Burger Klub

Well it ain't no Smashburger, but I was hungry. We just got back from dinner at the local burger joint called "Burger Klub". Very similar to an american establishment, complete with sleezy music videos playing all the time on several televisions. It was a 15 minute walk from the church in subzero temps. I believe that today is the coldest it has been yet, barely above zero during the day time.

Megan had an allergic reaction overnight which caused her right eye to swell shut (this happens frequently at home as well). She has sat out most of the activities today trying to get it to go away. We brought her back some sort of sandwich wrap and chocolate ice cream. That should go a long way to making her feel better.

Yesterday we were told that we were going to be on our own today due to the Christmas holiday. However, like much of our trip, things change rapidly and we have had an unexpectedly busy day. We visited Anatoly's church today. We have seen and participated in the kids Christmas program about 10 times now. I am now able to play at least 3 parts in russian, the donkey, the sheep, and baby Jesus. Larry and I are struggling to get the melody of several of the songs out of our heads. Though they are truly beautiful worship songs the human mind can only tolerate the same song for so long. Now I know what it means to suffer for Christ.

We also had movie night at Anya's apartment last night, which the others may have already commented on. We watched "Catch Me If You Can". Unfortunately, those of us who had seen the movie already had forgotten that there was some foul language, etc...When the movie was over Misha commented that the movie was very "Educative". I have to agree. Misha is a wonderful translator but has a pretty stoic exterior that seems difficult to penetrate. After several days we finally gotten him to loosen up and laugh, but I can see that it may actually be struggle for him to relate to us at times. Yesterday we visited the construction site for Anatoly's new chruch. While they were trying to unfreeze the lock on the gate with a hammer he started singing..."It's Hammer-time" followed by "Don't touch this!" We immediately started laughing and let him know that we preferred this lyric versus the real one of "You can't touch this!" We have now said it many times and Misha has laughed along with us....he has little choice.

Today I mastered Merry Christmas in russian as we passed out the Immanuel's Child gifts at both Vadim's church and Anatoly's church. It is quite difficult to pronounce but I think I've got it. The phonetic spelling would be something like srazshdestvom christovim.

I have slept soundly now for two days in a row and I'm just now starting to feel like normal. Not looking forward to dealing with the jetlag on the return trip.

Not sure how much of this is already down in the blog. Between Jen and Megan there is likely no stone left unturned.

-Rader

A Beautiful Example

It's so neat to travel around with our Russian friends from place to place for the Immanuel's Child outreaches. It's cool how we got to have five days of winter camp together to get to know one another, and now we're taking our show on the road!  The youth are the ones who put on the play at each location. Youth group ranges from age 12 up until 30?  Basically you stay "youth" until you get married, but there's also lots of young married couples who serve together in the youth group...it's like they don't want to leave!  They are very musically gifted, and it's beautiful when they sing together.  The part that amazes me is how they show up at the church day after day after day! The same group has been serving together for over a week now! I said to Anya, "It's amazing that they give up their whole Christmas vacation to do this."  To which she replied, "They don't have the money to go or do anything else." Church is their home. This is their family! It's a privilege to be a part of the family!

It just occurred to me as I was talking to Judy on the phone that God has brought me all this way to help me learn how to exist in a supporting role! I have my swollen eye, and the team is out having burgers and fries for dinner right now. They voted that I should come along even though Jim calls me "Cy" (short for cyclops.)
I decided to stay home, because there's no such thing as a drive-in here, and they will be walking for at least 15 minutes each way in the bitter cold. I didn't think that the icy air would feel very good on my already tender eyes. I told them that maybe they could keep a hamburger warm for me in their pocket. But, the sweet ladies who cook for us were grateful for our suggestion that they take the night off and go home to be with their families.  Isn't it amazing that they would have been here cooking for us on Christmas? Talk about supporting role!

Anyway, it's been very strange to be here without any of my usual bossy roles. I'm just along for the ride, waiting to be told what to do. It's so easy to feel busy and important in my regular life. And here, I'm just not that important. It has been SO good for me to see those bubbles of pride rise up and burst. It is a blessing to see the unique parts of the body functioning together.  I don't need to try and do someone else's role, because God is directing a production that is so much bigger than I can comprehend. I just need to be quiet and wait for the Director to call for me. His work WILL be accomplished, and I am privileged to be one tiny part of it. I'm thankful that I'm included in this production, and that He has written my name in the cast. Though I'm weak and poor, all I have is YOURS! Every single breath! I'm coming back to the heart of worship, and it's all about YOU, Jesus!

