Yesterday we drove down to Edmond, Oklahoma to meet with a missions pastor. We braved all the rain we had to drive through and it was well worth it!
We got a chance to meet with a man who is doing Recovery Ministry there and were able to sit and plan for a short term mission trip by some members of the Recovery Ministry. Thanks Pastor Mike for asking us to come to Edmond!
We will be going back to Edmund on Sunday. We'll have dinner with a group from the church and then we will be sharing our testimonies at the Celebrate Recovery Service on Monday night!
Friday, May 11, 2007
Wednesday, May 09, 2007
Victory
May 9th is Victory Day in Russia. You can click here to learn about the song "Den Pobedy". Spencer had to remind me this morning what the date was. I think he just wanted to get out of school. It is great to go to school in Russia there are lots of holidays!
** a side note for those who may not know: if there are highlighted words within the text of my blog you can click on them and it will take you to a website that is connected to the topic that I am writing about.
Monday, May 07, 2007
New to us!
On Sunday after one of the services at Hope, Tom was speaking with Mel who was asking if we had gotten a laptop yet. Tom was telling Mel that we had not gotten the funds yet. Jeff overheard and stepped up to say that he had a laptop that was not being used and that if we could use it he would clean his information off of it and bring it over.
True to his word, on Monday night Jeff brought over a Hewlett Packard laptop and we are so excited. This donation provides us with a computer that we can travel with. Tom often uses power point when he speaks. As I type this, using Paul and Cathy's PC, Tom is sitting with our new laptop typing up a summary of book he read.
What a blessing... the kindness of people within the body of believers never ceases to amaze me!
True to his word, on Monday night Jeff brought over a Hewlett Packard laptop and we are so excited. This donation provides us with a computer that we can travel with. Tom often uses power point when he speaks. As I type this, using Paul and Cathy's PC, Tom is sitting with our new laptop typing up a summary of book he read.
What a blessing... the kindness of people within the body of believers never ceases to amaze me!
Sunday, May 06, 2007
what can I say?
Tom's grandmother passed away last night. It looks as if the funeral will be on Saturday.
We are in mourning over the loss of the this kind and gentle woman. And we are grateful that we are here in the states and can actually participate in the funeral.
Please pray for the entire Sharp family during this time of loss.
We are in mourning over the loss of the this kind and gentle woman. And we are grateful that we are here in the states and can actually participate in the funeral.
Please pray for the entire Sharp family during this time of loss.
out of the mouths of babes!
Tom spoke at the service last night and again this morning. The third service got cancelled due to the weather.
Spencer and I worked with the younger kids. He had the 1st and 2nd graders and I had the 3rd-5th graders. It was a blast to see their reactions to to our talks.
One little girl asked me if there was any food in Russia that I did not like. I told her that was a good question. Then I asked the kids if they liked jello. Every hand in the room went up. I told them to imagine that their jello had chicken or roast beef in it. There was a collective "EWWW!" that rose up in the room. I explained that meat jello is called "holidelnik" and so far it is the only dish that I didn't really like!
Marilyn M. was leading the class and she explained to the kids that 75% of Russians are alcoholic. Since we had 25 kids in the room she asked 5 kids to stand up... then she told the kids that the 5 people standing were the only ones in the room who were not alcoholic. One little girl put her hands on the sides of her face and said:
"But, I don't wanna be an alcoholic!"
Spencer asked his group if they had any questions and one little girl raised her hand and said:
"I like to eat the white part out of the Oreos"!
We truly enjoyed spending time speaking with the kids. We showed off Spencer's Marvel Comic Books that are in Russian. And we shared with them about living in a different country. We shared what our frustrations are and what our successes are. We talked little bit about the economy and compared Krasnodar to Andover.
Spencer and I were both disappointed that the last service was cancelled. He was asked to speak to the kindergarten as well as the 1st and 2nd grades. We were each looking forward to what the next classes would have to say!
Spencer and I worked with the younger kids. He had the 1st and 2nd graders and I had the 3rd-5th graders. It was a blast to see their reactions to to our talks.
