And Then Success is Sure

Dear Friends and Philanthropists,

Vladik here has been vigorously listening in on all of my goings on here through his elaborate bugging scheme and he would report, as I do to you now, a very nice bit of success with relation to the "Lillies of the Field" film event this last Sunday. Two students came, and as it happens, one of them previously attending Blagaya Vyest's youth ministry some seven years ago. He came referring to himself as a "Prodigal Son," and it seems that such a cognomen might really be apt. What is so mind blowing is that he has attended the English Conversation Table for over a month and only upon entering the church for the film did I find out that he already knew Joel and the rest. Both he and the other student seemed positive about coming to next Sunday's Easter celebration, so please pray that they will come and their faith might grow.

The above description of the event makes it seem very rosy and provident, but I assure you that the situation was only provident and for about an hour, seemed much like a rose without any petals on it. Joel is blessed to have found a DVD player in St. Petersburg that is reputed to play not only all formats of DVDs, but all regions as well. If you are unfamiliar with the system, the US is one region, Europe is another, Russia is another, Asia is another region etc. and they are all incompatible (I hate this system - do people really move around the world so much that it could really be profitable to make them re-buy all of their films? And even if it is profitable, isn't it just downright mean and money-grubbing to do so?). In any case, at 6pm Sunday we had every reason to believe that our American copy of "Lillies of the Field" would work perfectly, since other American films had worked on this DVD player as well. You can imagine our distress when a dark blue screen appeared that said, "Disk Nilvsya" meaning, "It Don't Work!"

A full month of prayer and preparation had gone into this event, and as the main purpose of the English Conversation Table, there is no way on God's Good Earth that this type of thing would stop it. No way. Luckily, I had an idea. Joel has a car. Vitaly and Masha are already at church. My house, and thus my computer are not very far away...let's go get my computer! So we went, fast as we could to retrieve the computer and some water at my place (the church is in an industrial park and thus, no running water). Unfortunately, the walk from the car to the apartment jostled my brain enough to ask, "So, Joel, do you have an AVG cord for your projector?" Sure enough, when we verified that we were talking about the same type of cord (no one knows the name of any type of cord without using the word "thingy"), alas, we did not have this cord and thus, we could not connect my computer to Joel's projector.

Newly distraught I sent Joel to fill up the water while I was blessed with another idea - Eric might still be at AWANA and he has a car - maybe he could bring the Christian Center's projector! I quickly called him and again, as if a wall appeared in every direction, Eric was nearly home, which is the opposite side of the city from the Christian Center. After considering for a while showing the Jesus film or a Martin Luther film that Joel had, I decided that we had advertised "Lillies of the Field" and it would be duplicitous to go and show the Jesus film instead, and though God might work through it, I would lose the students' trust.

Then Eric had a wonderful thought. My house is actually not too far from the Christian Center by car. Vitaly and Masha had tea ready at church, so they could stall while Joel and I go to the Christian Center and grab the projector and speakers which we already know connect to my computer! Yes! That's it! We went, I grabbed the stuff, we came back, everyone was finishing up tea and we watched the film. Both the students and the church members loved it (it is really a delightful film if you haven't seen it, and it gets better with every viewing) and the whole event worked out swimmingly.

In summary, I must say praise God Our Father in Heaven for all the good work He does through us, and showing us the way even when it seems like there are walls in every direction. I am honored and humbled to do His work - He doesn't let it get boring, does He - and He never failed us in our hour of need. Amen!

Thank you all for your prayers, for they were answered yesterday. We had the titanic thrown at us and we didn't sink, and I can't imagine taking part in such an iceberg without your support.


Sincerely,
Peter.

Detsky Dom

Dear friends and anti-ivory poaching advocates,

Things are finally melting! It's actually spring! It's supposed to snow tomorrow. :( Oh well, what ya gonna do - we are almost at the arctic circle here and someone with very large lips once taught us all that we can't always get what we want, or maybe that was the third chapter of Genesis (the book, not the band, and if it was the band, then it would be the 1st chapter with Peter Gabriel singing and not Phil Collins). Regardless of what book of the Bible or what stage of a 70's progressive rock group's career we are talking about, I'd like to take a moment to update you on a new ministry that I have recently taking up.


Every Monday and Wednesday after my university group I travel to Kluchivaya, an industrial region at the far southern end of Petrozavodsk. In the last few years, these industries have not done very well and the area has become known for being one of the worst parts of the city, and right in the heart of this neighborhood there are a bunch of kids running around as if homeless. You Are Special, a ministry run by a local church, aims to work with these kids both on homework and even to just spend time with these kids (pictured: homework time at YAS).

