Today is Saturday morning January 23rd. I am slowly approaching to two months point since my arrival to Russia. It is amazing how fast time flies especially when your schedule is absolutely packed. I will give you an idea what I mean by being packed.

On Monday I have to buy clothes for Arthur who is an orphan in Kingisep. Kingisep is a small town in the suburbs of St. Pete about two hour drive toward Estonia. Arthur is a brother of Max. Max lives in America because he was adopted four years ago. Unfortunately brothers were separated and Max has not seen his two other brothers for a long time. Arthur and George lived in the basements in the city of St. Pete for over two years before they were rescued by the police and placed into the orphanage. Max and his parents asked me to visit Arthur while I am in Russia. Max sacrificed all of his savings so that I can buy something for Arthur.

Then I have two classes at our Vocational Training Center. As of this week I am teaching two additional classes, but this time to our residents: Igor, Anya and Natasha. Igor is taking computer and English and the girls are taking computer only. Observation point: many orphans feel very confident about their skills and knowledge, but if you test them you will find out that they do not even know basic stuff. They frequently request to learn some challenging programs yet they cannot even handle simple stuff. Thus, I have decided to teach basic knowledge prior to teaching more complicated one. Of course, they complain so I have to explain why I am taking such approach (i.e. before you take Algebra you need to know arithmetic).

My final task for Monday is to check out potential apartment for our Vocational Training Center in the evening. Please pray for that meeting because we need to find something different before my departure.

On Tuesday, Thursday and Friday I will be working with Rick and Jane. This couple has been coming to Russia for nine years. The purpose of their travel is to minister to orphans. They have asked me to be their translator. We will be ministering at the orphanage 8 & 13. Rick and Jane have prepared “God’s Plan for Me” lesson. Please pray for the presence of the Holy Spirit and for the lives to be transformed. One of the reasons why I have agreed to minister with them because currently The Harbor is looking for new residents and VTC participants and I think this might be a great opportunity for me to establish new connection and build the relationship with orphans. It could also be a possibility where we can select orphans so that we can continue to support, encourage and transform their lives. Another reason why I have agreed is because I have known Rick and Jane for a few years and greatly support their cause and want to be part of it because we can reach one life at a time.

On Wednesday I will be going to Kingisep to visit Arthur. I hope to build the relationship with him and the orphanage director. Arthur is seventeen years old and he is an eighth grader. This is a huge challenge for him because he is the oldest in the class and it creates an emotional pressure for him. Due to this pressure Arthur is having a difficult time in trying to complete his nine grades so I am going to encourage and challenge him to stay on target. Furthermore, I am going to share about The Harbor and see if he is interested to possibly coming to our ministry a year from now. If he decides to come this will create some challenges for us because he is in the suburb orphanage and according to the law orphans from suburb orphanages typically have to stay in the suburb where they attend school, work and live. However, in the past seven and a half years we have had some orphans from suburb orphanages so we are open to the challenge. Please pray for Arthur, my visit, his school and successful completion, potential partnership with The Harbor and Arthur possibly coming to our ministry.

On Saturday I am teaching classes at VTC all day long. This Saturday I am going to try teaching new material. In the past seven weeks I have been teaching PC user skills and Word processing. I have tested some of their knowledge & they have somewhat passed it. The morning group is somewhat challenging because when they come to VTC the first thing they ask, “Alex, when can we play video games?” My standard reply is at the end of the class. This shows that their primary focus coming to computer class is to play games. They are so bored in learning Word processing and constantly asking to learn something different and more challenging, yet they cannot even handle simple stuff. The morning group comes from “norm” orphanage whereas the evening group comes from special needs orphanage. However, I see a huge difference in two groups. The evening group constantly wants to burn music from CDs onto their MP3 players or cell phones, but they are a lot more active during the class. They are motivated and interested in learning the material and some of them work really hard at it. The contrast I see that we have young adults who are “norm” and others are academically challenged. The “norm” are lazy and do not want to do anything whereas academically challenged are motivated and committed.

