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A letter from Don and Laurie Marsden
in Russia |
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April 2, 2005
Dear Friends,
Three and a half weeks ago I returned to my family in Moscow
from the city of Salekhard, a city in Siberia situated directly
on the Arctic Circle. It was a long trip of almost three weeks,
involving visits to three cities. Harold Kurtz of Presbyterian
Frontier Fellowship, Ron Smith and David Hull from St. John’s
Presbyterian Church in Jacksonville, Florida joined me on different
legs on the journey. During our visit to the region we participated
in three seminars to train local leaders for ministry.
One of the highlights of the trip for me was when Ron, David,
and I visited a family of Nenets Christians living in teepees
in a remote region on the tundra. Ron and David had left Florida
where the temperature was a balmy 87 degrees Fahrenheit to arrive
in Salekhard with below-zero weather. They arrived without their
luggage, which included their cold weather camping gear, but our
Russian friends dressed them warmly, and the same night, we arose
at 4:00 a.m. to drive on winter roads during the early morning
hours from Labitnange through Salekhard and Aksarka to Beloyarsk.
There is no bridge across the Ob River from Labitnange to Salekhard,
but the winter ice is about five feet thick, so cars and trucks
simply drive the two and a half miles across it. My Nenets friend
and brother in Christ Peter Khudi had given me his little Russian
Niva jeep during our visit, so I was behind the wheel. Peter rode
in the back seat, coaching me with warnings about what to expect
on the road. To say the least, this trip was an adventure for
me. |
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At table with Taisia.
Taisia and her daughter among their reindeer.
This is the settlement in which we stayed with Taisia.
We took advantage of the opportunity to hone our reindeer-lassoing
skills.
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The winter roads in the area are simply created
by big trucks and tractors beating down the snow across the frozen
swamps, the ice and the islands in the delta of the Ob River. At
certain places these roads are quite hilly and bumpy. I can only
describe it as driving through an obstacle course, something at
times like a roller coaster. The big challenge in driving on such
a road is to recognize the middle of the road and to stay on it.
There is nothing but snow. We drove at night because one can recognize
the road better in the dark with the help of headlights than in
the daytime when the glare from the sun on the snow blinds the eyes.
On both the left and the right sides of the snow road are trails
for snowmobiles. It is best to avoid this part of the road, because
the snow is softer, and the wheels of the car can sink into the
snow if you move too far to the left or the right. I drove into
such a rut once, but together, with the men driving in the van that
was behind us, we were able to push the jeep out. There was another
obstacle for us. The wind and falling snow regularly create new
snowdrifts, so you come to parts of the road where you simply have
to step on the gas hard and plow right though a snowdrift. At first
I found this challenge intimidating, but the longer I did it, the
more I enjoyed it, especially the passages over hills and bumps.
(I am not sure how much my passengers enjoyed it though.) |
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We stopped around 6:00 in Aksarka
to admire the ice sculptures in the center of the settlement, and
then continued on our way. Arriving around 7:30 a.m. in the fishing
settlement of Beloyarsk, we found our Christian brother, Boris Ruskalamov
of the Khant people, waiting for us on the road at the entrance
to the village. He had driven the snowmobile from Salekhard through
the night by himself, and since four in the morning had been waiting
for us outside in the cold, because none of the believers in the
village had answered the door when he knocked. But he told us he
was not cold. We needed a second snowmobile in order to make the
trip out to the teepees. We spent most of the day looking for a
snowmobile with a driver willing to take us. Only after many hours
of searching in vain, was one found. |
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Leaving Beloyarsk around seven
in the evening, we traveled five hours on snowmobiles through
the night, with a short visit to a family living in a teepee situated
along our way. The family had asked us to stop by if we were able.
We made several other stops for a rest which turned out to last
longer than we wished because the second snowmobile would not
easily re-start. On one stop it turned out that Ron, David and
Boris had fallen off the sled and had been left behind, but their
driver had not noticed, and had continued on his way. Peter drove
our snowmobile back a half a mile or so to rescue them. We got
lost a couple times, and it was getting late. Our toes and fingers
grew cold. Finally, around midnight we arrived at our destination.
And were we ever glad to arrive in that warm teepee where we were
offered hot tea and snacks!
We slept in sleeping bags on reindeer skins laid on the floor
of the teepee. The teepee is heated by a wood stove with a pipe
to draw the smoke up toward the hole at the top. As long as the
fire in the stove is fed with wood the teepee remains quite warm.
But by the morning when I awoke, the fire had long since gone
out, and it was mighty cold, so I tucked my hooded head with its
frozen nose right inside my sleeping bag. The young women in our
teepee, Taisia’s daughter and daughter in law, arose early
to kindle and stoke the fire so when I awoke a second time it
was toasty warm.
We stayed two nights in the teepee. Our hostess was a woman named
Taisia, a widow, who is the mother of five children, the youngest
of whom is a 12-year-old crippled boy. Taisia came to the Lord
through the prayers of the church in Beloyarsk, a group of five
to ten persons who meet in the living room of an apartment. They
prayed for Taisia’s son, who was crippled from birth, apparently,
as is often the case in the teepees, as a result of the lack of
post-natal care.
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Arriving around 7:30 a.m. in the fishing settlement of Beloyarsk,
we found our Christian brother, Boris Ruskalamov of the Khant
people, waiting for us on the road at the entrance to the village.
My Nenets friend and brother in Christ Peter Khudi.
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The boy did not walk for a long
time, but now walks. Taisia has shared the gospel with all her
family. Her crippled son, her adult children, as well as their
spouses have become believers. She has preached the gospel to
the people in the surrounding teepees. She is highly respected
in the area, because as a widow she has managed to maintain and
develop the family’s reindeer herds, although they have
relatively few.
This two-day visit to the tundra was a blessing for us all. We
had time to experience a bit of life on the tundra. We watched
the young men lasso the reindeer, we practiced our own reindeer-lassoing
skills, cut done trees, chopped wood, visited neighboring teepees,
talked, and learned about Nenets life, traditions, and customs.
Our return to the village Sunday morning took only an hour and
a half, because we had a good snowmobile from the neighbor, who
also knew the way better.
Both before and after this trip Harold Kurtz, Ron Smith, and
I led seminars for the young men and women studying in the Yamal
Missionary Training College, who are being trained to more effectively
carry on the ministry both in and outside the settlements of Aksarka
and Beloyarsk and in other cities and villages of the region.
We plan to return about the same time next year with Caroline
Kurtz to conduct training seminars for women like Taisia and others
who live and bear witness on the tundra. We hope we can do the
same in Samburg, about five hundred miles east of Salekhard.
Thank you for your prayers and for your financial support of
this and other work we are doing in Russia and Siberia. We see
how God is at work and we are privileged to be a part of it. Please
read more about what we are doing in the enclosed brochure and
share news about it with your friends.
In the Grace and Peace of Christ,
Donald Marsden
Many of you will receive this letter with a brochure by U.S.
mail. For those who would like to receive the brochure but did
not, please send me your regular mailing address by email at Marsden@eamail.net.
The 2005 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p.
187
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