Moscow Journal
More Serendipity and a Music Festival
May 21, 2007
When I wrote that last entry about serendipity for me here in Moscow, there were a few encounters I neglected to mention that I was thinking about today. God is so good and so faithful.
I already told you that before graduation I got to know one of the graduates, Tatiana, who pastors a church in Yuzhni, near Krasnodar. About a week after writing about her, I got an e-mail from Joan and Al, some friends in Maryland who were on the VIM trip to Pushkin, near St. Petersburg with me in the summer of ’94. They also went on several subsequent VIM trips to Russia. In the e-mail Joan asked me if Tatiana from around Krasnodar whom I wrote about could possibly be Tatiana Azyavina, because Al worshipped at her church. Of course it turned out it WAS Tatiana Azyavina. Joan asked me that if it was, to please let Tatiana know that Al had been there and that they know me.
My first inclination is to say, “It’s a small world!” But that doesn’t really cover it, because the kind of connections we have with one another come from the Lord bringing us together . . . I have had the joy of knowing Joan and Al for 13 years, and was so happy to meet Tatiana. Now I am so happy to know that there is another connection between us and someone else who knows and serves the Lord.
On the day of graduation and for the next few days the Board of Ordained Ministry met here with the graduates and with some other folks who are applying to be in ministry. One of the Board members was a pastor who had been my room mate in Fairfax, VA at the last meeting of the Russia Initiative in February of ’06. It was great to see her again over the days they met here! We caught up and the last time we talked together she invited me again to visit her in Samara where she lives. More serendipity . . . God is so good!
Usually when I see someone I don’t know, I introduce myself, and when a saw a young woman who was waiting to be seen by the Board members, I went over to her. We talked together for a while, and since she was a bit nervous about talking to the Board members, I tried to reassure her that it would be OK because she was answering the Lord’s call, and God would help her. We continued to talk and I mentioned that I had been in Astana, Kazakhstan for five months.
Her eyes lit up and she said that a pastor from there had baptized her. It turned out that her pastor was the same minister whose church services I attended when I was there! We rejoiced together at that “God-incidence”, amazed that we would have something in common when we were both so far away from home.
Maybe we shouldn’t have been so surprised, though. We belong to the Lord and the Kingdom of Heaven is not a geographical place . . . so it seems to me that all the serendipity I have been experiencing may just be “normal” for us.
It’s 9 PM here, and I had a long day at work, a break for dinner and a rest – and then came back to use the LAN line to write to you. I finally got through to my parents on the phone yesterday and was blessed to hear that they are doing well. They were watching the Cubs play the White Sox on TV, and I haven’t heard yet who won. I know that during the game a lot of folks in Chicago were very happy, though half of them must have been disappointed with whatever the outcome was . . .!
Since I have been here, I have also been blessed to be able to chat with Krista and Tom – and also with some friends in Australia and in England on MSN Messenger. Even with the time zone differences, it’s been good to be able to catch up with everyone. Krista told me today that Seth, who will be 16 months old on Thursday said, “I love you.” To her for the first time today! It will be good to get back home to see them all – and to be able to visit my folks and Tom and his kids this summer, God willing.
But I really feel at home here, too, and thank God for that. On Friday I helped make sandwiches for a music festival on Saturday afternoon. Choirs from many of the United Methodist Churches in the Moscow area came, and it was really wonderful. For some reason Pastor Lyudmila Gorbuzova, who I’ve told you about, and who was the director of the festival asked me to sing something, and I sang two verses of one of my favorite hymns, “Abide With Me” in Russian. The title in Russian is “Prebud’ co Mnoy”.
When I started the ministry to the Russian-speaking immigrants in DC, they didn’t know any Methodist hymns, but the GBGM had already asked Lyudmila and some other folks to work on a Methodist Hymnal in Russian. It is called “Mir Vam” – “May God be with You” – and is really wonderful, filled with traditional Methodist hymns translated into Russian, praise songs, Russian choir music, and hymns from all over the world and from other denominations. I had some pre-publication copies of the hymns and taught the folks who came to worship with me “Prebud’ co Mnoy”. We sang it every Sunday, and they still sing it at the worship services at the Grace Russian UMC in DC, since it has become a tradition.
I only practiced singing it with Lyudmila playing the piano once, and had a bit of stage fright when she called me up to sing. The choirs had been singing so beautifully and I was so touched to be able to be there. There were people with professional level voices, so I felt very inadequate, but a few people came up later and said that they were happy I had sung. They said they could tell I sang it from my heart. You know the lyrics, don’t you? They are appropriate for me right now since the light is fading and it’s time to head for bed . . . I only sang the first two verses, but here is all of it:
Abide with me: fast falls the eventide;the darkness deepens; Lord, with me abide:when other helpers fail and comforts flee,help of the helpless, O abide with me.I need thy presence every passing hour;what but thy grace can foil the tempter's power?Who, like thyself, my guide and stay can be?Through cloud and sunshine, Lord, abide with me.I fear no foe, with thee at hand to bless;ills have no weight, and tears no bitterness.Where is death's dark sting? where, grave, thy victory?I triumph still, if thou abide with me.Hold thou thy cross before my closing eyes;shine through the gloom, and point me to the skies;heaven's morning breaks, and earth's vain shadows flee;in life, in death, O Lord, abide with me.
Words: Henry Francis Lyte, 1847
May the Lord continue to bless and keep you and yours and give you a peaceful night’s rest when it is your turn to go to bed.
Blessings in the Love of Jesus – Kathy
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
Moscow Journal -- 5-18-07
Moscow Journal
Serendipity
5-18-07
When I woke up this morning I was thinking about the lovely people I’ve been blessed to spend time with herein Moscow. Galina, the church secretary for the Moscow Central Church that gathers here on to worship Sunday morning, had her birthday earlier this month, but those who work here hadn’t celebrated with her, yet. So yesterday around 4:30 PM, I was surprised to be invited by Ea to come to the dining hall to have some pizza.
One of the serendipitous things that happened right away the first day I arrived was that when I went down to the large auditorium that also serves as a sanctuary, a young woman came up to me with a big smile and said, “I know you! We met at Wesley Seminary!” It was Ea who had come to D.C. to study at Wesley during the time that I was working on the outreach to the former Soviet immigrants in the Baltimore-Washington Conference area. How lovely it was of the Lord to right away reveal to me a familiar face.
Ea works in the Bishop’s office doing the very important work of translating documents between Russian and English and helping the Bishop communicate with people who don’t speak English. It has been fascinating to me how much of the day to day life here in the work of the United Methodist Church in Eurasia takes place across what would normally be language barriers.
Neither Bishop Vaxby nor Tobias Dietze, the Dean of the Seminary are native speakers of Russian. The Bishop is Swedish and Tobias is from Germany, but has been here in mission for 12 years. Of those who work here and speak English as a second language, besides Ea there are five people who have an English language capability. The first is Eduard, a pastor and the Bishop’s primary assistant, who was here for a few days after I arrived, but for the last several weeks has been attending Doctor of Ministry DMin) classes at Wesley Seminary in D.C. The second is Lena, who is also a pastor, and in charge of the programs for continuing education for pastors and the lay leader/lay speaker seminars. She just came back from receiving her DMin diploma at Wesley Seminary, all full of joy, but focused on what needs to be done at the annual conference meetings which begin today.
In addition, there is Katya, who is the main Seminary administrative assistant and receptionist and is very fluent. Zhanna, who is the accountant and bookkeeper for both the Bishop’s office and the Seminary has a good English language capability, too. Vera, who coordinates the Bishop’s schedule, makes his travel arrangements, and deals with the administrative details for all the VIM trips and visitors from the UMC in the States is more comfortable speaking Russian, but her ability to understand and speak English will no doubt continue to improve. One of the pastors of the Central Church is a Korean-American missionary from the D.C. area, so of course he and his wife speak English. His office is down the hall on the first floor next to the office of Richard Bryant, an American missionary.
In addition to those mentioned above, Fedya, a young man who works on the UMC in Eurasia website and helps with other office work has been studying English for a while, and is becoming more and more fluent. The only English speaker who lives here in the student dormitory is Pavel, who grew up on Sakhalin Island off the east coast of Russia.
He and his wife, Anya, live in the room next to mine, and they have both been such a blessing to me. Pavel and I often have had a chance to chat and move between Russian and English whenever what we want to get across is easier said in our native tongue. A very gifted man, he has been a pastor in the St. Petersburg area and has been studying here for over a year. Anya took us to Sergeev Posad and I enjoyed being the escort interpreter that day for her and the visiting Seminary professor. I have found it a joy to hear about how Anya and Pavel met, and they showed me their wedding photos.
You can see that in the time I have been here, I have had plenty of chances to speak English with people, but when I enjoy very much the times that I am interacting with the people here who only speak Russian. I am immersed in the Russian language off an on during the day, and often do not encounter any folks who also speak English for hours at a time. I especially like being in an environment like it was during the pizza party yesterday when everyone was talking, laughing and joking around in Russian. While listening to them and putting my two cents in every once in a while, I was thinking about how lovely it is not to have to translate everything into English in my head, but just to be able to understand. I thank God that has come from the opportunities to be here and to have been in Kazakhstan two years ago, along with the years of study and other opportunities from time to time, like when I was working with the former Soviet immigrants, and when we went together to Barrington, Illinois, to sing for the people of my childhood UMC there.
The other day my new friend, the visiting seminary professor sent me an e-mail with two photos attached. One of the photos was of me, taken in a park near a statue of the wonderful Russian poet and novelist, Alexander Pushkin. I was amused when I opened the second one, because it was a photo of one of the street signs warning about the danger of driving your car into the Moscow River. In the e-mail she told me that she was laughing when she read my journal entry about seeing that sign because she had taken a photo of one! More serendipity . . . God is so good!
I am attaching both of those photos for you, and I hope you enjoy them!
May the Lord continue to bless and keep you and yours.
Blessings in the Love of Jesus -- Kathy
Serendipity
5-18-07
When I woke up this morning I was thinking about the lovely people I’ve been blessed to spend time with herein Moscow. Galina, the church secretary for the Moscow Central Church that gathers here on to worship Sunday morning, had her birthday earlier this month, but those who work here hadn’t celebrated with her, yet. So yesterday around 4:30 PM, I was surprised to be invited by Ea to come to the dining hall to have some pizza.
One of the serendipitous things that happened right away the first day I arrived was that when I went down to the large auditorium that also serves as a sanctuary, a young woman came up to me with a big smile and said, “I know you! We met at Wesley Seminary!” It was Ea who had come to D.C. to study at Wesley during the time that I was working on the outreach to the former Soviet immigrants in the Baltimore-Washington Conference area. How lovely it was of the Lord to right away reveal to me a familiar face.
Ea works in the Bishop’s office doing the very important work of translating documents between Russian and English and helping the Bishop communicate with people who don’t speak English. It has been fascinating to me how much of the day to day life here in the work of the United Methodist Church in Eurasia takes place across what would normally be language barriers.
Neither Bishop Vaxby nor Tobias Dietze, the Dean of the Seminary are native speakers of Russian. The Bishop is Swedish and Tobias is from Germany, but has been here in mission for 12 years. Of those who work here and speak English as a second language, besides Ea there are five people who have an English language capability. The first is Eduard, a pastor and the Bishop’s primary assistant, who was here for a few days after I arrived, but for the last several weeks has been attending Doctor of Ministry DMin) classes at Wesley Seminary in D.C. The second is Lena, who is also a pastor, and in charge of the programs for continuing education for pastors and the lay leader/lay speaker seminars. She just came back from receiving her DMin diploma at Wesley Seminary, all full of joy, but focused on what needs to be done at the annual conference meetings which begin today.
