Well, I'm off to Russia in a few hours. I can't believe it's finally time. It only took 14 months. It's been a busy month, wrapping up life and work in Seattle. I had applied for a leave of absence in Microsoft, but it was rejected. Oh well, I guess God thinks I don't need a safety net. After 8.5 years at Microsoft I'm finished. It was a great job and a great company. I won't miss the late nights, though, or commuting over the 520 bridge. I had to move all the stuff out of my apartment into storage in Seattle during a snowstorm that shut down the city. That was fun. I also solidified my living arrangements in Russia (I believe). I'll be renting a small house on the outskirts of Anapa, one that my friend Shawn was renting until he came back to the US 2 weeks ago. Sounds like it's a good place and the rent is a tremendous deal (~$550 a month, plus utilities).I've spent the last week in NH, celebrating Christmas with the family. We had another blizzard here in NH and spent 3 days cooped up in the house. Marcia came out to NH for Christmas, which was a lot of fun, also. It was great having her here before I leave. It was wonderful celebrating Christmas here at home, again. I got to see several friends, too, which was nice. We had a little send off for me with some friends from church. Everyone prayed for me and the English camp and the people in Russia. I had a send off party when I left Seattle, also. God has put some amazing people in my life and I am very blessed. A lot of people have given me financial contributions for my work in Russia. Thank you so much, everyone. It looks like I've got enough for 6-9 months in Russia, now, depending on how much I eat and whether I can find work. I really appreciate it, you guys are awesome. I'll be coming back to the USA at the end of March for a few weeks to reapply for another visa. First Seattle and maybe I'll pass through NH again on the way back to Russia. I'll send out another update after the English camp in a couple weeks. I gotta run, I've still got errands to do.
Please pray:
1) For safe travel for me and the team from Crossroads Bible Church to/from Russia
2) For the Russian people at the English camp and that we would be good witnesses to them
3) That I would get settled in Russia and get moving on the English teaching with the church
4) That I would find work and get a work permit in Russia
Blessings,
Ryan
Russian cell (including country code): 011 7 909 444 4898
Monday, December 29, 2008
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Passport and visa have arrived!
Yay! I finally got my passport and 90 day visa back from the Russian consulate. I was getting a little nervous, I was expecting it last week. I was just about to email the travel agency about getting in touch with the consulate when it arrived this morning. Thank you, Lord! I still have many things to do, but it's nice knowing that the Russians will let me into their country.
Monday, December 8, 2008
Last day of work at MSFT
I dropped in to the office for a few hours today. I was hoping that last Wednesday would have been the last day, but I needed to wrap up a few odds and ends. It's a little strange to be finishing at MSFT after 8.5 years. Cleaning out my office was a trip down memory lane, I'd been lugging a bunch of old paperwork around for years and had to clean it all out. Documentation plans from Sep 2000, specs for features/products that never went any where, "moral" gifts (how many clocks and thermometers does a person need), etc... It's been a great time here at MSFT. Working with motivated intelligent people who really get excited about technology has been awesome, playing with multi-billion dollar toys has been a blast. I won't miss the late nights and firedrills, though, and too bad the stock options never really panned out. I'm enjoying my time off before I head to NH and then Russia. Loafing on the couch in my underwear at 11am on a weekday, reading comics, and drinking beer is quite nice. A guy could get used to that. I've still got quite a few things to do in the next week and a half. Anyone want to buy my car?
Monday, December 1, 2008
Only 2 days of work left
Wednesday will be my last day in the office. Technically, I'll be on vacation until Jan 6. It's really strange. I'm finally leaving after 8.5 years here at the evil empire. I was sort of expecting to be a millionaire by now, but the stock options never really produced. Oh well. I've still got a ton of things to do before I leave for NH on 12/18. Msft has been a great place to work, but it's also a crazy house. I won't miss the pandemonium. Back to work, I've got a ton of things to do in the next two days.
