The Short-term Russia 2006 mission trip was another huge blessing not only for the team members, but also for Zelenograd Baptist Church.  This year’s team consisted of ten members.  Returning missions veterans to Russia were Mark Simpson – Team Leader, Lorene Wilcoxen and John Andrews.  First timers to Russia were Andrea Simpson, Ashley Friedman, Carmen Stonecipher, Wanda Tenaglia, Tia Sherman, Lori and Ruthie Jerger.

 We spent the first two days traveling and arrived in Moscow at 11:15 a.m. Thursday and were greeted by Janice and Andre and were escorted to the House of Prayer for orientation and room assignments, ate dinner and taken to our flats for the evening.  The next day was a work day at the church.  Some of us worked on the inside of the church cleaning the sanctuary, hallways and various rooms by vacuuming, mopping and wiping down window sills.  The rest of us worked outside raking up the cut grass, bagging it and dragging it to the compost ditch in the back of the property.  The Lord blessed with gorgeous weather, beautiful sunshine, a slight breeze and temperatures in high 60s to low 70s.

 There was a special prayer meeting from 11:00 Friday night through 6:00 Saturday morning.  Andrea Simpson was the only team member to participate in the overnight prayer vigil.  She said it was an awesome experience and managed to stay awake for the entire ordeal.  Two coffee breaks during the night helped.

Saturday we took a four-hour drive (one way) to an orphanage summer camp.  A Bible story was presented by Wanda Tenaglia and Lori Jerger with interpreters Janice, Nikolay Abkairov and his new wife Katie.  We then popped popcorn and played games with the children and distributed 54 gift bags them and to the camp instructors.  The Director served us chai (tea) cookies and Russian chocolate to us before hopping back into the van for the four-hour drive back.

On Sunday we attended Church in the morning in the beautiful newly completed sanctuary.  Mark Simpson gave a brief greeting on behalf of Northside Baptist Church and introduced the team.  John Andrews and Wanda gave testimonies.  Later that evening the team departed on an over-night train ride to historic and awesome St. Petersburg, Russia. We did much sight-seeing visiting the summer home, Peters’ Hof, of legendary Czar Peter the Great.  This spectacular array of flowers and water fountains was absolutely breath-taking.  Literally, this is an all-day visit, but we ended early only seeing about half it.  Plenty of time was allotted for some shopping.  After lunch we visited St. Isaac’s Cathedral, Peter the Great’s winter home and ended the evening on a scenic boat ride around the city and then took the train back.

Upon our return to Zelenograd on Tuesday morning, we ate and did VBS with about 20 children.  The fun theme was a Mexican Fiesta with Bible stories, crafts, snacks and games.  VBS continued on Wednesday and the children got a crack at two piñatas and lots of candy toys!  Pastor Pavel took the group to Moscow for the rest of the afternoon as a reward for their hard work with the children.  We ended the day playing volleyball with the teens and singles and said our last good byes.
 

Thursday morning Pastor Pavel took us to the Moscow airport and we returned back in Tampa, FL that evening at 8:15 p.m.

As always the Lord worked in all our hearts and we all admitted that it was a life-changing experience and want to go again or on another scheduled short-term mission trip.  New relationships were forged and a better understanding and appreciation of missions realized.