Russia

leaving in about an hour for Russia with Steve. flying from Detroit to Paris, and then Paris to Moscow. got up at 4:00 this morning in hopes of being tired enough to sleep on the flight over to Paris. feeling pretty tuckered right now, but i know the adreneline is likely to kick in once we're at the airport.

can't wait, really. meeting up in Moscow with Bob and Emily from the Ann Arbor Vineyard, and Kevin from the Capital City Vineyard. our 10 day mission adventure should take us from Moscow to Nizhny (sometimes Niznij - formerly called Gorki in the Soviet Union days) Novgorod and back again. planes, trains, and automobiles, at least, not to mention a fair amount of walking, i'm sure. most of our time will be spent with a Vineyard in Nizhny pastored by the Wolfs, scouting out how we can support their church, building relationships, and helping lead a leadership conference (how meta-, eh?).

i'm expecting to teach on "leading with a Jesus lean" and "leading from the 2nd row (the example of Jonathon)" can't remember ever teaching through a translator before - kind of curious to see how it all works. strange to realize in prepation how many of my usual illustrations and even figures of speech are culturally dependent. (sports, television, politics, movies, heck anything having to do with western history may be totally meaningless for all i know at this point). had to toss them all for the moment, and wait til i'm there to get a sense for what might be effective and what might not. at least the bible ought to be common ground.

Roger came by last night with a Russian / English phrase cheat sheet for me, and prayed for me too. very cool. also dropped off an authentic Sergei Federov hockey jersey from some team in the U.S.S.R from back in the day. wild. wonder if anyone will remember him in Russia?

off to finish packing and shower up. we'll see if there's any internet connectivity there. if so, i'll update as soon as i get the chance.

missing Ronni, Colin, and Elle already.