About a week ago a good friend of mine John came to Russia. John lives in GA and he has been coming to Russia for the past eleven years. His purpose of coming to Russia has been to minister to orphans. John met a lot of kids eleven years ago who are now young adults, ages seventeen to twenty years old. Thus, it is a crucial time to minister to them, but most of all to see a fruit of hard labor. John loves these young adult orphans dearly and they love him. He called me on his recent trip and asked to translate for him. We met at a Japanese Sushi-Bar. By the way Sushi-Bar in Russia has become so popular and it is always crowded with a lot of people. However, in the midst of its popularity I frequently hear different stories of food poison. Another thing I personally would never choose a sushi-bar because it is rather expensive, but some of these orphans have high expectations of John and they frequently take advantage of him by visiting some very expensive places. We went to a sushi-bar because we had to kill about an hour and a half before we went to an orphanage for a meeting with the director. John has been partnering with this orphanage for a long time, but due to some issues the orphanage has forbidden him to come there. Thus, our purpose of a visit was to find out what went wrong and how we could reestablish partnership.

In the beginning there were only four of us who were sitting in a sushi-bar. We did order a slight lunch, which cost $50. I know it is a lot of money and I would never do that because I am all about saving the money. During our lunch we talked about what John was going to tell the director. Then four more orphans came from the same orphanage. They did not order anything. Then Anna a graduate of that orphanage who was with us called the orphanage director to confirm our meeting. Unfortunately, she found out that director could not meet with us. This is quite common in Russia and thus, requires a lot of patience and flexibility. Once we knew that we could not do what we really wanted we had to decide what we were going to do with eight young adults. Someone had an idea to go to a movie theater and they asked John if he did not mind to do that. I was a bit surprised because John speaks very little Russian and how do you watch a movie with bunch of Russians and have no idea what is going on? I guess you can because this is what we all decided to do. They asked me if I could go with them because they did not have a translator and that day I did not have any meetings or anything. We went to a mall and looked at a repertoire and they chose to watch latest Matthew McConaughey movie “Ghosts of Girlfriends’ Past.” I personally would have never chosen that movie. There was two hour wait before our movie so what do you do with eight “kids” once again? Well, we sat in a food court and talked about different stuff. Then a security guard came to us and said, “We can no longer occupy this space and not eat anything so we either had to order something or leave.” I kind of felt bad for John because he had to feed eight hungry mouths. They went to KFC and ordered bunch of food and ran out of money so I gave them some so that they would not ask more from John especially because he has paid for their movie as well. I would not let John pay for me because it was not right. They quickly hammered their dinner and we went to watch a movie. The beginning of this movie was a bit too much for me so I simply closed my eyes. Then it got better and to my surprise it actually had a very good moral lesson especially for Russia and its young generation. Today morality among generation Y and X is falling apart so rapidly, yet they are not noticing because they have accepted that as a reality. Many people are sexually active at a very young age and millions of people live in common law marriage. I cannot justify common law marriage so it makes me sick and I always want to tell people that it is not right and they better wake up before it is too late. The movie was talking about that you cannot live forever meeting with different girls and just for one night. This is quite accurate for Russia among young people because this is exactly what many of them are doing today. They go from one to another in a matter of days. People do not think of consequences. After movie has ended we went outside and I asked, “What have you learned?” Since I did not know these guys that well it was hard for me to determine whether they were serious or joking, but every single one of them said the opposite from what I was hoping to hear. They said that they want to enjoy their youth and status; thus, they want to have many girls until they find the right one. I was stunned by that comment and could not resist from sharing what Bible teaches us so I did. I do not know whether anything of what I shared with them stayed in their hearts, but I prayed that it would.

We agreed that I would see them next week on Monday to go to an orphanage. We did not know what to anticipate from the meeting and if it would even go well. This orphanage has a new director who used to work there as a computer teacher. The assistant director is still the same and no one likes her because she does not like the kids and she always spreads rumors about graduate kids, which is not true. Instead of being proud of their graduates they spread negative rumors and put them down. It is very difficult for Russian people to see true potential in most graduate orphans even in successful ones. To our surprise our meeting went really well. It actually went so well and smoothly that we did not even realize how quickly one hour has flown. Lilia Victorovna the director was able to explain to John what happened and why he and others were forbidden to come to this orphanage. Some level of reconciliation was done and it helped to create new partnership. In addition, I was able to tell her a very brief summary of who I was and The Harbor. The former director of this orphanage was not interested to partner with The Harbor whereas Lilia Victorovna seemed a lot more positive especially in our vocational training center (VTC). She is going to look into it and possibly send some orphans to our VTC. She actually wants to study English herself and I said that she is welcome to come to our center and take English lessons as well with her kids. I thank the Lord that this meeting was very productive and I ask you to keep lifting this up to our Heavenly Father in your prayers. Please pray that God would heal the broken hearted, complete reconciliation and develop new active partnership with John and The Harbor VTC.

