The Trip Winds Down

Dacula, Georgia (ACN)
I arrived home safely at 5:00pm on Saturday, extremely tired. This trip was physically exhausting with so much travel but it was spiritually uplifting to have God answer so much prayer in such a direct way. I am writing at 6:16 in the monring on Monday and even now I am not fully rested. I need a few more days to recover.

As I write this, it is from Stephanie's old computer. She was given a new computer from NCR, where she works, while I was roaming around Russia. It is a very fortuitous thing, since my hard drive crashed while I was in Russia. I have lost all of my contact information, so if you would ever like to be contacted by me again, please send me an email at 4inthefire.org and include your address and phone number. I have lost everything. I did not have my Outlook folders backed up, nor My Documents etc. I am an unclean man and undone! :) Or at least unwise.

So now I will spend weeks recovering everything from my corporate documentation, ministry documentation, and well you imagine. If I came to your house and deleted every file from your computer, right now, how would you recover? Backups, backups.

I sat next to a very pretty 38 year old Russian woman by the name of Elena. I spoke with her about Jesus Christ. She instantly understood and I think recognized the diagram of the human stick man separated from God by sin. She believes in God but does not beleive Jesus is who He said He was. Please be in prayer for her.

I will post more later today and tomorrow, but I must continue my hard-drive recovery. Thank you everyone for praying for us while Anya and I and the others were ministering in Russia.

Your servant,

Andy

Where To Start

Nizhnevartovsk Siberia, Russia (ACN)
Pastor Vasily, Andrei his assistant, Zhenya the children's minister, Igor Zhenya's husband, Anya my interpreter and friend, and I discussed the plans to bring teams to Nizhnevartovsk and decided it would be best to bring two teams, one in December 2007 and one in May of 2008. So God is blessing.

During the discussions it was revealed to me that there is no children's ministry industry here. This sparked a very specific idea which, for business reasons I cannot discuss in a public place, but it is very exciting.

Zhenya wants us to train her and her volunteer workers, which means I need an experienced VBS director here in December. Maybe Kelly will come, but if not maybe someone else from CMC or maybe Blackshear place.

We traveled to Novosibirsk last Wednesday by puddle jumper. It was a small jet assisted prop plane. On take off the wind was rather brisk and while still on the ground and traveling at ever increasing speed we were moving from one side of the runway to the other. To say the least it was a little scary. The flight was uneventful. We landed in Novosibirsk and proceeded to Joey Womble's home. He and his wife Michelle were very gracious and fed us Borscht. It was wonderful.

After an hour of discussions Joey took Anya to an apartment that is being used as an office and returned to get me and take me to another office across town so that "Anya would be safe" in Stephanie's own words. So Joey and I head for the metro and get halfway across town when Michelle calls him on my phone, since he did not have his, to let him know he forgot the linens. Joey and I get off at the next metro station and he heads to the house leaving me in the metro station sitting on a bench with my luggage. Rule number 1 never go anywhere without an interpreter. Oh well, what are rules made for.

Joey returns and we proceed onward towards this apartment that is being used to show films to the lost as a means of witnessing to them. That apartment and Anya's cost me a total of $25 for two nights. God has been blessing us so much I cannot fathom the depths of His blessings and love. At this I do ask the question, "Why me?" I am just some poor country boy from Georgia and yet the blessings keep coming.

In Anya's words, the apartments were adequate. On Thursday Joey came over to the apartment with his friend Leslie, whose office it is and we spoke about the possibilities of working with them in the future. There are no concrete plans, but they are interested. Later in the day we went to speak with Andy Lienenger who is with the IMB. How we got his name is also a blessing from God and quite fortuitous (look it up Jessie :) ).

I don't know how Stephanie managed to find his name but apparently she did by a blessing from God. She made contact with him and let him know we were coming. As it turns out Joey also made an appointment with him for us. So he was tag teamed by both Stephanie and Joey.

We met and discussed possibilities of working together. One of Andy's co-workers, Mike Campbell, is returning to the states for a few months and he will be living in Flowery Branch attending Blackshear Place. Imagine that! Andy suggested getting with Mike, his assistant, when I return to the US and we will discuss what to do next. God is truly blessing. Why do I say that? Because Mike's emphasis is children's ministry and our emphasis is children's ministry and Russia has no children's ministry resource industry.

On both Thursday and Friday Anya and I ate at New York Pizza. Eat your heart out honey. It was good. On Friday at 2:30 we spent a few minutes with the Womble family and then left for the airport.

