End of Summer, Beginning of the Year

Hello again!

Our summer break has come to an end and our school year has already begun.  This past Wednesday was our annual first bell ceremony to kick off the new school year, and Thursday and Friday were our first normal days of school.  The year has gotten off to a good start so far, and we are looking forward to spending more time with the great group of students we have.

Last weekend we had the chance to take in one more bit of summer fun before the start of school.  A friend of ours told us that she knew some people who were going to be participating in international restaurant day, which is apparently an event in which people open up their own "restaurants" for a day to serve food and have fun with people.  There were lots of make-shift restaurants setting up in various locations around the city.  The one we went to was located in a hostel downtown and was serving a mixture of Russian and American food.  It was called "American Pie" (phonetically transliterated into Russian), and we had a great time enjoying the handful of dishes available.  To make it even better, it was all free!

We have record enrollment at IA this year with 116 students currently enrolled, so first bell day was even more packed than usual with all of the students and their families.  It is shaping up to be a challenge to just find the space to fit everyone, and we are already having to make some changes regarding lunches, classrooms, etc. Still, it is a huge blessing to have so many students to be able to minister to, and we have already enjoyed having students who were gone last year return and meeting the students who are new to IA this year.

We also have a number of new and returning staff members this year.  It has been great to see people coming back who were gone last year, and it has also been fun to meet the new teachers.  Things are looking different on the secondary level with two teachers from last year back in the States for the year and three new teachers (including a new English teacher!) to handle those courses.  It is a funny feeling for Amanda and I because at this point we are the veteran teachers, and of the foreign teachers at the school, we are the only ones on the secondary level who have been here every year for the past three years.  It doesn't seem that long ago that we were brand new at IA and immersed in the newness of teaching and living in Russia.  Time certainly flies!

This year Amanda is teaching 9th, 10th, and 11th grade English and directing the school play.  I am teaching 7/8th (Ancient History), 9th (World Geography), and 10/11th (Modern History).  Because of how we have done the schedule this year, I actually have two sections of World Geography and Modern History, so my challenge for the year will be to try to keep both sections at roughly the same point.  One nice thing for both of us is that for the first time, we are only teaching courses that we have done before.  It will be nice to be able to go back and make changes and try new things with these courses instead of just working to pull together material for the first time!

With all of our work preparing for the new school year, we haven't had the chance to take too many pictures, but here a few from this past week:-)

The counter of the "restaurant" we went to last Sunday night.

The walls of the hostel where the restaurant was are covered with chalkboards in the kitchen so that people who stay there can write on it.  It makes for a fascinating record of the travels of people from all over the world.

Looking out over the seating area.

Me enjoying some basil lemonade and a "Russian hamburger"

Amanda enjoying her dryaniki (a kind of potato pancake)

The door to the hostel advertising the restaurant.  It says "American Pie" in phonetic Cyrillic letters.

Families and students filling in the third floor on First Bell Day.

The oldest and youngest student always join together to ring the ceremonial bell to start the new year.  This a tradition from Russian public schools that IA always enacts.

Our academic principal goes over some beginning of the year reminders for the high school students.

And of course, the new year would not be complete without some creative nail painting from Amanda!

Thank you for reading and for your prayers.  Please continue to pray for our school and our students as this new year gets under way!

-Matt

Trip to the U.S.

Many of you who read probably saw us this past month as we were in Indiana for the end of July to the beginning of August. It had been 2 years since we had been back to the states and we had several goals for our time there. 

We left Russia smoothly and since our longest leg of flight was from Helsinki to Chicago, we flew right over Greenland. We've seen the edges of it before but this time we were able to see a lot of the land and that was pretty cool. 

Then we jumped on a tiny plane that was very hot for our last leg. We did lose one bag but it showed up the next day so we weren't without anything for very long. 

When we were with my parents we did all sorts of things. We went to Mammoth Caves in Kentucky (I hadn't been there in years and Matt had never been), the NCAA hall of champions, the Indy Zoo, and for the first time in four years we saw 4th of July fireworks. One of the first days we heard people speaking Russian behind us in a Spanish tapas restaurant and that was fun. 

We also spent a lot of time that first week driving to different colleges in the area so he could meet professors in the programs he will be applying to grad school. He got positive feed back and while we do know it is very competitive we are hopeful that it will all work out. 

We both had a somewhat odder experience this time than we did the first time we came home since it had been longer. Some things we noticed we did not miss (the SIZE of everything in the US) but other things were a nice sight after 2 years. I was always impressed at the shapes of clouds in Indiana. You don't really get big puffy clouds like this where we live and they were very common on our long drives. 

