Terrorist Attack in Russia

Please keep these families in your prayers of lost and missing in your prayers.  Beth and I took a train on this route just a few days before this happened.

18 still missing after Russia train derailment

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Eighteen people still missing in Russia, more than a day after a train derailment killed 26 people
• Investigators say an improvised explosive device caused the express train to derail on Friday night
• No immediate word on who or what group might have been behind the action
• Russian Railways head: Second device exploded, no one hurt
  

RELATED TOPICS

• Russia

Moscow, Russia (CNN) -- Eighteen people were still missing Sunday, according to Russian news agencies and state television, more than a day after a train derailment killed 26 people in what authorities call an "act of terror."
Meanwhile, rail services between Moscow and St. Petersburg were restored early on Sunday, Russian Railways company said.
Broken train cars and debris from the wreck lay on either side of the restored railway, but will be removed in the coming days, officials said.
Investigators say an improvised explosive device caused the express train to derail on Friday night, killing at least 26 people and injuring about 100 others.
"Elements of an explosive device" have been found at the site, authorities said, and the explosion made a small crater.
There are a number of factors that could explain the number of missing, an anonymous law enforcement source told the Interfax news agency.
There are some body parts that have yet to be identified, the source said, while other names could be people who bought a ticket but weren't on the train for some reason. In addition, a number of people were not injured and left the scene before rescue teams arrived, the source said.
A total of 681 people -- 20 of them employees -- were on the Nevsky Express as it traveled from Moscow to St. Petersburg on Friday night. The Nevsky Express is Russia's fastest train, equivalent to a bullet train.
The crash happened at 9:25 p.m. (1825 GMT) when the train was 280 kilometers (174 miles) from St. Petersburg, Russian state radio said.
At least three carriages carrying more than 130 people derailed and turned on their sides. Emergency workers freed people who were trapped inside.
Saturday morning, Russian Railways head Vladimir Yakunin told Russian TV, a second device went off in the area on the parallel track of the railway in the opposite direction. He said no one was injured in what was a smaller explosion than the first one, but it prompted the need for some repairs.
"One can say with certainty that that was indeed an act of terror," Vladimir Markin, spokesman for the investigative committee of the Russian prosecutor's office, told CNN.
He wouldn't elaborate on exactly what kind of "elements of an explosive device" the investigators discovered earlier, but said the crater found beneath the railroad bed was "1.5 meter by 1 meter in size."
He said investigators are "studying the site of the accident, questioning the witnesses and conducting all kinds of forensic and technical examinations."
Federal Security Service Director Alexander Bortnikov said "criminology experts have come to a preliminary conclusion that there was an explosion on Friday night of an improvised explosive device equivalent to seven kilos of TNT.
"Several leads are being pursued now. A criminal case has been opened under Article 205 ("terrorism") and Article 22 ("illegal possession or storage of weapons or explosives") of the Russian Criminal Code."
There was no immediate word on who or what group might have been behind the action. But Russian Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliyev said on TV that there are possible suspects in this crime.
"There are several people who could be involved in this crime," he said. One of them, he said, is a "stocky-built man of about 40 years old, with red hair."
"There are some traces left at the crime scene which could help in the investigation," he said. "We are getting a lot of information now, and I am very thankful for people who have responded to our requests to render their assistance in investigating this crime," he said.
"I would also like to say that we have (collected) a lot of material evidence that could give us leads to resolving the crime."
Yakunin told Russian TV that the company will pay a compensation of 500,000 rubles ($17,240) to the victims' families and 200,000 rubles ($6,897) to those injured.
The crash happened 44 minutes after another high-speed train, the Sapsan, had successfully traveled from Moscow to St. Petersburg on the same track, a representative of the Russian Transport Police said during a video conference call Saturday.

In August 2007, an explosion on the tracks derailed the Nevsky Express, injuring 60 people in what authorities called a terrorist act. About 27,000 passengers on 60 trains were facing delays Saturday as a result of the accident, Russian state TV reported.

CNN's Maxim Tkachenko contributed to this report

Happy Thanksgiving from Estonia!

"Every moment is a feast of grace."


We have so much to be thankful for this year, as we do every year.  To be able to spend an entire day eating is something in itself to be thankful for.  Thank YOU so much for being a part of our lives and joining us on our journeys.  It really is humbling.



Here's an article I read today, and is pretty fitting.

Compassion vs. Consumption

I feel a strange sense of isolation when I'm on tour. During the part of the day that I spend off-stage and off-air a gloomy detachment begins to set in. I watch the towns fly by on the side of the road. I call home from a new city day after day. I feel lonely and yet I want to be alone for some reason. Sometimes I walk around a bit, find a coffee shop and observe. I watch young couples in love, a man walking his dog, people rushing through the traffic to get somewhere else. And for these brief moments of stillness I become the old man on the park bench watching life from the outside. During these quiet intervals of reflection I often see pieces of myself in the folks around me.

