Well,we made it safely back to the States. Thank you all for praying. In the next several days or so, I will try to post some of the pictures from this trip. We really felt like we established some good relationships this week and set forth a good foundation for future ministry with these lovely people. Total travel time from Voronezh to home was about 36 hours.
We travelled by train back to Voronezh (12 hours), then we spent a short afternoon sightseeing in Moscow.
We slept for a few hours, then were picked up at 3 AM for our journey to the airport. With layovers etc., the flights home took 25 hours.
We are dealing with a bit of jetlag today, but are none the worse for wear.
We look forward to sharing all the details of our trip with all of you.
Dan Johnson
Saturday, November 3, 2007
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Made it Back to Moscow
Hello all!
Sorry we have been so out of touch, but internet access has been hard to come by.
Currently I'm in the lobby of the hotel in Moscow. We arrived about 2 hours ago via the overnight train from Voronezh. We slept, but didn't sleep real well. We all feel pretty scuzzy, but can't do anything about it because we're waiting for our rooms to be ready.
Tomorrow we get picked up at 3AM to make our 5:55AM flight. Hopefully we'll be able to get to bed early tonight.
All in all I think this has been a very successful week. We got a good feel for what is going on in Voronezh, some of the ministry opportunities, and some of the obstacles. The students for the main session in Voronezh were hungry for God's word, as were the parishioners at the churches in other parts of the states. Some were literally sitting on the edge of their chairs totally absorbed in what was being taught. We praise God that he used us to encourage his people this week.
Saying good-bye at the train station was difficult. We have grown to love God's people here, particularly the ones that we spent every day with. I hope to see them again, but that's all according to the providence of God.
That being said, all of us are eager to be home. If we could hop on a plane right now (preferably after a shower) we would do it in a moment. But our plane doesn't leave until tomorrow.
So,we are heading out for a little site-seeing in Moscow (or Mockba as they spell it) today. Moscow is the world's most expensive city, way ahead of Toyko as I understand it. They have over 500 billionaries in this city! I guess that would tend to drive up the prices just a tiche! Our guide is waiting in lobby for us. He is about 18 I think.
Much love to our church families back in the state....not just from us, but from God's people in Voronezh. They were insistent that we communicate their appreciation for allowing us to come and the love they feel for you!
Pastor Baker
Sorry we have been so out of touch, but internet access has been hard to come by.
Currently I'm in the lobby of the hotel in Moscow. We arrived about 2 hours ago via the overnight train from Voronezh. We slept, but didn't sleep real well. We all feel pretty scuzzy, but can't do anything about it because we're waiting for our rooms to be ready.
Tomorrow we get picked up at 3AM to make our 5:55AM flight. Hopefully we'll be able to get to bed early tonight.
All in all I think this has been a very successful week. We got a good feel for what is going on in Voronezh, some of the ministry opportunities, and some of the obstacles. The students for the main session in Voronezh were hungry for God's word, as were the parishioners at the churches in other parts of the states. Some were literally sitting on the edge of their chairs totally absorbed in what was being taught. We praise God that he used us to encourage his people this week.
Saying good-bye at the train station was difficult. We have grown to love God's people here, particularly the ones that we spent every day with. I hope to see them again, but that's all according to the providence of God.
That being said, all of us are eager to be home. If we could hop on a plane right now (preferably after a shower) we would do it in a moment. But our plane doesn't leave until tomorrow.
So,we are heading out for a little site-seeing in Moscow (or Mockba as they spell it) today. Moscow is the world's most expensive city, way ahead of Toyko as I understand it. They have over 500 billionaries in this city! I guess that would tend to drive up the prices just a tiche! Our guide is waiting in lobby for us. He is about 18 I think.
Much love to our church families back in the state....not just from us, but from God's people in Voronezh. They were insistent that we communicate their appreciation for allowing us to come and the love they feel for you!
Pastor Baker
Saturday, October 27, 2007
Seeing saints suffering
Hi, this is Karen (Dan's wife). Because of the lack of availble ease of internet use, Dan asked me to post some details he wrote to me about.
They have an amazing translator named Julie, a Christian from the area. She is new at translating, but did a great job translating for Pastor Baker's teaching and she is with them all day.
Today, Dan rode out with Pastor Piotr and Pastor Yuri to a town about two hours from where they are staying. Their mission was to encourage a pastor named Sasha whose church was severely vandalized overnight. This was not simply vandalism, but out right persecution. Several sections of fence were destroyed, swastikas were not just spray painted, but carved into the outer church walls, bullet holes were shot through their church sign, and another symbol was painted in several places that labelled the church a cult. Pastor Sasha was upset, but in control.
