Happy New Year!

Let me start out by saying that I have never really been a big fan of New Years.  Crazy, I know.  It's just a holiday that I have never really liked or see the big importance too.   So naturally the Lord sends me to work in a country where New Years is the biggest holiday that they celebrate and is considered to be the majority of the peoples favorite holiday. Yes, New Years trumps Christmas here, in fact Christmas isn't really celebrated.   Which I find very depressing. I am looking forward to being able to celebrate the birth of Christ twice and share about that with the people here.

This year I celebrated New Years with some people from church.  The second I left my apartment I heard what would be the constant sound of fireworks that would go on through out the night.  It is customary to have a big meal on New Years Eve and eat a specific type of Russian potato salad.  We passed the time afterwards with games and a time of prayer.  All while catching glimpses of the fireworks being set off all throughout the city.  New Years isn't celebrated until 2 am here, as we celebrate the New Year on Moscow time and they are two hours behind us.  So a little before 2 we made our way down to the city center to the ice city.  The whole city seemed to be gathered.  We watched an amazing fireworks display and different performers were performing through out the night. Children enjoyed the ice slides and games and everywhere you looked someone was setting off some sort of fire work or shooting off what seemed to be a flare guns.  The whole area smelt of black powder and cigarette smoke.

For someone who isn't a big fan of New Years, this was a really great celebration/festival.  Happy New Year!!

The question

Let me just start by saying that this question is now asked on a daily basis.  What question would that be you wonder? No it has nothing to do with my work here or questions I ask the people I meet, but it does have to deal with living here and some days you just have to laugh.  The question is:

How many layers do I need to wear today?

Now this is a complicated question and I find myself now spending minutes pondering the answer.  A few friends came to visit last week and we had a whole discussion on this topic.  We all agreed that getting dressed in the morning takes longer and that preparing to leave your house takes an extra ten or more minutes and that when you are visiting other people they all stand around as you awkwardly layer up in their doorway. Nothing is fast.

Deciding how many layers all depends on the temperature.  If it is hover around freezing or even a few degrees below you can get away with no layers under your jeans or just leggings, but if it gets any colder then -10C you need thermals.  Now I have learned that not all thermals are the same. Some are better then others and give more warmth or let your legs breath more, some make you feel as cold as if you weren't wearing any. Layering on top can range anywhere from 2-3 layers to wearing a fleece jacket overtop of your sweater and under your parka.  The hat, scarf and gloves are always a must.  When the temperature gets into the -20'sC and lower, pretty much the only skin showing is my eyes (partially because my face starts to go numb and because breathing hurts and it is easier to breath if I breath into my scarf and the rebreathe warmer air. I was told in the cold that I should start breathing through my nose.).  The question of how much do I layer is also influenced by the activity.  If you I am just going to the store or to someones house and won't be out walking around I can get away with less layers.  The whole process of layering and figuring out what to wear is a process.  By the time I am walking out of my door I look Randy form 'A Christmas Story', although I can put my arms down.

I hope you enjoyed this little insight into living in Russia during the winter.  These are the things that I never thought I would have to think about, or thinking that temperatures ranging from 25-32 degrees Fahrenheit would be considered warm in the winter.

6 months...time goes by fast

We have passed the six months mark and are now venturing into seven months of working and living in Russia.  The past six months have been an emotional roller coaster where I have had feelings of happiness and contentment to feeling completely broken.  I don't even know how to explain to you the emotions and thoughts that go through my head on a weekly basis.  While this city is physically easy to live in compared to other parts of the world, mentally and emotionally it has been hard.  

