Florida Youth Convention 1990

Starting at the beginning can be a little like pulling a thread which just keeps unraveling. You think if you pull you'll find the beginning, but instead it just keeps going and going and going. You get the idea. So, while we could keep following the thread a long way back, we have elected to start at this particular point. Of course, other events led to this point, but this is where our first hand knowledge of the story of Chelyabisnk begins.

The State of Florida Youth Convention was held the last weekend of November 1990. The speaker for the convention was Dr. J. David Stone, from Lousiana. Dr. Stone's daughter had been in an accident and sustained a paralyzing spinal injury. Determined to find a way to help his daughter regain mobility, Dr. Stone arranged for her to undergo a type of spinal surgery performed only in Moscow, Russia. While in Moscow, Dr. Stone and his daughter made the aquaintence of a young student, also visiting Moscow from a Siberian city one thousand miles from Moscow. To meet and become acquainted with an American was an amazing opportunity for the Russian girl.

Dr. Stone and his daughter, who had a successful surgery and did regain some mobility, returned to the United States. The young Russian girl returned to her city, far from Moscow and soon convinced her father to extend an invitation to her new American friends to come to Chelyabinsk to visit. The father of the Russian girl, happened to be the Minister of Education of the city of Chelyabinsk and the invitation was extended as an educational exchange. Dr. Stone received the invitation and realized what an honor and incredible opportunity was being offered. This is still more than a year before the official collapse of the Soviet Union and even more, the city of Chelyabinsk was considered a "closed" city, not open to visitors. But this city official had the authority to invite and so the opportunity was calling.

Dr. Stone shared this story with the youth and in particular, a youth pastor from Florida (at the time) Mark Shaner. Mark has a heart of passion for youth and for missions and this invitation nailed both passions into one. At the close of the convention, Mark extended the challenge and invitation to the youth of Florida- kids who have probably never seen snow- to go to Siberia to meet and make friends with Russian youth. God brought all the details into place- a relationship made by a "chance" meeting in Moscow, an invitation to a city that was unapproachable, a pastor with passion to challenge youth and reach the world for Christ.

Let's Start at the very Beginning...

A very good place to start. When you read you begin with A,B,C when you blog you begin with who, what, why. The first three blogs just happen to be, who, what, why.

The title and first couple sentences will make alot more sense to you if you sing them to the tune of Do-Re-Me from the Sound of Music! But as I sat here trying to figure out where to start- this was the first thing that flew into my head. Let's just start at the very beginning. The question then is where exactly is the beginning of this project? Officially the ground-breaking? or when the land was purchased? or when the first contacts were made that planted the real church of believers here? They are all beginnings, and though our attempt will be incomplete, we want to start at the root beginning which has brought us all to this moment in time. This will take numerous entries spread out over the course of time that we blog here, but it is a journey that we all need to take. A refresher in how we got to where we are- as the Lord commanded the Israelites to recall His mighty deeds and pass them on from generation to generation. We have passed through the first generation of believers and this is the time to pass the story to the next generation of God's plan, provision, and protection.

We invite you to take this journey with us. Many, many people have been part of this journey and each knows their part of the story. If you are part of this, in particular, we ask for you to refresh your memories and share with us your part of the amazing journey. The story begins in 1991.

Under Construction!

It is official! This blog is brand new and it will be updated regularly with photos and information about the building project and the status of the funds. We know how far we have come to get to this point, as well, and we also intend to use this blog to say thanks to the many who have prayed and given support and encouragement over the five years. It is a lofty sounding goal to set- this goal of finishing the building by the end of 2008. It sounds as crazy as building an ark when there is no rain- but we have read how that crazy building project ended and the lesson seems to be when God says "Build it!" just do it! If you have already stumbled on this blog, we hope it is because you have a great interest in this ministry center. And don't be disappointed that there isn't yet much to read here, just come back to check regularly or sign up to be notified when new blogs are posted. If you can't wait, at all then visit this link and get a jump start on the information for The Window Project.