After viewing the building, they prayed with him, and he invited them to his house for light lunch. They had coffee, some sausage, and coarse bread (very typical). They met his wife and children as well. It was a very humble home, but well kept. On the way, they stopped at a market and bought a case of grapes and a bushel of apples as a gift to the family. They were very appreciative.
It was a hard day, seeing persecution up close for the first time, and also because Dan did not have his interpretor. He was simply able to observe the Pastor's heart through his emotions.
Please pray for God's comfort for this Pastor and the congregation there. Thanks so much!
They have an amazing translator named Julie, a Christian from the area. She is new at translating, but did a great job translating for Pastor Baker's teaching and she is with them all day.
Today, Dan rode out with Pastor Piotr and Pastor Yuri to a town about two hours from where they are staying. Their mission was to encourage a pastor named Sasha whose church was severely vandalized overnight. This was not simply vandalism, but out right persecution. Several sections of fence were destroyed, swastikas were not just spray painted, but carved into the outer church walls, bullet holes were shot through their church sign, and another symbol was painted in several places that labelled the church a cult. Pastor Sasha was upset, but in control.
After viewing the building, they prayed with him, and he invited them to his house for light lunch. They had coffee, some sausage, and coarse bread (very typical). They met his wife and children as well. It was a very humble home, but well kept. On the way, they stopped at a market and bought a case of grapes and a bushel of apples as a gift to the family. They were very appreciative.
It was a hard day, seeing persecution up close for the first time, and also because Dan did not have his interpretor. He was simply able to observe the Pastor's heart through his emotions.
Please pray for God's comfort for this Pastor and the congregation there. Thanks so much!
Internet Cafe.....sorta.....
Well, we begged to go to an internet cafe tonight..you know....someplace with wireless so that we could sit comfortably and use our own computers to check mail, upload things we've already written...stuff like that. What we got was an internet cafe with no wireless, no hard line to connect to and old computers with the slowest high speed I've ever seen!.....Ah well, at least we can update this blog a little.
I finished teaching the main class today. I got about half the hours that I planned on, but we crammed a lot into what time we had (about 15 hours). The students seemed to be genuinely appreciative of the teaching. I could tell that some of the concepts of Bible interpretation were brand new to them. Some of them had that look of wonder as they thought about things they've never thought about before. Praise God for his mercy to us that I was allowed to teach and they were allowed to be here. He is soooo good to us.
Dan went to another town today to view another church, but that will be part of another post.
Everything else is going well. We are all healthy for the most part. We will be going to church tomorrow. Dan and I have been asked to sing together, so we'll have to work something up tonight in a hurry. They have daylight saving time here too, so we fall back tonight.
Monday we start visiting other parts of the state. They've asked me to do a 2 hour seminar in each location. I've got no idea what I'm going to do as yet. Some part of what I've been teaching, certainly, but what I don't know.
Thanks for praying for us!
Pastor Baker
I finished teaching the main class today. I got about half the hours that I planned on, but we crammed a lot into what time we had (about 15 hours). The students seemed to be genuinely appreciative of the teaching. I could tell that some of the concepts of Bible interpretation were brand new to them. Some of them had that look of wonder as they thought about things they've never thought about before. Praise God for his mercy to us that I was allowed to teach and they were allowed to be here. He is soooo good to us.
Dan went to another town today to view another church, but that will be part of another post.
Everything else is going well. We are all healthy for the most part. We will be going to church tomorrow. Dan and I have been asked to sing together, so we'll have to work something up tonight in a hurry. They have daylight saving time here too, so we fall back tonight.
Monday we start visiting other parts of the state. They've asked me to do a 2 hour seminar in each location. I've got no idea what I'm going to do as yet. Some part of what I've been teaching, certainly, but what I don't know.
Thanks for praying for us!
Pastor Baker
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Arrived in Moscow
We made it to Moscow with only a minor hiccup. The flights were on time (for the most part), none of the luggage was lost, we breezed through passport control and customs without problem. In fact, the green line for customs wasn't even staffed. We just walked out! Weird.
The minor hiccup was when we were to get our ride from the airport. Our travel manual explicitly states that we are to insist that the driver show us his official SGA badge. Under no circumstances were we to go with anyone else. We shouldn't be fooled with just a white piece of paper that had SGA written on it.
