Bob has been writing a day by day recap of our trip to Russia, and it's fantastic (complete with photos). rather than try to duplicate it, i'll just direct you to his blog here.
Steve and I are looking forward to sharing about our experiences at church tomorrow morning...
Saturday, March 18, 2006
Tuesday, March 14, 2006
home
arrived home yesterday and slept from 7 p.m. to 4 a.m. but still feeling really groggy today. trying to stay awake through home group tonight, so i thought blogging might help. difficult to concentrate enough to write, though. we'll see how it goes...
how about a quick recap of Sunday and Monday?
Sunday, 8:00 a.m (GMT +3): wake, shower, pack, eat breakfast of toast, cheese, and yogurt in hotel cafe.
Sunday, 10:00 a.m.: walk to Nizhny Novgorod Vineyard with Bob & Steve. Kevin is already there, warming up with Kathy and rest of worship team. Emily is coming with Dave & Stephanie (Dave & Kathy's 15 year old daughter)
Sunday, 11:30 a.m.: worship starts, about 1/2 hour late. no one seems concerned, just seems to be the way things work here in Russia sometimes. worship is awesome - familiar songs in Russian language. Sasha from Vineyard in Siberia is helping lead. Sergei from another Vineyard in western Russia preaches on servant leadership. great stuff - remarkable guy, the only indigeonous pastor of a Vineyard church in western Russia.
Sunday, 1:00 p.m.: eat lunch at Papa Potato (they kind of ran out of food - there's no "after church" brunch crowd in Russia since there are so few churches). our team meets with Dave & Kathy to share some ways we're planning to support them and the church.
Sunday, 3:00 p.m.: walk back to church for conclusion of leadership conference. worship, teaching, ministry time. Holy Spirit present in cool ways to bless people. seems to show up regardless of whether a translator is present to interpret or not. lots of heartfelt goodbyes to people we've felt a deep bond with in a short period of time. receive tons of encouragment about our time here; seems like God's favor has been with us.
Sunday, 8:00 p.m.: pack up van and taxi with luggage, drive to airport outside NN. take Siberian Air to Moscow. it takes off late because of a VIP arriving after everyone else has boarded. somebody with bodyguards, etc.
Monday, 12:30 a.m.: arrive in Moscow, where we are picked up by Sergei from the Moscow Christian Center. Sergei takes us across the city to a hotel near the international airport.
Monday, 2:00 a.m.: check into hotel. eat some dinner and take a shower. call the Harvest Ridge home group to say hi, since it's 7:00 p.m. Sunday in Michigan. finally, Steve and I take a 45 minute nap til our wake up call at 4:30 a.m.
Monday, 5:00 a.m.: arrive at airport, go through security, passport control, etc. get searched, go through 3 metal detectors. meet a guy from Texas at the gate and talk with him for a while. he's cool - an engineer for a gas company who has adopted 2 Russian children, serves as a deacon at his church.
Monday, 7:15 a.m.: take off and fly to Paris. arrive and get searched a couple more times, go through 4 more metal detectors.
Monday, time unknown: fly from Charles De Gaulle to Detroit Metro. some enjoyable turbelence. fight to stay awake so i can sleep at night.
Monday, 2:00 p.m. (GMT- 5): arrive at DTW, go through customs and meet Curt, who drives us home.
Monday, 3:00 p.m.: hug and kiss Ronni, Colin, and Elle. Elle remembers me, thankfully :) give gifts, show pictures, share stories. it's been about 39 hours since i've had any real sleep. watch some tv shows Ronni recorded while i was away. hoping to stay up until 9:00, but can't quite make it...
how about a quick recap of Sunday and Monday?
Sunday, 8:00 a.m (GMT +3): wake, shower, pack, eat breakfast of toast, cheese, and yogurt in hotel cafe.
Sunday, 10:00 a.m.: walk to Nizhny Novgorod Vineyard with Bob & Steve. Kevin is already there, warming up with Kathy and rest of worship team. Emily is coming with Dave & Stephanie (Dave & Kathy's 15 year old daughter)
Sunday, 11:30 a.m.: worship starts, about 1/2 hour late. no one seems concerned, just seems to be the way things work here in Russia sometimes. worship is awesome - familiar songs in Russian language. Sasha from Vineyard in Siberia is helping lead. Sergei from another Vineyard in western Russia preaches on servant leadership. great stuff - remarkable guy, the only indigeonous pastor of a Vineyard church in western Russia.
