Thursday, November 27, 2014

Dwindling Days

We have 15 magical days remaining in our semester abroad and my heart is so full of emotion. I have truly come to appreciate and love the people of Tomsk. I have also come to slightly accept the bitterly cold weather of Siberia and always having to wear leggings under my jeans. Always. In the last week or so we have been spending a plethora of time with our friends. Friends all the time. These friends are why we came to Tomsk and such people are why it is going to be an emotional goodbye.

Spending any amount of time in another country allows you to experience the roller coaster that culture shock and culture struggle. As I reflect over the last 5.5 months there were some definite highs and lows. There were struggles, trials, and lots of snow. However, through it all God was faithful. He was faithful to work out our visa situation and return to Russia in September. He was faithful to continue bringing  people to our classes, English Club, and random get-togethers. The Lord was also constant in uniting Allie, Alissa, and me, as we worked together, lived together, and generally spent every moment together. God has been teaching me so much about communication.

Having a pre-existing timeline placed on your life really affects your communication. Knowing I only have 6 months to say what I need to say in Tomsk has lead me to pray for a lot more boldness in every conversation that I am a part of. Please join me in praying for our last 10 days here and the many conversations and meetings that we will have that will be Christmas themed! Speaking of Christmas: it snows so much here! There is snow everywhere! On the rare days that it is not snowing and the sun is shining it can only mean one thing... -30 temperatures. Yay!

It has been hilarious hearing everyone's response to our disdain towards the bitter cold. Some of our friends poke fun at us and remind us that it is still autumn but others are honest and will sadly admit to us that -30 is really cold. OF COURSE IT IS REALLY COLD!! I know you are Siberian (or live in Siberia) but when you have friends going to the doctor to treat mildly frost bitten cheeks there is a problem. By the way, it is currently -29 C outside. Just let that sink in for a moment. The barely freezing weather of Moscow in 10 days is going to seem like summer!






Enough about weather, let me tell you a story. Last week we went and saw a movie in theatres for the first time here in Tomsk. We joined our friends Emil & Jenny and a few others from English Club for an evening of madness entitled Interstellar. If I am being honest, I understood only a little bit of the movie but it was so good!! Not knowing what was going on almost made it more fun and I laughed more than anyone should at such an intense outer space drama. It also provided plenty to talk about at our English group!

In our English group we have been going through the Old Testament once a week and we just made it to the Ten Commandments. It has been taking some time to get through but I am so thankful it has. Those who stick around for our post-lesson Bible lesson come ready to listen and ask questions. This last week we were discussing the connection between the Ten Commandments (following the law) and Jesus (free grace.) Over and over again I am reminded of words spoken by Jesus to the twelve disciples in Mark. He gently reminded them that sometimes you just have to speak in parables because they do not yet know the Truth. This is truer than ever here in Russia. I am ever thankful that God has given us the ability to be creative in the ways in which we share our lives and faith.

...alright, alright, alright. Thanksgiving just happened here in Russia and we actually had friends to celebrate with. It was my first experience getting to host the meal and my first experience having chicken instead of Turkey. I am thankful that we have made friends who actually want to spend major holidays with us and share their lives with us. My heart is so grateful and content that we are united as the Body of Christ and it is our Saviour that brings us together.

I have written a lot already in this post and I wish I could write so much more. I wish I could tell all of you all about everything that God is doing in Tomsk. I wish I could convince you all to come here and meet my friends. I wish I could start raising support again to come back after graduation. Tomsk is not a perfect place but I can tell you that God's plan for Tomsk is perfect. I pray that someday I can return. (Who ever thought I would say that?!) And I pray that Jesus grabs a hold of every heart in Tomsk and claims this city as a stronghold for the Kingdom.

Monday, November 17, 2014

Party Time

As we are winding down and getting closer tot he end of our semester in Tomsk it seems that we are becoming busier than ever. People are realizing that we will be leaving soon and are trying to squeeze in their fun with us and their goodbyes. It is so fun to spend so much time with people we have come to know so well through our classes, English club, and church. It also turns out to be the holiday season which means that it is time to party!! A couple weeks ago we even had a Harvest Party on Halloween, we've been hosting more movies, we will celebrate Thanksgiving with some American friends, we're going to have a couple Christmas parties, and finally our Farewell Party. 

On Halloween we invited over some friends to join us in playing some fun games and eating lots of food involving pumpkin. Alissa and I cooked up some apple cobbler, pumpkin dump cake, and pumpkin chocolate chip muffins. We had our guests bob for apples (which was hilarious!), eat doughnut shaped crackers off of hanging strings, we played Halloween-themed  Heads-Up, and played charades. It was an evening filled with laughter! 



