Happy New Year’s Friends!
Here I am, looking at yet another year gone. I feel like life is passing me by at times. And like I have seen more than New Year’s nights 23 years gone by, but I hope and pray to see many more. Sitting here on the eve of 2003, I feel like I should reflect on this past year. A year ago, I was wishing that the 2002 would find me in Moscow , Russia . Praise the Lord for answered prayers. I have spent five months in Moscow . And six more to go!
I have mixed feelings about this place. So much of it is a dream come true. The chance to spend New Year’s in Red Square, to learn about a people I’ve always wanted to know about, to teach children that will be the future leaders of Russia – yet so much of it is an obstacle I feel I will never get around. I came here to learn about the people—to figure out how they live in this society and still after five months I haven’t got the slightest clue. It can be 21 degrees below zero, with snow a foot deep outside, and life goes on. People survive, by that I mean live well, off of $45 a month. Like I said, I can’t figure it out. Maybe, like the secret underground city below the visible one, there is some secret that the locals possess about how to live well in this place.
The holidays have been hard, but this time of year is hard anywhere. God has been good to me and supplied me with friends in the same position as me. I worked on Christmas Eve, but Derrick and Micah and I went out to dinner before the Midnight Mass service. The service was at an Anglican church, and was something none of us had experienced before, and was nothing like the Baptist Christmas Eve services I have known. I spent Christmas Day with Micah, Derrick, Amanda, and Nate out at Rosinka. It was quiet and comfortable, eating cookies and watching movies. It snowed most of the day, which was a great change from those warm California Christmases! I spent the days following Christmas sleeping, shopping, and with friends – exactly how I wanted to spend them. Shopping is no easy task around here, so I didn’t do my Christmas shopping until after the big day, but I just tell people I am celebrating Russian Christmas this year (January 7th).
On Monday I went back to the baby house with Lydia (we went the weekend before Christmas too), and hugged and kissed 10 precious 15 month old babies. (No, Lydia doesn’t have a child, for those of you who wondered, she just loves that little one in the picture). They are taken pretty well care of, but they don’t get the attention children need. PTL most of the children are being adopted – exactly as they should be. What is amazing about these orphanages is that there are 22 in Moscow , and the Russians don’t really know/believe they exist. Needless to say, Russians aren’t the ones who adopt. It is mostly Americans. I’ve been “apart” of a couple of these adoptions now, and it is really fun to see. Yes, I am pretty convinced that I will someday have to adopt a little Russian baby. It is an expensive and long ordeal, but from the looks on the parents’ faces, I would say it is well worth it.
I was talking with a friend the other day, telling him how I feel there is more of need in this country than I can ever fulfill. When I am that overwhelmed, I tend to give up. He reminded me of the story of the little boy who comes upon a beach that is covered with washed up starfish and he begins to throw them back, one by one. An elderly man comes up to him and says “What are you doing? You will never be able to get all of these starfish back into the sea. You won’t make a difference.” The little boy replies, as he throws one fish back “I made a difference to this one.” That was a powerful reminder – that I am affecting the life of that one little child that I hold and kiss for just one afternoon – if that is all I can do to make a difference in a week. Many times I feel like I do more damage than I help, but that story reminded me that each little conversation, each touch, each smile is making a difference in a day. Even if it just among my friends, somehow I am affecting someone’s life forever. Derrick , Lydia , Sam, Leah, Micah, Amanda, and several others have made a huge difference in my time here. At church on Sunday, I was also reminded that we were all put here in God’s perfect plan – that means that this group of people I am in contact with in this place is here together for a reason. If I am only here to support Lydia in her field of work, then that is what I shall do (but I know that is not my only reason for being here). I am convinced that friends can be angels here to support us in our work here.
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I did spend New Year’s in Red Square , and it was nothing less than amazing. You might have watched it on TV, but I can’t describe the feeling of standing in the center of one of the most famous places in the world. Micah and I kept screaming at one another that we were standing in Red Square on New Years’! Oh, well, the fact that it was -14 F might have had something to do with the amazing factor. We were feeling a little crazy for even being there in the freezing cold! Happy New Year!
For the rest of my break, I will spend time reading and writing. I want to enjoy the time I have to rest, to go to the baby house with Lydia , and reflect on the past and future. I do have some things you can pray for me in the weeks to come:
- A desire to work on the language more. I have pretty much given up, but deep down, I do want to learn more, I just need motivation.
- Being here is hard—please pray that I find satisfaction with where God has me today; I don’t know how He can do that, but I want to be happy with today, and not always desiring the future.
- For a continued desire to teach my students: I often feel like I am just babysitting, and towards the end of last semester that is all I was doing, but I want to find ways to educate them the way they need to be.
I know these are huge requests, but who would have ever thought that the beginning of 2003 would find me in Russia ?!
Thank you for the blessing you offer me with encouraging emails and notes. I love you all and appreciate you more than you will ever know.
Blessings for the year to come!
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