Sunday, 1:00 p.m.: eat lunch at Papa Potato (they kind of ran out of food - there's no "after church" brunch crowd in Russia since there are so few churches). our team meets with Dave & Kathy to share some ways we're planning to support them and the church.
Sunday, 3:00 p.m.: walk back to church for conclusion of leadership conference. worship, teaching, ministry time. Holy Spirit present in cool ways to bless people. seems to show up regardless of whether a translator is present to interpret or not. lots of heartfelt goodbyes to people we've felt a deep bond with in a short period of time. receive tons of encouragment about our time here; seems like God's favor has been with us.
Sunday, 8:00 p.m.: pack up van and taxi with luggage, drive to airport outside NN. take Siberian Air to Moscow. it takes off late because of a VIP arriving after everyone else has boarded. somebody with bodyguards, etc.
Monday, 12:30 a.m.: arrive in Moscow, where we are picked up by Sergei from the Moscow Christian Center. Sergei takes us across the city to a hotel near the international airport.
Monday, 2:00 a.m.: check into hotel. eat some dinner and take a shower. call the Harvest Ridge home group to say hi, since it's 7:00 p.m. Sunday in Michigan. finally, Steve and I take a 45 minute nap til our wake up call at 4:30 a.m.
Monday, 5:00 a.m.: arrive at airport, go through security, passport control, etc. get searched, go through 3 metal detectors. meet a guy from Texas at the gate and talk with him for a while. he's cool - an engineer for a gas company who has adopted 2 Russian children, serves as a deacon at his church.
Monday, 7:15 a.m.: take off and fly to Paris. arrive and get searched a couple more times, go through 4 more metal detectors.
Monday, time unknown: fly from Charles De Gaulle to Detroit Metro. some enjoyable turbelence. fight to stay awake so i can sleep at night.
Monday, 2:00 p.m. (GMT- 5): arrive at DTW, go through customs and meet Curt, who drives us home.
Monday, 3:00 p.m.: hug and kiss Ronni, Colin, and Elle. Elle remembers me, thankfully :) give gifts, show pictures, share stories. it's been about 39 hours since i've had any real sleep. watch some tv shows Ronni recorded while i was away. hoping to stay up until 9:00, but can't quite make it...
Friday, March 3, 2006
Russia
leaving in about an hour for Russia with Steve. flying from Detroit to Paris, and then Paris to Moscow. got up at 4:00 this morning in hopes of being tired enough to sleep on the flight over to Paris. feeling pretty tuckered right now, but i know the adreneline is likely to kick in once we're at the airport.
can't wait, really. meeting up in Moscow with Bob and Emily from the Ann Arbor Vineyard, and Kevin from the Capital City Vineyard. our 10 day mission adventure should take us from Moscow to Nizhny (sometimes Niznij - formerly called Gorki in the Soviet Union days) Novgorod and back again. planes, trains, and automobiles, at least, not to mention a fair amount of walking, i'm sure. most of our time will be spent with a Vineyard in Nizhny pastored by the Wolfs, scouting out how we can support their church, building relationships, and helping lead a leadership conference (how meta-, eh?).
i'm expecting to teach on "leading with a Jesus lean" and "leading from the 2nd row (the example of Jonathon)" can't remember ever teaching through a translator before - kind of curious to see how it all works. strange to realize in prepation how many of my usual illustrations and even figures of speech are culturally dependent. (sports, television, politics, movies, heck anything having to do with western history may be totally meaningless for all i know at this point). had to toss them all for the moment, and wait til i'm there to get a sense for what might be effective and what might not. at least the bible ought to be common ground.
Roger came by last night with a Russian / English phrase cheat sheet for me, and prayed for me too. very cool. also dropped off an authentic Sergei Federov hockey jersey from some team in the U.S.S.R from back in the day. wild. wonder if anyone will remember him in Russia?
off to finish packing and shower up. we'll see if there's any internet connectivity there. if so, i'll update as soon as i get the chance.
missing Ronni, Colin, and Elle already.
can't wait, really. meeting up in Moscow with Bob and Emily from the Ann Arbor Vineyard, and Kevin from the Capital City Vineyard. our 10 day mission adventure should take us from Moscow to Nizhny (sometimes Niznij - formerly called Gorki in the Soviet Union days) Novgorod and back again. planes, trains, and automobiles, at least, not to mention a fair amount of walking, i'm sure. most of our time will be spent with a Vineyard in Nizhny pastored by the Wolfs, scouting out how we can support their church, building relationships, and helping lead a leadership conference (how meta-, eh?).
i'm expecting to teach on "leading with a Jesus lean" and "leading from the 2nd row (the example of Jonathon)" can't remember ever teaching through a translator before - kind of curious to see how it all works. strange to realize in prepation how many of my usual illustrations and even figures of speech are culturally dependent. (sports, television, politics, movies, heck anything having to do with western history may be totally meaningless for all i know at this point). had to toss them all for the moment, and wait til i'm there to get a sense for what might be effective and what might not. at least the bible ought to be common ground.
