Bike trip – July 14-15 – Novosibirsk

We see a long line of vehicles behind us. We see that cars stop by the waysides. We are “full owners” of the highway. Accompanied by road inspection cars we enter Novosibirsk town. We ignore traffic lights and traffic rules and continue our way.

 

Novosibirsk was founded in 1893 where the railroad bridge was constructed across the Ob’ River.  At first the village was called Aleksandrovsky in honour of the Russian tsar Alexander the Third. In 1895 it was renamed and became the village of Novonikolaevsky. In 1903 it became a town and in 1925 it was renamed and called Novosibirsk. On the 13th of May 2000 according to the Presidential decree Novosibirsk town received the status of the central Siberian city and became the centre of Siberian Federal area, which unites 16 subjects of Russian Federation.

 

After lunch and a short rest we went to the park named after Kirov. Evangelical Christians received permission for the action in the town park without much difficulty. But there was one prerequisite – to say nothing about religion. We were allowed to propagate sport, physical culture and say about some interesting episodes of the Expedition. I found out about this restriction of the “freedom of speech” only a few hours before the event. I was disappointed. All the songs we prepared were about God. We had with us only Christian magazines, as well as the NTs, which we planned to give out to all visitors. What we were to do? How to present our program? The answer from God came through Dmitry, the truck driver. He did not know about the restriction and put the banner with the words “Gospel to the nations of the world” on the stage. I understood – we did not propagate religion, but Christ. We had the usual evangelistic meeting, One elderly lady said to me: “It seemed to me that the sky was opened and God looking at me said: “I forgive you!”

 

We were to go 280 km to Kemerovo town and stop there for rest. It was too hard for bikers to wheel for such a long time. Alexei V. Sofeev, Senior Pastor for Novosibirsk region offered us to start after lunch and go to Bolotnoye town first, in 120 km from Novosibirsk and stop there and stay overnight in the church house.

 

Next day on the 15th of July, dividing into 4 groups we had 4 meetings. The team from Vladikavkaz served in the church “Salvation”. Two young men repented at the service there. Victor Kabachevsky, the biker with hearing problems, attended the service for deaf people. Victor believed in God 4 years ago. He used to be an alcoholic and lived in the basements. He began to drink alcohol when he was 7, and stopped this practice at 40. He repented thanks to the meeting with Evangelical believers.  He studied at the Theological Seminary and became a preacher. Victor is the soul of our team. With the help of the sign language he told people about the ministry of the Expedition. Vitaly Semionov and Denis Bernaz visited a rehab centre for alcoholics and drug addicts. A team of bikers from Bryansk sang at the church worship service in the church in Kamenskaya street. Vladimir I. Skovpen shared his testimony in the church.

 

At 14:00 sharp, according to our plans, with one accompanying road inspection car we went to Bolotnoye town. We had several stops on our way there, due to technical reasons. One biker fell and several wheels were punctured. When we stopped a lot of gnat attacked us. As we were told before that gad-flies would give way to gnat.