requests and joys

hey all... just a quick post and reequest for pr@yer.  We met with our landlord yesterday to pay rent and they notified us that our rent would be going up $200/month!  This is a huge surprise in light of the financial crisis.  Guess they figured out how they were going to deal with the changes.  Please lift us up in pr@yer as we cannot afford this, but don't want to pack up and move in the middle of winter (well, we don't want to move at all to be honest).  

Our washing machine is also broken and it's apparently our responsibility to have it repaired.  It's interesting how different things are here sometimes.  I'm down to my last several sets of socks, so it's hand washing for us (and a generous offer from Sally to use their washer).  We're going to call soon about getting it repaired - but nervous about the hassle it might cause.

I am done teaching for 2008!  PTL.  I'm so tired and ready for a good, long, hardy sleep.  I've got some reports to write for school and the agency and then a bit of rest is in order.

Today we're baking pizza with the ch^rch youth and then taking them to see a Christmas pageant.

Merry Christmas!

A very Merry Christmas to everyone!  It is such a wonderful day!  We're excited for traditions, good food, time together, the Christmas play at ch^rch and most of all - a little time with J.

Fire wire transfer

Our American dollars have run out. It’s time for our first wire transfer… we’re a bit nervous. There’s a flat charge on the U.S. side, there’s a percentage charge on this side… and we aren’t sure we have all the right transfer numbers. But it’s what we’ve got, so we’re going through with it. Keep us in your thoughts.

Being on the spot

How does it feel to be called upon to share your t’mony in a foreign language? That’s a great question. And I can honestly answer it now. On Sunday during B!ble study, the pastor called on me (without any preparation) to share my t’mony with the 20 or so people in the room. I got up, shared for about 7 minutes (I was given 5-10) and then sat back down. I made several mistakes (of course). Then they proceeded to grade my t’mony. The good news is, most folks thought it was good. It’s a typical format that Vadim (the past0r) is teaching. He’s been teaching how to share your t’mony for the past 3 weeks. Life before J, accepting J, life after J. It’s nerve wracking to try to stumble through all that grammar in front of so many people. I mean, if you can move a comma to the wrong place in Russian and have a sentence mean that the person should be executed, cannot be forgiven instead of you cannot execute the person, the person should be forgiven – imagine the terror of grammar. That was just a moved comma.

We’re working on getting adjusted again. I can’t believe how much Russian I’ve forgotten. It’s really ok – I’m just really critical about it. I feel like I’ve hit a plateau and I really need to push through it. I didn’t expect to experience any culture shock or difficulties in coming back after being gone for only a year, but the adjustments are here all the same. One of the hardest things is not being asked to help out or to participate. Just being expected to be everywhere all the time. We’re pretty tired, I haven’t been sleeping all the well – probably a manifestation of stress. I think I’m taking a lot on myself and feeling overly responsible for Amy. She’s doing great, but since I lived here before, I think I’m taking on unnecessary stress.

LIfe on Purpose

This has been one of my life mottos for a long time. I'm really excited to share that the blog name, "life on purpose" has become available - and Amy and I are going to start blogging together there. So if you've got this one bookmarked, please change your bookmarks to the new address. We'll both be posting there from now on!

http://lifeonpurpose.blogspot.com/

Lactic Acid...

yeah - my legs are full of the stuff... we ran, and my body is reminding me that I did. I got up in the middle of the night because my cell phone battery was dying... of course I was groggy. It was 5am... it beeps every three minutes when the batter is dying...

SO - I just rolled out of bed and nearly collapsed as my legs screamed at me in pain. And then I stretched and realized I'd be okay.

I'm a bit stiff & I'm going to ice my knee again.

Did someone say 8 MILES?!

That's right, the miracle of love has brought me to a place I could have never imagined. Amy & I ran 8 miles tonight as we continue to train for the Indianapolis Mini marathon (13.1 miles total). It's in 3 weeks. And I'm supposed to try and get up to 10 miles at least prior to the race.