Well, you guess it, the guy that met us had a white piece of paper with SGA printed on it. We asked for his badge and he didn't have one. He mentioned our Russian agent's name, but we thought anyone could have found that out. He mentioned that we were going to Veronish, but again, anyone could know that. So he handed us the phone and said that Artyom wanted to speak with me. Someone with good English spoke to us, but how did we know this was Artyom? Finally he got Kyler Welch on the phone. I recognized his voice and he said we should go with this guy. He also stressed that we did the right thing.
After we made it to the hotel in only 2 hours (normal with traffic is 4!!) because of congestion, he said that this really was a good thing because they needed to understand the security system put in place is serious. This is the first time that it ever didn't work. I guess the guy they had pick us up was about fourth down on the list and lost his badge or something. At any rate, this probably will never happen again.
Not much else to talk about. Went to dinner at an American dinner. Food was pretty good. Leaving for Veronish in about 1 hour. We will have first class sleeping cabins (2 to a room--normal is 4). I guess they are pretty cramped but at this stage of the game I don't care. We're all pretty beat! I don't know what hour we are on, but it's above 24!
The minor hiccup was when we were to get our ride from the airport. Our travel manual explicitly states that we are to insist that the driver show us his official SGA badge. Under no circumstances were we to go with anyone else. We shouldn't be fooled with just a white piece of paper that had SGA written on it.
Well, you guess it, the guy that met us had a white piece of paper with SGA printed on it. We asked for his badge and he didn't have one. He mentioned our Russian agent's name, but we thought anyone could have found that out. He mentioned that we were going to Veronish, but again, anyone could know that. So he handed us the phone and said that Artyom wanted to speak with me. Someone with good English spoke to us, but how did we know this was Artyom? Finally he got Kyler Welch on the phone. I recognized his voice and he said we should go with this guy. He also stressed that we did the right thing.
After we made it to the hotel in only 2 hours (normal with traffic is 4!!) because of congestion, he said that this really was a good thing because they needed to understand the security system put in place is serious. This is the first time that it ever didn't work. I guess the guy they had pick us up was about fourth down on the list and lost his badge or something. At any rate, this probably will never happen again.
Not much else to talk about. Went to dinner at an American dinner. Food was pretty good. Leaving for Veronish in about 1 hour. We will have first class sleeping cabins (2 to a room--normal is 4). I guess they are pretty cramped but at this stage of the game I don't care. We're all pretty beat! I don't know what hour we are on, but it's above 24!
Safely in Moscow
Thanks everyone for your prayers. We arrived safely in Moscow this afternoon. All went well checking through customs and immigration with our Passports and Visas.
The ride from the airport to the Warsaw Hotel was much longer than we expected, but it was interesting to drive through the city of Moscow with a native Russian Driver. We commented about the bad traffic, and he looked at us kind of funny. He said, "No, no, this is great. At this pace we will get to the hotel in 2 hours. The standard trip during rush hour takes close to 4." We were thankful for the "short" transit.
This afternoon, we were shown the area in and around our hotel, in an effort to keep us from getting lost when we don't have our guide with us. We found an "American" Cafe and stopped for burgers and milkshakes. It was suprisingly authentic, and the milk shakes were to die for.
I apologize for the lack of pictures at this point. The internet access fees are by the minute here. I will post photos when I find a free wireless hotspot.
Thanks again for praying. We leave for the train station for the overnight to Voronezh in about an hour
The ride from the airport to the Warsaw Hotel was much longer than we expected, but it was interesting to drive through the city of Moscow with a native Russian Driver. We commented about the bad traffic, and he looked at us kind of funny. He said, "No, no, this is great. At this pace we will get to the hotel in 2 hours. The standard trip during rush hour takes close to 4." We were thankful for the "short" transit.
This afternoon, we were shown the area in and around our hotel, in an effort to keep us from getting lost when we don't have our guide with us. We found an "American" Cafe and stopped for burgers and milkshakes. It was suprisingly authentic, and the milk shakes were to die for.
I apologize for the lack of pictures at this point. The internet access fees are by the minute here. I will post photos when I find a free wireless hotspot.
Thanks again for praying. We leave for the train station for the overnight to Voronezh in about an hour
Monday, October 22, 2007
Safely Arrived in Frankfurt
We have arrived safely in Frankfurt, Germany. All flights were on time and uneventful.
We will be catching our flight to Moscow iin about an hour.
Please continue to pray for safety in travel and effectiveness in ministry.
Thanks!
We will be catching our flight to Moscow iin about an hour.
Please continue to pray for safety in travel and effectiveness in ministry.
Thanks!
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