Last night we were invited to eat in the home of Misha and Olga. Misha is an elder in the church and an effective evangelist. Both he and his wife are very active for the Lord in the church and in the community. It seems that the majority of members of the church have come to know the Lord through Misha's witnessing.
Misha and Olga live in a two roomed apartment (flat) on the fifth floor. We received a very warm welcome and then were taken to the table in the living room, which is also the bedroom of Misha and Olga. Their two boys use the other room. The boys (15) and (9) were not there as they were spending the last few days of their summer vacation at the dacha with their grandparents. School starts the first day of September....always the same day each year even if it is a Sunday!
Misha and Olga don't speak English, so Les was able to interpret for us.
Russians eat a very healthy diet. We started with a fruit juice (orange in colour) made from a berry grown at the family dacha. The first course was bread with a caviar spread on the bread, cucumbers, tomatoes (with cut up pieces of garlic spread over it), a crab and corn mixture salad (which is very typical as I think we have had it at every Russian meal we have had) and a cheese, mayonaise with garlic mixture. The next course was grilled chicken with mashed potatoes and that was followed by cake (plain cake with sliced apple on top), fresh gooseberries and tea. The Russians know how to live. They are tea drinkers. I thought I was in heaven when I arrived in Russia with so much tea being drunk!
After the dinner the photographs of the family came out. That is very much a part of the Russian culture. Our Russian language teacher even showed us photos of her family.
The conversation then turned to the things of the Lord. Misha wanted to know about our experiences and how we became Christians. In turn he talked about how he and his wife had an encouneter with the living Lord Jesus. About 16 years ago they turned from communism to the Russian Orthodox Church. In their search they came across the same tract twice that talked about the Lord Jesus and a personal encounter Jesus became real to them and they yielded their lives to the Lord. Misha told us how his great grandparents were believers and then the gospel skipped a couple of generations due to communism and now the gospel is back in the family. His forebears moved from the Ukraine to Kazakstan and his parents from there to Novosibirsk. He still has cousins in Kazakstan.
Misha then pumped me with questions about methods of outreach. How exciting to be with people turned on to the Lord and wanting to share the gospel in the world. We talked about different methods but mainly the use of radio. Olga has actually done some work at a Christian radio station that is funded by the West, so Misha was really interested in doing something in Novosibirsk by radio to reach out with the gospel.
Misha and Ogla are also intereted in orphanages. Their concern is the number of orphans in Novosibirsk. Orphans are kept in orphanages until the age of 15 or 16. At that stage they are released and that is when trouble starts for many who end up homeless or as drifters, being exposed to prostitution and crime. Misha and Olga's concern (along with the church) is to do a work among these orphans who are released to find good homes and jobs. They would like to start some sort of ministry to help them when they leave the orphanage to go out into the world.
Pray for the church in Russia and particularly Novosibirsk, as the Lord has raised up some great believers who have a concern to reach out to the people around about them.
Today is our last day in Novosibirsk. Tomorrow we fly to Moscow where we will be hosted by a Russian family - Pavel Ignatiev.
2 comments:
One thing we forgot to mention in this latest "blog" was these folk have a 'dacha' and grow many fruit and vege which they then store for the winter in basement storage places under their apartment buildings. We also saw all the jars of preserved fruit and vege that they had stored in their house under beds, furniture and stuff - fascinating!
Some friends of my family adopted a Russian boy several years ago. It would be interesting to know what city/orphanage he was raised in.
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