One little girl asked me if there was any food in Russia that I did not like. I told her that was a good question. Then I asked the kids if they liked jello. Every hand in the room went up. I told them to imagine that their jello had chicken or roast beef in it. There was a collective "EWWW!" that rose up in the room. I explained that meat jello is called "holidelnik" and so far it is the only dish that I didn't really like!
Marilyn M. was leading the class and she explained to the kids that 75% of Russians are alcoholic. Since we had 25 kids in the room she asked 5 kids to stand up... then she told the kids that the 5 people standing were the only ones in the room who were not alcoholic. One little girl put her hands on the sides of her face and said:
"But, I don't wanna be an alcoholic!"
Spencer asked his group if they had any questions and one little girl raised her hand and said:
"I like to eat the white part out of the Oreos"!
We truly enjoyed spending time speaking with the kids. We showed off Spencer's Marvel Comic Books that are in Russian. And we shared with them about living in a different country. We shared what our frustrations are and what our successes are. We talked little bit about the economy and compared Krasnodar to Andover.
Spencer and I were both disappointed that the last service was cancelled. He was asked to speak to the kindergarten as well as the 1st and 2nd grades. We were each looking forward to what the next classes would have to say!
Saturday, May 05, 2007
tornado damage
Street sign pointing toward the World's Largest Hand Dug Well
Spencer standing in front of the gift shop and museum
As we traveled from Dalhart, Texas to Andover, Kansas we took the 54 highway. Greensburg is the site of the World's Largest Hand-Dug Well and since we had to drive through Greensburg I decided we should stop and go see it.
I had chatted with the woman working in the gift shop about the weather. She was concerned about getting some bad weather later that day. She was right. Greensburg was devastated by a tornado.
Many of the buildings along the highway 54 were destroyed. According to the weather channel the path of the tornado was a mile wide. The building that Spencer is standing in front of in the photograph above no longer exists.
As we drove through Greensburg we talked about what a quaint little city it is. And how peaceful and beautiful it is. Now it is a disaster area and martial law has been declared in the city. You can read about it here: http://abclocal.go.com/wjrt/story?section=nation_world&id=5276741
Our hearts and our prayers go out to the people in the city and in Kiowa county.
Wednesday, May 02, 2007
Tom and one of our faithful supporters!
Before we left two years ago we made everyone we visited watch Napoleon Dynamite. We didn't get to watch it with Ed and Noel but they love Napoleon as much as we do!
Vote for Pedro!
one wrong letter
I sent an email in Russian to my friend Olya to tell her that I found a book by a Russian author. I tried to type "he wrote The Turkish Gambit" but, what I typed was "he urinated The Turkish Gambit".... typing one wrong letter can make or break you. Hopefully, she will get a good laugh and understand what I was trying to say!
Tuesday, May 01, 2007
getting ready
Spencer and I shopped for yarn for an afghan for him. It was a job that I could not be trusted to do alone... he does not want me to choose any color that might be remotely girlie! He chose 3 shades of burgundy with black for an accent. I started it tonight and will work on it as we travel. I finished one for Nathan on our last road trip.
Tom tried to get pictures of his jewelry taken today and for some reason my camera didn't cooperate for him. We need to find a camera shop and see what the problem is. Tom pointed out to me that my camera has literally taken thousands of pictures since we purchased it two years ago!
Right now I am putting all the photos that have already been taken on Photobucket. Maybe if I can get the memory card cleaned it will function better!
Monday, April 30, 2007
the week in review
Tom's parents are back with us... they traveled last week and left us alone in the house. Fortunately, we were all good and nothing got broken while they were away.
We did have an issue trying to make microwave popcorn. I teased Tom for burning a bag and then I did the same thing. At least the burned popcorn smell was gone before they got back home!
We had a quiet week. Most of the time we were not even in the same room with one another. Tom watched Basketball in one room, Spencer was on the computer, I watched TV in another room and Nathan was either at work or in his room on the computer.
