Gospel Expedition

Today it is planned to leave Nerchinsk town at 7:00 a.m. After breakfast we came together for a joint prayer. We read the Scriptures, prayed and started on our way. We are heading to locations where there are no UECB churches. That is why we do not know where we will stop, and where and how we will stay overnight. But we know and are sure of one thing — God is ahead of us and cares for our trip.

For you have made the LORD, my refuge, Even the Most High, your dwelling place. No evil will befall you, Nor will any plague come near your tent (Psalm 91:9-10).

We reached Chernyshevsk 85 km later. Half of the trip was on good road, but the other half was not so good. But we cherish hope that sometime this highway from Chita to Chelyabinsk will be nice. We do not know when it will happen. So we will continue to go along the dirt road. We see cars passing by us on the opposite side of the road. They are all dirty and it is impossible to guess their color. We anticipate what awaits us further on.

Reaching Chernyshevsk, we stopped at the gas station. We had a strong wish to continue our way to the next point — the town of Zhireken. We decided first to have lunch, and then check our vehicles and bikes. Brothers Alexei Nozdrachev and Sergei Stepantsov will meet with the administration of the town, and will give them the map of the Expedition with our route as well as the New Testaments. The stop lasted for about 3 hours.

In order to reach Zhireken we had to travel 40 more km along a very good asphalt road. It was the last asphalt road on our way. It was not hard for the cyclists to cover this distance quickly. Zhireken is in a kilometer from the highway, which leads to Khabarovsk. We went straight to the town administration. When we stopped, kids encircled us as they wanted to see and touch our bikes. They liked everything and touched all parts of bikes. Cyclist Yuri Golozubov could hardly answer all their questions. The children followed him and continued to ask many questions.

Discovering an Unknown Church

There was no one yet anyone in the administrative office. We met Mrs. Tatyana Alexandrova, who runs the recreation centre in Zhireken. She kindly welcomed us into the centre for rest. Conditions were very modest but good enough for minimal comfort. The town administration people came at 5.00 p.m. and we received permission for the meeting at 7 p.m. We went along the town streets and invited people to the meeting with the help of a loudspeaker.

We had some difficulties. When we switched on our music and sound equipment, we found out that the voltage was too low. The city officials invited an electrician to help us but nothing worked. But then we had an unusual meeting with an electrician named Anatoly. It turned out that he was pastor of the local evangelical church. When we came there we were sure that there was no evangelical church existing in Zhireken, nor Protestant believers. We were pleasantly surprised. On the other hand, not many people know about the existence of the church in the town though it’s been there for 10 years. Anatoly invited all his church people to the meeting.

We began our meeting without sound equipment. It was a good place for the event, surrounded by 5-story apartment houses. About 100 people came. As usual, we sang songs, shared our testimonies and preached. At the end of the meeting we asked brother Anatoly to pray for God’s blessings on the town people and administration. Not less than 50 children were there. Marina and Kate managed to cope with all of them very skillfully. They always have many interesting things to offer kids. After the meeting, our talks with people continued. People usually have questions and not all people are indifferent to the issues of faith.

Saving a Life

Alexei Nozdrachev had a very interesting conversation with a young man. The young man had passed by, heard our singing and saw the gathering of people. He was in a low mood. He had personal problems – a quarrel with a beloved lady and other misfortunes. He found himself in a deep depression and he did not want to live. He was planning to commit suicide. And there he met Christians. His talk with a Christian man helped him to come to himself and look at his circumstances in a sober way. As usual we gave out many Christian books and New Testaments. We gave Bibles to the local church people along with Evangecubes, and encouraged them to be active evangelists.

The next day, the road was waiting for us. It was not covered with asphalt. When the meeting and talks with people were over, we began to prepare new bicycles for the trip, which were designed for poor roads. They are twice as heavy, and not as speedy as bicycles designed for highway. But they are safer and it will be easier for bikers to cover poor parts of the road. We went to bed late at night.

Piotr Ryazanov, TransWorld radio