No Christmas in Russia

There are twinkling lights, tinsel and decorated trees, but there is no Christmas in Russia.  There are presents wrapped in shiny paper, but there is no Christmas in Russia.  You can even find Father Frost and the Snow Maiden, but there is no Christmas in Russia.  There are no nativity scenes, no Christmas carols, and no holiday specials on television.  There are no Christmas cookies, no Christmas punch, no sausage balls, and there is even a lack of fruitcake!  As a matter of a fact, December 25 is just an ordinary day here.  And while much of the city looks like it is getting ready for Christmas, once you learn how to read Cyrillic (the Russian alphabet) you realize that all of the fanfare, including the huge fireworks that you can buy in the grocery store, is not for Christmas at all, but in celebration of the new year.  Even in our evangelical church, this Sunday's service was nothing out of the ordinary.  There were no carols, no mention of Jesus in the manger, no wise men, shepherds or angels.  Even the other American missionaries (not IMB) who attend did not greet one another with "Merry Christmas."

But guess what?  Christmas came...it came all the same.  It came without pageants.  It came without lights.  It came without sausage balls, cookie cutters or Christmas punch.  It came without all of the things that we think make the season Christmas-sy.  It came all the same.

When I was feeling particularly low this week I was reminded that Christmas is not about all of the "things" of Christmas.  It was not when we saw John-John looking at the packages in front of our teenie artificial tree muttering to himself, "It's not about the presents, it's about Jesus...It's not about the presents, it's about Jesus."  Nor was it late on Christmas Eve when we gathered with friends and had a candlelight service.  (Though that was great and I am sure that Kellye will write about it in her blog.)  But it was Sunday night when I was feeling my lowest and turned on the television.  Now I don't really recommend that you take any of your theology from cartoon sitcoms.  And I should not really admit that I am a big "King of the Hill" fan, though it is hard not to be if you have ever known or been friends with anybody who is a native Texan.  (Well I'll be dipped.)  But Sunday night they were running Christmas episodes and as I tuned in Hank found himself in an old-fashioned tent revival on Christmas day.  "He doesn't have to, but He is working on His birthday," screamed the preacher.  And all at once I was reminded about the many sacrifices that Jesus made when he came to earth.  Do you think that anybody really cared about what that small child had given up to be there?  Do you think anybody really understood that this child (and later a man) was used to walking the streets of gold and sitting at the right hand of the father?  I don't think so.

It has been very hard over the past few weeks not to become irritated with the Russians around me.  They don't celebrate Christmas.  There are no mangers, no baby Jesus and no Silent Night.   Now we have no record of it, but I would like to think that when the Bible talks about Jesus going off alone to pray early in the morning that on occasions he looked to heaven and said things like, "Why did you send me here?"  "Why is it that nobody around me can see what is so obvious to me?" or "I am so sick of these people.  Nothing about them reminds me of home."  And, I can only imagine that if Jesus did say any of those things that God sat back on his throne, folded his arms and waited quietly for his son to finish venting and then whispered, "You know why you are there.  How else will they know how much I love them?"  And then Jesus bowed his head, wiped a few tears from his eyes and went back to work...even on his birthday.

I can truly say that this has been one of the best Christmases ever.  No, we didn't get to share the Gospel with our Russian neighbors.  We were not invited into the homes of those around us.  While we opened presents on Christmas morning the busses still ran and the construction workers continued to work in the bitter cold.  The stores were still open and to most in Russia this was just another day.  And it was not good because of the gifts that were exchanged, although it was as sweet as usual and we even managed to make some new traditions for ourselves that had a distinctly Russian flavor.  But it was one of the best Christmases ever because we were reminded once again that this is His story and we get to play a small part.  

We hope that wherever in the world you are today that you are reminded of why we celebrate.  Take time to remind yourself that the creator of the universe wrapped himself in frail human flesh so that we would know how much God loves us.

We love and miss each one of you, especially during this special time of the year.

Merry Christmas!

Poking Jesus at the Breakfast Table

This week was like many of our other weeks here in Moscow.  There were days that were good..days that were bad and days that Russians would call "nee-chee-vo" (a great Russian word that means that things have not changed and are just "normal.")  Our language skills are improving and we can now hold a pretty meaningful conversation in Russian...as long as we are speaking to a 3-year old!  And, we are looking forward to speaking with several of our partner churches this week and next as part of the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering emphasis that Southern Baptists have during the Christmas season.

This week as I was getting ready for my language class and the kids were at the kitchen table eating breakfast I overheard a conversation that has tickled me all week long.  As usual, John was picking on his sisters, and as usual they didn't like it.  This was the dialogue that followed:

Kellye:  John, that does not make Jesus very happy when you do that.

John:  I wasn't doing it to Jesus.  I was doing it to Hannah!

Now if you are a regular reader of our blogs you will know that Kellye is generally the one with deep theological insights (Jesus and taco night is my favorite.)  But this one has been eating at me all week long because I am so guilty of saying the same thing as John...over and over again.  You would think that after nearly 40 years I would stop saying it.  But how many times a week do we find ourselves getting caught in our sin and responding the same ways as John-John.  "I wasn't doing it to Jesus..."  But the reality is that when we turn our focus off God, even for just a split second, we are no different than the six-year-old caught poking his sister at the breakfast table.

This morning as I was walking to the grocery store I was listening to John MacArthur teach about Christmas.  His sermon, entitled, the ugliness of Christmas reminded us that while we try to paint Christmas as something beautiful the reality is that Christmas was necessary because we have sinned.  If our lives were not tainted with the blackness and ugliness of sin then there would not be a reason for Jesus.  Man would still live in The Garden and God would not have had to put on human flesh for the sole purpose of becoming a sacrifice for our sins.  

Now for a moment of sheer honesty and transparency.  I was the one this week who said "Why are we even here?" and then I added that I was feeling like God had made a mistake by sending us."  Guess what, folks.  I was tired, frustrated, homesick, angry, sad, disappointed, and a million other negative emotions.  I was yelling at my family and was not really thinking about God all that much, except for to be pretty upset with him for bringing me to a place where I do not feel like I excel in ANYTHING.  But the reality is that in that moment when John answered my question by saying "Because God told us to" I broke down and felt tears coming to my eyes.  Not because my feelings had changed, but because I knew that what I was really saying was "I didn't do it to Jesus..." But I was and he was sad.

So I had to come to grips with some stuff this week.  First, we are here to stay and to imply otherwise is a sin...no matter how I am FEELING that day.  Secondly, there will be hard days and that is alright.  But most importantly, when we are feeling selfish, having a pity party, or any of other multitudes of sins, we are not just doing those things to ourselves, or to our family and friends, but we are doing them to Jesus as well.  The same Jesus who lay in a manger and the same Jesus who hung on a cross.  But most importantly, the same Jesus who left an empty tomb on Easter Sunday morning and who lives even today!

It is funny what you can learn from your kids at the breakfast table.

Merry Christmas from Moscow

то будет Россией - Часть Два (That's Russia-Part 2)

It has become my custom to update my blogs and write email, etc on Saturday and Sunday mornings since they are usually fairly restful days for us.  However, this weekend was yet another "That's Russia" exception to the rule.  We were excited about the weekend, too.  However, if nothing else, our experiences in Russia have taught us to appreciate the "little things" that we take for granted.  For weeks now, one of those "little things" has been the Internet.  However, this weekend the "little thing" that turned into a big thing was electricity!  That's right, we spent 72 hours without electricity in our apartment.  And let me tell you, when the power was restored this afternoon at 4pm it was as if Ben Franklin himself had hand-delivered the magical source of power!  I am sure that it is not culturally appropriate to carry the workmen around the room on your shoulders and cheer "huzzah!", but I certainly thought about it.

