Bob And Sherry Hollopeter Case Study

Introduction

The people that I chose to interview are Bob and Sherry Hollopeter, they are now retired missionaries. The Hollopeters were active missionaries in Russia from 1992 to 2007.

Bob and Sherry Hollopeter first got involved in Mission work through their church. Their church, Rocky Mountain Bible Church, located in Frisco, Colorado, sent a small group of missionaries on a short, two-week mission trip to Russia. This is when, as Sherry put it, “the doors first opened in Russian” for missionaries to go.

The Calling

When asked how they were called into the field, Bob says that the Lord led them, they did not feel pushed into going. He stated that, “When we went back to Russia for a second time on a short trip with our pastor, I got to talk to him about it, I felt that we were being called. But I wanted Sherry to be on board with

In the 90s, Russia was under communism ans was considered a third world contry. The cultural differences between the United States and Russia were, as Sherry Hollopeter put it, “ as different as night and day”. The food, shopping, and general environment was so deffirent from whata they were used to.

“We bought bread from the back of a truck,” Sherry said, “the bread was stacked in the back of this guy’s truck and he would just hand it to us. No gloves, no bag, just the bread. It was that way with the meat to. Just imagine someone handing you a raw steak, with bare hands, and you had to carry it two blocks to home.”

Russians obviously were not afraid of germs. Russian culture did begin to change, however. In the mid-90s, the Hollopeters took a 2 year furlough. When they went back to Russia, they said the culture had changed dramatically. Russia became completely westernized.

“They had industrial buildings, and supermarkets, and fast food restaurants when we returned,” Bob said, “We actually went and ate at the very first Russian McDonalds.”