HELLO FROM RUSSIA #1
                           ====================

                        E-Mail from John Zaitseff.
                        Wednesday, 11th July, 2001


Greetings in the mighty Name of  Jesus Christ!  I hope you are going well.
This is my  first e-mail from Russia, written on  Wednesday 11th July, and
is meant to  keep you up-to-date with what is happening  during my time in
Russia.

As you  might remember,  I have been  travelling with my  brother William.
Our first stop was in Seoul, South Korea.  Seoul is not, in itself, a very
nice  city.  In  fact,  the smog  (the  locals call  it  "fog") was  quite
overwhelming.   The palaces  we  visited were,  however, quite  nice---and
fairly cheap, compared to  the rest of the city.  We did  a lot of walking
around in the humid weather.

Next came Moscow.  Again, the weather was quite humid, and hot: 36 degrees
Celsius.  William's first experience  of Moscow was, essentially, standing
on a tightly-packed bus for over an hour as we travelled from the aeroport
into the city.  It  was a little strange to go to  bed at almost 11pm, yet
still see light in the sky.

We went into the city centre the next day, firstly to buy tickets, then to
see some of the sights.  We only  had to wait about 75 minutes to purchase
a ticket to  St. Petersburg for that evening at  midnight.  Praise God, we
were able to buy  the ticket in the first place, as  this is the busy time
of the year between Moscow and St. Petersburg.

The Red  Square, with St.  Basil's Cathedral (Vasilyevskiy Sobor)  and the
Kremlin,  was, naturally,  quite  spectacular.  When  we  came, at  around
11:30am,  the  square  itself  was  closed to  all  visitors,  as  Lenin's
Mausoleum was  open.  As  no cameras nor  bags were allowed,  William went
first  while  I  waited  next  to  Zhukov's  Monument.   Which  was  quite
fortuitous: I happened to see  a wreath-laying ceremony in memory of World
War II,  with the French President  Jacques Chirac in  attendance.  I just
hope my photos come out...

William  and I  also took  a bus  tour around  parts of  Moscow.  Although
advertised as  "air conditioned",  it was not  (the "air" was  provided by
some open windows).   However, the fact that we saw many  of the sights of
Moscow (from the  outside, at least) made it worth  the Australian $6 each
of us payed.

One becomes adept  at waiting in Russia.  And we  proved this after coming
to St.  Petersburg by the overnight train,  when we had to  wait some five
hours on a  footpath outside the railway station, waiting  for our team to
come from  Helsinki.  What else could we  do with so much  luggage, and no
"left-luggage locker" facilities?  And the  stairs!  It seemed that all we
were forever doing was going up and down long flights of stairs...

The first few  days in our camp, Zvyozdochka,  were fairly quiet, compared
to my  expectations.  The  weather has been  simply wonderful---a  warm 25
degrees Celsius.   And it has  been very interesting to  experience almost
full daylight after midnight---the  famous White Nights of St. Petersburg!
We have been swimming  a lot, in the lake nearby, as  well as playing with
the  children, or  simply  being with  them  and being  involved in  their
activities.

It  has been  only in  the last  few days  that opportunities  have really
opened up to share the Gospel  with the children and the counsellors.  The
director of the  camp is a really nice man, Yuri  Pavlovich, who wants the
best for  the children.   He lets us  have free  reign, to do  whatever we
like.  He  even took  us to  a church (Russian  Orthodox) on  Sunday, even
though he is by no means a believer of any sort.

Yesterday was the first day we really had an unbroken opportunity to speak
the  Gospel.   We   divided  our  team  of  eight   Australians  and  five
interpreters into three groups, and went to three of the four divisions of
children  during  their "quiet  hour".   We  shared  what we  called  "the
bracelet Gospel": a  bracelet with coloured beads: gold  for heaven, black
for  sin, red  for Christ's  blood, white  for cleansing  (if we  trust in
Jesus),  green for  spiritual  growth, clear  for  the power  of the  Holy
Spirit.  The children  actually made up the bracelets  as they listened to
the Gospel, and they loved doing so!

We plan to participate in a "concert" of sorts, where we hope to present a
modern-day rendition  of "The Good  Samaritan", amongst other  things.  We
are certainly looking forward to this!

Please keep our team (Bill and Kerrie, Graham and Glenda, Alison, Natalie,
William and  myself, as well  as our interpreters Andrei,  Lena, Svetlana,
Natasha and Yulia) in your prayers!   We are in a spiritual battle that is
very real, as we had reason to find out a couple of nights ago.  More than
anything else,  please pray that the  Lord's Name would  be glorified, and
that people's lives would change as they hear the Word of God.

Praise God, we  have been kept safe and relatively  sound to date.  Please
pray that our Lord would continue to protect us.

I  do not  know if  or when  I will  have an  opportunity of  next sending
e-mail.   If  you have  not  already done  so,  please  read "The  Russian
Dispatch" (for June 2001) for more information on what I plan to do in the
next six weeks; you will find it at:

    http://www.zap.org.au/~john/russian-dispatch-2001-1.pdf

Until we meet again, the Lord bless you and keep you, and make His face to
shine upon you.

Yours in Christ,

John Zaitseff

-- 
John Zaitseff                    ,--_|\    The ZAP Group
Phone:  +61 2 9543 6448         /      \   Sydney, Australia
E-mail: J.Zaitseff@zap.org.au   \_,--._*   http://www.zap.org.au/
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