So, power is restored.  Our high-speed Internet is working at smoking-fast speeds and Kellye is in the kitchen cooking a hot supper.  Life is good, my friends!

I will catch you up on the week past and what we have in store for the week ahead in the next day or so.

Blessings to all,

Marc

FAQs

It has been a pretty quiet week here in Moscow, so I thought I would take a few minutes this morning to update you on a few of the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs).

How is the weather?

I have found, more than ever,  that this is a relative question.  Put simply, it is cold.  But even that has become relative.  This morning when I woke up it was 18-degrees outside.  And, because I left the window open overnight it was around that in the living room.  By anybody's standards 18-degrees is cold.  Earlier this week we had a warm snap of a couple of days where the temps rose to just above freezing.  And, frankly we considered that to be a warm day.  Now I remember a time in Florida when our children would shiver and complain if they were able to see their breath on the way to school, but that has become our new normal and any day that is above 32 is a warm one!  But never fear, even though it is freezing cold outside, it is plenty warm inside.  (Which is why our windows are usually open most of the day!)

Those warm days also present their own forms of problems.  You see, we have had snow on the ground for at least three weeks now, so when it gets that warm during the day things begin to melt, but when the sun goes down at 4pm things start to refreeze leaving the sidewalks a solid sheet of ice.  So, we pray for snow.  In actuality it snows almost all the time.  It is usually just flurries, but there is snow in the air nearly constantly.  We have about four or five inches on the ground right now and the forecast usually calls for snow four or five days a week.  Usually it is a very different kind of snow that you typically think of though.  Even when it is snowing hard, the flakes are generally very small and grainy...almost like white sand.  But every now and then you get bigger flakes.

Yesterday was my favorite kind of day, weather wise.  It was just below freezing and the wind was not really blowing hard.  There was a light snow falling and it was just a lot of fun to go walking in.  I love to take the shortcuts through the areas of town that have a lot of trees, especially when it is snowing.  There is just something dreamlike about the whole scene.  And, with Christmas quickly approaching it is even more exciting to get out and walk in the snow.  While Russians don't really celebrate Christmas the way that we think of it (their big celebration is the New Year) there are "New Year's Trees", lights and decorations all over.  It really is beautiful.  My absolute favorite time to be out is right around twilight when it is nearly dark, the holiday lights are lit and glowing and the snow is falling.  Wow.  I hope I never get tired of that!

My goal over the next few weeks is for us to try to start experimenting with some winter sports.  We have a fairly large section of woods behind our apartment and I am hoping to try cross-country skiing.  I also want to take the kids ice skating.  And, of course, we are trying to find the best place near us to go sledding.

How is the language study going?

Let's make no mistake here.  This is probably my least favorite part about living in a different country.  And, there have been many days when I wanted to go back in time and beat up those folks in ancient Babel who ruined this whole language thing for us.  If it were not for them, I would not be studying Russian right now! (Read Genesis 11 for the background on that little rant there.)  However, this week I really turned a corner in my language learning.  First, I have been given in incredible peace in this area and have almost come to look forward to my lessons each day.  And that helps.

While I am reminded daily that I have forgotten more half of the things that I have been taught, I am starting to slowly get a grasp of the language and the vocabulary.  It is a very rare occasion when you find someone here who speaks English, so I have really stopped asking and forge ahead with my Russian when I am out of the apartment.  There are many occasions where I have to explain that I speak, or read Russian very poorly, or that I have only been studying the language for two months, but as a general rule people have been very friendly and understanding.

So this week when considering my language skills (and I use that term loosely) I thought I would concentrate on the positive and tell you about some of my successes and some of the things that I can do, rather than the things that I cannot do.  So here are 10 things that I can do in Russian:

1.  In just six "short" weeks I have completed nine chapters in my Russian language textbook!

2.  I can tell you all about my family and friends.  I can tell you who they are, their relationship to me and what they do for a living.  I can also tell you where they live.

3.  I can tell you the things that I have or want.

4.  I can tell you what I did yesterday and by the end of this next week I should be able to tell you about what I am going to do today and tomorrow.

5.  I can tell you that something belongs to me (or someone else.)

6.  I can order my own food at McDonalds and get the order mostly correct!

7.  I can purchase the family's metro and bus passes or other things from kiosks.

8.  I can order meat from the deli counter (though I rarely want to!)

9.  I can translate simple paragraphs to Russian from English and from Russian to English.

10.  I am starting to be able to watch Russian television and understand what is going on.  Last night I was able to watch a sitcom and catch enough of the dialogue to understand the plot.  AND, I even correctly solved the puzzle on the Russian version of Wheel of Fortune!!  Wow, was I excited.

Have you gotten high-speed Internet yet?

The answer to this one is that we are optimistic about what the week ahead holds.  We now have a contract and the equipment with yet another Internet service provider and have been assured that this one will do the trick.  The service is supposed to be activated within 10 business days, so we are hoping that we will be online and surfing by the end of the week, but it may take a little longer.  Once we are connected we should be able to use Skype to make audio and video calls and we are hoping to have our Vonage phone hooked up so that we have a US "batphone" that will connect us with the States.

What are the kids doing for school and how are they doing?

All three kids are doing there academic studies at home with Kellye as their teacher.  However, this week Hannah and John started going to the American Christian academy (Hinkson) in Moscow on Tuesdays and Thursdays.  While there they attend PE class and have lunch and recess with other kids their age.  They also have access to the library, which is a pretty huge thing in our house.  So, I would tell you that things are going very well.

What can we do for you?

Pray.  That is the most important thing that you can do.  When you are on your knees you are on the front lines of our ministry.  While care packages and other things are nice and appreciated, the best thing you can do is pray.

There is not a day that goes by that I do not think of you, my friends.  Know that you are loved from around the globe.  I hope that you are enjoying this Christmas season and that you will make time to share Jesus with someone else during this time.

As usual, peaceful Saturday mornings give way to busy Saturday afternoons.

Blessings from Moscow,

Marc

Our First Thanksgiving in Russia

We gather together to ask the Lord's blessing;
he chastens and hastens his will to make known;
the wicked oppressing now cease from distressing:
sing praise to his Name, he forgets not his own.

Beside us to guide us, our God with us joining,
ordaining, maintaining his kingdom divine;
so from the beginning the fight we were winning:
thou, Lord, wast at our side: all glory be thine!

We all do extol thee, thou leader triumphant,
and pray that thou still our defender wilt be.
Let thy congregation escape tribulation:
thy Name be ever praised! O Lord, make us free!

What a glorious day!

You know, by the time you get to be our age you have become pretty set in your ways and your notions about what things should be like are pretty set in stone. That is especially true of holidays. So, as Thanksgiving day approached I was pretty apprehensive about how the family was going to react to our first major holiday away from home. For that matter, I was not sure how I was going to react. I like sleeping late on Thanksgiving morning and watching the parades in my pajamas. I like cooking a big turkey and smelling all of the wonderful goodies that Kellye prepares throughout the day. I like sitting around the table with my family and hearing all the things that we are thankful for. And, I especially like my afternoon nap on a big cushy couch while Kellye and the girls watch "It's a Wonderful Life."

