playing cat and house

That's right, not cat and mouse, but cat and house. I'm in a bind! mostly my own fault for waiting too long on some much needed detail work. i need to find a home for my two awesome cats... and people to live in my home.

please join me in prayer to get this worked out. i'm looking for some miracles here.

to meet the cats or the house, just click.

Visa update!

in order to go and visit the Russian Federation, one must be 'invited' to come to the country. i've been invited. so has amy. then, one takes the invitation, one's passport, a bunch of forms, and sometimes even more money and you send it to the Russian embassy. They then choose to either issue you a visa or not. thank the Lord, once again, i've been issued a visa to go. i don't know why it's such a crazy experience, but it is.

my last formal day of work at the university of michigan is june 9. i leave the country on june 20. i just started a to do list yesterday, it's 4 pages long so far... and i've not even TRIED to think hard yet. whoa. glad i like to do lists and getting things done (which coincidentally is the name of a book i'm reading.

a language helper

just found out that for sure this summer that i'll not have an interpreter again. instead i'll have a language helper! i hope Pavel is ready for this language student - let's hope that i don't scare him off. i've already started making a list of the types of things that i hope to study while i'm at camp (food, flora/fauna, gospel terms, unidirectional/multidirection verbs of motion, and im/perfective verb tenses). Whoa - what a language geek. it is exciting though

efficiency, productivity and geekiness

i found an entire community of people like me online. check out http://www.43folders.com/ it's all about being effective, efficient, and multitasking. i know that this officially labels me as a geek, and i'm okay with that. it's where i learned there are other people in the world who use index cards and cool pens to coordinate their lives and that spending an hour to figure out how to print on an index card is not only okay, but can bring great joy.

yes, i do have quadrille index cards, blank ones, printed ones, color ones (two sides) and a fisher space pen. i know - pitiful

Blessings...

looks like as of today I'm at 95% of my goal. I'm really excited that it looks like June is a reality for me to head off to Russia. Whoa. There's a LOT of planning to do!

a great russian adventure

i had a conversation today with amy that is really exciting. amy's going to be able to come to russia for 5 weeks this summer! it's going to be a great opportunity for us to continue to get to know one another, look to the future, and ministry together in the field. i'm thrilled.

it's also difficult because it comes on the heels of amy being delayed in her departure to her mission field in Kenya with the Masai people. it's really tough when sad/glad things happen at the same time.

i'm excited to introduce her to russia, tyumen, russian, kasha, sala, markov' po koreskij, and gurina (where we have summer camp).

when the rubber meets the road

monday I got an oil change for my car... a much needed oil change. sometimes i wish that i had the desire and the in-born ability to do things mechanical. paying someone else to get dirty isnt' really my style, but then again - it is reality. my sink has been broken for almost 4 years and it's still not fixed... it works just fine - if you know how to shut it off (now i'm embarrassed... but honest i guess). when i got the oil changed they suggested that i get new tires... interesting how i'll notice the most insignificant detail of a conversation or the lyrics in a song, but not that i have NO tread on my tires!

I've been putting a lot of miles on my car lately. Seems that a beautiful, young lady has caught my attention and I've been driving from Ann Arbor to Indianapolis twice a month for the past several months. so i thought i'd introduce you to Amy.

Amy is also in the process of becoming a missionary. she's headed to Kenya to do AIDS education with the Masai people. (Kenya is in eastern Africa, but she'll be about 2 hours west of Nairobi). Amy comes from a great family with 4 sisters and is a junior high science teacher (she'd correct me and have me tell you that she's a substitute teacher right now, because she's in process to go to the mission field). she has a very deep Christian faith and has invested herself for several years mentoring junior high and high school girls. Amy is fun loving and very active. on thursday last week she decided to run the Indianapolis mini marathon (13.1 MILES!) and ran it in under 2 hours. i'm amazed... i would likely puke by mile 2!

we met in Colorado at mission training with MTI. ironically, our rooms were across the hall from one another! our personalities are excellent compliments and we really enjoy one another's company. we have excellent conversation, enjoy being outdoors together, and we have VERY similar life goals and dreams. certainly becoming missionaries in different countries is going to be a tough, but we're excited to be on this adventure together.

i'm sure you're all dying to meet her and i hope you have an opportunity soon (or that you've already met her for a few of you!)