From Russia, Pt. 2

It is Sunday, early afternoon.

Some obs.

1. A full week of English language camp has gone by. I am teaching a class called American issues. Here is a brief run-down of my daily schedule...

6:30 am-- Wake, shower, make tea, read the Bible.

Yes, I am drinking tea, mainly English Breakfast. I bought a box of Twinings yesterday. Good stuff. Just yesterday, we were set up with hot showers, which makes the mornings a little more pleasant. Although, I am thinking of sticking with the ice cold ones out of solidarity, and for the cultural experience.

The girls in the dorms are very inventive. Hot water (a generous definition) comes only twice a week. So the girls in our dorm will heat up giant buckets of hot water on the stove. The water is seriously cold. But we were given keys to a special room with its own boiler, that none of the other students can use.

8:30 am-- Walk into school

This is about a twenty minute walk, and takes us next to an incredible church with a gilded onion dome.

9:00 am-- Breakfast at school and a team meeting.

Breakfast is usually of the porridge variety.

10:00 am-- Class.

There are about 15 students in our class, whose English skills range from quite low to nearly fluent. Our class is supposed to be more advanced, because we mainly discuss issues. The other classes are American Sports, American Film, and American music. Class consists of reading and discussing an article with the whole class, and then breaking into small groups to talk about issues coming out of the article. It is pretty fun, but not my favorite part.

12:00 pm-- Break

Most of the classes are repeated twice, but issues just has one session. This is kind of a luxury, although our time usually ends up going to help with various crises. This week, I will be helping out with the second session of American Music so that one of the Russian assistants in it can read the Bible with my teammate Robin.

2:20 pm-- Lunch

Russian cafeteria food, I believe should not be considered as representative of the country's cuisine as a whole. However, the food is quite good, in my opinion. The problem is that there are no good restaurants in Pushkin to compare it to.

3:00 pm-- Excursions

This is the heart of why we are here. It is at our excursions that things get exciting, because we get to spend a lot of relational time with the Russian students. The students are a lot of fun. Maybe some other time I'll write about some of them.

So far, we have gone on excursions to Peterhov, which is a palace with an incredible amount of gravity-powered foundtains, Pavlosk park, another palace which is also the largest man-made park in the world, and also St. Petersburg, where we participated in a ping-pong tournament, which incidentally I won. I have a gold medal to prove it actually.

St. Petersburg is ridic, but we will be visiting it more this week, including a Hermitage excursion on Saturday. Pretty excited for that. The Russian Tsars did not seem to be content to live out their reign without building unbelievable monuments to themselves. Every other corner up in this neck of Russia seems to have some palace on it. Also, the Russians like statues.

6:00 pm (approx.)-- PBDs

These are Personal Belief Discussions. They are another opportunity to engage the students on a deeper level.


Well, that's a look at my schedule. Hopefully, I can talk more about what God is doing sometime soon. Because some exciting things have happened!

From Russia, Pt. 1

Location: Pushkin, Russia (just south of St. Petersburg)

Time: 11 hours ahead of Arizona...

Some observations

1. It is 10:15 pm. The sun is currently shining brightly in the sky. Around midnight, the sun briefly goes past the horizon, although it never gets very dark. This is weird, but less weird than I thought it would be. I kind of forgot what its like when it is really dark out.

2. We are staying in dormitories at a local university. The Russian government is flush with cash right now, but little of it seems to go to the upkeep of their dorms. The place is a bit of a wreck. There is hot water on Tuesday and Friday, although hot is a bit strong. The rest of the time it feels roughly like jumping into the North Atlantic.

3. We start teaching school tomorrow. Our schedule is basically all day at that point...a bit intense. But we have already made some good friends, and I am excited for school to start. Getting a bit of a handle on Russian culture, which seems similar on the surface, but has some deep differences.

More to follow, possibly later rather than sooner...

Newsflash

Well...I'm leaving tomorrow. For RUSSIA!

Actually, Phoenix. But after that, RUSSIA!

Life

Have you ever thought about the parable of the talents?

I think we can either live vigorously, or we can live vicariously.

The earth is not our home.

Some more Owen

Which for most of you probably means, I'm going to skip reading this blog entry. But it is just too good!

Some background. This is Owen answering the question, what causes men in general to forsake the gospel for a course of open sin. Why would men do this? It was a pressing question in 17th century England, as the effects of the Reformation on the zeal and devotion of the ordinary believer was dwindling.