Well, as you can imagine this Thanksgiving was different...but it was great. We spent most of the afternoon with our mission family here in Moscow. Including the children there were around 70 people, mostly missionaries, who gathered together in the cafeteria of the Christian school to celebrate the holiday. There was turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes, green beens, and pumpkin pie. We sang songs of thanksgiving, talked about the things we were thankful for, and spent the afternoon enjoying each other's company. After dinner the kids went out to play in the snow while the adults and teenagers played board games. Hannah went home with a friend and SB went with the other teenagers to a friend's house to watch movies and hang out. When we got home our internet connection was working well enough to call home and talk to family, as well as some of our mission friends around the world. It really was a great day.

So today I am thankful for many things, including the fact that our first holiday in Russia was a happy one and not one filled with sadness and longing for home. As a matter of a fact, we are slowly able to call this our home...and that is something to be thankful for.

Some of the other things I am thankful for include:

~ My wife, Kellye. I adore her and am thankful to God for giving me such a wonderful woman to stand by my side.
~ My children. I know that one day you will have to move out of the house and live on your own, so for now I am thankful for a house filled with the noise of an active family.
~ Our family back home. We miss them all and appreciate their love and support.
~ Snow! Yes, it is beastly cold. But the snow adds a cheeriness to the otherwise bleak weather.
~ Small victories. Today on the way to lunch I was able to read a sign I had never seen before and understand what kind of place it was. (It was the post office.) Earlier this week I took the kids to McDonalds and ordered in Russian. This time there were only two items on my tray that should not have been there! You get the picture.
~ My two best friends, Mike and Neil. I know that the thought of me serving overseas as a missionary is still funny to you. But it is even funnier to me. Thanks for being my friends, no matter what the circumstance, for more than 20 years!
~ Our language teacher, Irena. I cannot tell you what a blessing she is to our family. Not only is she a gifted teacher, and she must be to teach me, but she has become a treasured part of our family. Although I am thrilled to have a four-day weekend, I will miss having her in our home tomorrow.
~ Ed Tarleton. I have known Ed for around two years now and every time I hear him speak to a group I am just in awe of this Godly man. I am proud to work with and for such a missionary.
~ Our Moscow family. We have a great group of IMB folks who live and work in Moscow. Every one of them has been loving and kind as we have made the transition here. I am especially fond of our team, but the entire mission family has taken us in and we are thankful for each of them.
~ Our FPO family. What a treat it is to get to chat with our dear brothers and sisters from FPO who are serving around the world. Kellye always knows when I am getting to talk with one of them because I am always smiling when she enters the room.
~ My pastor. What can I say. We would not be here today if it were not for my friend and pastor, Alan Floyd. I love this guy.
~ Email. I can't even imagine what it was like to serve overseas before email. I am sure that every letter from home was precious. While the method of communication is different, let me tell you that your emails are no less precious to our family. We love to hear from you and are thankful when you take time to write to us.

Fortunately, I am a blessed man and have much to be thankful for which means that I could continue to write about them for hours. However, it is getting late and the sounds of "A Charlie Brown Christmas" are coming from my living room which means that I need do go. Tomorrow evening we will pull a few precious Christmas ornaments (including a few dorky reindeer) out of a box and decorate our small tree for Christmas. While we do we will watch White Christmas and sing along. One of my favorite songs is in that movie and it talks about counting your blessings. I hope that tonight before you go to sleep you will take time to count your blessings and thank the God who has made every one of them possible.

Oh, and I am thankful that after six weeks you have continued to read our blogs! Happy Thanksgiving!

Blessings,
Marc

There comes a point in which a man has to admit to himself that he is not quite the man he thought he was. Today I found that point…it turns out it is right around 19-degrees!

We have had a busy week since I last had a chance to write. We have enjoyed a glorious week off from our language studies. This was in order to allow us to attend a team retreat Monday through Wednesday. So, our teacher decided to take the rest of the week off to visit her parents in Kiev, Ukraine. We have tried to take advantage of that time and do some fun things in addition to our normal routines, so I will try to bring you up to speed.

“That’s Russia!”

We have heard missionary friends of ours say “well, that’s Russia” before, but we are really starting to get a feeling for what that phrase really means. On Monday morning the family hiked a mile up the street to the nearest metro station (with three suitcases and four backpacks in tow) to meet our team and load the “bus” for our annual retreat. It was about 30-degrees and as we walked it began to snow. By the time we arrived at our meeting place the snow was falling heavily and the roads were getting slippery. As we started to load up we realized that the company had only sent a 17-passenger vehicle for the 20 of us. That’s Russia. We then drove the 70 kilometers outside of Moscow to the retreat center that we had booked for the week.

Russian Retreat Centers: Making RA Camp Look Luxurious

The only word I could really think of as we drove through the front gates of the retreat center was “gulag.” However, I am told that this was one of the nicer Christian retreat centers in Russia. Let’s just say that I don’t ever want to visit a bad one. As we popped out of the van like clowns out of a VW, we lugged our things to the second floor only to find that only three of the four adult couple’s rooms had bathrooms in the room. Guess who got the fourth. That’s Russia. The next morning I padded down the hallway in my jammies to take a shower. I turned the hot water on and waited….and waited…and waited some more. Then I turned on the hot water to the other shower on full blast…and waited. Stone cold. (And you have never felt cold water like the cold water here.) So I padded back to the room. Luckily our room did have a sink in it so I gave Kellye and John fair warning and started my day with a sponge bath. At breakfast I commented to a teammate about how cold the shower was and he told me that he kept getting the water too hot. It turns out that the lines to the shower were reversed and the hot water was in the opposite direction from which I was turning the knob. That’s Russia.


Capture the Flag and Other Feats of Physical Prowess

Our first evening at the retreat center ended with most of us spreading out around the campus to play “Capture the Flag”. If you have not played it, it is kind of like a mini war game where you can be captured and put into jail if you are caught behind enemy lines. I haven’t played capture the flag since I was in college and it seems that while my mind still believes it is 20, my body was in for the stark realization that it is not. To make matters worse, by this time it had been snowing for at least 12 hours and the ground was beginning to be covered with ice and snow. Now, I won’t tell you just how bad my body decided to rebel against me under these circumstances, but I spent the rest of the retreat being known as “Mr. No-Vertical-Leap” and my colleagues doing impressions of me attempting to hurdle the hedges in order to escape capture. I spend a lot of time in “jail” that night.

Never Eat S’mores With Your Gloves On

We were blessed to be joined on our retreat by a couple from Colorado that lead us in Bible study. Mark and Christy served on the mission field for many years before making Colorado their current home. More on that later, but one of the wonderful things they did was to bring suitcases filled with goodies. Candy and CDs for the kids, magazines (including MacWorld just for me) and books for the adults and a special suitcase filled with all the fixins for s’mores. So despite the six inches of snow that was already on the ground and the steady snow shower that was pelting our faces we gathered firewood and built ourselves a nice little bonfire. It was more like a campfire, but trust me when I say that nobody there wanted to camp by the fire for long. After one of our Journeymen discovered, the hard way, that you should not eat S’mores while still wearing your fuzzy mittens we doused the fire with snow and headed back indoors for the night, all the while looking like an army of snowmen (and women) making their way down the path.

