Gospel Expedition

Today is the last — and the longest — day trip. We are to cover 220 km, and hills with steep grades are awaiting us. We got up at 5:30 a.m., prayed at 6, and started at 7 a.m. As we gathered by the church house, some young people came to see us off despite the early hour. We prayed. Our accompanying police car arrived 15 minutes later and followed us to the outskirts of the city. For the first 140 kilometers, we did not stop. By the town of Vyzemsky, another road inspection car was waiting for us and saw us off to the border with the Bikin district, where two more cars were waiting for us, and followed us to the church in Bikin. A meeting in the square is planned for today. [Continue reading Back at the Chinese Border …]

Khabarovsk was founded about 150 years ago by a battalion of the Russian Army to guard Russia’s border with China. Muraviov-Amursky is the founder of the town. Following the military people, landless peasants went there. The town was called after Yerofey P. Khabarov, a well-known traveler and explorer of Siberia. The current population of the town is 562,000 people. It is one of the most beautiful towns in the Far East. [Continue reading Ministry in Khabarovsk …]

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 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 . . . …]

At seven in the morning, the rain stopped and our moods improved. The night rain was a blessing for us. It meant a road without dust, which was very important. We were to travel 92 kilometers. The lack of good road did not threaten us any more. We have already spent two weeks along such “roads.” It was sunny but cloudy. Christian brothers and sisters from the Magdagachi church met us. [Continue reading Ministry to the Armenian Diaspora …]