What is a normal week?

Hello everyone!

I hope that you are all well. St Petersburg is now decidedly not snowy, at all. The sky seems to be leaking a gooey mess that is neither rain, nor snow. In fact, even the canal outside my window doesn’t seem to be able to decide whether it should be frozen or not. (Having said that, some boys were walking on it on Tuesday – it provided an amusing end to my language lesson, as Ludmilla, my teacher could not believe that they could be so stupid!)

Well, it has probably been our first completely “normal” week of ministry since we have been back from Budapest, although it still feels like we have been rushing around all over the place. One of the decisions that we made this term was to run separate events for guys and girls, with the aim to appeal to more guys. So, last week the boys hosted the first of a series of evenings entitled “Real Food for Hungry Men”, which included arm wrestling, chicken, mayonnaise and bread, playstations, and the Gospel. It was a great success, with apparently a lot of discussion taking place and about 10 students there, and the next one will be happening next week.

In contrast to this, we decided to hold a one-off (at least, for the next month or so) Girls Party, where we made pizza and cards, and discussed a short film entitled “If God was a DJ”. We had about 25 girls come, and the flat was heaving! People did seem to enjoy it though.

Everything in the new flat seems to still be going well – conversations with my landlady are getting easier, which is great. I still love the view – I spent about half an hour the other night, just watching the sun set…

Although it seems like I have only just got back, I need to leave Russia again this weekend, so that I can cross the border in order to re-register next week. We decided that the best place to go to would be Helsinki, as it is the nearest, at a mere 8 hour train journey. Luke needs to go to, and we decided to go along with an American girl from our Church, who needs to leave too. I can’t wait!

But before then, tomorrow night, I will be starting a new idea (actually pinched from the team in Krasnodar – that’s what all the conferences are for!). It will be called Pride, Prejudice and People. Basically, we will be watching the BBC film (yes, with Colin Firth, of course) in 4 different sections, and then after each session we will discuss relationships, both with other people, and also with God. If everything goes to plan, there will be 4 different sessions. We are going to start with a very small group of girls, who are already good friends, so that there is already an atmosphere of trust built up between them.

Right, I think I need to get on now, as I have to go to the station to buy my ticket soon!

Have a nice week

Sarah

xxx

And she's back!!!

Hello everyone!

Well, it has been a while I know. First we had Christmas, then my Mum came to visit, and then we disappeared off to Budapest for 2 different conferences, and then to Moscow for a third. We have now been back in St Petes for exactly 2 weeks, which have been spent in lots of planning meetings, meeting students again after the break, and I have also moved flats. Hopefully things should calm down a bit now.

I expect you want to know why I have moved, and why we have had to do so much planning. Basically, Jo is now 3 months pregnant, and will be leaving Russia in April, to go home to prepare for having her baby. Aaron will obviously go with her. This works rather well, given that Jo cannot stay in Russia beyond April with her current visa. Luke and I will be staying on, but we will be working in close conjunction with the Polytech team, which was going to happen anyway, as they are now left with 2 members, as the others are away on maternity leave too.

So that all sounds very complicated really. But I have managed to find myself a great new flat, living with a Russian landlady, and it is only 15 mins walk from the others. She is absolutely lovely, and doesn’t speak any English. And there is a great view of the Finnish Gulf from the window.

The conferences were all brilliant. The first one was a time to relax and refresh ourselves, before we got charged up at the second one. That was one for all the staff of Agape/Campus Crusade in Eastern Europe and Russia, and there were about 1000 people there in total. It was amazing to meet so many people, all so enthusiastic about their work. It was also really good to meet lots of people my age doing the American equivalent of Impact – STINT, lots of whom were also in Russia.

Finally, we travelled to Moscow (via Stuttgart – a really pleasant airport!) for the Winter Bible Conference. This time, we were the ones in charge, and the conference was for all the Christian students in Russia. It was so exciting to see that there are so many (there were about 200 there) Christians here. There were also 17 students from Korea, who were going on to do STINT in Irkutsk (in Siberia). The theme of the conference was “The Power of One”, and the idea was to equip the students to see how powerful even one of them can be alone, if they use God’s power.

Right, think that is probably enough information for the moment – I will try to update this a bit more regularly from now on!

I hope that you are all well, and enjoying the Spring.

Lots of love

Sarah

xxx