INTERNATIONAL WORLD CHANGERS ROCK UFA
See report from IWC
07 Dec 2007

The leaders settled upon a youth ecological project called “Beloved City,” sponsored by the Center for Youth Employment Assistance, an entity of the Ufa city administration’s Committee on Youth Policy. The Committee identified three overgrown areas where trash needed to be picked up and brush needed to be removed. One area was immediately behind Lake Kashkadan in the Sipailovo region. The second was an area called “Forest Tract” on Tramvaii Street in the north central part of the city. And the third was not far from there in the Nepeiitsevskii Dendropark. The Americans would work beside teams of Russian youths. The details of the plan were simple enough, almost mundane. But as the time drew near, nothing, it seemed, could contain the curiosity, the excitement, indeed, the buzz over 21 Americans (11 of which were teenagers)coming to Ufa to do for free what Russians must be paid to do – pick up garbage. Almost predictably, on their very first day of work, the Yanks were met at their work sites by television cameras and newspaper journalists.

A very favorable article appeared in Bashkortostan’s Molodezhnaya Gazeta (Youth Newspaper) just three days later with the title “Brothers of Labor: Americans Help Improve the Capitol.” The article was filled with Russians quoted praising Americans and Americans quoted praising Ufa and Russian culture. “Good on the Americans for coming,” a young Ufimets (citizen of Ufa) named Artur said, “They are good people.” “Ufa is a nice and pretty city,” 15 year-old American, Michael, said. “As we approached the work site, a hill with a very steep incline, the American girls began to whisper to themselves,” wrote the Youth Newspaper writer. “We asked an interpreter to ask if the inhabitants of the land of the Stars and Stripes had rethought helping the Ufimtsi clean up. The girls shook their heads. They showed themselves strong not only physically but morally. Selflessly and deftly ascending the hill, the guests returned with armfuls of branches.” We could not hope for a better write up. Still the press was conspicuous for what it did not say. Nowhere was there any mention that every one of the

American visitors were Baptist followers of Jesus. Nowhere were they identified as Christians. Nowhere did it say why they were doing what they were doing. Bashkortostan is, after all, a Muslim Republic. And yet, despite these omissions, the historicity of the moment was not lost on us. A big picture accompanied the article depicting Greg Cope, an Associate Pastor in the States, shaking the hand of a Russian crew manager. The caption read “Historic handshake.” But what was more historic to us than a mere handshake was that foreigners in general and Americans in particular, had been portrayed in the Russian press in a positive light. There were no pot shots, no political statements, no foreign deceiver labels. No, they didn’t identify our guests as believers, but rest assured that our visitors’ teenage Russian crew mates asked the Americans several times why they were in Ufa – a question that the foreign Baptists were more than happy to answerJ. For five days straight the Americans and Russians worked side by side from 11 a.m. until 2 p.m., all the while sharing about their culture and lives. The World Changers were warned against overtly proselytizing. But, now and then, opportunities presented themselves and the World Changers (WC) group did not run away from them. The Holy Spirit always finds a way. A few of the American brigades even presented their crew managers and Russian co-workers with Bibles that were graciously received. Everyone on the WC team came away with a new appreciation for servant evangelism.

Meanwhile, the Telecenter Brigade, led by WCer, Joe Burke, and Russian Baptist, Yuri Baiiguzin, usually lunched at a café in the Telecenter region of Ufa, the city’s intellectual, educational, and governmental heart (although it is located in the south east and south central area of the city). After lunch every day, they prayer walked the region, passing out Bibles and invitations to Grace Church which is located in the Telecenter. They also struck up conversations using the Evangecube and had a number of opportunities to share the Gospel. A Russian Baptist Sister named Nastya and an unbeliever by the name of Ana accompanied them as interpreters. After a few hours, they transitioned into sports evangelism using a soccer ball and some Frisbees on a field adjacent to Ufa’s most striking monument – Salavat Yulaev. Just as it is in Sipailovo (if not in the entire Russian Federation), the soil into which they attempted to cast the Gospel seed is rocky and Gospel resistant. And no one came to Christ in the Telecenter. And yet, there were some discussions about eternal matters, and in Ufa, such discussion are often hard to come by. And for those conversations, we thank our God and King for the privilege of representing Him before men. At 8:30 every evening, the tired Telecenter Brigade dragged themselves up the five flights of stairs to the Carr apartment where they were feted by Eileen Carr herself. 

