Greetings From the Concrete Jungle

Dear friends and elephants,
Things are really picking up. My group at the University has begun and I am really optimistic that it will grow into a meaningful way to reach the lives of the students with the Gospel. Please join me in praying for the best way to do this whilst still faithfully fulfilling my other commitments, that God will open His door when He is ready and I will know when that is. I feel at the moment that I ought to take it slow and build relationships, through which my faith can bleed all over them. I can't help it that I have an open wound.

It has gotten awful snowy the last few days, and I've got some nice pictures of the Concrete Jungle named Drevlanka. Drevlanka is the "suburban" part of town which like American suburbs like Eagan, my hometown, it is away from the city center and people started to build it up in the 80's. The only difference is everything else. These are the concrete block apartments everybody always talks about. Every building is practically identical, with every apartment similar, everybody fitting into this nice little box that would make a Manhattan economy-sized apartment seem like a cathedral. These buildings in particular were the last projects planned by the Brezhnev regime and the Soviets built very few buildings after that. As a note of interest, there is a common New Year's movie here where I guy goes on a bender in Moscow (where he lives), gets on a plane to St. Petersburg, tells the taxi to go to his Moscow address, and he is dropped off at an identical apartment building with the same street name and number as his Moscow address, only it's St. Petersburg. To make matters worse, the lobby is the same, the elevator is the same, and, get this, his key even works in the lock. He goes in, falls asleep on what he thinks is his own bed (all the furniture was the same too - Soviet mass production) and he just happened to be there just before the owner's husband-to-be came by for New Year's dinner. Behold, the wonders of mass-production!

And just when you thought I couldn't come up with anything more to surprise you, see the picture below. What is wrong with this picture, folks?






















Hmmm, that car has a lot of snow on it. Yes, it has definitely been there all winter. Abandoned car. But why the Wrangler crate on top? Is it a company car? Oh, you might think that, until you go over to look and find out that the wrangler crate has recently smashed through the roof of the car. How or why this happened, we can only guess. Perhaps the car was formerly owned by Levi-Strauss? Is this a vain attempt to plug a leak in the roof? Was the little Dutch-boy's finger too small this time?

No matter what the cause, I think we all must take a moment and contemplate in awe the magnitude of Russian ingenuity. No other people would dare take absurdity so far as this. Russia, we salute you.


Sincerely,
Peter

Announcement

Dear friends, family, friends of family, and people who found this in a google search,
For the first time I write on behalf of not just myself, but a very important person who is quite dear to me. I am happy to announce, and with good reason, that I, Peter J. Bodurtha, and she, Julie M. Grazier are engaged to be married! For a visual explanation of how such a thing could occur given my residence in Russia, see the photograph below:


The Bodurtha-Grazier Engagement One Act Play

Cast of Characters:

Peter - Peter J. Bodurtha
A lovelorn boy from the Russian wilderness
Packaging - Matroshka Doll
A richly decorated girl with a many-layered personality
Package - Diamond Ring (resting upon small Matroshka doll)
A delicate hanger-on easily manipulated into clandestine international schemes
Informant - David Varvel
Gregarious, absent-minded shopkeeper from the Middle of Nowhere, Nebraska
Courier - Lindsey Kaye
Willing accomplice to the informant, a slippery customer
Deliverer - Kieran Dwyer
Bookish laddy with hidden gift-wrapping talents
Gate Keeper - Beth Marquette
Well organized sister to Julie
Key Master - Joel Marquette
Bumbling side-kick to the Gate Keeper
Julie - Julie M. Grazier
American city girl with a heart of pure color.


The scene opens with Julie sitting on her bed holding a extravagantly wrapped box.

[Julie opens box and Packaging]

Peter: ?

Julie: !

Winter is finally here!

Dear Friends and Narwhals,
I am reporting from what is finally a wonderful wintery Petrozavodsk. Except for a few short bouts of cold in January, the temperature here has hung around zero celsius bringing a constant cycle of snow-melt-snow-melt-ice-melt-repeat. Now, since that is just about the worst weather I've ever lived through, I am elated to relate to you that for the past two weeks or so it has been a rather constant 2 to 5 below zero celsius, with nearly a constant trickle of snow. These conditions make for optimal sledding weather and we have not failed to take advantage.

