White Mountain Monastery

Perched atop a hill in the Ural mountains sits the stoic Belogrosky Monastery.  With its gold dome toppers glistening in the sun (which can be seen from miles away) this monastery is considered the largest cathedral in the Urals.  

The building of this monastery began in 1902 with completion in 1917.  Not long after its completion the Revolution broke out and what was once a safe haven for monks turned into an execution site.  As you walk the perimeter of the monastery you will find a couple of places where the bullet holes still remain in the wall.  During the Revolution, the priests and monks that were part of the monastery where killed when they refused to denounce their faith.  

The persecution, killing, and imprisonment of believers would extend throughout Russia and would continue until the 1990's.  The majority of the icons in the church were torn down and destroyed, but some icons were taken by villagers who then buried them in the ground in order to try and save them from being destroyed by the Red Army.

After the Revolution White Mountain Monastery was turned into a psychiatric hospital and then used for shell shocked patients during the Great Patriotic War (WWII).  In the late 1970's a patient residing in the monastery set fire to the roof, resulting in the monastery being abandoned.  A group of monks banned together and started to work on restoring the monastery back to its full splendor in 1993.  Today the scaffolding remains as renovation is still being completed, but the church is a full fledged working Orthodox church.

View from the Monastery. On a clear day it is said you can see for miles.

To enter the Orthodox church you have to wear a head covering, but what we didn't know was that even though we were wearing long pants we still had to wear a skirt.  The church provides wrap skirts for women to wear.

The Funeral Part 2

Mounds of dirt cover the fields, space only wide enough to walk through, wild flowers and weeds choke out the names of those buried, freshly decorated and dug graves wither in the sunlight as men stop digging long enough for families to bury their loved ones.  The cemetery just outside the city limits is debated to be one of the largest in the country, I do not know how accurate that is but this is what everyone tells me.  As we walked and drove through the gridded cemetery we pass new quadrants full of those who had been buried just this month.  Families come and go visiting the graves of their relatives, stopping to visit and have a picnic.  Graves are covered in flowers, candy, candles and other things that the family leaves for their loved ones.  This is a cultural norm to go and visit the grave and have a picnic. There is a special day during the year that is dedicated to going to the cemetery and visiting the grave and cleaning up the area around the grave (if the family does not take care of the grave and the area around it then no one will and the weeds and wild flowers will over take the area).

A place stretching over a vast amount of square kilometers (I do not know the actual count, just that it is large and you can get lost driving around the cemetery) holds the remains of those lost to age, disease, alcohol and drugs, murders, plane crashes and club fires (these last two have special memorials for those killed in the plane crash and club fire).  Like the funeral I attended months ago the process of burial seemed more business like then an actual funeral, as families come and the men digging graves beside their family members grave stop long enough for the family to place the coffin in the ground and say some words. Then as the family leaves the men get back to digging, or if the grave site is a few graves away the men will continue to dig different graves.

The memorial dedicated to those who died in the plane crash

 Tombstones also range in intricacy as some are just simple wooden crosses with the name and date on them, other are made out of marble with just a name and date, and other are made out of marble with a picture of the person on them (some are engraved with a life size photo of the person).  We spent a good amount of time driving around this cemetery and we only saw the tombstones of those who had died in the past 20 years.  A whole other section across the main road holds those buried before 1990.

As you read through this and view the photos, remember to stop and pray for those living in the city who do not yet know their creator.

English Camp

The last part of June took me to Siberia to help with an English Camp.  Earlier in the year Layna, Janet and I had been asked to go to a city in Siberia to help with an English Camp.  A group of Americans were coming to teach English and help the local church hold an English school and asked if we would like to join them.  Now up until the time I left I always knew that Russia was a massive country, but I soon understood just how large.  We traveled 28 hours by train to Novosibirsk (the third largest city in Russia) and then four hours by car/bus to the city where we would be having camp.  28 hours by train and we had only covered a small portion of land.  The landscape of Russia is gorgeous and while the part that I saw was mainly flat land and rolling hills, birch trees made up the majority of the trees and endless fields with wild yellow and purple flowers scattered the horizon.  As the train made its way through different stations we passed through small villages.

We arrived in the city and met up with the Americans we would be working with and we were able to attend the Sunday service at the local church.  Unlike the English camp I was a part of last year, this camp was planned and handled by the members of the local church. All we had to do was show up and teach English, which made for a really relaxing and more enjoyable time to just sit and get to know the people there instead of having to worrying about having to lead and plan the camp.

