Russia 2010

I am finally back from our Spring Break Mission Trip to Russia; Zavolzh'ye to be exact. The trip flew by very fast, except for the flights. They were both 10 hours, there and back. We landed in Moscow at 11am on Saturday morning with maybe all of us having 45 minutes of sleep the whole flight. Needless to say it was a long day touring Moscow until 10:30pm when we had to go to the train station. We got to Nizhny Novgorod at 6:30am Sunday morning and then had an hour drive to Zavolzh'ye. That morning we had about 1hr 30min to get ready for church and then were out the door again. It was such a blessing for Alissa and I to be at the church again and see how far they had come since last year.

The year before we entered in the front on the ground floor with planks of wood and drywall everywhere. This year we entered through the back and there the construction supplies used to be there is now a room they use for childrens church and for the english club. There is also a kitchen off of the room that they never had before. When you go up to the sanctuary there is a brand new floor similar to the one used in the room downstairs. Last year it was just planks of wood that if you dropped a pen it would fall all the way to the ground floor. 


On Monday through Thursday mornings we went into the school and spoke with the english classes. We gave a presentation about life in Providence and at Johnson & Wales. We then broke up into groups and we able to speak with them one on one (with translators of course). They loved to perform for us as well and would dance, play the guitar or sing. Some of the students actually came to every session on all 4 days, and they were the ones who were so eager to learn from us and had the dream of going to the language school to become a translator. It was a blessing to see the smiles that we brought to the students' faces just by being there and being interested in their lives. Many of them were confused as to why we chose Zavolzh'ye and why we were interested in them considering we are Americans. Many of them also had such gloomy faces and this look of sadness in their eyes because they do not see much hope in the future or ever in Zavolzh'ye. Many of them want to leave Russia or go work in Moscow but the teachers tell them that they are not going to make it very far, and all they are going to know is what they learn at the technical school. It is really very sad. 


I found that the church this year was much more open to inviting the students to the church for a special youth group on Tuesday and Thursday of that week. When the youth leader got up at the school to invite the students to the one on Tuesday there happened to be a teacher in the audience that was atheist. She told the principal that we were actually connected to the Baptist church and were not Orthodox. (We had never told them that we were either. They just assumed we were orthodox). Well when they found out they cut our 2nd sessions at the school on Wednesday and Thursday. (we were meant to have 2 sessions on those days but instead we had one on each day). That was ok because even though we did not announce it publicly, we did invite the students in our groups personally. And the students came. The reason for the removal of the sessions though is because Baptists in Russia are viewed as a cult. 

While there we were able to help Mike sort out the stuff for the English Club. Someone had given Alissa a Netbook before we left because they thought she needed a new computer. Since she didn't she gave it to Mike to use for the club. Mike and Jake were able to set it up so that the projector and everything was run off of the top of a cart that someone had made for them. We also organized the books so that they fit on the bottom of the cart. This way the whole cart is run off of one wooden cart and it saves Mike and Alissa from lugging books and cords and computers back and forth to the church. 

The Tuesday and Thursday youth groups were a great turn out. Each night I think we had about 7 students from the school that came. We found though that the church is very guarded when it comes to sharing the gospel because they were underground for so long and because they are viewed at as a cult. So they had asked us to plan the program for Thursday. So we decided to play a game, sang some worship songs and then Erica shared her testimony and Kevin was able to share the gospel because how else were the students from the school going to hear it. Hopefully we were able to encourage the church by doing this, by showing them that they should take advantage of every opportunity that they are given to share the gospel. 

We toured Gorodetts on Friday and that evening Kevin, Jake, Erica and myself left Alissa and boarded our train to Moscow. We went to the open air market and toured Moscow on Saturday before turning for a goodnight sleep before our return flight on Sunday. I think I slept a total of 30 minutes on the flight back. 


I am looking forward to next year and seeing the progress that the church will make in the coming year and how we are able to serve them. Please keep them in your prayers when you remember. They need the courage to share the gospel and be ready to take risks.

Russia Prep

I have to say that tomorrow we leave for Russia and I am in no way ready. I have been putting off packing all day; i just haven't been feeling like sitting down and doing it. Not sure if it just comes with age but these days I haven't been able to stay absolutely focused. Anyways, today was the day of making sure that we had everything and when all the running around started. Laundry had to get done, made a run to walmart, said good bye to friends and now it's packing time. I pretty much have everything it's just the whole organizing and putting it in the bag now. I am hoping I can get it done by midnight and get a good 8 hours of sleep....but we'll see. I won't be writing for the next 10 days, but I will have a ton to write about when I get back. Pray for us as we travel.

Poppy Seed Bread

Hannah stayed over this weekend for some much needed time away from the dorms and roommates. It was a pleasure having her over. Well last night we decided to make Poppy Seed Bread. Love the stuff. Although ours didn't turn out like they normally do. They got slightly over-baked on the sides...something our oven has a tendency to do. Anyway, the quick bread turned out ok, but it wasn't as moist as I had liked or as it had previously been.

Poppy Seed Bread
3c. Flour
1 1/2 tsp. Salt
1 1/2 tsp. Baking Powder
3 Eggs
1 1/2 c. Milk
1 1/8 c. Oil
2 1/4 c. Sugar
1 1/2 Tbsp. Poppy seed
1 1/2 tsp. Vanilla extract
1 1/2 tsp. Almond extract
1 1/2 tsp. Butter extract

Mix all the ingredients together in the order that they are listed.
Grease and pour the batter into a loaf pan, bundt pan, muffin tin or some other baking pan.
Bake in the oven at 350 F for 40 min  or until a knife comes out clean.