Some days I feel like the weather describes the people here well.  Most days now are cold, dark and cloudy and maybe once a week the sun will shine and you will see blue skies for a short time.  It is still cold but the sunshine brightens the day.  This is how I can describe how I view the people sometimes.  At a glance they seem cold, uninviting and uninterested.  But when you get to know some of them you will see that they are warm, welcoming and a ray of light in the midst of the cloudy city.  There have been days when everyone seems to be cold and uninviting and some old lady scolds you in russian for not dressing warm enough or days when all you want to do is go to the store and buy bread without being followed by the security guard (all the stores have people that follow customers around).  Then there are days when I get to spend time with a girl that I am getting to know and she is warm and funny and we walk and talk or talk over a cup of tea.  This isn't a "warm" culture but a "cold" culture, in both weather terms and describing the people.  I have to take a different approach to get to know the people here and understand that many may be hesitant to talk or suspicious of me and that it takes time to get to know them and for them to trust you, but once you get to know them, it is then that you really get to see who they are and the warmth that they have.

Six months into this journey and I have realized that I will never fully understand the culture or all of the different aspects that have lead to peoples world views and way of life.  But what I do know is that I will leave here knowing and understanding more about this culture and country then I did when I got here.  I have already learned way more about the history of the people and country then I ever did in school.  

I can guarantee that the next six, twelve and however many months I have remaining won't be easy.  There will be hard times but there will also be times of rejoicing, laughter, and growth.  We will continue to plant the seeds and will joyfully reap the harvest when it comes and will rejoice when it happens.  It isn't us that makes the seed grow, but God. 

"I planted to seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow.  So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow.  The man who plants and the man who waters have one purpose, and each will be rewarded according to his own labor.  For we are God's fellow workers; you are God's field, God's building"  

         1 Corinthians 3:6-9

A walk in the Park

In the evening the atmosphere on my street changes.  It goes from everyday business of getting to school, work and the store to a more family friendly atmosphere.  Across the street from my apartment there is a little park where people go to gather and sit on one of the many benches and mingle.  Tonight I walked through the park and around the street and enjoyed the cool fall evening. The parents are out walking their babies in strollers, kids are playing on one of the many playgrounds, a group of boys have a game of soccer going.  

As you walk past the apartments you'll see old ladies wearing coats and head scarfs sitting outside the entrances of the buildings on benches talking and watching the world go by.  Some sit with stoneless faces until a mom and her baby pass, then their face lights up and they begin talking to them. Old men sit and talk and argue about different things.  Dogs bark and run and children chase after them. 

The sound of children playing fills the air.  The train rumbles by just beyond a set of apartments.  People come and go on the buses and the faint sound of car horns is in the distance.  The weather is changing and fall is here.  The trees are changing colors, the temperature is dropping, children are bundled up in coats and hats and slowly but surely dogs are beginning to wear jackets.  

  

Хохловка (The Wooden Village)

Last weekend we went with a group of people who had attended english school back in August to Хохловка.  This 'museum' is located outside of the city and is a village of old wooden houses that were all made without using nails.  It was a fun day spending time with people and getting to know some of the girls that were in my class better and to see what things were like many years ago.  Yes it was the end of August but it was chilly, the weather is getting cooler.

Russian living: White nights

What are white nights? White Nights is the time in the summer (June-July) where there is a short time of total darkness.  At the hight of summer the sun is either out or hovering on the horizon for the majority of the time.  Never fully setting.  Even at 3 am the sky is lit slightly by the sun.  These long days are a stark contrast the the long dark days of winter.  I have learned that you can be out until 11 pm and think that is is only 8pm or earlier because it is so bright outside.  It has taken some adjusting to and learning to go to sleep when you bedroom is light.  A little trick that we learned was that reynolds wrap over the windows will help keep the light out, or if you have thin curtains like our apartment does you can just throw an extra sheet over the window.  It is almost impossible, it feels like to go to bed anytime before midnight, as even at midnight your room has the brightness of twilight (that is with the lights out and shades pulled with a sheet over the window).  I am soaking up as much sunlight as possible as I know that soon I will surrounded by darkness.  Earlier in the summer I was walking back home around 10 pm and there was a really bright rainbow above my apartment building.