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
October, 2008 Russia Update
Hello friends and family,
I hope this update finds you all well. Wow, I can't believe it's been 6 months since my last update. I would've written earlier, but there wasn't much to update you on. The last 6 months can only be described as an exercise in patience and trust. In early April I had accepted an offer on my house (miraculously, the house was only on the market for a few days) and set a closing date of May 31. I then moved into an apartment with a friend of mine in Seattle. May 31 came and went, the lender had approved my buyers but was being a little slow in transferring the money to escrow. We extended the closing date by 2 weeks and I was assured that the money would be transferred to escrow by then. Another 2 weeks, still no transfer. We extended the closing date another 2 weeks... After 13 weeks and 3 other lenders the house finally closed. It was a difficult time for me. I was impatient to move on and get to Russia, and I was now paying apartment rent as well as a mortgage. Money was very tight for a while, since I had also increased the contributions to my retirement plan at work under the assumption that I wouldn't be making house payments anymore. After a month and a half the buyers started covering some of my expenses (they didn't want me to drop them) and I had just enough to meet my expenses. It was a trying time, but God carried me through and I daresay I learned a little more about perseverance, prayer, and budgeting. I am very thankful to God that I was able to sell the house and to keep the original sale price from April. In this housing market I realize that many people are not able to sell at all, let alone get their asking price, so I am very grateful.
The house closed 4 weeks ago and I have now have a departure date for Russia: December 29. I will be returning with a small group from my church, Crossroads Bible Church, to hold another English camp with the church in Anapa, southern Russia. Anapa is a large, summer resort city and Novorossiysk (where the camp will be held) is a large port. English is commonly spoken in Europe and abroad and Russia is Russia taking a larger part on the world stage. The church believes that English teaching is an excellent way to reach out to Russian people who are involved in tourism and commerce. When the Crossroads team returns to America, I will most likely remain in Russia. I've talked more with Pastor Victor in Anapa and they're still happy to have me. I am very much looking forward to living in Russia and working for God. It'll be very challenging, I'm sure, but I was starting to get a little bored working 9-5 (or 9-midnight, as it sometimes is at Microsoft) and playing with some of the worlds leading software.
Thank you, everyone, for your prayers and support. There are still many details to be worked out, I’d appreciate you continued prayer support. I'm going to be very busy the next 2 and half months. That's all I've got time for now, I'll send out more info as it comes in.
Some specific things to pray for:
1) That many people would come to the English camp in January and that God would use us to reach out to them.
2) Wisdom and guidance around my living/working arrangements in Russia.
3) Visa issues- Unless I can get a work permit (which requires a Russian company to hire me and pay me a salary), I'll be in Russia on 90 day visas. Every 90 days I'll have to come back to America and reapply for another 90 days. Flying back and forth every 90 days is a little pricey, I'd prefer a work permit which would allow me to stay in Russia for 1 year, continuously.
4) Guidance/discernment around supporting organizations- I've contacted 4 different missions organizations, now, and for various reasons none of them will be able to support/send me to Anapa to do English teaching. As it stands, currently, I am not a part of a missions organization and I will be working in very close partnership with the church in Anapa. I believe this is do-able, but I will have to work out a lot of issues (accountability, support raising, medical insurance, ...) that a sending organization would normally help with on my own.
5) Russian lessons- I'm learning, slowly...
In Him,Ryan
I hope this update finds you all well. Wow, I can't believe it's been 6 months since my last update. I would've written earlier, but there wasn't much to update you on. The last 6 months can only be described as an exercise in patience and trust. In early April I had accepted an offer on my house (miraculously, the house was only on the market for a few days) and set a closing date of May 31. I then moved into an apartment with a friend of mine in Seattle. May 31 came and went, the lender had approved my buyers but was being a little slow in transferring the money to escrow. We extended the closing date by 2 weeks and I was assured that the money would be transferred to escrow by then. Another 2 weeks, still no transfer. We extended the closing date another 2 weeks... After 13 weeks and 3 other lenders the house finally closed. It was a difficult time for me. I was impatient to move on and get to Russia, and I was now paying apartment rent as well as a mortgage. Money was very tight for a while, since I had also increased the contributions to my retirement plan at work under the assumption that I wouldn't be making house payments anymore. After a month and a half the buyers started covering some of my expenses (they didn't want me to drop them) and I had just enough to meet my expenses. It was a trying time, but God carried me through and I daresay I learned a little more about perseverance, prayer, and budgeting. I am very thankful to God that I was able to sell the house and to keep the original sale price from April. In this housing market I realize that many people are not able to sell at all, let alone get their asking price, so I am very grateful.
