Russia -

Good Evening! (And yes!  We are alive and well :-) 

What a trip this has been since the moment we've left Indiana all the way until we set foot on Russia soil.  We've already had plenty of experiences in these past three days that could easily take up an evening of conversation.  So before I summarize the last three days, let me warn you now that you'll need to block an entire day if you want to hear the full story of our Russia experience.  

Our Friday morning began with nerves and excitement as we anticipated what the next 24 hours held for us.  The flight we took out of Indy was delayed by 45 minutes, which put us on high alert since we only had around an hour layover in JFK.  Sure enough, when we landed and filed out of our extremely small jet, we were told that our plane to Moscow was already boarding.  So in a similar fashion to that of the family in Home Alone, we proceeded to power walk to our gate with hopes of making it on time.  Luckily, with time to spare we were able to board and settle in to one of the biggest planes any of us had ever seen let alone been on.  After all the movies, sleeping, and listening to Babushka conversation, our 10 hour flight set down in a snow covered Moscow, (with all forty some pieces of luggage I might add). Three Taylor Graduates, David (aka. Frenchy), Heather, and Sarah met us at the airport with open arms and helped us in more ways then one.  We then took a three hour bus ride to Vladimir, with a pit stop at McDonalds on the way to get our American fix of food.  Finally we arrived at our hotel, slap happy and all, and managed to stay up past 8:00 pm before crashing.

Sunday Easter morning, we woke up and walked to an area Wesleyan church where we had the sermon interpreted for us.  Even though we didn't know the majority of the songs, we got to sing all the different names of Christ in English while our Russian brothers and sisters sang in their native tongue.  What a blessing it was to see the body of Christ come together and confess in different tongues that Jesus Christ is Lord!

We stayed at the church and made a huge Russian lunch together as team.  After playing mafia and stuffing our tummies full with carb loaded Russian food, we left to go site seeing all around Vladimir.  A real treat that day was getting to see a service at the Russian Orthodox Church.  The girls had to wear head and skirt coverings as we stepped into the church.  It was a surreal experience as we were overwhelmed by incense, chanting, and the beautiful architecture in the church.

Later on that evening, we were introduced to our interpreters for the first time.  It could only be described as an awkward high school dance, as the Americans were on one side of the room and the Russians on the other, huddled in the back corner.  One by one, they called our names as we met in the middle of the room and walked off to start our new relationships.  "It was like speed dating, but with a Russian", said Lauren Bournique.  After 20 minutes, we said our goodbyes and had our debriefing meeting.  And we hit the sack knowing the next day we had one of our biggest challenges ahead... meeting the children.

Seslavskoye was one of the two destinations that our group spilt into in the morning to do our ministry.  Our Seslavskoye group was split into three sections: younger children, older boys, and older girls.  We were all expecting a larger amount of children, but each of our groups was under 10 in amount.  It was a bittersweet experience since some of the children that we played with that morning, left the group home that afternoon.  But after tons of hugs, games, and crafts, we left with the high hopes that God would open doors to allow us to work in these broken lives. 

Please continue to pray for strength and boldness as we not only are ministering to the children, but to our interpreters as well.  We love and miss you all, and can't wait to share the rest of our stories and experiences with you.  God Bless!

-          - Beth Buchwalter