In addition, there is Katya, who is the main Seminary administrative assistant and receptionist and is very fluent. Zhanna, who is the accountant and bookkeeper for both the Bishop’s office and the Seminary has a good English language capability, too. Vera, who coordinates the Bishop’s schedule, makes his travel arrangements, and deals with the administrative details for all the VIM trips and visitors from the UMC in the States is more comfortable speaking Russian, but her ability to understand and speak English will no doubt continue to improve. One of the pastors of the Central Church is a Korean-American missionary from the D.C. area, so of course he and his wife speak English. His office is down the hall on the first floor next to the office of Richard Bryant, an American missionary.
In addition to those mentioned above, Fedya, a young man who works on the UMC in Eurasia website and helps with other office work has been studying English for a while, and is becoming more and more fluent. The only English speaker who lives here in the student dormitory is Pavel, who grew up on Sakhalin Island off the east coast of Russia.
He and his wife, Anya, live in the room next to mine, and they have both been such a blessing to me. Pavel and I often have had a chance to chat and move between Russian and English whenever what we want to get across is easier said in our native tongue. A very gifted man, he has been a pastor in the St. Petersburg area and has been studying here for over a year. Anya took us to Sergeev Posad and I enjoyed being the escort interpreter that day for her and the visiting Seminary professor. I have found it a joy to hear about how Anya and Pavel met, and they showed me their wedding photos.
You can see that in the time I have been here, I have had plenty of chances to speak English with people, but when I enjoy very much the times that I am interacting with the people here who only speak Russian. I am immersed in the Russian language off an on during the day, and often do not encounter any folks who also speak English for hours at a time. I especially like being in an environment like it was during the pizza party yesterday when everyone was talking, laughing and joking around in Russian. While listening to them and putting my two cents in every once in a while, I was thinking about how lovely it is not to have to translate everything into English in my head, but just to be able to understand. I thank God that has come from the opportunities to be here and to have been in Kazakhstan two years ago, along with the years of study and other opportunities from time to time, like when I was working with the former Soviet immigrants, and when we went together to Barrington, Illinois, to sing for the people of my childhood UMC there.
The other day my new friend, the visiting seminary professor sent me an e-mail with two photos attached. One of the photos was of me, taken in a park near a statue of the wonderful Russian poet and novelist, Alexander Pushkin. I was amused when I opened the second one, because it was a photo of one of the street signs warning about the danger of driving your car into the Moscow River. In the e-mail she told me that she was laughing when she read my journal entry about seeing that sign because she had taken a photo of one! More serendipity . . . God is so good!
I am attaching both of those photos for you, and I hope you enjoy them!
May the Lord continue to bless and keep you and yours.
Blessings in the Love of Jesus -- Kathy
Moscow Journal -- 5-17-07
Moscow Journal
5-17-07
This week has been amazing. Tuesday was a very special day here at the Methodist Seminary in Moscow. After a Worship service which included sharing communion together, seven people received their certificates of graduation. One of them, Andrei, was a full-time student in residence here, and the other six studied while serving churches as local pastors. It was a joyful occasion replete with caps, though no gowns.
The day before the graduation, the students presented sermons based on their dissertations which had already been evaluated by the Seminary professors and dean. They were not only judged on their academic work, their preaching style and sermons were reviewed and critiqued. Besides those who graduated, including a married couple, one student was asked to come back next year because of problems with his dissertation. The presentation of the sermons and dissertation defense sessions were open to everyone, so some of the students in residence, and a district superintendent came to the main classroom to observe at least part of the time. I spent the whole day there, and found it very interesting.
I couldn’t help contrasting my time studying at Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, D.C., with all that I have observed here. Wesley Seminary, along with several of the thirteen other United Methodist Seminaries, is in partnership with the Seminary here. Instructors for the courses taught here come from various sources. First of all, for instance, the instructors for Biblical Greek and Hebrew are Russians. Some theology classes have been taught by indigenous Russian Orthodox theologians, too. Many other classes have been taught by professors from the United Methodist Seminaries in the States, and by Methodist theologians from the seminaries of other denominations. Professors coming from the States teach their courses for time periods varying from as little as three weeks to as long as a semester.
I’d like to share with you a little bit about the history of Methodism in Russia and the other countries that were part of the Soviet Union. Right now there are about 100 churches all together in the following countries: The Russian Federation, Ukraine, Belorussia, Moldova, Kazakhstan, Kyrgystan, and Uzbekistan. There are also Methodist churches in some other parts of the former Soviet Union that are now independent of Russia. This includes the Baltic republics of Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia where historically, Methodism existed before the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917. Those three nations are part of the Methodist area that includes Finland.
Nevertheless, before 1917, in Imperial Russia the only documented Methodist outreach consisted of two missionary efforts. One was in Peterburg (now St. Petersburg and, of course during the Soviet era, Leningrad. He worked among sailors there. The other missionary effort was in the far east of the Russian Empire, around Vladivostok and the missionary even published a Methodist hymn book in Russian.
In the era from Russia’s disastrous involvement in World War I, the Bolshevik Revolution, the establishment of the Soviet Union, and World War II, of course, belief in God and the church were anathematized. There were still many faithful believers throughout the years until freedom of religion began to revive in the late 80s during the Glastnost’ and Perestroika years before the break-up of the Soviet Union. During the time of repression, people of faith and the institutions of religions were under various levels of persecution, beginning with all that the Russian Orthodox Church and its faithful suffered, but also citizens of many cultural groups including those of the Jewish faith, traditionally Islamic clans, and the Evangelical Baptist Church of Soviet citizens of German descent.
Even before the break up of the Soviet Union began, the United Methodist Church’s General Board of Global Ministries (GBGM) responded to economic and medical needs in Russia. At first, in the early 1990s, the work was sponsored by and organ of the Russian Orthodox Church. A great deal of food, medical supplies and other help was given by the UMC and other churches of the World Council of Churches, much of it administered by UMCOR (the United Methodist Committee on Relief).
The first Methodist churches in Russian started independently of one another at about the same time in the late 80s in Ekaterinburg, a city in Siberia; and in Pushkin, formerly called the “Tsar’s Village”, where the Tsar’s summer palaces are. These churches began in response to outreaches from some Methodist churches in the U.S. during the period of Glastnost’ and Perestroika before the formal break-up of the Soviet Union.
The pastor and people from a church in Louisiana reached out to Russian citizens in Sverdlovsk, a city in Siberia now called again by its traditional name, Ekaterinburg. (It is the city where Tsar Nicholas and his family were held prisoner and then assassinated.) A Methodist Church pastured by a former Soviet Intourist employee grew up independent of any organized missionary effort, though supported in many ways by the church in Louisiana, and ultimately by the UMC GBGM.
After that there were several types of mission outreaches to aid the people of the former Soviet Union in the economically difficult early years after the formal break-up of the Soviet Union. Many new bible study groups and ultimately churches grew out of relationships between the people who came over to help in the Name of the Lord and those who were helped. Along the way, the European Methodists felt led to get involved, and when the decision was made that a Methodist Bishop be appointed, the East German United Methodist Bishop, Ruediger Minor, who had been instrumental in the administration of the aid and shepherded the pastors of the fledgling congregations was appointed Bishop of the Russian UMC. His office was established in Moscow and the Russian United Methodist Seminary was founded there, too
In 1999, the governing body of the Russian Federation, the Duma, passed a law stating that only religious organizations that had either existed before 1918 in Russia, or that had been legally sanctioned during all of the last 15 years of the Soviet era would be allowed to operate in the Russian Federation. This law was in reaction to the huge number of people from various religions, Christian denominations and sects who had flooded into the territories of the former Soviet Union in the early years after the break-up. The history of the Methodist Church in republics of the former Soviet Union such as Estonia, as well as in the Carpathian area of Ukraine along with the documented missionary work from the late 19th and early 20th centuries all helped to establish that the United Methodist Church could be certified as a legal religious entity. In all likelihood the amount of aid from the early years of the transition out of the Soviet era may have been a factor in the positive outcome.
Nevertheless, the stance of the Russian Orthodox hierarchy for many years has been very negative to the establishment of United Methodist Churches amongst ethnic Russians despite the efforts of the leadership of the GBGM and those here in Russia to build and sustain a positive relationship.
Today the United Methodist Church in the Eurasia Area encompasses the territory of most of the former Soviet Union, except for the Baltic Republics which belong to a conference that includes Finland, and some of the traditionally Moslem republics, like Turkmenistan. About 100 churches have been established, and the first of five annual conference starts tomorrow in Ekaterinburg. Bishop Vaxby headed out there last night to meet with the Cabinet – the administrative entity that includes the Bishop and the District Superintendents.
I hope all of the above has not been boring . . . I wanted to give you a bit of an idea of how the Lord has been working here in the former Soviet Union through United Methodists, though it’s just been a sketch, and there are many more very interesting stories of how it has been. I am happy to be a witness to a little bit of what is going on right now, and to have seen in person some of what has gone on in the past.
God is so good and so faithful! I’m sure you can tell me how that has been true in your life, too.
May the Lord continue to bless and keep you and yours.
Blessings in the Love of Jesus – Kathy
5-17-07
This week has been amazing. Tuesday was a very special day here at the Methodist Seminary in Moscow. After a Worship service which included sharing communion together, seven people received their certificates of graduation. One of them, Andrei, was a full-time student in residence here, and the other six studied while serving churches as local pastors. It was a joyful occasion replete with caps, though no gowns.
The day before the graduation, the students presented sermons based on their dissertations which had already been evaluated by the Seminary professors and dean. They were not only judged on their academic work, their preaching style and sermons were reviewed and critiqued. Besides those who graduated, including a married couple, one student was asked to come back next year because of problems with his dissertation. The presentation of the sermons and dissertation defense sessions were open to everyone, so some of the students in residence, and a district superintendent came to the main classroom to observe at least part of the time. I spent the whole day there, and found it very interesting.
I couldn’t help contrasting my time studying at Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, D.C., with all that I have observed here. Wesley Seminary, along with several of the thirteen other United Methodist Seminaries, is in partnership with the Seminary here. Instructors for the courses taught here come from various sources. First of all, for instance, the instructors for Biblical Greek and Hebrew are Russians. Some theology classes have been taught by indigenous Russian Orthodox theologians, too. Many other classes have been taught by professors from the United Methodist Seminaries in the States, and by Methodist theologians from the seminaries of other denominations. Professors coming from the States teach their courses for time periods varying from as little as three weeks to as long as a semester.
I’d like to share with you a little bit about the history of Methodism in Russia and the other countries that were part of the Soviet Union. Right now there are about 100 churches all together in the following countries: The Russian Federation, Ukraine, Belorussia, Moldova, Kazakhstan, Kyrgystan, and Uzbekistan. There are also Methodist churches in some other parts of the former Soviet Union that are now independent of Russia. This includes the Baltic republics of Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia where historically, Methodism existed before the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917. Those three nations are part of the Methodist area that includes Finland.
Nevertheless, before 1917, in Imperial Russia the only documented Methodist outreach consisted of two missionary efforts. One was in Peterburg (now St. Petersburg and, of course during the Soviet era, Leningrad. He worked among sailors there. The other missionary effort was in the far east of the Russian Empire, around Vladivostok and the missionary even published a Methodist hymn book in Russian.
In the era from Russia’s disastrous involvement in World War I, the Bolshevik Revolution, the establishment of the Soviet Union, and World War II, of course, belief in God and the church were anathematized. There were still many faithful believers throughout the years until freedom of religion began to revive in the late 80s during the Glastnost’ and Perestroika years before the break-up of the Soviet Union. During the time of repression, people of faith and the institutions of religions were under various levels of persecution, beginning with all that the Russian Orthodox Church and its faithful suffered, but also citizens of many cultural groups including those of the Jewish faith, traditionally Islamic clans, and the Evangelical Baptist Church of Soviet citizens of German descent.
