Russian mission trip, fishing gear required

[the pyromaniac]

This past Sunday at church, we had a guest speaker, a missionary to Russia who gets most of his support from our congregation. He showed a lot of pictures and told some amazing stories, and God spoke to this gringo right here!

The missionary at one point made sure to point out in a picture that the native missionaries he works with were about to sit down to dinner and all they had was a bowl of salt fish (basically, think sardines that have been out of the can for 3 days). I heard the "teach a man to fish" Scripture in the back of my mind. At the time I was sitting between Normus (who is not dead, actually, though I'm sure y'all thought differently) and our friend Wayne (angry old coal miner who had to retire when the machine he was running exploded and pretty much destroyed his spine in '09), who are both talented anglers (especially Normus). I shared that with both of them and said maybe the three of us need to go over there to encourage the local missionaries and teach them to fish and hunt (Wayne is a hardcore big game hunter). We agreed to pray about it.

After the service, Normus and I ran into the missionary by accident (or at least, that's what I'd believe if I weren't a Christian). In the course of our conversation, he told us he's been desperately wanting to get some American bass anglers to go over there, take a bunch of equipment to hand out, and teach the locals how to catch salmon, sturgeon, ruffe, pike, zander, wels, and tzetchkin on it.

So, bottom line, Normus and I might be doing some fishing seminars in Russia next summer....

[Matthew]

That's great, a hobby you love and being able to use it for Jesus.

[RevSears]

keep us up to date. That could be a wonderful way of helping those missionaries.

[chad_ghost]

That sounds awesome! God gives us talents to glorify Him!

[the pyromaniac]

The missionary is a serious angler who also did a lot of hunting before he got old. He took hundreds of dollars in fishing gear over there a few years ago to hand out.

[destros_elite]

Praise the Lofd! What a great opportunity to serve Him!

[the pyromaniac]

No news, but I'm still seriously thinking I need to do this.......