Facebook Ethics

I'm not feeling so well & camp looms right around the corner, so I can't afford to get sick... all of which to say, an abridged blog post this evening. Russia seems to make us introspective - it certainly sobers us about the reality of life that living in America somehow seems to shelter us from. One of the things I (Lucy) have been pondering the last several days is the way in which blogging - and Facebook, for that matter - has changed the way we share about Russia. Mostly, it keeps us accountable. I hope I have always been careful in the way I portray Eurasians (Russians and Belarusians and Ukrainians, etc.) and Eurasia - but I also know that knowing how many close Eurasian friends might read what I write, now that it's so public, makes me extra sensitive. Because I love them, and I don't want to offend them. Because I know that they know what it's really like - and they feel that I'm embellishing or exaggerating for the sake of a reaction from people "back home", well, hopefully they would call me out. But certainly we would lose credibility. There's another kind of accountability as well - accountability not to gossip. My campus minister from my undergrad days told me once that he tries never to write something about someone in a prayer letter without sharing it with them first, if possible, or which he couldn't be comfortable showing to them. I try to keep to that standard - which, frankly, means that you don't get to read all the "juicy stuff". And now that Facebook means I can be reasonably sure that people from Yekaterinburg and Chelyabinsk have easy access to what we write, well, things get even less juicy. All of which I have been pondering. What do you need to know about what we do here? How much of people's lives - and tragedies - should we disclose? We want to connect you to CCX (the student movement) and Living Word Church and Heaven's Open Church and the various people and ministries that many of you have invested in, through your prayers and in giving money. We want to serve God's church by building bridges that bless people on both sides of the ocean. But we want to make sure we do it in a way that honors everyone involved. And - for all its potential narcissistic pitfalls - blogging seems to help us do that better. For which I am grateful.

Sorry to leave you with only introspection and no real "news"! We had a very successful day of bureaucracy and now the lawyer we have hired will do most of the work of gathering all the documents and stamps and signatures we need to finalize the purchase of a new apartment in Chelyabinsk. Dan tells me we can get the keys tomorrow, though (hypothetically, at least) and start working on getting it ready to be lived in. We probably won't have time for that before leaving for camp on Saturday morning - but it's good to know we're that much closer!

Some pictures of the countryside - Russia never fails to amaze me in its sheer massiveness.

Our bus ride down we had the bus largely to ourselves, which makes for a much nicer ride, I have to say!

Dan did a little reading on the bus & was so absorbed he had no idea I was secretly photographing him:

Thanks again for reading & praying!

Detski Dom - Children's Home

Monday morning we had the opportunity to visit a Children's Home (Detski Dom in Russian) that is in the final stages of being built. This is a project that came out of a ministry to street children. Two summers ago Dan was present for the "ground-breaking" as they started the building project. It's grand opening will be this fall. The home is designed to take in children of any age who either are homeless and living on the streets or whose parents are in crisis (drug addictions, etc.) and cannot take care of them. The ministry is already connected with programs for rehabilitating adult addicts and so would take the children for a length of time (up to a couple of years) while the adults are getting the help they need. This focus on helping families rather than just orphans makes them unique - virtually no such programs exist right now in this region of Russia and so the local government has show support for the ministry.

A husband and wife have almost single-handedly driven this project out of their own ministry and vision - it's quite inspiring to talk with them. Natasha gave us a tour of the near-finished home and talked about their plans for the future.

This is a corner of a small one-room apartment they have included for a Christian couple/family who will serve as "house parents":

The furniture and toys have been donated by various organizations, including a local hotel.

Here is a large family room space that divides the girls' and boys' sections upstairs:

Another room with a crib for babies. At the moment they are already caring for one baby whose mother, a 16-year-old, gave birth on the streets. The mother stayed with them as well for a few months, but has now left - they hope she'll choose to return.

Among other things, the ministry collects clothing from local churches to give to children living on the streets. Here you see a pile of clothes they've collected but haven't yet had time to sort through:

A sponsoring ministry prints educational Christian booklets that they will use as part of an education curriculum; Natasha showed us the library space:

This is the basement of the house - still largely unfinished as you can see. These rooms will become classrooms and a workshop for learning practical trades. They are building as they get money, and this is obviously less of a priority than having bedrooms, bathrooms and a working kitchen:

Here's a view of the back of the building. They plan to build a playground area here. There is also a guest apartment at the back of the building, separated from the rest of the home - so if you'd like to come visit, there's a place for you to stay!

Eventually the home will be able to house 20-30 kids at a time, though they plan to start with just 10 or so this fall. Some of the money that our Alleluia! kids collected during Vacation Church School will buy a refrigerator for the home. Natasha was delighted when we described how the kids earned quarters to give to children in need in Russia - thank you for letting us be your connection! It was such a privilege to represent Alleluia in this way.