Even before the break up of the Soviet Union began, the United Methodist Church’s General Board of Global Ministries (GBGM) responded to economic and medical needs in Russia. At first, in the early 1990s, the work was sponsored by and organ of the Russian Orthodox Church. A great deal of food, medical supplies and other help was given by the UMC and other churches of the World Council of Churches, much of it administered by UMCOR (the United Methodist Committee on Relief).
The first Methodist churches in Russian started independently of one another at about the same time in the late 80s in Ekaterinburg, a city in Siberia; and in Pushkin, formerly called the “Tsar’s Village”, where the Tsar’s summer palaces are. These churches began in response to outreaches from some Methodist churches in the U.S. during the period of Glastnost’ and Perestroika before the formal break-up of the Soviet Union.
The pastor and people from a church in Louisiana reached out to Russian citizens in Sverdlovsk, a city in Siberia now called again by its traditional name, Ekaterinburg. (It is the city where Tsar Nicholas and his family were held prisoner and then assassinated.) A Methodist Church pastured by a former Soviet Intourist employee grew up independent of any organized missionary effort, though supported in many ways by the church in Louisiana, and ultimately by the UMC GBGM.
After that there were several types of mission outreaches to aid the people of the former Soviet Union in the economically difficult early years after the formal break-up of the Soviet Union. Many new bible study groups and ultimately churches grew out of relationships between the people who came over to help in the Name of the Lord and those who were helped. Along the way, the European Methodists felt led to get involved, and when the decision was made that a Methodist Bishop be appointed, the East German United Methodist Bishop, Ruediger Minor, who had been instrumental in the administration of the aid and shepherded the pastors of the fledgling congregations was appointed Bishop of the Russian UMC. His office was established in Moscow and the Russian United Methodist Seminary was founded there, too
In 1999, the governing body of the Russian Federation, the Duma, passed a law stating that only religious organizations that had either existed before 1918 in Russia, or that had been legally sanctioned during all of the last 15 years of the Soviet era would be allowed to operate in the Russian Federation. This law was in reaction to the huge number of people from various religions, Christian denominations and sects who had flooded into the territories of the former Soviet Union in the early years after the break-up. The history of the Methodist Church in republics of the former Soviet Union such as Estonia, as well as in the Carpathian area of Ukraine along with the documented missionary work from the late 19th and early 20th centuries all helped to establish that the United Methodist Church could be certified as a legal religious entity. In all likelihood the amount of aid from the early years of the transition out of the Soviet era may have been a factor in the positive outcome.
Nevertheless, the stance of the Russian Orthodox hierarchy for many years has been very negative to the establishment of United Methodist Churches amongst ethnic Russians despite the efforts of the leadership of the GBGM and those here in Russia to build and sustain a positive relationship.
Today the United Methodist Church in the Eurasia Area encompasses the territory of most of the former Soviet Union, except for the Baltic Republics which belong to a conference that includes Finland, and some of the traditionally Moslem republics, like Turkmenistan. About 100 churches have been established, and the first of five annual conference starts tomorrow in Ekaterinburg. Bishop Vaxby headed out there last night to meet with the Cabinet – the administrative entity that includes the Bishop and the District Superintendents.
I hope all of the above has not been boring . . . I wanted to give you a bit of an idea of how the Lord has been working here in the former Soviet Union through United Methodists, though it’s just been a sketch, and there are many more very interesting stories of how it has been. I am happy to be a witness to a little bit of what is going on right now, and to have seen in person some of what has gone on in the past.
God is so good and so faithful! I’m sure you can tell me how that has been true in your life, too.
May the Lord continue to bless and keep you and yours.
Blessings in the Love of Jesus – Kathy
Moscow Journal -- 5-15-07
Moscow Journal – 5-15-07
Blonde Cocker Spaniels and Bird Wings
Last evening I was blessed to be able to take a walk over to the River. The Seminary is nestled in the midst of an apartment complex where the apartment building to the west of us lines Khamovnichesky Val Ulitsa (Street). The apartment building to the south of us faces Komsomolskiy Prospect. Both the building to the north and to the east of the Seminary building lie along an alleyway. In the middle is our building and a small park with playground equipment, trees and benches. The Seminary building used to be a kindergarten, so it is enclosed with a fairly tall fence, and there are some slides and other structures to play on, but they are of a smaller scale than the playground equipment in the park in between the apartment buildings. It’s similar to the way it was near the apartment I stayed in when I was in Kazakhstan – in the area in the center of each apartment complex is a kind of park with playground equipment and benches. There are a lot more trees here in Moscow than there were in Astana, however – the difference owed to climate and terrain is very evident.
In order to reach the Moscow River, I left the building after stopping to chat with the doorkeeper, and headed out the gate of the Seminary grounds. There are two crabapple trees with buds getting ready to blossom outside of the south side of the building. One has red blossoms and the other has white ones. Since it has stayed cool, the buds have slowly gotten bigger over the last week, but were not blooming yet yesterday. I am looking forward to seeing if they will be in bloom yet today.
I walked through the playground park in the middle of the apartment complex and headed east on Komsomolsky Prospect. In order to reach the river, you can walk about a block east to the light at the corner of the Prospect and Frunzenskaya Ulitsa, then cross the Prospect heading south for about two blocks.
Last evening the sidewalks were busy with pedestrians coming home from work or heading back home from shopping. Several were buying fruits and vegetables at the little stands similar to those I used to buy produce from in Astana. Along Komsomolsky Prospect in that block before Frunzenskaya Ulitsa there are some furniture and interior design stores, a book store that also sells books on tape and videos, a bank, and a repair store for electronic equipment including DVD players and video cameras. On the corner where the traffic light is, there is a little grocery store where I bought the cheese, olive oil, tomato paste and soda pop for our pizza party last Saturday.
It was around 8 PM when I headed out for my walk, so the light was beginning to wane, but there were not any sunset colors reflected in the clouds yet. I always like to walk that time of day, especially on the beach, of course, but really anywhere.
Along Komsomolskiy Prospect are many billboards and some advertisement signs suspended above the roadway. One of the most interesting billboards is a public service announcement. There is a drawing of a blue car that looks like it is an accordion in the middle. The billboard states, “CARS ARE NOT TOYS”. This is an important admonition, I guess, in this country where previously very few people had cars and now more and more folks (though seldom women) are out there driving.
As I came close to the intersection of the road along the river, I saw a triangular traffic sign with a red line around the edge of it and a drawing of a car bumping over the edge of what seemed like a big curb. On the other side of the curve are some wavy lines, and I realized the sign was there to warn drivers that right in front of them was the berm along the river bank, and that going straight ahead might cause them to end up in the drink. The Ishin River in Astana has the same kind of concrete containment berms, but downtown there are only walkways along the river, so I never saw the kind of warning sign I saw last night here in Moscow.
The other day I looked out the window of the office I use, and saw an elderly woman walking a blond cocker spaniel. For some reason blond cockers are one of my favorite breeds. I often see people walking all sorts of dogs in the park across Khamovnichesky Val Ulitsa, too, but last evening I saw more blond cockers than any other kind of dog. It reminded me of taking walks in the neighborhood in DC near Wesley Seminary when I lived there during the early 90s. Often you would see liver and white Springer spaniels like the senior President and Mrs. Bush’s dog, Millie, who was well known when they lived in the White House. Maybe they were some of Millie’s offspring, since many people who were working with that administration lived in our neighborhood, I don’t know for sure.
In the four years I lived on the Wesley Theological Seminary (WTS) campus, and during the year before that when I worked full-time there, I loved it very much. So my time here at the Methodist Seminary in Moscow brings back fond memories of my time at WTS, and lends itself to noticing the similarities and the contrasts. Of course to start with, one main thing they have in common is that both seminaries are in capital cities, both in lovely parts of town, and both dedicated to the glory of God and the Kingdom of Heaven.
Prior to the time when it was moved to DC, WTS was called Westminster Seminary. It was relocated to a corner of the American University campus in the late fifties, and re-named after John and Charles Wesley and their family. The bell tower has bells named after the famous sons, their father, Samuel, and their mother, Susanna. I always loved hearing the bells ring out the Westminster chimes every quarter hour and listening to the bell concert every noontime.
My campus apartment windows faced an athletic field and the tennis courts of American University, looking out in the opposite direction from the bell tower. However, when the windows were open the sound of the bells echoed back to me from across the field, though. It was lovely. Sometimes if I went downtown and was walking back from the Metro toward campus, I caught the sound of the bells, too.
You can also hear the Foundry church bell concert at noon downtown in DC. And we heard the evening church bells when walking along the river here, near the church of Christ Spacitel’ a week ago Saturday, too. That was wonderful, because ever since I learned some old Russian folk songs in high school, I have loved the one called “Evening Call,” about hearing the church bells ringing.
The boys or men start slowly singing in imitation of church bells -- bass notes – “bom, bom, bom, bom”, for a while. Then the girls’ or women’s voice(s) begin singing the words about the evening bells calling them to remember times past. It’s very beautiful, and I have always loved to sing it.
Last evening when I walked along the river I saw young people flash past me on inline skates, young couples kissing, and mothers with kids on tricycles. Gorkiy Park is across the river, and although there was only sunshine on my side of the river in between the shadows of the buildings where streets opened the way for the light to come through, the eastern shore was glowing. On that side of the river it is possible to walk or sit on benches right at the water’s edge, and sitting on almost every bench I could see there was at least one person. I could also see a sidewalk with people strolling along it every so often.
Moscow is a beautiful city and there is a kind of graciousness evident when you walk around and get a chance to observe how people enjoy the sights and amenities available. I hope you get a chance to come visit some day.
When I got back home I was able to chat online with Krista and Tom again, which was a blessing. After heading to my room around 10 PM, I laid on my bed looking up through my window at the birds flying overhead. By then I was fascinated to see that when the swifts, pigeons and sea gulls flew past at certain angles, the rosy and golden lights of the sunset flashed through the edges of their wing feathers. It was quite a show! I guess I was watching at just the right time, and wondered how I had never noticed anything like that before, though I suppose it is because I have never looked up at the sky at sunset, but only watched the horizon. I praise God for the wonder and beauty all around us.
Whenever you read this, I hope you are having a blessed day, and that you are able to take some time to notice the wonders of God’s creation around you.
May the Lord continue to bless and keep you and yours.
Blessings in the Love of Jesus – Kathy
Blonde Cocker Spaniels and Bird Wings
Last evening I was blessed to be able to take a walk over to the River. The Seminary is nestled in the midst of an apartment complex where the apartment building to the west of us lines Khamovnichesky Val Ulitsa (Street). The apartment building to the south of us faces Komsomolskiy Prospect. Both the building to the north and to the east of the Seminary building lie along an alleyway. In the middle is our building and a small park with playground equipment, trees and benches. The Seminary building used to be a kindergarten, so it is enclosed with a fairly tall fence, and there are some slides and other structures to play on, but they are of a smaller scale than the playground equipment in the park in between the apartment buildings. It’s similar to the way it was near the apartment I stayed in when I was in Kazakhstan – in the area in the center of each apartment complex is a kind of park with playground equipment and benches. There are a lot more trees here in Moscow than there were in Astana, however – the difference owed to climate and terrain is very evident.
In order to reach the Moscow River, I left the building after stopping to chat with the doorkeeper, and headed out the gate of the Seminary grounds. There are two crabapple trees with buds getting ready to blossom outside of the south side of the building. One has red blossoms and the other has white ones. Since it has stayed cool, the buds have slowly gotten bigger over the last week, but were not blooming yet yesterday. I am looking forward to seeing if they will be in bloom yet today.
