Gospel Expedition

Praise God! At last, after such a long wait and several obstacles, we made it to Germany and are now on our way.

We arrived at the church in the city of Varel this morning, where we took off our bikes and tuned them. The church service began with German punctuality — at 10:00 a.m. sharp. The church there is not large. But historically it is a very important church for us.

A special man named Anken was born here in this town. He was the one who later baptized the first Russian according to his faith. This baptism of Nikita Voronin (in the Kura River in the Caucasus in 1867) is considered to be the day of the beginning of the Baptists in Russia.

Today we took part in the Lord’s Supper in the church. It was another blessing of the Lord. Our expedition began with the Lord’s Supper and will finish with the Lord’s Supper on the 2^nd of September.

The church prayed for us. Then we went to the shore, placed some water into special containers for the journey, and prayed to the Lord.

Our German guide told people on the beach who came up to us about our mission and the long trip that was before us. Thanks to God, He gave us people right there on the beach who listened to the Good News of salvation, even though we did not plan to have any evangelism opportunities there!

Today we planned to cover about 150 km. The first two hours of our trip were easy and cheerful. We took side roads, which allowed us to see the real Germany.

After lunch, however, we faced our first difficulties. At first it was raining, and then a detour forced us to travel 65 kilometers out of our way — a big additional distance for a person traveling by bike. Because of this, we reached our next stop late at night, and had to travel much of that way (210 km) under heavy rain at night. Our team was so very tired that some fell asleep right at the dinner table.

Today, we will join with believers from a local evangelical church in Petershagen, and then continue our journey further on.