Thought for Today

“Christ comes to the world as the example, constantly enjoining: Imitate me. We humans prefer to adore him instead.”

Soren Kierkegaard

food, friends and fun!

My friend and language helper, Sasha, Spencer’s best friend and language helper, Vlad, and Tom’s friend and translator, Dima, were here at the same time and they all agreed to have dinner with us!

Dima is one of the teachers at our langauge school and he is Vlad's uncle. He introduced Spencer and Vlad to each other last year. We have known Sasha for the past three years and she just started helping me with language last fall. Vlad, Sasha and Dima all speak English so it was easy for them to understand what we were saying no matter which language we chose to speak in!

The table conversation was a mixture of Russian and English with a bit of Spanish thrown in here and there. The meal was a Mexican casserole with Russian ice cream for dessert. When Tom offered seconds to Dima he reminded him that we are Americans and we will only ask once if you want more. Typically, Russians will ask three times. After that warning all the guys had seconds when Tom asked them!

I enjoyed having Sasha in the kitchen with me. After our language session she helped me with preparing dinner. We were able to get in some girl time and catch up on what she has been up to these past few weeks. Spencer and Vlad were sent to the store to get drinks and dessert and then set the table after getting their homework done. After dinner Dima worked on getting Tom’s PowerPoint presentation translated for Saturday and then we fed him dessert!

We had such a great evening…. I have to admit that earlier in the day I was experiencing a flare up of my fibromyalgia and I was not feeling up to having people over. I almost cancelled the whole evening. I took some time this afternoon before Sasha arrived to lay down and rest…. My muscles are still sore but having guests can truly energize the spirit!

mondays...

Tom went off to do his last teaching for the series on Male Sexuality at the BLTC. He took his crocks with him to wear while he is teaching since his feet were still sore when he left for the school this morning. He told me that all last week he had been alternating between a pair of shoes that were comfortable for walking and a pair that were comfortable for standing but not for walking in. But even that pair that was good for standing in are not as comfortable to him as the crocks are. It is part of the culture here to remove shoes in a home and some of the guys do put on houseshoes at the BLTC as well. So it shouldn't be too strange for Tom to change his shoes once he gets there!

He and Spencer left early to go and get the Audio/Visual equipment set up before the seminar. I laid in bed as they were moving about this morning... I am still not feeling well. My muscles are very sore and I feel a bit nauseous. I slept on the couch last night since I know that Tom needs to stay healthy to finish out his commitment at the BLTC!

Thanks for keeping us and all our work in our prayers... I am headed back to bed!

Boundaries Week 2

We had several new people today and it is exciting and encouraging having people attend who want to change and grow.



One of this morning’s highlights was when Tom, Spencer and Dima put on a little skit for us demonstrating what it is like to ride on public transportation. (an example of a place in our daily lives where our physical boundaries are not respected. Spencer stood really really really close to Dima playing music on his cell phone extremely LOUD. Tom stood on the other side of Dima talking loudly on his cell phone! Poor Dima was not warned ahead of time what was going to happen so all of his facial expressions as he reacted to Tom and Spencer were genuine! It was a slice of reality for those of us who ride public transport everyday… which included 20 out of the 24 people who were there this morning!

I lead the women’s discussion group for the first time and I am relieved that it went well. I began by saying that I was positive that it was “clear” to everyone in the room that I am a foreigner and that I am not capable of speaking Russian without making a mistake! After making that little announcement they all laughed and I relaxed… and just spoke without being afraid of making grammar mistakes. There was a person in attendance this morning who works full time as a professional translator. She came up to me afterwards to tell me how well I did. She complimented me on the diversity of my vocabulary. She was impressed that I was able to use the complex constructions that I have learned in school mixed in with the colloquial expressions I have learned from conversations with Russians. She helped me to realize that the challenging week we had in school learning how to express our opinions correctly was worth every minute!

Tom, Spencer and I went out to dinner at Heavenly Dragon to celebrate making it though this long hard week. Tom has been teaching all week at the BLTC. He is doing a seminar on Male Sexuality. He spent 5 days this week standing on his feet teaching! Then after doing the seminar today he came home took a nap and then he had a counseling appointment. The person he was working with today didn’t want an outside translator so I sat in to help him with it.

