What You’re Supporting

We have now been in Russia just over four months. I won’t recap all of the events for you, but suffice it to say, if you’ve been keeping up with our website, emails and blog posts, you have somewhat of an idea of what’s been going on here in our lives.

Cristy and I both are made ever mindful of just how we are enabled to live here and do what we believe the Lord has called us to do. We are able to be here right now because our friends and family like many of you have had it laid upon your heart to support us financially. Without that support we could not be here right now.

So what exactly are you supporting? You may have wondered where your dollars go whenever you send them in to InterAct Ministries. I wanted to take just a moment to show you how your support helps to actually carry out the work of ministry here in St. Petersburg.

Living and Being

The first thing your support helps us to do is to just live and be here. Here in Russia we have to function with day-to-day living just like you do at home. We have an apartment that we rent. We have bills to pay for our electricity, telephone, internet, etc. We shop, buy food, cook, clean, wash clothes, etc. Since we don’t have a car we don’t fill up with gas and such, but we do daily walk to our destinations or take public transportation. We also have medical insurance for which we pay each month. So your support simply allows us to be here and live.

Paperwork and Administration

While that heading doesn’t sound very exciting, believe me, it is absolutely necessary, and perhaps what I’m about to tell you should have been put under the “Living and Being” heading, but there are some slight differences. First of all, we are here through InterAct Ministries, our mission organization. When churches want to send missionaries to other countries, especially countries like Russia, a structure of some kind is needed. Often a denomination will have a mission board. Our denomination, the PCA does, but when we began pursuing work in Russia, the PCA’s mission board did not come here. So we looked elsewhere. InterAct Ministries is the umbrella under which we function here. Just like every other organization out there the home office employees don’t work for free. They have to eat too! So, as is common, part of our monthly salary goes to paying membership dues. This is normal. All mission boards, whether independent or denominational, require some kind of membership fee. I’m happy to say that InterAct is on the very low end regarding the amount they require. Compared to most other organizations we are paying a lot less.

Also, under this heading let me spell out other things on this side of the pond. Each year we must obtain visas for all three of us. Those visas must be registered every six months here in the country. So every six months we have to exit the country and return. That’s the law here, and that’s what we must do. All of this costs money for transportation, lodging, meals etc.

Thus We Are “Freed” to Minister

So folks, to be honest, the vast majority of your donations simply go to meet our basic day-to-day needs. But it doesn’t stop there I promise you. It is not as if we are sitting at home day after day just living a vacation here. Let me explain. With the financial help we receive through our supporters we are freed from other cares to devote our time to ministry. Here are some examples.

• We are freed to devote a considerable amount of our time to studying the Russian language with hopes of being able to freely converse with people in this culture.
• We are freed to serve in the local church we have become associated with here to a deeper extent. I (Thomas) have already begun helping with a number of ministries within the church we attend here.
• We are freed to build and focus on relationships. Cristy has built a very strong friendship with Luda. I have continued to develop relationships within the church, with hopes of teaching in a local seminary as early as next year. Also Cristy continues to build relationships with other mother’s she meets almost daily in the park when she takes Isaiah for a walk.
• We are freed to work on projects with InterAct amongst the native Siberian peoples. I have begun working with InterAct Russian field director Jim Capaldo to put together an all-Tuvan hymnal. This is going to be a major project involving recording a CD, typesetting music, and having the hymnal printed.
• We are freed to volunteer and help others in this culture. Every week on Tuesdays and Thursdays I go to a all-Russian school and help with English lessons for students ages 6 through 17. This has been a good opportunity to develop relationships among these students and the teachers who are very glad that I come.

And these are just a few thing.  Thus, your contributions enable us to say “yes” when the church asks us to help with this project or that.  They allow us to say “what time do you want to meet?” when one of our new friends wants to meet and talk about the gospel.  They allow us to say “How can we help?” when we see a need.  Thus, life becomes our job.  Every encounter an opportunity to connect with the people over here.

Our hopes is that this will only grow over time.  Obviously we are still learning the language.  Hopefully soon that will take a back seat as we grow in fluency and we will then be able to devote even more time to helping, serving and ministering.

So there you have it.  That’s what we’re doing over here.  There hasn’t been a dull moment since we arrived, and we’d invite you to come join us sometime if you ever are able to spend a week or so.  Just let us know.

