Okay, sorry for the cheesy Dickens allusion, but it is the truth.   Tomorrow I leave for a two week evangelism rally in two small towns in the Tambov Province:  Kirsanov and Mordova.   After that rally we will hold a four day camp for our orphans at the Goreloe Orphanage.  That camp will be followed by a two week evangelistic youth camp, which is always the capstone to our summer ministries.   

All of these events are very exciting, but very draining.  It is going to be thrilling, and a full, rich time, but there are going to physical and spiritual challenges all along the way...will you support these outreaches this month in prayer?

Here are a few things to be praying about:

Evangelism Rallies:

*The living conditions are going to be a challenge (i.e. showers alot less often than I care to admit in print, sleeping who knows where, toilets that are best left undescribed).  Please pray that the team of 40 people will be able to serve each other, and remain focused on the those we have come to share with, even when things get unpleasant.

*Kirsanov is a town of about 18,000 people and there is a church there.   Originally we were supposed to go to another town, where there is no church, but the local authorities were opposed.   So, I can't help but thin, that the Lord has something special in mind for Kirsanov...this is His plan, not ours.   Please pray for this town, and that this rally will really spark a fire.

*Mordova is a town of about 10,000 with no church.   After this week long evangelism rally, a couple will be moving to Mordova to continue with the work, in the hopes of planting a church there.  Please pray that hearts will be receptive, and that many will respond to the Word of God being preached.

Orphanage Camp:

*This is the first camp of its kind being held for these kids, and an American team of Russian immigrants (i.e. Russian speaking Americans) will be putting on this camp, with us "locals" helping.  Please pray that this would strengthen our relationship with the orphanage administration and the kids, and that they would respond to the Word of Truth.

Lighthouse of Hope Youth Camp:

* Please pray that we will see many new kids come to this camp.  A couple of my university girls took invitations.  Please pray that they will attend the camp and that God would change their lives there.

*There is alot of work that goes into putting this kind of a camp together.  Please pray for all the workers that are preparing for sports, kitchen work, counseling, drama, english lessons (that's me), and all the others details.   Most of these workers will have spent the last three weeks on the road at the Evangelism rally and the Orphanage camp.  Please pray for an extra-ordinary boost of strength and energy for this camp.

*Please pray for our Camp Director: Vadim Mihailin, who is also the Pastor of the Truth Baptist Church in Tambov (the central church, my church).   Please pray that God would give him wisdom, and the words to say each even and morning as he shares his own story and the Truth about God from His word.  

Because of all these events I will not be in internet contact for the vast majority of the next month.  But please feel free to write back and leave messages on Facebook, etc.  When I do get to the internet it will be great to hear from you!

Thank you for your prayers, for your partnership, for your love.  We are in this together.

Love,
Jenni

Well, this is a new one.  Today I got ready to leave, went to the embassy and got my visa with very little problem. By the time I arrived at the train station, I had just less than an hour to get on the train, enough time to pick up some Chicken McNuggets for the road and settle in. My friends and I happily made our way to the train car I was riding in.  I got my ticket out and put it in the picture page of my passport, ready to hand it to the conductor.  Everything was working like clockwork.  Until I handed my documents over.  She took one look at my passport and informed me that I couldn’t go on this train.   What?  I have a ticket.  That doesn’t matter, she said.  Only Ukrainians and Russians can travel on this train.   What? I have ridden on this train several times before.  I have a visa for Russia.  It isn’t a question of a visa, young lady.   Only Ukrainians and Russians are allowed to pass the border where this train passes.  A conversation with the head conductor made things more clear, but more bleak.   As of April 1^st, Ukraine had made a new rule, stating that they would only allow Ukrainians and Russians to travel across that station on the border.   So, any other nationalities (even Belarussians, Moldovans, or other  border nationalities) can not leave Ukraine at that point on the border.   Russia would have let me in, but Ukraine wouldn’t let me out.