I have to give credit to both groups that they do respect, listen and obey me. Frequently they say something inappropriate like cussing or swearing and I point that out and they apologize, which is huge because most orphans in the orphanages do not care and this is their form of communicating with each other. Actually it is very Russian to cuss and swear, which makes me sick. When I walk on the streets I hear different conversations and it goes like, “Hello Roma …good…” I am sure you will figure out what I mean by …. . This is so sad to me when I hear young, middle and old age people speak like that. Another thing I have noticed with both groups that orphans have connected with me especially the evening group, which is huge because they have known me for only seven weeks. I thank and praise the Lord. I have been thinking of making separate trips to both orphanages during the week to visit orphans and build deeper and closer relationship. As you know it is all about building the relationship. Please pray for our VTC young adult orphans that come to us on Saturdays and The Harbor residents and graduates that come to VTC during the week.

On Sunday I will be going to a church. I am saying to a church because I am not sure which one yet. Since I have arrived I have not found one church that I like or prefer to go to so I am checking out different churches. In seven weeks I have gone to following churches: Nazarene, South and Central Calvary, Good News and Harvest. I would like to visit International Assembly, All Nations, 21st Century, and a few other churches. Some of you might think I am crazy because I am church hopping or as my Ohio family says “church schizophrenic”. Well, the most important of all that as I seek “the right church” I should be well fed spiritually and fellowship with my brothers and sisters in Christ, which is the case. I am continuing to have quiet times in the morning, but not every morning. This is my struggle being in Russia and having my plate full. Thus, I am challenging myself and working really hard so that God stays the center of my life. It is His ministry not mine so He must be the priority to me. Please pray for my spiritual walk especially in the country like Russia, which is dark in many ways and many people are far away from God.

I realize it is January 23rd, which is way passed the New Year and Christmas celebration, but I still want to share with you how we celebrated Christmas with our VTC participants from orphanages 14 & 18. It was couple weeks ago when Luba our Russian Director asked me to prepare special Christmas message for the kids. To be honest with you this was somewhat a challenge for me because for the past 15+ years walking with Christ I have done it in English so doing it in Russian is not easy for me. I stayed up until 2 a.m. preparing the message in Russian and I felt good about it. On Saturday morning Jan. 3rd the kids from orphanage 14 came. We first played games then they split into groups and went to different classes. The culinary group prepared a salad and dessert for special Christmas meal. We had a nice meal and during the meal we talked about Christmas and the significance of this holiday. This is where I had to share special message and to our amazement most kids knew the story. At the end we showed them 20 minute video about Christmas and then we presented the gifts. The kids were thrilled because they do not receive gifts that often especially for Christmas because in Russia people exchange gifts for the New Year only.

In the evening a group of 20 kids from the orphanage 18 came. At first I was shocked that they had such big group because typically groups are anywhere from 8-12 kids. This time we decided to change things a little. Luba and Tatiana arranged a skit where kids had to act the entire Christmas story dressed in different costumes. This group had two caregivers with them and Vicka one of the caregivers was actively involved in the skit. She had so much fun playing Martha and it was a blast watching her. The kids enjoyed playing their roles also. The group that went to computer class had to create Christmas cards with a personal message for every person that came that night. It was a blast because different characters pop out in such situations. I had Eugene, Sasha and Igor in the class and they had to make 17 cards in 45 minutes. Eugene chose four people and created their cards with passion and excitement. Sasha was trying, but it was tough because he did not know what to say. Igor was struggling because he just simply was not interested. Before our meal Eugene, Sasha and Igor had to present their cards by reading their Christmas message out loud and that was something. Igor end up creating two cards for his caregivers and one of them was Raisa and the kids are not fond of her so Raisa was shocked that Igor created a card for her also. This was a special moment that they will cherish for a long time. We had a meal and the kids ate everything with great appetite. Then we showed them the same 20 minute video and at the end presented Christmas gifts. They were very thankful, which is huge because appreciation and thankfulness is a foreign concept for most orphans.

Please pray that this Christmas celebration will stay in their hearts and most of all the significance of this holiday. Pray that the power of the Holy Spirit will continue to stir their hearts and the seed that was planted will grow and produce fruit in His time.

There are so many more stories I can share, but I feel this entry is long enough so I am going to stop here. I realize that the lives that are being touched by residential and VTC part of The Harbor is primary thanks to God and you who have been so faithful through prayer and finance. You are making it happen. Please do not think that all you are doing is making financial investments. No, you are making new disciples, transforming the lives of many orphans, storing into the kingdom of God and raising new generation of radical believers who in His time will bear fruit and become living testimony and active leaders in ministering to many more least of these. Thank you for all that you are doing and I hope that one day the Lord will bring you to Russia to see how the lives are being touched and changed.

