Schedule

Daily Activities at Project Site

[Page revised Tuesday April 06, 2004]

Daily Schedule. We will begin and end each day with a short devotion led by volunteer members from our group from the Russian group working with us. During the workday, we will take frequent 5-minute prayer breaks to adjust our attitudes and remind us of our mission.

On Sundays we will divide the team, fan out and attend services in the four United Methodist churches in the area. Whenever possible we will try to visit services at other denominations to support them. Recalling that we came to build relationships, we will try to spend the afternoon or evening with our friends doing what they want to do, be it going to their country house to garden or go to museums or concerts or just picnicking in the countryside, perhaps even at our beautiful forest resort. There are a lot of nice, clean swimming beeches to try out.

Day-by-day Schedule

Day 1 Afternoon. Depart from Chicago O’Hare Airport for international flight. (Depending on interest and numbers, we may arrange transportation from Terre Haute or other Indiana locations.)

Day 2 Early morning arrival in Europe (London, Paris, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Zurich, or others. We are still negotiating with airlines for the best prices.) So get a good night’s sleep on the plane. Transfer to flight onto Russia. Mid-afternoon arrival in Amazing Moscow the capital of the Russian Federation, a city of over ten million. The city was in existence as far back as 1147. Transfer to hotel. Visit Red Square in the evening. See St. Basil’s multi-colored, multi-domed cathedral built in the 1490. Walk along the walls of the Kremlin fortress. Visit a super underground mall with luxurious European stores.

Moscow, Russia

Moscow is the capital of the country officially called The Russian Federation. It is bigger than New York City. Moskva as the Russians call it, or Moscow had 10,258,000 residents at the end of 2002. New York City had only 9,800,000. If we included the 6,627,000 living outside the city proper but in the Moscow metropolitan area (the oblast), then the total is staggering--16,885,000! This is slightly larger than the Los Angeless-Riverside-Orange County metropolitan district. The Russian Federation itself is gigantic, almost three times as wide as the U.S.. From West to East Russia has eleven mind-blowing time zones. the U.S. has only four. Moskva is an exciting, growing city with a kaleidoscope of churches and ethnic cultures (over 100). If you want theater, musicals, circuses, opera, ballet, Moscow has more of them than New York. The tickets at a fraction of NY prices. Like to shop? You will find stores and markets from all over the world. Whatever you might want from Europe, America, Japan, India, China, Viet Nam or wherever can be found here. Moscow buys more Mercedes than any country in the world. Store that in your fact book.

Day 3 Multi-Confessional Moscow. Visit the architectural splendors of Christianity in Russia and as many of the distinct religious confessions in Moscow. Learn about the rich 1,000-year history of Christ in Russia, including the pagans, early Orthodox, “old ritual believers” who fled to Siberia, Catholics, Lutherans, Anglicans, Baptists, Methodists, Pentecostals, and many other religious organizations. Hear about the growth of Islam, Buddhism, Hare Krishna, and a dozen other cults deemed dangerous by the Russian government.

In the evening Methodist Moscow. We will have small-group dinners in United Methodist homes, 2-3 of our group to a Russian family. Hear from the mouths of victims how the 74-year communist experiment devastated the social, religious, and cultural ties of the people.

Day 4. Multi-ethnic Moscow. After breakfast we will visit the House of Nationalities and learn something about the over 189 ethnic groups that make up the fabric of the Russian Federation (the Koreans who reintroduced Methodism back into Russia, the Tatars, the Chechens, the Jews, the Ukrainians). After a delicious ethnic lunch: Multi-ravaged Moscow, focusing on the monuments and the traces left on the soul by the 1,000 years of despotism, famines, purges, pogroms, persecutions, exile, repressions, concentration camps, uprisings, massacres, class & ethnic cleansings, deportations, and almost continuous wars on their own soil.

In the evening Methodist Moscow. We will have small-group dinners in United Methodist homes, 2-3 of our group to a Russian family. You can talk to your hosts about how religion, ethnicity, and the ravages of despotism and famines have affected their lives. Your hosts will take you to the train station for an evening departure to the project site in Voronezh where our work site will be. We will sleep in four-bed (two up, two down) sleeper compartments.

Voronezh, Russia

Americans just don't know geography. Few have heard of the city called Voronezh (pronounced vah-RONE-ish ). Yet with its 849,000 residents Varonezh is only a little smaller than Detroit (with 925,000). Voronezh is bigger than Indianapolis (with 783,00) and San Francisco (with 764,000). If you add in those living outside the city in the county (oblast) of 2,379,00, you get a metropolitan area larger than the Denver-boulder-Greeley or the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater or the Pittsburgh metropolitan areas. Yes, Voronezh is a big city. It lies 367 rail-miles S. S. E. of Moscow, reached by a slow-moving overnight train. Voronezh is older than any city in North America. It was founded in 1589 as a fort against the Tatar-Mongol raiders. But even before that the place had history. It had been occupied since the ninth century by a Khazar (an ancient Jewish kingdom on the Black Sea) town, which was abandoned in fourteenth or fifteen century. Voronezh is a major administrative, industrial, and cultural center. It has more than one thousand enterprises representing and sixteen industries. The major industries are electronics, machine tools, building materials, mechanical engineering, aircraft, chemical, and food products. The city has a strong educational sector with 15 schools of higher education (institutes, universities, and academies). There are five theaters, a philharmonic, concert halls, numerous museums, and exhibit halls to meet the most sophisticated cultural needs of the public. One of the most fascinating museums in the Museum of Books, which contains one of the first translations of the Bible printed in Latin in 1548.

Day 5 Arrive early morning at Voronezh, a city of almpst a million, located South southeast of Moscow, founded in 1585. United Methodists from our four churches there will meet us at the train and take us to breakfast either at a church or in their homes. We will take a tour of the city and learn about the progress of Christ’s work in this historically interesting region. Where Peter the Great first began, in secret, to build the Russian navy. We will learn about the Methodist’s missions to orphans, to prisons, and youth detention camps, as well as their outreach to Christian African students studying at the local university. We will drive into the beautiful, 12-acre forested site of the former factory workers’ vacation resort, which we are rehabbing. This is where we will live.

Days 6-11 You will wake up breathing fresh forest air. We will divide into work brigades to work alongside Russians under the direction of a Russian contractor. We will work hard cleaning, repairing, painting, grounds keeping, doing whatever is necessary to make the facility pleasing and inviting. We want to show the Russians our American work ethic and share our beliefs about Christ. But at all times we must remember the UMVIM slogan “Christian Love in Action.” And “Work goals matter, but relationship building comes first.”

Day 12 A day of prayer, reflection, and fellowship with our Russian friends. Weather permitting we can have picnics outdoors or home parties.

Day 13 Arrive in Moscow early in the morning. Transfer to our departure hotel. The day is free for relaxing, organizing your memories, sightseeing, or shopping. We will try to have on hand English-speaking Methodist Seminary students to help you do what you want. We can organize shopping trips to the main souvenir markets and stores. We can show you how to save enough money on your Christmas shopping to almost pay for the trip. In the evening we can arrange visits to concerts, operas, ballets, theaters, the circus, musicals at extra cost.

Day 14 The morning is free for last minute packing and a short worship service of thanksgiving for our blessings on the trip. Usually we must be at the airport about 12:00 noon. Because we are flying west following the sun, you will arrive home when it is still daylight in Chicago. (Some of the groups may have an opportunity to stay overnight in a European city and go home on the 15^th day or even stay a few extra days at their own expense.)

Click here for the Application form to attend the UM VIM or to request further information.

Created: 2/19/04
Modified: 04/06/2004