We Gonna Moscow!

Greetings, all! I am finally in the amazing city of Moscow, and I am already in love. Prepare for a novel of a blog, but these first couple of days have been action-packed!

I've barely been in this country for more than 48 hours and I feel like we have been here for a week. Want to hear about the crazy adventures I've been having?! Read on, my friends. It's been crazy.

After our international project briefing, Team Moscow headed to DFW airport. It was really strange to be 12 minutes away from my house awaiting this huge adventure before me.  I learned a lot about air travel, let me tell you what! Airplanes and Laura Sanderson do not mix. I took a Dramamine before we flew out, but I still got super queasy and dizzy as we took off. Then, not 2 minutes after we left the runway, we encountered the worst turbulence I have ever experienced. David (DLP) was sitting next to me and said that I turned white as a sheet. I survived the turbulence without having to reach for a barf bag, thankfully. DLP and I watched Return of the King on our tiny video screens, and Lauren and I giggled at our steward's adorable Irish accent (We flew British Airways. He said things like, "Cheers!") We flew to London and hit other bouts of turbulence here and there. Not fun, folks. To top things off, I managed to maybe doze for a half hour during our 10 hour flight. Yay! Thankfully, I was able to crash on a bench at Heathrow while we waited for our connecting flight to Moscow. The last leg of the trip was also a little bumpy, but I managed to keep my lunch in my tummy.
We finally made it to Moscow! We got into two vans and rode off to our hostel, the Napoleon. Moscow is absolutely beautiful. It's very green and there was lots of forest land between the airport and the big city. I pointed out the old Soviet Lada cars to my van mates (Steven Hudec, Laura Peden, Abby, and Brent). They're very box-like cars that are everywhere. I nonchalantly made the comment that you could play the "slug bug" game with them, and not two seconds later, I got an elbow in the ribs from Brent. "Box car blue!" (Think before you speak, Laura.) THAT was an enjoyable ride... We reached our destination and each had to lug our just-under-fifty-pounds suitcase up twelve flights of stairs. Okay, not really 12; we're on the fourth floor. Hello, Napoleon Hostel!
For all of you MSP veterans out there, the boys are bunking in Ekaterinburg and the girls are at the end of the hall in Vladovostok. I LOVE our room! It has some cheery purple wallpaper, and I picked the bed right next to our window. (Beautiful view!) The Napoleon is cozy. There are six rooms and one bathroom area to share with all of its guests. Two showers, two sinks, two toilets. Woohoo! Talk about team bonding on all levels. We all ate some snacks provided for us by the awesome Moscow Metro staff team, and then headed to bed. Everyone was exhausted.
Our first morning, we were escorted by Jessica (a staff member) to our first ride on the metro. What an experience! It was so interesting to see Moscovites in their everyday routines. Everyone on the metro sat or stood quietly, with stern expressions on their faces. We American kids stuck out like a sore thumb, but it's just something we'll have to get used to. We finally reached our stop for The Space. The Space is Crusade's (or New Life, as it is called here) office area and meeting place. We met the rest of Moscow staff and got to dig into God's Word a bit. What a great morning for casting our vision for project! We're bricklayers here. I'm so excited to see what God has planned for us.
We headed off to lunch in Red Square, with Dave Coates as our guide. He's a lot of fun, and he has a great knowledge of Moscow's history. We had our first lunch in Moscow at (drum roll) McDonald's! Familiar food, foreign language. I felt ridiculous trying to order my food. "Moshna pazhalsta cheeken macnuggets." But I survived!
Staff had planned an "Amazing Race" type tour of the city, and sent our ministry teams off with clues to find and explore different parts of Moscow. My ministry team is comprised of David, Abby, and myself. Steven Pittman will be joining us next week! Yay! The three of us navigated through various metro stops and got to have some fun adventures! Unfortunately, my McDonald's didn't agree with me very well and I sat out near the end of the competition with a tummy ache. It was still lots of fun. Abby and David are tons of fun. I am very happy with my ministry team, and I'm really excited for Pittman to be joining us soon!
We ate supper at a posh restaraunt (PECTOPAH in Cyrillic) in the mall and I had much better luck ordering my food! I ate my first blini! :) It's very similar to a crepe.
Once we got back to our hostel, we made a very unsettling discovery: Abby couldn't find her wallet, which also happened to contain her passport. We all prayed with her and contacted staff right away. Thankfully, things are taken care of now, and Abby isn't in any danger. What a great God we have! He knew that was going to happen, and he was completely in control of the situation.
When morning came, I got to become Jason Bourne. Abby needed to get an important document to Chris, a staff dude, and I was to meet him on the metro platform and deliver it. Sounds like something out of a spy movie, right?! It was actually pretty fun. Kaleb became my partner in crime, and we accomplished our mission with flying colors. :)
Briefing at the Space was even more refreshing than day one. Dave explained how we were going to be visiting certain campuses and what our mission was to look like. We want to be "cultural learners." I can't wait to head to campus next week! It will be a big step of faith to approach strangers and start conversations, but I need to trust that the Lord will place special people in our paths to meet and interact with. After briefing, Kim and Jessica (staff women) took us to Moscow State University, which is the most prestigious college in the country. I was blown away as we approached it: the building is incredible. I can't wait to show pictures! Our team split up into pairs to do prayer walks near campus and I partnered up with DLP. He and I walked and prayed for God to move at Moscow State, and for their small ministry to grow and build up new students in their walks with Him. We met up at the end of the road at a place called the Lookout. From the Lookout, you can see all of the "sister buildings" in Moscow. There are seven sister buildings that are built the same, six tucked around Moscow, and one that was gifted to Poland in Warsaw. Moscow State happens to be one of them. Simply breathtaking buildings. (There's a lot of amazing architecture here and I love it.) Okay, so honestly, I have tons more to write on this thing, and there's been another day of amazing activity. So this blog has to be continued. Hopefully I've left y'all at the edge of your seats. :) I miss my sweet friends and family back home! (But I'm having the time of my life over here!) Pray for continued safety and health and amazing things that only God can accomplish! Dosvidanya!