The main building we met in for large group

Learning about different Worldviews

Janet and I co-taught the beginners English class and we were very fortunate to have Olga translate for us.  It was a lot of fun and we had some really sweet people in our class and it was an enjoyable and growing time.  Our days were spent teaching English, talking with people, playing games, listening to Ray teach about worldviews and using every opportunity to share the gospel.  We also spent almost every minute swatting away mosquitoes, but even they didn't put a damper on our fun.  Also in the stereotype of Siberia, it was cold/cool most of the camp.

Some of the girls from my English Class

Olga, she translated for us during class

I was reminded once again of God's glorious creation while there.  The camp which was situated on a river made for some of the most wonderful evening/night sunsets that I have seen.  I am continuously being shown the beauty of Russia, whether through the people, a song, or a beautiful sunset there is much beauty here.

One of the many colorful evening/night skies

My cabin for the week

Христос воскрес

Христос воскрес!- Christ is risen!

On May 5 we celebrated Easter.  The Lord blessed us with a beautiful day and great weather.  In russian tradition it is customary that when you greet a person on Easter you say (all in russian of course) "Christ is Risen" and they respond "Christ has risen indeed".  It doesn't matter if people are atheists, orthodox, lutheran or whatever they will say this to you on Easter.  It is interesting that in country where the percentage of believers make up less then 1% of the population everyone will tell you that Christ is risen on this day.  Thus leading into a great conversation about what that saying is really about.

We started off our Easter celebration with an dunking, followed by a service and a picnic by the river.  This was a great time of fellowship and time to worship by the river.  This past year has really shown me what it means in Acts when it describes the chrch.  It isn't about the building but the body of believers and the studying of the word.

Things I learned during the winter

Since winter is almost over I thought I would share a just a few things that I have learned this winter. With the changing of the seasons also comes a new learning curve and this winter brought a new wave of weather and learning.  Here are a few things that I have learned so far this winter:

1. You have to learn to walk on the constantly changing terrain of packed snow/ice on the side walks and roads.
2. Breath through your nose, not through your mouth.  Apparently it is better for you.  Some days your nose hair does freeze when you breath, but that is better then the coughing that happens when you take a deep breath of cold air.
3. Your scarf will also double as a face mask and yes you will look weird with only your eyes showing but at least you are warm.
4. Somehow the women here still look really fashionable in their winter outfits and their high heel shoes. I just look like the Michaeline man.
5. You will slip and slide as you walk.  Sometimes you will fall but you just get back up and keep on walking, just at a slower pace.
6. At the right temperature the snowflakes look unreal and are so vividly beautiful that you can see every tiny detail on each unique snowflake.  Just a reminder of how awesome God is.
7. On some days your legs and face will go numb after five minutes, that is ok, you will warm up later. Just keep moving, you will be fine.
8. It will not snow once the temperature drops below a certain point, but this means that it will be sunny with blue skies.
9. Don't walk close to the buildings.  Some of the icicles hanging from the buildings are massive and are known to kill people every year in Russia.  So take the warning from the mom in A Christmas Story when she says "Those icicles have been known to kill".
10. Not all thermal pants are created equal.

The Funeral

We stood in the back, squeezed between six other groups of families and friends mourning the death of their loved ones. The candles in our hands lit,  our heads covered in scarfs, and the priest reciting different prayers from a book (chanting then followed each prayer) and performing the traditional funeral ceremony.  The caskets lay in the front as the immediate family surrounded them.  Our friend Angela's grandmother had died last weekend and we went to support her at the funeral.  This is the first funeral that I have attended since being here, and this was also the first non-believers funeral.  What do you say to someone who's loved one just died and they weren't a believer?  All the encouraging words or sayings weren't appropriate.  So we told her we loved her and were praying for her, because that is all we could do.  We couldn't tell her that her grandmother was no longer suffering or that she was in a better place, because her grandmother wasn't a believer.

Funerals in this culture are different.  In a culture that values the group above the individual I shouldn't have been surprised when the priest was doing a group funeral for Angela's grandmother and six other families.  Being at Angela's grandmother's funeral was a reminder of just how many lost people there are here in this city and country.  Not only here but around the world.  So be in pryer for Angela and her family as they go through the grieving process and that during this time their hearts would be turned to the Father.

Storying

A year ago if you asked if I thought we would use storying here to spread the word I would have said no.  Storying can be used anywhere and is a great way to spread the word.  A couple weeks ago we started to story here.  Our group isn't big, in fact we only have two locals coming.  Small yes, but we know that they need to hear the word and so we share.  We are praying that as time goes on more will come.