I walked through the playground park in the middle of the apartment complex and headed east on Komsomolsky Prospect. In order to reach the river, you can walk about a block east to the light at the corner of the Prospect and Frunzenskaya Ulitsa, then cross the Prospect heading south for about two blocks.
Last evening the sidewalks were busy with pedestrians coming home from work or heading back home from shopping. Several were buying fruits and vegetables at the little stands similar to those I used to buy produce from in Astana. Along Komsomolsky Prospect in that block before Frunzenskaya Ulitsa there are some furniture and interior design stores, a book store that also sells books on tape and videos, a bank, and a repair store for electronic equipment including DVD players and video cameras. On the corner where the traffic light is, there is a little grocery store where I bought the cheese, olive oil, tomato paste and soda pop for our pizza party last Saturday.
It was around 8 PM when I headed out for my walk, so the light was beginning to wane, but there were not any sunset colors reflected in the clouds yet. I always like to walk that time of day, especially on the beach, of course, but really anywhere.
Along Komsomolskiy Prospect are many billboards and some advertisement signs suspended above the roadway. One of the most interesting billboards is a public service announcement. There is a drawing of a blue car that looks like it is an accordion in the middle. The billboard states, “CARS ARE NOT TOYS”. This is an important admonition, I guess, in this country where previously very few people had cars and now more and more folks (though seldom women) are out there driving.
As I came close to the intersection of the road along the river, I saw a triangular traffic sign with a red line around the edge of it and a drawing of a car bumping over the edge of what seemed like a big curb. On the other side of the curve are some wavy lines, and I realized the sign was there to warn drivers that right in front of them was the berm along the river bank, and that going straight ahead might cause them to end up in the drink. The Ishin River in Astana has the same kind of concrete containment berms, but downtown there are only walkways along the river, so I never saw the kind of warning sign I saw last night here in Moscow.
The other day I looked out the window of the office I use, and saw an elderly woman walking a blond cocker spaniel. For some reason blond cockers are one of my favorite breeds. I often see people walking all sorts of dogs in the park across Khamovnichesky Val Ulitsa, too, but last evening I saw more blond cockers than any other kind of dog. It reminded me of taking walks in the neighborhood in DC near Wesley Seminary when I lived there during the early 90s. Often you would see liver and white Springer spaniels like the senior President and Mrs. Bush’s dog, Millie, who was well known when they lived in the White House. Maybe they were some of Millie’s offspring, since many people who were working with that administration lived in our neighborhood, I don’t know for sure.
In the four years I lived on the Wesley Theological Seminary (WTS) campus, and during the year before that when I worked full-time there, I loved it very much. So my time here at the Methodist Seminary in Moscow brings back fond memories of my time at WTS, and lends itself to noticing the similarities and the contrasts. Of course to start with, one main thing they have in common is that both seminaries are in capital cities, both in lovely parts of town, and both dedicated to the glory of God and the Kingdom of Heaven.
Prior to the time when it was moved to DC, WTS was called Westminster Seminary. It was relocated to a corner of the American University campus in the late fifties, and re-named after John and Charles Wesley and their family. The bell tower has bells named after the famous sons, their father, Samuel, and their mother, Susanna. I always loved hearing the bells ring out the Westminster chimes every quarter hour and listening to the bell concert every noontime.
My campus apartment windows faced an athletic field and the tennis courts of American University, looking out in the opposite direction from the bell tower. However, when the windows were open the sound of the bells echoed back to me from across the field, though. It was lovely. Sometimes if I went downtown and was walking back from the Metro toward campus, I caught the sound of the bells, too.
You can also hear the Foundry church bell concert at noon downtown in DC. And we heard the evening church bells when walking along the river here, near the church of Christ Spacitel’ a week ago Saturday, too. That was wonderful, because ever since I learned some old Russian folk songs in high school, I have loved the one called “Evening Call,” about hearing the church bells ringing.
The boys or men start slowly singing in imitation of church bells -- bass notes – “bom, bom, bom, bom”, for a while. Then the girls’ or women’s voice(s) begin singing the words about the evening bells calling them to remember times past. It’s very beautiful, and I have always loved to sing it.
Last evening when I walked along the river I saw young people flash past me on inline skates, young couples kissing, and mothers with kids on tricycles. Gorkiy Park is across the river, and although there was only sunshine on my side of the river in between the shadows of the buildings where streets opened the way for the light to come through, the eastern shore was glowing. On that side of the river it is possible to walk or sit on benches right at the water’s edge, and sitting on almost every bench I could see there was at least one person. I could also see a sidewalk with people strolling along it every so often.
Moscow is a beautiful city and there is a kind of graciousness evident when you walk around and get a chance to observe how people enjoy the sights and amenities available. I hope you get a chance to come visit some day.
When I got back home I was able to chat online with Krista and Tom again, which was a blessing. After heading to my room around 10 PM, I laid on my bed looking up through my window at the birds flying overhead. By then I was fascinated to see that when the swifts, pigeons and sea gulls flew past at certain angles, the rosy and golden lights of the sunset flashed through the edges of their wing feathers. It was quite a show! I guess I was watching at just the right time, and wondered how I had never noticed anything like that before, though I suppose it is because I have never looked up at the sky at sunset, but only watched the horizon. I praise God for the wonder and beauty all around us.
Whenever you read this, I hope you are having a blessed day, and that you are able to take some time to notice the wonders of God’s creation around you.
May the Lord continue to bless and keep you and yours.
Blessings in the Love of Jesus – Kathy
Moscow Journal -- 5-13-07
Moscow Journal – 5-13-07
Mother’s Day and Red Carnations
God is so good and so faithful!
I just attended a worship service here in Korean – for Korean immigrants who live in the former Soviet Union – and there are a lot of them. Some families have lived here since Japan invaded Korea in 1905 and others came from North Korea after it embraced communism. It seems that the Lord is working through the Korean people in many amazing ways. The largest Methodist Church in the world is in Seoul, South Korea, for instance, and there are many Korean missionaries here and in other countries.
One of the pastors of the church I attended today is actually a Korean-American missionary from the Baltimore-Washington Conference and has a degree from Wesley Theological Sem in DC, just like I do. I was able to have a chat with him this week and found myself feeling led to go to his service this morning. When I walked down the hall to the sanctuary here, a young woman gave me a red carnation in honor of Mother’s Day.
They don’t celebrate Mother’s Day here in Russia. Instead, on March 8th, they have a day of celebration for women from the days of the Soviet era, but not one just for Mom’s. The people of the church I attended church were honoring women, and the pastor preached about how parents find their happiness in providing for their children. He then connected it to how much more our Heavenly Father finds joy in providing for all people, and in special ways for us, His children in Jesus Christ. Pastor Lee preached in Korean, but they have little personal receivers so that those who do not speak Korean can listen to the translation of the service in Russian. It was a joy to be able to understand what was going on.
I sat next to one of the graduates-to-be here – a woman pastor from the area around the city of Krasnodar in the south of Russia, near the Black Sea. I met her yesterday morning when she was outside her room on the dormitory floor here. She is lovely, and will be preaching at the 4PM service today geared to youth. I am looking forward to hearing her preach.
Last night the pizza was interesting . . . not quite like at home, but the students and the visiting pastors who are here for graduation said they liked it. I also brought some down to one of the ladies who watches the front door of the building -- she locks it at night and keeps charge of the keys to the offices and rooms. Her name is Marina, and she is very sweet. Last Thursday she was also here and I asked her what she did for the Day of Victory holiday. She said she went to Gorkiy Park with her daughter and grandchildren. Apparently it is traditional for veterans of the war to gather there, and people give them flowers in gratitude for their service. She said her grandchildren gave the veterans flowers.
When I went for a walk last Wednesday, May 9th, the Day of Victory, I noticed people carrying long-stemmed red carnations, and wondered about it. But bringing flowers to a loved one or to your hostess if you go to someone’s house for dinner is very common. So you often see people with bouquets of flowers on the Metro or walking around. It was good to understand about the flowers on the Day of Victory, though.
Marina mentioned that when her daughter was young there were many veterans in Gorkiy Park on the holiday. She said she was sad to see only around 20 there last Wednesday. I told her that of course that was the way it was in the U.S, too – that many of the Greatest Generation have already passed away. I told her about the new World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C., and that we had only recently finished it and dedicated it a few years ago. I described the fountains and stone work and told her that it is a beautiful and fitting tribute to the veterans and all those whom made it through that difficult time.
I wasn’t just wandering when I was out walking on the Day of Victory. I finally took the opportunity to go to St. Nicholas of the Weavers’ Church, which I saw for the first time more than thirteen years ago. After lighting a candle in honor of all the veterans here and everywhere, and listening to the beginning of a worship service, I was kind of overwhelmed with emotion and needed to walk some more. The church is even more beautiful than I remembered, and I was happy to be back there.
As I left the church, I headed down Leo Tolstoy Street to his house, but it is farther away from the church than I remembered. I saw a woman about my age and an elderly woman coming toward me, so I excused myself and asked the younger woman how far away Tolstoy’s house and museum was. She told me, and the elderly woman overheard her and started to tell me that the house was closed on Wednesday because of the holiday. I told her that I thought it might be, but just wanted to look at it from outside the fence since I had been inside it already thirteen years ago.
The younger woman wished me good luck and hurried away as the elderly woman continued to talk to me, telling me that she had been born in a house near Tolstoy’s house, and now lived in one of the big, Soviet-era apartments. She also talked about the war and how her life had been during that time. Of course it was a similar story to the one that the woman at Lyudmila Gorbuzova’s church told us last Sunday, but I was glad to listen to her.
She also asked me where I came from and what I was doing in Moscow, and we parted after a few minutes, heading in opposite directions. I pray that she has a peaceful life and knows the Lord is still watching over her and those she loves.
It rained a lot yesterday, but not during the time I was out shopping for the pizza cheese, tomato paste and soda pop for the pizza party. I had some work to do making copies of some brochures for the annual conferences, and Fedya helped me do it since he had just hooked up the computer to the printer/copier. He and Katya made a delicious summertime dish that they said they had been looking forward to eating again since last summer. It had cucumbers, cold boiled potatoes, green onions, fresh dill and little cubes of sausage in a delicious cold sauce . . . more like a cold soup, really. I had never had it before, and they were surprised.
A few hours later they came back to the student kitchen and tried some pizza, too. I’ve been tutoring English with Darya (Dasha) and Natasha, two young women who attend the ”Raduga” (Rainbow) service on Sunday afternoons here. We had made plans to work on preparing for them to take the TOEFL which is used to help qualify students who do not speak English as their first language when they apply to study in US colleges and universities. They have both been to the US before, and are heading back there on May 27th, the same day I will be going home.
While studying at a tourism institute, their English language skills have been improving, and it is a joy to be their tutor. When we made plans to work together last evening, I told them I would make them dinner, and they said they would bring a cake. Actually, that’s how the idea of making pizza for everyone came about. We had a fun time all together. They even invited some of the students to have some cake, too, of course.
Dasha also brought some photos to show me, and told me about her life in Ekaterinburg before her family moved to Moscow. As a young child, Dasha was baptized by in one of the first UMC churches in Russia – three bishops took part in the baptisms that day, including Bishop Vaxby who for the last two years has been the Bishop of the Eurasian Area here. It was interesting to hear that, and to see photos of some skits put on when the pastors gathered together in Ekaterinburg.
In the summer of ’99, when she was 12, Dasha stayed with a family in Loveland, Colorado, and there were photos of the fun times she had with them, too. She has also been to North Carolina, to Busch Gardens in Virginia, to New York City, at the beach in South Carolina, and in Washington, D.C. Dasha is full of joy and enthusiasm, and it was fun to see the photos and hear her stories.