We are now in Chelyabinsk, a city about 3 hours to the south of Yekaterinburg. We have a "break" of sorts for a few days - starting Saturday we'll be camping with Heaven's Open Church for their family camp. They are expecting about 60-70 over the weekend and then about 40 for the remainder of the week. Dan will preach for the morning gatherings - so his "break" is a chance to write 8 sermons! Many of the church's leaders are helping with a student evangelistic camp at the moment and we are staying in the apartment of Pr. Ilya & Anya while they are both away. These few days are our only "alone time" this summer, so we are enjoying them.

Please pray too for our friends in Yekaterinburg, Kostya and Luda. (Kostya is the owner of the Christian bookstore and church administrator.) Luda is in the final month of her pregnancy and the doctor's have been concerned that her health isn't as good as it could be. She had one stretch in the hospital earlier in the pregnancy and they wanted to readmit her this week, but the hospital is full so she was sent home and told to rest. Pray that she and their new son would stay healthy.

We love you and miss you! Thanks for praying & commenting - we love hearing from everybody!

Back together again

Lucy has arrived safe and sound. It is great to have her here with me. Life feels much more balanced/complete when she is around. Today we went to church and listened to a good sermon on how a husband and wife can deepen their relationship with each other. Afterwards we gathered with old friends for a "Pizza Gathering" A tradition that I started about 15 years ago. I make Chicago style pizza, everyone gathers, we fellowship together and enjoy the blessings that God has given us.

One of the main topics that has been coming up over and over again is the financial crisis. It has touched people all over the world, even here in Yekaterinburg Russia. People ask me all sorts of questions from "How did this happen?" to "Where do I see God moving/acting in during these times of stress and difficulties?" Although at times it can be tiresome answering the same question over and over again, I still enjoy the Chance to dialogue with people about how they can find God in times of trouble.

Last week I taught a class at a local Bible school for adults who want to further their spiritual knowledge. It is run by the Living Word church here in Yekaterinburg, aimed primarily at lay leaders in the church. One question I was asked at the end was one I was familiar with but always have a hard time answering. A women asked me "I feel like God has given me certain spiritual gifts to be used in a specific ministry, but my husband is against me getting involved. He is a non-Christian and is against me being involved in anything religious outside of Sunday morning services. What do I do?" As we further discussed her situation, I encouraged her to continue to be faithful to God and her husband. This might result in her reexamining some of the assumption she has about what kind of ministry God is calling her to. She works full time, has friends, neighbors, and a home she can invite people into. There are people she interacts with all the time, people that her husband can not stop her form meeting, talking to, and caring for. Sometimes when a door seems closed, we need to see what kind of opportunities God is presenting us and pray that he will gives us the gifts an ability to respond to the needs around us. There were no specific answers or directions that I could give her, just principles and truths form the Bible that I could share, plus my own knowledge about how God has worked out these types of situations for others in the past. Often we want specific answers, but in the wrestling through the issues we learn so much about ourselves and about God. I truly value the chances I have to be a small part of helping people to work through some of the difficult questions that they face in life.

Tomorrow morning(Monday)we are off to visit a ministry that reaches out to street kids in Yekaterinburg. In the afternoon we will be catching a bus to the city of Chelyabinsk, where we will be spending the next three weeks.

Dan

Busyness

I've spoken to Dan a few times since he's been in Russia - things have definitely gotten busy quickly. He made a quick trip to Chelyabinsk, the city where we are buying a new apartment. The old apartment is sold and the new apartment is bought, sort of. Apparently the power of attorney we got for our friend to buy a new apartment for us only covered older apartments; since we are buying a brand new apartment there are different documents to be completed, stamps to be procured, etc. The good news is that Dan successfully jumped through the first set of hoops on Thursday, the bad news is that there are multiple more hoops to jump through! So, in between preaching and teaching in both Ekaterinburg & Chelyabinsk, and spending a week at church camp, we have to fit in long days of going from office to office to get all the paperwork in order. Pray that things go without too many snags and that by the time we leave in August the apartment would be officially ours and move-in ready for Pr. Ilya and his family.

Dan has lined up much of our official ministry for the summer. We're only going to one camp this summer, and Dan will preach the weekend on either side, so that will be a long week (8 days preaching in a row) for him. I will leave for Russia on Wednesday, arriving Friday morning local time (Thursday afternoon here in the states). The following week Dan and I will be in Chelyabinsk and have a list of friends we need to spend one-on-one time with. As usual, there are people struggling in big and small ways and one of the things that feels most important is to spend time just listening and caring for people. Pray that I would get over jet lag quickly and that we would be able to be an encouragement, despite not having as long to spend with people this summer.

I had a chance to meet last week with the woman who leads the IFES work in Eurasia - the former Soviet Union. Christy is a Filipina woman who has been a missionary in Eurasia for many years now. She is in the states fundraising and we sat down for coffee to see how we might help one another. Dan and I love IFES - the umbrella organization that InterVarsity here in the states and CCX in Belarus and Russia belong to - and their mission to see a vibrant indigenous Christian student movement in every country around the world. The work in Russia is struggling right now, low on finances and looking for partners to help them rebuild. We will get a chance to spend time with the leader of the Russian group, CCX, this summer and we are helping him set up a trip to the states in October of this year. Let me know if you would be interested in meeting Alyosha and hearing more about the student work in Russia!

