The Longest Yard

Hello from Jarcevo in far western Russia! It's been an enormous week since the last entry & in many ways possibly the toughest I've had. There were times when I was within an inch of yelling up to heaven, "C'mon! A little help please!" but time after time found myself instead taking a few deap breathes, peering out through watery eyes & saying softly, "I trust you Lord." I left Moscow well before dawn & walked out under the gaze of hundreds of years of history. The city is alive. Dazling lights lit up every street block & the mix of history & modern life was like no othr city I've ever seen. I made one wrong turn but made my way out onto the open freeway (the M1) with a skip in my step & a tune on my lips. By mid afternoon that skip had turned into a limp & the tune was more of hum. The time off over Christmas & then the siberian crossing had sapped more fitness from me than I'd accounted for & my body was beginning to pack it in. There was no snow within Moscow at all so the going was pretty good. Even so, my left archilles tendon became strained & my right knee began to ache. I was a hobbling mess by the end of the 1st day & wondering what on earth I was supposed to do with the rest of the journey. I eventually found a small motel to stay the night at & they gave me my sheets & sent me off to my room. I could hardly move so even making my bed was a chore (actually it is when I can move freely anyway). I think my body had began to go into shock from the 49km I'd pushed through because my temperature was going up & down & I felt horrible. To my dismay, there was no hot water left in the motel so my shower lasted about 2.5seconds. I then threw my socks & undies in the sink to do my nightly washing but when I turned the tap on out spewed the foulest orange/brown water that immediately stained everything it touched. Now, I don't particularly wish to disclose the colour of my underwear (they're white) but the orange/brown stains weren't a good combination. "Oh that's just brilliant" I thought. There's was nothing more I could do so I just went to bed. The next day I walked 22km to a small town where the Germans had been haulted by inclement weather in WWII as they tried to take Russia. A lot of the remnants of war where still in sight & I was told that the young soldiers training in the area still find rifles, bombs & clothing out in the forest. There was a small church there as well but the reception there was as warm as the weather. The priest couldn't have cared less & simply walked away form me without any acknowledement. I limped off to find a motel & after a few wrong directions form locals & lovely lady by the name of Victoria offered to show me to the door of a hotel. It was a short bus ride & then a 10min walk so I wouldn't have found it without her help. She asked a for a room on my behalf but the receptionist simply yelled through a small window, "We're full!" & slammed the window door shut. I couldn't believe the rudeness but Victoria didn't seem to bat and eye lid. She just keept talking & eventually the lady on the other side yelled something back which was apparently the address of another place I could stay at. As we walked away, Victoria commented that she & her husband holidayed in Spain & that the hotels were a lot more friendly there. I added that any country in the world is more friendly than 'that'. The next motel was also full but a young soldier there pointed me to a 3rd place so I hobbled off once again. I found a room there but my leg had become so bad that one knee seized up almost completly. I could only bend it about 5degrees before it locked. I still had to find dinner so I used my walking pole as a walking stick & with an old-man 'swing-of-the-stiff-leg' hobble ventured out once again. The next day as I left the infamous war town, the weather, once again, turned inclement. The snow was flying in sideways & the roads were covered. With a strained archilles & a seized knee trying to walk through snow was, to say the least, difficult. Around 3hrs into the day I had that sinking feeling that I'd left something behind. It was my socks & undies - they were hanging up on the hot water pipe drying. And wouldn't you know it, it was my brand new pair of socks & NOT the stained undies. It was too far to go back so I had to get used to the idea of now having only 2 pairs of socks & one & half sets of underwear. By nightfall I was still some way off my destination as my pace was, well, let's say a little old lady with a hunch managed to overtake me at one point; it was slow. The town's folk in Mozajsk were more friendly than the last place & whisked me off to a motel. In the process though I realised that for some reason I was only wearing one glove & the other one was no wear to be seen! I'd taken it off to grab something out of my bag & I guess the glove is where I put it down. I carry 3 pairs of gloves because of the extreme temperatures so I can get by without that pair but they were favorite. I still haven't thrown the other glove out yet. Anyone need one glove? Michael Jackson only wears one, maybe we can do a deal? I didn't have enough money for the room at the motel so I had to duck across the srteet to an ATM. As I was returning I jumped up off the street into the snow but misjudged how much snow there actually was & badly strained the other Archilles tendon! The pain was