It’s almost 2 PM, and I think I will take a walk. Wish you could join me! I am going to try to call my Mom later today when it is daytime in Florida to wish her a Happy Mother’s Day. It was lovely to talk to my folks last Wednesday, too – and I have been blessed to be able to chat with both Krista and Tom on MSN Messenger. Isn’t life in cyberspace grand??!
I hope you will be able to wish your Mom “Happy Mother’s Day”, too – and if you are a Mom, I hope you will be blessed to be with or to hear from your kids. Isn’t God wonderful to have placed us in loving families and given us one another to love?!
May the Lord continue to bless and keep you and yours.
Blessings in the Love of Jesus -- Kathy
Mother’s Day and Red Carnations
God is so good and so faithful!
I just attended a worship service here in Korean – for Korean immigrants who live in the former Soviet Union – and there are a lot of them. Some families have lived here since Japan invaded Korea in 1905 and others came from North Korea after it embraced communism. It seems that the Lord is working through the Korean people in many amazing ways. The largest Methodist Church in the world is in Seoul, South Korea, for instance, and there are many Korean missionaries here and in other countries.
One of the pastors of the church I attended today is actually a Korean-American missionary from the Baltimore-Washington Conference and has a degree from Wesley Theological Sem in DC, just like I do. I was able to have a chat with him this week and found myself feeling led to go to his service this morning. When I walked down the hall to the sanctuary here, a young woman gave me a red carnation in honor of Mother’s Day.
They don’t celebrate Mother’s Day here in Russia. Instead, on March 8th, they have a day of celebration for women from the days of the Soviet era, but not one just for Mom’s. The people of the church I attended church were honoring women, and the pastor preached about how parents find their happiness in providing for their children. He then connected it to how much more our Heavenly Father finds joy in providing for all people, and in special ways for us, His children in Jesus Christ. Pastor Lee preached in Korean, but they have little personal receivers so that those who do not speak Korean can listen to the translation of the service in Russian. It was a joy to be able to understand what was going on.
I sat next to one of the graduates-to-be here – a woman pastor from the area around the city of Krasnodar in the south of Russia, near the Black Sea. I met her yesterday morning when she was outside her room on the dormitory floor here. She is lovely, and will be preaching at the 4PM service today geared to youth. I am looking forward to hearing her preach.
Last night the pizza was interesting . . . not quite like at home, but the students and the visiting pastors who are here for graduation said they liked it. I also brought some down to one of the ladies who watches the front door of the building -- she locks it at night and keeps charge of the keys to the offices and rooms. Her name is Marina, and she is very sweet. Last Thursday she was also here and I asked her what she did for the Day of Victory holiday. She said she went to Gorkiy Park with her daughter and grandchildren. Apparently it is traditional for veterans of the war to gather there, and people give them flowers in gratitude for their service. She said her grandchildren gave the veterans flowers.
When I went for a walk last Wednesday, May 9th, the Day of Victory, I noticed people carrying long-stemmed red carnations, and wondered about it. But bringing flowers to a loved one or to your hostess if you go to someone’s house for dinner is very common. So you often see people with bouquets of flowers on the Metro or walking around. It was good to understand about the flowers on the Day of Victory, though.
Marina mentioned that when her daughter was young there were many veterans in Gorkiy Park on the holiday. She said she was sad to see only around 20 there last Wednesday. I told her that of course that was the way it was in the U.S, too – that many of the Greatest Generation have already passed away. I told her about the new World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C., and that we had only recently finished it and dedicated it a few years ago. I described the fountains and stone work and told her that it is a beautiful and fitting tribute to the veterans and all those whom made it through that difficult time.
I wasn’t just wandering when I was out walking on the Day of Victory. I finally took the opportunity to go to St. Nicholas of the Weavers’ Church, which I saw for the first time more than thirteen years ago. After lighting a candle in honor of all the veterans here and everywhere, and listening to the beginning of a worship service, I was kind of overwhelmed with emotion and needed to walk some more. The church is even more beautiful than I remembered, and I was happy to be back there.
As I left the church, I headed down Leo Tolstoy Street to his house, but it is farther away from the church than I remembered. I saw a woman about my age and an elderly woman coming toward me, so I excused myself and asked the younger woman how far away Tolstoy’s house and museum was. She told me, and the elderly woman overheard her and started to tell me that the house was closed on Wednesday because of the holiday. I told her that I thought it might be, but just wanted to look at it from outside the fence since I had been inside it already thirteen years ago.
The younger woman wished me good luck and hurried away as the elderly woman continued to talk to me, telling me that she had been born in a house near Tolstoy’s house, and now lived in one of the big, Soviet-era apartments. She also talked about the war and how her life had been during that time. Of course it was a similar story to the one that the woman at Lyudmila Gorbuzova’s church told us last Sunday, but I was glad to listen to her.
She also asked me where I came from and what I was doing in Moscow, and we parted after a few minutes, heading in opposite directions. I pray that she has a peaceful life and knows the Lord is still watching over her and those she loves.
It rained a lot yesterday, but not during the time I was out shopping for the pizza cheese, tomato paste and soda pop for the pizza party. I had some work to do making copies of some brochures for the annual conferences, and Fedya helped me do it since he had just hooked up the computer to the printer/copier. He and Katya made a delicious summertime dish that they said they had been looking forward to eating again since last summer. It had cucumbers, cold boiled potatoes, green onions, fresh dill and little cubes of sausage in a delicious cold sauce . . . more like a cold soup, really. I had never had it before, and they were surprised.
A few hours later they came back to the student kitchen and tried some pizza, too. I’ve been tutoring English with Darya (Dasha) and Natasha, two young women who attend the ”Raduga” (Rainbow) service on Sunday afternoons here. We had made plans to work on preparing for them to take the TOEFL which is used to help qualify students who do not speak English as their first language when they apply to study in US colleges and universities. They have both been to the US before, and are heading back there on May 27th, the same day I will be going home.
While studying at a tourism institute, their English language skills have been improving, and it is a joy to be their tutor. When we made plans to work together last evening, I told them I would make them dinner, and they said they would bring a cake. Actually, that’s how the idea of making pizza for everyone came about. We had a fun time all together. They even invited some of the students to have some cake, too, of course.
Dasha also brought some photos to show me, and told me about her life in Ekaterinburg before her family moved to Moscow. As a young child, Dasha was baptized by in one of the first UMC churches in Russia – three bishops took part in the baptisms that day, including Bishop Vaxby who for the last two years has been the Bishop of the Eurasian Area here. It was interesting to hear that, and to see photos of some skits put on when the pastors gathered together in Ekaterinburg.
In the summer of ’99, when she was 12, Dasha stayed with a family in Loveland, Colorado, and there were photos of the fun times she had with them, too. She has also been to North Carolina, to Busch Gardens in Virginia, to New York City, at the beach in South Carolina, and in Washington, D.C. Dasha is full of joy and enthusiasm, and it was fun to see the photos and hear her stories.
It’s almost 2 PM, and I think I will take a walk. Wish you could join me! I am going to try to call my Mom later today when it is daytime in Florida to wish her a Happy Mother’s Day. It was lovely to talk to my folks last Wednesday, too – and I have been blessed to be able to chat with both Krista and Tom on MSN Messenger. Isn’t life in cyberspace grand??!
I hope you will be able to wish your Mom “Happy Mother’s Day”, too – and if you are a Mom, I hope you will be blessed to be with or to hear from your kids. Isn’t God wonderful to have placed us in loving families and given us one another to love?!
May the Lord continue to bless and keep you and yours.
Blessings in the Love of Jesus -- Kathy
Moscow Journal -- 5-12-07
Moscow Journal – 5-12-07
The sound of the rain on the window above my bed woke me up this morning at 7 AM. I am staying in a room in the student dormitory on the top floor of the Seminary building, and windows have been cut in the ceiling in each room. There are no curtains on the window in my room, and at night I can see a few stars bright enough to surpass the glow of the city lights if the sky is clear. On cloudy nights, I enjoy watching the clouds glowing with a kind of golden light reflecting the brightness shining from windows of apartments, the streetlights, and the bright signs advertising businesses.
On the evening of the Victory Day celebrations I came into my room just in time to see some fireworks light up the sky outside my window, too. In the mornings, I have no need of an alarm clock, because by 8 AM, if there are no clouds, the sun has already reached a corner of my window, not very gently announcing that the day is progressing rapidly and I should get up and at ‘em!
This morning I enjoyed listening to the rain as I let go of the last dream of the night and left the world of the sub-conscious for today’s reality. I decided to make this journal entry my first priority today, because there is a lot to tell you about last week.
I had mentioned to someone that I met Pastor Lyudmila Gorbuzova in the U.S. during a Russia Initiative meeting in the late 90s. Katya Lee, one of our students, helps out at Lyudmila’s church and was told that I was interested in going with her on Sunday. Katya told me she would be glad to take me to church with her, so we headed out around 9:45 AM. The church holds worship in the auditorium of a building near Krasnagardskaya (Red Guard) Metro Station. We took three different Metro trains to get there, and at one point I was delighted to see that the Metro tracks come out of the ground to cross the Moscow River on a bridge.
The river winds its way through the city founded over 850 years ago. That is such a long time compared to our history in the US, the idea of it always boggles my mind. Since coming to Moscow this time, I was interested to find out that Moscow’s patron saint is St. George, and there is a shield-shaped emblem of the city on which there is a depiction of him on a horse killing the dragon. During the Soviet era, the emblem was not displayed, but it -- and the double-headed eagle emblem of the Russian Empire -- have been revived.
They are now prominently displayed everywhere, although the Red Star of the Soviet era remains evident on certain buildings, and even remains on the top of one of the Kremlin towers. To a large extent in the time since the break-up of the Soviet Union, the people here have eagerly recaptured much of their history that was considered unimportant, or even shameful, during Communist rule. These are exciting times when all sorts of things have been renewed.
On the trip to church, I enjoyed seeing the view of Moscow from the bridge we crossed. When we left the Metro station, we went into a bazaar because Katya had to buy some grechka (a type of kasha – hot cereal), cole slaw, and kolbasy (sausages) for the meal during the fellowship time. The worship service didn’t start until 2 PM, but we had to go much earlier since Katya was helping out with the preparations. She also bought bread and grape juice for communion since it was the first Sunday of the month, traditionally Communion Sunday in the United Methodist Church.
Katya is a big help to Pastor Gorbuzova, and it was fun to see her interact with her pastor and the parishioners. After everyone gathered together, I saw that about 10 young people were at the service, and sang in the choir. There were also eight elderly folks and about 20 others of various ages.
When Katya and I arrived in the auditorium, we found Pastor Gorbuzova at her desk down near the right side of the auditorium in front of the stage. As we came close to her, she opened her eyes wide and stood up in surprise as she smilingly said to me, “I recognize you!” I told her that I was glad that she did, and reminded her how long it had been since we had met. While Katya worked on the preparations for the service and the meal, Lyudmila and I caught up with each other. It was a joy to talk with her, and I watched her greet each person with joy as they came into the auditorium. She told me that she had been out of town, and that her parishioners didn’t expect her to be back yet, so she was interested to see who would show up.
I told her I knew what she meant because sometimes when I was away for a Sunday while serving the three churches in West Virginia, people told me that they didn’t go to church when I was out of town. It seemed to me that telling me about it had something to do with them thinking I was keeping track of their attendance record. They thought it was OK to skip a Sunday if I wasn’t there, I guess. Lyudmila and I laughed together when I told her the same dynamic operated in the US, too.
As we talked, more and more people came to worship, and soon it was time to start the service. Lyudmila asked me if I would like to help serve Communion. I felt blessed to be able to! Filled with joy, Lyudmila began the Communion Service and after blessing the elements, she gave a young man she had introduced me to earlier the chalice, and I was given half of the Communion loaf. Lyudmila first served us the bread and cup, and then I served her, saying in Russian – “This is the body of Christ given for you,” and “This is the blood of Christ shed for the forgiveness of your sins.”