Random Things

These are the kind of posts we write when we don’t want to take the time to edit.

• Praise the Lord, we can now get catheters over here for Isaiah!  We found a medical supply store that can order us 120 catheters per month, meaning we can now use a fresh catheter every time, significantly lowering his risk of getting a urinary tract infection, and saving us from having to be paranoid if we cleaned his catheter well enough or not.
• We now are the proud owners of a new microwave!  It’s the most basic model, but it has already been a BIG time saver, especially for heating up Isaiah’s meals.
• I found out during my Russian lesson the other day that not only can the number 1 be used in the plural but any number ending with 2,3 or 4 can be used in the Genitive Singular.  So what that means is 1 can be plural but 102,134 can be singular?!?!?!  Go figure.
• We’ve figured out how to make biscuits.  If we can only find grits now.
• We learned quickly over here that when construction workers don’t meet deadlines they work through the night.  While this isn’t a problem in concept, it is a problem when their job site is 25 feet from your bedroom window and they’re operating backhoes and brick cutting machines.  Thankfully, they only did this for three nights.

That’s all for now.  Enjoy.

Encouragement Along the Way

We’ve been encouraged lately by a number of things that have been going on here in Russia, and we wanted to share some of those with you here.

• At the top of the list is Isaiah’s development.  Lately he’s been doing something new.  We hold him up and put his legs on the ground and say “push” and he tries as hard as he can to push himself up!  He actually succeeds for about two seconds in sustaining his own body weight with his knees still bent about half way.  While this is only a little, it’s a significant start.  We are hoping that with further bracing and a small walker that he will be able to stand and walk around in the next year.
• We’ve seen the Lord helping us develop further along in our Russian.  This past Saturday on my flight back from Siberia I talked with a Russian man for several hours, all in Russia.  Now it wasn’t all perfect, of course, and several times I had to stop and look up words, we did actually have a productive conversation about the work we’re doing in Russia.  And Cristy continues to go to the park almost daily with Isaiah and talk with the other mothers there.  She continues to make friends and understands more and more each day.  Just the other day she answered the phone and talked to my language teacher for several minutes before handing off the phone to me.
• And sometimes it’s the little things that can be an encouragement.  Cristy and I love to eat Mexican, but unfortunately over here the ingredients are very hard to find.  Well yesterday we discovered a store that sells taco seasoning and corn chips (trust me, these items are very hard to find over here).  So last night we had tacos with chips and salsa.  It was a little taste of home.

So, know that your prayers are being answered!  The Lord is sustaining us and growing us closer to himself each day, and helping us along our way here.  Please keep praying for us, and let us know how we can be praying for you.

Back Home

I truly have begun to understand that old saying “home is where the heart is” I think.  I’m back in St. Petersburg after the past week out in Krasnoyarsk, Siberia, and I truly feel home.  It is so good to be back with my family who I have missed dearly.

The Lord truly blessed this past week (read the previous post below for the summary details), and Cristy and I have found a new sense of encouragement about some possible doors opening here for us in Russia.  As things develop over the next few years we will see what he has in store for us.

Right now our primary goal remains the same, to become fluent in Russian.  I think, though, this past week further fanned the fire beneath us.

I’ll relate more of what’s going on soon, but for now, thank you for your prayers.  I’m home safely and very glad to be here.

Update From Siberia

It’s Friday night here in the city of Krasnoyarsk.  For you geography buffs, Krasnoyarsk is located in southern Siberia on the banks of the Yenesi River.  Krasnoyarsk is a rather major population center with over 1 million people living in the city, and since it is located right on the trans-Siberian railroad, it is a rather modern city with easy access to shipping.

Krasnoyarsk was the meeting point for this years InterAct Russia field conference.  Every year each of the three fields of InterAct Ministries (Russia, Alaska and Canada) have a general conference of all of the missionaries on each of the respective fields.  Right now InterAct has missionaries in two primary fields of ministry in Russia, The Republic of Tuva and Yakutia.  We, of course, are living for the time being in St. Petersburg which is a good ways away from both of these places.  Krasnoyarsk provides somewhat of a centralized meeting point for the team.

