I was based in St. Petersburg from August of 1994 to October of 1997. It was known as Leningrad during the time of the Soviet Union. Many people who don't live in St. Petersburg still call it Leningrad! At least they did during my stay in Russia. But I don't remember a resident of St. Petersburg refer to by the Soviet name. They are proud of their pre-Soviet history when Peter the Great founded the city on the tributary of the Neva river -- actually a wet land. The mosquitoes in the summer time are terrible!
On the right is a photo of main street, Nevsky Prospect just in front of the main department store called "Gostini Dvor." In in 1997 I spent over 2 whole hours looking for a weather thermometer but could not find one. The sales people kept telling me to go to a pharmacy. I repled, "I'm not looking for a body thermometer! I want a weather thermometer." They replied, "Yes, but they also sell those at the pharmacy." Well, can you guess what happened when I posed the same question to the pharmacy people back then? They looked at me like I was nuts! "This is a drugstore, not a household appliance store!" "I know I know! But the main department store in town TOLD me to come to you!" And so I was bounced back and forth about 3 times before finally gave up. A few weeks later I went back to my old neighborhood in Chicago and found what I was looking for in a Dollar Shop in a matter of minutes.
The lady on the above right is a nostalgic communist who is campaigning for the return of communism. Behind her are photos of Stalin, Lenin and a contemporary politician named Zugannof. If you guessed by the sour look on her face that she doesn't like me, you're correct. She knows that I am a foreigner and a Christian missionary. I just smiled back at her and walked on.
St. Petersburg is situated on a tributary, and so it is divided into several small islands that are linked by bridges
and tunnels. Here is a typical beggar in Petrogradskaya Ostrov (Petersburg Island). It is hard to tell which
beggars are really in need and who are faking. Some are professional beggars who actually pay the
Mafia to beg on their turf. After a day's work of soliciting donations they can relax in a fine restaurant eating
a good meal. This is something I could not afford to do when I was there! There is real poverty there and I often
visited a poor lady named Helen. Here I am with her in 1997. 
But though she was old and needy, she never begged. She taught English and got paid
in groceries. Sometimes I would bring her food and gifts. Click here to read all about Helen,
a former interpreter who helped in an interview with the famous Yuri Gagarin, the first man to be shot into space!
Below is a picture of me and friends in a school in St. Petersburg. It is close to Easter and I am giving a talk to the pulpils
on the meaning of Easter -- the resurrection of Jesus Christ. I have the total support of the school teachers and principal to do so.
Do you think I could get away with this in a public school in my homeland, the USA? Only deep somewhere in a rural area in the State of Indiana where the Amish live perhaps.
Here I am with Natasha Blond in a park in front of a horse. Isn't she pretty? The horse was kinda pretty too.
Her family name is not "Blond" but I named her that because of her real 100% natural
blond hair, smooth as silk! You can tell that I really liked Natasha Blond! But alas, she was way
too young for me. Later however God gave me the women of my dreams after I forsook the idea of ever getting
hitched up with Natasha. ;-)
In photo below is Russian Stephanie, American Nat and me at an main exhibition hall in town. We are offering audio-visual teaching material
for children. This is partly how we supported ourselves. The rest of the support came from donations from the
headquarters of The Family and monthly donations from my faithful friends in Japan to whom I wrote
monthly newsletters of my missionary activities in Russia.
In the picture on the right is Lydia (right) talking to a lady from the former Soviet republic of Georgia. I don't know why
in English we say "Georgia" because the correct pronunciation doesn't sound anything like the US state of Georgia. It sounds more
like Gruzia. Lydia was a friend of the head of security at the main exhibition hall of St. Petersburg. He would let us
inside for free when everyone else had to pay $1.00. A dollar doesn't sound like much now but it sure did then! That was 5000 RUBLES!!
It was nice to walk around with the head of security. This way the other guards would get to know us and leave us alone while we offered our
teaching materials to the guests.
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