My goal of course, is not to win or really run crazy...it's to finish. I'm really excited to have completed 8 miles at this point. We'll see how I'm doing tomorrow.

Thank you God for Aleve...

The knee once again...

So I returned to the doctor to have my knee looked at. They initially thought it was cartilage or an irritation with my kneecap. Something like retropatellar pain syndrome. But with my lower level of activity in the past months and the 6 months of time... the doc thought to do an x-ray. So I had an x-ray on my knee.

While I was there, they did an x-ray on my chest for the tuberculosis film that I have to take with me to Russia for camp. And then they drew blood for the HIV test I have to have in order to get my Russian visa... yikes.

So, the x-ray didn't show anything. The doctor poked and prodded and decided to schedule me for an MRI on my knee. This will show if there are any tears in the ligaments of my knee. He's thinking that I might have stressed, stretched or torn part of my anterior meniscus.

Next week on Tuesday keep my knee in your prayers. I'm not sure what I want them to find... something wrong that can be fixed or just that I need to do physical therapy.

I really need to be able to run this race with Amy though - it's such an encouragement to her when we run.

Planes, Trains & Automobiles

Seriously? Yes, seriously. Today at 11am, I received a call on my cell phone from a computer. Our flight had been canceled to return from Colorado. The flight was grounded in Chicago due to a thunderstorm.

so I called to reschedule the flight and the following fiasco ensued:
- I was told I could reschedule for $100
- I was told we couldn't fly out until that evening, and then it would entail 4 flights to get home
- I was told that I couldn't speak with a supervisor, but that the agent would speak with support
- so I opted to go to the airport and talk to someone in person

I was frustrated, but trying to keep my cool.

at the airport:
- they were wonderful. so many flights were crazy because american airlines was grounded and they were taking up a LOT of slack
- people were being really mean to the agents
- our agent had supervisor authority and booked us on a new flight and upgraded us
- we decided to fly out of Denver instead of Colorado Springs (we could stay with one of Amy's dear friends (Jaci) in Denver)

rental car:
- we rented a car from Hertz (where Jaci works) and set off to travel to Denver. About 20 minutes on the road and I got a migraine. I haven't had one in something like 3 years. It was awful, but with time, prayers and a hood over my eyes it passed in several hours.

denver:

- we had a marvelous time with Jaci. She made us dinner and took us to an 'clean' improv club. It was hilarious. I got volunteered by my lovely wife to participate and ended up making the sound effects for one of the scenes. It was really fun.

PS I guess the only trains were the ones carrying coal and passing us on the highway... and the ones at the airport between terminals.

Quarantine

It's been an interesting day at PILAT today. We're a fairly close community... and looks like one little guy brought a bug with him to our community... and then it passed to another little lady, and another. And then an adult got sick, and another. So right now we've got a total of about 16 people sick in our community of around 50. So it's a pretty significant chunk. And every break or meal another person seems to disappear.

We have a 24 hour quarantine underway for the folks who are sick. Once their last symptom has occurred, they have 24 hours to hang out in their rooms before coming back to the community.

The sad news is that Amy is now among their number. Last night she was very ill 3 times and still isn't feeling great. Someone took me in to town to the store so I could get some Popsicles, chicken noodle soup, and gatoraid.

It's like some crazy public health nightmare. Please pray for the healing of everyone here and that more of us don't get sick.

7 miles at 7,000 ft

Well, today marks another milestone in my life. Amy and I continue to train for the mini marathon in Indianapolis in May (it's 13.1 miles) and today I ran the furthest I've run in my entire life. 7 miles. And not only 7 miles, but at 7,000 feet of elevation (we're in Palmer Lake, Colorado for 2 weeks).

The run was really pretty good. My knee didn't hurt hardly at all, I wasn't really all that winded. I kept repeating a verse over and over again 1 Corinthians 9:27 No, I beat my body and make it my slave...and I really had to today.

It's been several hours and I've been a bit queasy. Amy thinks that it's from too much in the altitude. So now I'm pounding down the water.

In PILAT updates - we spent 2.5 hours with Dwight today drilling vowel sounds and a little bit of work on tones... but man, the vowels can get difficult!

