translation of resources.    The second purpose for our fundraising has to do with an opportunity in Hungary.  We have a very strong contact in Budapest that has requested that we help them form a family discipleship ministry similar to what we have done in Russia.  We would love to see their dream become a reality but it would require an increase in our funding and support.  Enjoy the fun pictures!

Please join us for our 3rd Annual 5K
and Pig Roast BBQ!

            11am – 5k Bike Race
12pm – BBQ Lunch & Russia Report
1pm – Field Games for Kids

A Great Big Thank you!

Paideia Missions returned from our most recent Russia ministry trip and we wanted to say thank you for your generous giving and prayer support.    Please enjoy this journal-style report of all that the Lord accomplished!

April 29th, 2015…

After nearly 30 hours of travel our team of 16 made it safely to St. Petersburg.  The night before we departed, we had our first team meeting in our home.  Many of our group met for the first time and we were able to devote some time in prayer together.  After a good night’s sleep we all met at Denver International Airport and made the long journey together.  We were greeted in St. Petersburg by our dear friend Pastor Oleg who arranged transportation to St. Petersburg Christian University for us – the location of the conference and our resting spot for the first 6 days.  There was much work to be done in the two days leading up to the conference such as stocking the kitchen, making name tags and folders for the attendees, setting up literally a ton of books at the book table, planning lunches for nearly 300 people  and coordinating with our local team of conference planners.  We had very little time to get over jet lag so the days seemed quite long and the nights way too short, but God was faithful to give us the strength we needed.

May 3rd, 2015…

Well , we survived the conference!  Nearly 140 families attended and we were greatly blessed to hear encouraging feedback from countless people.  There is such a felt need in this area for Christian curricula, teaching on family discipleship and child training – especially for the families of pastors as they greatly influence their flocks. Thankfully the children’s program went much more smoothly than last year as we had a great team of Russian mom’s who planned all the activities, crafts, lessons and snacks for each classroom.  Many of our team members were in charge of the outdoor play time so they wore themselves out playing soccer, Frisbee and jump-rope each day!  Although there was a definite language barrier, it seems there is an international communication that happens when you play with children!  On Friday evening we had a meeting of pastors and leaders who are interested in forming a leadership team for future Family Discipleship Conferences in Russia.  In a small basement room nearly 20 of us gathered and brainstormed ideas for the future of this ministry.  It has been our deep desire to see a multi-denominational and sustainable vision realized for our ministry in Russia, and this meeting showed us that this is very possible.  One of the biggest topics discussed was the relationship between such a ministry and the local church.  Many of the Russians have seen the damage first-hand that is caused by an overemphasis on para-church ministries at the expense of the local traditional church.  Much of our discussion was focused on how to form an inter-denominational ministry that would serve to build up the body of Christ and drive people to become accountable members of local churches.  As a result of this conversation, we began to wonder if a future gathering of pastors in the area was the next step in building an organization that would provide the much needed support for home education and family discipleship resources in the area without compromising the very valuable position of the local church.

The next morning we enjoyed worshiping with the saints at, The Word of Truth, a local church and had a great meal with Boris, who was our main conference coordinator there in St. Petersburg.  We are hoping to help him and his family come to America for a visit next summer as he has great potential to serve in a leadership position in the future.  Tomorrow we will hop on a train to the city of Vyborg where we will meet one-on-one with many of the families whom we built a relationship with on our first trip to Russia in 2012.  There is a large concentration of homeschooling families in Vyborg and they always provide us very valuable feedback for our ministry efforts.

May 8th, 2015…

I am writing from a bus on our way from Vladimir to Moscow. There is so very much I want to share with you about the events of the last five days. So many stories of God’s faithfulness to sanctify his people. Our last night in Vyborg was spent with about 50 people crammed in a house sharing their testimonies of God’s refining work in their lives and gaining a vision for generational faithfulness and family discipleship. At midnight we then boarded an eight hour overnight train from there to Moscow where we arrived at 9am and taught another seminar from 11-4 at Moscow Bible Church. We got a good night’s rest at the Eurasian Theological Seminary and boarded another train to Vladimir, which is an ancient ring city east of Moscow. The only problem is that we had trouble with the train tickets and as the train pulled away we saw three of our team members standing on the platform having missed the train! Thankfully, it was Phil Wilson – the only one of us who spoke a little Russian – and his two daughters. It was a bit stressful at first but later we even saw God bring good from all the confusion! Arriving in Vladimir we were met by our dear friend Marina, a single woman in her thirties, who serves in the church in countless ways. She also fosters a young boy named Ilya who was living in terrible conditions in an orphanage while both parents were in prison. She plans to care for him and homeschool him until his mother gets out (his father will not get out until he is an adult) then Marina will disciple his mother and teach her to parent Ilya. There is another older single woman in the Church that has done the same for three orphans and who also has led an anti-abortion ministry for the past ten years! They run a hostel for foreigners to support themselves.  Both of these ladies, along with their homeschooling pastor, coordinated the seminar we taught and invited families from all over the region. We taught from 9-6 the next day and were so encouraged by how hungry these families were. Our team each shared personal testimonies with the group and cared for the children.

The next day we attended church with them and then split up into small groups to share dinner with various families. Scott and I visited with the pastor and his family and they shared very openly about the challenges their family has faced over the past year and the lack of teaching, mentoring and encouragement they receive. The church was a Wesleyan church planted by Americans 15 years ago but the first three pastors had medical emergencies with their wives and had to leave the country just after a year or two; so the ministry was turned over to Pastor Anton at the age of 26. He is now in his mid thirties with three children and shows tremendous maturity and has a clear vision for his family yet is starving for encouragement and resources. We were able to give them a whole suitcase of books and homeschooling materials in the Russian language and they were very grateful. We were so glad we came to invest in this church and pray God will return us there again someday.

