moscow tonight

this is the view of moscow from our kitchen window...

georgia/russia

a few of you have asked us how or if the conflict between georgia and russia is affecting us so we wanted to give an update on that. there are some articles on foxnews.com and cnn.com that offer some good information, but definetly from a specific perspective. and you'll find different perspectives everywhere you look. the article on the front page of the moscow times today says "ossetians say west is behind conflict."
know that we are safe, and we'll keep you updated on all the different things going on over here! thanks for being in all this with us.

concerning the issues we are facing here, we thought it might be helpful to post part of our latest newsletter here...

from tim...
At Hinkson, we’ve been in the midst of some difficult situations. Twin senior girls at Hinkson, lost their mother to a heart attack last week (monday july 28) here in Moscow. Teri was a leader and so loved at our school and by her family. Her loss will be felt significantly. Ally and I spent the day with the girls before they went back to Oklahoma for the funeral and they seemed to be doing very well, considering. Ed, Teri’s husband, gave an amazing eulogy at her memorial service and it was truly inspiring. Please pray for the family.

Also, Hinkson is under scrutiny from the Russian government once again over re-obtaining an educational license for our school. The end result of this issue could be a wide range of things, so we are simply praying and waiting to see what happens in the next few weeks. Please pray with us.


lola, our friend who lives/works on the first floor of our building as the dijornaya. she does the same job that habiba (our friend who i wrote about in a previous post) did, sitting the closet-sized room by the front doors watching who comes in and out, cleaning the entry way and taking care of the garden outside the building. she is 25 years old and has a 3 year old daughter who lives in uzbekistan with her mom. she works here to send the money back to her family in uzbekistan.


out for a walk with kai!

back in moscow!

we're back in moscow! after a 30 hour trip (layovers and delays included) we made it back to our apartment, greeted by an exstatic kai! we had a wonderful time in the States and are so happy to see those of you that we did. it was also a very busy time, so sorry to those of you that we missed...but we'll see you next year!

these next few weeks we'll be getting ready for this next school year, spending time with students who are already here, and taking some time to rest, too.

we also wanted to share about a recent tragedy we had here. on monday, teri tarleton, the mom of twin girls who will be seniors at hinkson this year, died of a heart attack. she was 49. her daughters, rachel and rebecca were in budapest at a retreat for missionary kids, so they flew home as soon as they got the news. as you think of it, please pray for the family and everyone as they process this.

a few picture highlights from our time in the states...


silas at ted's escondito!

on a road trip to tennessee!

with granny in tennessee (silas' great grandmother)

enjoying splashing in the bathtub at the park, keeping cool and waiting for the fireworks to start!

first fireworks!

figuring out this new toy with pop

back in moscow...reuniting with an old friend...

on our way

 

we are on our way to the states! we'll be there june 4 to july 22 and we'd love to see you if you are around the tulsa area!

congrats class of 2008

hinkson graduation was last friday and it was a sweet time. the seniors were celebrated so well and it was a wonderful time to say goodbye to some friends for the summer, and others for longer. because of the transient nature of the missionary community, these missionary kids have to say goodbye to people in their lives a lot. its strange to say goodbye to people you have grown so close to and know that you may never see them again...but its wonderful to walk forward with hope knowing that we are all connected in the Lord. tim and i have had a really unique opportunity to get into these students lives and be with them in these times that can be difficult for them...missionary kids usually attach to people really quickly, because typically the underlying mindset is one of, "i don't know how long either of us are going to be here, so we need to take advantage of the time we have..." that mindset has allowed tim and i to get into kids lives in great ways, in a short time. other students perspective is that they don't want to get close for that same reason...none of us know how long we'll be here. tim and i try to maintain and pass along the perspective that we should celebrate the fact that our paths ever crossed in this big world, and take advantage of any time we have together at all. this is a big world, but not too big...

out on the town

our friends, austin and natalie are here in moscow visiting us, so tuesday was a full day out on the town to show them around. we had beautiful weather all day (even though rain was forcasted!) for red square, lenin's tomb, st. basil's, tveraskaya street, a fun outdoor deli for lunch, christ our savior cathedral, and the famous bridge over the moscow river and the garden's surrounding christ our savior. it was a wonderful day...