Yesterday, we went to New Beginnings Church of God as a family. Nathan didn't have to go to work until 3:30 so we were able to enjoy the service and then lunch afterward. Spencer and I had gone the week before and I had dropped one of our prayer cards in the offering plate and asked them to pray for us. This week when we greeted the pastor after the service he recognised us and said that he had been praying for us!
After lunch we came back to the house and Tom's folks were here. They had just gotten off the road. Tom watched a basketball game and then took a nap. Nathan had to go to work and Spencer and I took off to check out a new Borders.
As Spencer was buying a Russian history book the cashier, Esther, told him about an author who is very popular in Russia right now. Boris Akunin is a mystery writer. She didn't know if it had been translated into English or not. She had read the book in German. After chatting with her a bit we thanked her, left Border's and went over to Barnes and Noble and found several books by Akunin. We came home with only two. The Turkish Gambit and Sister Pelagia & the White Bulldog.
As Spencer and I talked about The Turkish Gambit we realised that we have already seen the movie. We have also seen another movie based on a novel of his called The State Councilor. Both of these movies broke box office records in Russia.
We did have an issue trying to make microwave popcorn. I teased Tom for burning a bag and then I did the same thing. At least the burned popcorn smell was gone before they got back home!
We had a quiet week. Most of the time we were not even in the same room with one another. Tom watched Basketball in one room, Spencer was on the computer, I watched TV in another room and Nathan was either at work or in his room on the computer.
Yesterday, we went to New Beginnings Church of God as a family. Nathan didn't have to go to work until 3:30 so we were able to enjoy the service and then lunch afterward. Spencer and I had gone the week before and I had dropped one of our prayer cards in the offering plate and asked them to pray for us. This week when we greeted the pastor after the service he recognised us and said that he had been praying for us!
After lunch we came back to the house and Tom's folks were here. They had just gotten off the road. Tom watched a basketball game and then took a nap. Nathan had to go to work and Spencer and I took off to check out a new Borders.
As Spencer was buying a Russian history book the cashier, Esther, told him about an author who is very popular in Russia right now. Boris Akunin is a mystery writer. She didn't know if it had been translated into English or not. She had read the book in German. After chatting with her a bit we thanked her, left Border's and went over to Barnes and Noble and found several books by Akunin. We came home with only two. The Turkish Gambit and Sister Pelagia & the White Bulldog.
As Spencer and I talked about The Turkish Gambit we realised that we have already seen the movie. We have also seen another movie based on a novel of his called The State Councilor. Both of these movies broke box office records in Russia.
Saturday, April 28, 2007
Sudoku
Have you heard about this game?
Do you play it?
Tom got hooked on Sudoku and he kept trying to explain it to me but I was not getting it. Then two nights ago he tried again...I finally got it! I did so many out of his book that he had to go out and buy me one of my own.
I prefer using a printed copy than playing online. You can even find good explanations online if you don't have Tom around to explain it for you!
Give it a try... if I can do it anyone can!
Do you play it?
Tom got hooked on Sudoku and he kept trying to explain it to me but I was not getting it. Then two nights ago he tried again...I finally got it! I did so many out of his book that he had to go out and buy me one of my own.
I prefer using a printed copy than playing online. You can even find good explanations online if you don't have Tom around to explain it for you!
Give it a try... if I can do it anyone can!
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
a few days off
I apologize for not doing daily updates!
As we traveled the Southwest we were in places where I did not have internet access. And this week we are trying to get some much needed rest. We will be back on the road in May.
Nathan has a few days off and we are spending sometime with him. He and Tom enjoyed watching Borat together last night and today Nathan and I watched the Lemony Snicket movie A Series of Unfortunate Events.
Thanks for understanding the need for some down time. If anything exciting happens I will sit down and blog about it!
As we traveled the Southwest we were in places where I did not have internet access. And this week we are trying to get some much needed rest. We will be back on the road in May.
Nathan has a few days off and we are spending sometime with him. He and Tom enjoyed watching Borat together last night and today Nathan and I watched the Lemony Snicket movie A Series of Unfortunate Events.
Thanks for understanding the need for some down time. If anything exciting happens I will sit down and blog about it!
