Staying afloat...

Sometimes it's so strange when you can't quite put your finger on it, but you realize that you're barely staying afloat.

There's no ONE individual thing that's too much right now, but the conglomeration of things is like being dunked under water over and over again. There's the opportunity to breathe in some air in between the dunking, but not quite enough that you really feel like swimming.

Guess I should thank Will for dunking me under water so often as a kid.

Be praying - we can use it.

Wedding Poem

Many folks have asked me about the Poem that our dear friend Heather Holleman wrote for our wedding. I thought, I could post it here!

Wedding Day

~For Amy and Jeff

As fragile as two dandelion seeds
Scattered one to the Masaii, swirling up
Between spear and red cloth,
And one to the Russian,
Resting between beet soup and nesting dolls,
and yet, what strong Hand brought them together,
holding them in the tightest grip,
though blown by every wind,
across years, across continents?

There is wonder in this mysterious
Coming together—a girl running radiant in the direction of God,
Persevering, her head held up like a giraffe
Alone on the plains of Africa,
And this boy, all balance and rhythm,
All energy and hope,
Knowing she’s out there somewhere.

And the Lord releases His breath,
Sends the two where He knows they will find one another.
And recognize they have found a place to rest.
They take root, first in him, and then each other,
And a new thing is made—
Something no language can describe
And no border can contain.

The Lord Himself is their dwelling place
And on the beauty of this day,
They hold each other, exchange vows, become one,
And just as the dandelion, a singular thing, expands out
Signifying wonder
May your love together overflow and
Bring many to know the
One who caught you first in His Hand.

Napping is good for you!

I just read on one of my favorite blog sites (yes, I have favorite blog sites) that there are several names for different types of naps. Merlinn Mann posted on 43folders.com about his love for the Winston Churchill nap (which includes actually getting in bed).

I think perhaps this post is inspired by the fact that Amy and I get up 2-3 mornings a week at 4:40am for her to get to work on time... we're both tired. When I actually get up, I'm really okay... but sometime in the afternoon the desire for a nap is only broken by the consumption of caffeine.

Who I Am in Christ

Amy and I have been using this incredible resource to help us to firmly establish our identities as Christians. Sometimes in this world we live in, it's hard to fight against the pressures of our culture and what's happening around us and we forget who we really are.

I know for me that the consumerist mindset has a really strong pull. I just want to have it because other people have it and it's cool. Sometimes, that's okay. I love music and an iPod is an excellent music player. Mine is 2 or 3 years old. I do NOT need a new one. But I want one. Who am I?

Body image is a big part of American culture. God was really good to me in Russia and I lost 35 lbs. And I've gained 10 back here in the States. It's a struggle for me because I'm worried about what I look like (and how I feel). I want to be healthy, but I struggle sometimes with the motivation... do I want to BE healthy or just LOOK healthy. How ridiculous. Who am I?

Neil T. Anderson has written several books and one of them is all about identity. I haven't read it actually, Amy has though - and the truths are summarized in a list of identity statements from the Bible. I've linked to them through this post and hope that it encourages you.

Sometimes I really need a solid reminder of Who I Am.

I've added an RSS Feed

If you know what an rss feed is and you'd like to just add mine it's here.

If you don't know what an rss feed is, here's a definition:

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) It is a web technology that allows you to subscribe to content on the web. So now, you can subscribe to automatically receive updates from my blog if you use an RSS feed reader (I suggest using Google Reader).

Basically, you can read any posts that I make to my blog by adding this link http://infoczar.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default to your rss reader and you'll automatically keep up with me!

The family tree

Amy spent a good chunk of the day today working on a project for her Russian class. What am I saying?! Amy spends a good chunk of most days working on Russian. She's been an incredibly dedicated student. She's spending at least 4 hours a day on this class. We know why it's labeled INTENSE Russian.

She's learning the names of all the family members now. So she made a family tree to describe everyone to her class... She ended up taping 6 pieces of paper together to get her family on one sheet! If I'm remembering correctly there's 6 siblings in her dad's family (all married with kids) and 3 in her mom's.

Incidentally it was good for me too. That's a lot of people to meet and remember.

life outside the bubble

I've never really explained why I called my blog 'life outside the bubble'

It started when I realized I was spending almost all my time at church, at youth group, working on becoming a missionary. I was living my life completely inside the 'Christian' bubble.

That is NOT where life is to be lived. So I made a decision to try and live my life outside the bubble.


Ironically, living in Siberia (or Kenya) or wherever God leads is certainly living outside the bubble of my comfort zone.

So - here goes continually living life outside the bubble.

