After spending more or less 3 weeks in both Turkey and Israel, it almost seemed a bit of a steal to only spend 10 days in Russia, but what a full 10 days it was.
After spending the whole day practicing our drama in the Ben Gurion airport in Israel and waking up at 3:30am to check in at the airline counter, it's needless to say we were far from fully functioning by the time we landed in Moscow that afternoon. Two busses and 3 trains later, we arrived at the hosts house to be greeted by the information that in one hour, we were to lead a youth evening in a village nearby. By the grace of God, we were filled with rivers of energy as we walked into the building and had such a wonderful evening sharing with the youth and performing our much perfected drama.
The next few days were spent serving our host and his family practically by spring cleaning their house, baby sitting their two young children and revamping their garden which becomes home to over 15 youth in the summer as they attend a leadership camp run by Corrie and his wife.
We spent a day exploring the city of Moscow and seeing all the interesting things it had to offer. Moscow was definitely not like any city we'd seen before and the people definitely shocked us. After being with the Israeli's for as long as we were, we had grown accustomed to English being widely spoken and friendly faces in the streets. The Russians however, weren't quite into the interesting sign language tactic we adopt in times of language barriers and smiles are very rarely seen on their faces. However, it was a wonderful day all in all.
Before heading to the airport 10 days later than we arrived, we attended the church of our host and lead the teens service in the morning and the youth service in the evening. Members of the church also joined us for dinner and spoiled us with typical Russian snacks - of these were sachets of condensed milk which were no doubt a hit amongst the group.
A very late arrival at the airport and an uncomfortable sleep on airport chairs ended off our time in Russia in true Global fashion.
Although short, Russia holds many memories for us as a team. We were truly spoiled by our hosts and the cheap supermarket prices. It was bittersweet to say goodbye to winter weather for a while as Cuba was forecasted to be 29 degrees hotter than our last day in Russia.
The team left Russia in good spirits, ready to embrace Cuba with open arms. Adios Middle East, Hidden World is on to Latin America!
Watch this space for our next adventure update! Thank you again for prayer support and encouragement.
All our love,
Hidden World
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