Then the young man and I went throughout the auditorium to bring the elements to each worshiper. After Communion was over a few people came in late, and we went back to the Communion Table to get the elements and serve them. Then we all had a meal together. While eating the sausages, cole slaw and grechka, another young man came late, and I started to get up to go and get the Communion elements. But Lyudmila stopped me and said the young man, before coming to worship at her church service every Sunday went to a Russian Orthodox service in the church where he had been baptized. Of course there is Communion served at every Mass in the Russian Orthodox Church.
After the meal the rest of the worship service continued, beginning with a presentation of some gifts to both Katya and another parishioner, Vitaly Klimov, who helps Lyudmila out at the church. Vitaly was one of the people who came in during Communion and he speaks English very well, so right away he was interested in talking to me. After they received their gifts which were little pictures of Jesus encased in crystal, Lyudmila called four elderly women up to the front of the auditorium. I had noticed that two of them had military medals pinned on their dresses, and knowing that the Victory Day celebrations were coming, I thought they were wearing them proudly in order to be recognized as honored veterans.
After they came up to her, Lyudmila took out a letter and announced that it was from President Putin in reply to her letter telling him about the veterans who worshipped at her church. She read the letter out loud. In it, President Putin glorified the veterans with stirring words of praise thanking them for their sacrifices, and for those of the others who served and gave their lives for the sake of the fatherland. Vitaly leaned over to me and said that in times past it was only Stalin who was praised for the war effort, and after that the Soviet government took all the credit. He said it has just been recently that the veterans were given any official honor for their service. Then Lyudmila gave each of the veterans one of the crystal-encased pictures of Jesus, too. She asked one of the women to tell a little about what it had been like during the war.
The veteran said that the Nazis began bombing several Soviet cities on a Sunday in June. She was a young girl who had just finished school, and was looking forward to the summer vacation. While speaking about much that had happened to her and how difficult it had been, we listened intently and sympathetically.
After the veterans sat down again, Lyudmila continued with the worship service and her sermon. The youth choir sang several hymns, and later we sang some of the songs popular during the war. Only the older people knew them – the youth just looked at each other with amused looks on their faces as we sang.
When the service was over we had tea and cake to celebrate the wedding of a daughter of one of the parishioners, and she showed a video of the wedding and the reception on her laptop. Then Katya and several other folks busily cleaned up, took the dishes to a kitchen to be washed. I spoke with Vitaly; a woman named Mara, who I got to know a bit before the service began; and the young man who helped serve Communion. Lyudmila had told me that he was an orphan who came to her for help. He expressed his faith to me very sweetly and it was lovely to talk with him.
Some of the youth, Katya and I stayed around chatting with Lyudmila some more, and then we headed back to the Seminary on the Metro. I had some shopping to do at the a grocery store called the Ram Store, and Katya headed out the opposite exit of the Metro to do something else.
All together it was a blessed day and I praise God for the chance to get to know Lyudmila and her parishioners. I’m looking forward to being back there tomorrow.
Meanwhile, Vitaly has been e-mailing me, and he asked if I wanted to visit the Tretyakov Art Gallery after church tomorrow. So I agreed and am looking forward to that, too. Today two young women, Darya and Natasha, who are working on their English are coming again. I have been tutoring them on how to take the TOEFL test – people who know English as a Second Language take it as a requirement when they apply to study at college in the US. We had two sessions already, and they have both been to the US in the past. They are planning to go again this summer.
I told them I would make dinner for them this evening when they come to study, so decided to make pizza, which is very popular here. It will be interesting to see what it takes like with Russian cheese and sausage! Wish you could join us!
Blessings in the Love of Jesus -- Kathy
The sound of the rain on the window above my bed woke me up this morning at 7 AM. I am staying in a room in the student dormitory on the top floor of the Seminary building, and windows have been cut in the ceiling in each room. There are no curtains on the window in my room, and at night I can see a few stars bright enough to surpass the glow of the city lights if the sky is clear. On cloudy nights, I enjoy watching the clouds glowing with a kind of golden light reflecting the brightness shining from windows of apartments, the streetlights, and the bright signs advertising businesses.
On the evening of the Victory Day celebrations I came into my room just in time to see some fireworks light up the sky outside my window, too. In the mornings, I have no need of an alarm clock, because by 8 AM, if there are no clouds, the sun has already reached a corner of my window, not very gently announcing that the day is progressing rapidly and I should get up and at ‘em!
This morning I enjoyed listening to the rain as I let go of the last dream of the night and left the world of the sub-conscious for today’s reality. I decided to make this journal entry my first priority today, because there is a lot to tell you about last week.
I had mentioned to someone that I met Pastor Lyudmila Gorbuzova in the U.S. during a Russia Initiative meeting in the late 90s. Katya Lee, one of our students, helps out at Lyudmila’s church and was told that I was interested in going with her on Sunday. Katya told me she would be glad to take me to church with her, so we headed out around 9:45 AM. The church holds worship in the auditorium of a building near Krasnagardskaya (Red Guard) Metro Station. We took three different Metro trains to get there, and at one point I was delighted to see that the Metro tracks come out of the ground to cross the Moscow River on a bridge.
The river winds its way through the city founded over 850 years ago. That is such a long time compared to our history in the US, the idea of it always boggles my mind. Since coming to Moscow this time, I was interested to find out that Moscow’s patron saint is St. George, and there is a shield-shaped emblem of the city on which there is a depiction of him on a horse killing the dragon. During the Soviet era, the emblem was not displayed, but it -- and the double-headed eagle emblem of the Russian Empire -- have been revived.
They are now prominently displayed everywhere, although the Red Star of the Soviet era remains evident on certain buildings, and even remains on the top of one of the Kremlin towers. To a large extent in the time since the break-up of the Soviet Union, the people here have eagerly recaptured much of their history that was considered unimportant, or even shameful, during Communist rule. These are exciting times when all sorts of things have been renewed.
On the trip to church, I enjoyed seeing the view of Moscow from the bridge we crossed. When we left the Metro station, we went into a bazaar because Katya had to buy some grechka (a type of kasha – hot cereal), cole slaw, and kolbasy (sausages) for the meal during the fellowship time. The worship service didn’t start until 2 PM, but we had to go much earlier since Katya was helping out with the preparations. She also bought bread and grape juice for communion since it was the first Sunday of the month, traditionally Communion Sunday in the United Methodist Church.
Katya is a big help to Pastor Gorbuzova, and it was fun to see her interact with her pastor and the parishioners. After everyone gathered together, I saw that about 10 young people were at the service, and sang in the choir. There were also eight elderly folks and about 20 others of various ages.
When Katya and I arrived in the auditorium, we found Pastor Gorbuzova at her desk down near the right side of the auditorium in front of the stage. As we came close to her, she opened her eyes wide and stood up in surprise as she smilingly said to me, “I recognize you!” I told her that I was glad that she did, and reminded her how long it had been since we had met. While Katya worked on the preparations for the service and the meal, Lyudmila and I caught up with each other. It was a joy to talk with her, and I watched her greet each person with joy as they came into the auditorium. She told me that she had been out of town, and that her parishioners didn’t expect her to be back yet, so she was interested to see who would show up.
I told her I knew what she meant because sometimes when I was away for a Sunday while serving the three churches in West Virginia, people told me that they didn’t go to church when I was out of town. It seemed to me that telling me about it had something to do with them thinking I was keeping track of their attendance record. They thought it was OK to skip a Sunday if I wasn’t there, I guess. Lyudmila and I laughed together when I told her the same dynamic operated in the US, too.
As we talked, more and more people came to worship, and soon it was time to start the service. Lyudmila asked me if I would like to help serve Communion. I felt blessed to be able to! Filled with joy, Lyudmila began the Communion Service and after blessing the elements, she gave a young man she had introduced me to earlier the chalice, and I was given half of the Communion loaf. Lyudmila first served us the bread and cup, and then I served her, saying in Russian – “This is the body of Christ given for you,” and “This is the blood of Christ shed for the forgiveness of your sins.”
Then the young man and I went throughout the auditorium to bring the elements to each worshiper. After Communion was over a few people came in late, and we went back to the Communion Table to get the elements and serve them. Then we all had a meal together. While eating the sausages, cole slaw and grechka, another young man came late, and I started to get up to go and get the Communion elements. But Lyudmila stopped me and said the young man, before coming to worship at her church service every Sunday went to a Russian Orthodox service in the church where he had been baptized. Of course there is Communion served at every Mass in the Russian Orthodox Church.
After the meal the rest of the worship service continued, beginning with a presentation of some gifts to both Katya and another parishioner, Vitaly Klimov, who helps Lyudmila out at the church. Vitaly was one of the people who came in during Communion and he speaks English very well, so right away he was interested in talking to me. After they received their gifts which were little pictures of Jesus encased in crystal, Lyudmila called four elderly women up to the front of the auditorium. I had noticed that two of them had military medals pinned on their dresses, and knowing that the Victory Day celebrations were coming, I thought they were wearing them proudly in order to be recognized as honored veterans.
After they came up to her, Lyudmila took out a letter and announced that it was from President Putin in reply to her letter telling him about the veterans who worshipped at her church. She read the letter out loud. In it, President Putin glorified the veterans with stirring words of praise thanking them for their sacrifices, and for those of the others who served and gave their lives for the sake of the fatherland. Vitaly leaned over to me and said that in times past it was only Stalin who was praised for the war effort, and after that the Soviet government took all the credit. He said it has just been recently that the veterans were given any official honor for their service. Then Lyudmila gave each of the veterans one of the crystal-encased pictures of Jesus, too. She asked one of the women to tell a little about what it had been like during the war.
The veteran said that the Nazis began bombing several Soviet cities on a Sunday in June. She was a young girl who had just finished school, and was looking forward to the summer vacation. While speaking about much that had happened to her and how difficult it had been, we listened intently and sympathetically.
After the veterans sat down again, Lyudmila continued with the worship service and her sermon. The youth choir sang several hymns, and later we sang some of the songs popular during the war. Only the older people knew them – the youth just looked at each other with amused looks on their faces as we sang.
When the service was over we had tea and cake to celebrate the wedding of a daughter of one of the parishioners, and she showed a video of the wedding and the reception on her laptop. Then Katya and several other folks busily cleaned up, took the dishes to a kitchen to be washed. I spoke with Vitaly; a woman named Mara, who I got to know a bit before the service began; and the young man who helped serve Communion. Lyudmila had told me that he was an orphan who came to her for help. He expressed his faith to me very sweetly and it was lovely to talk with him.
Some of the youth, Katya and I stayed around chatting with Lyudmila some more, and then we headed back to the Seminary on the Metro. I had some shopping to do at the a grocery store called the Ram Store, and Katya headed out the opposite exit of the Metro to do something else.
All together it was a blessed day and I praise God for the chance to get to know Lyudmila and her parishioners. I’m looking forward to being back there tomorrow.
Meanwhile, Vitaly has been e-mailing me, and he asked if I wanted to visit the Tretyakov Art Gallery after church tomorrow. So I agreed and am looking forward to that, too. Today two young women, Darya and Natasha, who are working on their English are coming again. I have been tutoring them on how to take the TOEFL test – people who know English as a Second Language take it as a requirement when they apply to study at college in the US. We had two sessions already, and they have both been to the US in the past. They are planning to go again this summer.
I told them I would make dinner for them this evening when they come to study, so decided to make pizza, which is very popular here. It will be interesting to see what it takes like with Russian cheese and sausage! Wish you could join us!
