Gospel Expedition

We came together for morning prayer and read Isaiah 40:26, 31 . . . Because of the greatness of His might and the strength of His power, not one of them is missing . . . Yet those who wait for the Lord will gain new strength . . . We were refreshed by His power to fulfill His tasks.

The road that will take us to Amazar is 104 kilometers-long. We started on our way at 8.00 a.m. after breakfast. We are not surprised by the road covered with gravel and dust. The cyclists were first in line followed by the KAMAZ. Each time we see a cloud of dust before us we know that those are oncoming vehicles. Our truck KAMAZ then goes to the front and forces them to stop. Most vehicles slow down, except in some rare cases. Our God preserves us according to the prayers of His saints.

We met our brothers Sergei and Alexei, who told us that the Amazar village administration had given consent for the meeting, and that they had found a shelter for the night. Workers who are building the road have a hotel and they gave us available rooms for free.

By the village of Amazar, there is a river with clear water. We had some time before the beginning of the evening meeting and we went to the river. After eight hours along a dusty road, we were happy to swim in clear water. Our men as usual went along the village streets and invited people to the meeting. About 60 adult people came along with very many children.

Time for Youth to Testify

We began our meeting at at 7 that evening. Many young people had come, so the younger members of the Expedition shared their testimonies — Yuri and Levon, Edward sang and also shared his testimony. Then three young men from our team sang a Christian song about Russia. Boris, Yuri and Pavel sang this song rather well. Yuri Volzhankin sings well and he is a good cyclist, and besides he is very skilled in managing our sound equipment. It demands attention and does not always want to work well. But Yuri knows the secrets of how to improve the equipment each time. We prayed for the meeting and God helped us.

It is amazing that in places where there are no churches of our fellowship; the doors for outreach are open for us. Even though we do not have an opportunity of informing people beforehand, still people come and attend the meetings, and then talk for a while to the members of the Expedition. We gave out New Testaments, while Kate and Marina worked with the children. We can not cope with adults as skillfully as they do with kids. The cheerful voices of the children and their enthusiasm inspire all members of the Expedition.

This meeting is finally over. We are tired but feel that we have done all we could. We had a group prayer and dinner. And then we went to sleep. As Ecclesiastes says, “The sleep of a laboring man is sweet.”