We are grateful to be active in ministry after two years of building relationships. We don’t want to sound as if we are whining about our schedule, we are truly glad to be serving!

say what?

I saw this on a friends blog and decided to give it a try! I am shocked at the results... I don't even have a post graduate degree. Maybe Tom's education rubbed off onto me!

whew!

After school today I felt so relieved that I survived another week of class that I celebrated by purchasing a new blouse... perhaps I was motivated by the theme of our new lesson that we received just before class ended; clothing! Or maybe I just wanted to reward myself and I am trying NOT to use food as a reward!

We spent the bulk of this week learning to express our opinions through agreement, disagreement, doubt, and so on. It was a challenging week but a great one. It felt good to learn how to express myself on a deeper level.

Some days in class I get frustrated with making grammar mistakes. Learning Russian grammar has not come easily for me. I blame my age. I daydream about being ten years younger and tell myself that I would be doing so much better if I had started sooner!

I remember talking with someone a few years ago about my frustrations with the difficulty I face memorizing all the grammar rules and getting used to the 6 cases that Russian has. She told me that she did great with grammar but it took her a long time to build her vocabulary. I truly love words... most nights before going to sleep I read from my Russian dictionary. Learning new words is not a struggle for me.

I work everyday on memorizing the grammar rules, declining words properly, and reviewing which cases go with which verbs. I keep praying that someday my over 40 brain will pull it all together. At least I can look back on this journey with thanksgiving for how far I have come!

Thought for Today

Each week I choose a quote to personally meditate on... today in my devotional reading I came across this:

"To understand others is to break through to them in a way that frees us from the burden of judging them, patronizing them or trying to control them."

James E. Adams from his book Let Me Sow Love

This news has been anticipated for a while now and in time we will come to fully understand what this means for Russia, but here is a bit of breaking news:





Putin accepts leadership of party
Vladimir Putin has accepted the leadership of the dominant United Russia party. The position should secure his grip on power after he leaves the Kremlin and becomes prime minister next month.

The nearly 600 party delegates at Tuesday's congress immediately approved his candidacy in an unanimous vote. Becoming head of United Russia will enhance Putin's power base in the lower house of Russia's parliament, where the party holds a two-thirds majority.

The move could also serve to undercut the authority of Putin's hand-picked successor, Dmitry Medvedev.

such a deal!

Usually I confine my knitting and crocheting escapades to my crocheting blog so those of you who are not yarn fans will have to bear with me for a bit!

I got out of school early today because there were just two of us in class. I thought I could either go and do my grocery shopping early or I could go and see if there was any new yarn at one of the craft stores here in town. Obviously, I chose the craft store!!

I found a 70% bamboo and 30% cotton blend today! It only cost $1.66 per skein, so I bought all that they had...10 skeins. I looked on line at bamboo yarn and there was one site that had it on sale for $2.80 most places charge close to $9 a skein.

I am a happy camper right now, I got a great deal on yarn, got out of school early, got a letter from my mom and a phone call from Erin... life is good!

Boundaries Week 1

Today was the first day of a three week series Tom is doing on Boundaries!

We had a great turnout…there were 23 of us not counting the kids in childcare!





The big highlight for today was a list of our “Assertive Rights”. This list made for a lively discussion during small group time as some of these go against the culture here. It was interesting to hear how many people thought that they were doing very well setting boundaries until Tom gave them this list!!

My Assertive Rights

1. I have the right to be responsible for my own actions.

2. I am not responsible for the actions of any other adult.

3. I have the right to make mistakes.

4. I have the right to be myself.

5. I have the right to be treated with respect.

6. I have the right to have and express my feelings, thoughts, and opinions.

7. I have the right to say “NO” and not feel guilty.

8. I have the right to change my mind.

9. I have the right to say “I don’t know”.

10. I have the right to feel and express anger appropriately.

11. I have the right to have my needs be as important as the needs of others.

12. I have the right to do things that other people may not approve of.

13. I have the right to ask “Why?” or “Why not?”

14. I have the right to ask for assistance.

15. I have the right to say, “I don’t understand”.

pray for us...

