Bike trip – August 5-6 – Chita town

Our Expedition headed for Chita on Sunday. It was the first Sunday of the month and we tried to do our best to arrive in time at the local ECB church in order to take part in the Lord’s Supper. We left for Chita very early in the morning when it was still dark. The road allowed us to move rather quickly. There were no high slopes.

Unfortunately some Expedition members became ill - Boris from Belgorod, and the doctor of our team Levon Sarkisov had also to have some rest and take pills from his medicine box.

Members of the Expedition arrived at Chita ECB "Antioch" church where they prayed, sang and took part in the Lord’s Supper together with members of this big church. The church is finishing building its church house where bikers and other members of the Expedition found shelter.

The evangelistic service was held in the evening in the Theatre square in Chita town. Traditionally local young people come there daily. Right before the event the square was completely empty. But as soon as musicians began to rehearse their songs and first sounds of music were heard young people began to fill the square. And soon several hundreds of young people were there. In comparison with other towns there were not many kids among visitors.

Local youth took part in talks with the members of the Expedition with interest. Despite their outrageous get-ups and special titles of the groups, such as "punks", "rockers" and "rastafans" they asked serious questions about faith, the Bible and tried to link these topics with the books they read and music they listen to. It was important for evangelists to find "bridges" to reach hearts of youngsters and explain the Gospel to them. Though not all of them were ready to receive the Gospel there were many who were sincere interested in what they heard.

It is interesting to notice that though there are rather many members in the ECB church in Chita only a few of them took active part in the outreach. Such situation is typical for large town churches in comparison with churches in small towns and villages where most of church members are ready to use the opportunity of the visit of the Expedition and tell their countrymen about Christ.

Some changes took place in our team. Musicians from Irkutsk region returned back to their town, as well as Alexei Markevich from Moscow. A young couple of musicians from Irkutsk town joined us – Edward and Natasha, and one more minister from Chita church – Sergey Stepantsov.

After Chita the Expedition will head further for the East. People say there are no roads. Drivers look at drivers with pity thinking bikers will not cope with such roads. In order to get through this part of the route special bikes were purchased for the team, we call them "offroader" bikes, which makes it easier to travel along sand and  gravel. Such bikers go slower along asphalt and we will have to take two sets of bikes with us. Bikers will use various bikes depending on the kind of roads. The second set of bikes will be in KAMAZ truck. This fact will give assuredness to bikers. The situation in this region is such that there are only a few ECB churches there. Which means it will be hard to find a place for the night rest and tasty dinner.