And that's what we were trying to do here. Mission trips are not new to one of the largest Baptist churches in Sumner County. We have gone to Russia at least twice a year for the last four or five years. Other times, it's witnessing, evangelism. The marriage enrichment trip, however, was the first conference of this type for the 300-member church.
Communication is the major problem in every marriage.
The mission group knew the pastor of the Russian church, Michael Chekalin, and had an e-mail relationship with some of the church members before their trip. This church is in an area of Moscow that has about one million people. The Russian Orthodox Church is the predominant church and is tied strongly to the government. The government can make it hard for a church. As an example, Weekley said the Good News Church had to work a long time to buy property.