Христос воскрес

Христос воскрес!- Christ is risen!

On May 5 we celebrated Easter.  The Lord blessed us with a beautiful day and great weather.  In russian tradition it is customary that when you greet a person on Easter you say (all in russian of course) "Christ is Risen" and they respond "Christ has risen indeed".  It doesn't matter if people are atheists, orthodox, lutheran or whatever they will say this to you on Easter.  It is interesting that in country where the percentage of believers make up less then 1% of the population everyone will tell you that Christ is risen on this day.  Thus leading into a great conversation about what that saying is really about.

We started off our Easter celebration with an dunking, followed by a service and a picnic by the river.  This was a great time of fellowship and time to worship by the river.  This past year has really shown me what it means in Acts when it describes the chrch.  It isn't about the building but the body of believers and the studying of the word.

Things I learned during the winter

Since winter is almost over I thought I would share a just a few things that I have learned this winter. With the changing of the seasons also comes a new learning curve and this winter brought a new wave of weather and learning.  Here are a few things that I have learned so far this winter:

1. You have to learn to walk on the constantly changing terrain of packed snow/ice on the side walks and roads.
2. Breath through your nose, not through your mouth.  Apparently it is better for you.  Some days your nose hair does freeze when you breath, but that is better then the coughing that happens when you take a deep breath of cold air.
3. Your scarf will also double as a face mask and yes you will look weird with only your eyes showing but at least you are warm.
4. Somehow the women here still look really fashionable in their winter outfits and their high heel shoes. I just look like the Michaeline man.
5. You will slip and slide as you walk.  Sometimes you will fall but you just get back up and keep on walking, just at a slower pace.
6. At the right temperature the snowflakes look unreal and are so vividly beautiful that you can see every tiny detail on each unique snowflake.  Just a reminder of how awesome God is.
7. On some days your legs and face will go numb after five minutes, that is ok, you will warm up later. Just keep moving, you will be fine.
8. It will not snow once the temperature drops below a certain point, but this means that it will be sunny with blue skies.
9. Don't walk close to the buildings.  Some of the icicles hanging from the buildings are massive and are known to kill people every year in Russia.  So take the warning from the mom in A Christmas Story when she says "Those icicles have been known to kill".
10. Not all thermal pants are created equal.

The Funeral

We stood in the back, squeezed between six other groups of families and friends mourning the death of their loved ones. The candles in our hands lit,  our heads covered in scarfs, and the priest reciting different prayers from a book (chanting then followed each prayer) and performing the traditional funeral ceremony.  The caskets lay in the front as the immediate family surrounded them.  Our friend Angela's grandmother had died last weekend and we went to support her at the funeral.  This is the first funeral that I have attended since being here, and this was also the first non-believers funeral.  What do you say to someone who's loved one just died and they weren't a believer?  All the encouraging words or sayings weren't appropriate.  So we told her we loved her and were praying for her, because that is all we could do.  We couldn't tell her that her grandmother was no longer suffering or that she was in a better place, because her grandmother wasn't a believer.

Funerals in this culture are different.  In a culture that values the group above the individual I shouldn't have been surprised when the priest was doing a group funeral for Angela's grandmother and six other families.  Being at Angela's grandmother's funeral was a reminder of just how many lost people there are here in this city and country.  Not only here but around the world.  So be in pryer for Angela and her family as they go through the grieving process and that during this time their hearts would be turned to the Father.

Storying

A year ago if you asked if I thought we would use storying here to spread the word I would have said no.  Storying can be used anywhere and is a great way to spread the word.  A couple weeks ago we started to story here.  Our group isn't big, in fact we only have two locals coming.  Small yes, but we know that they need to hear the word and so we share.  We are praying that as time goes on more will come.

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