Roger came by last night with a Russian / English phrase cheat sheet for me, and prayed for me too. very cool. also dropped off an authentic Sergei Federov hockey jersey from some team in the U.S.S.R from back in the day. wild. wonder if anyone will remember him in Russia?
off to finish packing and shower up. we'll see if there's any internet connectivity there. if so, i'll update as soon as i get the chance.
missing Ronni, Colin, and Elle already.
Friday, February 10, 2006
controlled falling
For Immediate Release. Milan, Michigan. Elle Veronica Wilson took her first independently ambulatory steps today, in what can only be described as "walking." Followed, of course, by much hooting, hollering, clapping and various other activites described by witnesses as "carrying on." On the part of her parents and older brother, that is.
Ms. Wilson declined all interviews afterwards, but seems to be taking all the fuss in stride. Not that she's not very proud of herself, of course.
Ms. Wilson declined all interviews afterwards, but seems to be taking all the fuss in stride. Not that she's not very proud of herself, of course.
Thursday, February 2, 2006
words well spoken
my dad just called me to alert me to a replay of the prayer breakfast on CNN this evening. Bono (lead singer for the band U2) spoke at it this morning. preached, really. God walked in the room, it seems to me. very moving. maybe it was just me. i sure hope not, though. read, or watch (note: the video doesn't seem to load in mozilla firefox...works fine with internet explorer, though.)
just a taste, in case you're hesitant to click the link (or maybe just too short on time)...
Love was on the move.
Mercy was on the move.
God was on the move...
...God is in the slums, in the cardboard boxes where the poor play house… God is in the silence of a mother who has infected her child with a virus that will end both their lives… God is in the cries heard under the rubble of war… God is in the debris of wasted opportunity and lives, and God is with us if we are with them. “If you remove the yolk from your midst, the pointing of the finger and speaking wickedness, and if you give yourself to the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then your light will rise in darkness and your gloom with become like midday and the Lord will continually guide you and satisfy your desire in scorched places”
just a taste, in case you're hesitant to click the link (or maybe just too short on time)...
Love was on the move.
Mercy was on the move.
God was on the move...
...God is in the slums, in the cardboard boxes where the poor play house… God is in the silence of a mother who has infected her child with a virus that will end both their lives… God is in the cries heard under the rubble of war… God is in the debris of wasted opportunity and lives, and God is with us if we are with them. “If you remove the yolk from your midst, the pointing of the finger and speaking wickedness, and if you give yourself to the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then your light will rise in darkness and your gloom with become like midday and the Lord will continually guide you and satisfy your desire in scorched places”
Thursday, January 26, 2006
words well written
reading Gilead, these most recent moments between Christmas and now, has been like eating fine Belgian milk chocolate. writing to be held between two fingers, carefully broken off and savored, swallowed, the taste and texture lingering on tongue and tooth. a melting, flowing, expanding, gentle kind of pleasure. tempted to gorge on it, inhale it, except that i know it and i would be diminished somehow, if i did.
a Whitman's sampler from my reading this afternoon, perhaps to whet your appetite (the book is written in the voice of aging/dying man (a retiring small town pastor) who has a younger wife, and an especially young son, to whom this epistle/memoir of sorts is written; a letter to be read when he has passed, when his son is a grown man):
"You and Tobias are hopping around in the sprinkler. The sprinkler is a magnificent invention because it exposes raindrops to sunshine. That does occur in nature, but it is rare...Well, but you two are dancing around in your iridescent little downpour, whooping and stomping as sane people ought to do when they encounter a thing so miraculous as water."
............................................................................
"Each morning I'm like Adam waking up in Eden, amazed at the cleverness of my hands and at the briliance pouring into my mind through my eyes--old hands, old eyes, old mind, a very diminished Adam altogether, and still it is just remarkable. What of me will I still have? Well, this old body has been a pretty good companion. Like Balaam's ass, it's seen the angel I haven't seen yet, and it's lying down in the path."
...........................................................................
