Our family’s ministry in St. Petersburg Russia
I am glad to report that Thomas and I are doing much better! Thank you for praying for us. Isaiah seems to be doing fine as well. We are getting serious about our packing today. Excitement is definitely starting to build!
We would appreciate prayer for some of our friends in CA. Their 7 week old son Joe is seriously ill. Please read his mom’s blog to know how best to pray! Also on my blog, I am keeping a link on the top of the left side column so that you can make regular checks on Joe.
Well, we are scheduled to fly back to the States a week from today (Monday). In true Slawson fashion, Thomas and I have come down sick. Thomas has a chest cold, and I have a head cold. If any of you have ever flown with any type of cold, then you know why we are asking for your prayer! Isaiah is also showing signs of some sickness, but we don’t know what it is yet.
Please pray that our colds will get better very fast! Please also pray that Isaiah will not get any worse or catch either of our colds.
Thank you!
Our pastor called Thomas yesterday (Wednesday) and asked him to preach on Sunday, yes, in Russian. Please pray for Thomas as he prepares. Thankfully he has a sermon that he preached recently that our congregation has not heard, so he will be able to use that one. Preaching in another language, though, still needs to be bathed in prayer!
We’ve been able to get settled in to our new apartment rather quickly, I think. The first night was a little different than we had anticipated, but we’ve grown accustomed to that here. Originally we were going to be able to start moving things into the apartment by 4pm, which then became 6pm, which got moved back to 9pm, which eventually became 11pm. Needless to say that by the end of a day of moving and waiting and frantically vacuuming our new bedroom to clean it from tons of dog hair, we were pretty tired. As we walked around killing time, Thomas and I talked about how this would be such an unnerving experience in the States, but here, it’s pretty much par for the course. We’re thankful that God has helped us to adjust our thinking and expectations to better live in this culture.
We are very pleased with our new place, however. We’re even just about done getting it all together. Thomas did some work on one section of floor yesterday and today, making a really wonderful improvement–sorry no pictures yet, but I promise soon!
Here is a picture from our first night as we walked around waiting to be able to get into the apartment. Just so you know, it was around 10:45pm when I took this picture. Yes, Isaiah was wide awake, and the sun was shining brightly enough for me to need to wear sunglasses!
We made it to the new apartment! Currently we are cleaning the apartment–the previous inhabitants had a large German shepherd, so after “taping”, vacuuming and covering all the furniture, we’ve decided that we will never have a dog indoors. No offense to those of you who love your inside dog–I’m sure that you clean up after him or her much better than our landlady.
We are very pleased with the apartment. I hope to put up pictures soon, but first, I need to get some sleep!
You might have already read that the Lord has provided a new apartment for us. Well, tomorrow is the big moving day! After a few changes our schedule for the move is now as set as anything in Russia ever can be. Our friend Luda will be here around 2 to help with cleaning and entertaining Isaiah. The truck should be here around 5:30pm to load up our surprising amount of goods. Thomas will then ride with the truck to our new place, while Luda, Isaiah and I take the metro out to the new apartment.
Please pray for good weather tomorrow. We’ve been having a good bit of rain off and on this week (complete with thunder!), and more is scheduled for tomorrow. We’d much prefer a dry move to a wet one, but we know we’ll get it done no matter what the weather.
We look forward to showing you our new home!
Here’s the “before” picture in our current home, and hopefully soon we’ll have a nice “after” picture to show you of our new place!
Ok, bet that title got the attention of some people. 
Friday night Thomas will be preaching in Russian. He’s in the midst of preparing his sermon over the next few days, so this is just a quick post to ask for your prayer. Please pray for his study of the Word and his delivery in Russian!
Thanks!
That’s all that I can say. Thomas and I just met with an amazing woman named Anna. The Christian community just got a little smaller! My thoughts are coming pretty fast at the moment, so please forgive anything that doesn’t make sense. I’ll try to give you the basics and then hopefully Thomas and I will be able to tell you more as time goes on and we process the information that God has just dropped in our laps!
So back to Anna. Anna has been to Camp Barnabas in Missouri (yes, Carol H., if you are reading this, God finally put us in contact with her!). After going to Camp Barnabas, which is a camp for children with disabilities, Anna decided that she wanted to start a similar camp in Russia. Just thinking about starting such a task is overwhelming to me, but God directed this woman’s steps, and 4 years ago the first camp was held with a handful of campers. Anna was determined to have a counselor for every camper and to provide many of the same activities that took place at Camp Barnabas. Parents who send their children must sign a form stating that it is all right for their child to be taught Bible lessons. Perhaps for the first time in their lives, these children are able to learn from the Bible, participate in activities with other children and just be children.