Breaking Down Incrementally and Going Out In Joy

I am not sure that the timing for our retreat could have been any better than it was. Life in Russia is not easy. No, it is hard. And…that’s Russia. We all experience it. Whether you have been here for 13 years, two years, or just six weeks, after living in America, life in Russia is hard. To Russians it is just life…but for those of us used to the conveniences of the Western World everyday life here can be frustrating…and that is on the good days. You have probably guessed from our infrequent posts that we are still without dependable Internet service and I can’t really express to you the frustration that brings. Add to that the inability to communicate with those around us and the frustration of learning our new roles and it is usually only a matter of time before your first breakdown sets in. And, after spending time with our teammates we discovered that it happens to everyone, but some of us crash and burn all at once while others of us break down in increments. The secret, however, is to stay rooted in your call and to live in joy, regardless of your circumstances. I can never express enough gratitude to Mark and Christy who took time and money to leave their comfortable life in Colorado to share with us about living in joy. Yes, these are things that we all knew. But it is good to be reminded every now and again by someone who has walked the path that you are on. So remember that wherever in the world that you live or whether you speak the same language as your neighbor or not your life is supposed to be filled with joy. Whether you have high-speed Internet or just a hamster that runs around a wheel in a box to power your network connection you are to be filled with joy. How do you get that joy? It only comes from one place…a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Once you have that I promise that no circumstance or incremental breakdown can rob you of your joy.

Dining at an Oasis

Having the week off has given us some time to do some fun things. The kids and I have taken a few minutes to play in the snow. But even more notable has been yesterday’s trip to the Starlite Diner, an American-style diner in the heart of Moscow. We had pancakes with real maple syrup, bacon and probably the best cup of coffee that I have had since Miss Penny served me my last cup at Country Cabin. All the while we ate a fresh layer of snow fell from the skies and we listened to American rock-and-roll classics blaring from the jukebox. It was a little slice of heaven. I cannot wait until Kellye and I get to go back for date night in December so we can try their hot wings! After breakfast we got another treat…a trip to MediaMarket— think Best Buy on steroids! They had one of the largest flat-panel tv screens that I have ever seen. We bought a hair dryer for the girls and I got a DVD of Looney Tunes cartoons that are overdubbed in Russian. Hey, if you are going to learn a foreign language you might as well make it fun!

Plowing Concrete and Long Cold Winters

I think there is something about how constant cold, snow and ice effect a person’s personality. Russians are not unfriendly, but they are not an outgoing gregarious society either. We have been jealous as we have read the blogs of other missionary colleagues who have been invited into the homes of national friends, neighbors and others that they meet. Quite frankly, we are jealous that they have forged relationships with any nationals at all. Before arriving we were told that the work here can be described as “plowing concrete” and so far that has been a pretty accurate description. While others are enjoying meals with neighbors, we are happy when any of our neighbors nods their head at us in the elevator or on the sidewalk outside of our building. This week I had the opportunity to speak with several different people and while my communication skills are limited at best, I was still able to have brief encounters with these Russians. I will write more about these encounters, as I am able to begin to develop relationships with them. However, in the meantime please pray that we would be able to reach these people and eventually have the opportunity to share the Gospel with them.

Praying For Us…

As Thanksgiving approaches this week we are reminded for all we have that we are thankful for. I cannot tell you how thankful we are for you. All of you who take time to check our blogs regularly and pray for us. We can’t tell you how much that means to us and what an important part of our ministry it is. As you head into Thanksgiving week and the Christmas season, please pray for the following things on behalf of the Hooks family…

1. Dependable Internet service.
2. Language acquisition.
3. Wisdom in making decisions about the children, home situations and other matters that will need Godly discernment.
4. Joy in all situations.
5. That we will begin to have an impact and ministry in Russia.


Blessings,
Marc

Headlines from Moscow

(After some gentle chiding from a missionary colleague I am making myself sit down and write a post for my blog. It is not that I have forgotten or lost interest, but have started three or four entries that never got finished. So, here is a catch-up blog.)

Many of you know that in one of my former lives I was a newspaper writer and editor. While that was not my favorite job in my media profession it did have its own set of rewards, one of which was writing headlines and seeing them on the paper the next day. You see, writing a good headline can be an art. It needs to be short, snappy, grab people’s attention and sum up the story in just a few words. So, when I start writing blog entries my brain automatically switches into “reporter mode” where I begin thinking of a headline at about the same time that I start writing the blog. So I got to thinking, how would I convey our Moscow experience thus far by using only headlines. And this is a few of what I have come up with…

“Nat King Cole may have loved Paris in the springtime, but I love Moscow in the fall.”

“Deaf, Dumb & Blind—Going Shopping in a foreign land.”

“Life lessons from playing charades.”

“Are you there God? It’s me, Marc.”

“Frustrated missionary murders tutor at dining room table using nothing but a Russian Language textbook.”

“The fetal position…not a bad place to be.”

“Baby, it’s cold outside.”

“Dancing Bears and a good night’s sleep.”

“Lewis & Clark could not have found good Internet in Moscow.”

“Patience is in a jar on the top shelf next to the peanut better…oh wait, they don’t have that here either!”

“Let’s play ‘What’s That Smell!’ That’s right Sergi, it’s fish and cigarette smoke…again!”

“I’m a katchka in a shopka!”

“Spa-see-ba Bog and other dinnertime prayers.”

“WWLMD…What would Lottie Moon Do? And other questions from the field.”

“We’re still having tacos for dinner and Kellye can tell you how that reminds us of Jesus!”

I hope you have enjoyed the headlines from Moscow. Trust me, there is a story for each of them and one day I hope to be able to write them all. If you see one that has peaked your interest, leave a comment and ask for the whole story. I will try to write and publish them as as soon as possible.

Thanks for joining us in prayer. I wish I could report that life here is easy and fun all of the time, but I cant. I wish I could report that 20 new churches have been planted since we arrived, but they haven’t. I wish that if you called me today I would be able to talk back to you in Russian, but I won’t. But what can report is that the God of the Universe has called us to this country to help spread the word about how people here, including missionaries, don’t have to live in a world without hope. I can report that our God is alive and well in Russia and that my family is happy to be part of that work…on the good days, the funny days, and even the bad days.

I will leave you today with words that God gave me this week from the book of Isaiah. Now I understand that when they were written they were speaking about Jesus and well we all know that the comparison stops with the fact that we are both Jewish men. However, they spoke to me this week and so now I share them with you…

“I am the Lord, I have called you in righteousness,
I will also hold You by the hand and watch over You,
And I will appoint You as a covenant to the people,
As a light to the nations,
To open blind eyes,
To bring out prisoners from the dungeon
And those who dwell in darkness from the prison.”

Wherever you are this week, and whatever you are doing, remember that the Lord has called you too to be light to the nations, to open blind eyes, to bring out prisoners from the dungeon and to those who dwell in darkness from the prison. Won't you take your light and search the darkness of your workplace, your community and your own family so that the light can be seen?

Blessings,
Marc

Russian Language and "The Quest"

“Ruski Izzihk” (That’s Russian Language)

My language training starts each day at 9am when Irina rings the “doma-phone” (the intercom at the front door of our building) with her usual cheery greeting of “Dobre Utra!” I spend the next three hours tied to a medieval torture device as she shoves a red-hot poker in my face screaming, “No! You got it wrong again! Why can’t you be more like Kellye!” OK, maybe that isn’t what really happens every morning, but some days it sure feels like it! Needless to say, language learning is not my gift and more often than not my tutor is tortured much more than I am. If you want an idea of what I look like when I finish my daily “exercises” click here and then click on the pig’s nose. OK, if you did that then you get some sense of what the past two weeks has been like for me. Two down…only 10 more to go!!!

