Visiting villages

Several weeks back, Nickolai went on a village trip. They went to a few different villages on a round trip. It is difficult to access many of these villages by anything other than a vehicle, although some are accessible by train. In winter, travel there is treacherous, mostly because of the severe cold. It’s not just the danger of icy roads. If the car were to break down, it could potentially cost lives.

You can see why a 4WD is more than just a luxury. The road conditions in the city are often less than perfect, let alone in the villages.

The living conditions in the villages are very difficult for many people. The younger people often go to the cities to look for work/better living conditions. Many people still live in old houses where they have to collect their water from a well and use an out-house. This may be all very well in Summer, but you can imagine that for about 8 months of the year, this poses real difficulties.

There are often problems with poverty and alcoholism, abuse and depression. The reality is that many Russian villages are dying. There are more old people than young, and there is a fractured sense of community. For many villages, a church community brings life and hope. I read an article a while back where an atheist woman was running a campaign to raise money in order to rebuild the church there as she recognised the value this institution has in providing cohesiveness in a community. The purpose of village visits is to support these small communities, and to encourage them.

Nickolai was able to share some of his story with the people there.  The guys slept overnight on the wooden church pews, but they were well blessed with authentic village hospitality. The kind that will treat a guest as a king while feeding itself as a pauper. The fare may be simple, but it often costs a lot.

I have also included some other village photos, not from this trip, to give you a little taste of Russian village life. There is so much beauty among the ruggedness. This beauty is what we need to recognise in people who may be weathered and world-weary. There is beauty in everyone, even if they themselves have forgotten it.