Blessings in the Love of Jesus -- Kathy
Moscow Journal – 5-8-07
Moscow Journal – 5-8-07
I fell back asleep finally Saturday morning after writing my first Moscow Journal entry and was awakened to the sound of knocking on my door around 10 AM. The visiting professor here at the Seminary was checking to see if I was up and about. We had made arrangements to be tourists together in downtown Moscow for the day. I got dressed and had a quick breakfast, and then we headed out to the Metro.
Our plans were to visit the Kremlin, and St. Basil’s Cathedral in Red Square. We also hoped to go inside of the Christ the Redeemer Cathedral (Khristos Spasitel’ Kafedral), re-built in the last 13 years. The original had been torn down in the Stalinist era and a swimming pool was built on the place where it had existed. At one time it was the largest church in Christendom, and the Russians have rebuilt it basically exactly as it was once . . . except that outside on the grounds on the north side is a very large statue of Tsar Nicholas II.
The United Methodist Theological Seminary where I am volunteering and staying is in the southwest section of Moscow, just outside the territory of the inner ring of the Moscow Metro system. It is closest to “Sportivnaya” Metro Station. The name is appropriate since a huge stadium and several other sports arenas are in the area. If you visit Moscow and go to the overlook in front of Moscow State University, you can see the stadium and all of Moscow laid before your feet, as I did when I was here for the first time in January of 1994.
The neat thing about that is that when I was looking out over the city of Moscow way back then, I, of course, had no idea that I was also looking at the buildings of the neighborhood where I would be staying now! The Seminary is in the Weaver’s Quarter (Khamovnichesky Val), and the first Russian Orthodox Church I visited is nearby. It is called St. Nicholas of the Weavers. After visiting it in January of ’94, the following June I found it again when some of my friends from my second VIM trip visited Moscow on the way home from Pushkin (formerly called The Tsar’s Village, where the summer palaces were) , near St. Petersburg. We were helping to remodel a nursing home.
If you’d like to, you can see a photo of St. Nicholas of the Weavers’ Church in the middle of this webpage:
http://members.tripod.com/~WOLFIELUC/russdomes.html
Another special thing about this area is that St. Nicholas of the Weavers’ Church is down the street from Leo Tolstoy’s house. When I was here in January of ’94, the museum in it was closed for the New Year Holiday, but we were able to go inside in June of ’94. While standing in one of the hallways near a table blocking the way to the opening of one of the rooms, the guide said, “At this table Tolstoy wrote ‘Anna Karenina!”’ I was enthralled. So now I am very excited to be living about 10 blocks from Tolstoy’s house and St. Nicholas of the Weavers’ Church.
On Saturday when we got off the Metro near Red Square, we found that because of the preparations for the Day of Victory holiday on May 9th (tomorrow), Red Square was closed to pedestrian traffic in front of Lenin’s Mausoleum. The holiday commemorates the victory in what the Russians call “The Great Patriotic War”, known to us as WWII.
If you remember photos and news videos of May Day parades at Red Square, you might have some idea of the preparations for the pomp and circumstance tomorrow. However, nowadays, instead of Soviet-style signs covering the whole sides of buildings, there are billboards and building covers in the new Russian Federation mode. When we went through GUM, the big shopping center, to get to the other side of Red Square, we could see the stage and large video screens facing the VIP stands in front of the eastern walls of the Kremlin.
The screens were displaying film footage of the Soviet Army in WWII while heroic and sentimental music like the song “Katyusha” played in the background. I’m sure the celebration tomorrow will be wonderful, but the crowds will be too big for me to hazard a trip down there unless one of the students wants to go down with me.
I can imagine that it will be a little like Washington, DC on the 4th of July . . . but not as hot! I feel a bit like Snoopy in the tall grass when I find myself in the midst of huge crowds, though – and it is no fun trying to get home on the Metro after the fireworks on the 4th of July in our capital, so I think it will be similar here.
Anyway – on Saturday we had a lovely time together, as we toured the churches of the Moscow Kremlin after exploring all that was available to see inside St. Basil’s Cathedral. If you are not sure which church St. Basil’s is, please look at this website to see a photo of the most famous Russian Orthodox Cathedral:
http://www.sacred-destinations.com/russia/moscow-st-basil-cathedral.htm
One surprising thing about our visit to the Kremlin was that there was an exhibit from the “Forbidden City” of China’s Imperial Era there. Amongst the very interesting artifacts was the Dragon Throne all the way from Beijing and the ages past. We didn’t stay in the small exhibition room very long because it was late in the afternoon by that time. Out on the plaza between the Patriarch’s Palace and the largest churches there: Uspensky (the Assumption), St. Michael the Archangel (patron angel of Russia), and Transfiguration, we enjoyed the beauty of the buildings and exploring those that were open. While on our tour of the Kremlin in the summer of ’94, we were only able to see the inside of the church of St Michael the Archangel because Uspensky Cathedral and the other churches were closed.
So much has changed in thirteen years! It is difficult to take it all in, though for me there are also many comparisons between Moscow and Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan where I lived for almost 5 months in 2005.
All together, Saturday was a wonderful day, even though when we reached the large doors of Khristos Spasitel’ they were being closed for some reason an hour and a half before the guidebook stated they would be closed. My new friend, the Old Testament professor, had already been inside, so I didn’t mind too much. I trust I will be able to worship there and explore the beauty inside it soon.
Well . . . since it’s 1 AM, I guess I had better go to sleep. I hope whenever you do that, you will have pleasant dreams.
Blessings in the Love of Jesus – Kathy
I fell back asleep finally Saturday morning after writing my first Moscow Journal entry and was awakened to the sound of knocking on my door around 10 AM. The visiting professor here at the Seminary was checking to see if I was up and about. We had made arrangements to be tourists together in downtown Moscow for the day. I got dressed and had a quick breakfast, and then we headed out to the Metro.
Our plans were to visit the Kremlin, and St. Basil’s Cathedral in Red Square. We also hoped to go inside of the Christ the Redeemer Cathedral (Khristos Spasitel’ Kafedral), re-built in the last 13 years. The original had been torn down in the Stalinist era and a swimming pool was built on the place where it had existed. At one time it was the largest church in Christendom, and the Russians have rebuilt it basically exactly as it was once . . . except that outside on the grounds on the north side is a very large statue of Tsar Nicholas II.
The United Methodist Theological Seminary where I am volunteering and staying is in the southwest section of Moscow, just outside the territory of the inner ring of the Moscow Metro system. It is closest to “Sportivnaya” Metro Station. The name is appropriate since a huge stadium and several other sports arenas are in the area. If you visit Moscow and go to the overlook in front of Moscow State University, you can see the stadium and all of Moscow laid before your feet, as I did when I was here for the first time in January of 1994.
The neat thing about that is that when I was looking out over the city of Moscow way back then, I, of course, had no idea that I was also looking at the buildings of the neighborhood where I would be staying now! The Seminary is in the Weaver’s Quarter (Khamovnichesky Val), and the first Russian Orthodox Church I visited is nearby. It is called St. Nicholas of the Weavers. After visiting it in January of ’94, the following June I found it again when some of my friends from my second VIM trip visited Moscow on the way home from Pushkin (formerly called The Tsar’s Village, where the summer palaces were) , near St. Petersburg. We were helping to remodel a nursing home.
If you’d like to, you can see a photo of St. Nicholas of the Weavers’ Church in the middle of this webpage:
http://members.tripod.com/~WOLFIELUC/russdomes.html
Another special thing about this area is that St. Nicholas of the Weavers’ Church is down the street from Leo Tolstoy’s house. When I was here in January of ’94, the museum in it was closed for the New Year Holiday, but we were able to go inside in June of ’94. While standing in one of the hallways near a table blocking the way to the opening of one of the rooms, the guide said, “At this table Tolstoy wrote ‘Anna Karenina!”’ I was enthralled. So now I am very excited to be living about 10 blocks from Tolstoy’s house and St. Nicholas of the Weavers’ Church.
On Saturday when we got off the Metro near Red Square, we found that because of the preparations for the Day of Victory holiday on May 9th (tomorrow), Red Square was closed to pedestrian traffic in front of Lenin’s Mausoleum. The holiday commemorates the victory in what the Russians call “The Great Patriotic War”, known to us as WWII.
If you remember photos and news videos of May Day parades at Red Square, you might have some idea of the preparations for the pomp and circumstance tomorrow. However, nowadays, instead of Soviet-style signs covering the whole sides of buildings, there are billboards and building covers in the new Russian Federation mode. When we went through GUM, the big shopping center, to get to the other side of Red Square, we could see the stage and large video screens facing the VIP stands in front of the eastern walls of the Kremlin.
The screens were displaying film footage of the Soviet Army in WWII while heroic and sentimental music like the song “Katyusha” played in the background. I’m sure the celebration tomorrow will be wonderful, but the crowds will be too big for me to hazard a trip down there unless one of the students wants to go down with me.
I can imagine that it will be a little like Washington, DC on the 4th of July . . . but not as hot! I feel a bit like Snoopy in the tall grass when I find myself in the midst of huge crowds, though – and it is no fun trying to get home on the Metro after the fireworks on the 4th of July in our capital, so I think it will be similar here.
Anyway – on Saturday we had a lovely time together, as we toured the churches of the Moscow Kremlin after exploring all that was available to see inside St. Basil’s Cathedral. If you are not sure which church St. Basil’s is, please look at this website to see a photo of the most famous Russian Orthodox Cathedral:
http://www.sacred-destinations.com/russia/moscow-st-basil-cathedral.htm
One surprising thing about our visit to the Kremlin was that there was an exhibit from the “Forbidden City” of China’s Imperial Era there. Amongst the very interesting artifacts was the Dragon Throne all the way from Beijing and the ages past. We didn’t stay in the small exhibition room very long because it was late in the afternoon by that time. Out on the plaza between the Patriarch’s Palace and the largest churches there: Uspensky (the Assumption), St. Michael the Archangel (patron angel of Russia), and Transfiguration, we enjoyed the beauty of the buildings and exploring those that were open. While on our tour of the Kremlin in the summer of ’94, we were only able to see the inside of the church of St Michael the Archangel because Uspensky Cathedral and the other churches were closed.
So much has changed in thirteen years! It is difficult to take it all in, though for me there are also many comparisons between Moscow and Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan where I lived for almost 5 months in 2005.
All together, Saturday was a wonderful day, even though when we reached the large doors of Khristos Spasitel’ they were being closed for some reason an hour and a half before the guidebook stated they would be closed. My new friend, the Old Testament professor, had already been inside, so I didn’t mind too much. I trust I will be able to worship there and explore the beauty inside it soon.
Well . . . since it’s 1 AM, I guess I had better go to sleep. I hope whenever you do that, you will have pleasant dreams.
Blessings in the Love of Jesus – Kathy
The Peace Fellowship Association
Moscow Journal – 5-5-07
Last Friday I flew from Florida to Atlanta after spending several days celebrating my Dad’s 80th birthday with my parents, my sister and her family, my brother, and a friend from our home town. I then spent about 4 hours in the airport in Atlanta waiting for the plane I flew on the next leg of my journey to Russia to be a volunteer at the Methodist Seminary in Moscow. Drew, a friend from my home church in Marietta had mentioned that he would be at the Atlanta airport the same afternoon, and we had agreed to meet in the E-Terminal which is used for international flights.
We both attend the Wednesday evening Bible study, and I was looking forward to seeing him before he took off for Thailand and Nepal. In all the flurry of packing to go to Russia and preparing for my Dad’s birthday celebration, however, I lost track of Drew’s cell phone number.
The lines to go through the security checkpoint were long, and the E-Terminal is the furthest terminal on the airport subway train. My gate was also not very close to the escalator, so after I walked down to find it, I rested for a while. An older woman sat down next to me and we began chatting. I was just thinking I should try to find Drew's gate and see if he was around when all of a sudden he came up to me and said, “Hello!’. When I asked if he had eaten lunch, he said he had, but since I had not, we headed down to the food court so I could eat something. It was great to have some fellowship together before we both headed out on our long journeys.