Blessings,
The Harbor & Alex

About a week ago I had a meeting with Lydia and Lenina.

Lydia is originally from Latvia, but she came to St. Petersburg about forty years ago. She is a strong Christian and came to the orphanage #51 through her church about ten years ago. During her visits she met Lenina and they connected. Lydia visited the orphanage almost weekly helping the children in different ways. She has been introduced to a different life when she came to the orphanage. It is so interesting because most Russians know that there are orphans, but where do they live and how they have no idea because the majority never visit them. Even though Lenina is no longer in the orphanage Lydia still visits orphanages either on her own or through her church or with other friends who are involved in the ministry to orphans. Lydia has also kept in touch with Lenina after her retirement. They meet periodically, which is huge because Lydia always witnesses to Lenina and encourages, which is crucial for Lenina's soul and emotional stability. Lydia has two sons: Sergey who is forty years old and Vanya who is twenty-five years old. She raised her sons in a loving Christian family, but unfortunately the devil is never asleep. Many years ago Lydia divorced her husband and her sons are not really walking with the Lord. Pray for her sons and her former husband Volodya.

In Russia people celebrate Christmas on January 7th. On that day aunt Marina invited me to her house for a meal. The same day I had a phone conference with CRM at 8 p.m. so it was going to be tricky how I was going to come to aunt Marina's home by 5 p.m. eat and be back at my apt. by 8 p.m. for the call. It might not sound that much of a challenge, but remember that I live good one hour+ from aunt Marinas. I came to her house and we sat at the table right away. We had a fabulous meal as usual and let me tell you if I had to eat like that daily then I would become a donut boy that would roll down the city streets and you would never recognize me anymore. We took some pictures because we did not get to do that during the New Year because uncle Misha went to bed. You see aunt Marina was a professional ballerina then she became a ballet teacher; thus, her personality is very artistic and creative. Due to her creativity she has decided to take some very funny photos. I am sure it might be goofy to post such pictures in public, but I am still going to do that and hope that you will have a good laugh of course at my expense. At least we had a lot of fun and it was worth it.

On January 8th we celebrated Christmas with The Harbor residents. We hosted the party at the girls' apt. That morning I went to our boys' apt. to pick up Igor one of our residents to buy some food. Our menu for that night was very different compare to what we have prepared for the previous parties. Luba had asked me to prepare fish because we never have that. I decided to prepare my friend's recipe, which is salmon with prunes in creamy white sauce. It might sound strange especially with prunes in it, but it taste good. Igor is our youngest resident at the moment and he is one of the challenging ones (i.e. he is from a suburb orphanage about 4 hour drive. After he completed his classes at college he had decided to go to his mom's house in the suburbs, but he did not tell Luba. He called her only after he arrived to his mom's home. This is not acceptable at The Harbor because Luba is legally responsible for every resident because if anything were to happen to Igor then Luba could go to jail.) Anyway, Igor and I went to Okey store which is like Wal-Mart. There we bought tons of salmon because we were cooking for 35 people. We also bought disposable dishes and prunes. This store is located about 20 minute walking distance from the girls' apt., but we also had to go to another store to buy more food to prepare mashed potatoes, salads, etc. Thus, Igor and I end up carrying tons of groceries for over an hour in our hands. There is a reason why Russian are well fit because they walk everywhere with tons of groceries in their hands. During our shopping I had a chance to talk to Igor, which was a great opportunity for me to get to know him and build the relationship. It is all about the relationship. We then came to girls' apt. and had to cook. Some girls were still asleep and others were preparing salads. We realized that we could not make the fish because it was too early so Igor sat on the couch for awhile. Then we helped the girls to make Monk's Cap salad, which has different layers. Zena was making the salad and she was funny because she told me that she needs supervision so that she does not mess up, but in reality she needed attention and a company. Here is the photo of the salad.

I was going to take a photo of the fish, but forgot. Instead of making mashed potatoes we made rice. Thus our menu had: vegetarian crab salad, monk's cap salad, Greek salad, salmon with prunes in creamy sauce, white rice, bread, tort, cookies and fruit. Our guest arrived at 6 p.m. and we had about 30-35 people. In the beginning we played games. Some of our residents did acrobatic skits. Then Natasha one of our residents sang a song and played on the guitar. Natasha our psychologist along with Sergei and Maria our mentors did Christmas story skit, which was awesome. Check out the pictures.

I will write more later. Much love to you all.

In Him, Alex