  The Nizhegorodka Brigade was faced with perhaps the most unique set of circumstances. First of all, they had to travel almost the length of the city to reach lunch in the Lower Town, the poorest and most Muslim area of the city. And once there, they were stuffed to the gills by the matriarch of the only know Evangelical Christian family in the region. Vera Peshkin lives with her husband, Anatolii, and two children in a greenish wooden home with no running water and a toilet, as the Russians say, “on the street (an outhouse).”  The red-haired Vera has a Russian view of hospitality – she simply goes all out. And so, her table in the Lower Town strained to withstand numerous serving plates piled with copious amounts of apples, oranges, bananas, cucumbers, tomatoes, spring onions, pastries, sausages, cheeses, blinochki (a wonderful Russian pancake), and candies. One would think that that would be the meal, but not in the Peshkins’ house.

 Those were simply the appetizers. The meal itself was mashed potatoes and meat, borscht, and stuffed cabbage called “pigeons.” And those pigeons seemed to give birth, as there never seemed to be an end to them. Vera is always telling Larry that he must eat for two because he is a big man. And he always tells her that he has no chance of not remaining big in her house. But the week the World Changers were in town, it was 95 plus in the shade. Vera’s place is built for the winter and the Russians do not seem to have need of air circulation, much less a fan or air conditioner. We simply had the economy package, lunch and Banya at the same time. The team’s shirts were soaked within 15 minutes of entering the Peshkin’s door. Larry volunteered to fill water jugs with cold water he had to pump from a well in the backyard, just for a few minutes outside the stuffy house. The team was simply not up to eating a huge lunch. And as usual, Vera fretted about whether the visitors liked her food and pestered Larry to make the Americans eat more of this or that. We tried to tell her that we loved her food and felt honored to be guests in her home, but simply could not eat everything because of the heat. But, uneaten food in a Russian household is apparently an affront to the hostess. Perhaps that is why Russian women transform from models in their 20s to matronly babushkas sometime in their 50s. Lunch at Vera’s began every day at 3:15 and was followed by a word from the Scriptures at 4 p.m. We would then pile into an old van driven by a Russian Brother and head out for a soccer field for the afternoon’s ministry. Those who could not fit in the van had to walk the mile and a half to the field. The Nizhegorodka Brigade was led by WCer, Gail Cabe, and Apprentice missionary, Larry Moon.

 The World Changer Team was supposed to be composed of two males and four females, but one young man fell ill and remained so all week. His older friend had no choice but to remain with him at the hotel for the duration. And so when the team was joined by two young female interpreters, one of the interpreter’s sisters and two of her friends, Larry was left with a Brigade consisting of 9 women and himself. Fortunately, a few younger Russian brothers were recruited. The Peshkins also helped out where they could. And so the Brigade consisted of (from left to right beginning with the back row of the picture on the next page) Mandy, a stateside youth minister, a non-Christian Russian friend, who was there basically to hang out with her Christian friends, Vera Peshkin, Yul’ya, a non-believing Tartarka who served as an interpreter, WCer Robin, a stateside high school sophomore and band member, Sister Emeliya, a cool believer who served as an interpreter, WCer Katie, a stateside high school sophomore and Eileen Carr’s cousin, who seemed to draw more than her fair share of attention from the Russian teenage boys, Sister Tanya, who Larry calls “the little red-haired girl,” Sister Indira, Emeliya’s biological sister, WCer Gail Cabe, the WC Brigade leader, (front row from the left) Brother Anatolii, Vera’s husband, and Brothers Vova and Vadim, both of whom are very young in their faith.

