A Week Later, But We’re Still Thankful

This time last week Thomas and I were busily preparing a Thanksgiving feast. We had the privilege of celebrating our first major holiday away from home with some of the new friends whom God has given us. Thomas’ teacher Galina Ivanovna, Luda, an Irishman–Trevor Warner, and another American–Deanna. We were very glad to introduce Galina Ivanovna and Luda to their first celebrations of American Thanksgiving.

As Thomas and I began putting food on our small table that served as our buffet, Galina Ivanovna began talking about her parents. She said that her parents had never in their lives seen anything like what was now before us. She said that every time she goes into a store now, she is struck by the thought that her parents would be completely in awe and overwhelmed by what is now available.

Later Thomas and I talked about what Galina Ivanovna had said. We are humbled by all that the Lord has given us. Again and again the Lord gives to us in great abundance. Though we and our families have endured difficult times, God has remained faithful, just as He promises to be. So as the seasons change from Thanksgiving to Christmas, I hope that can dwell on the ultimate provision that God has made for His people and thank Him for the wonderful gift of salvation.

The Little Man

Well our latest medical adventure seems to have come to a close. Thank you to all of you who faithfully prayed for Isaiah during his latest urinary tract infection (UTI). The Lord continues to protect him and heal him. We are thankful for a very good pediatrician here in St. Petersburg who speaks excellent English! Since Isaiah has repeatedly had UTIs this year, we are able to get him a low daily dosage of antibiotics as a preventative measure. So now with a fresh catheter every time, topical antiseptic spray, and a preventative antibiotic, we hope to avoid the frequency of UTIs that Isaiah has been experiencing in order to keep his bladder and kidneys as healthy as possible. The Lord continues to provide for his every need and to help us learn in the process. Every time your child is sick is a stressful time. God is helping us to rely more on Him and less on ourselves through Isaiah’s sicknesses. In all things He will be glorified!

On a lighter note: We have had more snow! On Friday mornings Isaiah and I join Thomas at the Christian school where he teaches Bible and choir. We get to sing in the choir, which is lots of fun. Isaiah entertains all the girls with his cuteness. This past Friday, as we walked home, we enjoyed the heaviest snow shower that any of us has ever seen! We had to cover Isaiah’s stroller with a blanket, or else we wouldn’t have been able to find him underneath the snow after our 25 minute walk home. By the time we reached our apartment building, the snow had slowed down considerably, so we took advantage of the time to build a little snow man and let Isaiah play in the snow for the first time in his life. He loved holding snowballs and watching his daddy throw snowballs against our building. We look forward to playing in the snow with him quite often this winter–we might even have our first White Thanksgiving!

Thank you all again for your love and for your prayers! I don’t understand the mystery of how God uses prayer, but I am thankful for the privilege to pray and to be the recipient of the blessings of prayers of the saints!

Taking a Saturday Off

Most of our days are spent working really, really hard on our Russian language skills. We have lessons, we do our homework, we seek opportunities to laugh at ourselves by trying to speak with Russians in Russian as much as we possibly can. After a while our brains need a break. About a week ago we decided to see some sites of St. Petersburg that we hadn’t gotten around to yet. We visited Alexander Nevsky Lavra, a monastery. There’s an interesting setup for getting into the church at the Lavra. Foreigners pay an exorbitant amount of money, and Russians pay nothing. We just don’t think that’s very nice, especially since we are living here. Thomas has tried to visit this church before, but he has always been spotted as a foreigner for one reason or another. Well, we decided that we would try to beat the system, and we did! We looked Russian! Hooray for us!

The church at the monastery was a fairly typical Russian Orthodox church. They had plenty of paintings of saints and pictures of a large Mother Mary with a little biddy Jesus. Of course there was the larger-than-life cut-out of Jesus on the cross, but that kind of freaked me out, so we quickly left the building.

What we found most interesting were the 3 cemeteries on the property (two of them everyone has to pay to visit. Foreigners, of course, have to pay twice as much as Russians do–we paid the foreigner price). One cemetery was full of military and political leaders. Several of the markers were riddled with bullet holes and shrapnel. There was one grave in particular that I thought was interesting, but first let me remind you of a little history. After the Revolution of 1917 and subsequent internal turmoil, the communists were in control. This of course meant that God no longer existed in Russian politics. Crosses adorned the top of nearly every grave before the time of communism. However, you could tell immediately just by looking at the markers, which graves held the bodies of the members of the communist times. One of the larger graves, more like a monument really was for one of the men who was pretty important during the time of the blockade, when the Germans had St. Petersburg surrounded for over 2 years. Naturally, this man was a communist, so there was no large cross adorning his rather ostentatious grave. However, on closer examination we saw a tiny little cross just about his picture on his marker. Thomas said it was if the man had said before he died, “Just in case we were wrong, I suppose that I should acknowledge God in my death.” (Of course, I’m sure he said it in Russian, so in 10 years I should come back and translate that sentence.)

We greatly needed and enjoyed that little bit of “time off”. As the weather gets colder and darker, it’s harder to have these little family outings. Please pray that God will continue to give us these little ways to recharge our batteries and refresh us for the work He has given us to do.

–Cristy