Moscow Resprise

The last day of our very busy schedule we visited with the Dean and Director of an active and dynamic denomination that will remain confidential for now for obvious reasons. We had a great discussion but no photos because I lost the battery to my Kodak Digital Camera in the snow. So, you will have to use your imagination. (The two Pastors on the right are typical of the men and women we trained during this trip.)

They told us about the fact that their groups is growing by leaps and bounds through serving people's basic needs. They currently have one large Seminary or Institute in Moscow and ten schools for their uneducated pastors spread out all over Russia's 9 time zones. (NINE! We have four in the USA.)

The Dean showed us a photo of one school with 30 students but each student was the Senior Pastor or Second Pastor with several hundred members and ten or so other church plants and numerous staff members. He asked us to teach our Basic Counseling and Pastoral Care at every school so every Pastor can train his staff and people.

WOW! Talk about multiplication and ministry to the masses. They have the right ideas. The Dean is meeting today with our team to discuss them doing a pilot training at a Moscow Church. Pray with us about how we could possibly arrange such a massive training program all over Russia. Only God could pull it off and supply the team, time, materials and finances. This trip was very expensive as the Russian government is making it more difficult to travel there on a budget. We had to stay at a hotel for the first time and they are sky high.

But the opportunity is mind blowing in its implications for us and for Russian churches, most of which have no pastoral care and counseling despite facing immense problems. They do not trust secular programs and rightly so. The anti-Christian forces in Russia are very strong, but God is able to minister His healing presence. Through healing the good news is spread and peace is promoted throughout the world.

Pray for us and our friends overseas. Developing good relationships with the Russian churches is vital to God's plan of salvation and our future as a nation.

Moscow Challenges

Steve and I really love the people here are and enjoy their fellowship. However, in a short 10 day span we get a picture of just how difficult it is to minister in the pressure of a huge city with extremely difficult transportation. It takes Anatoly about two hours to get to a training session and two hours to get home. That time is taken up by a lot of walking, some bus rides, a Metro ride with two or three changes and hitching rides with a variety of drivers and cars from the Soviet Era.

Last night Steve visited an open men's 12 step group with several of our key male leaders. It is a unique and very satisfying foray into healing men from the ravages of intentional and intensive Soviet emasculation. Our good friend Yevgeny came by and led Steve by Metro and footsteps to the church that sponsors so many of the Recovery programs. Steve enjoyed the time and shared several new bits of good information with the guys. Then they returned to the hotel where we packed and prepared to leave for home.

Our team and the participants have a hunger for healing that exceeds almost any group I have ever seen. They have to work so hard to even participate that they are often exhausted when they arrive but still they work hard to change. Please pray for our team.

One footnote. Yesterday we met with the heads of a Denomination that has ten schools and seminaries around Russia. They asked us to prepare a training curriculum for all ten cities and send teams to teach the students there. The man who shared the details was severely persecuted for his faith and was denied a college education because he was a Christian. His grandfather was shot and killed because he refused to recant. Now the family leads their group's push to educate and train thousands of pastors and church leaders. WOW! May God bless them.

We are coming home today.

Amazing International Communication

Before I opened my blog to post tonight I wanted to see what the weather was going to be here in Moscow and in Cincinnati. It was easy to do. All that is required was a simple click on the Weather Channel and find Moscow was going to be 18 degrees F today with winds from the South East at 4 mph. Since we were going to take a two hour trip to a remote part of this huge city Steve and I knew we needed to put on several layers of clothing. (The layers were quite inadequate as we rode the Metro, an old broken down bus and hitched a ride in a tiny 1970's Lada for about six dollars after walking and freezing for almost an hour.)

Then I clicked on the Cincinnati Enquirer and took a look at the traffic cameras located out near my house in Symmes Twp. The temp was about the same as it is in Moscow but the traffic was sparse compared to what the people face here in this city of 14 million. (Traffic was stuck for hours last week during the first real snow of the season. Thousands of people entertained themselves with text messaging each other and the local radio station for traffic news. One guy was struck by the Christmas decorations that are still up and proclaimed, "What are you people doing leaving those decorations up this late?)

More later.

More About EQ

I was interrupted while typing the last post. We are here in a Moscow hotel and Steve and Galina returned from a short trip so we had some discussing to take care of and that ended my blogging.

The need for EQ in this nation cannot be overestimated. You may remember that the Communist Party strictly forbade the Church from educating its members in piety, love, kindness and compassion. In fact, the Law of 1929 was a direct attack on the core values of human caring as set forth in the Bible and God's family for the past 4,000 years.