May 11, 2016…

So now it is Monday and we fly out from Moscow to return home tomorrow. Our team has been stretched in every possible way – emotionally, relationally, spiritually, and physically. Our schedule for this trip has been more packed than any other trip and we have averaged 5-6 hours of sleep each night. But despite all this, there has been tremendous unity and growth. We have had great devotional times together and have a prayer card system of how we are lifting up each other in prayer. There have been many feisty ‘discussions’ among the team members which have regularly required exhortations on the use of our tongue, but it has been a privilege to see them process and communicate truth, especially in comparing the homeschool movement here with what we see in the States.   Seven of the team members had never left America so you can imagine how stretching this has been for them!  And there is no way we could have accomplished this without each one of them… From grocery shopping and food prep, to setting up book tables and sound equipment, to working with the kids programs, all of them have been a great blessing to us and the churches we have visited. We have come to realize that our ministry was not only to the Russian believers but also to one another on the team. We have found that living in a foreign culture provides countless opportunities to exhort and encourage each other towards righteousness!

What is in store for the future??

At every turn it seems the Lord is confirming the need for ongoing ministry in the area of family discipleship in local churches. We are praying about a short trip to St. Petersburg in the fall for just Scott and Andie to have a 2 day planning meeting for a 2016 Family Discipleship Conference, as well as a possible “leadership summit” for local pastors to help communicate the vision.  We have met so many pastors who long to learn more about discipling and educating their own children, not to mention the sheep under their care.  We are planning on hosting our annual 5K fundraiser at our home on Saturday, July 11th and would love for you to join us!  We are also seeking regular, monthly supporters for Paideia Missions, so if that is something the Lord lays on your heart, please contact us.

Once again, thank you for your invaluable partnership with Paideia Missions and for all the financial gifts you contributed to make this trip a reality.  It is truly an honor and privilege to labor beside you in the Kingdom of God!

Blessings in Jesus,

Scott, Andie and the Kiddos

www.PaideiaMissions.com || 720.236.2540 || davidson@frontier.net

Hello Dear Friends…

I am writing from a bus on our way from Vladimir to Moscow. There is so very much I want to share with you about the events of the last five days. So many stories of God’s faithfulness to sanctify his people. Our last night in Vyborg was spent with about 50 people crammed in a house sharing their testimonies of God’s refining work in their lives and gaining a vision for generational faithfulness and family discipleship. At midnight we then boarded an eight hour overnight train from there to Moscow where we arrived at 9 and taught another seminar from 11-4. We got a good night’s rest at the Eurasian Theological Seminary and boarded another train to Vladimir, which is an ancient ring city east of Moscow. The only problem is that we had trouble with the train tickets and as the train pulled away we saw three of our team members standing on the platform having missed the train! Thankfully, it was Phil Wilson, the only one of us who speaks a little Russian, and his two daughters. It was a bit stressful at first but later we even saw God bring good from all the confusion! Arriving in Vladimir we were met by our dear friend Marina, a single woman in her thirties who serves in the church in countless ways. She also fosters a young boy named Ilya who was living in terrible conditions in an orphanage while both parents were in prison. She plans to care for him and homeschool him until his mother gets out (his father will not get out until he is an adult) then Marina will disciple his mother and teach her to parent Ilya. There is another older single woman in the Church there that has done the same for three orphans and who also has done an anti-abortion ministry there for the past ten years! They run a hostel for foreigners to support themselves. Both of these ladies, along with their homeschooling pastor, coordinated the seminar we taught and invited families from all over the region. We taught from 9-6 the next day and were so encouraged by how hungry these families were. Our team each shared personal testimonies with the group and cared for the children.

The next day we attended church with them and then split up into small groups to share dinner with various families. Scott and I visited with the pastor and his family and they shared very openly about the challenges their family has faced over the past year and the lack of teaching, mentoring and encouragement they receive. The church was a Wesleyan church planted by Americans 15 years ago but the first three pastors had crises with their wives and had to leave the country just after a year of two so the ministry was turned over to Pastor Anton at the age of 26. He is now in his mid thirties with three children and shows tremendous maturity and has a clear vision for his family yet is starving for encouragement and resources. We were able to give them a whole suitcase of books in Russian and they were very grateful. We were so glad we came to invest in this church and pray God will return us there again someday.

So now it is Monday and we fly out from Moscow to return home tomorrow. Our team has been stretched in every possible way – emotionally, relationally, spiritually, and physically. Our schedule for this trip has been more packed than any other trip and we have averaged 5-6 hours of sleep each night. But despite all this, there has been tremendous unity and growth. We have had great devotional times together and have a prayer card system of how we are lifting up each other in prayer. There have been many feisty ‘discussions’ among the team members which require exhortations on the use of our tongue often but it has been a privilege to see them process and communicate truth, especially in comparing the homeschool movement here with what we see in the States. Seven of the team members had never left America so you can imagine how stretching this has been for them! And there is no way we could have accomplished this without each one of them… From grocery shopping and food prep, to setting up book tables and sound equipment, to working with the kids programs, all of them have been a great blessing to us and the churches we have visited.

We hear the weather has been terrible while we have been gone, which is crazy as it is 70 degrees and beautiful here! All the tulips and trees are in bloom and we are wearing T-shirts! Thank you all for your prayers and support and we sure look forward to seeing each of you when we return!

Blessings in Jesus,
Andie for the team