Cristy and I had decided several weeks ago that she would stay in St. Petersburg with Isaiah.  While this was not the ideal, we knew that it was ultimately more important for me to go ahead to the conference and hopefully, while here, check out the medical facilities for future reference.  Below are some highlights of the conference and further information on what I discovered.

•  The time of fellowship with the other missionaries was refreshing.  Dr. Ralph Alexander was our guest speaker and he spoke on the subject of praising God.  I wish I had the time to summarize the material.  It was wonderful.
• It was exciting to hear what the Lord is doing in the lives of the other missionaries.
• Jim Capaldo was named as the new Field Director for InterAct Russia.  Jim is 33 and has been living over here already for about 8 years with his family.  Jim has been part of pioneering a lot of work in the Republic of Tuva in the south on the Mongolian boarder.
• Jim and I brainstormed and are putting together plans to finally compile and print up a hymnal in the Tuvan language.  This would include also recording an accompanying CD.  This will prove to be an exciting project.
• I was able to meet a local pediatric neurosurgeon here in Krasnoyarsk.

On that note let me say this.  As of late Cristy and I had been wondering if Siberia was going to be out of the question for us completely given Isaiah’s medial needs.  Not to say that every question has been answered, but right now things look very promising that Krasnoyarsk could be in our future.  We were told that the medical facilities here can handle any and all needs relating to spina bifida and hydrocephalus.  The doctor I met was very kind and very willing to help.  As it stands right now next year’s field conference will be here in June, a good bit earlier.  We hope to all attend then and meet with the doctor at that time to discuss future possibilities.

I leave tomorrow at 1:55PM here (12:55AM Saturday central time) to fly back to St. Petersburg.  Please pray for safe travel.

Our God is Amazing

This afternoon Thomas went to the hospital in Krasnoyarsk with a fellow missionary who is fluent in Russian. I could not believe what Thomas told me after his visit! There is a pediatric neurosurgeon at that hospital! Thomas said that the doctor was very patient and kind and told them about a few of their patients who have successfully had shunt operations and corrections and/or replacements. As I write this I still feel the need to pick my jaw up off the floor! There are only 200 pediatric neurosurgeons in the world, and one is in Krasnoyarsk, Siberia, a place that we will need to be next year, Lord willing. How comforting to us as parents that God makes clear that He wants us here doing His work, and that we don’t have to worry about sacrificing anything regarding Isaiah’s care. He is providing for Isaiah at every turn.

Happenings this week

While Thomas has been away this week, Isaiah and I have been keeping very busy! We’ve been to the park, gone places on the metro, talked to people in the area where we live, and played and studied very hard!

We have been able to talk to Thomas several times each day, which makes the time go by faster and slower in a weird sort of way. We were able to participate a little bit in the conference yesterday afternoon when Thomas gave the report about our activities in St. P. Thomas was able to talk to us on speaker phone, which enabled me to add to his comments about our arrival and subsequent work here. Being able to hear the other missionaries in the background was very encouraging, too.

This afternoon Thomas hopes to visit the hospital in Krasnoyarsk (the city where the conference is being held) in order to determine if they would be able to handle any emergency situations that might arise for Isaiah. We really hope that the conference will be held there again next year, and that Isaiah and I can go, too.

I just realized that some of you may not know what this conference is all about. Each year the InterAct missionaries have a conference somewhere in Siberia. During that time they have a special speaker, and they also share what has been going on in their own work during the past time. Of course, we keep in contact during the year, too, but this is a special time to all be in each other’s presence. The General Director Gary Brumbelow and his wife Valerie also come over for the conference. They stayed in our home a couple nights before heading out to Siberia with Thomas. So that’s what the conference is, basically. There is probably a little more to it than that, but having never been to one, I can’t give more detail.

Just in case you are wondering, Thomas is several time zones away. He is four hours ahead of us in St. P and twelve hours ahead of EST. Thankfully the Lord has helped him to adjust to the time difference rather well so that he is not too tired during the meetings.

So that’s what’s new with us. Isaiah and I have a few errands planned today, but mainly we’ll stay inside as Isaiah has a little cold, and it’s been pretty rainy; and I want to do my major cleaning today. Having a routine has been a big help in adjusting to living over here, and Thursdays are my big cleaning days. I could go on here, but I’ll save that for another time.

I hope that you are all doing well. We look forward to hearing about how you are doing as you are able to tell us!