Russia Mission 2011 - June 10

As I said, I woke up at 06:54 completely disoriented. I set my cell phone last night, but I didn’t reset the location. Of course it is on Airport Mode, and so it couldn’t find a signal. The main screen on my phone said 8:54. This meant I had slept through my alarm, missed breakfast at 8:30, and morning training was about to begin. I rushed to the dining hall, the seminary… everything was abandoned. I couldn’t imagine what had happened. I finally checked my phone and the computer and discovered it was really 7:10 AM. I misread the 8:54 PM time on my phone in my sleep-deprived haze... Breathing a sigh of relief, I made coffee, and reset the phone AND location so that the screen and alarm will function at the right time. A couple of cups of coffee later I was ready to write the first part of this first blog. :)

We spent the day today in team training. This included a brief history of the Eastern European Mission’s involvement in Russia, a discussion about our curriculum, and an orientation to Russian culture. We gave brief testimonies about “How I got here” in Koltushi, Russia, as part of this English Bible camp. A lunch with some kind of “rice and meat” meatballs (think of a non-tomato base meat loaf made with rice, and served as two-inch ball shaped portions), cold borsch, and coleslaw made us sleepy. Seeing that we were falling asleep in the afternoon sessions, we finally walked to the village center and identified the bus stop so that team members could find their way back home if they ever got lost. “Smile and say ‘Koltushi.’ Follow the direction they point.” The hope is that eventually you would get to this bus stop and be able to walk back to the seminary. It works in theory. :) Thankfully, we haven’t ever lost anyone, so we’re not sure how it will work in real life. I hope we don’t find out!

I am completing this first blog at 4:45 during our afternoon free time. Dinner will be at 5:30. I think we will also have free time this evening so that we can get to bed early. The jet lag induced by a ten-hour time difference makes your whole body feel heavy...