Thank you so very much for the prayer and financial gifts you gave to support our ministry trip to Russia this year! It was a blessed and fruitful two weeks in countless ways. In addition, thank you for helping us get Classical Conversations (a classical, Christian, community based homeschool program) started in Russia which will provide an excellent curriculum option for many families. We were greatly blessed to spend time with the nine families meeting together in a ‘beta-community’. We also were able to do two information meetings and one ‘Windows into Challenge’ high school event in addition to the larger conference we hosted. This has opened a door for us to connect with many Orthodox families and begin a vital worldview discussion with them. Here are some pictures of those gatherings:

Our family is constantly humbled and grateful that you would trust us to carry this important message to the believers in Russia and we covet your prayers for future decisions we will make regarding this important ministry.

 

I also want to say how incredibly proud I was of my four challenge students who served on this trip (two of which are my kids)!  They were a great blessing to many people and even were willing to model Socratic circles to give the Russian families a picture of how engaging highschool discussions can be!

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Well, we have been in the Country just over a day and things are going well. we all got a good nights sleep and are trying to get over jetlag. Today we are m aking our final preparations for the conference which means running around town to get photocopies and name tags printed, grocery shopping, and setting up the book displays in the vendor hall. Everyone got their first metro exportable which is always fun and a bit stressful.  We have connected with Boris, who is the main conference coordinator here in Russia. Without him we would accomplish nearly nothing here! We are sleeping in the lodging center connected to the conference center. It is dormitory style rooms and we are fixing our own food in a connected kitchen. Gabrielle has been our fearless cook and she is quickly learning her way around the Russian market! Most of the Russians who are traveling from out of town will arrive tonight at 8 PM and we will welcome them with a large dinner. Last night we enjoyed a reunion with the Purcell  family and it was wonderful to catch up with them.  We also met up with some friends Scott has known since elementary school who serve with Campus Crusade here in St Petersburg and they told us many people are talking about the conference so we were glad to hear that- we are expecting 140 families! On the way to meeting our friends we got caught outside in a torrential rainstorm and we all got completely soaked! We went to a store to buy umbrellas but they cost $40 each so decided to risk it and not buy them. Overall, things are going smoothly but the real test will be tomorrow when we have to serve lunch to over 300 people! Thank you all for your prayers, enjoy the pictures from our day…

 

 

Well, we leave for the airport in just 3 hours and our living room is cluttered with 15 suitcases!  We are bringing 9 suitcases full of Russian curriculum and goodies to give away to the many Russia friends that we look forward to seeing again.  The kids are all playing a board game while Scott and I run around trying to finish last minute details.  Last night we had our first team meeting with all 16 of us who are flying out of Colorado and we spent some time giving final instructions and praying over the trip together.  When we arrive in St. Petersburg tomorrow evening we will be greeted at the airport by our dear friend, Pastor Oleg whom we traveled all over Russia with a few trips back.  We will then ride a bus to St. Petersburg Reformed Seminary where Boris, our main conference coordinator, will meet us.  I am sure we will all be pretty exhausted but we will have to walk to the grocery store to get some basic staples to fill the kitchen in the apartment where we will be staying.  It is always fun to have your first Russian market experience, especially since 7 of our teammates have never even left America!  Then we will crash into our beds for a well deserved night’s rest.    We have learned that the best way to get over jet lag is to take some TylenolPM at night then wake up and keep yourself very busy the first day so you are not tempted to take a nap in the middle of the day therefore we will be out and about all day Wednesday.  We plan to familiarize the team with the neighborhood in which we will stay and the metro system. Did you know that St. Petersburg has some of the deepest metros in the world at nearly 300 feet underground?  It is quite the experience to step foot on the escalator and descend underground for a 3 minute ride deeper and deeper!  Then we will meet up with some of our old high school friends who serve with Campus Crusade in St. Petersburg.  Finally we will end the day at Blake and Cathy’s apartment for dinner and a sweet reunion with our dear Purcell family!

I will try to keep the blog active with regular posts so keep checking in with us.  Please pray that all our travels go smoothly today and that I would not be too anxious about leaving our three little boys back home with grandma and grandpa…. Love to you all and thank you for your support in building the kingdom in Russia!

Blessing in Jesus,

Andie for the team