Last week we also got the opportunity to join the young people of the church here in Tomsk on a Fall Retreat to the village. We spent one night in a small village playing games, studying Scripture, and worshiping together. After playing some introductory games we were split into two teams and had to go around the village on a scavenger hunt. It happened to be way below freezing and we were not on any ordinary scavenger hunt! this hunt was to find the "pilot" of a fake plane that had "crashed" in the village. We were in a great hurry to find the pilot and save him from the bad guys; this required a lot of running. Once we warmed up and watched a movie they decided that it would be fun to hold a wrestling tournament at 1 in the morning. There was a boy's division and a girl's division. Somehow, all three American were randomly chosen to participate in the wrestling tournament. It was the first and last time I will ever wrestle anyone. 

Aside from all the fun it was a great time of relaxation and bonding. It is still amazing to me that God loves us all and can be our Heavenly Father regardless of the language that we speak. AND He has allowed us to be brothers and sisters through Jesus Christ our Savior. 




Aside from having tons of fun, I can see that I am still learning more about the Russian people and language. I am able to pick up on many more words in conversations and reading the Russian language is becoming easier, However, Russian is still a very humbling language because it is so difficult to learn to speak. There are multiple cases that effect literally every word in any given sentence. Just when you think you are getting the hang of talking about something you will no doubt be corrected because you are speaking int he wrong case. Russians even tell us that their native tongue is much more difficult than English. I agree. Just take a look at all the ways that the root word of "run" can be written in different cases and forms. These aren't even all of them!

I may be able to read all of these words but please don't ask me to translate! However, I can tell you all about the film, "Hot Rod" in Russian. I am obviously learning the most important things in Russian. Another exciting thing is that I realized on Sunday that there are some worship songs that we sing at church that I can sing along to. How cool is it that we can worship in so many different languages?! It is truly beautiful. 

Saturday, November 1, 2014

Putting Down Roots

While I am not the biggest fan of how cold it can get in Siberia, I am falling more and more in love with most everything else in Tomsk. I love that I can go around the corner and purchase pumpkins from the old lady at the market and have my pick from the 30 pumpkins she has stashed in her van! I love that I can now speak to people in simple Russian, I love that I have friends. I love that people are coming to our English group consistently. I love that it snowed for 5 days straight. My heart is so full of joy!

About buying pumpkins: on Wednesday I took a field trip to the market near our apartment with the hopes of buying some pumpkins for my friend Jenny. Upon my arrival to the stand where I knew they sold pumpkins I only saw a few very sad looking, mushy pumpkins. I greeted the women and told them that I was wanting some pumpkins. They asked me what size and when I told them I wanted small pumpkins they told me to follow them around to the van. (remember this is all happening in Russian) At the van I was amazed! This jank, light-blue, Soviet era van was filled to the brim with ripe punkins! As I was picking out the right ones to give to Jenny one of the women remembered me from the first time that I bought from her and greeted me with a hearty hello. Then she got into her car and pulled out some garlic. She said a few words but that only thing I really caught was the word for "gift." She was giving me the gift of garlic. (I LOVE garlic) My day was made! Not only was I able to buy pumpkins on my own I was also able to make friends the women selling the pumpkins. This just proves that God has perfect timing and He is the giver of all knowledge. Without His provisions there is no way that I would be able to pick up on so much Russian and be able to do what I did.

I would like to now take a moment to brag on English Club. English Club is run by our good friends Emil, Jenny, and their adorable daughter named Leeza. These three have been an integral part to adjusting to living in Siberia. They have taken us in and called us friends. Spending time with this family is a gift and being able to join them in the work they do has been the most delightful experience. At English Club I think we (Allie, Alissa, and I) have been able to flourish as teammates and teachers. Jenny has helped us to come together as a trio and helped us to utilize our different gifts and talents. Saturdays are quite possibly my favorite day of the week because I get to see people I know and get to have tons of fun! We play games, have tea, learn/teach grammar, and participate in discussions. Last week we talked about Halloween and fears; I was able to be candid about my faith and share how I believe that "perfect love drives out fear." The perfect love of God takes our fears and erases them. That when we are so focused on loving God and receiving His love then we forget our fears. Then this week was super chill and I got to hang out with Baby Leeza and get to know some of the young people from church a lot better.

Playing a game at English Club and there's Leeza!

It is so fun!

I teach English sometimes

Our friends, and Russian teachers, Ivan and Katya


While living in Russia and learning to speak Russian is a marvelous thing I am finding more and more that knowing English really does open so many doors. Teaching and saying the same old things in English can get old, but the relationships it brings about makes me get over myself real quick. The work we are doing with English has led us to so many friends and tonight at English Club there were even some people asking about coming to church tomorrow. Hallelujah! We are also going on a 24-hour retreat this next week and another girl from our English group will be joining us. I am so thankful for these times to get to know people better and to share my heart with them. Seriously, I feel as if my heart could burst with joy! As fun as it to know that I am getting closer to seeing my family in America, it is even funner spending more days with my friends and family in Tomsk. God has planted us here and we are slowly putting down roots. I am comfortable living here and I am refusing to think of this as our final month in Tomsk because who really wants to see me become an emotional wreck. Let's be real... The people of Tomsk have stolen my heart. I have roots here.