Astrakhan's Mission Trip 2010

On the 6th March (Saturday), we were scheduled to embark for Astrakhan on a Mission trip. The local church here (Jesus Embassy, Volgograd) sent 2 teams for missions. One team to Astrakhan and the other to Akhtubinsks. Each team had 17 members. Astrakhan was a 6 hours journey from Volgograd by marshutka (a van). We left Volgograd at about 4pm after being led prayer by Bro. Akin.

We reached Astrakhan at about 11pm. As soon as we reached in Astrakhan, we were assembled at Astrakhan's local church. We were then allocated places to the local church member's house to spend the night. I stayed in a Russian house with 2 of my other friends Eccleston Kendrick (Clez) and Sarbdev Singh (Dev). We were glad because it was our first experience staying in a Russian house and to eat their food. After being served dinner, we ate and slept.
The next morning, we got up at about 6.45am. After the wonderful breakfast we had with our "foster family" in Astrakhan we left to church. As soon as we reached the church, we prepared ourselves for the church service, because the local church gave us the honor to lead the whole service from the worship to the sharing, praying, drama, offering, testimony and benediction. We felt so honored in the church. And I must confess that it was so amazing to praise and worship our Father in a new language. We all felt the presence of the Holy Spirit in the church.
After their normal worship service, they have a special service for the deaf and dumb. I personally have never seen such thing in my life before. It was so touching to see how these people worship our God without words but only with thier actions. Although they lack the gift of speech, they still retained a heart to search for God. They welcomed us to perform our drama to them too. I felt so grateful to God that I can speak and listen, and I do not want to waste it but to use it for God.
After the service, we went fora short tour to the Kremlin (a fortress) . Astrakhan is such a beautiful city with its Kremlin and many other wonderful buildings.
At about 5pm, we were scheduled to have a "Youth Meeting", locally in our church we say it was "MYF program". Due to that, we distributed pamphlets about this programs to the youths in Astrakhan. Therefore, we choose to invite the youth from 2 universities in Astrakhan, the Medical University and Polytechnic, for our program. With my very new and fragile knowledge of the Russian language, I went and spoke with the students there and invited them for our program. It was really interesting though.
We reached at 5pm in the church. The program began with praise and worship. After that was games. Clez and I were in charge of it. It was a new experience to conduct a game in the Russian language and interact with a new circle of people. We were asked to perform the drama again and after that ws the session for sharing of testimonies. After that, it was the sharing session b Ng Xun Jin, and the session was inspiring.
After everything, we were exhausted but extreemly satisfied. We left Astrakhan at about 11pm and reached Volgograd at about 7am.
Mission trips are truly amazing, great, wonderful....... and so on.It was basically a one day mission trip, but we did so many things. Here were those who attended the mission trip and some of the pictures we took there. We are so thankful to all those for have been praying for us. To all those who read's this article, we would really appreciate it if you would continue upholding us in prayer.
1. Akinola Akindamola Daniel (Akin-Leader)
2. Ng Xun Jin
3. Alpha
4. Nathaniel
5. Godwin
6. Sarbdev Singh (Dev)
7. Cheryl Chee
8. Annette Sharmila Nelson
9. Eccleston Kendrick (Clez)
10. Victoria Ivy
11. Rita Glatman
12. Dr. Asirifi Amoako Samuel (Dr. Sam)
13. Pan
14. Ker Jin Hoong
15. Viphavadi Boon
16. Katya
17. Jonah Seeni

PS. I have uploaded the video's of the Deaf and Dumb praise and worship and our drama in Facebook.Our "foster family"Me playing the bass for worshipOne side of the churchPraise and worshipOur team and the local church pastorThe dramaGroup photo with the deaf and dumb people...The deaf and dumb serviceThe youth meetingThe whole team in front of the Kremlin