Thanksgiving

Hello,

We hope that you all had a good Thanksgiving this week! We managed to eat the same excessive amounts of food as we would in the States thanks to a gathering of all of the teachers and their families at the apartment of one of IA's families on Friday. We had the day off from school and got to enjoy some turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, pumpkin pie, and green bean casserole. Even though we are from America it still felt like Thanksgiving.

With Thanksgiving this past week it seemed like the perfect time to look back on some of the many things that we are thankful for this year. This semester has been busy and all of this year has been filled with so much activity, travel, and change but through it all we have been blessed and are thankful to God for His faithfulness and abundant provision in the midst of it all.

So with that in mind and in no particular order, here are some of the things that we are giving thanks for this year:

1. Being in Russia. It is a privilege to be able to live in another country, and we are especially grateful that Russia has relaxed some of its visa laws. We were able to get a full year visa that can be extended for two more years without requiring a trip outside of the country. While most of our visa details are handled by the school, this is still a blessing and means that the situation for all of us as invited teachers is more stable.

2. Our school. IA is a special place and we are thankful to be a part of it. The more time we spend with our students, their families, and our fellow teachers the more we realize just how unique our school is and just how different the kind of lives that our students have are. Everyday we get to teach about things we care about for some of the most respectful, well behaved and fun students in the world. It almost seems to wrong to call it "work" somedays:-)

3. Our friends and families. This past year we had visits from friends from college in February and my parents and brother at the end of May. We also got to spend time with more of our families and friends during the four weeks we spent in the U.S. in July. We love you all and you are in our prayers!

4. Our supporters. We have been so blessed by the amazing people who have been so faithful in giving of their finances and in offering their prayers. Your encouraging words, faithful giving, and many prayers have sustained us in ways that none of us may ever fully know in this life! Thank you for all that you have done for us!

5. Financial blessings. On a related note, we've written before about our need for more financial support for this. While we are still not where we need to be, we have been blessed in many ways and are much closer to our goal. God has been so faithful in providing what we need when we need it.

I keep hoping that in an instant everything will fall into place and we won't have to spend any more of our time thinking about money and asking for new donations (believe me, we hate writing about it as much as you probably hate hearing about it), but it seems that God has other plans. By committing to come to Russia we have been on a faith journey that has required us time and again to step out into the unknown and trust in God to provide. We weren't sure how we would raise the money to get here when we committed to come, but we made the commitment and God provided.

This year has been no different. While everything is not yet in place, at every moment when we have had a need God has been there to provide. Studying Russian is an important goal of mine, but our budget was very tight so we left it off and prayed that something would work out. I made arrangements to study Russian at the beginning of the year without knowing how I would pay for it, but God has provided an opportunity for Amanda to tutor after school. This has provided everything needed to allow me to study Russian. Month after month we have been blessed to find that new one time gifts have been made, and these have gone a long way towards helping us as we wait for the new year to begin when some new pledged support is scheduled to come in. The after school test prep classes that we are teaching are also paid work, and we have been able to save that money to use towards next year's needs.

In all of these ways and others God has met all of our material needs, and it has been a constant reminder that He is prepared to sustain us when we are willing to obey and follow His leading even when everything is not clear.

It is very easy to only focus on the needs that we have and on things that we wish were different, which is one reason that having a holiday like Thanksgiving is so good. Setting aside time to give thanks reminds us about all of the many things that we have that we do not deserve, and is a reminder about how God has been at work in so many things.

With thanks,

Matt

Here is a group photo of everyone at the IA Thanksgiving celebration this year:-)

To the Village!

Hello again,

As promised here is a blog entry about our trip last weekend to the visit the family of one of our fellow teachers. Sveta, who teaches 4/5th grade at IA and who is a close friend of Amanda's, invited us to come with her to the village where her parents live for the weekend. We were of course thrilled to have such a wonderful invitation and left early from school last friday in order to make it to the bus station in time to begin the nearly 5 hour journey to the little city of Gdov, which is right across the lake from Estonia. Gdov dates back nearly 700 years and has passed back and forth between Russian and Swedish control throughout its history.

Technically, Sveta's parents live in an adjoining village, but it takes less than 20 minutes to walk from the bus stop in "downtown" Gdov to their home. Living in St. Petersburg can give you a very limited view of Russia (the same thing goes for Moscow), much like if your only experience of the U.S. was from being in New York City or Los Angeles. Yes, you certainly have experienced America, but only a small and largely unrepresentative part. The same is the case for Russia. St. Petersburg and Moscow in many ways represent worlds to themselves. For this reason alone it was good for Amanda and I to spend time in a different setting in Russia.