 

 

silas inspecting the grout between the cobblestones on red square...

 

getting a helping hand to stand in front of st basil's...

 

tim took austin and natalie to st petes on the night train last night...more pics and stories to come!

first mother's day

happy mother's day (late) to all mother's out there! we had a wonderful first mother's day...









tim and silas and i went to a fun cafe down the street and had cappuccino and russian yogurt cheesecake. silas made a new friend, dina, a little girl at the table next to us. it was a really sweet time.

cirque de silas

amazing kid - standing already! or was it a fast shutter speed???

New Hope Uganda

This April, three staff and I led a team of 11 students on Hinkson's first ever school mission trip. We spent over a week at the New Hope Children's center in southern Uganda. New Hope was started 20 years ago by the Dangers family with the vision of "being a father to the fatherless" and providing a place for orphans from the war that ravaged the Luwero region of Uganda. Their goal is to teach and provide a Christian, Ugandan culture... not a western, Ugandan culture. The close to 200 orphans that live there are taught skills and self-sufficiency so that when they graduate, they can re-enter the community with a Christ-centered lifestyle.

The leaders of the trip, Shane, Katie, Sarah and I with our liason to New Hope, Hannah on the left.




It was quite an experience. While at New Hope, we worked during the day, doing projects that the staff at the school did not have the time or labor resources to do themselves, like painting, putting screens on huts and houses (to prevent malaria carried by mosquitos), help with water purification, tutoring and many other odd jobs.




New hope is broken up into 7 family groups. Each family group has a Ugandan "Mother" and "Father" and about 25 children from the ages of 6 to 18. After school, the family groups work the plot of land that is theirs and tend to their animals, eat dinner together, worship and have devotions and work on homework together.



After eating together as a team, each staff would take a couple of our team members to a family group and spend the evening with them. We stayed with the same family group every night and for me it was the richest and most impacting part of the trip.

One night we were playing a game and the lights in the meeting hut went out (as the electricity usually does). When the light went out, the children started cheering, a couple of boys began beating the drums and they proceeded to worship in a way that I have never experienced. These are kids that have been abandoned by their parents or have lost them to death. Some kids don't know how old they are. Some also have AIDS, given to them by their parents. But... they praise the Lord every night with all of their energy. They act out of kindness to each other and strangers, bringing encouragement to those blessed to know them.



Our team did an amazing job as they adjusted to a new culture, were pushed out of their comfort zones, led chapels, served with manual labor and worked together as a team. We were so proud of them. Every night after family group time, our team would come together to worship and process the day. We processed by using beads. We had five different colored beads that stood for different character traits such as leadership, joy, positive attitude, servanthood and encouragement. Each person had three beads that they could give to any three people in the group and would explain what they saw in that person that day. It was a wonderful way to process the day through a positive lense and to walk away having encouraged and having been encouraged by your team.





After our time at New Hope, we were able to drive up to a National Forrest and experience a 3 hour boat safari on the Nile and a 3 hour land safari the next morning. We saw an amazing animal called a Jacksons Hart Beast. It's the only animal of it's kind that can effectively fight off a lion. These animals train from birth with their parents and are taught how to fight. A lion on the other hand sleeps 20 hours a day. The Jackson is a fighter and I think gives us a spiritual parallel in the way God has designed it to fight.



Our goal was to serve and make a difference and later realized that our main role was to be taught and experience God's goodness in the international Body of Christ. We look forward to our trip back to New Hope next year!




We had two nights in the Dubai airport and we slept on this prime piece of floor! I think at the most each person slept for about 3 hours.

Our Safari guide carried a lodaded AK-47 with her for protection from the animals... so of course I had to take a picture of me getting to hold a fully-automatic rifle once again. An adventurous trip!

grocery shopping

this is a part of our everyday life here, that i thought you all might be interested in! we have to grocery shop every few days because you can only buy what you can carry, like any big city. so that is something that silas and i usually do during the day, therefore his stroller becomes the shopping cart! he's a good sport and really doesn't mind if i have to pack groceries in around him.