Gospel Expedition

It rained cats and dogs at night. The rain dealt with the dust but also left big puddles on the road. We got up at 5:30 and it was still dark outside, but we had to go. Our KAMAZ truck lit the way with its head lamps until we reached the highway. After five kilometers the highway ended and we had to travel along gravel and clay. It rained sometimes and our bikes became very dirty. It was a very hard trip. [Continue reading Stopping in Russia’s Jewish Region …]

After breakfast, we set off again on the road. We were to cover almost 200 kilometers, and 70 of them without asphalt. It is hard to travel along such road by cars to say nothing about bicycles. Praise God for providing us with special bikes with wide tires. God blessed us with the weather. I would like to thank all of you! God answers your prayers! There is a saying, “Do not ask God to give rain, but ask for harvest.” It seemed to me that we needed only sunny and dry weather. But God gave us drizzle. What a blessing drizzle is! I never liked such weather, but we needed it, and here’s why. [Continue reading Gravel, Dust and a New Time Zone …]

We said farewell to the departing members of our Expedition in the morning. It is hard to say goodbye as they have become a part of our hearts. The service awaits us. There are 172 kilometers to a town with the interesting name of Raichikhinsk. There is an asphalt road for once, but we still had some flat tires, and at lunch time we arrived at the town. [Continue reading Ministry in “Paradise” …]

Today is really a good morning. Not only because the sun is shining brightly and there is no rain, but because the cyclists will be able to travel on racing bikes again. About 500 km of asphalt road are ahead of us, then there will be a dirt/gravel road for a period — the last time we face that — and then an asphalt road from Birobidzhan to Vladivostok. [Continue reading Ministry At The Chinese Border …]

After a long period of poor roads, a new team consisting of Boris Berezhnoi, soloist and leader of Blagovestie (Good News), and Albert Redin, leader and soloist of Inheritance — together with me, Leonid Kartavenko — joined the Expedition again at the airport in Blagoveschensk.

We arrived a day earlier and were able to meet the Expedition cyclists in Svobodny. I had parted with the Expedition in Kansk a month ago. On August 21, I saw them again but they looked like new people. They didn’t resemble those clean, neat men with whom we went to Germany, where the Expedition began. Now they were weather-beaten, brown, tired people, some with beards. They looked not only mature, but older. Only one thing did not change in their appearance — their shining eyes and unfailing desire to reach people with the Gospel. [Continue reading Evangelism Goes On Regardless . . . …]