May 2001

Dear Friends and Family,

We arrived in Moscow on 9 February and have had a full and rich first three months. We have been deeply involved in language study, but have also spent time getting to know the Russian churches in the program and communicating with the partners in the United States. In April we traveled as a family visiting a number of churches.

One of the areas we visited was the Kirov region. Mostly we were at a church in Kirovo-Cheptsk, a small city about 50 kilometers from Kirov, the major city in the region. We were really impressed with this church, the people there and the outreach they are doing.

During our visit, we stayed with one of the deacons of the church. Sergei and Natasha are now on their own. Their son is a missionary in Yekaterinburg, and their daughter and her husband have just moved to Washington state as missionaries to the Russian community there. The heartache was still with them, since she had just left the week before. We had tea with them several times and entered deep conversations about Russian and American life. We talked about our respective families and enjoyed the fellowship. In spite of the differences in our lives, we were repeatedly drawn back to the things we had in common. Sergei shared with us his faith journey and the significance it had for his family. He was the first in the family to accept Christ. His wife and daughter soon joined him in faith, but it took longer for their son, whom they were having trouble with at the time. He told us that he lost friends through his acceptance of Christ, but he had gained so many more in his church community. He still marvels at the change in the relationship he has with his family. His father lost his legs during WWII and became an alcoholic. Sergei did not have a good model for family life, but that changed when he became a Christian. We have met some truly remarkable people in our work. Sergei and Natasha count as two of them.

Kirovo-Cheptsk has a harsh climate for western Russia. They used to send prisoners to the region because of its harshness. The climate is a significant problem because it means that the growing season is short. They are not able to grow many of the fruits and vegetables that would be commonly found in other parts of Russia. This adds to the expense of providing for a family in a society that already feels a great strain. The region has many orphanages because families are not coping well. Alcoholism and neglect are serious problems. The church is reaching out to the children of such families in many ways. They have a program that feeds some 40 children every Sunday. They have a craft program to teach children to sew, draw, and paint. They are developing talents as well as coordination. They sell some of the craft items to buy more materials. They had some remarkable stuffed animals made by 6-, 7-, and 8-year-olds. On Saturday evening, we joined a group at a local
school gymnasium for an "AWANA" program that they sponsor—sports activities, Bible study and worship. We watched as groups of children ran around the gym through hoops and around cones in some wildly creative activities. The children were laughing and cheering one another on, even helping members of other groups when they lost something they needed in a relay. The church also runs summer camps. The children are one way of reaching out to the adult non-believers. Even when they can't reach the rest of the family, they have touched the lives of these children, who are the future of Russia.

The leaders of the church have great ideas for the future as well. The school that they have been renting the gymnasium from for the AWANA program is threatening to cancel their agreement. They hope to build a multi-purpose building with their own gymnasium and classrooms for the various craft programs they sponsor. They would also like to start music classes for children. They have some very talented musicians in the church who are willing to volunteer their time if space and instruments can be obtained.

We were deeply impressed by the spirit of cooperation that exists between the different churches of the region. They work together on different projects and one hope they have is of starting their own orphanage. They feel that if they started one in the countryside, they could grow much of the food and be largely self-supporting once they got the building and did necessary renovations. In the small towns, the needs of orphans often overwhelm the system.

One of the members in Kirovo-Chepetsk shared with us that she came to this church with an emptiness inside, searching. What she found filled her up to overflowing. Her family has not yet joined her in faith, but she works on with a joy that knows no fatigue. Her testimony is a profound affirmation of the outreach of this church and others like it.

We feel richly blessed to be able to serve in this country and in this program. We look forward to a full summer with camps in several parts of Russia. We continue to look for the opportunity to develop new partnerships. We would be grateful for your prayers for our work, our language study, and our family.

Yours in Christ,

Alan and Ellen Smith