agonising & I was left standing on one leg on the side. I contorted my face in ever colourful manner but managed to keep my mouth shut. The pain eventually subsided & I double-limped back up to my room & collapsed on my bed. The next day was a slow, 'not much to write about' day. Long & slow with both ankles struggling in the snow & now both knees struggling to warm up & enjoy full movement. I had a strong sense at that time to call home & let my family know I was ok (or so I thought) but I couldn't find a phone or internet so it had to wait. After nearly a week on the road I still hadn't been invited to step foot inside someones home but a truck driver from Belarus called me up into his cab as I walked past & invited me to share lunch with him. His name was Vitali & he was a gem of a bloke. He lives in Brest in western Belarus & has invited me to come & have dinner with him & his family as I pass through in few weeks time. His Volvo truck made for a comfortable lunch stop. A few days later I stayed in a town called Gargarin & I was shown to a motel by a beautiful girl called Julia. She spoke English well & chatted the whole way there. At the motel the receptionist couldn't fill out the appropriate government forms because it made no allowence for non-Russian customers. Hence, Julia offered her details & so for one night, I was officially 'Julia.' You'll be pleased to know that I've reverted back to Sam again. The next morning I stopped into a pertol station to pick up my day's supply of food (it's really difficult here to find healthy food for the road - muslie bars & fresh fruit are non-existant) & then hit the road. After a few hours of walking & some time of prayer I reached for something to eat & was absolutly livered to discover that I had left all my food sitting on the counter at the petrol station! It was too much. I forget things every now & then but all of this one after the other was beating me into a pulp. I was hungry, I was annoyed, I was sore & I was tired. I sarcastically noted to myself, "If at first you don't succeed, don't get too hung up about it because you're probably going to stuff again pretty soon!" But the sarcasm soon gave way to reality & I found myself thinking more along the lines of, "If at first you don't succeed remember that it's got not nothing to do with success." I kept trying to find internet access or a telephone to call home but nothing was ever open or working so I had to push on. On Thursday I had the worst case scenario pop up. I was walking slower & slower & hence finishing my days later & beginning the next day later & so it began to snow-ball. Thursday saw me walking to a town where there was no gaurentee of any accomodation & as it was, I arrived at 10pm to nothing more than a service station. There was no where to pitch my tent (a foot of snow everywhere), the buses had stopped running & non of the locals, as friendly as they actually were, where offering me a place to bunk down for the night. Instead I had to walk on towards Safonovo, a 72km walk from my starting point. My left knee had seized up again so I had to make a pit stop in the snow & very gingerly kneel down to apply some cool pain relief. While down there I took the oppurtunity to ask God for some help, but ultimately for his will to be down. I was very thankful that within a few mintues of starting up again my knee un-seized & I was able to pick the pace up. I arrived at Safonovo at a staggering 4:15am. I was given a very cheap room & fell into bed around 4:30am. Just to add to my frustration though, my body was in so much pain that I couldn't sleep. My feet felt as though there was nothing but open flesh (they were atually all in tact) & my hips felt like I had nails being driven into them. By 10am I still hadn't been able to sleep so I got up, had a shower & some breakfast, pulled my boots on & walked into town to find internet or a phone. Once again though, nothing. I walked to the other side of town, checked into a motel & this time slept for about 12hours straight. Last night, after a short 22km walk, I arrived in Jarcevo. I could see a church spire through some pine trees a good kilometre or two off the highway so I wandered down through the forest & eventually found it. I was so happy to at last be welcomed into a home. The priest here, Father Vasil & his family welcomed me with open arms & fed me more in 12hrs than I think I've had for teh whole week. I attended night prayers with them last night & then Sunday Mass this morning & have enjoyed their company. Last night though I was finally able to contact home via email but as I logged into my hotmail account I was met with a progression of emails detailing the health of my nan (mumma), her deteriation & then finally, one asking me to call home immediately because she had passed away. Mumma was buried yesterday & I was able to speak to my family this morning. This week has, for many reasons, most certainly been the longest yard of this jounrey so far. My body is healing slowly & I feel physically better today than of any day since leaving Moscow. The prayer continues & the invitation to join in praying for unity is ceaseless. I hope to be writing about all the pretty flowers & butterflies that I encoutner in next weeks blog & perhaps the bucket of bleach I was able to plunge my undies into. Until then though, may His will be done! God bless, Sam.