     Every day, from 4:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m., the Brigade’s mission was to attract Nizhegorodka’s children, engage them in games, craft, and Bible stories, and try to communicate the Gospel as clearly as possible to them. A team from Richmond took basically the same tack back in late May with great success. They had over a hundred kids come the last two days they ministered in the Lower Town. But this time was different. Perhaps it was because the children were all at Babushka’s house in the village. Perhaps they were at the family dacha, or at one of the many summer camps operated by the government. Perhaps it was the scorching summer temps.  But, whatever the reason, we started with approximately 30 kids the first day and then tapered off to 15 to 20 kids a day from there. Of course, the Brigade felt it a privilege to be able to minister to even that many and poured itself into attending to them. Every day in the Peshkin “sweat house” we would pray, “Lord, we believe that one soul is so precious to you that we would be here if only one came.” “If only for one” became the Brigade mantra. And on Wednesday, God gave the one. We were focused upon the children and did not notice a grandmother sitting quietly on the edge of the field as we played with her grand daughter.

 As long as interested adults didn’t try to interfere or call the cops, they were almost invisible to us. But WC leader Melissa, who was hanging out with the Brigade for a day did notice the elderly woman and asked Larry if she could go and speak with her. Larry knew from experience that it generally takes a Russian anywhere from a year to two years of dialogue with Christian friends and acquaintances before he or she is ready to consider following Jesus. They generally have to mull things over. But Larry has never been one to say “Don’t witness,” because you never really know what God will do. And so he told Melissa to go ahead; “Just take one of the interpreters with you.” The Apprentice missionary busied himself with the children and forgot about the conversation going on at the field’s edge. Twenty minutes later, Melissa called Larry over and announced that Nizhegorodka had a new believer. Apparently the old woman, who goes by the name of Rima, was an atypical case. God had already prepared her heart. She had always wanted to become a follower of Jesus. But when she was young, her Tartar parents would not let her consider it. And when she married, her husband took over where her parents left off. Rima said that she would tell her daughter, but was not yet ready to tell her neighbors, who would shun her. The next day, the Brigade made sure Vera Peshkin was with us and the two ladies sat and chatted for a couple of hours on the field’s edge. The picture that we took of the two at the bottom of the last page is typically Russian, with Vera and Rima sitting stoically. We know that underneath the stoicism, Vera has joy in Christ, and we are praying that Rima will come to possess the same joy. 

The kids understood and accepted what they were told, but some teenagers standing nearby were skeptical. And, as is their predisposition, they began to mock the Americans. Larry tried to move them away from the blanket where the story time was going on. “I love Oklahoma,” one of them said in heavily accented English. He remembered Larry from one of his previous forays into the Lower Town. The big Okie knew from previous encounters with these guys that it would behoove him to show neither anger nor fear. The former would inflame them and the later would embolden them. Larry shared some Scripture with them, but was interrupted by a 17 yr.-old Bashkir named Ramil.

The young man said that biblical Scripture didn’t mean much to him because he was a Muslim. Larry told them to imagine that you claim that you are a fan of Dinamo (a famous Russian soccer team). But, you never watch a Dinamo match on television or listen to one on the radio. You don’t have any Dinamo pennants or sweat shirts. You don’t have any posters or pictures of Dinamo. You don’t know who the Dinamo team members are and what position they play. You don’t know what their schedule is or who coaches the team. “In that case, could you consider yourself a fan of Dinamo?” “Da net (an emphatic no),” the teens said. “Nu I chto (so what)?” Ramil said. “How often do you go to the mosque?” Larry asked. “Rarely,” Ramil answered. “I have been to the mosque three times already this year,” Larry remarked. “How much do you now about the Koran?” Larry queried. “Very little,” Ramil said. “Then how can you say that you do not need to listen to the Bible because you are a Muslim when in reality I’m more of a Muslim than you are?” Larry asked. Ramil’s buddies howled. They liked Larry’s straight forward approach.

The missionary spent about 30 minutes talking with these young men every day, interspersing conversations about cultural differences between Russian and America  with declarations of God’s love for his interlocutors. He noticed that the boys were hardened to just about any evangelistic approach or scriptural truth, save one. Whenever he would mention God’s love for them, the boys would stare at the ground in silence. There were no come backs, no arguments when it came to God’s love. Larry could see in their eyes that it impacted them and were it not for the need to keep their cool persona before their peers, the American might be able to probe a little deeper. Three days in a row the same thing happened. After about 15 seconds, one of the boys would change the subject and having made His point, Larry let it go.