To Russia With Love, Prayer Needs

Last month, as I've been commenting on, the UK sent a group to Russia. I just got an update from a second group of British students who are in St. Petersburg right now -- Here's an excerpt. Please pray for them.

By the way, here's a virtual tour of St. Petersburg, in case you want to learn more about the city: http://www.saint-petersburg.com/virtual-tour/

Update from Allan:
This past week we have been building on the friendships formed at the British Camp and trying to connect with these students so they might come to know Jesus.

Here are some specific people we've been meeting and praying for:

- Mitya; he has heard the gospel several times and has strong friendships with many of the Russian Christians here and many of our team. He doesn't yet know Jesus and doesn't understand how you can know God personally.
- Sergey; he is very spiritually open and happy to talk about God. It's hard to tell where he's really at. Sometimes it sounds like he is a Christian, but I don't think he's yet grasped the gospel.
- Andre; he is asking many questions about our faith but again hasn't made a decision to trust in Christ.
- Nicolai; he came to the British camp in Summer 2008 and was apparently very hostile/argumentative towards Christianity, but this year he is far more open to at least talking about God.

We've done some initiative evangelism on the local Polytechnic too. Term has ended but there are still quite a few people around. It is difficult as few of the students speak English, so we rely heavily on the Russian Agape staff translating for us. One day we went into a cafe and no one spoke English so we just guessed at the menu and ordered a meal deal - it turned out to be some sort of "mystery" meat and a plate of buckwheat! Not particularly appetising! An interesting experience nonetheless!

I've also had the opportunity to see some of the sights of St Petersburg. The Russian students have been great at showing us around the city and helping us navigate the streets! Without them it would be nearly impossible - very few people speak English even in the city and our Russian is very basic!! Some places I've been to are the Hermitage museum,Palace Square and the Church on Spilled Blood. The city is very beautiful with a really wide river, canal and many brightly coloured buildings.

Thanks for reading and praying!

до свидания (goodbye in Russian, pronounced das vee dan ya)