"We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body." 2Cor 4:10

The Trans Siberian & Mother Russia

From Moscow, Russia, a very big hello & welcome back! I'm only a stone-throw from the infamous Kremlin in downtown Moscow on a mild winter's night. I'm now roughly 9,200km from Vladivostok, where Justin & I began our trans-siberian trek 7days ago. We were already behind schedule because of the passport fiasco but we were set back even further when our train was cancelled & we were forced to catch a slower second train the following day that was scheduled to arrive in Moscow today (the 16th), which also happened to be the day Justin was scheduled to fly back home. All of a sudden our plans for making a few stops along the world's longest continuous railway in order to visit the local churches & take in a few snippets of Siberian life were dashed. It would instead be a non-stop, 7day train ride. Each carriage on the train has 9 cabins with two double bunks in each & each carriage is looked after for the entire trip by a worker called "The Provinitser". As we approached the train Justin commented that, especially because of the language barrier, we should get on the good side of the Provinitser to make the journey a little easier. As we walked along the platform to our carriage we saw a lady knock on her carriage's door & the provinitser opened up for her, so when we arrived at our carriage we did exactly the same thing. In hind sight Justin & I think that the lady a few carriages up was a perhaps worker for the trains because when our Provinitser came to the door she didn't open it, instead, she opened her mouth with the most severe Russian tyrade the human race has ever encountered (possibly). We didn't understand a single word she blasted out, but we got the point. She disappeared back inside & Justo & I simply stood outside the train in silence, staring at our reflection in the door, trying to make sense of our failed relationship with the Provinitser. Eventually the door did open up &, along with a few gathered patrons, we boarded our home for the next week. The Provinitser was about 5ft tall & she didn't crack a smile the whole afternoon. Late in the evening we'd made a stop at a small secluded town & as I made my way up to the carriage's hot water urn I noticed the Provinitser struggling at the door with a new passenger's over-sized travel case. It was a divine appointment as I was able to carry the luggage to the cabin & although the Provinitser didn't say thankyou she at least smiled at us about 3 hours later. The trip was long. And Russia in winter is pretty similar even over 9000km worth of track - icy, cold & white. Justin & I were joined in our cabin by Alexi & Angela, a father a daughter who were travelling back to their home town just outside Moscow. They didn't speak any english & we didn't speak russian so it made for some animated conversations using mime & pictionary. They were beautiful cabin mates & when the conversation became too difficult to maintain we'd simply resort to sharing food with one another. The Russian towns along the journey provided the only interludes of change as we passed through townships settled by Europeans or Mongolians or even Tatars. The architecture was dazzlingly simply. Does that make sense? Basically, it was really basic, but so interesting. Some towns looked like fairy tale versions of the north pole; small wooden houses camped side by side with pencil-columns of smoke rising from every chimney. The most intersting part of the whole trip had to be the time when the train screeched to a hault sending my water bottles & books flying off the cabins table onto my head as I rested on my bed. We were in the middle of Russian wilderness (east of Siberia) & word was spreading quickly that we may have just hit a man. We were all pearing out our windows & wouldn't you know it, there he was, lying in the snow outside our carriage. He was yelling something & moaning a lot but thankfully we soon realised that he hadn't been hit but instead, was heavily intoxicated. He had apparently tried to wave the train down from the middle of the tracks but managed to just staggered aside before being mowed down. He could see us looking out at him so he picked up a rock & hurled it at the window. The rock bounced off but he had thus earnt himself a meeting with one of the trains engineers who appeared on the scene carrying a hammer. I was a