And let me add here that we have WAYYYY too many friends and family members that are teachers. Why do I say this? Because the word for teacher in Russian is nearly impossible for me to say. “Pre-pa-da-va-teal” Yep, looks easy when you do it like that, but try saying it over and over again. My tongue just won’t do it. I always get the syllables mixed up and in the wrong order. And, if I do get it right, it is always slow and sounded out syllable by syllable. If I ever need to use it in actual conversation people will think I am “a very special boy.” So many of my lessons over the past two weeks have been done sitting in front of a stack of photographs with Irina asking me who people are and what they do for a living. Again I say…too many teachers. So, I thought I would be clever. When I got to Kellye I said “missionaire.” “And….,” Irina said, before forcing me to say it. When I got to Mikey I thought I would try “video producer”. “E” (that’s the Russian word for ‘and’) so I thought I would try “universitit professor”. “Neyt. Eeeee?” Prepadavateal. Dang! Got me again. And if the word does not sound scary enough, this is the way that it looks in Russian: преподаватель. That's right, kids. Don't try that at home!

So what have I learned over the past two weeks? Well, I have learned to introduce my family and friends and tell what they do for a living, which will be important if you come to visit. Today I learned a handful of adjectives, which will be important because now I can describe you to other people when you come for a visit. (Though I am not sure that hot/cold, heavy/light, short/long, etc. will be very helpful during an introduction. For example: “This is Kellye’s good, long, light, sister Kay.” But probably the most important thing that I have learned to say is, “I am studying the Russian language and speak Russian very poorly. Do you speak English?” There are usually three responses that come after that question. The first is the least common, but it does happen more often than I would like. It is when the person hears the question and rolls here eyes and turns away in disgust. (That happened yesterday when a girl asked to borrow my cell phone and I told her that I didn’t understand her and asked if she spoke English. The girl at the table next to mine gave me a similar look as she handed the first her cell phone to borrow.) The second response is most common. It is a smile accompanied by much giggling. Even the men giggle a little when they hear me. And the third response has come from probably more than 99-percent of the Russians that I have talked to. “Angleski? Nyet.” I cannot tell you how few people I have found in Moscow that speak English. It is a little surprising, especially considering that our building is right next to the dorm of a college campus and there are young people all over the place. Yet, very few speak English. However, they are almost always more than willing to help and they almost always do so while speaking Russian about a hundred miles an hour in the hopes that if they keep talking the words will magically be translated and I will understand what they are saying.

Well, while all of this is terribly amusing (if you are not me), I tell you these stories to tell you another one. So, here goes…

They said there would be days like these!

For all of my FPO buddies: “So there I was…”

Do you know how when you are being trained to do something new people always tell you stories about things that happen and you think to yourself, “That won’t happen to me. I am much more competent than that!” Wrong again, my friend. Wrong again. Well, anybody that knows me even a little bit knows that I have to constantly be “wired” to the world. The Internet has become has important to me as getting three meals a day. It is how I get information (in English) and, most importantly, it is how I stay connected to my family and friends and all of you who take the time to read this blog. Since we arrived we have been stuck using dial-up Internet, which in it self is bad enough. But the worst part about dial-up here is that you have to pay for it by purchasing an Internet card which are usually available at one of the kiosks outside of the Metro stations. That is not too bad, but the speed is not fast enough to download anything of any significance and as a result that burns your Internet minutes. And you ALWAYS seem to run out of minutes at a time when you want to be online the most and/or you are not planning on going to the Metro.

Now, Moscow has high-speed Internet. As a matter of a fact, every other missionary in Moscow has some form of high-speed Internet in their apartment, but for some reason we could not find a single company that would service my building. Needless to say I was getting frustrated. We have a college dormitory on one side of us and a Mercedes dealership on the other and we cannot find a company that will put a high-speed line into our apartment. I was nearly at my wits end when I discovered that there is a company that has a high-speed wireless network in the city, but as luck would have it, their service area ends on the other side of my street. I discovered that if I put my laptop out on the balcony of the kids’ room I could pick up their signal, but that was the only place in the house. However, I found that if you purchased three months of service they would give you an antenna booster that would improve your reception. Frankly, that should have been my first clue, but you have to remember that after two weeks in the city, I have become a desperate man.

At this point let me add that I realize that missionaries have survived on the field or decades without Internet access and that I sound like a whiney baby. This I realize, but even all IMB communication comes via email and/or web pages.

So last Saturday I had determined that I would go to the center of the city where their offices were so I could pick up one of these antennas and finally get a decent Internet signal in the house. As I was leaving my apartment I met my next-door-neighbor for the first time. She and her boyfriend spoke English (two of the one-percent in Moscow) but unfortunately I met them as they were moving out of the building, so I am hoping that when I get a new neighbor he/she/they will speak English too, but I am not counting on it. Well, during the conversation I found out that there was indeed an Internet company that would service the building and she gave me their name and phone number. So, I decided to stay home and have our team leader help me speak with the company on Monday.

I finished my lesson at noon on Monday and had determined that I was going to have my Internet issues resolved by the end of the day. Jeff had called the company and told me that I had to go down there in person to get my account set up. He had a full day of meetings, so would not be able to go with me, but I figured I was a big boy and could do this all on my own. And, I was pleased to find that the office was located on the street perpendicular to mine – Ulitisa Mikukho-Maklaja. (Nope. I am not making that one up.) I have been walking the neighborhood on a fairly regular basis, so I know my way around and figured that it would be easy to find. So I got the address from the web site, wrote it on a piece of paper in Russian just in case I would need it, and with Hannah in tow, headed out the door. According to Jeff, the office was located on the 4th floor of building 23A. I pulled out my map and could not find building 23A listed, but building 23 was one of the large buildings that is a part of Pushkin Institute, the university in our neighborhood. I thought this was a strange place for the office of an Internet company, but I figured that maybe since our building is located on campus that they service only the university. When I got the fourth floor all I found there were classrooms. That took me back down to the main floor where I asked several people if they had heard of NetFort. Nobody had ever heard of the company. One nice guy tried to give me some help in Russian and wound up pointing me to one of the building’s security guards. He didn’t speak English either, nor had he ever heard of NetFort, nor did he know where building 23A was. So he pointed me to another guard. Same story. I then went outside and started walking back to the intersection of my street, Ulitisa Akademika Volgina, when I ran into the first guy who helped me. He pointed me back toward my apartment, which I knew was wrong because the address was Mikukho-Maklaja and not Akademika Volgina. So, I ventured up the street in the opposite direction. After asking three or four more very amused non-English-speaking Russians for directions I headed the other direction with much the same results. I again ran into the first guy who didn’t know where I was going, but was willing to help me guess. Looking at my map I discovered that Akademika Volgina has a 23A that is across the street on the other side, so we went off to find that building. We stopped into a women’s clothing store where a couple of young women proceed to giggle at me. They also pulled out a map to discover that 23A was not on the map, but they did point me in the other direction. (It is a good thing that Jeff had taught me the Russian word for crosswalk just two days before.) So, it was back to the area around the Institute. I found a couple of guys in the parking lot and decided to ask one more time, pulling the piece of paper out of my pocket, pointing to it and shrugging my shoulders. They pointed me to a small building behind where we were standing and said they thought that was the one. Hannah and I went traipsing through the mud, through a construction site on the way to this building, asking a couple of construction workers for help along they way and they confirmed that we were finally on the right track. We finally got to the building, which was surrounded by an iron fence and guard shack. “NetFort?,” I asked the guard. “Da,” he said as he activated the gate for us. Finally. Now we are getting somewhere.

