Belize or California?

Can you tell the difference?

Tom's Olympic observations...

Watching the Olympics in our adopted country of Russia is simply…different than if we were in the US. We love Russia & her people…& we still love America. Our feelings are mixed when the two countries compete against each other in the games.

Russia is getting NBC’s feed of the tv coverage, with Russian commentators. At every commercial break, we have a block of basically the same 4 ads. We know the Russian broadcast is paid for by Lukoil (Russia’s Luke Oil Co); Megaphone (a Russian mobile phone company); Sport Kanal (Russia’s Sports Channel) & America’s Nike Co. (“I’ve got soul but I’m not a soldier.” While this ditty makes sense if English is your primary language, it doesn’t make sense for non-English speakers…which begs the question ‘who was in charge of Nike’s international marketing plan?’ In a global context, this ad campaign falls short.) If there are a few minutes of air time to fill, we’ll watch these same four ads several times!!

I noticed a cultural difference highlighted in the Russian Megaphone commercial & Nike’s ad. In Nike’s spot, close ups of past & present famous athletes are shown. Even if it’s a team sport, such as basketball, only Kobe Bryant or LeBron James are shown; & always by themselves. In typical Western culture, the message communicated is that ‘the individual is most important.’ Contrast this to the Megaphone ad: several large groups & pairs of people are out in a city’s square. Each person holds up their phone while a computer generated piece of green screen ascends from each phone. All of these little pieces come together, forming a large screen in the sky for all the people to collectively enjoy the sport event shown on the screen. In a typical Russian/European cultural value, the message which is communicated is that ‘together we are better & stronger that we are individually.’

While I believe that the two cultures are simply different, & not wrong, I wonder: which is more Biblical?

comforting others...

A friend called in a panic needing someone to watch her daughter for a bit. I felt that after spending this week basking in the comfort of God, Tom and Spencer, and Arina (a teacher from our school and my massage therapist) I was ready to give some comfort to someone else.

We had recently purchased the movie Horton in Russian. I just knew this little one would enjoy it. She was not interested. She wanted to see the “hippopotamus” movie…meaning the movie Madagascar. I take out Horton and put in Madagascar.

Talking with Tom about it later he reminded me that perhaps she was looking for the comfort of something familiar. I get that.

When our family looks for comfort from the stress of living abroad we seek refuge in movies. We have old favorites that we watch over and over.

When we want to be comforted by God we might read a familiar passage from the word, meditate on the Serenity Prayer, turn on our favorite praise music or read from an old familiar devotional book.

Being reminded of the value of comfort came through a child choosing a video from our collection of old favorites. One of our favorite verses is “comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from Christ”. (2 Cor. 1:4b)

This little girl was feeling the stress of being away from home…and she needed a little comfort in her time of trouble!

thought for today

He was shirtless, dirty and seemingly disoriented. Lying on the ground near the bus stop was a man who appeared to be around 50 years old. He looked up at people as they walked by. It was not quite 9 am and he was still trying to get some sleep. Three and a half hours later, we stood at the bus stop waiting for the bus home. I noticed his bedding…a pile of clothing on the ground behind the trashcan in front of the bench where people sit while they wait for the bus. He was gone. Taking it all in I prayed a silent prayer for him. I don’t know if he will be there again tomorrow.

This evening as the wind picked up, rain began to fall and the sun went down the man from this morning came to my mind again. I rarely think about the population of homeless people here in our city. Back in California it was hard to tell who was truly down on their luck. We saw men standing near the freeway holding signs that said “will work for food” or “help a vet”.

Tonight as I sit in my warm apartment I am wondering how many needy people are out there and what resources are available to help them.

new garage

Saturday, December 8, 2007

Tom saw this the other day and asked me to get a photo. A new garage was just added to the field across from our building. We have been told that for a Russian man a garage is his sanctuary. Some men go there to avoid being at home, to hang with other men or just to have their own space.

The silver garage was lowered in by the crane and then moved forward to be even with the rest on that row.

it is written...