little concerned about what the hammer was going to be used for but after a quick conversation with the intoxicated gentleman, the only thing that was used was his boot. The engineer karate-kicked the drunk man in the chest & then gave him a quick royal boot up the backside & drove him away form the tracks. The last we saw of him he was stumbling his way back up into the forest towards a smouldering campfire. The engineer boarded the train & we started off down the track again. We said a quick prayer for him but there really wasn't much else for us to do. We really were like fish in a bowl, couped up in our carriage for whole week. There were no showers, just a cramped, smelly toilet with poor water flow from the tap. The only space away from our cabin was the space seperating the carriage from the linkage with the following carriage. Justin & I nicknamed it the 'meat-locker' as it generally stayed at the same temperature as the frozen wilderness outside. And for two days in a row, that was -39degC. I ventured out there a few times to do a few sets of push-ups but for the most part it was the smokers closet so between lung-freezing air & cancer-causing smoke I had to pick my time out there carefully. Justin & I also went very close to losing all our gear when we jumped off the train at Omsk, walked forward 8 carriages to the dining cart & re-boarded. We sat down for a meal & upon finishing up, made our way back through the now moving train. Back in our carriage, all mayham had broken loose when the train started up again because the other passengers (whom we'd all meet & begun to know well by this stage) had noticed us leaving the train but not getting back on. They had all been a little up-set that we'd been left behind but the end conclusion was that they'd turf our gear out at the next station. When we walked through the final 'meat-locker' into our carriage we were suprised to be met by a bizzare mixture of confused faces, arms in the air, smiles, laughter & a bit of a stern word from the Provinitser followed by a smile. We were very thankful for having arrived back from dinner before the next stop! That was our 2nd trip to the dining cart. On the 1st trip we'd met Nicholie, who sat down beside Justin, put his arm around him & declared that us Australians were beautiful. I think he was a smart man, but I think it freaked Justin out some what :-) Needless to say, we didn't venture back there for quite a few days, opting instead to eat from teh comfort of our cabin with Alexi & Angela. It was pretty rough trying to sleep in the cabins. The beds were small & the track was bumpy & loud. We also travelled through 7 time zones, which threw us out a bit as well. When I noticed that the sun was rising at 2pm I decided it was time to play with my watch. I thouroughly enjoyed my time with Justin as we prayed, ate, laughed & absorbed some russian culture together but all things must come to an end & Justo is currently on a flight back home to Perth in West Australia. Justin caught a cab from the Moscow train station (it was actually a bit sad saying goodbye to the other passengers form our cabin as well!) & I walked off down the busstling Moscow street into a settling snow shower. I made my way to the hostel I'm now in via Red Square, surrounded by the imposing Kremlin, the stunning St Basil's Cathedral &, in somewhat a sign of the times, an outdoor ice-rink opposite Lenin's tomb. I think the Russian figure skaters may have been training there. I was filming a bit & happened to focus in on one bloke who was gathering speed around the outside. He then launched into a triple-axle & nailed the landing. "Wow", I thought, "who are you?" His efforts gained some applause from the crowd some I'm just assuming he's famous. Does anyone out there follow figure skating? I'll send you the footage... From here I head south-west towards Belarus & Poland. Time is once again against me with the Russian visa requirements being very strict so I will need to get my skates on. All the best for the rest of the week & I'll try to write again on Sunday week. God bless, Sam.
"Jesus replied, "Let us go somewhere else—to the nearby villages—so I can preach there also. That is why I have come."" Mark 1:38
ps: It's the International Week of Prayer for Christian Unity!! As a great "something we can do" please check out www.onedate.org to help along the process for Chrisitan unity & as always pray, pray away!

