Bike trip – July 8 - Ishim town

Here it is a Siberian summer. The temperature is + 28C*. But the level of humidity here is very high because of swamps and natural evaporation. It is stuffy in the car. The middle speed is 25 - 30 k/h as previous days. We want to go out and stretch our muscles, but…. 10-minute stops are possible only on the command of Vladimir Skovpen. We are forbidden even to dream about any stops until we cover the next 100 km. But when the wheels are punctured we are to stop. It usually takes not more than one or two minutes. I know Vladimir Skovpen for a while. I can say that he is a sincere brother, a reborn Christian, a trustful person. When other bikers rest he prepares bikes for the next trip, mending some minor breakages. 

After 210 kilometers, we arrived at Ishim town at 15.00. Despite some small troubles – several punctures of wheels and two falls of bikers - we kept the pace of the trip. Boys enduring pain of scratches and bruises did not leave the team, though they could go for some time on the KAMAZ lorry. Levon Sarkisov is one of the members of our team. He is from Krasnodar and is a quick helper in troubles. He serves here in the Expedition as a general practitioner, traumatologist and otolaryngologyst . Though Levon is a dentist he does his new responsibilities, entrusted to him by the Brotherhood, rather well.

During the worship service, held in the church yard, three persons, with tears in their eyes asked God to forgive them. Even for the sake of these people we were to cover such a hard way. Heavens and its inhabitants rejoiced on the 8th of July and we too.

After a worship service a 56-year-old man, who drank «rather much», but still thinking rather lucidly, asked me to talk to him. Though Nikolay lives next to the Evangelical church house he came here for the first time in his life. Taking with me Nikolay frankly said that he is an unbeliever. But at the same time he speaks about himself as an Orthodox believer. Nikolay is a Russian man. According to his strong belief – all Russians are to be Orthodox. Nikolay is not afraid of death, as he believes that when he passes away he will dissolve in «Brahman». He read about it in one of the books and he liked the idea. Nikolay wears a small cross on his chest and cares for his «averter». According to his words the cross helped him several times to escape troubles, so he advises all his acquaintances to wear such an «obi». Nikolay regularly drinks alcohol, but does not think he is an alcoholic. He loves to drink Vodka. But when he can not afford to buy it he drinks any staff which contains alcohol. He does not attend an Orthodox church. He is not going to, as he does not see any sense in it. One can pray at home, and what for? Nikolay loves to read, especially fantasy. He does not understand the Bible thinking it to be a very «daedal» book.

When we gave him the children’s Bible story book Nikolay promised to read it as soon as he finished reading the next fantasy novel.