I’ll be honest.  I was pretty mad.   Mad that I had bought the ticket well after April 1^st and the person who sold it didn’t say anything.   Mad that they would make such a crazy rule, and that they wouldn’t let me out!  (Okay, fine, you don’t want to let people into your country for some reason, but you won’t let them leave!?!)  I was mad because I thought it was the only train that went to Voronezh, and didn’t require me to travel through Moscow. Mad that I lost about 12 bucks on the ticket change because they made some crazy rule, didn’t tell me about it, and some how that is my fault.  Every last “the-customer-is-always-right” instinct I had kicked into full gear, let me assure you.  

            But I wasn’t the only one affected by this new rule today.  There was a family of Moldovans who were also headed to Voronezh (my final destination city in Russia) that day.   A family of four were traveling, but only one of them held a Moldovan passport, and not a Russian one.  So, the whole family had to change their tickets, and change to another train, even though three of them were Russian citizens.  (Thankfully, there is another route, that goes straight to Voronezh, though it takes two hours longer and is more expensive.  That fact that it just happened to leave later that night, and that there were places available was a miracle in itself!).    I was very humbled by this families reaction.  It was clearly going to cost them a lot more than it did me, and it was clearly inconveniencing them even more than me (I had an apartment to go to in Kiev and wait out the 8 hours).   But they just rushed to get things changed, and laughed about it all.   That customer rules the world mindset that my own nation has imbued me can sometimes be a real curse, a disease, and a sin.

            Strangely enough, it is probably one of the biggest frustrations here.  It hits in so many different ways: rude store clerks, not getting “justice” when something breaks, or is less than satisfactory, very inconvenient spontaneous rules or changes.    And at the heart of it all is an ugly word that I hate to think about: Pride.   How dare they treat me that way?  I paid for this!!  (My money is supposed to buy me comfort and convenience along with the product)   It isn’t fair, I don’t deserve this, I did everything I was supposed to do and they have no right to change.   I, I, I, I, I, me, me, me, me…..the world suddenly gets pretty small (population: One) when my sense of entitlement gets crossed.

            As we took the Metro back again to my friend’s apartment to wait, I was a little jealous of those Moldovans.   I know they get frustrated too, but their lives, with the difficulties and the lack of justice that are a very common occurrence, has prepared them for life in this world where things are not fair, and there are problems that no one is really responsible for, no one is guilty, it just stinks.  They seem a lot less likely to get bent out of shape because of inconvenience.  

***********************************************************************

            Now I have arrived in Tambov, after about 19 hours in the train.  You know what God did?   Well, first of all, this train had a 3 minute stop in Lipetsk, which is only an 1 and ½ away from where I leave, instead of 3 ½ hours, so it turned out to be much more convenient.  But even better still, I spent many hours on the train talking to the daughter from the Moldovan family, and another lady on the train, who used the bunk next to mine to lay her child down for a nap.   The Moldovan is Orthodox, and the other lady used to be Jehovah’s Witness, and now doesn’t go to church anywhere.  We talked a lot about the Bible, Jesus Christ, the differences between the different denominations, etc.    I got the chance on this train to share about Christ.   I guess that is a pretty good reason to have to stay in Kiev for 8 more hours.

            I hope I learn from this.  Instead of asking the question: “Why is this happening to me?”, the next time I encounter such an inconvenience, I want to look at it with excited expectation:  “What is God going to do with this?   What does he have in store for me?”   I want to remember what the Lord promised us through Paul in Romans:

Всё содействует к благу!

Everything works together for good….

I applied for my visa to Russia today, and I am supposed to pick it up on June 24th at 3 pm, and get on the train to go back to Russia at 4:48!!  That is going to be an interesting day!!  But at least I now know that I can get a Russian visa in Kiev.....

I wrote this on the plane from Budapest to Kiev when I traveled yesterday......

I am floating above the earth, again traveling between countries.  I think air travel is too fast sometimes.   Sometimes I wish I had to take a boat or a train, so that there was time for reflection.   On a boat, there are weeks between shores, and you have time to really think about what you have left behind, and what you are headed towards.   At least on a train it takes hours to cover the miles, and there is nothing to do but read and think.   But, alas, like everything in our world, we now travel more “efficiently” – which really means just faster, and it takes me just a hour to get from Budapest, Hungary, and all that transpired there in nearly 6 weeks, to Kiev, Ukraine, where I have a history, friends, a church, and a lot of catching up to do in a short amount of time. I better reflect more “efficiently”.

