9/23/03

Today's highlight was a missionary meeting that I almost missed out on. I wanted to check my email today because it had been a few days since the last time. I struggled though because I wasn't sure if I wanted to spend the money for it. I decided that if I only went for 15 minutes, the price would be fine and I would at least get to see if I had any new messages. I was disappointed to see that I only had one message. However, the message I received was an important one. It was from Pastor Jeff. He invited us to a missionary meeting today. They sent it last Friday, but I hadn't checked my email since Thursday. Anyway, we had a wonderful time of fellowship, worship, sharing, and prayer. We also had some yummy desserts with coffee and had a chance to hear about the Harb family's furlow in the States. I had a chance to play with the Harb kids and to talk with Caleb Fadness for a bit. Olya also received some needed encouragement and was blessed by the fellowship. I am thankful that my Father blesses me with this kind of fellowship every so often. It was especially nice to worship in English in a group setting. At church we sing in Russian and at home I sing in English by myself. One of the biggest things I have missed about the US is worshiping corporately in my own language. There's just something about it that I don't get with Russian. Even though I know the meaning of some of the songs, I am thinking so much about translating in my head that it's hard to focus on the Lord. So I was very blessed. There's nothing else I feel energetic enough to write about now, so I'll close out. Good night.

9/22/03

It's a blessing to have this computer. Today I was working on typing up a document for a guy in the church who is hoping to start a family foster home. Olya translated his document into English and I typed it up and formatted it. It was a little frustrating because the document didn't make sense in English to someone that wasn't familiar with the project, so I had to play around with the wording a bit and Olya had to call the guy three times to get clarification. Still, praise the Lord, we finished it.

We also had a barbeque tonight with the youth group out in Park Druzhba. Overall, it was a pretty fun time. Once we found our site, the guys went out and cut down some limbs from various trees in order to build a fire. It was fun climbing a tree to get to the right limb. Meanwhile, Olya started to hit the volleyball around with a couple of kids who do not usually come to group. Apparently, a couple of them did come to our church for a little while, but they had since stopped coming. Anyway, Olya and I met them last week in the park and invited them to come. Pasha's wife had also invited them. I joined them once we were done gathering wood.

The only thing I had trouble with at the Park was when Ilia started playing some worship songs. Singing worship songs around the campfire is a wonderful time, but when it started tonight it didn't seem very reverent or heart-felt. It's not that there weren't some people who were into it, but it seemed that Ilia and one or two others were more interested in making sounds and drawing attention than worshipping God. I got upset and after venting to Olya I went off and prayed for a while. I asked the Lord to forgive me for my poor attitude, and to make my heart right. After all, I don't know who is being sincere and who isn't. I can't see the heart of others. It brings up a question though. When should you say something in that kind of situation? We can't see the heart, but clearly we can see actions. I'm not sure. Anyway, I ended up just praying that God would open everyone's heart and bring us to worship Him in Spirit and in truth. After I returned to the fireside, the tone was more reverent and I think people were really looking to the Lord. As a side note, I think worship can be energetic and fun, but I also think it can start to become a flesh thing really easy. Of course, that can happen with style of worship. Even the most solemn and soft music can be more about man's ritual than praise from the heart. May we all worship the Lord in Spirit in truth, no matter what it looks like. Shoot, I remember the story of David whirling with all his might in praise to the Lord when the ark came to Jerusalem. He even told his wife that he would become more undignified than that in his own eyes in praise to the Lord. May I be careful not to despise any person's true worship to the Lord.

9/21/03

This day has been much better emotionally than yesterday. I woke up about 7:20am this morning. During my usual ten to fifteen minute laying-in-bed-half-awake time, I received a phone call from my dad. I had asked him to call me in regards to the ATM card situation. It turns out that the new card automatically takes money from my checking account whereas the last card took it directly out of savings. It's one of those weird quirks of using your check card overseas. Anyway, I had my dad check our account online and everything was fine. He made an electronic transaction for me and this morning I was able to withdraw money without any problems.