Going both for fun and as part of our children's ministry, we use these little round sleds with a handle and try to balance on the way down. Below is Sirozhia and his sled.

Pictured below is one of the trains we normally form - I usually go first because I am good at keeping my feet up and not falling over - something I take full advantage of in the form of bailing at the last moment and sending everybody tumbling. It hurt so much when we flew into the trees.


Then after sledding, we go back to the Christian Center and, well, what else - Have tea!
From left to right are Eric, Sasha, Yelena, Sirozhia (hiding), and Graig, a molecular biologist visiting to give some talks in the schools.


As for other news, I start my group at the University this Wednesday, and I will be holding my "English Conversation Table" every Monday and Wednesday until the end of the year. Please pray that I will be able to use this meeting as a way to get to know students and get them connected to a local church. My best current idea is to have a field trip to see, "Lillies of the Field," a really awesome Sidney Poitier flick that you should all see if you haven't - a church here used to be a Soviet 'movie theater' for soldiers, and so is aptly equipped for such things. Please pray that something like that will work out. The deal is that no matter how cool and persuasive I am at the group A) I have to respect the stated reason for the table - practicing English through speaking about important contemporary topics - to do otherwise would be dishonest, so I won't be able to evangelize outright, (though, as I oft repeat, Christianity contains my world view and philosophy, and you wouldn't bar a communist from espousing his/her world view, now would you?) and B) Quite frankly, I will be leaving in July. If we don't get these people acquainted with a church, then I leave and the best I did was plant a seed in their head that maybe this Jesus thing isn't so crazy after all, which is good, but how much better would it be for there to be a continuing relationship between Christians in Petrozavodsk and the students after I'm gone? Way better! I'm really praying that we can keep this thing from being a cult of personality thing, though I am very charming! This has to be God's thing.

That's all I've got for now, except, ummm, maybe the above announcement!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!,
Peter.

Good News All Around

Dear friends and Dairy Farmers,
This week has been one piece of good news after another. First, thank you for all of your prayers. I have been contacted by a professor at the University and it looks like my one night a week conversation table will begin sometime in the second half of February. Students will be able to come and practice their English with me, whilst I get the chance to talk about the things that interest me, you know, music, politics, Christianity...Anyhow, this has been a prayer of mine for about a month and I am so happy it is going forward and I'm looking forward to getting to know the University Students this Winter and Spring.

The second bit of good news, or, er...bizarre news, is that I finally got my chance to go to Mak Dak. Have no doubt about it, Russia's number one trademark abuser makes a very well boxed we-made-this-this-morning-and-we-don't-have-heat-lamps burger called the "Биг Maк Дaк" (Big Mac Duck), plus some french fries that could have fooled me. As you can see, Mak Dak, which is only about a year old I'm told, is an American fast food simulation sort of like McDowell's from "Coming to America," where they have taken Scrooge McDuck (tm) and the Duck Tales(tm) and littered them around a menu that is vaguely similar to McDonald's (tm) (note the Big Mak Dak is sort of Big Mac (tm) with "Duck" added to it). And no, I saw no (tm)'s anywhere. Hold on, gotta go get another cold-burger. And yes, can you tell I don´t eat at Mak Dak much? I look emaciated in this photo. I feel like a waif. Russia drops weight faster than Jenny Craig doing the bench press.



Sincerely,
Peter.

And We're Walking...

