A typical highrise apartment building where hundreds live … and normally there is a series of them in a row and sometimes even streets upon streets of identical highrise buildings all housing families who work somewhere close by or take public transport to work and home again. They have an excellent bus and train system in this city. Today we are in the city of Piatigorsk again ministering to the leaders of a number of churches.

Along with these mini-cities that exist all over the city you find small Kiosks scattered all over the place – street corners, down pathways that run between the buildings, clustered together near a vacant field. Simple tin `sheds`that specialize in a small number of products that people buy on their way to and from work. Most people shop daily for the food they need and it is neat to see the slower pace that allows them to visit their friends and relatives as they shop for their daily needs. Sometimes these small kiosks are all grouped together in a market place (picture a good sized park covered in small tin sheds and lean-tos displaying products from men`s underwear, toothpaste, deordant, shoes, and socks to finely finished leather goods from Italy. These markets are a definite experience and a place where you can spend a whole day and enjoy the people, the noise, the food and the party atmosphere.

More and more you can see actual buildings being built to house the stores and so you can walk into a food store that is well stocked and rivals anything you might find back home. Smaller selection of brand names but just as many products including Diet Pepsi. God is good! The style of clothing for teens and young people are identical to what you see in North America and the average person wears blue jeans and t-shirts with a hoodie just as you would see back home. You see fewer cars and more people walking, riding bikes, and taking the transit systems that exist in the cities and between cities. I can ride the train all night from one city to another and it would only cost me the equivalent of $6.50 American or Canadian. Not a large amount of money considering a short ride on a city bus here in Canada will cost you half of that. You can rent a sleeper compartment which we often do when using a train for 8 to 10 hours – my team members sleep and I work on the laptop or read as I cannot sleep when in motion. There transit systems are improvin and modernizing all the time and, at times on the major routes, would rival much of what you see in North America.

I love the pace of life here in the smaller cities and towns. The ability to walk to purchase almost anything you need as well as to move long distances by transit. Much simpler and more relaxing than the constant driving to everywhere that we do in North America – and sometimes just as fast. I like the way people relate in the neighborhood and take time to talk to others they meet and haggle with the merchant to bring the price down. It almost like stepping back to a more civilized time when people mattered and conversations were important; when neighbor knew neighbor and people were not always rushing to and fro going nowhere. Oh, they have fences around their homes (if they live in a separate dwelling) as they do like their privacy when possible but still it is much more like `Mr. Roger`s Neighborhood`than Law and Order Los Angeles. I like it.

Your continued prayers would be greatly appreciated – we move on to Mineralny Vody tomorrow. This is the city we flew into on our first night in the country. We are there for the Saturday and Sunday – leaders day and then general public services….

Today we are ministering for a second day in the city of Yesentuky in the Cacausus.

This part of Russia is beautiful at this time of year. Their seasons are a bit behind ours in North America as they are located much to the south in the nation and so t-shirts and shorts can still be worn at this time of year (except if you are a team member – jeans and a button up shirt)…. Of course, if you travel up into the mountains you will need a winter coat. But, on this trip we are staying where it is warm. Last year we had a day in the mountains and it was one of the spiritual highlights of my life as we stopped to cook supper (6 pastoral couples, their children and two foreigners) on our way back down the mountains. The Holy Spirit showed up as we prayed and fellowshipped and changed my life forever.

So, hopefully you are enjoying a nice fall (spring) day in the nation where you live – we are enjoying our return to August weather here in the Cacausus and even managing an occasional short walk several times a day between events and then a longer one in the late evening after the day comes to an end – to unwind, relax, debrief, and simply get some exercise. A touch of “normal life” as they rest of each day could never be described as “normal.”

This time we are sticking to the valleys and plains with no day off or trip planned to the mountains. The pace we will be keeping and the location of the cities we are working in means we are here just to work. Beautiful countrysides and wonderful scenery as we travel from place to place, however. God’s hand is evident in nature everywhere we go. Once in the cities – they all look alike to me as we don’t do any sightseeing but simply go from meeting to meeting and thus see only buildings and streets – most not in the best of conditions. However, that is comparing it to what I experience in my nation which, of course, is not fair as they are two different cultures and approaches to life – like comparing apples and oranges.