The following pictures where taken after 10:00 pm from my apartment window:

The days are beginning to become shorter.  It is starting to get dark around 10:30.  We still have some time left of these long days but soon the days will become colder and the sun will start to slowly disappear.

Russian Living

I thought that I would start a series entitled "Russian Living".  Over the next year and a half I will use this series to give you an inside look at what it is like to live in Russia.  Most things that I write deal mainly with the ministry side of living and working here.  I want to add to that and give more of an everyday nitty gritty look into life here.  Part of my goal with this blog was to show people the whole picture of living and working overseas.  It is my plan that you as the reader will get a better understanding of what culture is like here.  I hope you enjoy this new series.  If you have any questions feel free to leave a question in the comments section and I will try my best to answer them.

English Camp follow up

We have all recovered from camp and we sent the team from Texas back home.  It was a great week and a great encouragement having this team from Texas here.  A few people from camp have expressed interest in reading the Bible with us and some have even joined us for church the last two Sundays.  While camp may be over the work is just beginning.  Please pray that the people we met will continue to be interested in meeting with us and reading the Bible and ultimately that they would come to know the Lord.

English Camp 2012

The past couple of weeks have been crazy.  Layna and I spent two weeks in Moldova waiting for our visas to get approved and mailed back to us in time for English camp.  We knew we would be cutting it close but in our original estimation we thought we would only have to wait about a week and a half for our visas and would be back in plenty of time for camp.  Well that wasn't the case.  Since we had to mail them back to the states for different reasons it took a couple days for shipping.  We were thrilled to hear that the visas had been approved and that they were being shipped back.  Upon looking at the tracking information we saw that our passports wouldn't get back to us until Wednesday July 7.  That meant that they would reach us after camp started.  But the Lord provided and we got our passports earlier.  They arrived Monday in the mail and after frantically texting our supervisor and checking flights, we booked a flight back to Perm the same day.  We packed our bags and within a few hours of receiving our passports we were on a plane.  We arrived back in Perm on Tuesday morning at 5 am.  We caught a taxi back to our apartment, quickly repacked, showered and caught a quick nap and then left our apartment at 9:30 am Tuesday.  We were running on little sleep.  We met the group of campers and the team from Texas (this team consisted of two families and three other volunteers) at the local church and loaded the bus and headed for camp.  There were about 50 people in all.  The campers ranged in ages from 15-36.   

We had a great time at camp.  We all taught classes on America (history, traditions/holidays, idioms, sports, superstitions, etc) and spoke lots of english.  The team from Texas introduced the campers to different American food in a cooking class.  That seemed to be the favorite class.  

Learning how to make BBQ chicken sandwiches

Icing the 4th of July cupcakes that they learned to make

Some campers and Layna posing for the camera.
Tanya, Lena, Rasheed, Layna, and Kostya

Day 2: Learning how to make chicken Enchiladas 

A lot of our time was spent talking over tea or sitting on the dock and talking and hanging out playing games or swimming in the river.  We got to know the campers and just talk to them and hear about their lives and share about our lives and faith.  Each night we sang camp songs and songs that I remember singing in sunday school and then would listen to a short topic.  On the last night we had a talent show and the campers seemed to really enjoy it.  Overall it was a great time and we all had fun. 

Two of our Camper preforming a skit with two members of the Texas Team.

Debbie and Dave preforming "Green Eggs and Ham"

Sonya and Elizabeth preforming a song.

It was great getting to work with this team from Texas.  There church has been partnered with us for many years and they continue to come back and work with us.  We were able to meet some great people and it is our prayer that we will be able to continue to get to know some of these girls during our time here.  There have been some that have expressed interest in reading the Bible.  Pray for the campers and that they would seek the Lord and would be willing to meet with us to read the Bible and learn more.