Glaze (optional)
3/4c. 6x sugar
1/2 tsp. Vanilla extract
1/2 tsp. Almond extract
1/2 tsp. Butter extract
water or orange juice

Combine together the 6x sugar and extracts in a bowl. Add enough water or orange juice to make a slurry. Drizzle the glaze on top of the poppy seed bread once it is removed from the oven and has cooled slightly.

Getting ready for Valentine's Day

So yesterday Alissa got the sudden urge to make Valentines Day cards after seeing her friends' online. So we decided to drive up to Michaels later that night and buy decorative paper. Hannah was with us and we were all so starving on the ride back that we decide to go to The Cactus Grille for dinner. It was delicious and so much food. We then went back to the apartment and started making cards. They started off looking like the picture above and ended up looking like the one to the right. We ended up making about 25 cards and ended up going to bed around 2am. I have to say though, that the reactions from the people that they were given to made it well worth staying up that late. Love all the memories we made Alissa :)

Creepy

Saturday night Alissa decided to watch one of those documentaries about a real life haunting online and at first I decided not to but those things always seem interesting so I joined her. It was about a haunting in Connecticut. A family had to move from New York City because their son had cancer and was getting treated in Connecticut. The only place they could find to rent was an old mortuary. Well it wouldn't of been as creepy a place to live in if the gurney, wash basin, needles and stuff used had not still been in the house. Well as the show went on Alissa and I were just so confused as to why the parents wouldn't believe the kids and everything they were seeing. The kids just got tired of the parents not listening and so the older boy (the son who was sick) one day decided to confront the demon and it began to slowly take over him. Well the son was eventually removed from the house because he was becoming violent and the demon started to attack the others in the house. Then the parents realized that their kids were telling the truth all along. They brought in demon hunters and stuff like that and eventually got the catholic church to perform and exorcism. And of course after you watch things like this something creepy or weird happens the next day. Well I woke up for church the next morning around 7am and thought I heard music coming from Alon's room while I was in the kitchen. This wouldn't of been as creepy if we had not watched the documentary the night before and if Alon had actually been here for the weekend. It turns out it was coming from Alon's room but I was too freaked out to go in. I let it go for an hour and then finally knocked on the door once Alissa was awake. Her iPod was on. Apparently it was set on a timer, for her alarm. But the thing is is that I did not hear it Saturday morning and neither did Alissa.....Creepy.

Vanity Fair

I watched Vanity Fair today; a movie I have wanted to see for a while. It is not what I thought it would be. The main character is called Becky Sharp; she grew up a starving artists daughter and ended up working as a maid in a girls boarding school when she was very young. She tends to wither her way to the top of wherever she is, but the women do not like her. She becomes the assistant of a very wealthy women who likes her but when she finds out Becky married her nephew she hates her. It's funny how someone is a delightful person but when they marry into the family they tend not to be good enough. Her and her husband are disowned by the family but they don't care because they know their luck will turn around and they are absolutely in love with each other. She doesn't seem to care about any other man because she has the love of her life. But the way she uses the people around her to provide for her family causes her to lose that love. I found myself rooting for Becky and her husband to stay together, hoping that she would turn from her ways a realize what she was doing, but sadly it did not happen. She meant good, and in her eyes that is what she thought she was doing, but it was driving a wedge between her and her husband. Not only did she lose the love of her life but she lost her son as well. He was sent to a boarding school and she never saw him again. The end is not what I expected though. I actually did not like the end. She ends up marrying a man whom she would have married in the beginning of the movie but he never proposed. It made her seem cold and insensitive. There is actually an alternate ending that I liked better. It made her seem like she had feelings and cared about the people in her life that she lost. All in all it was a good movie and very enjoyable. It was excellent acting and a good story line.

SEX180

I have finally finished this book that a friend of mine gave me called "Sex180: The Next Revolution" written by Chip Ingram and Tim Walker. She told me that she felt like I needed to read it, which made me wonder what she noticed. After reading it I am still not sure why she felt like I needed to read it but I did like it.

It is not one of those classic books about purity and staying pure till marriage. It is about staying pure but it also talks about why we should stay pure and God's reason for it. It talks about how to live it as one, as one + one and as one + the world. In other words as an individual, in a relationship and in the world. We need to be a person who has inward character, outward modesty and upward devotion. It talks about the reason God wants us to stay pure till marriage and that is because sex is sacred and serious. It is not something to be given away lightly. It was given to us as a gift from God and he desires to give it to us with the right person at the right time in the right place. Every time someone has sex with someone else ie; bf/gf, one night stand, etc. they give away a piece of themselves that they can never get back. A scar is created that can never be erased completely. It is ok to say that we are staying pure till marriage but it is much more than that. We need to live it out in our relationship with God and others, as well as in what we say, how we act and the way we dress.We need to see fellow christians as our brothers and sisters first and then move into a relationship if that is the right direction. In that relationship though the growth of the other person's spiritual life should be the most important.

I could be doing a bad job of explaining all this, but it is a great book for young men and women who are coming of the age when they are going to be confronted with sex. It is a good book even for christians who are further in their walk or just starting no matter the age.