The house closed 4 weeks ago and I have now have a departure date for Russia: December 29. I will be returning with a small group from my church, Crossroads Bible Church, to hold another English camp with the church in Anapa, southern Russia. Anapa is a large, summer resort city and Novorossiysk (where the camp will be held) is a large port. English is commonly spoken in Europe and abroad and Russia is Russia taking a larger part on the world stage. The church believes that English teaching is an excellent way to reach out to Russian people who are involved in tourism and commerce. When the Crossroads team returns to America, I will most likely remain in Russia. I've talked more with Pastor Victor in Anapa and they're still happy to have me. I am very much looking forward to living in Russia and working for God. It'll be very challenging, I'm sure, but I was starting to get a little bored working 9-5 (or 9-midnight, as it sometimes is at Microsoft) and playing with some of the worlds leading software.
Thank you, everyone, for your prayers and support. There are still many details to be worked out, I’d appreciate you continued prayer support. I'm going to be very busy the next 2 and half months. That's all I've got time for now, I'll send out more info as it comes in.
Some specific things to pray for:
1) That many people would come to the English camp in January and that God would use us to reach out to them.
2) Wisdom and guidance around my living/working arrangements in Russia.
3) Visa issues- Unless I can get a work permit (which requires a Russian company to hire me and pay me a salary), I'll be in Russia on 90 day visas. Every 90 days I'll have to come back to America and reapply for another 90 days. Flying back and forth every 90 days is a little pricey, I'd prefer a work permit which would allow me to stay in Russia for 1 year, continuously.
4) Guidance/discernment around supporting organizations- I've contacted 4 different missions organizations, now, and for various reasons none of them will be able to support/send me to Anapa to do English teaching. As it stands, currently, I am not a part of a missions organization and I will be working in very close partnership with the church in Anapa. I believe this is do-able, but I will have to work out a lot of issues (accountability, support raising, medical insurance, ...) that a sending organization would normally help with on my own.
5) Russian lessons- I'm learning, slowly...
In Him,Ryan
April, 2008 Russia Update
Dear friends and family,
It's been a little while since I last wrote and it's time for an update. Yes, I'm still planning on moving to southern Russia to do missions work for a year, or more. When? I'm not quite sure, yet, but this past week I jumped a big hurdle: I sold my house. Well, I should say I accepted an offer to buy my house, it's not quite sold yet. Still, this is pretty exciting for me and a big relief. At first I wasn't so sure about selling the place, but the more I thought and prayed about it the more I realized that I needed to pay off all my school loans and be debt free before I left. I really didn't want to bother with renting the house out while I was half a world away, either.
I've never sold a house before, I had no idea what I was getting into. All the little things I'd been putting off found their way onto a To Do list, and the list was daunting. Yard work, rodents in the attic, replace the carpet and molding in the spare bedroom (thanks to my adorable cats), yard work, fix the hot tub, yard work, clean, paint, yard work, fix the fence, ... It went on. I started work in November, doing as much as I could on my own and with a friend to save some money. By mid-February I was starting to get pretty discouraged. It seemed like every task I completed only led to another task and there didn't seem to be any end in sight. God sent me some good encouragement during this time, though, by way of a touching letter and sizeable financial contribution for my ministry from a good friend. It was totally unexpected and exactly what I needed at the time.
Finally, in March the place was fixed up enough to start making it presentable to potential buyers. My agent and the stager decided that "Microsoft bachelor" wasn't really the "look" we were going for. I wasn't so sure about this at first (this "look" had worked pretty well for me the past 3 years, after all), but I was willing to play along. After I took down all the Star Wars, Guinness, and Lord of the Rings posters and cleared the ice axe and climbing rope off the kitchen counter we determined that I really didn't have any decorations. And my expensive HD TV was still resting on a $5 plastic crate. We brought in all kinds of pretty stuff that I never knew existed. "Treatments" and "centerpieces", things of that nature. I have to admit, the greenery does liven the place up a bit. The napkin arrangement thing in the kitchen still creeps me out a little, but I've truly grown to love the 4 ft tall bronze giraffe in the living room.
One big item on the big To Do list is now on track to be completed, but there are still several other things to do before I pack up and leave. I have a general plan to teach English and use that as an avenue for evangelism, but I need to talk some more with Pastor Victor and start working on some of the details. I am also planning on partnering with a missions organization. I figure I could use the support, accountability, networking, training, and credibility. I will also be raising financial support and will need some assistance, there. In order to stay for a year in Russia I need to get a business visa which, among other things, requires a letter of invitation from a Russian organization. I'm hoping the Christian camp I worked at last summer will be able to help me out, we'll see. Those are 4 big things that still need to be resolved (ministry details, missions org, financial support, business visa), I'm sure there will be plenty more. With God's help I'll work through them all and will end up one day in Russia. And then the fun will really begin.