Evan Almighty

I had the opportunity to go to Russian tea again today. I was speaking with Dasha (an 18 year old visiting from Ukraine with her mother who's a Fulbright researcher here at UM). Dasha looks at me, starts laughing and says that I remind her of Steve Carell from the movie Evan Almighty. She even said that I make people laugh like him and look like him.

Just goes to show that making goals in your life really does have purpose... once upon a time, I thought my goal and purpose in life was to make at least one person smile or laugh a day... it's a good aim, don't you think?

Home Renovations

Today was an important day. I got to do some work on the house. Amy and I have been struggling a little bit figuring out how to work our schedule...

We really want to be together as much as possible (I think that's what happens when you're on different continents for 11 months), so we're doubled up sometimes when we run errands or just try to get things done (like going to the grocery store).

Well, we just had to separate. I can't really help her do her Russian homework... I kinda get in the way a little bit and help too eagerly... she has to do it by herself to learn. So I headed off to Lowe's and bought the hardware to install new handles on our screen doors. I only messed up one door!

So now we can get in and out of the house easily! Yes! We've been going in and out of the garage door for nearly three weeks...

... I've already become one of those husbands who fall behind in home projects.

Speaking before Presbytery

Yesterday Amy and I drove down to Detroit for the Midwest Presbytery meeting. It's a gathering of teaching and ruling elders of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church (EPC) where they discuss doctrine and policy. There's a section of the meeting to hear from World Outreach, so Amy and I were invited to speak. Usually there's a 10 minute window, but the other missionary couple that was supposed to attend couldn't make it - so we got 20 minutes!

It was wonderful to share with them the story of how we met, Amy shared about her time in Kenya, I gave an update about what's been going on in Russia, AND they spontaneously prayed for us. It was really great. Amy & I have both been feeling the pressure and stress of being too busy and trying to figure out how to prioritize a bit better. We're learning how to do it, but it's taken a bit of a toll as we've been trying to figure it all out.

First Russian Grades

Just sharing briefly the pride of a husband whose wife scored a 99.75 on her first Russian test! Way to go Amy! I knew she was smart all along, but WOW!!!

The test was about 5 pages long and had everything from listening comprehension, grammar, speaking, and vocabulary.

That's it. I'm really proud of her and how diligently she's dedicated herself to learning Russian.

Русский Чай - Russian Tea

Today was a treat! Amy's enrolled in Intensive Russian and has hours of crazy language practice required each week. Two hours each week there's a group gathering of all the Russian students with several professors and some native speakers! We went for a little over an hour and met so many people! It was really good practice for me. The first couple of minutes was all that awkward figuring out who's going to talk to who... and all that jazz.

I hope we're able to keep going - it was really great practice!

Frenetically paced

Amy and I are really trying to figure out how to schedule our lives. Seems like there are 1,000 opportunities at every turn and we need to figure out how to prioritize and choose.

I had a small freak out moment last night. I'm not really sure why, but I was just FULL of stress. Usually when I'm stressed (which isn't that usual) I know the cause. So it was interesting to try and figure out what the cause was.

We sat down last night and wrote out a list of the priorities that we have for our time in the states. Hopefully this will help us to just be focused on what we need and want to be doing with the year. It is really daunting to be: husband, wife, student, employee, employer, son, daughter, friend, mentor... We're feeling pulled in all directions and trying to be true to our hopes to establish our marriage as our top priority this year.

Your prayers are welcomed!

Early mornings

Amy & I have been presented with a wonderful opportunity. Getting up at 4:50am most mornings...

The University of Michigan has started classes and Amy is enrolled (well, will be soon) in the first year Intensive Russian language program. This means that Amy's job had to fit in with her class schedule. And when you have class from 11am - 1pm everyday (and 3 hours of conversation practice to fit in too, along with at LEAST 20 hours of homework a week) you end up working the early morning shift.

So we rise before the sun. We rush around for about 20 minutes or so, Amy drinks a quick cup of living life (coffee) and I pack a quick lunch for each of us. She reads her Bible and I try to get my hair to stop sticking up. You'd think a man with as little hair as me wouldn't have a problem with that in the morning. Within a blink of the eye our time together in the morning is over and it's "to the bat mobile!" The 3 miles to campus usually takes 15-20 minutes in the morning, but this early... it's about 8 minutes. There are a few cars on the streets, but mostly is just us.

So this means that I'm at work 2.5 hours before most everyone else. It's been quite nice because I get SO much accomplished in the first couple hours of the day. I think maybe that I'm annoying to my colleagues, because I have a bit too much energy by 8am and they haven't even seen coffee yet!