Dennis Braga – Pskov, Russia: Final Update

Hey Everyone

If I remember correctly, the last update was at the tail end of our time in Pskov and looking forward to our time in St. Petersburg. We took an overnight train from Pskov to St. Pete, hopped on the metro (train) and walked straight into the Conference. The registration and everything seem somewhat chaotic, but everything worked out. (All I have to say to that is: “It’s Russia”). To be honest, when I heard about the Youth Conference, I imagined the American version and had similar expectations (with games, breakout sessions, lots of creavity). The first day of the Conference was pretty much a typical Russian Baptist church service: music, sermon, music, sermon, music, sermon..etc. Sidenote: [Forgive me if I already mentioned this but one church service in Pskov went for 5 hours, and I had no clue what was going on]. Even some of the people that we brought from Pskov thought the first day wasn’t too exciting. I just popped in my IPod and read my Bible to pass the time. Some of the young guys from Pskov wanted to go to McDonalds for lunch and invited me along in hopes of me paying for it. If you’ve been on missions trips, you understand.

There were a lot of Russian Americans at the Conference. It was probably half American Russians and half Russians. The problem is: being the token non-Russian speaker at the entire conference, I didn’t know if someone was from America or not. The good news is: there were many people that were involved with the Pskov ministry at the Conference: Russians from Boston and Philadelphia that we knew. I didn’t feel completely left in the dark.

The second day was better. During lunch, I was talking with one of the Russian guys from Boston and he were talking about me not knowing Russian. He told me that he just met a girl at the conference that lives in the States and works for Rosetta Stone (a famous language software company). He called her over and she said that she could get me the Russian software for free. She wouldn’t be helping her employer, but it would really help me haha. Maybe God wants me to learn Russian afterall.

If you have been keeping up with my updates, many of you are probably wandering what happened to Yulia at the Conference. She was mostly with Daniel, so the facts that I have are based on what he told me. When she first entered the santuary, she felt a peace. At first, the feeling made her feel uncomfortable because she hadn’t experienced that before, but soon she felt very at home. When the first song was played, she was immediately singing and singing from the heart. She was even singing louder than the people from Pskov. During the sermons, when the preacher would ask a question (rhetorical or not), she would answer outloud amongst a quiet crowd. Throughout the whole day she was asking Daniel about how to become a Christian (in Bible terms: how to repent).

During the last sermon on the first day, the preacher wanted to have a time to repent for anyone that was not a follower of Christ. He asked people to come to the front, but Yulia didn’t want to. Then the preacher asked if there was anyone else, to raise their hand. Yulia raised her hand and the preacher asked everyone to pray for those people with their hands raised. Yulia, being the wonderful person that she is, prayed for the OTHER people with their hands raised. After the service, there was of course some confusion on her side about what happened (on whether she repented or not). Daniel spent some time with her, talked with her about repentance and she repented (in the church, where she wanted to repent)!!

The next day, anyone who knew her could see a drastic difference in her attitude and countenance. Her smile alone was full of literal joy. It was pretty amazing. Between lunch and dinner on the second day, everyone at the conference went to different areas of St. Pete and passed out New Testaments on the street. Yulia was excited and passionate about giving people the Word of God. Even on the metro getting to the streets, she was talking to people. I wish you could have seen it with your own eyes. Daniel and I were just in shocked and stoked about this.

Pray for her. Her adjustment back home has been rough. Even though her Mom likes us and allowed her to go to the conference, she is not very happy about her new life in Christ. She doesn’t want Yulia to go to church, so she has to lie to her Mom in order to attend. This is somewhat puzzling to us. Yulia has decided to quit drinking and smoking and hanging out with the “Extended Drunk Group.” How could her Mom not like this new Yulia?

After the conference, we called the local pastor in St. Pete (Sasha) that was with us in Pskov, so we can help his church this week. He told us that he was leaving for his home country of Belarus for two weeks, but advised Daniel and I to go to a camp. His church works very closely with an orpanage and many of the kids are attending this camp for the month of August. The next morning, we packed our stuff and headed out to the Camp. The camp structure was pretty simple: 1) meals 2) sleep 3) free time. It was fun walking to the lake with the orpan kids on our shoulders and playing with them in the water. Not all the kids are orphans, but may have parents that are not involved personally and only give money. It was rewarding to love on them and receive love back from them.

Now we are spending our last couple days in St. Pete with Kostya and Andew, members of Sasha’s church (that were also involved in the Pskov ministry). I am ready to go home, but it has been a blessing to have the opportunity to spend four weeks overseas ministering and being ministered too. I thank God for providing the specific opportunities (such as meeting Yulia) that made this trip more than worthwhile. Thank you so much for your love and support in making this all possible. May God bless you in how you have blessed my life.

Eph. 2:8-9

Den