Dear friends,
This last week has been a lot of the same, but with a few interesting things to tell you about. First, out of the blue, the teachers at School 42 asked me to give a presentation on...terrorism. Yes, that is correct, terrorism. I guess that being an American makes me an expert, though there is a false ring to that connection. Anyhow I put something together the best I could, but it worked very well that instead of talking for the entire hour, I instead took 15 minutes out at the end to just talk with the students about terrorism related world affairs. The presentation also gave me the opportunity to refer to an old Pastor Wells sermon that I still remember well about Jesus' words, "Love your enemies, do good to those who persecute you." These words apply to no other current subject more than terrorism, since as we've seen from the Israeli conflict, hating people just makes you hate people more, and only love as God gives it truly heals wounds. Thus I was able to refer back to this principle many times, whilst giving my opinions on Hillary Clinton :( Barack Obama <=` John McCain (:I) and Mitt Romney >:($), explaining my take on the Israeli/Palestinian conflict (LOVE YOUR ENEMIES), and telling them about the shoe bomber that made us all take our shoes off at airports (what a dumb guy). Oh yes, and in the spirit of my theme, note how much I love Mitt Romney (I have been paying attention folks. And Santana was traded - Boo for greed.)

As for my other activities, I have had some good discussions with some English teachers recently - pray that these conversations would continue and be fruitful. I continue to wait for some sort of opening at the University, so that's another prayer concern. Also, pray for my Russian - I am starting to get conversational though I need a lot of work, since the grammar is really difficult and there aren't very many cognates - I went to buy a clock battery the other day and I apparently cannot tell the difference between "eighty" and "eight" (vosyemdesyat and vosyem), so yeah, I need to practice my listening skills.

I thank so many of you for your heartfelt prayers - a special thanks to all of you for sending your cards all the way over here in Russia. Since mailing things is so complicated, you'll have to settle for me thanking you here and in person when I return this summer, but know that you have been thanked.

Sincerely,
Peter.

P.S. No new pictures, so here's a fun one. This is Vladik, Eric and Liza's son who I look after on occasion. I just taught him how to say 'chair' and 'big ball.' He's awful smart, but I make sure to let him know when he's getting uppity that I still speak English AND Russian better than he does. That's right, Vladik.

Winter Doldrums

Dear friends and primary voters,

Thank you all very much for your cards, emails, and packages that have arrived during the past month. As you can guess, it’s a little lonely being one of three American’s over here and knowing very few people who speak English, and the packages are a good sign of all of your love back home. However I anticipate that soon loneliness will cease to be such an issue. The reason is that since I returned from Syapsya in early January, I have been blessed with very little to do. I have had no presentations on my schedule and few responsibilities besides keeping office hours, participating in Saturday and Sunday activities, and helping Eric and Liza move to their new apartment. I have used the last two weeks wisely, in my estimation, in that I have used my extra time to put in a significant amount of Russian study every single day. The result is that I understand at least twice as much Russian as I did before and I am far more able to express myself than I was before. I believe that God has given me a light schedule for this reason exactly – I even carried a conversation with a student on Thursday that lasted at least fifteen minutes! A week or two more of this and I might be nearing fully conversational in the Russian language. Please pray that I continue to make regular progress.

You might be wondering how I all of a sudden have so little to do. Well, with Lyceum and School 42 just starting back up this week, I do not have any engagements on the docket. Furthermore, we have yet to hear back from the University folks about possible open doors there, so really, I am just studying Russian and praying hard about what to do next. God has me here for a reason and it will become clear when the time comes what my next course of action will be. My thought at the moment is that something will open up at the University, but if it’s at Lyceum or School 42, that’s ok too.

I will admit, though I like the time off, I would prefer to be working towards something new in the ministry – I am the anxious sort that has trouble being patient when I am not worn out, and since I am full of energy about now, I am like a teenager looking for trouble. Pray that my next task will become clear in the next few weeks for I am ready to go (or maybe I am just getting a waiting lesson, which is ok too, I guess). In any case, I have plenty of personal projects besides Russian to keep me busy, so until the Lord calls, I will be plenty busy with things that I hope He’ll be able to use in the future.

Have a great week and I will write again soon.

Sincerely,

Peter.

P.S. I need to announce a moratorium on package sending for the time being. If you want to send a package, let me know and I will tell you personally when the coast is clear. See, Eric and Liza are moving and so if you send anything to them now, Liza's Aunt will get it and not Eric and Liza and it might be more difficult to get if Liza's address does not match the address on the package. So, until further notice, see if you can send it as something that is thin and might fit in a mailbox. Pictured below is what my mailbox looks like. Mine is number 12.