Misha!

 Meet Misha! (Pronounced mee-sha.)  We also call him Meesh! He is our second translator, which is very helpful with five people! Sometimes we split up, and each group needs a translator! He and Anya love translating, and they fight over who gets to translate Jim's sermons. They are constantly sparring with one another, and we find it quite funny! Misha has a very dry, wry sense of humor. (Think a Russian version of Eric Kron.) This photo was taken days into our trip, and it was the first time we'd gotten him to smile for the camera.

I broke out the Junior Mints one evening in our room, an American treat they hadn't tried before. Anya loved them right away and said they reminded her of something she couldn't place. Meesh quipped very seriously, "Toothpaste!"Of course Jen and I thought that was hysterical.

The next day, Misha went and picked up some photos for one of our crafts, and we got to take a nap. When he arrived at our room with the photos, we clapped and cheered, because he had brought them to us. We said, "Good job, Misha!"  To which he put the photo envelope in his teeth and pretended he was a dog that we were praising. We said, "Wow! We owe you big! Do you want one of those oranges that we bought at the market!?" His dead pan reply, in his thick Russian accent, "I was actually thinking I might have some more of those Junior Mints." We thought this was funny after his previous toothpaste comment, so I made him pose with the Junior Mint box for a picture.  I was saying, "No, hold the box so we can see the label!"  Then, he said, "What is this? A commercial?" He made a goofy smile like he was on TV, and that my friends, is the story of our first photo of Misha smiling! He then proceeded to eat all of the Junior Mints and even go so far as to tear open the box and lick the melted chocolate off of the inside.  Jen and I have noted that next time we come to Russia, we're bringing an entire suitcase of American candy and Smoky Davis beef jerky!

We love you, Meesh!  We are so blessed by the friends God is giving us here!

Christmas Part 2

Jim said in one of his sermons, we are blessed to have already celebrated Christmas with our families back in the United States. Now we get to celebrate a second Christmas!                                                                                                          

It's been so much fun to spoil Anya with American treats. She lives with an American missionary here in Tambov. (Her name is Jenni, and we will get to meet her at Heritage in February.)  Jenni has taught Anya to love all sorts of American things like Cheez-its and ranch dip.  I wish you could have seen how thrilled Anya was with her Christmas gifts! She kept saying, "This is amazing! Oh my goodness!"  You can't buy these items in Russia.  She also got new Levi's and Nikes...true luxury items!  I love watching how she handles her new gifts.  She loves Kit Kat bars, but she takes a piece for herself and shares the rest with her Russian friends.  I could empty my whole suitcase and give it to Anya because she'd keep a little, and give most of it away. (Even if it were something she needed herself.) She is a magnet! Kids love her, the youth love her,  and we love her!  I can't count the ways she has sacrificed herself to serve us this week. Getting up early to let Jen go running, waking up in the middle of the night when we have crazy travel-induced insomnia, translating when she's sick and not feeling well!  She gave US the wonderful Christmas gift of taking us to her apartment, making dinner for us, and helping us forget for awhile that we are strangers here.  She has the gift of hospitality!  It was eye opening to see the process involved in walking in the bitter cold to the grocery store, carrying your food another distance to the bus stop, riding for 30 minutes on the bus, then walking another good distance to your apartment building...then up seven flights of stairs to your apartment! It's a hard life here, even for those who are blessed! Thank you, Anya, for being our home away from home! We couldn't do this without you!

 The neat thing about ministering in Russia, is that you don't know what you'll be doing until about ten minutes before you do it.  With the exception of camp, Jim rarely gets any advance notice that he's going to preach.  Five minutes before the service in Raskazovo, he was asked, "Are you ready to preach?" He answered, "Yes!"  Then he borrowed Megan's English Bible and Larry's eye glasses and up he went! On the day of this picture, we arrived at a town's elementary school. As we walked in they said, "We would like you to play American games with the children for twenty minutes!"  Okay!  We had a quick team huddle, and then we played Simon Says, we sang Father Abraham, and they especially loved the game pictured here: Ootka, Ootka, Goose!  (Now Larry goes around saying this phrase under his breath.)  The whole experience of being in this very foreign place is to realize, "We're just here to serve, and this is not our home!"  The challenge is in remaining humble and reliant on His resources. To plant small seeds and pray for them to grow, but being okay with not knowing how God plans to work. To encourage our brothers and sisters in THEIR ministries, and burst any of our own bubbles of pride.To live in the moment rather than be anxious about the future.  We are a moment...but the Word of the Lord endures forever!