We took the stairs up to the fourth floor because we couldn’t find the elevator and buzzed the intercom at the front door. They let us in and I went through my usual speech about not knowing Russian and asked if they spoke English. And then I heard music to my ears…English. However, what she said was, “Can you come back in about 15 minutes, it is lunch time.” It was around 2:15pm. So, I agreed and Hannah and I left the building. As we rounded the corner we discovered that we knew exactly where we were. We were standing on the back side of our own apartment building! The office was located right behind the dormitory that is next door to us!

Well, we had some time to kill and Kellye had given me a grocery list, so we headed up to the grocery store to pick up a few things. By the time we got back to the office, 45 minutes later and with hands full of groceries, we had walked no less than three miles that afternoon. We finally found the elevator and headed upstairs where there was someone who spoke English waiting for us. Once in her office she explained that it would be at least 10 days before they could get an installer out to our apartment. I said that was fine and she told me I would have to sign a contract…that was all in Russian. By that time I think I would have signed almost anything. I told her that was fine and that if she would give me a copy I would have a friend read it for me and I could come back the next day. So far, so good. She then asks what kind of computer I have. When I told her that I have a Macintosh she looked at me funny and said, “Only work on Windows XP.” This didn’t make much sense to me, so she called her tech support guy (who didn’t speak English) and he came up with the same conclusion. I thought that we were finally getting somewhere when she pulled out a piece of paper and began writing, but what she wrote for me was the name and number of the wi-fi company that I had planned to go to on Saturday!

Dejected, but determined Hannah and I walked the 50 yards back to our building and headed upstairs where Kellye was just finishing her lessons for the day (3pm). By this time I had decided that I was not giving up and not going to bed until I had some form of high-speed Internet in the house. So I traded children and Sarah Beth and I caught the bus to the metro and headed for the center of the city. The street the office was located on was just a couple of blocks from the Kremlin and I sort-of knew where I was going since we had been there just a couple of days before. If you haven’t figured it out yet, Russian addresses are a little funny. The address of this particular office was 9 Gazetny side-street Building 2, Office 5. So, I set out in search of Building 2. We got to the end of the street and on one side were buildings 1, 3, 5 & 7 and on the other side of the street were buildings 4, 6, & 8. Back to my map and broken Russian as I approach a police officer who motions to the end of the street where building two wasn’t. Well, we finally find that the office is located in building 9, which is divided into two sections. The girl at the counter spoke English and I was on the way home after sending a one-word text message to Kellye… “Success!”

After eight hours of trekking my way around the city on a wild goose chase I was able to connect my computers to the Internet at a speed just slightly faster and less dependable than dial-up. The good news is that I don’t have any time limits and that I am supposed to be able to connect most anywhere in the city…except for my building, which I am nicknaming “The Cone of Silence.” So, the quest for decent Internet service continues.

Assuming that I can get connected for long enough to post this blog, more updates are on the way. Thanks again for praying.

Blessings,
Marc

Photos from Red Square!

We took Wednesday afternoon to be tourists and visit Red Square. We are going to try to take at least one day a week to do touristy things. There is so much to see and do here.
Stories to follow later this weekend.
Thanks for reading and leaving comments!

Blessings,
Marc

The family in front of St. Basil's Cathedral in Red Square.
Marc & Kellye in the same spot...hard to believe that we are really in the heart of Moscow, Russia!
John-John plays on some cannon balls and old cannons outside the cathedral.
Hannah is becoming a natural Muscovite!

Statue to Karl Marx located outside of the metro station near Red Square.


The family outside of the walls to the Kremlin.


Lenin's Tomb.


St. Basil's again...one of Moscow's most famous and recognizable landmarks.

Have I mentioned that I love the snow?

I love the snow. I am saying that more for my benefit than yours. I know that six months from now when it is 90 in Florida and still snowing here that I may not be saying how much I love the snow, so I wanted something in writing to remind myself. :-) It has snowed since around 12:30 today and I love to be out in it.

Today has been a full day. I started my language training this morning. My tutor, so far, is kind and patient. But, man does she move fast. I guess that is what happens when you try to squeeze a year's worth of learning into just 12 weeks. I wish I could say that learning Russian was easy. I wish I could say that it came naturally to me, but both those statements would be a lie. In reality, I find it very difficult and confusing. For example, there are letters that make one sound when used at the beginning of a word and a totally different sound when used at the end of a word--and those are some of the consonants!! However, I am determined to learn it well and to use it regularly so that my conversational Russian is as good as I can make it.

Believe it or not, I have homework to do, so I better keep this short. Keep praying.

Blessings,
Marc

This morning we woke up to...

SNOW!!!

Watch the video.



Well, how 'bout that?? It's the middle of October and we have our first snow fall. And it was a good one, too. You may remember from my previous posts that we have had nothing but rain since we arrived. Last night was no exception. And it rained hard. The wind howled all night long. But, this morning we were greeted to tons of snow falling from the sky. Because it has been so wet and was just barely 32-degrees it did not sticking to the ground until around lunch time. But after lunch it started sticking and by the time I walked home tonight there was at least 3 inches of snow on the ground in some spots! It has pretty much stopped for the night (I think) and the scenery is just beautiful.

This has been a bittersweet day for our team. One of our teammates is leaving tomorrow for the States (and that is bad.) She is getting married (and that is good.) So, we all gathered at our team leader's house for church this afternoon and then celebrated with her as she prepares to return home and get ready for her new life. Even though I only knew here in person for just a week, she will be missed by our family and we wish her well. Did I mention how much we love our team? If not, I LOVE our team. They are an answer to prayer and I am looking forward to the time that I get to minister with them. In the days to come I hope to write some about house church. It is an incredible experience.

Now, it is time for you to pray. Pray hard. Tomorrow is the day I have been dreading. It is the day that I begin language school. Now, don't get me wrong. One of the things I want most of all these days is the ability to speak the language. I long to be able to communicate with the people around me and pray each morning for the boldness to speak the few Russian words that I know. But I am scared about starting formal language training. Fortunately for me, Kellye does not start until next week, so that gives me a week ahead before I immediately fall two weeks behind! Just pray that my teacher is kind and patient and pray that I would have the tongue of a Russian.

We have a busy week ahead. In addition to language training and my weekly team meeting, we must go out and buy some essential supplies: cold weather gear for the family, and a big chili pot for Saturday afternoons. We also hope to carve out some time this week to visit downtown and do the tourist thing. We are hoping to visit Red Square, The Kremlin and St. Basil's Cathedral this week. We will uploda those photos when we get them. In the meantime, here are a few from our first snowfall in Moscow!

Blessings,
Marc

Our First Photos from Moscow

We have not had much of an opportunity to get out beyond our neighborhood and the IMB Russia business office, but here are a few pictures taken from the windows of our apartment. We live on the 8th floor.

The Moscow Chronicles

It has been an interesting first couple of days here in Moscow. We have only been here for five days, but already we are starting to learn our way around and are getting adjusted to our new life here. So, I thought I would try to recap the last few days to try to give you a flavor for living in the capitol city of Russia.

Let’s start with the weather…would someone please tell me what happened to the sun? We have been here since Thursday evening and it has not stopped raining since we left the airport! The funny thing is, they said it has been dry most of the summer, but that would be hard to prove to me at this point. We did see a few glimpses of blue sky today while we were out and about, and as Kellye was making supper tonight there was about a 20-minute burst of sunshine before sunset. Temperatures have been in the low 50s during the day and in the 40s at night, but fall has set in and that means that it gets a little colder every day. By the end of the week the high temps are expected to be in the upper 30s with lows in the low 30s. And, they are saying we may see snow flurries as soon as this weekend!