So, that's a snapshot of where things are at today. Thanks, everyone, for you prayers and support.
In Him,Ryan
It's been a little while since I last wrote and it's time for an update. Yes, I'm still planning on moving to southern Russia to do missions work for a year, or more. When? I'm not quite sure, yet, but this past week I jumped a big hurdle: I sold my house. Well, I should say I accepted an offer to buy my house, it's not quite sold yet. Still, this is pretty exciting for me and a big relief. At first I wasn't so sure about selling the place, but the more I thought and prayed about it the more I realized that I needed to pay off all my school loans and be debt free before I left. I really didn't want to bother with renting the house out while I was half a world away, either.
I've never sold a house before, I had no idea what I was getting into. All the little things I'd been putting off found their way onto a To Do list, and the list was daunting. Yard work, rodents in the attic, replace the carpet and molding in the spare bedroom (thanks to my adorable cats), yard work, fix the hot tub, yard work, clean, paint, yard work, fix the fence, ... It went on. I started work in November, doing as much as I could on my own and with a friend to save some money. By mid-February I was starting to get pretty discouraged. It seemed like every task I completed only led to another task and there didn't seem to be any end in sight. God sent me some good encouragement during this time, though, by way of a touching letter and sizeable financial contribution for my ministry from a good friend. It was totally unexpected and exactly what I needed at the time.
Finally, in March the place was fixed up enough to start making it presentable to potential buyers. My agent and the stager decided that "Microsoft bachelor" wasn't really the "look" we were going for. I wasn't so sure about this at first (this "look" had worked pretty well for me the past 3 years, after all), but I was willing to play along. After I took down all the Star Wars, Guinness, and Lord of the Rings posters and cleared the ice axe and climbing rope off the kitchen counter we determined that I really didn't have any decorations. And my expensive HD TV was still resting on a $5 plastic crate. We brought in all kinds of pretty stuff that I never knew existed. "Treatments" and "centerpieces", things of that nature. I have to admit, the greenery does liven the place up a bit. The napkin arrangement thing in the kitchen still creeps me out a little, but I've truly grown to love the 4 ft tall bronze giraffe in the living room.
One big item on the big To Do list is now on track to be completed, but there are still several other things to do before I pack up and leave. I have a general plan to teach English and use that as an avenue for evangelism, but I need to talk some more with Pastor Victor and start working on some of the details. I am also planning on partnering with a missions organization. I figure I could use the support, accountability, networking, training, and credibility. I will also be raising financial support and will need some assistance, there. In order to stay for a year in Russia I need to get a business visa which, among other things, requires a letter of invitation from a Russian organization. I'm hoping the Christian camp I worked at last summer will be able to help me out, we'll see. Those are 4 big things that still need to be resolved (ministry details, missions org, financial support, business visa), I'm sure there will be plenty more. With God's help I'll work through them all and will end up one day in Russia. And then the fun will really begin.
So, that's a snapshot of where things are at today. Thanks, everyone, for you prayers and support.
In Him,Ryan
October, 2007 Russia Update
Hi,
This past January I went with twelve people from Crossroads Bible Church (Bellevue, WA) to the city of Anapa, Russia, on the Black Sea. While there we partnered with Victor and Luda Semukhin, Russian nationals, in their ministry of sharing the gospel and planting a church in Anapa, Russia. Pastor Victor is a graduate of a Bible college in Moscow that two missionaries from my church worked at. My group taught English at a family camp, using the Bible as a textbook. Through the English camp ministry we were able to encourage fellow believers and reach out to non-believers to share the good news of Jesus Christ. The ESL camp was held at the Mountain Spring Christian retreat center in Novorossiysk, about 2 hours drive from Anapa.
In August I returned to Russia and the Mountain Spring camp as a part of a construction team. I spent 2 weeks at the camp in Novorossiysk with 5 other Americans from Montana and Wyoming, primarily doing internal framing in the camp’s new 3 story medical building. After my 2 weeks in Novorossiysk I spent an additional three days in Anapa with Pastor Victor and the church, there. I had gotten to know several of the people in the Anapa church during my last visit and couldn’t pass up an opportunity to visit them as I was only 60 km away.
