starbucks run and breaking free

last friday hinkson was out of session and tim was out of the city on a retreat, so me and silas and 8 senior girls went to starbucks in the center of the city. now, just a little education on what a "starbucks run" looks like here in moscow. from my apartment door to the door of starbucks, it was a 58 minute commute - i timed it. we went by metro and foot, switching lines on the metro underground and eventually coming back up above ground near the center. in one of the underground transitions, while i was trying to get the stroller on the escalator (i know, sounds dangerous, but its the only way to do it and i've actually gotten really good at it!) a fight between two babushkas broke out. one of them had been trying to hold the crowd back to give me some room to get the stroller on the escalator, and the other one, not seeing what the first was doing came pushing through which did not sit well with the first babushka. yelling, pushing...all for my little man! we had a much more uneventful trip from there on out, and an absolutely wonderful time at starbucks. here are the senior girls (minus three) and silas at starbucks.

in the footsteps of the greats, like michael scofield (prison break) and andy dufresne (shawshank redemption) silas is breaking out...i think he has been working diligently on this hole for a long time. what started as a loose little thread, then became a hole the size of a pea, is now something that silas will be able to fit through soon if i don't do something about it quick. i'm open to any suggestions on how to patch this.

when si smiles

this may be only funny to me and tim but i thought i'd post it anyway...lately when silas smiles, he makes this certain face that just cracks me up...notice the progression of pics below taken over a series of days...(yes, he is sitting in a drawer...he crawled in there while i was cleaning it out)





1.wrinkled nose - check
2.squinty eye - check
3.head tilted back - check
...i only wish you could hear the laugh that usually accompanies this look...

see you at the square

yesterday was our version of "see you at the pole" that happens in the US where students gather at their schools flag pole to pray for the world, their country, and other issues...here in moscow we had "see you at the square." several students, teachers and one little baby made their way to red square after school. it was a cold day!!!

 

two groups praying on red square...

 

 

the whole group together...


trying to keep warm!!!

my catching up post...

to all the faithful "color green" checkers, sorry this is so late in coming...you guys are so faithful to stick with us! ;o)
a lot of life has happened since i last posted...i'll ramble a bit to catch up...

on tuesday, aug 26 we got the great news that hinkson's educational license was renewed! this is something that hinkson has been trying to get since february of 2007, and then just that tuesday, the governing body in moscow that oversees the educational system granted it to us. this comes just in time as we are being prosecuted by another system within the government for not having our license for the last year and a half - we needed to have it by september 1. the next issue is getting cleared with the prosecutors office.


hinkson is in full swing, and tim is working hard! besides being an amazing husband and dad, he has taken on a lot this year at the school...designing and implementing the chaplain program and all that goes along with that (silas got to be a part of the first chapel of the year (see pic)), small groups, school counselor (our school counselor left this last year), teaching a psychology class and joining the middle school band to learn to play the trombone...to name a few! he is indeed a man of many talents! in a game we played with friends here two years ago, where those involved had to describe from the words given what the person was most like, the beautifully adaptable nature of tim who is "all things to all men" was supported once again...the results were in and on the question, "if tim were something you would put on your hand, what would he be?" the answers were evenly split between "a puppet" and "brass knuckles" and on the question "if tim were a boat, what kind of boat would he be?" the answers were evenly split between "destroyer" and "kayak." what started as a joke 2 years ago during a game with friends, has developed into a really sweet picture of the man who loves the Lord who is a Marine who loves high school kids who has fought for our country in a far away land who likes salty and sweet...so now he is learning to play the trombone.


silas is more amazing everyday... seriously, so entertaining. i sat on the kitchen floor with him for a hour this morning and we just "talked" as he emptied the drawers filled with kitchen utensils and tupperware, every few minutes taking a break to come show me what new thing he found in a drawer and get a shot of juice before he went back to work. he actually walked yesterday, too! tomorrow he will be 11 months old, and for the last few weeks, he seems to be getting stronger and more interested in letting go of whatever he's holding onto to cruise around the apartment. and yesterday, he just stood up and walked across the livingroom, laughing all the way. the video is on picasa. we figured there would be a little regression this morning and he would need to get his land legs back, but first thing this morning he scooted down off the chair we were sitting in and he walked to the other side of the apartment! granted, that is only a few steps away (we live in a very small aparment) but that counts! we are so proud. it truly is an amazing thing to know life without him, and then after a few short months, he's here, and learning and growing and walking and developing and changing and asking questions with his eyes. "they will come through your womb but not be coming from you, they will be with you but they do not belong to you..." great quote about these little ones from jason mraz, musician. and from sheryl crow "love is letting go, and this i'll know, cause you were mine for a time"...she wrote this for her son. i'm so happy to know silas and get to be with him for this time. what an honor.

moscow life is a dynamic thing, like all of life, but i've definetly encountered more challenges here than ever before in my life. sometimes simple tasks like grocery shopping, or communicating well enough with our landlord to know if we can live in this apartment next month becomes difficult and this has caused a whole new part of my heart to develop...this part is about the simplicity of communication in a culture you know and the security that i so easily have taken for granted in the past where i know my rights and the law and the right words for what i want to say and the way the unspoken system works. and with all my heart i am loving this time, even though sometimes it's hard - it is with all joy that i am here and i wouldn't trade it for the world. and i will try to take the system i do know less for granted when i am living within it again. "i will not take these things for granted..." ~ toad the wet sprocket.

if you're still with me, then i had another thought i wanted to write about...the term "missionary." i understand and agree with what people mean when they say missionary, and that is what we are, but that is what we all are. if you work at quik trip, or an outdoor adventure shop, or a hospital or a school or at home, that is your mission field. we are sojourners here for a time.





it's funny to me... scrolling through these pictures you would think that silas doesn't have any clothes at all...he does, he just really is naked most of the time.

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!