Ok, so don't yell at me it was the taxi driver's fault. He was playing some very sad American music, the chorus of which was "And I feel like I am drowning in a river." I asked the driver if he understood the words. He said no, but he realized it was sad and asked me to translate for him. So I did. He then proceeded to tell about his life and troubles and well.....you know me. I then asked if He knew Jesus and began to witness to him. He enjoyed the conversation/debate and even Anya said I was not offensive, and that says a lot. I introduced myself and asked his name. His name is Sergei. Please pray for salvation for Sergei, the taxi driver in Novosibirsk.

We left Sergei behind and headed to the terminal. We went through security where we found a little shop. I had no interest in the shop but Anya wanted to go in so I waited outside. She was really hankering (translate that Anya :) ) to purchase some chocolate candy with Novosibirsk written on the box in big bold letters. She kept talking about it as if I needed to buy some for Stephanie and Kelly. She pointed them out to me from outside the store and practically forced me to go and buy them. So Stephanie and Kelly you have the last two blue boxes of Novosibirsk candy. When I returned to Anya I could tell something was wrong. Apparently she wanted me to purchase one blue box and one brown box, because she wanted one blue box for her hostess in Nizhnevartovsk. I am a hard man.

We returned to this puddle jumper, to go back to Nizhnevartovsk. On this plane you must take your luggage to the plane and lift it up to the baggage handler who is in the plane. That was yet another new experience for me. By the way it was only in the high 20's to low 30's. Not so cold.

The return flight was uneventful until we were nearing Nizhnevartovsk, when we saw the most beautiful sunset I have ever seen. I photographed it and I will publish it as soon as I return to the states.

We have now been in Nizhnevartovsk since last night around 7:00pm. We have been fed at every meal here by the church and we are living in two separate apartments with Russian families. This has been the best trip I have ever taken, partly because of the lack of stress that a team brings with it and partly because I have gone native. I am eating everything Russian I can get my hands on. Salianka soup is to die for.

In all my life I have never been so well treated. The church does this for all of their guests. They have taught their staff to treat every guest like royalty. By the way the huge church building was built from a "hole in the ground" according to Anya, by the people of the church. They are self sufficient.

Today I went to a concert of classical music presented by the church. Dianna Sydakova is a famous operatic singer here in Russia and she happens to be a pastor's wife also. With her were a pianist, Larissa and a violinist, whose name I did not here. They played some fantastic musics and Dianna's voice is just fabulous. She even same a song in English from "Porgy and Bess".

Well I have caught you up to the moment of my typing. However there are plans for me to speak tomorrow on the "The Lost Generation". For 15 years Russia has had the freedom to worship as she wants, and so 4000 protestant churches have come from all of the efforts. But children's ministry has never been a priority and now they are making it so, but they fear they have lost a generation of children to the world. The pastor was willing to give me 15-20 minutes to speak, however I asked for five. We will see.

I know this may sound strange, but I feel at home hear in Nizhnevartovsk, well I guess I feel at home anywhere in Russia now, but it seems strange even to me. My understanding of Russian has improved greatly since I have returned only after a 3 month intermission. I have never felt so comfortable about what I am doing as I feel now. I miss Stephanie terribly and I cry each time I tell my story of how I came to be in Russia and how I of all people have come to have a ministry that emphasizes children, and yet it feels like home. I guess the Holy Spirit is comforting me and changing me.

Well that is all for now. Thank you all for being interested enough in the ministry to read my little blog. May God bless each reader and may He cause everyone that reads this blog to desire to come and serve in Russia with us. It is a wonderful land full of lost people who need to hear the Gospel, and full of believers who will love you like no one else.

Even so, Lord come quickly.

See you all soon. One week left.

The Food and Other Aspects

Nizhnevartovsk Siberia, Russia(ACN)
On this trip I have definitely gone native. I have eaten only Russian food, Shee, Blenie, red caviar, served in two ways, a wonderful soup whose name escapes me, but is reminiscent of French Onion soup, without the onion and cheese and with a slice of lemon floating on top. Ok, so maybe I have not conveyed the taste very well, but it was delicious.