"If you remember me at all, you may find me explained a little by what I am telling you...As you read this, I hope you will understand that when I speak of the long night that preceeded these days of my hapiness, I do not remember grief and loneliness so much as I do peace and comfort--grief, but never without comfort; loneliness, but never without peace. Almost never. "
...........................................................................
"I have said at least once a week my whole adult life that there is an absolute disjunction between our Father's love and our deserving. Still, when I see this same disjunction between human parents and children, it always irritates me a little. (I know you will be and I hope you are an excellent man, and I will love you absolutely if you are not.)"
finger lickin' good, to use an entirely unworthy expression.
a Whitman's sampler from my reading this afternoon, perhaps to whet your appetite (the book is written in the voice of aging/dying man (a retiring small town pastor) who has a younger wife, and an especially young son, to whom this epistle/memoir of sorts is written; a letter to be read when he has passed, when his son is a grown man):
"You and Tobias are hopping around in the sprinkler. The sprinkler is a magnificent invention because it exposes raindrops to sunshine. That does occur in nature, but it is rare...Well, but you two are dancing around in your iridescent little downpour, whooping and stomping as sane people ought to do when they encounter a thing so miraculous as water."
............................................................................
"Each morning I'm like Adam waking up in Eden, amazed at the cleverness of my hands and at the briliance pouring into my mind through my eyes--old hands, old eyes, old mind, a very diminished Adam altogether, and still it is just remarkable. What of me will I still have? Well, this old body has been a pretty good companion. Like Balaam's ass, it's seen the angel I haven't seen yet, and it's lying down in the path."
...........................................................................
"If you remember me at all, you may find me explained a little by what I am telling you...As you read this, I hope you will understand that when I speak of the long night that preceeded these days of my hapiness, I do not remember grief and loneliness so much as I do peace and comfort--grief, but never without comfort; loneliness, but never without peace. Almost never. "
...........................................................................
"I have said at least once a week my whole adult life that there is an absolute disjunction between our Father's love and our deserving. Still, when I see this same disjunction between human parents and children, it always irritates me a little. (I know you will be and I hope you are an excellent man, and I will love you absolutely if you are not.)"
finger lickin' good, to use an entirely unworthy expression.
Saturday, January 14, 2006
first and second (updated...)
first basketball game of the season for our church league team later this morning. we finished third in the "warm up" fall season (no playoffs in the fall season, so i think of it as a warm up for the "real" season that is the winter/spring season). still have lingering injuries to my left knee and right ankle, but nothing severe enough to keep me off the court (i hope!). in my more rational moments, i'm thinking maybe "lingering" is just par for the course for any aches and pains at this stage of my athletics life...but i keep hope alive that with enough conditioning and time without further injuries, i'll be playing like a 22 year old again any day now. our team is hoping that we'll play better this season too, now that we've had some time to gel with the new players that joined last season.
*update* nice effort today - we won by 15 or 20, in a pretty physical contest. sure is a fun group of guys to play with, and lots of support from our families. not that any of our "fans" actually watch the game, but they sure seem to have a good time together.
second saturday outreach this afternoon. we'd been thinking about shoveling snow for driveways in need, but the snowfall looks pretty spotty, so it'll probably be bathrooms getting the love today.
*update* tacobell, kfc, citgo, arby's, and mickey d's were our targets today, and all graciously allowed us to tackle their toilets. Rich, Connor, Arnie, and David (all restroom rookies, i think) did the Master proud, serving with good humor and enthusiasm. funny, the employees at the places with the grungiest bathrooms (don't worry, we won't name names) had the biggest smiles on their faces when we were done. reminded me of Jesus' famous mission statement: "it's not the righteous who need a doctor, but the sick..."
*update* nice effort today - we won by 15 or 20, in a pretty physical contest. sure is a fun group of guys to play with, and lots of support from our families. not that any of our "fans" actually watch the game, but they sure seem to have a good time together.
second saturday outreach this afternoon. we'd been thinking about shoveling snow for driveways in need, but the snowfall looks pretty spotty, so it'll probably be bathrooms getting the love today.
*update* tacobell, kfc, citgo, arby's, and mickey d's were our targets today, and all graciously allowed us to tackle their toilets. Rich, Connor, Arnie, and David (all restroom rookies, i think) did the Master proud, serving with good humor and enthusiasm. funny, the employees at the places with the grungiest bathrooms (don't worry, we won't name names) had the biggest smiles on their faces when we were done. reminded me of Jesus' famous mission statement: "it's not the righteous who need a doctor, but the sick..."
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