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One of the experiences I have most enjoyed on this trip has been worshiping God with my Russian family. While I didn’t understand very much of the service, I enjoyed the one fact that bonded us all together: we were all there to praise God. And praise Him we did, through lengthy prayers, a sermon constantly paused to be translated, and our choir performing. We started out with a few songs performed by the full choir, then our ladies and men quartets singing numbers that had me proud of my fellow students. Not just proud of their voices, but their ability to use the gifts God has given them. The concert continued with our select choir singing, and a piano piece performed by a student. After the last full choir song, the pastor of the church stood up with the translator and thanked us for being there.
But I felt most connected to the Russian branch of God’s family when they asked us to sing ‘How Great Thou Art’. While the audience sang in their language, and we sang in ours. I cannot describe what gave me goosebumps when we got to the chorus and sang as one family, as if there was no language barrier, nothing separating us from worshiping our Father together.
Another bonding experience happened later that evening while on a walk in a snowy park near the church. As we ran through the winter wonderland together, threw snowballs, and fell in the snow repeatedly, names were exchanged and connections were made. While we spoke it in different tongues, the phrase,”Who threw that snowball?” was definitely the most popular saying of the night.
As the sun set and pink light filtered through the trees, the Sabbath came to an end, and I look back to it as one I will not soon forget.
By: Alyssia Dewey ’12
Shout Out!
To the Dewey family: I love and miss you SO much, but I’m having tons of fun! Almost froze to death in Red Square, but my friends promised to carry me back to the bus to thaw, so I’m good 
. Love you tons!!!!!!!!
When going to a new country, language barriers can become a large issue. Upon arrival in Russia we found this to be the case. But while direct communication wasn’t easy, we were still able to find a way to get across most of what we were trying to say. By Sabbath evening, we had struck up a friendship with the youth of the St. Peterburg SDA Church. When earlier plans failed, we found ourselves in the basement of the church with little to do. However, this problem was quickly solved when the Russians decided to start some games.
The first we played was the popular game of charades. This was perfect for us as words are not needed to get across what you are trying to act. This brought on great fun as words were called out in both Russian and English. The few that spoke both languages were able to help us in determining who the first to answer correctly was. This fun went on for a while, but then the Russians decided to teach us a game of their own.
We quickly moved out to the hall where we formed two lines and grabbed the hand of the person opposite us. The odd person out had to run under the tunnel, grabbing the hand of a random person as they past by. Before long, others had joined in and we found ourselves laughing and cheering each person as they ran through. We went up stairs, down stairs, and back and forth down the hall until we were too tired to run anymore and many of the Russians had to leave.
It was sad to see them go, but that evening is one of the many experiences from this trip that I know I won’t forget. For a short time we were able to set aside the fact that we don’t all speak the same and just have some fun. They may live on the opposite side of the world from us, but we still all share many of the same things. Whoever said ‘laughter is the same in every language’ knew exactly what they were talking about.
By Julia Bonney ’10
Shout Outs!
I was asked to give some shout outs to a couple of the parents. Here they are!
To the parents of Jessica and Ito Perez – they want you to know that they are cold but very much alive.
To the parents of Shelby Buckner – she says she LOVES you guys!
We’ve made it to St. Petersburg where we have plenty of snow on the ground with more falling. Everyone is doing well. We’ll be staying at the St. Petersburg church while here and have limited internet.
I’ll update more once we get to Zaoksky on Monday.
