Given that there were 19 American guys in our group with many talents, gifts, professions, and skills to offer beyond the Dads' team clearly fading basketball skills, it is not surprising that the folks at the Ministry Center had arranged to assign different men, different groups, to a variety of different tasks. John Woodard, our IT guy extraordinaire, was in high demand setting up IT systems and fixing computers at the Ministry Center itself. He was also our official photographer. John Horton and Mason Sorenson, as pastors, were sent to meet with other pastors in the city. The coaches among us were sent to meet with Russian coaches. And so forth.
All this to say, our experiences in Russia varied depending upon where one was needed. That meant for me at least a morning of leisure touring Vladimir on the Tuesday after Palm Sunday. The tour began after our American breakfast, of course, which consisted of short, fat hot-dogs, hollow noodles, hot coffee, and yogurt. I was becoming convinced that the "average Russian" knew about as much about America culture as the "average American" knew about Russian culture.
Being neither pastors nor skilled technicians, a group of us were given the opportunity to walk the "old village" Vladimir. That is, we were given a tour of the original, once-fortified city by our interpreter and tour guide, Andrew, who described himself as a "Jack-for-all-trades."
On reflection I will note that several "themes" appeared to run through what we saw in the "old village," also referred to as the "old city." One of these themes took the form of architecture expressed through old buildings that are curiously compelling, storied, and beautiful in their own right. Who knew, for example, that Vladimir has the greatest number of extant 12th century buildings in all of Russia? Many, such as the church pictured here are built of white stone; others are built of brick or even wood.
For this walking tour, Andrew pulled me aside and asked me to relay to our group certain information that he would tell me. As his English was very good, I am not sure why he wanted assistance nor do I know exactly why he chose me as his relay, but it was a pleasant surprise to have gained his trust in this way.
As has happened on visits I have made to other countries with long and complex histories, I quickly understood how extensive my ignorance actually was.These structures mirror other characteristics of the old Russian culture that are beautiful, compelling, and storied as well.
Our tour began with a nunnery/convent and the church it is attached to, dating from the 12th Century. Neither this nor many old city buildings were actually open to visitors, so we toured mostly outside.
In the old city we saw many one story wooden buildings, too, with elaborate window decorations. Andrew told us to think of the windows as eyes, which are a gateway to one's soul; the window decorations, consequently, are designed to ward off evil spirits, to keep these dark forces from the inner parts of the house. Although early April was not yet the season for leaves, mountain ash were growing at the corners of many of these old wooden houses for good luck. The mountain ash or Rowan trees can be identified by their compound leaves and their clusters of berries that turn orange or red. They carry a long history of bringing luck in the folk traditions of many cultures.
The "Golden Gate," built in 1164, is the only old city gate remaining. The Copper Gate and the Silver Gate were destroyed during siege by one foreign army or another.
A third "theme" I note in many aspects of old architecture is the persistence of suffering, particularly suffering as a consequence of war, of which there have been many.
In the years surrounding our visit, the Russian Federation was engaged in military conflict in Chechnya, which, we were led to understand, caused worry among the parents of young men. I assume this conflict was little reported by the western press as I knew nothing about it prior to our visit.
In addition to the Golden Gate, which was intended to defend access to the old city, were remnants of the medieval earthen ramparts, essentially a protective wall that once encompassed the whole city (see below).
In list form I will note that within walking distance we also had opportunity to visit the old city water tower [the brick building with the cone-shaped roof below] and a museum beneath it housing the "youth agricultural learning center."
We passed by St. Nikita (the Martyr) Orthodox Church established by St. Vladimir. My notes refer to it as the oldest church in Vladimir, which makes it very old indeed, although it seems unlikely that the present structure is the original one. But for the onion dome, the present church building strikes me now as then to resemble a Victorian house. The green of its exterior is a particularly Russian color, and its windows display the kind of decorative features found on many old wooden houses.
Further on we visited the library where Andrew had studied as a student and the building that had housed the Vladimir Communist Party Headquarters where Andrew's father, now retired, had worked. As sensitively as I could, I tried to ask about that time; the question ran along the lines of "Did your father lose his job when the Soviet Union broke up?"
Andrew answered rather circumspectly that his father, like many older Russians, missed the stability and relative predictability of life under the old regime. They had known nothing else.
In
retrospect, I think it was beginning to dawn on me that one large
benefit of a short-term missions trip extends well beyond what a
missionary might actually "do." Even before playing most of our games I knew that basketball was, after a manner of speaking, "incidental." The real benefit of our trip was personal. Whatever benefit there may have been to our missionaries and to the contacts we made, my world had been exponentially enlarged.
The last words in my journal for that tour were "Wow -- What a morning!"
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