Making crafts with Debbie

Learning about American History with Dave

Getting ready for announcements 

Preparing to play Ultimate Frisbee

Sonya and I on the bus ride back to Perm after a fun time at Camp

Provisions

Yesterday was just one of those days.  It wasn't because of the pouring rain, in fact I don't mind walking in the rain and with my rain boots and umbrella I was good to go.  Instead it was a combination of many things. Small little things that all seemed to happen at once.  The frustration of not being able to communicate or the look people give you when they can't understand what you said, the frustration of recognizing the words people say but not being able to understand the translation or remember what the word means, getting splashed by cars and buses as you wait to cross the street (and are standing a good five feet from the curb), your credit card not working in a store, the post office being closed when the hours on the door say it should be open and finally the ticket lady on the bus kicking everyone off the bus three stops from your house.  It was just one of those days where frustration seemed to out number the success.

One of the good things that happened that afternoon was that I did find a cafe where you can get a good cup of coffee for only 40 rubles (a little over $1) compared to the 145 rubles (about $5) that has a nice area to sit and get work done.  I have passed this cafe multiple times as I have walked up and down this street in the weeks past but never went in.  Well yesterday I went in to escape the massive downpour and was pleasantly surprised.  Needless to say I will be visiting this cafe again in the future.

After a frustrating afternoon I came back home to decompress.  As I was lying in bed that night I was thinking that if I were to do this full time as a career (I have no idea if that is Gods plan) I couldn't do it alone.  As I was thinking that God reminded that He is all that I need.  He is my provision.  It was as if God was saying "Am I not enough".  BAM! There it was, the smack in the face that I needed, the punch to the gut.  How could I forget that? It is only by God's grace that I am even here.  At the end of the day He is all that I need and I forgot that.  It is through His strength and power that I will make it through these next two years and it is Him that works in the lives of the people we meet here.  I am just his tool that he uses to plant the seed or harvest the fields.  He is the one that makes things grow.

1 Corinthians 3:6
"I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow"

It is through Christ that all things are possible.  So even when the days are frustrating and challenging God is providing me with all that I need.  He is in control and will forever be.

Village life

A few weeks back we had the opportunity to go with the youth from the local church out to a village to share the Jesus film.  Little did I know just what I was getting into.  Prior to the journey we had been told it would take about 4 hours to get there and 4 hours coming back.  Obviously I knew we were going far out but I had no idea how remote we were going.  We packed up the van and a car early one monday morning with the youth, some helpers and all the equipment.  We drive for three hours and then stop to use a "bathroom", as we were told that there is no bathroom in the village.  This "bathroom" consisted of some muddy rotten wood floors with walls that have holes and a hole in the ground covered by mud, beer bottles, and other foul smelling things that I didn't want to think about.  It was here at this stop that I saw the first of what would now become a few, of a passed out drunk on the side of the road.  It truly is a sad sight, but there were people around to help the man out (and in the other instances since then people have been willing to help them).

So after experiencing that we were informed that we would be on more dirt roads until we reached the village.  For the next hour or so we drove down muddy washed out dirt roads.  With every village we passed I couldn't help but wonder which one was ours and how many more were on this road.  After miles of tedious driving and passing multiple villages we had finally reached the village.  During the drive out there I kept thinking of Acts 1:8 where it talks about to the ends of the earth.  It had felt like we were driving to the ends of the earth.  This village has about 500 people living there where people live in the old log cabins/wood homes.  There is only electricity, no running water or indoor plumbing, and houses are heated by wood stoves.  Wood piles are stacked to about half the height of houses and stretch the length of some houses.  The majority of the people in this village are unemployed and alcoholism is high.  For those that have moved to the city, they leave their houses as no one will buy them so the houses are left unattended and are now falling down.  We parked the van in someones drive way as the road to the church was way to muddy  to drive down and even walking was treacherous.  The people living here have constructed plywood walkways around the sides of the streets to walk on.

