Metro Zigzag

This morning we woke up EARLY (5ish)… and we had gone to bed LATE last night after arriving in Moscow (1ish)… I was zonked. I am willing to bet the rest of the team was wiped out too, but I was too tired to notice anyone else. So the rest of the day I was zoned out. And even though I had a lot of time on the metro to sort out my thoughts, they remained jumbled up. I’ve learned that traveling from one end of a city to the other by metro is tiring… I’m metro’d out. I can’t wait till we get back on a plane for a change!

We continued the talk a bit about whether or not Russians seemed happy… and Karen and I agreed to disagree. Personally I don’t feel like it was a question the team should be Xpected to answer. I believe that one week is in no way enough time to make that kind of a judgment. Especially because the entire week has been spent in cities… which I can imagine makes for grumpier people.  I feel that to make generalized judgments such as that I would need to live in Russia for a lot longer. Especially because I don’t speak Russian and I cannot talk to people. I don’t think body language necessarily measures happiness.  But like I said, this becomes a different issue the longer you stay in Russia.

After zipping through the metro, the major event of the day was some free time to talk with migrant workers who had come to Russia. I felt it may have been a zenith of the trip particularly because we really had a chance to communicate. Everyone spoke English! I have really committed to the idea that learning the host language is courteous and a crucial tool in ministry (although I recognize the reasons why it is discouraged for this trip). It is true that God equips the called, but maybe He can equip the called with a copy of Rosetta Stone. But back on subject, personally talking to migrant workers and hearing first hand of the hardships I felt will always hit harder than watching specials on the news. The workers had difficulty finding jobs, housing, and were even targeted as being foreigners (although this problem doesn’t seem to be limited to Russia). But on the hopeful side, it was uplifting to hear every worker (at least that I talked to) discussing how he trusted God in his decision to come to Russia. I hope that if I went through what they do I could still hold on to that faith.