English = Opportunity

Erika and I spent most of our time in Tomsk teaching English classes. English is in high demand all over Russia. It is a skill that greatly increases your opportunity of getting a good job in Russia. As such, most of the people that came to our classes were university students from one of the many universities located in Tomsk. While many spoke no English at all, most had some formal English instruction in their university but the opportunity to practice with native English speakers was considered invaluable. All the students were great and we all had a lot of fun getting to know each other over the course of the week.

They all were curious about who we were, why we were there, and about America in general. At the end of the week we had a graduation party and a short Gospel presentation with information available for those who might be interested in continuing to practice their English with some of the younger Baptists church members that were teaching English Bible studies. There was a great deal of interest from many of the Russian students with very open hearts. If the offer was made to a typical American audience I think it would have been received with a cold, “politically correct” attitude so common in our culture. The Russians on the other hand were appreciative of the offer, even if they were not interested. After the graduation and presentation, we all said one last good bye to our students, many of whom brought us gifts to remember them by.