Saturday, April 21, 2007
glamorous life
While we were in Redding this is where we stayed. Spencer and I joked about our glamorous life of traveling!
Thank goodness the motel was clean and quiet. We even felt safe enough to walk around in the area.
Thursday, April 19, 2007
off roading
We are back in New Mexico.
We are tired.
My arms are sore from driving during the heavy winds yesterday.
Spencer is tired, he didn't sleep well last night.
Tom is still having back pain.
We are evaluating how much more traveling we can do. The price of gas is high and we want to be good stewards of our energy and our resources.
We know that we need to go to Dallas again and we need to be in Kansas in May. At least we get a short break until then!
We are tired.
My arms are sore from driving during the heavy winds yesterday.
Spencer is tired, he didn't sleep well last night.
Tom is still having back pain.
We are evaluating how much more traveling we can do. The price of gas is high and we want to be good stewards of our energy and our resources.
We know that we need to go to Dallas again and we need to be in Kansas in May. At least we get a short break until then!
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
traveling with a trailer
We will pull out of California today pulling a trailer. I am not sure how I feel about this. At least I won't have to drive it on the kind of mountains that we drove on the way to Oregon.
We have about twenty boxes... the last of our belongings that connected us to California. It feels like we are officially leaving our home state of 17 years. Tom, Spencer and I are all looking forward to getting back to Albuquerque. Being there means not being off the highway for a bit and getting some rest!
We have about twenty boxes... the last of our belongings that connected us to California. It feels like we are officially leaving our home state of 17 years. Tom, Spencer and I are all looking forward to getting back to Albuquerque. Being there means not being off the highway for a bit and getting some rest!
Sunday, April 15, 2007
road weary
Tom, Spencer and I are all feeling wiped out. We are tired of being in the car. We want our own beds and our own pillows...How is that for whining!
We had a great time meeting the people at the church in Eugene. We enjoyed lunch in Brownsville with Randy and Roger. We laughed our heads off with Ashley, Nicole, Diane and Ivey in Modesto. We were excited to have dinner in Castaic with Joann and her kids.
Each time we meet with someone new the experience is priceless. The cost of all this is mostly physical. Tom is having a lot of back pain. And my muscles are feeling tight and achy. Last night Tom was in so much pain he wanted me to take him to the doctor. I had taken two Tylenol PM's and was not fit to drive so he had to ask the couple we are staying with to take him. He got a shot and some pain meds. We will start trading off more frequently when we leave for New Mexico on Tuesday.
Please pray for our health and our travel. Pray that we raise the funds needed to make the transition to career. We are grateful that God called us to work in Russia and we are eager to get back to work on language, relationships with Russian nationals and service in the community.
We had a great time meeting the people at the church in Eugene. We enjoyed lunch in Brownsville with Randy and Roger. We laughed our heads off with Ashley, Nicole, Diane and Ivey in Modesto. We were excited to have dinner in Castaic with Joann and her kids.
Each time we meet with someone new the experience is priceless. The cost of all this is mostly physical. Tom is having a lot of back pain. And my muscles are feeling tight and achy. Last night Tom was in so much pain he wanted me to take him to the doctor. I had taken two Tylenol PM's and was not fit to drive so he had to ask the couple we are staying with to take him. He got a shot and some pain meds. We will start trading off more frequently when we leave for New Mexico on Tuesday.
Please pray for our health and our travel. Pray that we raise the funds needed to make the transition to career. We are grateful that God called us to work in Russia and we are eager to get back to work on language, relationships with Russian nationals and service in the community.
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
Beautiful place for back spasms!!
We are currently in beautiful Oregon! None of us have ever been here before & we are blown away by God's majestic beauty. Tuesday we had a meeting with the Missions Board from a local church. Some of the Board members had been to Krasnodar last year to do some building at the BLTC & Axtirka Rehab Center, so it was very good to see familiar faces again.
