Boots on the Ground - 20 Days in Russia

Zdravstvujte! That is how we greet each other here in St. Petersburg, Russia. Our team of seven arrived in the city on the 1st of January. The city was "quiet", and would remain so for the following week. Russians celebrate the Christmas season differently than we do in Canada. Russian Christmas in on January 7. This gave us an opportunity to spend time getting to know the city and its people, rather than work. The YWAM team here is small, three people, and is in the pioneering stages; similar to the base in Iceland. St. Petersburg is a beautiful city at the centre. As the capital of the Russian empire for almost 300 years, it was built to show the might of the Tsars. Here is the Winter Palace, the home of the Tsars. Now it is a museum.

Our team is staying in a hostel near the centre of the city. It is small and all six guys are in one small room. While it is not the most comfortable accommodations, it is home for our time here. It is amazing how quickly one can adjust to new living conditions. We have a "functional" kitchen which has taken some time to figure out, but we manage to eat well.

St. Petersburg has a well designed metro that is easy to navigate and light on the wallet. We are able to get to an from almost all our ministries via the metro. The bus system is a whole other ball of wax. While the metro is clear and well mapped, the bus system is very difficult to figure out. I would alway opt to walk if not for our Russian friends leading the way.

We received invitations to attend five different churches, and met so many amazing people at each one. It has been inspiring to hear stories of how God has provided for the Christians here in St. Petersburg. It has been especially interesting to hear about what life was like for the church under Soviet rule. No matter how hard the atheistic government tried to stamp religion out, the church survived. Now the church is alive and involved in the community. So many ministry opportunities have come out of our new contacts through the churches of the city.

There are numerous orphanages in the city and we have visited three so far. We are not allowed to directly talk about God, but we just go in to show the love of Christ. It is our hope that the children will ask questions about us, why we are here, and why we are coming to see them. We want to plant seeds in their lives that God will tend to over the years, and foster a desire and hunger for Christ. Some of the stories the children tell us are heartbreaking; stories of abandonment, grief, and hardships. We do what we can with a limited knowledge of the language, but there is truth in the phrase, "actions speak louder than words", especially when you have no words.

One evening we went outside the city to a rehabilitation centre for alcohol and drug addicts. We shared testimonies of how God has been working in our lives and spent time in prayer with them. It was hard to gauge how it went, but they seemed very receptive to our words and it is our prayer that God touched their hearts through our words.





We have also spend a lot of time in prayer. Our days are not yet completely filled with doing, so we pray for the city in the "slow" times; doing prayer walks, and gathering together with the YWAM team already in place here. We are asking God for guidance for our time here, and for a vision for YWAM St. Petersburg. I would like to ask you to join us in this prayer.






Enjoying a cup of hot chocolate after an evening of prayer :)