Our family’s ministry in St. Petersburg Russia
Three students at International Academy St. Petersburg were definitely shouting hallelujah on Friday as they enjoyed their graduation ceremony. At the very end Thomas directed the choir in their last performance for the school year. I thought you might enjoy seeing a little bit of Thomas’ work. (please excuse any shaking, I’ve learned that it’s difficult to make a video while holding a 2 year old)
With barely a month left before we leave Russia for a little while, we’re starting to do several “ending things”. The school where Thomas teaches will be done for the year on Monday. Friday Thomas had the last choir rehearsal of the year, which was quite inspiring. (Getting a bunch of white and asian kids to sing with soul seemed to be a little challenging.)
The school honored the teachers at a special lunch at a restaurant in the city center. The food was delicious, and the company was lots of fun! We got to talk in English and Russian, which is always a good thing.
Isaiah even made a new friend! The administrator’s husband Kevin was very kind to take Isaiah and play with him as soon as Isaiah finished eating. The restaurant had this incredible play area for kids, and I’m not sure who had more fun-Isaiah or Kevin!
Kevin was also very kind in talking with me about what it’s like being Isaiah’s mom. He gave me a “spiritual check-up” so to speak, which was much needed and much appreciated. I love how God brings our brothers and sisters into our lives at just the right unexpected times.
May 8 in America is the traditional day for celebrating the end of WWII. However, at the time the war ended in 1945, it was already May 9 in Russia, so May 9 is Victory Day. Russians love to celebrate holidays with gusto, and this time we were glad to celebrate with them. Who wouldn’t want to celebrate the end of The Great War!
I’m very glad that we were able to enjoy this day. Our friend Luda joined us for the whole day, which helped us to even better understand the importance of this national holiday. Here are some of the pictures from our day to help you appreciate the celebration as well.
In the morning there was a parade to honor the current military. It was really something with troops marching and then weapons being brought out. A canon was fired before the parade started, and we could feel our insides shaking! It was quite impressive.
Here people are standing on the outer corner of a building to view the parade.
But Isaiah had the best spot!
Here is the current Russian flag following a flag to honor Lenin. Lenin is still very popular here!
These rocket launchers brought great cheers from the crowd.
This memorial honors the citizens and soldiers who endured, fought or died during the blockade by the Germans. There was also a museum with a mosaic to honor the Russian people and artifacts from the time.
This veteran was in The Great War from the first moment the last.
In the evening there was The March of the Veterans. Soldiers who had fought in the war led the parade. Behind them were citizens who had survived the war and sports veterans (not really sure what that meant, but that’s what they were called), and finally some representatives of the Communist Party, which was interesting. While the veterans were marching the crowd was cheering quite fanatically, but when the Communist Party marched, they grew strangely quiet. There were some veterans marching with the party, and the crowd made the clear distinction to cheer for the veterans, but not for the communists.
The man on the left was a foot soldier, and the man on the right was a paratrooper, according to their flags.
These were civilian survivors of the blockade. Many of them were most likely rather young children during The Great War.
And here are the Communists. We were rather baffled at the fact that they had a flag with Jesus on it, since usually Communists are atheists, but there it is nonetheless. Here is when the crowd grew quiet, except to specifically cheer for veterans who were marching.
Sadly, many of the older people still believe that Stalin was the reason for the eventual victory over the Germans. This woman was carrying a picture of Stalin with the text, “I.V. Stalin, Creator of the Great Victory”. In reality, Stalin was probably the reason that the blockade was able to last as long as it did as he did not prepare well at all to defend Leningrad.
And of course, I had to add a cute picture of Little Man enjoying the day!
Well, time has been passing, and a lot of time has passed since we last posted here. We have been quite busy, though with language lessons and Thomas teaching and Isaiah learning how to do all kinds of new and fun things.
One new activity that we’ve enjoyed doing as a family is attending a weekly gathering at the home of a lady from church named Bella Borisovna. She has a heart for reaching people for Christ, so she started inviting people to her house every Saturday evening. She cooks up quite a feast every week–definitely the gift of hospitality is present in her!
We’ve enjoyed getting to know another family with a little boy named Pasha. Finally a little boy for Isaiah to play with! We’re fairly certain Natasha and Raman (Pasha’s parents) are not believers, but they come every week and participate in the Bible study that our pastor Mikhail Mikhailovich leads.
Not only is this weekly activity time to study the Bible together, but we also get lots of Russian practice! It’s also really fun for me to see Isaiah playing with another little boy and enjoying himself so much.
I’ve been able to talk to Natasha a little bit about Isaiah and his spina bifida. She has asked questions about when we found out about the spina bifida and what that was like, which has given me some opportunities to talk about how the Lord helped us during that time and continues to help us as we live here. St. P is definitely not what you would call “handicap accessible”! She asked me what it was like to live here with Isaiah, if it was difficult, and I think we had a good discussion about it. I say I think, but of course it was all in Russian, so I’m never quite sure if I understood everything or said exactly what I wanted to! But God is gracious, and I pray that He will work through my developing Russian skills.
