SPbCU students with their teacher T.K. Nikolskaya tell about their missionary trip to Soltsy
This May, 2008, for the third year, a group of students from SPbCU went on a missionary trip in Soltsy, in the Novgorod region. This time we had a week-long program: a Christian children'
s camp, evenings meetings for local young people, and for the believers - a seminar on youth ministry.
Our missionary group consisted of 11 students and our teacher T.K. Nikolskaya. Among the students were people who previously traveled to Soltsy and also those who went for the first time.
Our trip began on May 19th. In just three hours by train, we arrived to another world - a small provincial town. At the station we met a pastor of a local evangelical church Valery Leonidovich Shilizhinsky. Of course, without his active promotion of our ambitious program, simply could not have come together. Our arrival also brought a lot of joy to the church youth.
We began almost immediately: a brief time for the accommodation, and then - preparations for the camp and youth ministry, the distribution of invitations on the streets. May 20 brought church youth together: testimonies, prayers, hymns, glorifying God.
Soltsy has very little cultural entertainment. Nevertheless, local residents responded to our invitation with caution. Understanding of evangelical faith is the most strange.
Some people say that the church is a place for harmful sect meeting or even pagans. We had to confront this ideas. Every evening at eight o'clock worship gathered guests to the church.
The evening programs for the youth had two objectives: first, to show that you can have fun 
without alcohol, drugs and foul language, secondly, to help young men and women think about the eternal questions and the meaning for their lives. Some of the young visitors came drunk, sometimes mocking us.
Admittedly, the leaders of the evening program Maxim Chepel and Katya Kalina kept up with dignity in this difficult audience. Over time, the joking ceased. Every day brought something new: "newsprint party", the film viewing and discussion, fun-night, black-and-white movie evening, picnic and, finally, the last Sunday meeting at which participants were invited to the prayer of repentance. Everyone came in - about 50 people.
And during the day, from 21 to 23 May, in the village Vybiti, we had a Christian camp at the local 
children's shelter, which was attended by 20-25 children.
Director Dmitri Popov with the help of brothers from a local evangelical churches was leading the camp.
They had games, sports competitions, contests, classes in handicrafts and, of course, talk about God. On the last day of the camp some of the children even cried, when they were saying good-buy to their counselors.
On Saturday, May 24, our students held, in a church, a seminar on youth ministry. And while the participants were less than expected, the event was met with great enthusiasm. On Sunday, students participated in morning worship. Brothers and sisters were singing, Maxim Chepel preached, and Daler Rahmet-Zadeh gave a testimony.
Every service always has trials and temptations. Strangely enough, the main test was awaiting us on the way back, after the successful completion of the missionary program.
The train on which we had planned to go home, left half an hour earlier than was indicated in the tickets. This happened because of the shift to a summer schedule, no one warned us, nor the other passengers.
We had to return through another city - Veliky Novgorod, where we had just enough money for the cheapest bus to St. Petersburg.
The missionary trip ended, but the memories remain, as well as new friends. We hope this trip will bring spiritual fruits. We ask everybody to pray about this small Russian town and for revival among local youth.