While working on the construction projects during my two weeks at the camp I began to feel that God wanted me to come back to Russia and stay for a longer period of time. This feeling continued to grow on me the whole time I was working at the camp, especially during the second week. I spent several nights praying about this: asking for guidance and reassurance. One of the Americans on my team suggested, one afternoon, that perhaps I should live in Russia for a year to really learn the language (I’ve been taking Russian classes at the local community college). One of the people at the camp also invited me to come back and help out at the camp the following year. There were other people, as well, who asked me if I was planning on returning to Russia. So, I had several people asking me to consider returning to Russia for a period of time. The period of time, though, that kept coming into my mind was a year: not exactly a short vacation. By the end of the second week at the camp I was really looking for confirmation. My last day at the Mountain Spring camp I spoke for a while with an American missionary about what was on my mind. He was very intrigued about my interest in coming back to Russia for a year, though it wasn’t clear what I would actually do. We prayed together that God would provide a clear invitation for me to return and would also provide work for me to perform. Shortly after our prayer Pastor Victor arrived at the camp to pick me up and take me up to Anapa. Another pastor, Ilya, from a church in Novorossiysk had arrived with Victor and we dropped him off at his house in the city. He invited us in for tea, so we sat down to chat for a while and were soon joined by Ilya’s wife, Tanya. After some chit-chat, Victor, Ilya, and Tanya outlined a plan for a long term project they had been considering.
The English camp my church group held in January went well, they felt, and they would like to hold an informal English language conversation club on a regular basis. They feel that English language teaching/conversation is a good way to reach out and interact with people in the community and share the gospel. Anapa is a large, summer resort city (think Hampton Beach multiplied by 10). With many European visitors, English is a common language and many Russians in the tourist industry would be interested in learning or practicing what they learned in school. Novorossiysk is a large shipping port and there would be a lot of opportunity to interact with people (through English training) there, as well. The pastors would like to make this a full time ministry position for one or two people that would be partially supported by the churches there. They would like to see this ministry program last for at least a year, hopefully longer. A native English speaker would be ideal, of course, to help out in this ministry and they asked me to consider partnering with them.
This conversation over tea occurred about an hour after I had prayed with the American missionary for clear guidance, so it was definitely an answer to prayer. When I got back to WA, I prayed a lot more over it and talked with two of my pastors, an elder, my Bible study group, my family, and several friends about moving to Russia for a year and doing missions work. Everyone was excited and said I should go for it. After a lot of thought and prayer I decided that I would accept the Russian pastor’s invitation and spend a year in Russia sharing the gospel through English teaching/conversation. At this point, I don’t have much more than a plan to return. I’ve spoken since with Pastor Victor, but we still don’t have a solid timeline or plan for getting me a 1 year work visa. There is a lot of work to be done on both ends, still. I could be leaving in 2 months or 10, I couldn’t say at this point. There is also the matter of raising financial support. A small, furnished apartment goes for ~$1000 a month in southern Russia, now (real estate prices are sky-rocketing). The churches in the area would be supporting my financially, but I will most likely have to raise support of my own, as well.
I’ve got some challenges coming in the near future (like selling my house), but I’m very excited to be taking part in this. Russia desperately needs to hear the gospel. The communists drove the evangelical churches underground for decades and the Russian Orthodox church is very rigid and tradition bound and doesn’t emphasize having a personal relationship with Jesus. There’s a lot of work to be done and few workers. The church in Anapa (about 30 people) is the only evangelical church in a city of 150,000. I know of three evangelical churches in Novorossiysk (population of 300,000), which have a couple of hundred members. I can’t say why, exactly, but God and everyone I know seem to think I should go to Russia and work for a little while, so I’ll go and do what God wants of me.
Thank you, everyone, for your prayers and support. There are a lot of details to be worked out, I’d appreciate you continued prayer support.
Love in Him,
Ryan
Pictures from my trip:http://www.flickr.com/photos/rwike77/sets/72157602077234674/
This past January I went with twelve people from Crossroads Bible Church (Bellevue, WA) to the city of Anapa, Russia, on the Black Sea. While there we partnered with Victor and Luda Semukhin, Russian nationals, in their ministry of sharing the gospel and planting a church in Anapa, Russia. Pastor Victor is a graduate of a Bible college in Moscow that two missionaries from my church worked at. My group taught English at a family camp, using the Bible as a textbook. Through the English camp ministry we were able to encourage fellow believers and reach out to non-believers to share the good news of Jesus Christ. The ESL camp was held at the Mountain Spring Christian retreat center in Novorossiysk, about 2 hours drive from Anapa.
