Alexander Frost in Kalach

It was still snowing when we left the hotel.  The temperature was -23 with a bone chilling wind whipping our faces.  The short walk from the hotel entrance to the bus was enough to take your breath away.  Climbing onto a warm tour bus brought life into us as we started the hour and a half ride north, to Kalach.  Our destination was the Leader Youth Center where about 80 teens gather after school to develop various creative skills. As we neared Kalach, the bus stopped to pick up a young man wearing a black cowboy hat and a suit with a bright green neck tie. Pastor Alexander Moroz (which means Frost in English) joyfully boarded the bus and I noticed there was something very special about him.  Sasha (nick name for Alexander) was beaming with excitement as he conversed with Igor, our Russian leader.

Sasha has cerebral palsy however he does not let his disability stop him from doing anything!  The love of Christ oozes out of him and he has a charming spirit that invites people in. I was immediately drawn to Sasha because of his fiery passion for the Lord.

Growing up in Siberia, near the Arctic Circle, Sasha was well accustomed to the cold.  So much so, he did not wear his coat half the time and never did wear gloves! At age 12, he was reading everything he could get his hands on about religion, searching for the Truth.  Someone gave his mother a Bible and invited her to church.  He started reading the Bible and attending church as well and gave his heart to the Lord.  Attending  technical training school in Kalach brought him from the frozen tundra to the Volgograd region where he later attended Bible School. 

Pastor Alexander's church first met in a cemetery!

Pastor Sasha is now working on a University degree on top of all his other duties as pastor of the only church in Kalach!  I asked how we could pray for him because he is a little discouraged about his church.  He keeps baptizing new believers and they leave town and move to Volgograd.  His intense blue eyes sparkled as he stated his first request, a wife! Sasha needs a helper for the ministry and of course wants to have a family as would any 31 year old man.
Would you join me in praying for the struggling church in Kalach and for a suitable wife for Sasha? 

We spent the day at the Leader Youth Center where Pastor Sasha knew many of the students and staff.  Two musical presentations were planned for us, one in the morning with older students and one in the afternoon with younger students.  There was everything from accordion playing to violin, ballet and singing.

Every note this girl played was perfect.

Each performance was better than the last and the perfected skill of these young students was admirable.  My favorite was a very young ballerina who toe danced for us in a gorgeous gold costume.  She was a little apprehensive because this was her first public performance.  You would never know it was her debut because every step and sweep of her arms was impeccable. Unfortunately, the video of the "Tiny Dancer" would not upload, but it is on my Facebook page.

Mitch doing the water trick....that didn't quite work that day!

After the students performed, our team put on a show for the kids.  This is the first time I've been with a team so full of talented people.  Mitch, our airline pilot, performed some amazing magic tricks like disappearing handkerchiefs, rope tricks and of course the disappearing water trick.  The tricks usually worked well, but occasionally they didn't.  However the audience didn't know the tricks failed because we had some "clowns" on the team who make it look like it was all part of the act. 

Dandy Don singing "Cool Water"

Following Mitch the Magician, was our very own Cowboy singer, "Dandy Don" from Tennessee.  Each day Don would wear a different cowboy shirt, neck scarf and his cowboy hat and boots.  He was quite the attention getter and brought a small guitar so he could sing for the audiences.  Although Don sang in English, the children and adults seemed to enjoy the melodies of the cowboy tunes.  Many of the kids and adults wanted their picture taken with the American Cowboy!

I was "recruited" to be part of a comedy skit.  We performed the wordless skit at just about every place we visited and it brought loads of laughs from young and old alike.  The skit was about a hypochondriac who was waiting in a doctor's office with a tooth/head ache.  As he waits, three more patients come in with different afflictions which he "catches".  By the time it was my turn to enter, the hypochondriac (played by Methodist pastor and funny man, Mike) not only had a headache, but also a horrific itch, sneezing fits and was vomiting into a hat.  I played a very pregnant woman who sat down next to Mike.  As soon as he saw me, he jumped up and ran out, screaming.

Enter, the pregnant woman.  Note the wig!

 Later, we added another act which was an adorable little clown who taught the kids a silly song.  I have some pictures of her in later posts.

After all the programs the kids were excited to meet with us so we divided up into several groups and were able to spend time with them talking about our lives, our faith and the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  Each student received one of the CarePacks we put together which contained the letters written by Americans.  My group was sent to the military training room where there were pictures of guns covering the walls. The teachers in this room were all dressed in black.  I shared my father's testimony of how he went from being an atheist to a passionate Christian after a near death experience on his way home from Korea.  I had pictures of Dad in his uniform and and one from later in his life.  The contrast of his expressions in the photos tells a story in itself.  Because of recent restrictions, we were limited in what we could talk about in the classrooms, but we were able to express how much God loves them and how He has changed our lives.