Check out my cool duds!

Askar, one of our regular attenders at Discussion Club, was home this summer in Kazakhstan. He brought me a gift to show his appreciation for our time at discussion club!

It's called a Chapan'. It's the traditional dress of Kazakhstan. How cool is that?!

Enjoying the Fall

It's getting much colder here although we haven't seen a frost yet. Amy and I are taking every opportunity that presents itself to enjoy the turning of the leaves (mostly yellow, because there's birch everywhere). There's a large park about a 25 minute bus ride from the center of the city. So we're enjoying a few walks to just bask in G0d's creation.

When it's chilly, Amy's even ready with a Russian scarf a friend gave her to wrap up her head and be a 'real' Russian lady!

Summer Photos

Hey everyone. I've finally managed to sort through several hundred summer photos. Take a look at the amazing time we had in the US this August. Short, sweet and full of love from family, friends, and supporters.

click here to view photos

Next summer we should be home longer for our first official furlough. We hope to see many of you!

Prayer Request!

Hey everyone. One of our best friends here in Russia is going to the hospital tomorrow morning. She's scheduled for surgery on Thursday. The situation is really frustrating, because she's been to the doctors several times throughout the past 3 months and all analyses, tests, biopsies, etc. have come back inconclusive.

Yet, she is scheduled for surgery on Thursday with no conclusive information to guide the surgeons.

Please pr@y that G0d would:
- guide the hands and minds of the surgeons
- give wisdom to all doctors, nurses, technicians, and medical staff
- calm her feelings, fears and frustrations with the medical system
- surround her with supportive friends and family
- make the tumor that exists is benign and completely removable.
- and most of all make His presence known to her throughout the whole process

Back in the Healthy Swing of things...

This summer when Amy and I had a chance to really just sit down, and talk out of the pressures of life and think and pr@y about how G0d would have us invest our time and live our lives. It's really important to sit down and spend some time planning to live life so that life doesn't end up just living you.

I recently read in a John C. Maxwell book (Today Matters) an M. Scott Peck quote from the Road Less Traveled - "Life is Difficult". So many of us think that life is easy and that's it's supposed to be easy. I'm not becoming a pessimist, don't worry. It's just nice to realize that life, if we're living it to the fullest and really realizing our potential, is hard. It's requires effort and hard work.

Well, that means a lot of things. One of those things is prioritizing the things that really matter. For Amy and I, the last year took control of us. Our work schedule, ministry schedule, and trying to please everyone made us both exhausted and unfocused.

So, we're learning how to say "no" to many things and to refocus on what's most important for us. Family, time for us, time with G0d, time with friends (our co-workers, Russian nationals, etc) has really been at the forefront for us.

We're also learning to say "yes" to living a healthier lifestyle. We're trying to exercise more, we're eating healthier, and we're getting more sleep and it is truly wonderful. We're probably a little embarrassed to say that the Biggest Loser has inspired us both. Yeah, cheesy American reality tv. But to see folks completely turn their lives around (from such unhealthy places), let us know that it wasn't so much for us to get on the right track and choose to be healthier.

Yes, I miss lots of junk food. But, we're just doing this slowly and the right way. Just a few calories a day makes a big difference. So we're still having dessert, we're still drinking soda, but we're losing weight and controlling our consumption of junk.

Walking around town

Amy and I really love going for walks together.  Especially in the Fall.  We just love how incredible the leaves smell and being out in nature.  We actually went on two walks today, and frankly - I just like my wife as a person.  We had a great time talking together and touching base about life together. 

I guess that's it.  She's great.

Pride: swelling up with it!

Today we ran a whole lot of errands. About 4 miles of walking worth to be honest. And it was GREAT! We saw so many beautiful flowers in Tyumen. We touched base with my teaching job and found out that FOR SURE I'm only teaching part-time this year.

but the reason for this post is my incredible wife.

When we got home from America, our phone was disconnected. Of course, we didn't pay the August bill we were in the US.

So we used one of these cool electronic kiosks to add money to our phone and pay the bill. But it didn't activate within 24 hours.

So Amy CALLED the phone company and spoke with them on the phone and got it activated!

The phone is a pretty dreaded device to us, because there is no opportunity to see facial expressions, to ask for people to repeat themselves, etc.

But she did it! How cool is that?

thanks for listening...

Jetlag... a funny feeling

We arrived in Tyumen at about 3am on Monday morning. Our baggage was retrieved, moved to the house, and we were settled back at the apartment around 4 or 4:30.

For some odd reason the exhaustion of travel fled us both and we were fairly awake until about 6am...then we crashed with our tylenol pm. HARD.

The key to getting good sleep after travel is making sure there are no disturbances. Block out light and sound. Oh, and drink lots of water.

Well, we did pretty well. We turned off all the phones and our doorbell (just in case). So it was a big surprise when someone started to ring our intercom. We didn't answer it (we wanted to sleep), but someone rang several times... alas.

Then, our neighbor continues renovations on her apartment. So there was drilling for about 5 minutes... just 5 minutes, but it was still quite funny.

At around 1pm we both were awake from the drill, but decided to fall back asleep anyway and we finally woke around 4pm.

I checked my cell phone for the time and lo! 9 MESSAGES. Yeah, and some urgent. We had to turn in our passports, visas, migration cards, plane tickets, and 3 photos to get registered with the city by Tuesday! Yikes... so we ran to get our photos (no shower, no make-up, um - we did brush our teeth though).

That taken care of we went shopping, got internet activated again, put some funds on our phones and unpacked.

We went to bed around midnight and I woke up at 4am. Wide awake... I laid there until 6:30 or so, and finally gave in and got up.

It's going to be a beautiful day here - the sun is streaming in through our windows and I'm about to grab my B!ble and my Russian reader and start the day off right.