After a wonderful month in the U.S., we have returned to Russia and are settling back in to life here. We arrived here Wednesday evening safely and with all of our baggage, so thank you to all of you who prayed for safe travels for us!
We've been trying to re-synchronize our body clocks and start preparing for classes for the coming year. So far jet lag hasn't been too bad- we've been sleeping well, but we feel tired a lot. It's good to be back, but it was definitely sad to say goodbye to everyone that we got to spend time with this summer.
Leaving people behind never gets any easier and in fact the opposite seems to hold. Its bittersweet knowing that we won't see many of our friends and family for at least a year if not longer, but we also recognize that this is simply normal life for most of our students here. Experiencing the ups and downs of living abroad helps us stay more in touch with the reality that has shaped the lives of most of the students in our classrooms, and I know that it will help us to teach and to care for them with greater depth and understanding.
We still have a week before our first teacher meetings begin and then school officially starts on August 22nd. We both have quite a bit to do in terms of preparation for our new classes before that day arrives, so most of our time will be spent working on lessons and brainstorming about how to structure our classes.
Before we turn our backs completely on our experiences from over the summer and zero in on our work here, we want to post some photos that highlight some of the best moments of our time in the States. Once again, thank you to everyone who prayed for our time there, who met with us and encouraged us, for the churches that gave us opportunities to share about what we do, and to all of the friends and family who made time for us. I know we couldn't meet with everyone we would have liked to, but we are so grateful for all of those that we could!
The park where we were married.
My dad practicing a percussion piece for an upcoming recital.
One of the world-famous Bethel College squirrels that we saw when we paid a quick stop to our old college:-)
This picture shows off our new camera's ability to make almost anyone look very athletic:-)
Miniature golfing with Amanda's side of the family.
The children's department at Grace Church in Mooresville threw us a special party since they have been praying for us during the Wednesday night service during the past year. It was a great time!
Me posing with one of the signs that the kids at Grace made for us.
A penguin at the Indianapolis Zoo. We went there with Amanda's family.
Once again the camera is deceptive. I threw that Frisbee about five feet and then straight into the ground half a second after that photo was taken:-)
We had the privilege of speaking with the youth group at Grace as well! We also had the joy of speaking briefly at services at St. Mark and at Grabill, but sadly we forgot to bring our camera on those days:-(
Amanda regales the crowd with stories of teaching in Russia.
Me in the middle of a long-winded explanation of our life in Russia:-)
There are more pictures that you can see here in our Facebook album.
Once again, thank you to everyone who made our brief trip back to the U.S. such a joy. We have returned to Russia refreshed and eager to continue our work at IA!
-Matt
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