A funny thing happened on the way to Vladivostok

At the start of this week I & the Quist family said goodbye to my younger brother, Chris, who flew back to a very warm Australia after enduring a very chilly Canada. Chris headed home with a suprise for his girlfriend, a beard, & I set about planning the final aspects of the Russian leg of the journey before heading off. When I arrived in Edmonton 2 weeks ago I had to send my passport off to Passports Plus (a visa issuing company) to have my Belarus Visa completed. Due to the up-coming holidays at that stage of the year as well as the short time that I was to stay in Edmonton, I had payed extra to have the passport processed in 24hrs & returned to me straight after Christmas. My passport though, didn't turn up as agreed & Passports Plus were closed for the Christmas break. I was scheduled to leave Edmonton on the 2nd of January, which was also the first day Passports Plus were to be open after the return date of December 31st came & went. I made contact with them early in the morning to discover that they had forgotten to place the passport on the 24hr turn-around list & so it was sitting in Washington DC & not likely to be returned for another week. The lady on the other end of the phone believed that I hadn't given them authorisation for the 24hr processing option but after I reminded her that our enitre conversation the week before was about me not wanting to send it back to them to have the Visa completed because of a lack of time & that she had said that she could rush it through for me on 24hr processing & have it back to me well before I left, she finally agreed to do all that she could to get me my passport. Unfortunatly we then discovered that the Belarus embassy was closed & so the absolute earliest I could receive my passport by would be the 4th, unless I wanted to pay $1100 & I could have it on the 3rd. Either way, I wasn't going to make my flight. I opted for the 4th of January, forgot about the missed flight & simply set about changing my itinerary. I couldn't change all of the 3 flights to Vladivostok & so had to purchase some from scratch, costing me another $870 on top of the original cost of the flights. Through the help of Epay Lara at Glades Travel in Sydney I managed to get a new flight departing on Saturday morning at 6am. I would arrive in Vladivostok after the Trans Siberian train had left & would have to wait for the Tuesday train, forcing me to make a direct path to Moscow on the train without any stops (6days worth). I was a little concerned on the Friday when my passport hadn't arrived by lunchtime & then even more so when I couldn't contact anyone at Passports Plus. It wasn't looking good & though it hadn't really bothered me too much in losing the first flight (& valuable funds), the thought of losing another flight & potentially any chance of having enough funds to finish this journey was beginning to wear on me. There were a lot of prayers being said & by 4pm I needed to get out & just go for a walk. The passport was nowhere to be seen & as I walked up along the snowy country road, every car that came into view made my hopes rise for a split second as I thought it just may be the delivery, but it never came. I just walked & prayed. I prayed for the passport to come, but mainly for God's will. If it didn't come, then it had better be a part of His plan in all this! At around 4:30pm I arrived back at the house & rang Fedex. Passports Plus hadn't given me a tracking number so I had no access to it but after explaining the circumstances & handing over all me personal details the lady on the other end gave me the tracking number & confirmed that it was in fact in Edmonton. She then though told me that it wouldn't be delivered until Monday because the address I'd given her wasn't a correct mailing address. That sent all of us into a spin as we tried to find out what the 'correct mailing address' was. Eventually we discovered that the rural address I'd given them was in fact the correct mailing address & that there was no other means by which to mail to the farm. I then contacted the local Fedex branch to ask where the parcel was so that I could pick it up myself & I was told that they'd call me back once they'd tracked it down. Half an hour later the phone rang & Fedex informed me that the package had accidently been sent to Fort Saskatchewen, a neighbouring town, & that it wouldn't be available until Monday. I asked calmly if I could please go & pick it up & she told me that that was fine, & I could meet the driver at the depot at 5:30pm. So, with my bag packed & my hair still not grey we all piled into the Quist's van & made the pilgrimage to the Fedex depot. The package wasn't there when we arrived, so we sat in the van & prayed. At 5:45 the driver