The Narnia 3 Blog

I just finished a week of ministry in Samara, Russia teaching church history at the Samara Theological Seminary and ministering two nights at the host church, Transfiguration Baptist Church. It was my first trip to Russia, and with the 12 hour time difference, I'm writing this at 1am California time because I'm not quite readjusted yet.

Three TMS graduates and their wives and families live and minister full time in Samara. Jon Ruhurek (whose wife Natalie was in the states preparing to give birth to their second child) was my host. John Snyder and his wife Danese also opened their home to me for a couple of meals. The group leader, Brad Klausen, was only in town one day that I was there. He was preparing for a conference and series of meetings to be held later in the week. The living conditions are a bit challenging and raising a family there even more so. To say that these families are making a sacrifice to serve the Lord in Samara would be an understatement.

In Samara I don't think I saw one street with painted lines. Most of the streets, were they in California, would be immediately closed for repairs. As my hosts told me, the Book of Judges pretty much dominates the traffic rules (everyone does what is right in their own eyes). The oddest thing in Samara were the old wood framed houses that were all in various stages of collapse. I was told that they are roughly 100-150 years old in most cases (sometimes older). They do not have running water, most don't have reliable electric service. These were often next to somewhat decent brick houses or even newer buildings. Around these houses would be an outside water pump to fill your bucket with water. The majority of the housing is in large Soviet era apartments. Grey concrete buildings with little "curb appeal." My favorite hobby of "people watching" certainly got a full course. Being rather insatiably curious by nature, I'm afraid I bombarded my hosts with way too many questions.

I was asked to come and teach early church history to the seminary students there. Fifteen men were in the class, not counting my translator, Andre. Four days to cover the first 1,000 years of Church History! I'm afraid by Friday afternoon when I finished, I was, in fact, finished!

At the Transfiguration Baptist Church, I was able to do a two-hour presentation on the Jehovah's Witness cult (which has a large group in the country), along with some Q&A afterwards. The next evening I shared some highlights on the ministry of Charles Spurgeon in regard to both his views on practical ministry as well as lessons from the Downgrade Controversy. One of the more interesting things was working with a translator. Andre was spectacular, although I tend to talk rapidly use a few odd idioms, he got me though quite nicely. During the Spurgeon presentation I noticed immediately that 19th Century Victorian English from Spurgeon quotes were not working well in the translation, so for most of the presentation I was "translating" Spurgeon on the fly into modern English which made Andre's work a little easier.

The work of training pastors and establishing churches in Russia is challenging. The men there (who will be joined in the fall by another TMS graduate) are doing a great job and the new generation of Russian pastors being prepared at the seminary are going to be vital to the growth of local churches and evangelical Christianity in Russia. The Master's Academy International is the overseeing agency for their work. Click here to check out the TMAI web page so you can learn more about their ministry and how you can pray and support their work.