One week from today...

I cannot believe that this time next week I will be getting ready to get on a plane to Russia!!! It seems like forever ago that the Lord caught me completely off guard by opening the doors for me to go back to Ekaterinburg. It has been a totally different experience getting ready for this trip. When I went in 2007, it was my first international mission trip and I was scared to death!!! I remember sitting at Panera with Hillary and just sobbing because I had no idea what I was doing or why God was sending me there! I still don’t have the answers to those questions, but I’m much more prepared for the culture shock and can’t wait to go!

I’m so excited for the work they want us to do in Ekaterinburg this year. The church we are partnered with is working very hard to establish small groups and even some church plants throughout the city. Ekat is a city of over 2 million people and there are more Baptist churches in Fayetteville alone than in all of Ekat! Our team will be giving concerts as a way to reach out to people in the desired church plant areas. We have worked SO HARD to learn 5 songs in Russian as well as 4 choir chime/hand bell pieces and 3 other songs we will sing in English but have the Russian translations projected on a screen. To say it was a challenge to learn our contemporary worship music in Russian is quite the understatement!!! But we are blessed to have a lady in our church that is from Moscow and she has pulled us through it! She even told us we sounded like good Russians! I still say we sound like Southern Russians, but I think they’ll get most of it! Ha!

I have some prayer requests for our trip:
• Pray that our last week of rehearsal goes well and we leave feeling comfortable and confident in our concert.
• Pray for the planning of our concert sites. Russians don’t get in a big hurry to get things planned and at this point we still have no idea where/when or how much of the concerts will get to happen!
• Pray for smooth travel! We are taking 49 choir chimes with us that will be distributed in our checked luggage. We have taken them before, but it’s always a risk getting them through security. And if any of our luggage gets lost, we won’t be able to perform any of the bell pieces!
• Pray for health! One of the guys going on our trip found out a few weeks ago that he has a major hernia and will have to have surgery 3 days after we return home. If it strangulates while we are in Russia, it will require emergency surgery. NOT something you want to have happen in a foreign country!!!

I’m sure there is more, but I think that covers the big things! I remember that on my first trip to Russia, I was amazed by how different everything was. Lately, God has been challenging me to stop focusingon the differences. I’ll be singing the song “Blessings” during our concert and there is part of it that brings me to tears every time! It says “What if my greatest disappointments or the aching of this life is the revealing of a greater thirst this world can’t satisfy?” Disappointments and trials in life are not exclusive to the country we live in or the language we speak! BUT neither is the love of God!!! Please Lord, let me bear witness of that!