PERM, KUSHVA, NIZHNI TAGIL, EKATERINBURG,
FAR EAST OF RUSSIA...

It's been a while since my last blog. A combination of being on the move often and very limited access to internet, sorry. I am writing from the Russian Far East, we arrived 3 days ago after a 10 hour flight from Ekaterinburg (9,000 km). If we stayed with our original plan we would still be on the Trans-Siberian Express train with 2 more days to go. We have done some coaching and played a couple of very interesting games. During our 2nd coaching time we changed how we finish off the practice by now telling the kids who we are and a little about our faith and then talk about passions and lifestyle choices. Brian, who has been head coaching all of our practices did a great job with this.

COOL STORY:
When we coach and play in so many outdoor rinks, IN THE COLD, sometimes we wish that we could play in a nice indoor rink. At one of our receptions after playing another game in the freezing weather a young hockey player of about 21 who happened to play for us this night, waited to talk to me. He said to me," Why do you come and play with us in this outdoor rink when you could play in the big stadium?" Inside, my heart melted. Why? Because in Russian hockey the kids start at age 5-6 and if they show promise they get funnelled into the big program usually in the big stadium, they get all the icetime and coaching leaving all the rest of the kids as somewhat of a "hockey outcast" playing at the outdoor rinks. They have coaches but they do not have the opportunities like the big clubs. The young man who asked why we wanted to play with them was truly happy, surprised and blessed that we wanted to play with them.
In the Ural Mountain region it seems that we attract alot of attention the newspaper and TV reporters and cameras find us and ask us why are we here, so we are able to tell them who we are and why we are in their city.

PERM REGION:
We spent only 5 days in the Region. We visited an orphanage, a high school, a church, a housing complex for deaf adults, overnighted in Chernushka and of course did some coaching and played games. Glen stayed at the YWAM Perm base while Brian led most of the outreach here.

KUSHVA:
Our favourite location 2 years ago. Pastor Misha and his church hosted and blessed us very much and I think our team definitely encouraged Misha and his church. Alexei, my friend from 2 years ago is the head of all sports in Kushva but his real passion is hockey, had us coaching and playing during our 3 days here. The Russian Orthodox Church has some real influence in the region and Pastor Misha is still under the cloud that he was under 2 years ago, however there has been some cool stories coming out of this community.
We stayed in the coldest Sport Hotel ever and a few of us ended up getting colds.

NIZHNI TAGIL:
Forty minutes from Kushva is NT, a city of over 300,000. Sergei, a leader in a large local church was ready for us. Within a couple of hours of us arriving we were guests at a childrens sports awards with Glen as a guest speaker. The message was good lifestyle choices. Sergei had us busy for the 4 full days in his city: 3 games, many coaching times with kids, speaking in church service, guests on a Kids TV show that apparently was watched by over 400,000 people and a highlight for all of us was the last night in a large room at the rink we gave our personal stories and a message about healthy choices and faith with 80-100 kids/teens and adults.

EKATERINBURG:
Two hours south of NT is Ekat. a city of 2.5 M. Our first time here, but 2 years ago Glen met pastor Evgeny from the New Life church ( the largest in Ekat.). Evgeny plays hockey so he understands what we are doing but while setting up our time in his city he met many leaders in the hockey community for the 1st time so this was really good for him. How's this for a schedule; 6 games in 5 days at 6 different locations, coaching in 4 locations and a youth service where the team spent an hour answering questions from about 100 young people. Seems like passions and dreams were a theme and we believe many youth were impacted to pursue what God has put in their heart to do.
After every coaching time and game the team spent time with all of the participants, giving life changing messages of hope, handing out Bibles and literature supplied by New Life Church to every person.

Thank you for hanging in and reading this long blog.
In 2 days we'll be off to East Asia and Feb. 24th we'll fly back to Vancouver. This might be my last blog entry until after Feb. 24th.

Enjoying the journey!