Aleksei and I after his service, 6pm Sun. It sure was nice to be able to be part of Aleksei's congregation again, even for only the length of a worship service. As a Lutheran pastor in Russia, he has his work cut out for him. Among those present this evening were a Norwegian family, husband and wife and two cute-as-can-be young daughters, who had been living here in Moscow a year and are going back to Norway on Wednesday. They were a pleasure to chat with, as was a young woman who will be marrying a Norwegian guy (who, she told me, is on a ship somewhere in the North Sea)-- Aleksei will be performing the ceremony next month. I met another young couple with a baby, whom Aleksei had baptized a few weeks ago; they were very nice, too. In the middle of the service, a twentysomething Russian woman wandered in and sat down...she turned out to be a Baptist from somewhere other than Moscow, but I could see she was struggling with the liturgy a bit, so I introduced myself to her and tried to help her along... Lutheran services are really not all that complicated, but the order of service takes a time or two to get down (but she persevered).
Anyway, it was great to visit Aleksei's congregation, which, incidentally, is the sister congregation of my Lutheran church family back in Texas. I wish I had had more time to visit with them!