The one thing that remains the same from nation to nation and even location to location within a nation is the presence and power of God and the love He expresses and shows towards each group of believers gathered to honor Him and learn from His Word. It is amazingly consistent and abundant. Here the people are really hungry for more of God and expectant that God will “show up” in power and other special ways. They love Him so deeply and with their whole body, soul, and spirit. Worship is powerful and God honors the hunger and the expectancy and does wonderful and often unexpected things. We always make room for God to interrupt what we are doing if He so desires – and He often does.

Your prayers are very important to us as we move from city to city and minister three major sessions a day with lots of one-on-one ministry inbetween the main sessions. Thanks for caring! Your support is very important to me!

I have just arrivd in Moscow – a city of, they think, 10.5 million people (registered inhabitants) – and am waiting for the next flight that will take us to Mineralny Vody (a 3.5 hour flight) which is in the mountains in the south-west of the Russian nation. The mountains are called The Cacausus and the way of life there is, of course, different than you would find in many of the other geographical locations within the immense nation of Russia. Each area is unique. I am sitting with my administrator for Eastern Europe – Miroslav – as he has arrived early this morning by train from Ukraine.

In the area we will be ministering in for the first week you find many Muslims with mosques appearing on street corners and on hill sides even in some of the smaller towns and villages. The other dominate religion is the Rusian Orthodox Church which still has great power over the people and is often an arm of the government. Both religions are very controlling and keep the people in state of fear and uncertainty.

The born again Church is alive and well but often not visible due to using rented facilities such as cultural centers and convention halls. However, in general, they can still meet publicly without being hassled. Of course, we cannot advertise that we are here as we are tourists and foreigners and thus must keep a low profile. Our meetings are by invitation only except the Sunday morning services which are open to their congregational members and friends. No advertising.

We are living out of a suitcase as we will be relocating every 36 hours to another city to continue ministering to local leadership in each location. That means we will have no home base where we can set up and have a place to pray, read, write blogs … it will all be done “on the fly” often stealing five minutes here and there to pray with the team and doing blogs on laptops in the back seat of cars as we are driven to the next event. We have borrowed internet connecting “sticks” so we can connect to the web and emails without extreme roaming charges which would be what we would face if we use our own “sticks” and pay the roaming fees. Thank God for modern technology and that the leaders we work with are up-to-date in their technological abilities due to their need to be mobile as they work with a large Network and expansive geography.

Tomorrow morning we jump right into a full day of ministry in spite of jet lag and being tired. Our time is limited and the expenses incurred to travel here means we jump right in so as to be good stewards (managers) of both the finances the Lord supplies and the time we have here with these great believers who are living in rather difficult situations.

Your prayers, as always, are greatly appreciated.

One of the most powerful times of fellowship with the Holy Spirit and with other believers that I have ever been a part of was on a mountain in the Caucasus area of the nation of Russia. We were returning from a day of sightseeing and family time (we had 5 pastors and their families with us) and stopped in the middle of the mountain range by a very cold and fast running creek to start a crude fire and cook supper. An old-fashion Russian tea pot (the fire is fed by small sticks and branches and lit in the center of the pot in a cylindar so that it is 360 degree heat radiating outward into the water) made the best tea I have ever had and after preparing the food on the moss and leaves it was cooked on an outdoor fire and we sat in the cool (and somewhat dark) evening and ate together.

In spite of the language barrier and not wanting to always be asking my interpreter to work as he was enjoying a more relaxing day … I joined right in and watched – listened – and laughed for hours with them. The unity was wonderful. The love and acceptance between these leaders was blatently obvious and wonderful to behold. The unity I saw was almost spiritually and emotionally overwhelming. And then the Holy Spirit showed up and literally joined the fellowship already being enjoyed. You would have had to have been physically dead to have missed it. It was amazing. I shall never forget it. It was a spiritual experience – involving my mind, will, emotions, and physical body.

My first stop several days from now is to this same group of leaders and pastors. I will be working with them for 8 days and I know that the fellowship will be sweet and that God will do some very wonderful things while I am with them. I hope and pray that He will bless me, as well, in as deep a way as He did during my last visit. It impacted me for life as it was the first time in my life that I had ever seen this level of unity and acceptance, human and divine fellowship and interaction.

The Russian born again church may not have all that we in the west take for granted but they have something that we seldom experience. I would trade a dozen or more of our facilities and fancy programming for an hour of what they appparently experience quite regularly. They have something precious and powerful and I hope I am honored to share in it again this visit.