We spoke at several churches while we were in the US as well. It was nice to be able to do so since the last time we were home we had only been at IA for 1 year. We really tried to emphasize how teaching is a ministry and what we are able to do for the Christian and non-Christian communities in our school through IA. It was encouraging to hear people tell us that they thought we explained our ministry well since this is something we care about very much!
Here's Matthew with our table and assorted Russian things. :-)

Us speaking in a service

We were able to speak to the children's Sunday school classes at the church I grew up in and that was a lot of fun as always. The kids always ask a lot of questions which we really like and a lot of the kids this time had friends from Eastern Europe. 

The next leg of our journey brought us to South Bend, where Matthew's family lives and where we went to college. We went to the zoo there also as well as the Dunes, a wonderful restaurant called Redamacks, and putt-putting. We were very excited to be able to meet friends of ours at a mall near Chicago. Seth and Laura are also teachers serving in the Phillipines that we met at PFO before we moved to Russia. It had been three years since we had seen them last and we were also able to meet their 7 month old daughter. 

Then we headed down to Ft Wayne area where both of our grandparents live. We were able to hang out with our extended families, look at old albums (Matthew's grandmother was an MK in India), do some tech support, kayak, and wander around a giant antique store. We also talked to the Bridgebuilders class (which both of are grandparents are in). The class supports us and we really like being there and being able to speak to them. They are always so warm and have so many interesting connections and stories for us when we are there. The kids' classes and Bridgebuilders are our favorite places to speak. :-)

When we came back to South Bend we were able to see a lot of people that we hadn't seen the last time we were in the US. We met with our friends from college for an evening and were able to catch up on what we are all doing now. We saw Matt's high school friend Joshua and his wife Amanda in Chicago. They were married last year and this was the first time we were able to see them since then. 

We also saw a teacher and friend of Matthew's and had dinner with him. Finally we had a Russian dinner with solyanka and shaslik, and we had friends over for that as well. 

Then we were off to Illinois to see my close friend from college, Rachel, and her husband, Albert. I had not seen her since my wedding and they got married 3 months ago so this was our first time meeting him as well. It was a great joy to see them and catch up after so long. :-D

We ended up in Indy where we were able to go to the movies, go to the pool, go duckpin bowling, and eat Cuban food. Throughout about half the trip we had been trying to figure out when we would be able to head back to Russia. We had to apply for a new visa on the 12th and so we were not sure when we get that back. Our new visas showed up at the end of the month and so we were able to see my family for a few extra days. 

The day before we left we were also able to see our friend Jarod (from IA). He lives in Indiana as well and we really wanted to see him since he is waiting on support before he can return to the school. Then we said our goodbyes and headed off!

For the trip we were blessed with being able to borrow a car from friends of Matt's parents. 

As you can see, we tricked the car out in Russian flag side mirror covers. Matthew got them for free with a hockey movie that he bought and we knew we had to use them as soon as possible! It made it much easier to find our car as well!

Our trip home was far more eventful than I ever wanted it to be but we did get home the day we wanted to (just 7 hours later).

We've realized that we should just stop flying out of small airports to Chicago. We arrived at the Indy airport and they said they would put us on an earlier flight that had been delayed. So we rushed off only to spend the next 3 hours waiting on the plane. There was bad weather so we could not leave. Then when we could leave our flight (which should have left at noon) was given a new route and we had to go back and get more gas while a 4 pm flight was allowed to leave before us. 

When we got to Chicago we RAN through the airport and of course the gate was as far away as possible. Matt made it in time to see the plane taxi away and I dragged up soon after. We were jumped to a flight 45 min later but with only 20 min to get to our next flight in Heathrowe. 

We got to London and it was clear we wouldn't make it but we ran anyway. We were jumped to a flight to Moscow (where we would have to recheck our bags) and were rushed through the security stuff. Even with that they were boarding as we got to the gate. Then we waited for 40 min on the plane for a delayed crew member. Mercifully we were bumped to Economy Plus so that was a tiny reward. 

When we got to Moscow we got in a swarm/line for passport control. I was sure we were doomed until a new window opened and I made a new line out of a break in the metal rail. (If it's big enough to fit through it can count as an opening!) We got our bags easily and went to check in. We had 3 bags and hadn't paid for them on any other flight. This time we had to and they kept our boarding passes to make sure we did. So we waited in another line to pay and then that person wanted to see our boarding passes. She was convinced we weren't flying with them since our luggage tags were all American Airlines. We finally paid, got our passes, and cut through security again. We ran again and they were calling for us over the intercom when we got there.

We knew that people were waiting for us in St P but we had no way of contacting them because our phones were out of money and we never had enough time to put more money on our phones. We missed all of our flights but one and we ran to every single flight. We finally arrived 7 hours late and our lovely headmaster picked us up and drove us home. 

We are now getting ready for the new school year! Pray that everything goes well with the school, with getting everyone back into the country, and with getting over our jet lag!

Thank you so much to everyone who prayed for us in getting our documents and in getting back to Russia!