After navigating the walkways we arrive at the church (which is just an old house) and are greeted by a few older ladies who make up the church, some children and one screaming child who is afraid of the people coming in.  The house is very warm (it was cold outside on this day) and the wood stove kept the house warm, almost too warm at times.  The youth sung some songs and we showed the Jesus film and the youth and our supervisor said a few things.  After all of this the ladies fed us lunch (lunch here is usually around 2 or 3).  It is a simple yet filling meal of pileini(dumpling filled with meat), pickles, cheese, bread, and of course tea.  These ladies were very hospitable and welcoming to all of us.  They are all about making sure that you don't get sick.  My teammate had just removed her sweatshirt (as it was really hot in there) and then began to drink some cold milk and the old lady told her that she needed to put her sweatshirt back on so that she wouldn't get sick.  Also if the door or window is left open and there is a draft the door must be closed so that you don't get sick.  It is good to know that random people care about your health.  After lunch we prepared to leave, so we packed up all of the music equipment and film projector and navigated the muddy path back to the van.

Upon arriving at the van it was clear that it was stuck.  After multiple attempts of trying to back it up without anything the youth then jumped in to help try to push it out.  When that didn't work wood planks were used.  Again no luck.  A local man had come over to try and help.  Even with his help we didn't have much luck.  So he preceded to go get a tractor.  Now at this point it had been suggested by some to use some hay or gravel, but the idea was shot down by others.  So again the youth try to help push the van out, and again no such luck.  An older lady then comes over sees that the van is stuck and goes and grabs some limbs off a pine tree and walks over and lays them down at the wheel.  She tells my supervisor to go try to move the van and she then proceeds to join the youth and helps push the van.  Just like that the van became unstuck and with a few replacements of the tree branches the van was finally free.  That woman knew what she was doing.  I figure you have to be tough to live out in the village.  With the van unstuck we headed back to the city slowly passing villages and larger towns before returning to Perm.  All in all it was a good day and a great experience getting to see the village and in a way stepping back in time.  Even though this village was isolated there is a group of women who love the Lord and are committed to sharing His message with those in their village.

The Youth Group, leaders and us.

This is the lady that came over and took charge.  She is placing pine branches by the wheels.

She even helped push the van.  She is one strong woman.

The youth helping push the van out.

One of the empty houses that is now falling down as no one is there to take care of it.

Just part of the main road that we drove.

It was good to see a whole different side to Russia.  In a way the village life is how I used to picture Russia.  I now know that this country is such a combination of many things and that there is so much to learn.  I came into Russia knowing very little about it and in the past month I have learned many things, all of them good.

One month...

It has been about a month since moving to russia.  So many things have happened in this short time.  Here are just some of the experiences and things I have learned.

-Do Not drink the water straight from the tap.  Brita filters are awesome.
-I have been stared at, laughed at, and yelled at (yelled at by an old lady to the collective group of use in the park)
-There is no such thing as "one stop shopping".  You must go to multiple stores to find things.  Grocery shopping also requires a few trips to different stores to find things.  Not all stores have everything and they all carry different things.
-Discovered the various bus/tram/ trolley routes and the amount of time it takes
-Seen way to many pigeons
-I have seen one to many dogs in outfits.
-You can not flush toilet paper down public toilets.  That is if you can find a public toilet and they have toilet paper.
-Don't be surprise if you have to pay to use the bathroom.
-Successfully traveled to another city by bus.
-Clothing is really expensive here and that it is acceptable to re-wear the same outfit two days in a row or multiple times a week.
-Many women walk all over the city in 4-5 inch heels.
-Figured out how to successfully and safely navigate crossing the roads when there is no pedestrian crossing signal.  Basically if the old lady starts to cross then it is safe to cross.
-Seen just a glimpse of the affects of alcoholism and people passed out drunk on the side of the road. Yes it is a true stereotype that people in Russia drink a lot, but the reality of it is that it is destroying families.  Young children should not have to deal with getting the falling over drunk father off the streets in the early afternoon.
-Learned that some people drink all the time here and that the time of day does not matter.
-Beer can be bought in many varieties and on just about every street corner and at multiple little kiosks along the streets as well as all stores.
-Mothers take their babies out for long walks once or twice a day, no matter what the weather (just bundle your child up). Fresh air is good for them.
-Drafts are bad.  Don't open the window when it is cold outside.
-The collective is more important then the individual.
-Not all believe that communism existed, but instead it was just socialism.
-Learning just how much history books leave Russia out and how little I learned of this country in school. So much history about this country that I had no idea about.  People are happy to share about the history.