Well, enough for now. When I get to Russia with the camera I hope we'll be able to post more pictures to go along with the news :) Pray for me as I get ready to go - and that I would be managing my fear about flying well.

Safe in Russia

I Have arrived safely in Russia. It was an uneventful trip. Right now I am trying to get over jet-lag (it is an 11 hour time difference here) and organize a few things for the summer. Many of you know that Lucy and I recently sold our apartment in Yekaterinburg and are in the process of buying a new one in the city of Chelyabinsk Russia. There were some snafu's that have held up the process, I will be working through a lot of those issues on Thursday when I travel to Chelyabinsk (I am staying with friends in Yekaterinburg right now).

Today's agenda involves
• Getting a local sim card so that our cell phone will work.
• Getting my passport and visa registered.
• Figuring out how I can connect to the internet.
• Seeing old friends
• Trying not to fall asleep until 10:00 PM tonight
• Observing all the changes that have taken place in the past year. It is amazing how it seems like it can take forever to see change happen, and then tons of change comes along seemingly overnight.

Thanks for all your prayers.

Dan

And he's off...

Dan's plane should be in the air by now - he's flying overnight tonight to London, from there he'll fly to Frankfurt and finally to Ekaterinburg, arriving eary Sunday morning local time (around dinner time Saturday night here in Chicago).

It was harder to say goodbye than I would have expected - I think partly because the recent Air France crash brings up all my irrational fears about flying and because I just haven't gotten enough sleep lately so I'm extra emotional! Dan will spend the two weeks between now & when I arrive figuring out our schedule for the summer, reconnecting with church leaders in both Ekat. and Chelyabinsk, spending time with good friends from both churches and generally getting the "lay of the land". As many of you know, our apartment in Ekat. was just recently sold (yay!) and we now own an apartment we've never seen in Chelyabinsk, so Dan is hoping to get a chance to go and check that out, though we don't expect we'll be able to live in it at all over the summer. We might be able to help get it live-in ready for the fall so Pr. Ilya & his family can move in. We'll see! I have to finish up my last week of summer classes (Greek Exegesis) and then I make a quick trip to Nebraska to see my family over the 4th of July holiday (all of my siblings will be there -a highly unusual occurence!). I leave the evening of July 8th for Russia. Hopefully I'll be able to give you an update once Dan arrives & gets settled in. Thanks for praying!

"Why Do You Go to Russia?"

The other day my 4 year old nephew asked me, “Why do you go to Russia?” I get asked this question a lot. It is a good one, and I enjoy answering it. The quick answer is “Because God told me to.” This however is rarely enough of to satisfy my nephew, let alone an adult! If I dig deeper, the answer is because it changes so many lives: mine, those of people in Russia, and some of yours as well.

How are lives changed? It begins with the impact on my own life when I make myself available to God. When I take my eyes off myself, and begin to develop a concern for other people, I learn to see, love, and value people as God does. So many of the changes that God has wrought, the blessings that he has bestowed, the miracles that I have seen him perform have happened when I have made myself available to God and started serving others. I can’t imagine what my life would be like, how small and feeble my faith would be, if I hadn’t said “yes” to God’s invitation to go to Russia. Often people are amazed when they learn how much time I have spent doing missionary work. They assume that I do this work because I am spiritually mature – but the truth is that I am spiritually mature because I do this work.

Then there is the joy that I feel as I see how God changes the lives of people in Russia. There can be nothing greater than seeing people, who have lived lives devoid of real hope, feel and taste for the first time what life with God can be like. Take Alexi for example. Alexi was a young Russian man I met several years ago. He attended a camp I was participating in simply because he wanted to practice his English with a native speaker. Going in he didn’t expect a life changing event. After spending a week living and talking with Christians he commented “I never knew just how much joy I was missing out on in life!” I remember praying with Eduard, a man who was facing heart breaking family difficulties. Afterwards he commented that for the first time in ages he has felt a sense of peace again. Or the story of Alexander, a pastor in the village of Revda. Alleluia once gave him $200, as a gift to be used to meet the needs of his family. I remember how blown away he was by this miracle from God, as he viewed it. He commented that “the lottery has nothing on God’s church when it shares such great blessings.”

I could go on and on, sharing story after story. The heart of missions is in relationships. It is the privilege of being a part of these lives, seeing and getting caught up in what God is doing, that makes me want to return to Russia year after year. You can be a part of these relationships too. By giving, reading along with our blog, praying for us, looking at pictures of the people we get to minister to – you can begin to take part in the lives of people on the other side of the world! And I predict God will amaze you with how much those people and their stories can impact your life and faith. This is one great way you can move from spectator to participant.

Financial update: So far we have raised just under $3,000 for the Russia Mission fund. Thank you to everyone who has given! We need at least $4,500 but would like to raise as much as $12,000 (or more) to assist God’s church in Russia.