Today I have a day-off in Albuquerque. That's right, the town that never looks like it's spelled quite right. There's a chill in the air today. Allegedly it snowed a bit this morning. Even if the white stuff didn't stick, the styrofoam snowflakes are up in ribbons and bows to decorate the local shopping center near the hotel where our bus is parked. I sit in this caffeinated postmodern watering hole feeling completely disconnected from the yuletide trappings, almost irritated by the decor. Maybe my sentiment stems from my detached life on the road. Or perhaps, I feel this way simply because it's not even Thanksgiving yet and Christmas is more than a month away. Either way, as I sit here bracing myself for the pending shopping season. I read that last sentence and start to feel downright Grinchy. I hate feeling Grinchy...

From where I sit I can see a bearded man on the corner asking for change with his hand-made cardboard sign, "homeless, please help." Other more elaborate cardboard signs inside the coffee shop are also looking for my money -- advertising a warm glass of Christmas cheer for only a few bucks. The line moves briskly inside the coffee shop, full of interesting human specimens, every one of them a story in process. I try to read each one like a novel -- full of intentions, hopes, fears, dreams, and desires. The man outside on the corner has a story too. Where are his parents? Does he have any kids? I can identify with this bearded outcast more than than anyone in the coffee shop, but nobody else seems all too interested.

My mind starts to think about the economics of the situation. Are the coffee shop and my bearded friend outside in direct competition? Does he simply need a better product? Are we declaring his cause to be less valuable than a cup of coffee when tell the barista our choice? These people are lined up to buy coffee for the same reason that I'm here. This is a product that we know. We might complain about how expensive it is, but we prove that the warm beverage is "worth" our hard-earned pay by throwing our money down time and time again. In our free market economy, the man on the corner is offering an alternative use for the scarce resource of our currency. But his "product" is a bit more nebulous than even the most complex soy latte. Still this language of product and consumption just doesn't fit his situation. He's a human soul, and with a few unlucky turns I could easily see myself in his situation. My detached thoughts this morning feel stuck in the traffic, stuck at the corner of Consumption and Compassion.

At a mall during the Christmas Season the line gets pretty blurry between consumption and compassion. On the one hand, we are buying for others, what could be more compassionate!? And in these shaky economic times, we are told that our purchases are crucial. Our consumption helps to create jobs as the "invisible hand" of free economics helps to support the American economy. But what about my bearded friend outside the mall? I can hear Scrooge in my head: "He needs to get a job. He needs to stop freeloading off of the hardworking American Public. His situation is the simple justice of the free market economy." Maybe... but we all know that the story simply isn't that simple.

Even though the statistics only tell part of the story, they can help illuminate the complexities of the situation: One in five people in a soup kitchen line is a child. (America's Second Harvest, Hunger 1997: The Faces & Facts). Research indicates that 40% of homeless men have served in the armed forces. (Rosenheck, Robert, Homeless Veterans, in Homelessness in America, 1996). According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, 20-25% of the homeless population in the United States suffers from some form of severe mental illness. These are daughters and sons, brothers and sisters. These are stories in need of hope.

We all need grace from time to time. I look back on my own life. I grew up in a stable home environment with a pretty good education and some solid friends. Over the years I have had incredible chances to achieve, to live, to learn. And even with all of this I have made some horrible decisions in my life. To a certain extent, justice means that I'm on the corner looking for change. No, we all need compassion that goes beyond the free market economy. And though it might be high on our wish list this Christmas compassion is not that easy to give away. Maybe Adam Smith, the father of modern economics might be able to shed some light on the line between compassion and justice.

"...we feel ourselves to be under a stricter obligation to act according to justice, than agreeably to friendship, charity, or generosity; that the practice of these last mentioned virtues seems to be left in some measure to our own choice, but that, somehow or other, we feel ourselves to be in a peculiar manner tied, bound, and obliged to the observation of justice." —Smith, A. (1759 The Theory of Moral Sentiments)

So justice and compassion are set into separate piles of thought. Justice becomes imperative, (bringing murderers and thieves to trial) but Scrooges are tolerated. Recent events on Wall Street might even make us question whether justice comes to the Scrooges who break the law... but that's a different story. Like I wrote about a few weeks ago, there are no law to regulate kindness.

I suppose there is even a sense of justice to the shopping mall. The consumer is judge and jury. Her money is hers alone. She, the autonomous individual weighs all of the evidence: the marketing dollars, the products reputation, the past experiences are all brought into the courtroom of the consumer. And then in a split moment of decision, the almighty consumer swings her gavel and chooses her verdict. The purchase is made. The exchange marks the karma of consumption, the justice of the free market system.

But the "justice" of this system enslaves millions around the world. The "justice" of industry destroys the weak, ignores the hungry, and disfigures our planet. Our consumption is not sustainable monetarily, ecologically, or spiritually. The illusion of the individual is equally flawed. I, the almighty American consumer did not grow this morning's coffee beans. I did not knit my socks or cut my own hair. In fact, I, the consumer actually know very little about the products that I consume. My entire world is facilitated by others in an ever shrinking global economy.