It might also serve to answer the same question for our generation. Why do men pass by true Christian religion without a thought or concern for their soul? There are many answers, and Owen gives nine total. Here is merely one of the answers he presents. I find it very relevant to out time...

VIII. Moreover, among the occasions of the present decay of holiness and the power of Christianity in the world, we may reckon the scandal that hath been given by or is justly taken at those who have professed the most strict obedience unto the rules of the gospel.

[in other words...men see the most strict professors (which today may be taken for evangelicals) and are put off by the "scandals" present in their lives. By this he does not mean the scandals of public unholiness, like a Ted Haggard. Oh, and by "professors" he does not mean college professors. He means, people who "profess" that they follow Christ and the gospel. It took me a while to figure that out.]

Of these I shall mention two only, which are the most obvious and extensive--

1. Offence hath been taken at the divisions that have been among them, and continue so to be, with the management of them in an evil, contentious frame of spirit. The Lord Christ hath declared and appointed that the mutual love of his disciples should be the great testimony of the truth of his doctrine and the sincerity of their obedience...[he talks at great length about the divisions that sprung up in the primitive church, and then among the reformers]...It is much otherwise among the strictest sorts of professors at this day? Do not some seem to aim at nothing more than to multiply and increase divisions, and to delight in nothing more than to live and dispute in the flames of them?

2. Great offence is given to the world by the uselessness of professors, and in that they are not, what they ought to be, the common good and blessing of mankind. There is a selfish spirit on many of them, whence, contenting themselves with abstinence from known sins, and the performance of the religious duties of divine worship, they are of little or no use unto others. Some will be kind, benign, helpful, good, in some measure unto other men, but yet will and do give undue bounds and limits unto their actings in this kind...As for love, condescension, benignity, kindness, readiness to help, assist, and relieve all mankind, yea, the worst of men, as they have opportunity, they understand them not, yea, have many pretences that they are not require of them...One professor that is kind, benign, condescending, charitable, useful, ready to become all things unto all men for their good, brings more glory to the gospel than a hundred who are looked on as those who live too much unto themselves.


That phrase is striking...avoid known sins and performance of religious duties of divine worship. That would describe much of Christianity as we know it today...

Some highlights

I am fund-raising right now. Need to raise a significant amount of new monthly support. My goal was to be fully fund-raised (fund-rose?) by the time I left for Russia, but that doesn't look likely at present.

So here are some thoughts from a silent month...

1. I'm so glad the Spurs lost. Do you know, I actually cheered for them to beat the Lakers back in 2003? And now every fiber of my being wanted to see them lose to the Lakers. Sports are so perverse sometimes.

2. Music.

3. If any people over 30 read this blog (including you my dear parents) would you recommend some books that you've read that you wish you'd read before thirty (or are glad you've read before age 30). I've got five years left until the old 30, so I thought I would get some reading done in the meantime.

4. I'm now the oldest unmarried cousin on my Mom's side. And they are all having babies. But I do heartily enjoy my new cousin-in-law. She's a great girl and a welcome addition to our family.

5. So you I've discovered that you remember only parts of fund-raising. For example, I remember the parts where I got letters from people with donations and pledges. I forgot the parts where I didn't get letters.

6. Faith in God must constantly be renewed. Yet is faithfulness is never changing.

Some things

Nothing in May...eh. Sorry it was a busy month. Here are some brilliant thoughts from John Owen, dealing with the forsaking of what he always calls "true religion."

The great design of the generality of men is, to live in sin with as little trouble at present and as little fear of what is future, as they can arrive unto. And there are but two ways whereby such a posture of mind may be attempted.

The one is by obliterating all notions of good and evil, all sense of future rewards and punishments, or of God's government in the world...But God hath inlaid the minds of men, antecedently unto all actings of their wills and affections, with such a tenacious and unanswerable witness to the contrary, that it is very difficult for any to bring themselves unto any tolerable satisfaction this way.

Another way, therefore, must be found out unto the same end, and this must be by a religion Nothing but religion can convert men from sin, and nothing but religion can secure them therein [that is, can give them security in their sin...Owen is contrasting the two results of religion].

Sin and conscience are stubborn in their conflict whilst immediately opposed, conscience pleading that there should be no sin and sin contending that there may be no conscience; but, as nature is corrupted, they will both comply with an accommodation. Wherefore a device to satisfy sin and to deceive conscience will not fail of a ready entertainment; and this is the design in part or in whole of every false way in religion that men apostatize unto from the purity and simplicity of the gospel.