and much more.  Things continue to go well and language learning is slowly coming along but progress is being made.  Thanks for the continued prayers.

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Victory Day

Yesterday was Victory day and a national holiday here in Russia.  Victory day is that day that the Russians celebrate when they pulled their troops out of Germany at the end of WWII (or as the Russians call it "The Great Patriotic War").  Just like every other country Russia credits the fact they they stopped fighting as the reason the war ended.  We missed the big parade as we had language learning (there is always next year), but we met up with some friends from church and another M from another organization working here in the city.  We were a mixture of Russians, Americans, and one person from Britain.  We spent the afternoon celebrating the beautiful weather and holiday in Gorki park (an amusement type park in the city that has rides for kids and entertainment) and played some frisbee.  There were many concerts going on throughout the city and I hadn't seen so many people on the streets.   We got a taste of how holidays are celebrated here and the different holidays that are celebrated.

A story of forgiveness

Last week I had the opportunity to hear the story of one woman and how God's love and forgiveness changed her life. We met this woman who we will call Tanya at a rehab center that she and her husband run. Tanya grew up in an orphanage as a result of her parents alcoholism and being unable to take care of her and her siblings.   Once she became 16 the orphanage would no longer keep her and put her on the streets (technically orphanages are suppose to help the kids find work and a place to live but this one lied).  She would then move from sibling to sibling and live with them and help raise their children but would usually end of leaving as alcohol would overtake her family.  Tanya and her sister needed money and decided to rob a house and in the process ended up killing the owner.  Tanya would end up committing two murders and eventually turned herself into the police.  She was sentenced to 11 years in prison.  During the first eight years she attempted suicide multiple times.  On her last try she pulled the covers up over her head after lights out and prepared to cut the artery in her neck.  That is when she described seeing a light and a mans voice (which was God) telling her not to kill herself and repeated a verse from the Bible (she didn't know about the Bible then).  The next thing she remembers is it being morning, as the night had past in five minutes.  A few days later a group came into the prison to share the gospel.  Tanya heard it and as they were leaving began to beg the people to come back and share more with her about God and salvation.  They told her they would be back in a few days, but Tanya told them she didn't have days.  Tanya became a believer and asked God to forgive her of her sins and come into her heart.  She said that she had spent time trying to clear her conscious of the crimes she had committed and that once becoming saved that God had forgiven her and she was now clean.  From that point on she made a 180 and began sharing the gospel with the other women in prison.  Tanya was released from prison and since being out of prison for about a year and a half has married a believer, they have a small child and they felt God calling them to work at the rehab center and now help men become sober and are sharing the gospel with them and seeing people come to faith.  Tanya continues to grow in her faith with the Lord and share the good news.

Her story was moving and was a reminder that God's forgiveness is vast and good and that it is not by our own good works but by Christ.  It also showed me that no matter what we did in our past God sees us as forgiven through the blood of Christ.  Our sins whether we committed them physically or in our hearts are all the same and we all must ask for forgiveness.

Do you see it?

Do you see it? Look closely.  That's right, the trees are starting to bloom!  Slowly but surely spring is arriving.  On my tram ride to church this morning I noticed that there was just a little bit more green outside then there had been in the past two weeks.  Low and behold on my afternoon walk I noticed more trees and plants starting to become green.  The sun is shinning and staying out later with each passing day.  The temperature is still fluxuating but today was a nice warm spring day, granted yesterday was on the chilly side.