Санкт-Петербург Dispatch #2

This evening I turned off Nevsky Pr. toward the Church of Our Savior of Spilled Blood, and I understood this line, for the first time:

"You're in Russia, and more than a million works of art are being whisked out to the woods. When the Nazis find the whole place dark, they'll think God's left the museum for good."

It's late evening as I type this, and the sun is beating down like mid-afternoon. This place is anything but dark - the sun doesn't vanish at night, it just lays low. Art has returned to these streets. It may be tempting to think that God's left this city, but under bluegreen onion domes and puncturing eyes of painted saints, one cannot help but be convinced that providence still reaches this far into Europe.

((If I needed any more convincing, enough was given by the gold-shrouded priest administering some holy fluid to a sick young girl amid icons and incense at Kazansky Cathedral this evening.))

The Nazis that Gord sings of were wrong to think God leaves anywhere.

Though sometimes he is hidden, and it takes digging through cracks, crevices or walks down long prospekts to find him.

Photos #1 (continued)

Above is Alexander.

Moving sand... the hard way.

Rollin'

Seminarians working hard.

Gary himself.

Petersburg Dispatch, #1

An enormous building down Nevsky Prospect bears blue letters on its roof stating "Leningrad - City of Heroes"

The Great Patriotic War (1941-1945) isn't forgotten here. The Nazis laid siege to Leningrad for 900 days, and some 600,000 Russians starved to death.

***

Two hundred and fifty years earlier, Petersburg rose out of a swamp conquered from the Swedes during the Northern War. 150,000 died during its construction.

***

You'd think that this would be a city of ghosts, but I've never experienced anything so physical, so tangible in my life. There are shoving matches on the Metro. There's bricks to be laid at a new school, where I sleep in a classroom. There's robust and invincible buildings, centuries old, somehow staying afloat over boggy terrain. Then there's also the bus ride home, with its hard rights and hard lefts threatening to loosen the Heineken from between my knees.

***

But maybe there are intangible things to be seen/heard in Petersburg. This city may appear to be little more than brick and mortar jostling, but Gogol cannot be wrong - things in Petersburg are most definitely not as they seem.

***

This evening, I'll do nothing except pause to listen - bend my ear for the Spirit to tell me why I'm here and what I'll do next.

Photos #1

Here are some cool photos of your favorite Summer Missions Program team:














Here you see the team accompanied by Gary and Galia, eating breakfast in the home where we first stayed. We moved today to the school where we are working on our first project, which is building an entrance pathway.
























Here we are, working with some of the Missionary Kids who go to school here.














We have made several friends during this project. The man in the red hat is Alexander, a friendly and hard working Russian. He laid the larger grey bricks alongside the soon to be brick path. The guy with the white shirt and the black hat is Sam. He's a missionary who's currently without a large group backing him. He's been in Russia for 3 years and feels called to reach out to Russian kids. He teaches ESL (English as a Second Language).














Above you see some of the team chowing down during lunch in the school's cafeteria. The guy on the right is John. He's an American who teaches Science and PE to 8th graders.














On the right is Nicholi (spelling?) who is a carpenter at the school. He's providing logistics and equipment maintainace for our shin-dig. Then there's Gary and Galia. Then there's the team. On the far right is one of the door keepers at the school. Theft is a big problem; Gary's camera, which took these photos, was already ripped-off on Saturday : /