The red caviar was first served to me by Nadya, Anya's sister. Nadya did not know how to call it in English and she did not tell me it was fish eggs. She said some friends brought it to her and that it was very expensive. She took a small amount from the jar on a spoon and I tasted it. It was very fishy tasting. It was also the first time I had eaten caviar and I said it would be my last. Well, "Никогда не говорите никогда" or in English, "never say never". As it turns out last night Andrei and Svetlana, his wife, fed us a wonderful dinner. There was one platter that had several pieces of bread and what might have been mayonnaise and a red substance.

Anya and others had told me that the correct way to serve caviar was on a piece of bread with mayonnaise. So I thought, here goes, "I am about to eat caviar again." When I ate it, at first I thought it was not caviar, because it tasted so good, but then I could taste a little of the fish taste and realized, that I had eaten caviar again. Oh well, at least served this way it is delicious.

Angie, will think I have lost my mind when I tell her that all of the food was good and that I did not get sick, but there it is. I am well and the food is wonderful.

There is one poor Russian fellow who thinks I am either retarded or a fool. I had the keys to the apartment and it was time to go. How did I know, because the little microphone and speaker sstem was yelling at me that someone was at the front door. I had no idea as to how to turn off the alarm, so I took the keys to the apartment and went out in to the little area that the two apartments on our side of the hall had in common.

This litte area is an about 5 feet by 4 feet with three doors. Two of the doors go into the two apartments and one door goes out into the main hallway where the elevator is located. So now I tried to lock the door to the apretment and could not figure out how to use the key. I did however use the inside button to lock the door. So now to the outer door. I can't see in the dim light and it is definitely locked. Great now I am stuck outside the aprtment in the little common area and I can not reenter the apartment and I can not go outside. My ride is waiting on me. What to do?

At that moment I hear noise outside the door in the hallway where the elevator is and I thought good, now my life will be spared by my driver whose has come to rescue me. One minor problem; it is not my driver, but instead it is the neighbor whose door is behind me. So I asked him in broken Russia how to lock the door to the aprtment, there are two you know. He looked at me rather strangely and I know he thought I was stupid. I handed him the keys and he locked it very easily. Again I must say, it was difficult to see.

My troubles are over. Now I can leave. I turn to go to the outer door that leasds to the elevator, but what I see is a closed and locked door. So now I must ask this poor Russian how to unlock a door to which I am holding the keys. Well so be it. "Uh poor Russian fellow, can you help me again?" I hand him the keys and he unlocks the door so obviously that when he looks up at me it is with a look that said, "You truly are stupid aren't you." I thought I will tell him I am an American and half blind, but I had neither the words in Russian nor the courage to make all Americans look stupid, so I took one for the team. I simply said "this is my first time." He had to be asking himself, what is this the first time you have ever used a key.

Now you are probably thinking, well you idiot why didn't you ask Vasily or Olya to help. Well I would, but they had the audacity to leve and go to work already. It was 11:00am when I was leaving.

So these are the adventures of of a half blind man, whose speaks Russian poorly and who has never used a key and lock before.

The Airport in Nizhnevartovsk on Our Arrival

Nizhnevartovsk Siberia, Russia (ACN)
I have traveled all over the world and thought that I would not have any new experiences at the airport here, but as usual I was wrong. But I am getting ahead of myself, so let me start from the beginning.

On Sunday evening at 11:40pm, we departed Moscow for Nizhnevartovsk, deep in Siberia, approximately 3000 kilometers (maybe 2400 miles) and two timezones away from Moscow. We were tired and so we slept on the plane. When we were awakened by the announcement that we were descending it was nearly 5:00am in Nizhnevartovsk.

The plane landed and we deplaned by walking down the ladder to the ground. It was not terribly cold, maybe 30 degrees Farenheight. We could see the terminal building and a corrogated metal fence with a gate through which we walked. The gate was so narrow, that only one or two people could fit through it. As I approached the gate I was thinking that maybe we would be entering the building, but we were not. The gate opened onto the parking lot of the airport and the passengers were being greeted by their friends in the cold and the wind.

We had no idea what had happened to our luggage and even Anya was a little panicked not knowing where to go or to whom to speak. Finally, she spotted a man in a hurry walking away from us, but she persisted until she had his attention and then asked where to go to get the luggage. Obviously they spoke in Russian, but even I as sleepy as I was could tell he had told her where to go. His intonation and her relaxed manner led me to believe that we were not going to lose our luggage.

At that moment I was not even thinking about the fact that Andrei was to meet us, I was just worrying about my luggage. I can only handle one crisis at a time and in the order of importance. While my luggage contained nothing of value to anyone else, it did contgain nearly all of my clothing I have here in Russia and by George I was going to find it and now. So we proceeded to the right towards a relatively small builidng for an airport terminal, where I supposed the man in a hurry had told Anya to go.