We really have spent most of the past five days getting acquainted with our small portion of Moscow. They were not kidding when they said this was a mega-city. One of the guys at the office today told us that if you take the entire population of Oklahoma, Colorado, Arkansas, Kansas and Missouri and put them into one city, there would still be fewer people than there are living in Moscow. Wow! The area we live in is around the Pushkin Institute, a small specialized university. Our building is next to one of the dorms, so we see a lot of young people walking in and out, but we have not really had an opportunity to meet any of them yet. Our building itself is rather unique. It was designed to be housing for both professors and students at the Institute. We live in the professor section of the building (our landlady is a professor of geology and her father was a professor as well.) There are just over 100 apartments in our section and they are anything but typical Russian apartments. More on that on another day. The other section of the building was designed to be student housing. However, the building codes changed just before the building was complete and it did not meet code for student housing, so that entire wing of the building is vacant!


We are starting to venture out a little more every day. One of the neat things about this city is that there is a mall at nearly every metro stop and the streets and metro stations are filled with little shops that sell anything and everything you can imagine. Last night I bought a rotisserie chicken from a street stand just down the road from my apartment. I can tell you, rarely have I tasted a chicken that was as good as these are. I cannot wait to go back! Speaking of food…because only one person on our tem has a vehicle, grocery shopping is something that you do almost every day. And you can’t let your eyes be bigger than your arms. I went yesterday afternoon on the way home and picked up what we in America would consider a small amount…and then I had to carry it all home! My arms were aching by the time I got back to our apartment. I learned a valuable lesson: you don’t buy two large bottles of soda and two containers of juice if you are the only person carrying the groceries. Note that in the picture above the metro stops are not labeled. That is because they are farther away that what you can see.

Now, lest you think that we are “Super-Missionaries” and that we are adapting without incident, let me remind you that I have only learned a few phrases of Russian…the main one being “I’m sorry. I am studying the Russian Language. Do you speak English?” So far, I have found only one person who did, and he worked at the chicken stand. Though most people are pretty nice about it and understand that you are trying, some are a little rude. This morning I went downstairs to meet one of our team members who came over to watch the kids so we could go to the office and was in the elevator with just a short-sleeved shirt on. The older gentleman who was in the elevator with me looked at me disapprovingly (because you must be stupid to go outside in this weather without a coat) and then said something in Russian. When I threw out my pat response, he just rolled his eyes at me.

We are also trying to get oriented to our ministry here. We have been to the office twice (once all by ourselves!) to get our papers registered and find out how to fill out expense reports, etc. And on Monday I attended our first team meeting. I cannot tell you how much I love our team. They are all great folks and are doing such fun things in ministry. I will write more about that at a later time, but everybody here has been just great. There are two other couples (the girls have taken Kellye shopping several times and are showing her the ropes of getting around), and there are two Journeygirls. And, in a week or so we will have another single man joining us. Yesterday, one of the Journeygirls from our team sat with the kids for the day while we went to the office. When she left John asked, “When is Aunt Tiffany coming back?” I think we are all going to be fast friends and am excited about what the next year will bring as we serve together.

Well, my friends. I have a million other things to share with you, but my brain is still kind of fuzzy. I will try to post a few more updates this week just to get you caught up. I am enclosing a few photos so you can see a little bit of what our new life looks like. Moscow is not what I would describe as a “pretty” European city like Prague, but God has called us here and therefore it is beautiful to us. We hope you agree.

Continue to pray for us. We miss each of you and love hearing from you.

Blessings,
Marc

A Word About Mail

Just a quick note about mail. We have only been here a few days, so we are still trying to figure out the best way to do things. However, for the time being, please do not try to send packages to our Moscow address. Letters are fine.

In the days to come I will tell you the best way to send care packages and Kellye might even give you a list of some of the things we can use around here. We can get most everything but peanut butter, but everything is VERY expensive.

So, for the time being, we would love to hear from you electronically. We hope to have high-speed Internet in our flat by the end of the week, but I am not counting on it. And, letters to the Moscow address are great. I will try to get you info about the best way to send things in the days and weeks to come.

Thanks again for all your thoughts and prayers. We are honored to be YOUR missionaries in Moscow.

Blessings,
Marc

Greetings from Moscow!

There is so much to tell, it is hard to figure out how to write it all down. We won't have high-speed Internet in our apartment for a week or so, so we are relying on dial-up right now.

Our flight arrived on time in Moscow Thursday afternoon and we are still dealing with jet-lag in our own way. It is almost 8am on Saturday and Kellye and the kids are still in bed sound asleep. I, however, have been up since around 4am. This is my second day to do that! Yesterday, I had a nice quiet time and then went back to sleep from 6 to 9.

We have met two "persons of peace" along the way, so far. The first was the woman who checked-in our baggage at the DC airport. "So there I was..." with 19 bags, most of them overweight, that had to be checked. "You are going one way?," she asked. "How long are you staying?" When Kellye answered that we were going to live there for at least three years, she smiled back at her and never measured or weighed a single bag. We paid the excess baggage charge and we were on our way. And, believe it or not, all 19 bags arrived at the same time and only two of them had been inspected by the TSA. Before leaving ILC, I decided to "seal" all of our Action Packer containers with strapping tape (the kind with strings in it) in the hopes that government officials would be too lazy to try to open them for a peek inside. It must have worked!

We had a pretty good flight. John-John stayed awake the entire transatlantic flight and then finally passed out as we were waiting to take-off from Frankfurt. SB has come down with a sinus infection, so she is feeling kinda crappy right now. The food was not bad. As a matter of a fact, the dinner on the plane was better than the ILC cafeteria!

Our second person of peace was found in the Moscow airport. After getting through customs, we found all of our baggage sitting on the floor next to the conveyor belt. We were told that we should get some of the free carts that are in that area instead of paying one of the porters, who will charge you up to $10 a bag and try to rip you off for even more if they feel that they can. The only problem is that these carts only hold two to three bags each. So, in the end we had 5 carts and at least 5 rolling suitcases that we had to get through customs. We lined all of the carts up at the entrance to customs and waited for the line to go down. About that time, an older, bored-looking customs officer walked by. I can't explain how, but I felt that God had sent him to us, so I used what little Russian I have to call him over and explained that our family was moving here and that everything I owned was on these carts. I told him that I did not know how I was going to get everything through customs by myself. Well, long story short, he asked me a few questions about what kinds of things I was bringing and then let me walk the carts through one at a time until all of our bags were out on the other side!

Traffic in Moscow was horrible Thursday, so we had to wait about 30 minutes for our team leader to arrive. (It took him 3 hours to get to the airport!) We then had to wait another 45 minutes for the van that was going to carry our luggage to arrive. However, we got to our apartment around 6:30 Thursday night. Our team had stocked our fridge with some frozen pizzas and other things so that we would have supper and breakfast for the next day, which was very nice. We unpacked a few things, including John's X-Box, and crashed around 10pm.

On Friday morning we were met by one of our team members around 11 and we got our "Metro Orientation." We also stopped by the office so we could register with the Russian government. I bought cell phones for Kellye, SB and myself (we have to have them activated today...you have to go to a separate store to do that here). When we got home yesterday evening our Moscow boss and his family brought us supper and we were able to fellowship a little bit. It was a lot of fun. It was almost surreal though for us all to be together and realize that we were in Moscow and not Richmond!

Kellye and the girls are going shopping at IKEA for a few household necessities today. I am going to rearrange furniture and unpack some more. I am hoping to get the family to downtown on Monday so we can see Red Square and take some photos. I start with my language tutor on Monday the 15th, so I am going to try to rest some and enjoy the week ahead.