PILAT - Arrival

It's a fun and exciting time here at PILAT. The participants to the program are all arriving. They're going all over the world. It's SO exciting to know that the Word is being shared. There are about 27 adults in the program and 23 kids! One family has 3 kids under 2.5 and one on the way! Amy and I don't know how they do it.

Amy and I spent the bulk of the day today settling into our room, scanning and sending Amy's Russian homework to her professor and drilling vowel sounds. It's really great that we'll be able to help so many people take their first steps to learning a new language to share the best news there's ever been.

The main gist of the whole PILAT program is to learn how to share important things with people, you need to share them in their heart language. This is the language that is usually their first language and the one that connects not just in their heads, but in their hearts.

It's going to be a really busy time though and we were hoping for it to be a bit slower than things have been recently. Please pray for good sleep, some rest, and relaxation.

Tonight we already have a great opportunity to see one of Amy's best friends from college. Jaci is coming down from Denver to Palmer Lake to visit with us!

PILAT - to Colorado Springs --- Drill Practice

Today was a very interesting day. We arrived, no problem to Colorado Springs and Dwight Gradin (the director of PILAT) picked us up from the airport. He took us to their (his wife Barbara) lovely home and we had a delicious Sunday dinner with them.

Dwight suggested a brief Sunday nap (Amy did homework, I worked on mapping PILAT audio files to their drill numbers) and then we practiced drills together. It was really quite fun, but 2.5 hours of producing just language sounds can stymie the minds of the world's best linguists. I'm a geek about language and Amy is a chemist. I don't think it's fair that she's so good at this when I still get confused between n-u-c-l-e-a-r and n-u-c-u-l-a-r. She's just brilliant. Men, it's smart to marry up.

(Amy says, "hi" to you all as she labors away with the sweat of her brow and a bit of elbow grease on her Russian homework - I joined her today and read an entire chapter in my Russian book too -- it was really nice to be honest)

PILAT - to Denver

Amy and I are on another adventure right now. We're heading out to Colorado Springs (Palmer Lake to be precise) to help with PILAT training. It's at Mission Training International, which is where we met in 2006! We're really excited to be out here helping out. Mostly it sounds like we'll be drillers and sharing stories of language learning on the field.

What's a driller? We're the people who work with a small group helping them learn how to make sounds that aren't part of the normal 44 sounds of English. So we're sorta like the discussion leader or graduate assistant in a class.

Our flight path took us from Detroit to Denver and then on to Colorado Springs. The flight from Denver to Colorado Springs was overbooked, so we ended up staying overnight in Denver at a hotel (for free!)

... and the Lord's blessings have already begun for this trip. We also got FREE vouchers to fly anywhere in the continental U.S. round trip. Translation - free trip. Amy's going to get her dream vacation of somewhere sunny and it's paid for!

God is so good to us.

Updates on Russian politics and our departure

I don't usually just add posts from other sources - but this is just an update on the political situation in Russia. Please be praying. Amy & I are going to be in Russia on a educational visas - so this shouldn't directly affect us. Thank you for your prayers.

http://www.MNNonline.org/article/11048

Amy & I are both amazed and how quickly time has flown. We're leaving on Friday for 2 weeks in Colorado Springs working with Mission Training International at their language acquisition module called PILAT. We'll be helping to teach - you'll hear from us on the blog I'm sure - and we're excited about that time. Please pray for Amy especially during this time as she's missing 2 weeks of class and scanning & emailing her homework to her professor. She'll be returning just in time for the last 2 days of class and her exams. (Did I mention that Amy had to speak with her professor for 20 minutes on Monday for her Oral Exam? She received Advanced marks for her grade! I'm bursting with pride at how well she's done - God gave her the talent, and she's working hard --- it's so nice that it's paying off!)

I have only 1.5 months of work left at UM, prior to our final month in the States. In June we'll be wrapping up affairs with the house (please pray for renters or buyers) and then we'll be visiting family/friends for goodbyes. We'll also be in D.C. for the General Assembly meeting where Amy will have her final interview with World Outreach.

