Summer is Here!

Today, as of one minute ago, is Summer! What does that mean for Tomsk you ask? (by the way if you have forgotten we are definitely in SIBERIA, smile) That means Sunday has a high of 47*F and a low of 30 something degrees, yeah we're still in the 30's. However, its not actually all that bad, when the sun comes out during the day it feels about 60 or close to it, but we are all antipating the 90 degree weather we were promised by the past interns, but at the same time counting the coolness as a blessing because our house is a wonderful temperature and not a smelly muggy house that I am sure we will find ourselves in.

Bible studies are going great! I mean honestly, what is there better to do than teach non-Christians about Jesus. Be jealous. (once again i allow you too to do the same because we left some people at home for you, smile)

Last thought - I just got an email that Champs Camp is doing their theme this year on missions and it was suggested that we send in a video about what we are doing here! Naturally, we would have to find some way to fit in a little "Who Rocks the House" as well, but hopefully we will get to do that because one of the hardest parts of leaving early this year was missing champs camp. Continue to pray for the hearts and lives of those here in Tomsk! Spaceba!

Perceptions

In the past I have felt on the verge of embarrassed or perhaps boring when telling my story of becoming a Christian. Not because there is any horrible stains or that I have to argue with family about my choices and lifestyle. In fact, there are little of those things, instead I have a story that may be familiar to many of you. I grew up in a Christian home, in the Church, knowing God for as long as I can remember. Now the one part of my story that sadly seems to be coming less and less common is that my parents are still together and my crazy Indian family is still together. Boring right?

I have been amazed at the responses of the Russians to this simple story. They are wide eyed and respond saying WOW somewhat in disbelief. I have recognized once again what a blessing it is to have this story. First I would like to say thank you who made that story what it is, but secondly I would like to give you a picture of the stories of some of our friends here.

Any type of religious affiliation other than the Russian Orthodox Church has seemed to be cultisized (yeah I just made that word up) where parents feel like their child is going to a cult. For this reason, many students were not allowed to go to the Church we are working with until they turned 18. At this point, when they decided to join the Church, their parents pushed them away and they lost all of their friends from school and other places. This is the price for falling in love with Jesus and his Church, at least initially. In many cases, no family support and weird looks from those you once called friends. Of course, like in any place divorce also hurts many families in Russia, and many of the people we know come from divorced homes. One of the qualities they see in the Church here though happens to be strong families. One of the most attractive qualities of the Church is that somehow the families that do exist in the Church make it.

I have heard that divorce rates are just about as high in the Church in America as the common statistic. Upon telling this to a close friend here, she could not believe it. I have not accepted the divorce rate by any means, but it has become a sad reality as I have witnessed family’s break apart.

All of this to say, perspective is an amazing thing. The Christians here have opened my eyes that maybe we should do something about the divorce rate and become stronger families (however, with this I could write an entire blog about making sure not to make the family a higher entity than God, but we’ll save that for another day). Along with this the idea of my “weak” personal story should be upheld perhaps as a miracle as I feel like the Russians see it.

Good news from us here though, I feel like I can confidently say that Jesus is penetrating the hearts of the Christians here. Many of the Christians here are also very young, I would say from about 20-30 and hopefully they will keep God’s commandments and multiply (smile) meaning a new Russian generation of Christians growing up in the Church.
I do want to specify before I go that all of the things we say are in light of a small remnant here in Tomsk. The Spirit that is thriving in the Church here is still a small community and I feel like I have been exposed to it so much that sometimes I forget that this is the minority. Of course, we still rejoice with our brothers and sisters (and even more so) for each one that finds their way into the community here. We have two personal Bible studies tomorrow, pray for that – for Sasha and Aleg that God would open their hearts.

Couch Pulpit

Here is what Sunday morning worship looks like in Tomsk, Russia (yeah that’s Siberia, smile). First, we had to wake up and we were there, tough life I know. We have two house churches that meet in our apartment; we decided to “go” to those. The first includes only 5 other people so they were excited about making it 8. We greeted everyone and learned everyone’s names: Ira, Sergei, Sasha, Sergei (there are about 5 Sergei’s so far we have met) and Gene.

It has been fun trying to keep up with the Russian singing, which by the way is beautiful, I don’t know if it has been those we are around or if everyone sings amazingly well. We are slowly beginning to learn what we are saying as bog is God, eesus is Jesus and so on.

Then one of the members brought a message, by the way our preacher for the morning, Sergei, has been a Christian for just over a year and has an amazing life turnaround story. Every small group/Christian we have encountered as glowed with the infectious spirit of joy and love. The Christians stand out like a light in darkness (image that).

We then had communion (after earlier having some great cake that made Brad’s stomach feel badly). We sat in a circle while eating on our bread and drinking our cup of grape juice, spending solitude together, which seems like an odd pair, but I did feel like it was together. We then passed an empty tissue box around to collect the offering that supports the Church and the local minister (which frankly does not happen in other churches in Russia, to be self-supporting is an anomaly).

In both churches non-Christians were invited, which liven the Spirit. It makes people be even more involved in discussion, sharing their life story and sharing the good news and the good life. I wonder if I would have been more involved in Bible studies if I brought a friend I desperately wanted to experience God.