We have been in 5 States in 6 weeks and are very tired! Tom has been having back spasms due to so much driving, etc. He was down Saturday night & Sunday. (Please pray for his healing.) Alida & Spencer were mobile on Easter Sunday & attended their first Easter Service IN ENGLISH! in two years. We were in Redding, CA at the time.
We have another meeting tomorrow & then will be headed back to California. Friday we will see friends in Modesto. Saturday we will drive to Orange County. Sunday we will be back at our home church in Capo Beach & are excited about seeing so many friends & supporters!
Talk to you soon!
We have been in 5 States in 6 weeks and are very tired! Tom has been having back spasms due to so much driving, etc. He was down Saturday night & Sunday. (Please pray for his healing.) Alida & Spencer were mobile on Easter Sunday & attended their first Easter Service IN ENGLISH! in two years. We were in Redding, CA at the time.
We have another meeting tomorrow & then will be headed back to California. Friday we will see friends in Modesto. Saturday we will drive to Orange County. Sunday we will be back at our home church in Capo Beach & are excited about seeing so many friends & supporters!
Talk to you soon!
Monday, April 09, 2007
Oregon!
We left our friends up near Yosemite on Saturday and drove to Redding. Today is Monday and we just got into Eugene, Oregon. It is lush and green here. We don't have much time here in the internet cafe... we arrived too close to closing time!
We spent Easter in Redding, California. We attended Redding Christian Fellowship. After the service we let the pastor there know how much we enjoyed the message and how blessed we were. Spencer and I enjoyed it a lot. Tom was back at the hotel. His back has been hurting and he had not gotten much sleep the night before so I did not want to wake him up.
We have meetings here in Eugene and in a few surrounding cities and then we head back to California on Friday.
We are staying in a very comfortable and lovely looking cottage. We have enough room for each one of the three of us to have a separate place to retreat to for some alone time. We have had a lot of family togetherness over the past 6 weeks!
We spent Easter in Redding, California. We attended Redding Christian Fellowship. After the service we let the pastor there know how much we enjoyed the message and how blessed we were. Spencer and I enjoyed it a lot. Tom was back at the hotel. His back has been hurting and he had not gotten much sleep the night before so I did not want to wake him up.
We have meetings here in Eugene and in a few surrounding cities and then we head back to California on Friday.
We are staying in a very comfortable and lovely looking cottage. We have enough room for each one of the three of us to have a separate place to retreat to for some alone time. We have had a lot of family togetherness over the past 6 weeks!
Friday, April 06, 2007
driving!
We left Orange County and are in the mountains now!
We are in the Sierra Forest and the drive up here was gorgeous. We are enjoying the time here with Bill and Judy. Judy and Tom worked together with Overcomers Outreach. Judy and Bill moved up here about five years ago.
As we were driving up here Tom was remarking on how he could live here in the area. It is a peaceful.
We have no idea where God will lead us when our time working in Russia is finished!
We are in the Sierra Forest and the drive up here was gorgeous. We are enjoying the time here with Bill and Judy. Judy and Tom worked together with Overcomers Outreach. Judy and Bill moved up here about five years ago.
As we were driving up here Tom was remarking on how he could live here in the area. It is a peaceful.
We have no idea where God will lead us when our time working in Russia is finished!
Monday, April 02, 2007
today's update
It is time to pack up the suitcases and head out. We go to San Clemente today and will be there until Friday.
We have dinners and lunches scheduled with various people until we leave for Oregon on Friday.
Thursday we have doctor appointments scheduled. We have not seen our family doctor since our move to Russia two years ago. Tom, Spencer and I are all looking forward to seeing her again. No one is having any major problems it is just time for a check up.
How often do you hear about people looking forward to sitting in a doctor's waiting room? I guess we are still adjusting to being here in America!
We have dinners and lunches scheduled with various people until we leave for Oregon on Friday.
Thursday we have doctor appointments scheduled. We have not seen our family doctor since our move to Russia two years ago. Tom, Spencer and I are all looking forward to seeing her again. No one is having any major problems it is just time for a check up.
How often do you hear about people looking forward to sitting in a doctor's waiting room? I guess we are still adjusting to being here in America!
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