It's amazing to think that heading to Russia in June will provide us a small breather!

Housing market in Ann Arbor

pray pray pray pray

We got our first email regarding someone who might be interested in renting our house... please pray that they would want it and it would be a DONE deal!

New York City! - Day 3

My birthday has never spanned 4 days before! (well, maybe in Russia, I did get to celebrate several times....)

We started off just like Saturday... sleeping in! Yes! We needed the sleep. Then we got ready, grabbed New York City Bagels with cream cheese and cucumbers and headed off to Easter Service!

What a treat. We went to Redeemer Presbyterian Church where Dr. Tim Keller shared the sermon entitled, "Mary!" (unfortunately for sale) It was incredible.

I think the most profound items from the sermon for me were:

1. upon his resurrection, Jesus first appeared to a woman. during that time in history, it would have made more logical sense for him to appear to a man, but he chose to appear to a woman. not just any woman, but one who had been possessed of multiple demons.
   
2. mary didn't recognize Jesus, just like so many of us. He had to call her name, because he DOES know her, just as he knows all of us. He but called her name, and she immediately realized it was he.
   

After the service, we headed off to lunch and Young Frankenstein. This show was a special treat as I've been a BIG fan of Roger Bart for a long time and he's the lead role. It's also incredible because it's the WHOLE original cast. So Sutton Foster (a highschool classmate of friend Matt Bressie), Megan Mullally, Christopher Fitzgerald, and Shuler Hensley were all THERE!
Following the show, we bolted for the airport and made it in plenty of time, because our flight was delayed for 5 HOURS! Amy got LOTS of homework done, and we talked in Russian for quite some time preparing for her Oral Exam on Monday.

- and the special homeward bound surprise... first class seats on the way home.

Easter

The singular greatest day of the year. On this day some 2000 years ago, the Universe changed forever. Most Christians seem to think that Christmas is the holiday to celebrate - and I do love presents. And it is the day Jesus was born (well, you know, when we celebrate it in America and some other countries). But, Easter is the one that makes the difference.

When I think of denial of self, I think of things like, "should I eat this cupcake?", "maybe another mile and I can push a little harder," or if I'm really denying self, "I should send some money to someone in need," or "my time could really make a difference if I spent it in service."

No - I'm talking real self denial here. Knowing that I need to forgo every temptation, every desire to be selfish, to do what I want, when I want... and to go to the extreme measure and give my very life in the most gruesome way... I wish I could say that I would have done the same - that I have the character to resist myself that much... I know I couldn't have done what Jesus did for me.

I seriously just struggle not having more chocolate. I don't mean to be irreverent here. I really am just learning that although I have discipline, I have a long way to go - and a lot more to learn about living for others.

Bless Amy for putting up with me - I'm trying!

The Lion King

Amy & I got a backstage tour of the Lion King. A personal, just us, backstage tour. Amy's friend, Katy, has a cousin who BUILT the hydrolics...

Here we are with a Wildebeast mask

This is the stage managers desk

New York City! - Day 2

Perhaps the second perfect day in my life! We slept in and started off the day with a run in Central Park! The image to the left can be clicked to enlarge it, the red line is what we ran, and the green line is what we walked out. According to Google Pedometer - we ran about 1.5 miles to get to the park, then we ran 3 miles in the park, and walked about 2 miles out. Then 1.5 miles back to our hotel. It was a wonderful start to our day. It was so sunny.

In the afternoon, I saw another show while Amy did some homework and got us tickets to see Curtains in the evening! I love 1/2 price tickets.

In between shows, we had an incredible opportunity. Amy's friend and former roommate (Katy) has a cousin working in New York... on the Lion King (see separate post). So he gave us a personalized tour backstage. He's the hydrolics genius who built the automated pride rock that lifts out of the stage!

We topped the evening off with dessert from the Roxy Delicatessen. I recommend it, but get the cheesecake.

I've never had a birthday like this in my life! It's been so wonderful and relaxing .. and FUN.