Wealth is a subjective term that compares one individual with the rest. As such, the concept of wealth is only possible in community. Our affluence is always relative to those around us. The average American is richer than most humans that have ever lived upon the planet. As such, wealth necessitates poverty. Scarcity is necessary for sales. Hunger is necessary for consumption. The consumer is restless- yearning to be satiated. But the consummation of the sale does not gratify our appetite for long.

Where do these desires come from? Certainly there are needs. Food, clothing, shelter, companionship. But we have deeper desires that are harder to explain. We want to be accepted, validated. We want to know that our lives have worth, that this day has meaning and purpose. We are searching for the meaning behind our physical existence. I walk through the hallowed halls of our times. I see good looking models smiling down at me, wearing colorful new sweater-vests and lingerie. I smell the food-court. I feel overwhelmed, like a fish staring at a million hooks. An endless palate of color, size, shape, style, marketing variations in the cathedral of consumption. All of this a few yards from the man on the corner with his simple request for change.

We are the target market, we are the demographic. The purchase adds to a bottom line that will help pay for the overhead of raw goods, rent, and human resources (a telling title), ultimately investing back into the machine of progress. A dog chasing his tail. The endless desire of the consumer, (me) fueling the fires of industry around the world. Our Cathedrals of Consumption are well stocked with the "justice" of the free market economy. And compassionate acts will always be in direct competition with my endless desire for novelty. Do we define our desires or do our desires define us? Do we define our purchases of do our purchases define us?

I am not looking for a redistribution of wealth. No, this would require a significant amount of trust in the political system that, quite frankly I do not have. No, I am not looking for a redistribution of wealth I am looking for a redefining of wealth. A new understanding of fulfillment, of satisfaction, of satiation, of joy that transcends the consuming transaction. A definition of wealth that accounts for more than the individual and looks to the community at large. Maybe this season's celebration, (a commercial season that I can't believe is already here) could be a chance to be more than a consumer, more than an individual. Maybe we could partake in community. Maybe we could befriend the outsider, feed the hungry, and be wealthy in ways we've never known. We could spend time together instead of throwing money at the mall.

I'm not saying to throw money at man on the corner. But I am saying that he is our brother. He is our father. He is our community. There is wealth hidden in his situation. It's not well lit or well advertised. There is wealth in giving him your respect. There is wealth in discovering his story. You might be able to trust him with your compassion. Yes, we are consumers. But we need not be consumed.

We're Expecting!

Well, the cat is out of the bag.  Beth and I found out recently that we are expecting our first child!  Needless to say, we are simultaneously excited and terrified.

Right now Beth is three months along, and the baby is due sometime around the end of May or beginning of June.  As of now we plan on having the child here in Moscow.

We'll post more as things progress!

Yesterday's Snow!

Maybe it's just the fact that being from Florida/Georgia we get so little of it, but snow always brings out the kid in me.  I always get excited when I see the flakes coming down.  Some of my first impulses are to find the nearest hill to sled on, or the nearest person to peg with a snowball.

Here are some pictures from our apartment and school:

 

 

 

And here are a couple from the 4th floor of our language school:

 

Weekend Away

For the past month and a half, I've been helping out with an Alpha Course meeting held every Thursday evening.  Despite it's apparent popularity, I had never heard of the course before agreeing to help with it.  I was a little nervous about what I was getting into, but things have been going really well.

The course itself is basically an introduction to Christianity.  Every week we begin with dinner, watch a video on the particular topic, and discuss.  We have 3-4 pretty regular attendees, but more importantly I think the group itself has grown pretty close together (something that was desired), and I believe everyone is comfortable sharing and asking anything and everything.  I have to say I'm not completely on board with everything that's discussed in the course and how it's presented (which is no big deal but I won't go into great detail here), but I do appreciate many aspects of the course.

Anyways, so myself along with two other leaders, two pastors here in Russia, and three Russian friends all went out to a dacha for the weekend.  It was a time of relaxation, lots of tea, delicious food, and great discussions.  We had several sessions during the weekend discussing the Holy Spirit and it's role in the Christian's life.  All three of our Russian friends, Aigoul', Katya, and Gregory, were greatly interested in the topics we discussed.

Please keep this Alpha Course in your prayers as we still have at least a few more weeks discussing different topics.  I am excited about the great friendships that have been made and look forward to the remaining evenings!

I Need More Kleenexes!!

Well, I sadly have been sick for the past few days.  Yesterday was the first Friday we had to cancel English Movie Night.  Beth and I have been walled up at home and really want to get outside!  We're hoping to be well enough tomorrow morning to make it to Paradigma.  But it may be another day to spend at home getting rest.


Yesterday it snowed all day, but today the temperature rose to above freezing and things have already begun melting.

Before this sickness began, Beth and I were able to go to a business seminar on Tuesday evening held for Russian students and young professionals.   Bill Lewis and Rocky Parsons were the speakers.  It was a great event and I was able to get some footage of the night.  I hope to have something up in the near future!

First Snow in Moscow!

If you cannot see this video, click HERE.