Москва

Privet (Hi)! Moscow is clasne (awesome)! It's like Manhattan (crowds, fast life, urban, expensive) & Los Angeles (traffic, spread out, major suburban commuting). There's a mix of old, historical, tall, stone-cold, communist-era buildings and then brand new state-of-the-art towers & centers of business & entertainment. Its people are impressive: tall, beautiful and confident like their buildings. It's really dark here....the sun barely shows its face around 9am and then hides behind clouds in a foggy stupor all day until 4pm when it disappears again. It's a continual cloudiness with chance of rain/snow.

We arrived late Tuesday night and then went to Wed. morning staff meeting with all the church leaders. Marty preached to about 30 bros/sisters in a little church office in the southeastern corner of the city. The disciples here are amazing. Their hearts are soft, their arms embrace with warmth, their ears are perked for learning and their faces show the light of Christ. They showered Marty, Nathan and us with gifts of Russian chocolates, matrushka dolls and other goodies. Most of them don't speak english but it's fun trying and LOVE is a pretty easy vocabulary to get the hang of.

After discipling times & borsht (Russian red soup) Arlene and I spoke to the campus leaders from Daniel 12:3; what it means to be a spiritual star. We did a case study on John the Baptist with the an emphasis on how he became less for Jesus to become more. The students seemed inspired and challenged to have vision for other students in Moscow. When I asked why should you love others in their city, they were baffled. One brother responded, "Why?" They described city life here as an isolated dirge without smiles or compassion. We discovered the truth of the statement as we rode the subway with angry passengers or drove through traffic with cut-throat car-mongers. HOWEVER, we retorted with the concept that stars always shine brighter in a dark sky. The subway smiles on a disciple's face can break a bone and soften a heart. According to your faith...!!!

Got to spend time with more locals today, praying on the shores of the icy-cold Moscow River and walking the cobble-stone Kremlin edge in Red Square. Rounded Moscow State University by foot today also....home to over 100,000 students and as impressive as the main physical sciences tower is high.

Arlene and I spoke again tonight at the student midweek service. Luke recounts perhaps the greatest version of Jesus' call to talmadim/discipleship in chapter 5. Seemingly preoccupied Simon-Peter is cleaning seaweed from his nets when J is preaching to the crowds. In a flash, SP finds himself lending his boat as a pulpit. Then, in an amazing feat of radical faith, J asks the disappointed-fisher-loser to go out into deeper water to fish. Net fishing in deep water? During the day? This ridiculous rabbi?!! This crazy carpenter's son!!?? Well, you know the rest. The Russians were inspired by Jesus' willingness to have vision for someone who didn't seem interested, to never give up and to teach others the same and to share the blessings with our friends and family rather than hogging the glory. Deep into the night we fellowshipped in broken Russglish and then rolled out into the dark city traffic for the ride back.

The church in this great city is 1600 members today. It's been through a lot but it's fighting the good fight, united with us in the battle for faith and courage as it sheds light on its shadowed streets. 22 years after Perestroika, the dust of this nation may still not yet be settled....politically as well as spiritually. Natives kneel and pray on the streets 10 yards from others who throw kopecks for a change in their luck. As the seeds of the Spirit are sewn by the brave brothers and sisters here, may we do our duty and pray that God finds soft soil to plant in.

Pakah for now.
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