The American hands the small Russian boy a cheap chocolate from his home across the Atlantic. The boy tears away the corners of the little brown package, and the decadent smell of chocolate and caramel immediately fills the air. As he takes a small bite, his eyes light up and his faces produces the most genuine smile it has in a long time. One small bite of an average candy bar changes the Russian boy’s world almost as much as the influence of the American man himself.

Before Chris Fant joined the Canyon High staff as the college and career counselor, he was a missionary in Russia.

“Basically, I wanted to be a counselor, and this was the job here,” Fant said. “I really enjoy helping kids prepare for their plans for life after high school and get the information they need to get ready for college or a career.”

Working in three head positions–test coordinator, half of college and career and dual credit–Fant said the job can become stressful but he enjoys it.

“It’s really positive interactions with students, and I help them on things they need to do for the most part,” Fant said.

Outside of his work life, Fant said he enjoys watching movies, reading books and playing games along with just spending time with his family, which is how he spent much of his time in Russia.

“I went to Russia as an exchange student my sophomore year of college in 1992 and some little trips after that and then moved to Russia in 2000 with my family to do mission work,” Fant said. “We came back in 2004.”

Fant’s involvement in the exchange program began on a whim. Starting two weeks into his freshman year at Lubbock Christian University, he heard an announcement at chapel one morning noting a mission opportunity in Russia.

“I was already bored with school the second week,” Fant said. “So I went to the meeting about the exchange program and dropped all my classes, changed my class schedule, and decided I wanted to go to Russia to help teach people about God.”

Fant said the Russian people were very open to new things when he arrived in 1992, as due to the recent fall of the Soviet Union they knew so little about what actually went on around the world.

“I remember I lived with a lady, my host mother, and she had a son who was learning English,” Fant said. “Seeing her cry reading the newspaper, finding out what really happened with Stalin and all the people that were murdered. More Russians were murdered than Jews during World War II.”

The simple pleasure of a Snickers bar or a box of cereal was surreal to them, let alone knowing milk was used on cereal. Items considered simple in America were extravagant delicacies to the Russians.

“The fascination they had with the whole world, what was really going on, the freedoms they had, seeing that adjustment was just an absolutely fascinating period,” Fant said.

Aside from providing a basic American influence, Fant was there to not only to learn and experience Russia, but to establish a church, which is what he did when he returned in 2000.

“They were open about everything, very open about God, very open to studying the Bible, and they really needed people to come teach them,” Fant said. “They asked me to come back. It took me years to finish my degree, get married, my wife finish her degree and get support to get over there. I didn’t even end up going back to the same city because we were with a team of people. But, I just felt like it’s what God wanted me to do.”

Fant said establishing a family in Russia was difficult. However, building personal relationships and teaching the people about God allowed him to find pleasure in his mission work.

“I think the biggest lasting impact is just the real deep relationships I made with the teammates,” Fant said. “We went with a couple other families and some of them were there for a while, and you have just a really intense relationship with them because you’re there working with them every day. You socialize with them. I just made some really deep lifelong friendships from that.”