I am leaving Moscow tonight. I am heading to Samara for a week. We will be working with a United Methodist Church that looks like a United Methodist Church in America. The town is very welcoming to Americans and the church - a far cry from the occasional attitude found in many places in Russia. I'm sure it will be a good trip.
From there we will be going to Saint Petersburg for the Saint Petersburg annual conference. I'm sure it will be really interesting. I've heard there will be a group from America and I will get to meet a missionary from England.

I'm not sure how much internet time I will get now that I am leaving the seminary in Moscow ... but I will try to update as often as possible. I'm more than a little sad to leave this place - here I have met my first United Methodist friends from Russia.

I have some exciting news from Konakovo ... I had planned on writing about it in detail, but simply haven't had the time. Yelena Nikolaevna, Lena as we all know her, has been baptized. She is the English teacher who came to my town twice and with whom I lived for a semester. She always told me that when she repented she would repent sincerely. I'm not sure if she was baptized into the Russian Orthodox church or the Baptist church, but I feel that she is very sincere in her new religious convictions ... she is less angry and less nervous. It is good to see that God changes hearts.

Love, Michael.