The Russian Village

Dear friends and machinators,
Thank you for your prayers during the last few weeks, as it has been educational, crazy, and fulfilling all at once. Christmas and New Years were lonely and non-traditional, but I did get to see thousands of Russians set off their homemade fireworks against a background of ambulance sirens and see a 1am outdoor "play" that mixed the Nativity, Snegorichka, and the Year of the Rat performed by three Santas, a drummer, and two Peter the Greats (not so greats).

After the New Year, Eric and I accompanied a group from Eric and Liza's church to a village of about 500 people named Syapsya to conduct a week-long camp for the village children and some kids from a home for children who have been recently been taken away from their parents and are waiting to be placed in a home or orphanage. Needless to say, they were difficult yet rewarding children to work with. We did the normal things - play games, sing songs, make crafts, practice skits, meanwhile Eric, Sirozhia and I taught little Sirozhia how to make friends, enemies, and lose at Risk (all valuable life skills).

Sirozhia Risking loss - his are the blue pieces, big Sirozhia's are red (the "Red Army"), mine are black (the Army of Darkness) and Eric's in pink (the army of, er... "My Little Pony")


Thought it wasn't a big deal for kids to go into the woods in fairy tales? What do you think NOW!

Pictured here is the woods around Syapsya. This is wild forest with no sign of human activity for miles outside of town. Wolves live there and it is said that you should only go out at night in twos and threes because the wolves might get you. Ever wonder where stories like little red riding hood came from? Well, there you have it. Lyuda, one of the girls from the house in Petrozavodsk was scared by a number of stray dogs, ran into the woods and got lost. She then prayed that Jesus would help her to get home - remember these woods are only inhabited by wolves and moose for many miles in three directions - she heard the dogs again, got scared and by Providence her aimless run led her to a road back into town and she was safe. We were all so worried about her and very thankful to God for bringing her home safe, since, I should add, it was getting dark and the temperature that day was about -10F...and there are wolves.

Syapsya, aka the set from "Fiddler on the Roof"


Syapsya is like most villages in that while there is electricity, there is also no running water, no central heating, and it generally looks like the set from "Fiddler on the Roof". Thus, everything is done by wood stove, wells, and out-houses, even when it's -10F. It's odd because it's warm when you go to sleep but since it would be idiocy to burn wood while asleep, you wake up and it is about 40 degrees in the house - so cold.

Eric getting some water and trying not to freeze his boots to the ground - actually possible if you are not careful.



The bridge from Indiana Jones...or Syapsya

One of the great joys of this particular stay is that the four guys at camp all slept in a dacha across the river from the main house. This meant crossing this metal-cable bridge twice a day which, I must admit, was missing a lot of it's metal cables, cracked and swayed below our feet, constantly threatening to throw us into the frigid river. The Temple of Doom has nothing on this bridge, except there is not Indian manual surgeon chasing us, so maybe that's the equalizer - Rob, you'll have to ask around in Southern India for me.

In general, though they were really difficult to control, or to get to go to jail when they were tagged, the kids had a really good time and I pray that we made a difference in their very difficult lives. Russian villages have as high as a 90% alcoholism rate with no jobs, no money, and very little hope for a better life. We think we were able to share a little bit of the hope we have in Christ here and I really want to continue to make excursions like this since, as needy as the city is, places like Syapsya are at the point of crisis. These towns, which dot the countryside all over Karelia will probably cease to exist within fifty years as it's citizens either die or move to the city. Meanwhile they mustn't be left behind and I urge you to pray for Russian villages, that God would raise up leaders to bring fullness to these communities with very real physical, psychological, and spiritual needs. Because of the Soviets, most of the towns do not even have a church anymore so the spiritual need is particularly dire. A pastor from Petrozavodsk drives two hours each way every Sunday to preach there, and there will need to be more people like him to meet the needs of these small communities.

I have caught a cold and need to get my sleep, but I will leave you with this beautiful photo of the river that ran through the village. Since the air is quite wet there and the temperature was so cold, all of that white is the frost build up of about five days. Absolutely beautiful.



Sincerely,
Peter.