In an earlier post I mentioned that in 1999 Mr. Gorbachev sent his Ambassador to Norway to the Norwegian Bible Society to ask for a favor. He asked that they print and distribute free several hundred thousand Bibles in Russian. "Why" they asked the Ambassador. "Because we have found that the Bible's message is critically important to the development of caring among the people. As a result of Atheism's worship of no-god, all that is lovely and beautiful was also killed.



The wonderful pastors and lay Christians who have graduated from our training are bright and beautiful light houses of love, sensitivity and compassion in a country devastated by evil for 70 years. Pastor Anatoly, seen here with Steve and Anya planning the retreat, has preached, taught and modeled God's emotional responses among his people and they are catching the vision of showing their community the way of the Spirit. Pray for him and his wife and team as they share God's light in a dark world.



Steve, Galina and Brother Yevgeny travelled to Ramonskoe Saturday to teach Anatoly's people about the biblical approach to male-female relationships. They had a great time with lots of laughs and learning's about conflict and caring. The is Christian EQ in action.

We are reproducing in Russia the programs we developed around the USA. Thank God we learned how to train lay pastors, small group leaders and lay counselors at CHPC and Upper Arlington. God graciously gave us some terrific people to practice with and on so we can offer the Russian Christians the wisdom we developed back then.

This is the primary way to bring evangelizing, healing and church growth to a hurting world.

EQ for the World

Emotional IQ or EQ is widely recognized today by researchers and is widely sought by business leaders. Even such retailers as Wall Mart and Target train their people to warmly greet customers when they arrive so they will want to return and shop there again. Although the term EQ was only recently invented the idea is as old as the first passages in the Bible. Over and over we learn from God's word that we humans have been created in the image of God and it is clear that the Bible shows our God to be very emotional.

As we read the various stories about the good, bad and ugly characters that fill the pages of scripture we cannot help but notice they are filled with emotions. Sometimes these emotions result in acts of kindness and caring but at other times the result is harmful to themselves and to others. These good emotions are called, "The fruit of the Holy Spirit."

It is obvious to me that the bad, ugly and damaging emotions of humans do not originate with God. They are contrary to God and contrary to God's will. They are what we call, fleshly or sinful in nature and God is holy and without sin. So, we can have some feelings that are right and holy and some that are wrong and unholy.

Most of my professional life I have worked to help people transform their unholy and unhealthy emotions into feelings that are pleasing to God and man. This was the focus of my 1975 doctoral dissertation and several books that came from that work. Here in Russia we are happily carrying the same call of God with great results in the lives of leaders and their flocks.

Reformed Pastors in Moscow

Two of our favorite new friends in Moscow are pictured here as we were drinking tea or chi in a new Coffee Bean Cafe located across from our hotel. These men are from a medical background when they came to Christ. Shortly afterward they gathered men and women together and began to teach and worship the Lord.

Pavel and Mihail attended seminary and are reaching out to the recovering community in Moscow as a place of safety and love. We shared our insights and ideas with them and they with us in an effort to build a stronger network of believers dedicated to healing and growth. They are part of the Evangelical Christian Association of Churches in Russia that has some 100 members.

This is a unique idea in Russia as well as the rest of the world. However, the resources we in America take for granted are nowhere to be found in this part of the world. Thankfully, Pavel and Mihial are using their medical, theological and 12 step knowledge to offer hope in an otherwise bleak and hopeless part of the country.

It is often said by preachers that "Christ is the only hope for the world," but living in the USA, the wealthiest nation on earth, numbs us to that reality. Here in Russia where the leaders attempted to crush Christianity and all its contributions for over 70 years we can see the terrible results in addiction, abuse, trauma, callous behavior and the enormous pain people carry in ever day life. When citizens of America complain about a police state they simply are out of touch with a reality that the people here lived in for so long.

The absence of Christ's love leaves a terrible gap in society. People were not motivated to care for others under the rule of the Soviets. Despite a thousand years of Christian history the cruel hand of the atheists caused horrible damage to the souls of the people. PTSD is rampant among the populace so the people do what they can to cope. Alcohol, depression, drugs, sex and work are the handiest ways to get relief.

The churches do what they can but have so little training or experience in ministry to wounded hearts. And, they are very small and have great barriers to overcome to carry out the simplest kinds of ministries. People like Pavel and Mihail are doing their best and need our prayerful support. Steve and I are extremely happy to know such good people.

Russia Today

This Picture says it all. There is a beautiful little Russian Orthodox church next to the Metro station where we board the train. Across the street hangs a sign that says, "Strip Show for Divorced Women!"

Sex, sin, divorce and family destruction next door to the church. The task is to give people hope for a future with Gods love.