I have spent the last two weeks teaching one how to play some very basic things on the guitar, and for a nine or so year old (I don't know how old he is), he picks it up pretty quick. Though he's often a nice kid, he has a lot of behavioral problems rooted in the fact that his parents are alcoholics and likely beat him on a semi-regular basis. YAS gives him a safe place to grow, learn, and be. Another girl who comes acts quite normal on the outside (she has even picked up the piano at our group) has spent a number of nights outside in the last year because she was either afraid to go home or was never let inside. You might ask how this is allowed to happen? Due to the level of alcoholism and its related problems in Russia, the social service and orphanage systems here are overloaded with children like these, and thus there either is not room in the system or children like these fall through the cracks. It is our goal, then, in what little way we can, step in and show God's love to these children, for despite how incredibly difficult they can be to work with (Eric and I agree that their behavioral problems surpass even that of the most difficult kids at Summer Advance), we know that these children are as valuable to God as you or me, and it is our duty to show them that the world is wrong, and that they are indeed valuable people.

After that somber bit, I thought I'd take a second and eat up some bandwith by showcasing our students' talents via a little video I took. Julie, do we need an organist for the wedding?

Enjoy, thanks, bye!

Sincerely,
Peter.

Lillies of the Field

Dear friends and Academy Award Winning Non-scientologist Actors,

I have two items of good news. First, the snow is finally melting. Finally! Yes, it snows some still to replenish the landscape, but we are taking two steps forward and one step back just about every week, and I've got just about enough cabin fever to start a medieval plague. As an interesting note, yesterday morning I was surprised by a flash of light and a loud explosion. I first thought that it had to be some sort of factory or building exploding, since given the state of things here, that wouldn't be too surprising AND that sort of thing happens even in the US and European countries, and, of course, it simply could NOT be thunder and lightning - it was snowing outside. The talk of the town later that day was that, in fact, it had been a thunderstorm, a SNOW thunderstorm, something that is so rare that Vera Petrovna has seen it only once before in her entire life. So there you have it. It IS possible for there to be thunder and lightning in a snow storm.

On another note, please start praying. We have set a date for our movie night at the church and it will be Sunday, April 20th at 6:30pm watching "Lillies of the Field," a classic American film with good Christian themes. This will be the first, and perhaps best, opportunity for my students to get acquainted with the church. We need the Spirit to work to convince the students to come to this off campus event, and then, to have a good enough experience to do the impossible - come back on their own. Thankfully, we have lots of time to pray and it is the week before Easter, and if there is any day that Russians consider visiting a church, it is Easter.

The last bit of information is a little more dire and at this moment, I ask for your prayer for Russia as a nation. Recently, we at the Christian Center have been accused of being a cult, actually a specific cult that we have never heard of, but the fact remains that any Christian organization that is not Orthodox is generally considered by the public at large to be a cult. Now, you would think that it would matter to the people here that these 'sects' allow people to freely come and go, disagree with them, are engaged in no coercive conversion tactics, and are considered in most Western nations to be within the normal stream of public religion (even by it's detractors). Hence, this label of being a cult is not only far fetched, but very dangerous, because it allows all non-Christians to dismiss the church without seriously considering it's beliefs. What is even more inconvenient is that, when pressed, many Russians will say that, "I am Orthodox in any case," which far too often means that they were baptized and go to mass on Easter and Christmas if they feel like it, and thus gaining little real knowledge of the gospel message that the Orthodox Church actually teaches. Thus, it is hard, we are opposed on all sides, mostly by ignorant convenience, and which in a way is convenient for us because in this case, no human argument or human will cause any change to occur. We are left to the New Testament principles of love and mercy, and then the power of the Holy Spirit to change hearts and minds to be opened to the Truth of Jesus Christ, the Lamb who was slain for the sins of all. So if you are looking for something to pray for in your daily devotions, please pray for Russia as a nation, that the hearts and minds that have been closed by material distraction and willful ignorance will be reopened by the loving hand of Jesus. It is the Wild West of Christianity here and unfortunately there are too many Cattle Barons, too many Billy the Kids, too many compliant shop keepers, and too few Open rangers and Wyatt Earps.

Thanks again for all your prayers and support. As I approach the final three months of my mission, I cannot express enough gratitude for how I have been lifted up by all of you back at home. Please continue vigilantly, for outside of Christ I am weak, and your prayers for me are a necessary component of what strength I have been allotted.

Below, for your viewing pleasure, is lake Onega, and what it looked like two weeks ago before things started melting. Ice fishing is alive and well in Petrozavodsk!


Sincerely,
Peter.

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.