In August I returned to Russia and the Mountain Spring camp as a part of a construction team. I spent 2 weeks at the camp in Novorossiysk with 5 other Americans from Montana and Wyoming, primarily doing internal framing in the camp’s new 3 story medical building. After my 2 weeks in Novorossiysk I spent an additional three days in Anapa with Pastor Victor and the church, there. I had gotten to know several of the people in the Anapa church during my last visit and couldn’t pass up an opportunity to visit them as I was only 60 km away.
While working on the construction projects during my two weeks at the camp I began to feel that God wanted me to come back to Russia and stay for a longer period of time. This feeling continued to grow on me the whole time I was working at the camp, especially during the second week. I spent several nights praying about this: asking for guidance and reassurance. One of the Americans on my team suggested, one afternoon, that perhaps I should live in Russia for a year to really learn the language (I’ve been taking Russian classes at the local community college). One of the people at the camp also invited me to come back and help out at the camp the following year. There were other people, as well, who asked me if I was planning on returning to Russia. So, I had several people asking me to consider returning to Russia for a period of time. The period of time, though, that kept coming into my mind was a year: not exactly a short vacation. By the end of the second week at the camp I was really looking for confirmation. My last day at the Mountain Spring camp I spoke for a while with an American missionary about what was on my mind. He was very intrigued about my interest in coming back to Russia for a year, though it wasn’t clear what I would actually do. We prayed together that God would provide a clear invitation for me to return and would also provide work for me to perform. Shortly after our prayer Pastor Victor arrived at the camp to pick me up and take me up to Anapa. Another pastor, Ilya, from a church in Novorossiysk had arrived with Victor and we dropped him off at his house in the city. He invited us in for tea, so we sat down to chat for a while and were soon joined by Ilya’s wife, Tanya. After some chit-chat, Victor, Ilya, and Tanya outlined a plan for a long term project they had been considering.
The English camp my church group held in January went well, they felt, and they would like to hold an informal English language conversation club on a regular basis. They feel that English language teaching/conversation is a good way to reach out and interact with people in the community and share the gospel. Anapa is a large, summer resort city (think Hampton Beach multiplied by 10). With many European visitors, English is a common language and many Russians in the tourist industry would be interested in learning or practicing what they learned in school. Novorossiysk is a large shipping port and there would be a lot of opportunity to interact with people (through English training) there, as well. The pastors would like to make this a full time ministry position for one or two people that would be partially supported by the churches there. They would like to see this ministry program last for at least a year, hopefully longer. A native English speaker would be ideal, of course, to help out in this ministry and they asked me to consider partnering with them.
This conversation over tea occurred about an hour after I had prayed with the American missionary for clear guidance, so it was definitely an answer to prayer. When I got back to WA, I prayed a lot more over it and talked with two of my pastors, an elder, my Bible study group, my family, and several friends about moving to Russia for a year and doing missions work. Everyone was excited and said I should go for it. After a lot of thought and prayer I decided that I would accept the Russian pastor’s invitation and spend a year in Russia sharing the gospel through English teaching/conversation. At this point, I don’t have much more than a plan to return. I’ve spoken since with Pastor Victor, but we still don’t have a solid timeline or plan for getting me a 1 year work visa. There is a lot of work to be done on both ends, still. I could be leaving in 2 months or 10, I couldn’t say at this point. There is also the matter of raising financial support. A small, furnished apartment goes for ~$1000 a month in southern Russia, now (real estate prices are sky-rocketing). The churches in the area would be supporting my financially, but I will most likely have to raise support of my own, as well.
I’ve got some challenges coming in the near future (like selling my house), but I’m very excited to be taking part in this. Russia desperately needs to hear the gospel. The communists drove the evangelical churches underground for decades and the Russian Orthodox church is very rigid and tradition bound and doesn’t emphasize having a personal relationship with Jesus. There’s a lot of work to be done and few workers. The church in Anapa (about 30 people) is the only evangelical church in a city of 150,000. I know of three evangelical churches in Novorossiysk (population of 300,000), which have a couple of hundred members. I can’t say why, exactly, but God and everyone I know seem to think I should go to Russia and work for a little while, so I’ll go and do what God wants of me.
Thank you, everyone, for your prayers and support. There are a lot of details to be worked out, I’d appreciate you continued prayer support.
Love in Him,
Ryan
Pictures from my trip:http://www.flickr.com/photos/rwike77/sets/72157602077234674/
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