Pastor in Ekaterinburg

"We flew to ekat. this morning.  an easy uneventful flight, although the ten-year old girl sitting next to me almost puked.
We were met by Pastor Sergei Glushkov at the airport.  We had been warned several times that Glushkov doesn't speak English well and we should speak slowly,  but he's doing great and we are having a good visit.
He said once, "Bishop Lytkin has told me that you have only only had a sandwich and coffee today, so you must be hungry."
"No," we said, "we're fine they gave us lunch on the plane."
A couple of hours later he said, "Konstantin Komarov tells me that maybe you will not be opposed to tasting the local beer."
I said, "that's true."
It is rainy here so we didn't get in the walking tour of the city yet.  but tomorrow will be another day. But at this point in the trip, sight seeing is not the main objective. "

Pastor Koch and Rev. Arp in Lithuania

Here's a picture of Pastor Koch and Pastor Arp on a beach in Lithuania.  Don't you love how Pastor is dressed for the beach??

Surprising Photo from Siberia

OK, this is NOT what I pictured Siberia would look like!  But Pastor said he (or Erik?) took this photo while out on a walk the other day.   Where is all the snow?!?!

Pastor in Tomsk, Russia

Sunday June 29, 2008, the festival of Sts Peter and Paul at St Mary Lutheran Church in Tomsk, Russia. Father Daniel, Bishop Vsevolod Lytkin of the Siberian Evangelical Lutheran Church and me.

Pastor in Novosibirsk

We are back in Novosibirsk after a long road trip to Novokutznetsk and Tomsk.  Small church in the first just getting started and a beautiful newly rebuild church in Tomsk with a fascinating story.  It is apparently the jewel of the Siberian Lutehran Church and son the Bishop was anxious to show us it. 

Looks as though I understand what needs to happen for now in distribution in Siberia.  After Monday and Tuesday I should have things moving better in Western/ European Russia too.

Pastor in Russia - Update

Here are some excerpts from some emails from Pastor in the last 24 hours.

"Today we ate at McDonalds.

The Menu was in Russian, but you could tell that they just borrowed English words, like this BigMaK and Macflurry.

We also saw the Kremlin and some old Russian churches.

Yesterday we did eat at a Russian restaurant that's called MY MY, but in Russian it is pronounced Moo Moo, like the cow says.  It was very good, I had borscht, which is Russian beat soup and salmon. yum."

"We spent today, Wednesday at the warehouse for LHF (Lutheran Heritage Foundation) and GN  (Good News) Then we toured the Kremlin.  We get around by subway.  It is a humongous Metro system with people everywhere.  Sometimes when we go through underground tunnels from one train to another, I would not be surprised to see Sydney Bristol run by.  I do not know how we would do this without Konstantin showing us around and keeping us out of trouble. 

We leave for Novosbirsk tomorrow morning early."

Pastor in Russia

How cool is this? 

"Pictured here is me and Konstantin Komorov, Russian translator for GOOD NEWS.  We are in Red Square."

Excerpts from other of Pastor's emails are :

"I'm in Moscow....  We came by train overnight last night."

"Sunny in Moscow.   feels like, maybe 75.  I had KFC for lunch."

"Yesterday I went to church in the Dome Cathedral in Riga.  You can see the picture of it on the front cover of this website:  http://www.lelb.lv/"

"everyone is watching soccer here. they call it futball.  It is
European Cup tournament.  Russia won an important game Saturday night when we were in Riga, Latvia.  There are many Russians living in Latvia.  They were all in the streets yelling and going crazy."