(5 hours gone by)

I just began thinking about the first experience I had leading someone to know who Jesus is. What a feeling! Really nothing to describe it, and that’s what we get to do . . . I’m reflecting on this because we just set up our first individual Bible study with a non-Christian. By the way we decided to leave some people behind in the states so that y’all could do the same with them (about 300 million actually).

As always sorry if our posts are scatterbrained (or just mine) I had forgotten how amazingly difficult it is to put experiences like these into words and how impossible it is too share such great feelings and thoughts.
This place is wonderful, as are all God created. The people are open to and in need of Christ, as all are who have been created that way. The Christians are all in a state of jubilee it seems, as all Christians seem to be who let God invade their hearts and fill them with His Spirit. Please continue to pray for us and for the hearts of those we will come in contact with. Love y’all!

We're Alive!

We finally have the internet! Naturally it has already been amazing and we should begin posting the milions of thoughts and feelings we have. It's late (you know cause we're 12 time zones away) so I must go to sleep, but know that the Church here is a tiny seed about to explode into a giant mustard tree. The Christians are amazing and the atmosphere at Church meetings (meaning in apartments) is one of the most joyful things I have ever experienced!

Katonda Mulungi (smile), it's too bad Russian has different characters so I won't be able to write it on the blog, perhaps I will transliterate. Goodnight . . . whoops good afternoon, smile.

Heading Out

So I'm about to leave in about 30 minutes. We are beyond excited! Round Rock gave us an amazing send off and of course lavished it in prayer! We thank you for all your prayers again, and me especially because of who I am going with (smile).

Thank you.

(transliterated to english) Do svidaniya!

Ready?

I'm getting fired up. I do feel lazy though, with finals and Russia stuff happening all at once I have not posted in such a long time!

I finished my thank you notes the other day and just want to say thank you again to all of you who have given financially and with prayer! I honestly did not think we would make it to our initial goal (thinking we could scrap our way there somehow) yet y'all blew me away again. I feel like y'all continue to disciple me by giving me opprotunities to spread the hope and love that you have given to me.

Brad, Garrett and I met today. Ok I need some sort of quick thing for Brad, me and Garrett so maybe I'll use BIG. The BIG's met up today (yeah definitely can't use that . . . it will go to their head, smile) and talked about what it means to be a follower and believer of the one we call God. It was pretty intense actually as we went over many intense thoughts, ideas and beliefs we hold as Christians. Naturally the other two made outlines that are about 5 typed pages. It's nice to have right brains around for organization. We took a trip to the store to get a couple of things like journals, lemonade and peanut butter (which for whatever reason Russians do not have but love!) and are checking our bags to make sure we keep under the limit of 33 pounds! (plus an 11 pound carry on)

I really am excited about living with the East boys, as I am sure we will learn even more about what we believe and the best ways to present the Jesus we know and love in an honest and good way. We know, of course, that he is in control of all the things beyond that and of ourselves as well and I am convinced that anyone who is in the slightest way looking to fall into a relationship with the radical rabbi will not be let down.

Thank you all again!

Highland

I just got a call tonight from the Highland Church of Christ, where Garrett, Brad and I attend during the school year. They have agreed to help us financially on top of praying for us! It's neat to be connected to so many faith communities like the Highland and Round Rock Churches along with the ACU community along with World Wide Witness. Then within the community here we have people focusing on European missions and people like DP from Russia to meet and learn from. Dennis is also going to be making a trip, further west of us, this summer to Russia. He is a grad student and plans to go back to Russia to be a minister after school.

Finals are coming along fine also. I had my Greek final today and it was pretty tough living up to its reputation. I would use this sentence to make a comment like, "but at least I will be able to talk to Jesus in the original language," but I know y'all would come back with, "oh, you know Aramaic?" . . . . it really is neat, though, to be able to see the progress of a year of torture/Greek and open up the original text and know the general meaning of the paragraph.

OK I must get onto cleaning a room. . . . the joys of being an RA the last week of school!

Africa Presentation

I just did a presentation on my communication between multinational organizations class, a bit of a mouthful. I presented business in the African culture. It's so fun to tells stories about Africa. It's amazing how people listen intently to my experiences. I think it's also interesting how much more enthusiastic my voice gets when talking about those experiences. Anyways, it went well, and it was yet another opportunity to tell about my friends and their communities stories.

The semester is winding down, I have one more speech to give and then five finals to take and I will be off to get a little rest before the trip! If you could throw up a prayer for the three of us it would be much appreciated.

Just pondering . . . I wonder what God is doing in the lives of those we will interact with this summer . . . I wonder if God takes a Russian accent when speaking, but seriously I wonder if there is accent for those who have verbally heard words now and in the past? hmm interesting . . . Also if Jesus was in your class growing up what would he have written in your yearbook? (great question I know)

I heard that green is the most peaceful color, that would make sense.

100+ Posts, Yikes

So I just noticed that this will be my 102 post. That's exciting. Thank you to all who have read even a little bit. I have enjoyed the conversations and stories thoroughly.

I really don't have anything to say today, besides Go Spurs Go. And while I'm at it let me throw in a . . .

Katonda Mulungi!