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