Before we arrived on the ground in Tomsk, our initial plan was to do the English classes at the church and also do some work in a local orphanage. On our first day in Tomsk, we got bad news that we would not be permitted to visit the orphanage that week. However, the next day, the Lord opened another door for a few of our team members to travel an hour outside Tomsk to the small village of Malenovka to teach in their school. Up until now we had only seen the city life in Russia. Now I got to see what life was like in the country. Country life was very different. Manual labor in the fields during the summer and surviving long Siberian winters in wooden cabins makes life hard. However, many things were the same as in the city.
The factory that was once in this small village had closed down and there was no work. Many of the men were alcoholic and the young boys appeared doomed to follow in those same footsteps, choosing not to go to school and get an education. Conversely, the teachers (all women) and young girls were all motivated to get an education and took our visit very seriously since the ability to speak English could mean the difference between staying in Malenovka and getting a job and moving away from this dying village. You can see in the picture there is not a single male student. We had a good time teaching the classes and I was amazed at how well the older girls could already speak English. Our visit was a blessing as Pastor Sergey later told us that they had been trying for a long time to minister in this village and build a partnership with the school but had continually been turned away. After our visit, the school has opened up to the Church’s ministry.
Before we arrived on the ground in Tomsk, our initial plan was to do the English classes at the church and also do some work in a local orphanage. On our first day in Tomsk, we got bad news that we would not be permitted to visit the orphanage that week. However, the next day, the Lord opened another door for a few of our team members to travel an hour outside Tomsk to the small village of Malenovka to teach in their school. Up until now we had only seen the city life in Russia. Now I got to see what life was like in the country. Country life was very different. Manual labor in the fields during the summer and surviving long Siberian winters in wooden cabins makes life hard. However, many things were the same as in the city.
The factory that was once in this small village had closed down and there was no work. Many of the men were alcoholic and the young boys appeared doomed to follow in those same footsteps, choosing not to go to school and get an education. Conversely, the teachers (all women) and young girls were all motivated to get an education and took our visit very seriously since the ability to speak English could mean the difference between staying in Malenovka and getting a job and moving away from this dying village. You can see in the picture there is not a single male student. We had a good time teaching the classes and I was amazed at how well the older girls could already speak English. Our visit was a blessing as Pastor Sergey later told us that they had been trying for a long time to minister in this village and build a partnership with the school but had continually been turned away. After our visit, the school has opened up to the Church’s ministry.
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