Wednesday, September 5, 2007

Spencer and I have been reading t-shirts just for fun… here are a few of the English ones we have seen:

Just Do It
I Love My Attitude Problem
Born to be Blonde
Bring it On
Feel the groove in your legs
USA girl forever
Baby Girl
Attitude
Imagination can change the world
Prada
G-Unit
Baby Phat
Really love Sunday morning
Witness
Ask me if I care?
Boundless Energy
Republic of Juicy
I’m the king of the world
Grow your mind
Feel the music and Rock forever
Uncle Sam
Smile just a little bit
Shopping makes me feel better

Transformers!

Friday July 6, 2007




We went out to see this movie last night. Nathan and Spencer really enjoyed it. They both remember the toys and the cartoon from their childhoods. It was surreal to see them so nostalgic for something that seems like "only yesterday" to their dad and me!

Tom's sister Liz went with us and she sat near Spencer and pointed out to him that former president Gerald Ford's son Steven was in the movie... neither Tom nor I picked up on that.

As I watched all the action of the robots, cars, military personnel, computer experts and alien specialists from Sector 7, I could not help but think of all of the past and current transformations in our lives.

Nathan no longer living with our family, Spencer being the only child (almost adult) left at home, Tom and I preparing for life after raising kids. We are transforming into a different kind of family. One that will involve long distances and adult children.

Weren't they just born yesterday?

How did we time travel from being 27 with a three year old and a newborn to being 44 with kids who are no longer kids?

Life happens, transformation is a part of that. If someone would have told Tom and I when we married twenty-five years ago that one day we would be living in Russia and learning Russian in our forties, we both would have laughed so hard at them our sides would have ached.

Yet, here we are... eager to get back to Russia, worried that we will have forgotten basic words during our time away, curious to learn about transformations that have taken place in our absence.

What transformations has life brought your way?

The hazards of home assignment #1

What does "home assignment" mean? It means instead of being at work in the country we have been assigned to, we are temporarily assigned to our home country.

For us that means we are here in America for a short time.

What hazards could there possibly be for us in America? Plenty!

The number one hazard of being in America is weight gain!

When we moved to Russia two years ago, what is known today as a small... was a medium.

Portion sizes of food have gotten huge. Tom and I ate at Applebees and don't get me wrong, we loved it... yet, even though we split a dish for dinner we still took almost half of it back to our hotel!

We have had friends who have returned from time in America having gained weight.

I came prepared or so I thought. My number one goal that I set for myself in regards to our time here was... not to gain any weight!

Did I succeed? No!

I gained 9 pounds. Of the 9 pounds I gained while here, over the course of the past three weeks I have lost 5 1/2 of them. I have to carefully control how much I eat, how often I snack and what I eat.

The temptation to eat is huge here.

TV ads jump out at you, print ads in magazines won't leave you alone, radio commercials tempt you to drive through for the latest special.

Food is used for such things as celebrating, welcoming, comforting, giving thanks and greeting! We were at a church in Wichita, Kansas that gave out a gift bag to welcome visitors... inside was a coffee mug, various church flyers and a bag of homemade chocolate chip cookies!

There is always a reason to chow down!

Now you know Hazard Number One of being at home in America... more to be revealed!

Driving through Greensburg

Driving through this city was:

eerie
surreal
mind boggling

Not knowing whether the 54 freeway had reopened near Greensburg or not we set out Friday morning to drive to Andover on our way to Topeka. As we neared Greensburg Tom asked me to get out my camera. Honestly it was difficult to photograph the devastation. I was overwhelmed by what I was seeing... either nothingness or devastation.

As we slowly made our way from one from one end of the city to the other we were practically speechless.

How do you take it all in?

We gazed at buildings with 3 out of 4 walls missing, trees that looked as if they were made for one of the Lord of the Rings movies, hand made signs pointing to where the hospital was set up or where other city services were located.

Continue to pray for the people of Greensburg as they work each day to rebuild and move forward with their lives.

Rock of Love

Looking at the mountains beneath us as we rode the tram down from Sandia Peak the other day, I saw this heart-shaped rock and quickly snapped a picture.

Each time I look at it, I am reminded of how God's unfailing love has been the rock we have leaned on over the years. His love has helped us to survive life in a foreign country. His love has helped us endure the pain of our first two children being stillborn. His love has been the foundation that our marriage and family have rested on for 25 years.

May God's love be the solid rock in your life, today and everyday!