I had to usher this morning, so I left the house early on my way to church. As I was walking, a police officer told me to come over and help him. There was a small fender-bender and he wanted me to help measure the distances of the vehicles in relation to the curb, each other, and the house. It was a bit scary because I was afraid that he would ask me something I didn't understand and get upset with me and check my documents, etc. However, thanks to the Lord's care, I understood everything. I had to sign some papers and give my name and address as a witness of the officer doing his job.

After church, Caleb, Sasha Stepanof, Dima and I went bowling in the center of town. Olya was entertaining one of her friends so I had some 'bachelor time' as one guy put it. It was pretty expensive by Russian standards. Honestly, I just wanted to hang out and eat, but they wanted to go bowling. I didn't have the heart to say no, so we went for it. Even though I spent too much money, we had a great time. I think it was the first time that Sasha and Dima had bowled. It was a blessing just to hang out with some guys and goof around.

Today's sermon was about the 'Lord's prayer' in Matthew chapter six. Actually, Jeff talked more about the introductory verses to that particular passage than the first part of the prayer itself. There was just a good reminder that our prayer is to be relational with God, rather than a show for others or a time of explaining things to the Lord. I enjoyed thinking again about how important it is to be 'centered' with our Heavenly Father throughout the day. The Maker of the universe has called us His sons and daughters and we have this wonderful opportunity to come boldly to the throne of grace with the confidence that we are loved completely even as we are known completely. I want more of this relational aspect in my prayers. I want my time with the Father to be quality time without worrying about impressing Him with words or by length of prayer. God help me. Amen.

9/20/03

Today has been a rough day. Olya and I were up late last night and slept in this morning. We had agreed to meet Al and Susie Harb when they returned from their two-month furlough in the States. They had something like 10 bags that each weighed between 50-70 lbs. It was a nice workout. Anyway, they didn't get home until 12am, so we didn't get to bed until 1 or so. We slept in this morning, but it was as though we never really woke up today. We were both very grumpy and irritable, which made for several little spats. Most of it was just impatience and poor communication. Still, we are new in this marriage thing and it's hard to adjust to. Days like this are pretty draining emotionally.

There were other frustrating things today too. (Basically, this was one of those days where I realized that I am a sinner still very much in need of a Savior) We picked up the new ATM card that Al brought over for us. I tried to use it at several cash machines and it said that I had insufficient funds. Either our money has been electronically stolen or the bank geniuses are sleeping at their computers. In any case, we were only able to withdraw about $34. This is a bit of a problem since we need money to live on and we owe a guy here about $140. We are praying about it. I am trying to trust and rest in God's peace, but have fallen short on this day. The other thing is that we went to rent a DVD of The Two Towers, but the video store made us give a huge deposit (~$16) since we were new members. We had to go to the cash machine just to pay it. Crazy. Throw all of this stuff on top of the fact that the weather has been cold, dark, and wet today and there wasn't a whole lot of fun.

I guess the only thing to do is to look to the Lord, repent in my heart, and keep moving forward. That is what God asks. I will stay in Christ. He will take care of everything. No doubt about it.

9/19/03

Today Olya and I are going to the center to pick up our new computer. We are excited. It's kind of a big step for us though since it cuts into our living money and means we will give up about two months worth of living here. I think it will be good though. I am eager to keep an e-journal with it that I will draw from for updating this page. Additionally, we won't have internet access so I plan on typing emails ahead of time and then sending them from an internet cafe. The cool thing is that it will take less time (and therefore money) in the internet cafes because I won't have to type emails there. Another thing I am really excited about is that Olya will gain valuable experience using a computer. She basically has none at this point so it will be a big blessing for her. We are also excited about the DVD player that is included with it so we can watch some movies at home. My prayer is that we will see this computer as the Lord's and see ourselves as stewards of it. Let it be used to bless others and thus glorify the Lord.