It seems to me that I was in Hungary for more like 6 months, and not just 6 weeks.   But, like with most experiences in life, now that I have come to the end of it, and walked through another set of “last days”, it seems like just a blur, just a blip on the radar, it went by so fast.  Somewhere in the middle of it, I realized I was allowed to enjoy it.   I have left on these “exiles” from Russia somehow thinking that I had to prove that I wanted to come back by complaining about where I was going.   I felt guilty that I got to see a new place, and felt like I needed to prove that I wouldn’t have chosen it if I could have stayed in Russia, instead of just enjoying the exciting possibilities of what was handed to me, courtesy of the Russian Federation:  a requirement to travel.   Funny that it took me nearly a year to figure it out, but I realized I wasn’t helping anyone by not enjoying it.  My friends that can’t travel weren’t somehow comforted that I wasn’t enjoying myself (I think they were more vexed that I wouldn’t appreciate something they wish they had), my Russian friends and co workers weren’t looking for reassurance that I was coming back (they think about it a lot less than I do, I think – if I come back I come back…), and my supporters didn’t see it as my sneaky way of getting a vacation (Russia didn’t consult me before it made this law.)  In the end, I was just being ungrateful and frustrated for absolutely no good reason.  And since life affords us all plenty of natural opportunities for frustration, I figured it was silly to make my own.

So, I spent a month and a half in Budapest.  And let me tell you, it is a fantastic city.   It has all the benefits of Eastern Europe (cheaper without the Euro,  heartier people, really rich culture, less commercialized, touristized, modernized)  with a really western (i.e. convenience is king) feel.    I supposed it is all in what you compare it to, but I really liked it.  I have heard that Budapest has been called the Paris of Central Europe.  I think it is better than Paris!   The Parliament, the Buda Castle, the museums, Andrassy Avenue, etc, and so on.  It did this city girl’s heart really good to be in such a metropolitan, history rich town with so much to see and do, and so much to learn.   

And then there was the class.  It was a lot of work, but provided me with EXACTLY what I was looking for: a systematic, and effective way to teach English.  How to put all that in practice when I get back is still going to be a bit tricky, but now I have a framework.  And I learned something about myself.  I really enjoy and have some ability in working with languages, even my own.   I wish there had been a chance when I was a child to get a head start on this whole language acquisition thing, but I am not planning on wasting any time now.     The class also gave me a chance to see myself, and my work through others’ eyes.  To be honest, I think my classmates thought I was crazy, and a little bit weird.   Russia is apparently not the exotic destination that Vienna or Budapest is, and so to live there seems a little weird to Western Europeans, and Americans, that have the world open to them.  And then to live there to tell people about Christ.  One classmate told me, “it seems like such a waste.”  Working with orphans to provide them with physical things makes sense, but spiritual things seem like a waste of time.    It is a good reminder to see the world the way those who are not submitted to God see it.   I forget that it is, as Jesus said, “foolishness in the eyes of the world.” 

So, the time in Budapest was good, challenging, and stretching.   And now it is time to go back in time, to Kiev.   It feels a little like when you go back to High School or College, to visit, after you have graduated.  Everything is going to be different…their lives have gone on without me (how dare they! J) And yet, there are so many connections there, and memories.  I have a lot of people to see and a lot of things to do in two weeks.   I am excited and scared at the same time.

And then it is back to Russia.   To be honest, I am very nervous about that.  The last time, when I went back in February, everything was so different than I expected, and it was such a hard three months,  I guess I have really low expectations this time.  Maybe that will serve me well.   The summer will be very busy, and then in September, as long as I get my permit and can stay, regular life will set in, whatever in the world that is going to look like…I have forgotten what it was like to have a schedule and a normal person existence.    I don’t want to have to leave again, but it is going to be strange to not have a departure in the near future.  I have become like one of those tundra plants that have very shallow roots because the ground is frozen six inches under.   I am going to have to learn all over again how to be a tree, with deep roots, and a long, steady, constant growth in one place.