Watching the Oscars

Jennifer Hudson quote from her acceptance speech:

"Oh my God, I have to just take this moment in. I cannot believe this. Look what God can do. I didn't think I was going to win," Hudson said through tears of joy. "If my grandmother was here to see me now. She was my biggest inspiration."

To hear Jennifer give her speech was a highlight for me. I pray that she continually holds onto God as she has so far... her roots in the church and her faith run deep.

She can give a testimony to young women that is powerful. She didn't win American Idol like she wanted... yet two years later she is an Oscar winner! Only God knew that was part of the plan for her life. She kept on working and doing what she felt called to do. And though she did not get the accolades she wanted from American Idol her Oscar win leaves no doubt about the gifts God has given to this incredible sister in the Lord.

Let Jennifer's win inspire you to keep on going after a defeat or disappointment... you never know where it might lead!

Thursday's events

This funeral took place outside of our apartment building. This person has been dead at least three days. That is how long the body would have laid in state inside their home before the funeral.















Leading the funeral procession
















casket lid
















The body in the casket

















the mourners follow

Recent Events

A young man, around college age, boarded the bus today wearing a shirt that said on the back:

Supreme Authority

and on the front:
FBI
KGB

Interesting, huh?

Tonight Tom and I went to a party where we met 4 people who are here from a church in Oregon. They shared their testimonies and talked about how they serve their home churches and communities. Jeff, Bruce, Diane and Mindy all had different stories but they each had a story that others could relate too.

Lena, Alexei, Valera and Andrei also shared their testimonies. What stuck me the most were some of the commonalities between Lena's testimony and Mindy's. Both of them grew up in Christian homes with loving parents and were persecuted for faith while attending school growing up. 4 of the men shared stories that included alcohol and/or drugs. Some things are the same no matter where you are in the world!

One interesting cultural observation that Mindy commented on was about when the plane landed in Moscow. Everyone clapped! My thought on that is that it is not just a Russian thing but a European thing. It happened when I landed in Italy too. I saw it as a sign of being grateful that we landed safely!

Last night we had a meeting that was very serious and very long... It involved pulling together a treatment plan for someone here who is wanting to get sober. Tom was explaining about how serotonin works in the brain and Joy was translating for him. It was getting late and everyone was tired. Joy mistakenly said serotonin in Moscow instead of serotonin in the brain. In the brain is "V Mosgeh" and in Moscow is "V Moskveh". It took a few minutes to get back to the seriousness of the meeting because we had to wait for everyone to stop laughing!

At the meeting last night one of the men was telling a story about several years ago... it involved going out to the garage with a friend to have some beers. One of the other men shared that for many Russian men the garage is a "Russian Mecca". All the men go there to drink and relax with friends at some point in their life!

There is a first time for everything!

While we were in Ukraine, it was common to see a grandfather (dedushka) pushing a child in a stroller. After living in Russia for 17 months, we finally saw a grandfather out with a little one. That doesn’t mean it never happens here. It just means we saw it for the first time today. When asking Russians about this we have gotten different answers. “Maybe the grandfather is an alcoholic”, “maybe the grandfather is dead” and so on. It was interesting that in Ukraine the men seemed to live longer there than they do here. On a daily basis, older men are not as visible here as older women are.

The little guy who was out with his gandpa today looked very happy. And grandpa appeared to be very patient with this little one.

blame the French!

Hard, rough, uneven sidewalks...

cause us to have to either buy new shoes or get them repaired. I have several pairs of shoes that need to have the heel repaired and Spencer needs to have the sole repaired on his tennis shoes. We started with one pair of my shoes.

When I showed up at the little kiosk (pictured here) to give the guy there my shoes, well, um, they were dirty on the soles from the last muddy day I wore them and lost the heel of one shoe. At first he was not going to accept them because they were dirty. I apologised and said I didn't realize that they were so dirty. He wrote out a claim ticket, I paid and then left.

At five o'clock I went back to pick up my shoes and he was there smiling! I thanked him for the shoes and he said "in French it is Au Revoir right?" choosing not to correct his thinking that I am from France (I get that a lot) I just smiled and told him he was correct and said "Au Revoir" in return and left. When I got home and told Tom what had just happened he said "that's great! Then he can think that the French have dirty shoes and not Americans!"

so there you go... blame the French!