Tom starts a new series at the church tomorrow on Boundaries... we are spending today getting ready!

just doing my homework...

Our new lesson is about salary and the monthly cost of living. Our teacher Arina asked us to do some research on the minimum living wage here in Russia. When speaking about pay here in Russia all the numbers are per month and not per year like we are used to in America.

This is what I found online:

According to the Federal law " Regarding the living wage in the Russian Federation " the Government of the Russian Federation decided:

1. To establish a living wage across the Russian Federation for the third quarter of 2007 per capita 3879 rubles($164.81),for able-bodied population - 4197 rubles($178.32), pensioners - 3085 rubles ($131.07), children - 3704 rubles ($157.37).

All the amounts in dollars are based on today's exchange rate which is 23.53 if you want to look I used the website http://www.xe.com/ to do the calculations.

And for those of you who would like to read the original article in Russian you can click here!

Thought for Today

The most important thing that we surrender is our own self-- our desire to control our lives. Of course, we don't surrender and go into a vacuum. We surrender something in order to cling to God only. Surrender is the means to enjoying more fully the most beautiful thing in our lives--our joyous love relationship with God.

Ajith Fernando from his book The Call to Joy & Pain

America in the news..

It is not everyday that America gets mentioned in the news... unless it is about politics or the fluctuating value of the dollar!

Hearing about one event in America was pretty disturbing for me. I was shocked by the story from Texas about the 52 girls ages 6 months to 17 years that were removed from a polygamist compound. I actually had to look up the story online because I thought that maybe I had heard the number wrong in Russian. In case you are not familiar with the story you can click here .

Things like this break my heart... and I am sure that they break the heart of God as well.

spring cleaning!

As I was trying to study on Saturday afternoon...


I heard the rhythmic whacking noise of my neighbor cleaning a rug!

a day of rest!

Tom took a week off from teaching at the church and will start up again next Saturday. This month's topic is Boundaries!

We are all grateful for the short break... Tom is also preparing for a 7 day seminar for the BLTC, and Spencer and I have position papers to write for language school in Russian.

We all slept in this morning and then went to our respective corners and hit the books!!

finally!

Shopping here in Krasnodar is an adventure... sometimes things that are sold consistently for months disappear for several months and then show up again. I was grateful to find ground ginger.

I have a great recipe from a friend for soft ginger cookies and I was able to make a batch after this find at the supermarket!

Soft Ginger Cookies

2 1/4 cups flour
2 tsp. ground ginger
1 tsp. baking soda
3/4 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp. cloves
1/4 tsp. salt
3/4 cup soft butter
1 cup white sugar
1 egg
1 tbsp water
1/4 cup honey

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Sift together flour, baking soda and spices. Set aside.
Cream together butter and sugar until fluffy.
Beat in egg. Stir in water and honey.
Gradually stir in dry ingredients.
Shape dough into walnut size balls. Roll in sugar. Place on cookie sheet covered in parchment paper and flatten with a fork. Bake 8-10 minutes. Cool on cookie sheet 5 minutes before removing.

hanging with Spencer

Tonight while Tom was doing a counseling appointment here at the house, Spencer and I went walking down on Krasnaya, our main street here in Krasnodar.

I was glad that he invited me to go with him. I know that not every 17 year old young man is interested in hanging out with his mom!


I found the Miss Potter movie... about the life of Beatrix Potter and he found some industrial metal music.


Aren't we a pair!?

Thought for Today

Never allow yourself to settle for anything less than the attitude God wants you to have in your heart.

T.D. Jakes, from his book "Woman, thou art Loosed!

calling Dr Seuss fans!

if you like Dr. Seuss then go see this movie... we did and we loved it!!















Tom and I felt that it was very close to the book and the computer animation was very close to the Dr. Seuss drawings. We would really like to see it in English but it was nice to be in a foreign country and watch something that provided good memories from childhood and be comforted... even though it was not in our native language.