Olya's teaching is a big challenge for her. It's tough to be a recent graduate teaching at the university level. She is doing fine, but makes some mistakes and she can be very hard on herself. Please keep her in your prayers.

The married life is a huge blessing and we are enjoying our time together. We have plenty of interesting interactions as we adjust to each other, but God always provides grace and, because of Him, we end up learning more about each other and growing closer together. We also pray that the Lord will use our marriage to be a blessing to others and to glorify His name.

That's it for today. God bless you!

9/14/03

Cool. Thanks to Jason and Britny Havertape, I'm able to update my page every now and then. I praise God for His provision in the right time.

So I've been reading this book called "The Story of Christianity" in preparation for teaching a series of 20-minute lessons on the history of Christianity for the youth group here. It has been a pretty interesting venture. It has also been very challenging. One of the things I enjoy most is reading about early church worship services and how different doctrinal opinions formed over the centuries. In some ways I have been very encouraged. At other times, the inner termoil over secondary doctrinal differences seems to have increased. I will say that, thanks to the Lord, it hasn't affected me emotionally to the degree it did a few months ago. Still, I can't help but wonder what will come of this time. No doubt though that God is drawing me closer to Himself and causing me to seek Him and not man's doctrine. Stay tuned.

Well, I need to get going for now, but hopefully I'll be back again soon. Keep praying for us. It can be a lonely place here, so your prayer is appreciated. Shalom.

9/7/03

Hey everyone! I'm back. I have to go to an internet cafe in Russia to use email so I don't have the time and money to update this page like I used to. Anyway, it's been a long time since I last wrote and much has happened. So, here's a quick overview:

I arrived in Russia on January 25, 2003 and was super happy to see Olya again. It was snowing when I arrived, but not too cold.

From my arrival to the end of May, I went through a missions training program with 4 other students. Three of them are now in a city called Crystal Goose on a church plant. The 4th member lost her mom to cancer (brought back a lot of hard memories for me) four weeks before the class finished up. She made a tough decision to become the legal guardian of her little brother and stay in Vladimir.

June to mid-July was packed with wedding preparations. It was stressful and I'm glad that I will only do it once.

Olya graduated from her University at the end of June. She was relieved and I was happy that she didn't have that stress in her life anymore.

On July 12th, Olya and I were married! It was awesome. My dad and Kay, along with my sister Judy, brother Mike, and friend Bill were able to travel over and share in the celebration. It was a huge blessing to have them here.

On the 14th of July, we headed off to Turkey for our honeymoon. Most people wouldn't consider it the ideal place, but the price was amazing, the weather was hot, and outside of constant annoying music and a few other annoyances, we had a great time. However, if you are thinking about vacationing in Turkey, talk to us first! :)

After we returned, we started setting up our new flat. Olya had a friend who wanted to rent her apartment to someone she knew and it just happened that we were looking for a new place to start our lives together. Consequently, we were blessed with a very nice, though small apartment.

Olya is now teaching part time at the University that she just graduated from. I am keeping busy ministering at the church. I'm a part of the usher ministry, getting plugged into ministry for the youth group (including preparing to do a series of 20 minute lessons on the history of the church), doing some copying of movie scripts in English for translations into Russian, and being available for special church needs. I also hope to start up with Russian language lessons again in the next few weeks. (I had taken private lessons from Feb to mid-June.)

The other big thing about being here is that I am constantly being stretched. I have gone through 2 moves, the death of my last grandparent, adapting to a new culture and language, adapting to married life, and having some serious inner wrestling with personal theological beliefs on secondary issues such as how to evangelize and how prophetic scripture should be interpreted. My core faith remains the same though, for the Lord Jesus Christ is faithful. He is my hope and my salvation. In Him I trust.

Anyway, that's the latest update. I don't know when I'll be able to write again, but keep posted. God bless you all and may you always look to Jesus.

Shalom.