"Historic" Training and Journey into Russia

Group shot from our "coaches training."  Countries represented in this photo: Albania, Moldova, Croatia, Romania, Bulgaria, Russia and several "closed countries" from outside of Eastern Europe. 

Earlier in June in Tirane, Albania, we held the first Eastern European training for "MPD coaches." (Ministry Partner Development).  One of the greatest challenges our missionaries face is raising their own financial support.   We want each of our missionaries to have a "coach" when they are developing their team of ministry partners so that they have someone who can train them, encourage them, pray for them and hold them accountable during what can be a wilderness journey for many missionaries. 

Here I am teaching at the coach's training.  The director of all of Campus Crusade's support raising training, Ellis Goldstein, did most of the teaching at this training.  He traveled from the USA to help us.  (During my years in Atlanta, I worked under Ellis' tutelage.)    Ellis called this training "historic" because so few missions agencies provide coaching, training and care for their staff during their support raising time. 

 

After the training was over, Ellis addressed a gathering of our Albanian missionaries and taught several sessions about Christ from the Old Testament.  Ellis is pictured above talking with our Albanian director.  Here is a man born Muslim (our Albanian director) and a man born Jewish (Ellis) yet embracing each other as brothers because of the common faith they share in Jesus Christ.  Isn't that cool?   What politicians and war cannot accomplish, Christ can.

After Albania, Ellis and I traveled 6 time zones to the east, the same distance that Atlanta was to the west, to the Russian Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk.   During the drive into town from the airport, this famous Russian greeted us. 

In Krasnoyarsk Ellis and I trained a gathering of Russian evangelical missionaries and pastors on how to raise funding for their ministries.  When the training was over they presented us with two hand painted pictures of Siberian landscapes. 

From our hotel room in Krasnoyarsk at 11:30pm at night.  I don't think anyone sleeps in the summer in Siberia.  It was dark only about 3 hrs in June.  I'm so glad we were there in June and not January!   Krasnoyarsk is a city with a population of 1 million and is a regional capital in Siberia.    The largest evangelical church in that city is 700 people. 

 

Here is a brief video about Campus Crusade's work in Krasnoyarsk.   Also, there are some great shots in this video of the Siberian winter! 

On the way back to Budapest from Siberia, we had a 24 hr layover in Moscow.   That was my first visit ever to that city.