August 22--and moving right along!

I talked to Abe again today and he sounded MUCH better. Turns out he seemed to have some food poisoning yesterday, and even though it wasn't severe at all, it explains why he was feeling so lousy. Today he had had a full day, preaching in the morning, spending all afternoon with a couple who wanted to help him with his bike tire, speaking to the youth in the late afternoon giving his testimony, and talking to marrieds over shish kabobs (good protein!!!). He did not do this kind of thing on his other trips, but even though he had to give out I think he found it spiritually refreshing.

The couple who helped him with the bike had showed up at the church in the morning--even though they didn't belong to that church. They both are sports enthusiasts and were keen to help him get his tire problems sorted out, which took several hours because he has very large tires, and evidently that isn't popular there. The man said when he woke up in the morning he just felt like they should go to this church instead of their own :)

Abe also said he is grateful for all the blessings (and I'm sure he will be full of stories to tell when he returns), even the little ones that a person usually overlooks, like having the wind to your back.

He cannot get registered tomorrow as that office is not open, so will have to wait till Tues, but if they don't get it done in the morning he will have to go on anyway and sort out how to get his documents afterwards. He just needs the biking time. So we are praying that they will do the documents first thing so that he doesn't run into complications.

August 21

Abe is in Khabarovsk--but it was rough getting there and he is pretty tired. After I talked to him last, the mountains got worse, and the roads were bad for bicycles. Not really paved, just tar and gravel poured over, and most of it pretty rough stuff, so he had a flat, and his spare wasn't all that solid so he moved all his bags from the back of the bike to the front to make it as light as possible and then rode slowly, and made it, eventually.

So, he will be in Khabarovsk Sunday and then Monday will try to get his registration with the police, and another tire, and hopes to be on his way again Tuesday, Lord willing. I think he has about a 3 days ride until he reaches one of our training center directors. He will stay with them for several days and then hit the last stretch. It will be quite mountainous again and the roads that direction are....MMM....shall we say, not good.

He sounded weary. He's staying at an empty Bible school, there's no hot water. He hadn't eaten well the last couple days so his system is upset. But, I'm sure a couple days rest will put all to rights again.

August 18

And Wednesday it is! Talked to Abe a couple of hours ago. He sounded really good--probably because things are going good :) The anticipated mountains were not nearly as bad as the ones he started out with in Chita, even though several people had warned him about it.

The word seems to be passed along among believers that he is around so a couple times people have come and looked for him on the road and chatted for a bit, or in the case of today they picked him up and took him into town for a good breakfast and a sauna that was pre-arranged (okay it was a banya, but I'm not explaining that now) and had several people gathered to hear him speak. Even though that dropped 5 hours from his schedule he is ahead of what he had anticipated.

For those with map access he plans on being in Birobidzhan by tomorrow, and on the map that looks like just a couple hundred kilometers from Khabarovsk. The weather has also cleared. So overall he is pretty excited. The cell phone connection isn't bad although his voice tends to be blotted out for 5 or 10 seconds at a time which means I have to piece together the conversation. He was under a train bridge when I talked to him, and we also had to pause while a train passed by!

August 16

I talked to Abe a couple times this weekend as he had taken a break at a pastor's house. He said the positive thing about staying with people is that he sleeps better than in his tent. The negative thing is that people eat poorly, and he needs to maintain pretty high protein because of his energy output. It has also been raining off and on and was supposed to rain today, but he has (finally?) bought a rain coat and was going to go regardless, as he is well rested now, and needs to keep going to get in under the deadline. Right now if all goes well most likely he will be in Khabarovsk sometime on the 23rd, but he still has almost 500 miles to Vladivostok. And the very last date he can be in the country is Sept 4. Wednesday he said will be a difficult day because he will hit mountains again, so will have to do a lot of walking uphill.
Sunday was our anniversary. Certainly a far different day than we had on our 40th celebration last year! One of the men suggested that he just drive Abe and his bicycle to Khabarovsk. :) Obviously--he didn't get the idea. I would say at this point he is more into dogged determination than anything else. That would be symbolic of his approach to any task in life he takes on when the going gets rough.
The wonder is that we can talk regularly, although I probably will not talk to him again until Wednesday.

August 12

I thought this time I would put up a map of what is considered Far Eastern Russia.Where Abe started in Chita is about where you see the red and gray lines intersecting half way between Lake Baikal and the "hump" of China that intrudes into Russia. Abe is on the other side of the "hump" still north of Blagoveschensk. I talked to him yesterday and he was near Shimanovsk, this is about 500 miles from Khabarovsk. He hoped to travel to Belogorsk by tomorrow evening because it is a sizeable city.From yesterday he figured it would take him a maximum of 8 days travel to get to Khabarovsk, then he will be dropping south to Vladivostok which should be a bit under 500 miles. He had made contact with a student of his from 1994 and was staying at their apartment over night. He had had a lot of rain again which is miserable traveling on a bicycle. But he will most likely rest both Saturday and Sunday before continuing on again. Otherwise he sounded in good spirits.

August 11

My daughter has spurred me on to good works--meaning I should update this blog. I guess I'm still a bit jet lagged and dealing on a low key basis yet. Anyway, I did talk to Abe on Saturday and he was doing much better. He had had two days of rest and then gone some 40 miles or so to a personal contact with a pastor in the Amur province and was going to stay two nights there. The superintendent of that area was coming in also to meet with Abe so chances were that they would stay up all night and talk. He said the church meets in the pastor's home which looks more like a large shed than a home and is on the primitive side. I'm sure he was asked to share on Sunday, and I'm sure he laid some challenge before them. The need is so great and there is very little spiritual activity going on in that area.

I tried to call Abe again but he must be out of cell phone range. His legs were feeling better and the swelling had gone down in his ankles. He sounded much more upbeat and I'm sure it was a combination of rest and of being with people he could talk to. Especially about ministry!

August 5

I talked to Abe this morning but will keep this short as I am a bit jet lagged. Bottom line is that he has put in a pretty rough three days, two of them with a lot of gravel which is not only dangerous but also jarring, and yesterday with mostly uphill climb. He is feverish and showing a lot of stress on his legs and body so is taking a 4-day rest. Presumably he will start to descend and it should be easier going, but...there is descending and descending. He is halfway between Chita and Khabarovsk according to his calculations. I'll try to give more detail of exactly where he is next time.