I hope Drew has had a good trip, and I praise God that I arrived safely in Moscow and have had a good work week here -- though because of the May Day holiday to celebrate workers and spring, the offices were closed on Monday and Tuesday. That worked out well because my flight to NYC was delayed because of weather and I missed the flight to Moscow. I used up the money I had set aside for the $10 per day they are asking me to pay here in just one night’s lodging at the Holiday Inn near JFK Airport. It was a blessing, though, because I was able to help a Polish woman who spoke no English and had only $2 with her. I met her at the help desk when the ticket agent was rescheduling our flights.
The Polish woman’s name is Vonda. By the time I tried to talk to her, she was in tears because she was so afraid of being alone in New York City. Just as the ticket agent was telling us that Delta would not pay for our emergency lodging, two women and a baby came up to the counter. The women both spoke Polish, but one of them also spoke English. I asked her if she could explain to Vonda that I would take her to the hotel with me if she was willing to go. She agreed to come along but still seemed very afraid.
When we finally got checked into the hotel, it was five hours after I had landed and we were both exhausted. Vonda had been visiting a friend in Florida, and we called him together. He has been in the States for 20 years, so I was able to tell him what had happened, and he was able to reassure Vonda about everything. Nevertheless, I don't think either of us slept that well. In the morning we went back to JFK Airport on the hotel bus, and I brought her to her terminal. Her flight was not going to leave until 11 PM, but I had to leave her at her terminal to head to my terminal to check in for my flight.
All together it was an amazing experience and I praise God that I was able to meet Vonda and to help her.
Of course even though I arrived in Moscow one day later than I was supposed to originally, my luggage didn't arrive until the second day I was there. So I had to spend more money targeted for food and lodging for the expensive cab ride to and from the airport to pick up my luggage. I ended up to be a blessing in disguise, though, because I got to know one of the students, Katya Lee, and two of the young people who are working here, Katya and Fedya. Katya Lee knows a young man who drives a cab, so they called him. The other Katya and Fedya came with me to the airport since it was late at night, and I was tired. I was worried that I would get upset if I couldn’t find my luggage in the huge room full of misplaced suitcases and baby strollers I had looked through before I left the airport the first time. In addition, I knew there would be stern Customs Officials to deal with . . . so I was blessed that Katya and Fedya came with me.
As I wrote earlier, it’s been a good week, but I have not really conquered the jet lag problem yet. I woke up around 3:15 AM and it's 6AM now (10 PM where I have been living in Georgia). I'm hoping to get some rest this weekend and get my body all the way tuned into this time zone.
When I arrived here at the Moscow United Methodist Theological Seminary, I met a visiting professor from Pittsburgh. She teaches Old Testament and has been here for two of three weeks. We went down to Red Square together on Monday with Diana, a young woman whose mother, Natasha, is a secretary here in one of the offices. Besides the Seminary administration, the Bishop's offices are in the Seminary building. There are also offices for pastors of two of the three churches that worship here, and for a UMC missionary from the US.
On Tuesday we went to the monastery in Sergeev Posad which I was blessed to visit the first time I was in Moscow, too. The Russian Orthodox Church has made a lot of renovations since I first saw it 13 years ago, although there is still work ongoing. The paintings depicting the life of St. Sergei on the walls of the large entry way under one of the towers of the monastery wall were very beautiful. Thirteen years ago you could barely make them out because during the Soviet era the monastery was made into a museum and not kept up very well.
The monastery is like a fortress, its walls built around the same time as the Moscow Kremlin walls. During the 14th century the Russians were seeking independence from Tartar rule, and the monastery was besieged and burned down.
Last Tuesday many people were worshipping in two of the churches within the walls of the monastery which was built on the site of St Sergei's hermitage. St. Sergei was a contemporary of the English St. Julian of Norwich in the 14th century. He is very beloved by Russian Orthodox believers, and when I was here 13 years ago, the Russian government had just returned the remains of his body to the casket to the right of the iconistasis in the front of the sanctuary of the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity in the monastery. St Sergei is revered for many things including the fact that he blessed the troops of Dmitry Donskoi before his army’s decisive battle with the Tatars at Kulikovo.
Back to Sunday, when I first got to Moscow -- I arrived at the Seminary building at midday, so it was a joy to see people of all ages there for worship services. After getting settled into my room and resting for a bit, I came downstairs just as the service called “Raduga”, which is “Rainbow” in English, and is geared to college-aged folks was finishing up. I was blessed to be able to join them for dinner. While there I saw Ea Lee, a young woman who came to Wesley to study in the late 90s. I met her once when I was visiting the campus way back then. It was neat to see her again. She works in the Bishop's office translating materials both ways between Russian and English.
Well . . . I just wanted to let you know how I'm doing . . .*smile*
I think I will try to go back to sleep, but will write more later . . . I pray you are well and happy. Please pray for everyone here -- seven students will be graduating on May 14th, and the annual conferences will be starting, so everyone here is working hard. I feel blessed to be able to be here to help. One of the most precious things was that they asked me to lead a prayer time yesterday afternoon, with the intention that we will gather every Friday for the same purpose. What a blessing it was to sing praise songs, share what was on our hearts and pray together!
May the Lord continue to bless and keep you and yours.
Blessings and Love -- Kathy
* * * * * * *
Last Friday I flew from Florida to Atlanta after spending several days celebrating my Dad’s 80th birthday with my parents, my sister and her family, my brother, and a friend from our home town. I then spent about 4 hours in the airport in Atlanta waiting for the plane I flew on the next leg of my journey to Russia to be a volunteer at the Methodist Seminary in Moscow. Drew, a friend from my home church in Marietta had mentioned that he would be at the Atlanta airport the same afternoon, and we had agreed to meet in the E-Terminal which is used for international flights.
We both attend the Wednesday evening Bible study, and I was looking forward to seeing him before he took off for Thailand and Nepal. In all the flurry of packing to go to Russia and preparing for my Dad’s birthday celebration, however, I lost track of Drew’s cell phone number.
The lines to go through the security checkpoint were long, and the E-Terminal is the furthest terminal on the airport subway train. My gate was also not very close to the escalator, so after I walked down to find it, I rested for a while. An older woman sat down next to me and we began chatting. I was just thinking I should try to find Drew's gate and see if he was around when all of a sudden he came up to me and said, “Hello!’. When I asked if he had eaten lunch, he said he had, but since I had not, we headed down to the food court so I could eat something. It was great to have some fellowship together before we both headed out on our long journeys.
I hope Drew has had a good trip, and I praise God that I arrived safely in Moscow and have had a good work week here -- though because of the May Day holiday to celebrate workers and spring, the offices were closed on Monday and Tuesday. That worked out well because my flight to NYC was delayed because of weather and I missed the flight to Moscow. I used up the money I had set aside for the $10 per day they are asking me to pay here in just one night’s lodging at the Holiday Inn near JFK Airport. It was a blessing, though, because I was able to help a Polish woman who spoke no English and had only $2 with her. I met her at the help desk when the ticket agent was rescheduling our flights.
The Polish woman’s name is Vonda. By the time I tried to talk to her, she was in tears because she was so afraid of being alone in New York City. Just as the ticket agent was telling us that Delta would not pay for our emergency lodging, two women and a baby came up to the counter. The women both spoke Polish, but one of them also spoke English. I asked her if she could explain to Vonda that I would take her to the hotel with me if she was willing to go. She agreed to come along but still seemed very afraid.
When we finally got checked into the hotel, it was five hours after I had landed and we were both exhausted. Vonda had been visiting a friend in Florida, and we called him together. He has been in the States for 20 years, so I was able to tell him what had happened, and he was able to reassure Vonda about everything. Nevertheless, I don't think either of us slept that well. In the morning we went back to JFK Airport on the hotel bus, and I brought her to her terminal. Her flight was not going to leave until 11 PM, but I had to leave her at her terminal to head to my terminal to check in for my flight.
All together it was an amazing experience and I praise God that I was able to meet Vonda and to help her.
Of course even though I arrived in Moscow one day later than I was supposed to originally, my luggage didn't arrive until the second day I was there. So I had to spend more money targeted for food and lodging for the expensive cab ride to and from the airport to pick up my luggage. I ended up to be a blessing in disguise, though, because I got to know one of the students, Katya Lee, and two of the young people who are working here, Katya and Fedya. Katya Lee knows a young man who drives a cab, so they called him. The other Katya and Fedya came with me to the airport since it was late at night, and I was tired. I was worried that I would get upset if I couldn’t find my luggage in the huge room full of misplaced suitcases and baby strollers I had looked through before I left the airport the first time. In addition, I knew there would be stern Customs Officials to deal with . . . so I was blessed that Katya and Fedya came with me.
As I wrote earlier, it’s been a good week, but I have not really conquered the jet lag problem yet. I woke up around 3:15 AM and it's 6AM now (10 PM where I have been living in Georgia). I'm hoping to get some rest this weekend and get my body all the way tuned into this time zone.
When I arrived here at the Moscow United Methodist Theological Seminary, I met a visiting professor from Pittsburgh. She teaches Old Testament and has been here for two of three weeks. We went down to Red Square together on Monday with Diana, a young woman whose mother, Natasha, is a secretary here in one of the offices. Besides the Seminary administration, the Bishop's offices are in the Seminary building. There are also offices for pastors of two of the three churches that worship here, and for a UMC missionary from the US.
On Tuesday we went to the monastery in Sergeev Posad which I was blessed to visit the first time I was in Moscow, too. The Russian Orthodox Church has made a lot of renovations since I first saw it 13 years ago, although there is still work ongoing. The paintings depicting the life of St. Sergei on the walls of the large entry way under one of the towers of the monastery wall were very beautiful. Thirteen years ago you could barely make them out because during the Soviet era the monastery was made into a museum and not kept up very well.
The monastery is like a fortress, its walls built around the same time as the Moscow Kremlin walls. During the 14th century the Russians were seeking independence from Tartar rule, and the monastery was besieged and burned down.
Last Tuesday many people were worshipping in two of the churches within the walls of the monastery which was built on the site of St Sergei's hermitage. St. Sergei was a contemporary of the English St. Julian of Norwich in the 14th century. He is very beloved by Russian Orthodox believers, and when I was here 13 years ago, the Russian government had just returned the remains of his body to the casket to the right of the iconistasis in the front of the sanctuary of the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity in the monastery. St Sergei is revered for many things including the fact that he blessed the troops of Dmitry Donskoi before his army’s decisive battle with the Tatars at Kulikovo.
Back to Sunday, when I first got to Moscow -- I arrived at the Seminary building at midday, so it was a joy to see people of all ages there for worship services. After getting settled into my room and resting for a bit, I came downstairs just as the service called “Raduga”, which is “Rainbow” in English, and is geared to college-aged folks was finishing up. I was blessed to be able to join them for dinner. While there I saw Ea Lee, a young woman who came to Wesley to study in the late 90s. I met her once when I was visiting the campus way back then. It was neat to see her again. She works in the Bishop's office translating materials both ways between Russian and English.
Well . . . I just wanted to let you know how I'm doing . . .*smile*
I think I will try to go back to sleep, but will write more later . . . I pray you are well and happy. Please pray for everyone here -- seven students will be graduating on May 14th, and the annual conferences will be starting, so everyone here is working hard. I feel blessed to be able to be here to help. One of the most precious things was that they asked me to lead a prayer time yesterday afternoon, with the intention that we will gather every Friday for the same purpose. What a blessing it was to sing praise songs, share what was on our hearts and pray together!
May the Lord continue to bless and keep you and yours.
Blessings and Love -- Kathy
* * * * * * *
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