There’s a connection with the next thought, I promise….As most of you know, we are moving the middle of June (10 days, yikes!). We are moving further out from the center of the city. We’re really looking forward to our new apartment and location. Well, now we have even more reason to be excited. Anna told us that several of the children who have attended her camp live fairly close to our new apartment. In fact, on of the two schools for children with disabilities is in the region where we will be living. Isn’t God AMAZING! I just keep saying that over and over again in my head, and even out loud! What a tremendous reminder this evening has been that when you keep doing every day what you know the Lord wants you to do, even if you don’t know exactly how everything will play out, then He will be faithful to direct your steps and put you exactly where He wants you.
We still don’t know exactly how we can help Anna and the people that she works with, but all of us are excited about meeting each other and have started generating some ideas. Unfortunately this summer we will be in the States during the camp, but there are 2 prayer requests that you all can pray about and help Anna in that way. 1) The camp needs a location for the summer. Every year God has provided, and we know that He will do so again this year. 2) A doctor is needed for the week of camp. These kids have some very special needs, and Anna naturally wants them to be as safe as possible. Having an onsite doctor is a must!
Anna has also been trying to have meetings with the parents during the year and provide as much support to them as possible. We are talking with her about whether or not we could come to these meetings. We all agreed that the best thing for us to do, especially as foreigners, is to build relationships and trust with the fellow parents. This relationship building will take a lot of time, but we know that God will bring it about in His perfect time, just as He has everything else thus far.
Ok, the excited typing is coming to a close. I hope that this post makes sense. Please pray about this new friend and how we can help her!
To God be the glory!
Well, as you know, our first year in Russia is coming to an end. The end of this period of time also means that the end of our first year of language lessons has come. One of my friends asked me if I felt confident now in my Russian. Without a second thought I answered, “No.” Now, I have learned a lot of Russian. I am definitely much better at it than when we arrived and I could barely remember the letters in the alphabet (which, by the way is probably the easiest NOT the hardest part of learning Russian, contrary to what you might think).
I’ve definitely had my ups and downs in language learning. Thomas has been extremely kind in helping me keep perspective, as has my wonderful and dedicated teacher Ludmilla Zaharovna. Sometimes though, I think that this year of language learning has taught me more about myself than about the Russian language.
I sometimes have this twisted idea of what holiness is and think that I’m already supposed to be perfect, which means that if I make a mistake, a terrible tragedy has occurred. Maybe I should explain that a little bit more before I’m burned at the stake for heresy. I know that I am to live like Christ, to reflect His image. The problem comes because I forget that I’m not yet perfect and think that I can be perfect all on my own. Needless to say this idea can lead to some serious sinfulness in all kinds of ways. It can also lead to depression when I don’t think that I’m being perfect, which can then also lead to sinfulness in still more ways.
God has used my language learning to help “beat it into my head” that I’m not perfect. I can’t do this on my own. I make mistakes. I’m not talking about “being ok with” sin, I’m talking about continuing to see myself as God sees me: A sinner saved by grace who can live in a way that honors Him only by grace. This is still a work in progress for sure! (just ask Thomas)
Connected with this area of growth in language learning is another: I can’t take everything personally. See, since “I’m perfect” then if someone corrects me or I hurt someone or I make a big mistake, then it’s kind of earth-shattering to the incorrect view that I have of myself. Well, I don’t know a single person who can learn a second language and not make mistakes, and that includes me. Actually, who doesn’t make mistakes in their first language?! So, language learning has helped me realize that needing correction on some things doesn’t mean that someone is attacking my character–that person is probably trying to help me. And when I make a mistake and a stranger starts yelling at me with words that I haven’t learned yet (and maybe don’t need to learn), then I have to let it go and not stew over it for days and days and think about what a terrible job I’m doing on learning this incredibly difficult language.
So overall, I’d say the 2 biggest things that God has taught me through language learning are humility and being more relaxed (again not relaxed in my attitude toward sin, but relaxed in the sense of not constantly worrying about what people are thinking of me). And just as learning a 2nd language really takes a lifetime, I’m sure that God will keep teaching me about these 2 things for the rest of my lifetime. Praise Him!