Sveta's parents live in a lovely two story brick home that they built themselves. Her father is retired from working on ships (I think as an engineer, but I don't remember) and now he and Sveta's mom farm in the village. On their property they have a small barn with turkeys, chickens, rabbits, and pigs, several small greenhouses where they grow strawberries and peppers, and many fruit trees as well. Small-scale farming is actually pretty typical in Russia, with many people having dachas where they live in the summer and raise vegetables and fruit in gardens.

During our time there we were treated to incredible hospitality. I cannot recall the last time I have eaten that much food! Just for lunch one day we had solyanka (a Russian soup that contains sausage, meat, vegetables, pickles, and olives), rabbit meat and potatoes, a homemade pizza with mushrooms, olives, and sausage, and a homemade cabbage pirog. It was beyond delicious and most of it was made from ingredients either grown themselves or otherwise locally produced.

Since Sveta's parents don't really know English a part from a few words it was also good practice for my Russian. I was very grateful for the patience with me as I tried to talk with them:-) We enjoyed playing games with them like Phase 10 and Settlers of Catan. We also enjoyed walking around the town and seeing the remains of the old 15th century fortress walls as well as the Orthodox Church, rebuilt after being destroyed by the Nazis during the Second World War.

One of the best experiences of the weekend was finally getting to experience the Russian banya. The banya is the Russian version of the sauna/Turkish bath/sweat lodge. It has a long and storied role in Russian culture dating back over a thousand years. Sveta's family has a banya that they built themselves on their property. Given my propensity for fainting in small, hot areas I was very nervous about the prospect. Thankfully I did not pass out and managed to thoroughly enjoy the experience. The banya is divided into three areas: an area with benches for cooling off, a bathing/shower room for rinsing off and cleaning, and of course the steam room where a wood-fueled stove pumps in tons of heat underneat a rack of rocks. Inside the steam room are two tiers of benches that you sit on to experience the heat.

The heat is INTENSE! The thermometer inside the steam room showed that the temperature exceeded 110 degrees celsius. That's over 230 degrees Fahrenheit. You don't spend an extremely long time in that room (maybe 5 minutes or so) before leaving to cool off before the next round. Oh, I forgot to mention that you are also naked except for a special felt hat that you wear. During your time in the heat you also take some time to hit yourself and your companions with veniki (birch branches with leaves still on it). Hitting yourself with veniki is believed to provide health benefits. Finally after heating up/cooling off several times, you end with a thorough bathing and its done. I enjoyed doing this Sveta's father, and after we were done Sveta and Amanda got to have their turn with it.

I certainly did an amazing amount of sweating (which is the point) and I can vouch that my skin was much smoother and my pores were incredibly clear, so if you are looking for a good skin treatment i recommend a stint in the banya!

That night, we were treated to some homemade shashlik, which is the Russian version of shiskebab. Shashlik is more than a dish and more like a way of preparing meat (like barbecue in the U.S.). Needless to say it was incredibly delicious. When we left the next day to head back to St. Petersburg we were given a bag with 6 kilograms of apples in it as well as a jar of homemade raspberry jam.

It was such a blessing to be able to experience this part of Russia with such wonderful and generous hosts, and it is an experience that will stay with us for a long time.

Here are some photos from the weekend:

Sveta's parents' house.


This photo looking down the staircase gives a sense of the wood that the house is covered with. It's a very beautiful home!


One of the greenhouses behind the house that in the summer helped produce some of the wonderful food we ate.


Turkeys and chickens.


The windswept shores of Lake Chudsko (called Lake Peipus by the Estonians). In the summer it is a popular destination for swimming and relaxing.


Amanda and I on the lake shore.


The river that flows through Gdov. Centuries ago the river was much higher and Gdov was part of the river trade that ran through Novgorod.


The church in Gdov.


Amanda and I next to the walls of the old fortress. These walls are all that remain of the old structure and date back to the 1400s.


Sveta (left) and her family. It was an honor to be their guests!


Some neighboring houses. This gives a sense of the rural nature of the area.


A cow grazing in a field near the river.


Sunset.


Sveta's father is very good at cross-stitch and the home is filled with many of his creations. Who says that men can't cross-stitch?


A feast is prepared. On the right you can see the skewers of shashlik.

That's all for now!

-Matt