Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Our Week in Greece!

Just yesterday Beth and I returned from an incredible week in Greece.  We were situated nicely on an island outside of Athens, and here spent time reuniting with friends, attending worship and sessions, and relaxing.



 


  
In the middle of the week, 11 of us piled into a 9-passenger van and took off for Athens!





 


  


  


  


  


  


During the week we had auctions on various items (a lot of it being food you can't normally find here in Eastern Europe), and all proceeds went as offering.  It was a lot of fun, and on Friday we celebrated with some overindulging:

 


  


  


  



It was so great to hear incredible sermons (from pastor J.D. Greear of the Summit Church), incredible worship (Grace Commnity Church's worship band), and thought-provoking sessions and workshops.  I was also fortunate to see some history right before my eyes.  But what a blessing to have done it all with such great friends!

In the near future I'll post a little clip of events during the week, and touch on some of the the highlights (the ones where cameras were neither handy nor appropriate).  Look forward to that!

Friday, June 19, 2009

It's All Greek To Me

We've had quite a busy past week or so.  It feels like there's always been a ton of things going on.

On top of that, Beth was a little under the weather over the weekend, but she's doing so much better right now.


Despite Beth being sick on Sunday I made it to our home church, which went really well.  A friend of Anatoly and Natasha came, Angelina, as well as a neighbor of the Stameys, Irina.  The discussions were great.

We also had a team meeting on Wednesday at the Stameys.  It's always great to meet up with everyone else that we don't see that often (language study will do that to you).  We all brought some food and just caught up on all that we've been doing over the last month.

The big news right now around our team (and other teams in Central and Eastern Europe) is our annual conference being held this year in Athens, Greece.  It still hasn't hit us, but we are really looking forward to it.  We'll try to be more current about what's going on.

But before our departure on Sunday, we're incredibly excited about spending a day with some of our friends from training in Virginia.  Ross and Dena are going to be spending a day in Moscow with us.  We can't wait!

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Weekend at the Camp


Beth and I, along with some friends, took a trip over the weekend to a camp.  We went to help Jon Barr (of the English Exchange) clean and do some work on some buildings in preparation for his English Camp.  We took the Electrushka out to a city called Balabonova.

 


 


From the Electrushka we took a bus from there into a smaller city.


A kevass tank next to our supermarket.  That's how we do!


From there we too a couple taxis to Fateyeva where we had a quick lunch before starting our work.

 Big lunches and crackers abound!


From there we began wet sanding the walls in preparation of painting.


 


 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 


  


After a day of hard work, it was time for SASHLIK!

 


  


  


  


  


  


  


  


  


  


  


  


  


  



Although we're sore from the work, we had a great weekend.  It was great to get out of the city and breathe in some fresh air!

Thursday, June 4, 2009

Volleyball and Hotdogs with the English Exchange!

On Sunday evening we had the privilege of reconnecting with old friends--and meeting new ones--at a get-together held by the English Exchange.  The turn-out was fantastic!


 
Our friend Gleb on the recorder and Elial on the guitar.


Sadly I only got about 12 seconds of their fun performance:





But I did get more pictures!


 
Elial is from Chile, and works with the CMA here in Moscow.


 
Gleb has one of the most incredible voices I've ever heard on this planet.  He takes requests!


  
Our friend Nick preparing his bun for hotdogs.


  
Beth and our friend Andrew.


 
Sonnet Barr, of the English Exchange (on the left) with friends.


 


  
Beth and our very good friend Misha!


 
Our friend (a coworker of Beth's at World Relief, now teaching here in Moscow) Mary Louise


  
The volleyball game commenced!




  


 


 
Others stuck around singing Beatles tunes.


 


  
As for me, I answered questions burning on every youngster's mind here in Russia.  Like if I had ever met Arnold Schwarzenegger, or which Coke tasted better, American or Russian.


 
"No, I'm sorry, I've never met Britney Spears either."