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Written by Pastor Paul Roberts
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 Dear family and friends.
It is Saturday evening at St. George Monastery on the Volga River in Russia. We are at a monastery that only ten or so Americans have ever visited. We got here by taking a 15-hour train ride and than a two-hour truck ride that included a mile and half traveling on the frozen Volga River. We got stuck as we tried to go up the bank of the river to the monastery.
It is still very cold. We have yet to see a day get to zero and most nights it’s twenty below. We took a horse-drawn sleigh ride around the monastery after settling in. The monastery is basically a small farm with a church in the middle. It has a dining hall, steam house and many living quarters. The church was founded in 1816 and is being repaired. The icons are beautiful and the priests are very kind.
We went to their Saturday vespers service which is four hours long. It is all done in chanting and it was beautiful. The whole church is filled with lit candles at every. Between the candles and incense you do feel like you have stepped back a few hundred years (or maybe forward!) in worship. The chanting has power and the liturgy is seen as presenting the Gospel. Dinner after a four-hour service ended the evening.
God bless each of you as the Sabbath rest begins.
Pavel (Paul) - Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
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