Wednesday, October 22, 2003 
(about 4:00 pm Moscow  time; 7:00 am Terre Haute time)

Dear Cleo,

I arrived in Moscow at 8:00 am Wednesday after a night train ride from Voronezh which left at 9:00 pm.  I was in a four-berth sleeping car with three other men.  The ticket cost $23.00.  I went to sleep about 11:00 pm and woke about 3:00 am and didn’t get much sleep after that.  I was excited  about the wonderful people I met and the great opportunities for Christian volunteers here.  My mind kept cchurning over the endless possibilities here for serving God.  I’ll tell you about just one in this letter.  I have more photographs and video tapes of the project below.  Please print it or forward it to anyone who might be interested.

First I visited the tourist facility that the Russian United Methodist Church bought  in a beautiful  wooded National Park a few miles from Voronezh.   The church wants to turn it into a Protestant Spiritual Retreat Center to serve all of Russia, especially the children..  The town is historically famous for two reasons.  First it  stopped the advance of the Germans in WW@ although the town itself was 90% destroyed.  Second it was the town where Peter the Great first began to build the Russian navy.  He chose this place for secrecy and because there was an abundance of trees. The woods are full of pine, oak, cedar,  birch,  maple, linden, and others.   Animals in this state preserve are deer, elk, wild boars, foxes, beaver, mink, rabbits and others.   I sensed that the air was especially clean and fresh.  Below you see the main building, big enough for 95 guests.  The church wants to refurbish this building first because they are planning to host a Northern European conference to elect a bishop here in October of 2004.  They expect about 200 guests.

Here is a view of the exceptionally clean river that flows nearby,  about a 5 minute stroll from the main building.  It is so peaceful and quiet out here.

In order to house the additional guests they need to refurbish a number of  the small buildings which are on the property.   A log cabin like this one houses eight to sixteen people depending on the size.

There are also a number of smaller buildings that house two to four people that need some work.

The Voronezh Conference Preparation Committee is seeking volunteers from America to come this summer (04) to scrape, paint, repair, make curtains, and generally clean the grounds.  We need willing workers and people with construction or building skills.  If the Methodist Church cannot get the facilities up to European standards by October 04, they fear they will be greatly embarrassed.  Also it will cause them an enormous financial burden to house the conference in another conference facility in the town.  Besides this there is a possibility that they may not be able to rent a suitable facility.  The official Orthodox Church is applying pressure on all government-owned facilities not to rent to protestants.   The ignorant officials believe the priests who tell them that Methodism is a sect.  When this facility is finished the Methodists already have plans and understandings with the Baptists and the Pentecostals to rent the facility for their meetings and camps.  To assure the growth of methodism in Russia we must help them.

The Methodist church is now working on the heating system, the water system, and the plumbing.   They want to redo the kitchen and repair and decorate the dining facilities.   Volunteers  can help with your labor and your prayers.

More Volunteer Work for the Future

Even after this immediate work is done there is much work remaining to be done for the next year.  This is a long project.   People who help in the 04 project can help plan for an 05 and 06 project.  This facility could become the most important protest conference facility in Russia.  This is the beach head from which the protestqanst can secure their advances into Russia.

There is a separate children’s camp on the grounds with buildings like the one below.

Each of these ten buildings house eight to sixteen children apiece.  The Russian United Methodist Church  want to refurbish these in the summer of 05.   I suggested to the planning committee that we offer each cottage to one or more of our churches in the Terre Haute  district.  Then let each church be responsible for repairing and decorating their own building as they see fit.  The committee liked the idea.  After this all the churches could work together on the remaining buildings in the children’s camp (a dining/meeting building,  a counselors buildding).  I think that if we in the District don’t jump on this idea other churches in America will seize this idea.  So far two other churches have expressed an interest in helping, but haven’t requested any special dates.  I will soon be talking to the bishop and the chief financial officer about this.   If we act now, the Terre Haute District can make a unique contribution to the United Methodist Evangelism and education program in Russia.

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