Retreat, Retrain, Regroup

After a year (for many in our counseling training group) of learning, practicing, and growing together, we decided it was time to get really serious, so we took of for 3 days for some intensive practice in the specific method of prayer ministry that we have been learning - theophostic prayer. Although not strictly counseling, and not mere prayer, I have used this approach in my counseling practice for many years with astounding results. My students are seeing similar results, and so their interest is far from abating.

One of us owns a dacha, or summer home, about an hour from the city and offered to let us use it for the weekend. It, like most such places, is a very simple house, with no running water or toilet, but that makes it all the more fun. It was a family event, sharing in cooking, cleaning, and fighting mosquitoes. And since Diana and Lydia were gone, the boys tagged along.

More pics from this event here.

Other than the great practice everyone got helping each other pray through difficult issues in their lives - and breakthroughs! - we also got to dig into reconciliation in a deep way. I kept hearing little conflicts, but nothing being done about them. So I started suggesting that the best path might be to talk things through. It went nowhere. Eventually, it got worse, so I called the attention of the entire group to it. What was happening was that two people (at that point) were in conflict, and nobody was doing anything. In loose group settings, maybe that's ok. But we are a tight group who minister weekly to deep places in each others' lives. To ignore what is happening in the group is disaster.

I had to keep proding, but after a while, they began to see that the problem belonged to them as a whole. So then I led a group discussion/teaching on biblical principles of reconciliation. I find that Russians can be really teachable, and the impact was significant. One woman was so hurt that she almost left because she had been so ignored, but now the group made a choice to minister to her, and the healing that came for everyone was powerful.

We capped it all off with a communion service and worship. Beautiful. That's what I live for.

Love Russia on Wheels

Through my work at MIR that I have often written about, I got to know a ministry out of England called Love Russia. Their heads, Alex and Jacqui Cooke, have been a real blessing to us in St. Petersburg through MIR, and more recently to our family. I'll tell you how.

Most of their work is about providing funds for specific purchases or physical projects at orphanages and other orphan related nonprofits or ministries. They are Christian, but often don't accent that in order to build relationships and favor. They had been working in the Ryazan region, south of Moscow for many years, but with the political climate changing, they have moved a lot of their emphasis to St. Petersburg, and our work here to orphans is the benificiary of their change. They don't have permanant staff on the ground, but rather come in periodically to find new projects to invest in, and to follow up on old ones. As such, MIR is a good partner organization, as it has the capacity to funnel funds, to build relationshiops with orphanage leadership, and to organize events and projects.

Our current project is a summer camp for orphans in foster care that MIR has organized for them, to take place in August in Estonia. ABout 50 Russian-speaking kids from Russia, as well as as many or more from Estonia and even Israel will be participating. Since Estonia is much more open to Christian ministry, the camp will be much more openly Christ-centered and evangelistic.

So what Love Russia does most of the time is raise funds for all these various projects, and hence the major bike trip that they organized recently, taking them from England, across Europe, all the way to Moscow. When the British Consulate here in St. Petersburg heard about it, they invited them and those associated with them to a tea at their consulate. The TV spot below takes place there, and you can see me in the yellow shirt. I'd never been but was impressed with the joint. It's like a little England in the midst of the city - clean, with English country gardens. The title of the spot, by the way, is "English bikers drink tea in Petersburg."

17:19 | 09.06.2011 Английские байкеры пьют чай в Петербурге В эти минуты в саду Генерального Консульства Великобритании пьют чай байкеры из Англии. Они участвовали в благотворительном российско-британском мотопробеге. Читать далее >>

Other pics from facebook on the event are here.

Alex and Jacqui are also the owners of the house that they have graciously offered to us for a summer vacation in France. We'll be there the whole month of July.

Neighborhood Clean-up

Just as the weather starts to turn tollerable for being outdoors each year (late April) a Soviet-era tradition kicks in. It brings the city back to life after the ugliness of "muddy season" when winter is melting away, leaving the accumulation of months of littering behind. We've participated in the last two, and it's really the best chance to get to know neighbors that are mostly reclusive or inclined to hang with their own otherwise. "Subbotnik" starts with raking leaves, planting plants, and picking up garbage, and ends with a shishkebab barbeque and, of course, drinking.

I got the kids going working on trash. Others raked leaves. Others helped us by standing around, but hey, it's Saturday. The day started at 11am. Work lasted two hours at the most, after which began the shaslik (shish-kebab) and drinking, which lasted until 1am that night. In these kinds of companies, drinking is pretty much mandatory. A habit I learned way back from living in Central Asia was to just take the minimum sip.

We have two special neighbors that make our subbotnik unusual:

Nadya (in the purple) brings the beauty to our courtyard. Her gift of love to the community through constant care and planting of new plants and flowers is a rare blessing in a country where public spaces are nobody's, so no one cares about them. During the course of the day, in speaking with Nadya, I learned that her husband had died way back in December. That's how embarrasingly out of touch I was. This was the very Valery that was the neighborhood drunk, who had such a special relationship with Lydia. The problem is that people don't go out much in the winter, so you don't notice when someone is gone. I still felt bad, though.

Sasha is the professional photographer who took the two group shots you see here. His great input for the day was in organizing games for the men. They did this strange stick throwing game that I could never fully understand that boys used to play back in the good old USSR.

As a professional, he and his family seem to enjoy our company more than anyone else here. I don't even fully get it, but he really wants to build a relationship with me

(he is to my right below). I take it as the favor of God, and hope I can be a good friend. Incidentally, it is their boy that Lydia tutors in English. BTW, her comments on the day are here.