As we were walking a man in a red jacket, whom I had noticed over by the gate out of the corner of my eye approached us and in a Russian accent he asked Anya if we were Americans and if I was Andy Nelms. She said, "Da" at the same time as I. I then began to worry about where Andrei was and in the same moment realized, oh yeah that was Andrei. Ok, so I was a little tired and the panicking side of my brain was working faster than the rationalizing side. So in one moment we were told where our luggage was and that we had been met. Now I began to relax.

As we went into the building a woman, said "Good morning," in flawless English. I first thought she was a Russian and a member of the church and then I realized that she was an American and I guess a stranger even to Andrei. I was not being very sociable, because I was not fully awake and I had not had very much sleep.

We picked up the luggage and headed to the car. Anya and I both felt a bit of relief now that we had arrived and been met and we had our luggage. By 6:00am I was being shown into the home of a wonderful Russian couple whose names are Vasily and Olga. They have a very pleasant and comfortable home. They speak very little English and so I am struggeling to remember every Russian verb, noun and adjective I have ever studied. What a difficult, but rewarding task.

Moments Before the Meeting with Pastor Vasily

Nizhnevartovsk Siberia, Russia (ACN)
It is Tuesday and I am well rested as is Anya. We visited the discount grocery store and found large bags of rice for approx. 80 rubles. Except for Mac and cheese they have everything we need. We will do without the Mac and cheese since the church will be cooking for us. And indeed we will eat better that way.

The hotel here near the airport was very nice even by American standards. We do not as yet know the price, but we have been told it will be about $60/person/day.

Nizhnevartovsk is an oil rich town and most of the population is well off. The church here is reflective of that wealth, and yet for all of the money they lack instruction and methods for how to run a children's camp. As I mentioned yesterday, they have not had a children's ministry team here since 1992.

The most touching thing that happened so far on this trip happened yesterday. Zhenya, the children's minister, thought that I thought that she might not be interested in our work since she had so few questions. She explained that she had already purchased tickets to go to a children's conference in Novosibirsk during the time we were to be here, but she stayed to meet with us, apparently because of she thought she might be able to learn from us when we bring a team here. She further epxlained that she had so few questions because she only recently learned that we were coming. I did a miserable job of planning this trip.

I do not know when we will have a decision as to the future trip, but hopefully within a month of this trip we will know.

Tommorow we head to Novosibirsk to meet with pastors there. I am looking forward to the meetings. God has truly been blessing us and we I hope that he will bless our ministry greatly while in Novosibirsk.

Well I must now go to the meetings. Please pray for us that all of the meetings will result in churches who will want to work with us.

May God bless all who read this.

Arrival in Nizhnevartovsk

Nizhnevartovsk Siberia, Russia (ACN)
We have arrived, tired and sleepy. Anya is staying with a couple in one apartment and I in another apartment. We met with the children's minister, Zhenya and her husband Igor, as well as Andrei the senior pastor's assistant.

Things are going well. They have not had a team here for the children's ministry since 1992. They want to learn from us how we do things. My plans are to have Stephanie or Kelly come on the trip to Nizhnevartovsk, which is now scheduled for May 28 - June 10. It will be a wonderful trip.

This church building is beautiful and nearly as large or maybe slightly larger than CMC's building A. The team will stay in apartments with Russian families. However, if need be some may stay in the hotel, which is new and beautiful, by American standards. The cost is approximately $60/day per person.

We will travel on Wednesday to Novosibirsk where we will meet with Lyn Burkhalter's contact Joey Womble. He is arranging meetings for us on Thursday and Friday. We will return to Vladimir on Monday.

Arrival In Vladimir

I have arrived in Vladimir, safe and sound. Today I met with the Pastor of the Wesleyan church and the Wesleyan missionary. The talks were good.

I am tired but excited to be hear. God has been gracious in bringing to me help for my various tasks here. At this moment I am at Marina and Alexei's home using their internet to blog.

I am looking forward to the wedding tomorrow with Katya and Pasha.

We need many people to come and do the work here as there is much to do.

Sunday I leave for Siberia as the Great Adventure continues. HowI love being here in Russia.

I am not experiencing any culture shock as it feels like I just left a few days ago and now I am back. I miss Stephanie of course, but Iwill survive.