After our meeting we went to a nearby Pizza Hut because John had scheduled two different meetings with graduate orphans Max and Vanya. Max is twenty-one years old. He was in this orphanage for a long time, but was kicked out due to bad behavior. Recently he came from the Navy service. He served in Sevastopol. The service has matured him greatly, but he is still flying in the clouds. When he came from the service he had no job so instead of trying to find one he filed for welfare as a socially underprivileged citizen. Russian law permits every citizen to file for such welfare. It is only six months and once in your life. The state will pay you $4,000 in six months which is a lot of money. Again Max did nothing concerning a job so when his welfare was over he was in the same situation like he was six months previously. Max had spent $4,000 on repairing his apartment, buying new furniture and food. Of course, he did not save anything because most orphans have no concept of saving. He has an older sister and now he relies on her and expects her to take care of him, which is very typical mindset among orphans. One of the things that Max had done with his money is he bought roller skates and now it is his favorite thing to do. Thus, he skates all the time and all over the city. He has three girlfriends and when I found that out I just about fell off the chair. I just cannot comprehend in my mind what it is like to have three girlfriends. As we were talking John made a comment, “How do you remember their names and not call them a wrong one?” Max assured us that he does not have such problem. Well, this is where I had a problem so I was in my regular teaching and instructing mode because my heart aches for these young adults because they are simply wasting and destroying their life and a future. I shared with him the book of Corinthians and explained to him why it is not right for anyone to date three girlfriends at ones. Furthermore, I talked to him about staying pure, which I realize is a bit too late, but I was trying to challenge him that he needs to use his brain and think about consequences and make right decisions. Even though he was sexually active, but he could confess his sins, come to the Lord and make right choices that will honor God. Max was listening quite attentively and I pray that everything that I had told him will sink in his heart and he will make right choices. Please pray for Max because I see a potential in him, but he needs a strong male model in his life that can influence him and bring him to Abba.

We also had a meeting with Vanya a graduate of the orphanage #20 which was recently shut down and kids were sent to different orphanages. Vanya is nineteen years old and he is currently studying at a tech school to become a stenographer. He is a quiet young man and has not found his place in this life yet. He does not want to work as a stenographer and actually it is quite common among orphans or a lot of Russian students who are studying in different schools: trade, vocational, colleges, universities or institutes. They simply are not interested to work according to their major. I wish I could share more about Vanya, but he did not talk much so I guess there is not as much to share about him, but please do keep him in your prayers. Thank you.

Meetings of such sort are awesome, energetic and fun, but they do drain you out. I thought that we were done and were going to go home. Well, three other guys came from orphanage #3 and John treated them with a dinner because they were hungry. Actually, they are always hungry and have an amazing appetite. It is a joy to feed them, but certainly your wallet feels it. The bill at the end of four hours of sitting at Pizza Hut was over $100 so I gave John some funds. During our dinner we had a great chat about the future of these four young men: Sasha, Zhenya, Andre and Zhenya. Sasha is nineteen years old studying at a university to become a programmer, Zhenya was recently accepted into a university to become an engineer, Andre graduated from a tech school and was accepted into a university to become a hotel manager and Zhenya is studying at a university to become something (I am sorry, but my brain is getting overloaded after meeting so many people in such short period of time. Trying to remember different stories is a challenge sometimes even for me). Three guys out of four are working so they do have some funds. Furthermore, Andre for instance has some savings and he even paid for his own braces. However, neither of them has matured enough to pay something small in situations like Pizza Hut or going to a Russian banya (bathhouse), or going to a sushi-bar or going to a movie, etc. You have to teach and guide them and only good and consistent role model can do that, which they do not have.

Our conversation led to The Harbor VTC because these guys are highly motivated and quite ambitious. They want to study English and The Harbor VTC offers English classes. Zhenya is even interested in learning cooking. I told them everything that we offer and they should call our director Ira sometime in mid August trying to figure out school year schedule so that they can come to us. This year The Harbor VTC focus is to grow our students’ capacity to 100 kids approximately. Thus, by inviting three guys and others from different orphanages that I spent time with on this trip has already increased our capacity by about ten additional students. I told them how important it is to be committed and dedicated in everything that they do. Thus, I asked them to be serious about their desire and be responsible in all that they do. I also found out that Zhenya Obramov has some housing issues and it is urgent to solve them, but due to no funds his situation has been up in the air for over two years because no one wants to do it for free. I have two attorney friends so I contacted one and he is going to try to help him. Please pray for Zhenya Obramov, Andre, Zhenya and Sasha.

John left Russia early Friday morning so we gathered at his friend’s house for going away dinner. This is where John has stayed during his one week trip. It was at Skvortcov’s family. There are four children: Anna is twenty one years old, Sasha is nineteen years old, Alesha is seventeen years old and Galia is nine years old. There is a father and a mother, but due to some form of negligence and alcohol three oldest kids were taken away from their parents and were placed into a state orphanage system where they were anywhere from nine to eleven years. Alesha officially is still considered in the orphanage, but he lives at home because he is a social orphan. Galia was never in the orphanage because the mom got her act together. Furthermore, the mom got her rights back for Sasha so he left the orphanage at the age of fifteen. Alesha is a junior Olympic soccer player and he was accepted into Lesgof Sports University where he would like to make a carrier growth into professional player and possibly play for England or some other European team in the future. Anna speaks fluent German and currently she is studying at Goethe German Institute and will be going to Germany next year for six months practicum. Sasha would like to finish his university in Russia and come to America for additional studies, but it is all up in the air for now. As you can see the entire family is quite goal oriented and ambitious. Of course, some more than others so for instance Anna has so much ambition that is enough for two of her brothers whereas Alesha wants to become a professional player, but not sure if he wants to work that hard even though he is an outstanding player. I told him my story back in 1995-1996 performing more than average that did not get me far back then. It was a tough lesson and thank the Lord, I learned my lesson so I was trying to prevent Alesha making the same mistake. Please pray for Anna, Sasha, Alesha and Galia.

Boy there is so much more I would like to share, but I am afraid this entry is already long so I am going to close it off for now and will write another one before I leave Russia which is this Saturday. I cannot believe that I am leaving already. Six weeks have flown by so quickly. I am thankful to all of you for your love, support, kindness, prayers, encouragement and financial partnership. Thank you.

Blessings and love in the Lord,
Alex