Well, Hannah and Kellye are finally awake. Hannah has been enjoying watching American cartoons in Russian. She is watching Aladdin this morning and the kids laughed themselves silly yesterday as they watched SpongeBob in Russian!

Blessings,
Marc

The Final Countdown!

When I woke up this morning the calendar on my computer said "1 Day Until Graduation"! Can you believe that?

God called us to missions long before we started working through the IMB application process, but we were too stubborn to respond to his call. Around 27 months ago Kellye and I were sitting in our dining room in Middleburg, Florida when we surrendered to this call and now we are a little more than 24 hours away from our IMB Commissioning Service. Twenty-four hours after that, we will be on a bus headed for Washington DC where we will get on an airplane and travel half-way around the world to our new apartment and new life in Moscow, Russia. I don't mind telling you that it is a little more than we can comprehend. And yes, we are excited, scared, nervous, thrilled...all of the emotions that you could possibly think of!

So, I will try to bring you up to date, give you a glimpse of the near future.

Friday night we had a wonderful dinner with friends. Two of the very sweet, and very brave, JourneyGirls volunteered to babysit all of the kids so our group of friends could have a nice dinner together. We went to a Brazilian restaurant where they served all-you-can-eat shish-k-bobs with at least 7 different kinds of meats. All-you-can-eat-meat-on-a-stick...need I say more??

Yesterday and today are our final classes. They are being taught by Dr. Tom Elliff and while we are very busy and need every waking second to finish packing, I am really excited about hearing him teach again. He is one of my all-time favorite pastor/teachers and I enjoy every second we get to sit under him. In addition, he is a great guy and I have enjoyed the one-on-one time that I have gotten to spend with him.

Kellye's parents arrived yesterday afternoon and the whole family was excited to see them! They had the opportunity to attend our De-mapping Ceremony last night, which was a moving time. The first weekend we arrived here we held a Mapping Ceremony where we each placed our photos on a huge map over the city where we will serve and shared prayer requests for the time while we were at FPO. This symbolized the future and was a daily reminder that in the days to come our group would be scattered among the nations to share the Gospel. Last night, as a symbol that the future was here, we each removed our photos and shared prayer requests for as we go. Ours was that we would be a light to the people of Moscow as we live and work every day. And, that God would use the media pieces that I will produce to recruit new missionaries for the work in Russia. Please join us in that prayer. We were also each given a Bible in the language of the country where we will be serving. There was something about seeing God's word written in my new language that made me weep. I know that is something that we will treasure for many years to come and pray that it is something that will be passed to my children and grandchildren as they are commissioned for missionary service.

We also had a brief OBU Alumni get together last night. There are close to a dozen of us here at FPO (including IMB staff). Did you know that no other school in the world sends as many people to the mission field through the IMB than OBU does?

Today will be a busy day for us. We have class from 9 to 3, the kids have an Open House at their school from 3 to 5. Of course, there is dinner in the cafeteria (boy, will I miss that when we are gone) from 5 to 6 and then tonight at 7 we will travel to a Baptist church down the road where we will hold a baptism service for John-John and his friend Laini. My parents, brother and sister-in-law, and aunt will arrive for the festivities this afternoon. Kellye's two sisters will also arrive this afternoon. And, of course, we will spend half the night packing, and re-packing our suitcases trying to get each of them under the weight limits. How is it that we have more stuff now than when we got here two months ago? I just don't understand!

Tomorrow morning our families will have a meeting with some IMB folks while we
have rehearsal for our commissioning. As a member of the AV Team, I have produced a 7-minute video for the service. That has been fun and I pray that our visitors can get a taste for what we have experienced during our time here. The service is at 11am and is followed by a reception. And, then the goodbyes will begin. We have made such dear friends, brothers and sisters while here these past eight weeks. It will be hard to say goodbye. Most of our friends serve in our region, so we will see each other at least once a year. But, after you have been living with one another day in and day out for two months, we share a special bond. I know that most of these people will be life-long friends and I feel blessed to have had the opportunity to serve alongside of them. (Marc wept.)

Our flight is scheduled for 4:30pm on Wednesday and we will arrive in Moscow at 1:30pm local time on Thursday afternoon. We probably won't have Internet access for around a week, so communication from us may be spotty until we get settled and adjusted.

So, there it is. Pray for our family this week. Pray extra hard. It will be fun, exciting, sad, and scary. But the word that best describes the week is "obedience." Around a year ago Don Thompson slapped me on the shoulder and said to me, "Son, are you sure this is what you want to do?" At the time I answered, "No, but it is what God has called me to do." That answer is as true today as it was a year ago. There are days I wake up and just don't want to go. There are days when I just want my house and my old life back. And yet, most days I cannot wait to live in the largest city in Europe. The fact of the matter is this: it really does not matter how I feel. What matters is that our family is being obedient to the call that God has placed on our lives. I can tell you that there is no greater satisfaction that that. So, are you doing today what God has called you to? Are you being obedient to the things that He has for your life? Only you can answer that question. But, let me tell you that the God of the universe has your name written on the palm of His hand and that He has big plans for your life. They may not be to cross the ocean to tell people about Him. He may just want you to cross the street. Whatever He has called you to, won't you be obedient?

See you from Moscow!

Blessings,
Marc

Do you really know?

Do you know what it is to be Southern Baptist? Do you know what the Cooperative Program is or what Journeymen do? Have you ever read The Baptist Faith and Message?

Don't be surprised if you answer "no" to these questions.

In the days to come I will talk more about these things in my blog, but for now please take the time to complete the poll in the right-hand column of this page. In the meantime, if you did answer "no" to any of these questions take the time to find out the answers.

All of the polls close on October 1, so cast your vote before then. I will discuss the results later that week.

Have a blessed week and know that you are loved and prayed for.

Blessings,
Marc

Pray with our "Mission Friends"

Have you ever wanted to pray for missionaries, but not known how? Don't feel like you are alone. For most of my life I felt the same way. It is easy to pray "God bless the missionaries" and leave it at that. And, I am sure that God hears those prayers. However, I want to challenge you to go deeper than that. So, how do you pray for our missionaries? I am glad you asked. :-)

~ First, if you want to pray for missionaries in general you can go to the prayer section of the IMB website.
If you click on the SUBSCRIPTIONS button then you can subscribe to email updates that share prayer requests for missionaries.

~ If you would like to find specific prayer requests posted by missionaries then you can go to this special section of the IMB Website.

~ If you would like to pray specifically for missionaries in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), where Kellye and I serve, then you can go to the CEE Website.
On the upper right-hand side of the screen are some links that will lead you in prayer for our CEE missionaries. These change regularly, so make sure you visit often.

~ And, if you would like pray specifically for our family and our missionary friends we would love to have you as prayer partners. I am adding electronic copies of the prayer cards of some of our friends. There are more. One of the things you can do is download and print these prayer cards and post them on your refrigerator as a reminder to pray for specific families. Clicking on each of the images will bring up a larger version of the card that you can then print.

One last thing. Living a missionary life is not always an easy life to live. No pitty party and no feeling sorry for myself here, just simply stating the facts. So, if you take time to pray for any of these folks, grab their email addresses off their cards and send them a brief note of encouragement letting them know that you prayed for them that day. I cannot tell you what an encouragement that will be to them.

Thank you for your faithfulness in prayer. You are on the front lines of battle each and every time you pray.

Blessings,
Marc