Day 3- " It does not work"

Day 3 began with someone peeking their head into our train cabin, saying something in Russian and closing the door. By then we had come to realize that one of Janet's many spiritual gifts is translating Russian. She looked at us and said.. "He said that we are almost there and you had better get up and dressed... or something close to that." Janet had guessed correctly. We were almost there. A mad scramble to re-pack and get dressed resulted in Paul having to brush his teeth and rinse his mouth with Sprite and Janet wearing her 'train clothes' the rest of the day.
Our team was greeted at the station by Pastor Sascha (I probably spelled that wrong) and the American missionary Chet from Texas. Pastor Sascha took us to McDonald's and we were ready to cry from joy. Food we knew and ice in the drinks!!! WOOHOO!!!!! We had a great time sitting around eating and getting to know everyone. A walking tour around Cheboksary kept us awake and moving until our 2 translators arrived. Welcome Natasha & Zhenya!

From June1

From June1

From June1

Once we had everyone, it was time to leave for Yoshkar-Ola. (sounds kind of like yoshKAla). This was the day that I learned it’s better to close your eyes and not watch the road. The cars fly along at speeds to make Nascar drivers proud and lanes are really just a suggestion. If you decide that it appeals to you to drive in the middle of 2 lanes, one of which is oncoming traffic, Ehhh… it’s fine. I suspect that the Russian drivers are also closing their eyes. We arrived safely (and fast) because of our awesome driver. He is a believer from Cheboksary. We referred to him as ‘Fast Eddie’ but I’m not sure what his real name is.
At this point it is now Wednesday. We have flown from America to Russia, traveled the Moscow Metro, traveled by train to Cheboksary and then to Yoshkar-Ola by van. No one had showered since Monday morning. Well that was when I had my last shower… I don’t know when my travel buddies could claim their last bath. Finding the Hotel Evrika was a challenge but we were able to find it and get settled in nicely. We had a short time to shower and change before we were off to meet the Pastor Anatoly and some local church members.
The church there is slowly being built week by week as they are able to get supplies and arrange for help. Natasha and Zhenya were able to help us chat with the church members and once Marc arrived we settled in to do a few interviews. We also discussed the Mari people with them. We talked about things that have been successful in reaching the Mari people and other things that have not worked in the past. Marc mentioned the Jesus film and was told “It does not work” (This became very important on our last day there.) They suggested English camps, Sports camps, even a scrapbooking camp! The group told us that the Mari would attend all of these but would leave before we could share any type of gospel message. Finally one man suggested we bring them some hot air balloons to attract people. I politely told him that I didn’t think I could get them on the airplane. We mentioned going into the villages and were told that Mari people would want nothing to do with us, going as far as to say that they would run from us. Marc was able to get some video and interviews from this meeting but I will be honest in saying that the mood after this meeting was very subdued and introspective. My thoughts basically ran something like this. “OK God, I’m here, I thought this is where you wanted me. Show me what I’m supposed to do because I’m completely lost at this point.”

From June1

From June1

We made our first of many 11pm walks to McDonalds and planned to meet early the next morning for breakfast.