Soundtracks

We have a running soundtrack for our adventure here in Russia.  It started with Jen's getting-lost experience on the train.  Now, someone only needs to hum a few bars of "Strangers in the Night" and the whole team cracks up. 

Hopefully, you've already read " A Locked Gate" about Anatoly showing us the church property. As he was trying to get the lock open, he sent someone to get a hammer from the car.  Someone joked, "It's Hammer Time!"  We assumed our American song reference would get lost on our Russian translators, but Misha piped up in his dry tone and Russian accent, "Don't touch this!"  We all cracked up, because of course the real lyrics are, "Can't touch this!"  But we all agree that "Don't touch this!" is much better, and it's now Track 2 on our soundtrack.

Of course, Track 3 would have to be "Tee Ha Ya Noach."  God is so good! We kind of looked at each other in shock after we sang this song for the first time here in Russia.  God blended our voices in a beautiful way...a God-given way.  The Russian youth group were "backstage" getting ready to put on their Christmas performance. They are all gifted musicians, yet they came to the door and just stared with their mouths agape.  Anya said they heard us from the hall and said, "Who's singing?"  (They were surprised because all the musicians were backstage.) Anya told them, "It's the Americans!"  They know how pathetic we are at their language, and they couldn't believe that it was us singing.  "The Americans?" they said in disbelief.  They were incredulous that we could pull off that song.  Thank you, Lord!

Track 4 is a catchy tune that the youth choir sings at the conclusion of their Christmas play. "Look to the skies, it's a celebration!" It gets stuck in our head every single day, so we finally asked Anya to help us find the music in English, so we'd at least know what they're saying. It's a British composer, and we hope to have Dirk help us all learn it in English. It's beautiful!

Track 5 just occurred this morning. I (Megan) have this strange allergy that appears on a random basis. While I am asleep, my eye swells shut. (It's always a surprise which eye it is.  Or sometimes it's my cheek or my lip.) So, I woke up looking like I got punched out. (God has humbled me enough during this trip that I can share this photo with the public.) Anya couldn't look at me without laughing. Jen went outside and made me a zip loc bag of snow to put on my eye.  Anya joked that it looked like I have a pirate eye. Jen thought she said "Private Eye."  So, from across the hall we hear Rader singing, "Private eyes, are watching you." Then Jen joins in the song, and alas, the next song of our soundtrack is born.

Jen and I listen to our itunes almost every night, and it seems that every song has taken on a new meaning. We take turns trading headphones and listening to worship songs that set our hearts aflight and bring tears to our eyes.  Here's another soundtrack:

In Christ alone will I glory,
Though I could pride myself in battles won.
For I've been blessed beyond measure,
And by His strength alone I overcome.

Oh, I could stop and count successes,
Like diamonds in my hand,
But those trophies could not equal,
To the grace by which I stand.
Chorus:
In Christ alone,
I place my trust,
And find my glory in the power of the cross.
In every victory,
let it be said of me,
My source of strength,
My source of hope,
Is Christ alone.

In Christ alone, may I glory,
For only by His grace I am redeemed.
And only His tender mercy
Could reach beyond my weakness to my need.

And now, I seek no greater honor,
Than just to know Him more.
To count my gains as losses,
To the glory of my Lord!

A Star is Seen

I already posted a picture of the first child who received a star from Heritage Bible Church. All of the tags said a generic "Heritage Bible Church"--maybe they were the ones we purchased with the raffle proceeds. There was one star in the group that had a specific name...Jen Basel! Isn't God creative in how He gives Christmas gifts!?  What a moment to see Jen standing next to this boy! May this young man named Sergei come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ! Jen has loved running beneath the Russian stars in the early morning. Now, she has seen another star! Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!