Following our adventure among the Shor, Nathan and I drove up to Novosibirsk to meet Melody and the kids. We had a wonderful day for driving, with lots of sunshine. The roads in Kemorovskaya Oblast are fantastic, we had double lane highway much of the day (once we got out of the mountains).
I picked Melody and the kids up from the train station in quite cold weather (-25). Together with Nathan we drove down to the Altai. The drive was much longer than we anticipated. This is due to much of the time the speed limit being 70 instead of 90, even when the roads really do warrant a faster speed limit. This all meant us taking 8 hours for a 450 km drive. I even got my first speeding ticket for doing 70 in a 50 zone. I had not noticed the sign as we passed through the edge of a town on the highway. Oh well, it's all good experience and it was just a 300 ruble ($10) fine. I was so relieved that I thanked the policeman for my lesson.
We had two sets of friends to juggle in Gorno Altaisk once we arrived. Alexei and Tonia visited us in Krasnoyarsk a couple of years ago. Tonia is originally from Saskatoon, although we only met in Russia. Alexei and Tonia very kindly organised a great place for us to stay in. It was nice big house, that cost us just 2000 rubles a night ($65).
We were also keen to get to know Aidyn and the other believers in the Altai church. They have branched out on their own, leaving the Russian church they were once part of. While they could be a little more Altai in form than they are (having copied somewhat the model they were shown), they are a very autonomous Altai church. All of their service and worship is in the Altai language. I was so touched to see the worship leaders worshiping God with throat singing. This was the first time I had ever seen this (the earlier example in Tuva was of a non believer simply singing some Christian lyrics to music that he composed, at the request of a lady there).
They invited me to speak in their service. I believe I was gracious, as I spoke of us as just one church, with just one King and pastor in Jesus. Everybody gave an enthusiastic agreement to this. (We somehow know what is right, even though we find it hard to give up what is wrong.) I also spoke of us all needing to be careful to avoide the pitfalls that Jesus spoke against the Pharisees in Matthew 23.
On Monday, Nathan and I traveled with three men including Aidyn down to visit two Altai villages. Nathan has been seeking a place to serve and he wanted an impression if Altai would be it. We learnt much that day of the movement that is springing up. The autonomous Altai church has planted churches in many towns and villages. I would no longer say that they are an "unreached people group". They have a self propagating indigenous church.
In following discussions with Aidyn, he has expressed an interest to receive the CPM training that I picked up in Kuala Lumpur. Just as this training brought much clarity to our direction, I am confident that it could do the same for Aidyn and the Altai people. In fact I am hopeful that it could see an explosion of the gospel that could saturate their people group!
Horses play a big part in Altai culture, just as they do for the Sakha
The town of Ongadai
I was constantly surprised to see how developed the Altai Republic is. Towns of 10,000 with brand new supermarkets. Wow!
Aidyn.
God has left the building.
Perhaps he is moving in here, into the Altai home.
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