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- TeamUfa
- We are a team of people trying to reach people in Ufa and Bashkortostan in Russia. It is no small task and we want your support!
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Wednesday, July 6, 2011
Getting Plugged In: I Really Must Go Back!
8:48 PM | Posted by
TeamUfa
I really had no idea what to expect of this GO trip! By the time we got on the Aeroflot flight to Moscow, I was exhausted. The flight attendants speaking and all the signs being in Russian was very frustrating. I felt overwhelmed and felt as though I had forgotten all the Russian I had ever learned. Moscow was overwhelming in a different way: a staggering amount of change, capitalism, Americanization. However, our IMB guide, Alexei Gulak, took us to Burger King in a mall and an amazing thing happened. As the BK server was repeating our order back, I thought he was speaking in English---because I understood him Russian!!! For me personally, being in Red Square, seeing St. Basil's, and touring the Armory were huge lifetime milestones. I have been to Russia and throughout Eastern Europe before but never to Moscow. Getting to spend a day just taking it in was a huge blessing.
The best part of the trip was staying with the Dzuba family: Andrei, Elvira, David, Angela and Christina. I learned so much about regular life for believers in Russia, love, and sacrificial hospitality from the Dzubas. Elvira cooked breakfast for us every morning even when her son was not feeling well and even during the days when we had no hot water because it was the week that the pipes in their neighborhood were being worked on. (Some things have not yet changed since Soviet times!)
When we arrived in Ufa, we hit the ground running so to speak. We attended the English Club at the home of Victor and Susan Bauer. According to Chris, an English teacher named Galina had never been willing to ask any of the previous mission groups to visit her class at the Pedagogical College. But by the end of that very first meeting, she seemed very excited and told us that she was going to ask her administrators if we could come. To jump ahead a bit, our time with her classes went well. We had lunch with Galina and another teacher, Svetlana, who told us all about her parents "mixed marriage." Although this was during Soviet times, her father is Ukrainian and, therefore, Christian. Her mother is Bashkir and therefore, Muslim. For ten years after their marriage her grandmother would have nothing to do with her mother. I am remaining in contact with Svetlana who is working on her doctorate studying political discourse in Russia and America. Svetlana said that we were the "best Americans" she had ever met!
And then on our last day in Ufa, Rachel and I went for a walk. On the sidewalk across the street from Chris's building, we met one of the students from Galina's class. She proudly told us her name was Kate. She was so excited she almost cried to be meeting one-on one the Americans she had seen up in front of her class. Rachel was able to write down for her the information about the English Club that meets in the Carrs home. She was so thrilled she told us that she was going to tell her teacher that she had met the Americans and she was going to tell all her friends and classmates about the opportunity to practice English with the Carrs. Neither Galina nor Chris had ever been able to tell these future teachers about the English clubs because of possible negative consequences for her career. As Chris said, running into Kate out of the literal million people in Ufa was really a "God thing"!
Another English teacher, Elvira, invited us to her class on Monday. She divided us into groups and at the end of the time I ended up with a "group" of just one--but what a one. Ksenia started right off asking me how I felt about the death of Osama bin Laden. She followed up by asking me, "What do you believe about religion?" I was able to present the Gospel briefly and she listened very intently.
Monday night we attended the English club that meets in the Carr's apartment. The advanced students asked serious questions about the teaching of Russian history, the comparison of Russian and American legal systems, and the meaning of Dan Brown's novel The Da Vinci Code. Eileen told us that after the scheduled activities of the Club are over, "the magic happens." In this case, I had a wonderful conversation with a young engineering student. He started off asking me how a student can succeed in University classes. He is Tatar; so when he told me that, I simply asked him if that meant he was Muslim. He said, oh, no, he was not. However, he just poured out his heart about his desire to know God, not Allah!
On Tuesday, Chris took us to meet with Ufa international economic development officials. I was really surprised to learn how much Bashkortostan and Oklahoma actually have in common particularly the mix of agriculture with oil and natural gas production. I think Ufa and Tulsa should definitely be sister cities!
Tuesday afternoon we went to the American Bashkir InterCollege to speak with another English Class. But at least four of these "students" were really other teachers from the College. The teacher who invited us, Slava, told us that he wanted us to consider coming back to Ufa for a camp for underprivileged children that is funded through the US State Department via the US Embassy in Moscow. I have already talked to my division chair about this and he was thrilled about the possibility. His exact words were, "You really must go back!"
On Wednesday, we went to Elvira's private language class at the Terra Language School. One of the students was a psychiatrist who is learning English for her trip to Europe. She brought her 9 year old daughter along to class that day. Elvira once again divided us into groups. My group included the psychiatrist's daughter and a 12-year-old from Vietnam. She is working on her FIFTH language! The 9 year old sang a beautiful Russian folk song for us. Elvira suggested I sing a song for them. Since I had the "children's group" I got to sing "Jesus loves the Little Children" to two "precious" little girls from Vietnam and Russia.
On Fridays Eileen hosts a "Women's Club" in her apartment. Rachel has quickly formed a very close relationship with Elvira who is a Muslim. So, for the first time, Elvira came to the Women's Club. In turn, on Saturday night Rachel attended a club with Elvira. Even though we were only in Russia for two weeks, I really feel that the Lord blessed our time there as we plugged into relationships established by the Carrs like the ones with the teachers, Elvira and Galina, to share God's love and plan with them.
Sherri Raney
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