turned up & thankfully, there was the package & inside was my passport (& a bill for over $500 from Passports Plus). I was so relieved to finally have the passport in my hands & right at the 11th hour; my bus to Calgary airport was leaving in one hour. We drove into the city, picked up my bus ticket & then sat in a cafe for half an hour with a very satisfying warm drink. Thank you so much to the Quist family, for all of your hospitality & support, your warmth & humour & in particular your generosity of faith. And thank you to Colin & Laura (across the farm road) for letting Chris & I stay in your basement! At 7pm I was on the bus & heading south for he 3hr trip to Calgary. I arrived at 10:30pm, bought some food, walked for one & a half hours to the airport, called a few people back home to let them know that I was finally on my way & then checked in at 4am. I didn't sleep that night & on the 4hr flight to San Fancisco I didn't sleep either. I had 2hrs in San Francisco before boarding my Korean Air flight to Seoul in South Korea. I was fascinated by the touch screen interactive system mounted on the back of every single seat on the plane & it had everything like movies, documentaries, music, games & even Blackjack if I really got bored. We took off at 1:20pm & I still hadn't slept. To my frustration, airline seats aren't built for people my height & I simply couldn't get to sleep. The back of the chairs finish at my shoulders & my knees were already hitting the seat in front of me so I wasn't able to slide down. I tried sliding my feet under the seat & sliding down my chair to get more comfortable but there just wasn't enough room. I stayed awake for all but 20min of the enitre flight. Other than not sleeping for 36hours, the flight was unforgetable. The flight path took us north-west up over Alaska, across the Bering Strait & down across Kamatchaka peninsula in Russia. The incredible array of mountain peaks & ice was breath-taking. We followed the sun the whole way with it getting away from us a little as we headed up over Alaska but as we dipped back down along the Russian coastline the sun slowly rose over the south-western horizon again & pretty much stayed there for the entire trip, setting as we landed in Seoul. The service onboard was fantastic & I was even more impressed at Seoul airport where I discovered that they place all transit passengers (I flew to Vladivostok the next morning) in the Hyatt Hotel & pay for all meals. Not bad at all. I've always wondered what the Hyatt looked like on the inside :-) I got one of the best nights sleeps I've had in a long time. This morning as I entered the airport I amazingly discovered that I'd been carrying a 3inch nail in my wallet since leaving Calgary Airport (long story) so once I'd inconspicuously tossed it in the bin I boared my flight & made the short hop across the Sea of Okotsk to Vladivostok. A good friend of mine, Justin Carrick, decided to join me for the Trans Siberian Railway so he has been caught up in all the passport mayham but is now thus aquainted with this diverse city. He has been sitting here for four days by himself, practising his Russian on the receptionist & taxi drivers & discovering snow for the first time in his life (he's from Perth). Both of us had very similar experiences coming into Vladivostok; firstly we saw the decommissioned aircraft sitting along the side of the runway, followed by an enourmous smoke stack (perhaps for burning decommissioned planes?) & then the Russian soldiers on the tarmac. And believe it or not, the movies are all correct!! Half of the soldiers, all in their bushy black head attire, were women with long blonde hair! And I'd always thought that Hollywood was so pathetic with its casting. Both Justin & I also discovered on our taxi rides into Vladivostok that keeping a safe distance while driving is not efficient & thus unheard of. I also saw 3 minor bigles on the trip from the airport to the hotel - Not so efficient now. This evening Justin & I walked down to the Bay of Vladivostok... & then walked out across it. I pointed the camera at Justo & asked him to explain what the main dangers were in walking across a frozen sea but before he could answer I tripped over a chunk of ice & strained to keep upright. So, it turns out that the first danger of walking across a frozen sea is trying to film someone & not watching were you're going. So, at long last, I can very happily say, "Hello from wintery Vladivostok!" Next week we hope to be in Moscow, but the journey continues here & now. Please pray for us & in particular, for the unity of all Christians, in truth & in love. Peace be with ya, Samuel & Justin (or in Russian, Самуэль и Джастин).
"When anxiety was great within me, your consolation brought joy to my soul." Psalm 94:19