I will update again as soon as I have news and internet access.

The Rewards of Mission Work

Dacula, Georgia (ACN)

I wrote to my younger brother moments ago and I thought I would share here, some thoughts I shared with Randy.

It is possible, with as many trips to Russia as I will be making, I could die on one of these trips. I don't want to be morbid, but I did want to put this in writing before it should happen, so here goes.

Should I die on one of these trips, please know that I was serving my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and that nothing could be more fun, more fulfilling, more exhilarating, more rewarding than doing exactly what I am doing. I get to go to Russia, a very exotic country, I get to love on kids and teach teens about Jesus. I get to witness to people of all ages and tell them about what Jesus has done for me. I get to lead teams of Christians to a land where they have never been and challenge them to do things they have never done before.

What could be more fun than that? What could you possibly do to top that?

So in the event something should happen to me, there are two men at CMC who have spoken of doing this very thing I so love to do, and my challenge to them both is that if something should happen to me, then you are to take up where I left off and fight the good fight for me, nay for Jesus.

Oh and one more thing. Don't mourn for my death, but rather celebrate my life and what God has been able to accomplish through such a servant as I, despite my shortcomings. And please DO NOT SAY THAT I PASSED. I did not pass, I died, I croaked, I keeled over, I bought the farm, I did anything but PASS. This is obviously a pet peeve of mine.

Ok, so let's go have some fun participating in the Great Adventure!

Two Days Until Departure for Russia

Muskegon, Michigan(ACN)

Weather Differences
When I awakened today at 8:00am, I was in Muskegon, Michigan with about 9 inches of snow on the ground, where only a week earlier there was 2 feet of snow. When I lay my head down to sleep in a few hours, I will do so in my home in Georgia with an expected temperature of 80 degrees. Then when I arrive in Moscow, the temperature should be around 30-40. Of course when I arrive in Nizhnevartosk (in Siberia next Monday), the temperature is expected to be around 20 (for a high).

A Weekend in Muskegon
This weekend was the trip to Muskegon, Michigan, to visit the Wolf Lake United Methodist Church. The purpose was to introduce the church to me and our ministry, to meet Beverly a December mission trip team member and to attempt to light a fire in the church in regards to missions. I think the trip was a success. Several church members seemed very interested in going on a trip, in addition to Beverly. So we will see.

I met Pastor Bobbie while visiting the church and found her to be very warm and friendly. She immediately put me on the spot, or at least tried to, by telling me from the pulpit that I would be addressing the adult Sunday school class, speaking for an hour about Russia. Well, I can always talk about Russia and mission trips for several hours, so that really didn't put me on the spot. Nice try, Pastor Bobbie, but you will have to do better than that. I love to speak of Russia, my friends in Russia and our experiences there.

The church has an average attendance of 90 and the community is not a wealthy one. However, I think think the challenge to the church of getting support for Beverly, so that she can go in December will bring elements of the church together. Once, Beverly returns from Russia and tells of what God did while she was there will cause the church to really catch the vision for missions.

Temptation
Today I was tempted with a call from a head hunter to apply for a programming position, which if a job was offered, and I accepted the job, it would kill this ministry. I would have to work as a programmer full-time and I would not be able to take 4-8 mission trips per year. God has brought me thus far, He will certainly take me onwards from here.

Thank You
Dawn and Bill if you read this, please know that I am very grateful to you for opening your home to me and allowing me to stay for the weekend. I really enjoyed getting to know both of you. To the prayer warriors at Wolf Lake; thank you so much for the prayers during our last mission trip, and yes I will certainly send you a list of prayer requests and team members for each trip, so that you can pray for them.

I have a million things to do tomorrow before departing on Wednesday for Russia. I pray that God will help me to get through the day safely and having completed all of the tasks.

Prayer Requests
As you begin your prayers each day from now until March 31st when I return from Russia, please pray for the following things:

• That God will guide my steps in Russia
• That I will be led to men who wish to see Russia evangelized
• That I will find someone who is nearly ready to start their own church.
• That I and Anya, my interpreter, will have a safe journey.
• That Stephanie will be kept safe and healthy while I am gone.
• That this ministry will be blessed greatly.
• That this ministry will grow beyond even my wildest visions.
• That God will keep me from evil.
• That God will keep His hand upon me.

I will do my best to update you with news as my trip progresses.

May God bless you and your family richly and may His grace and mercy be extended to you daily.