A Reinvention is at Foot

As I'm sure you noticed, I had the page redid and refocused. I've been back from Russia for a good 5months now and maybe God will call me back there and maybe he won't. Either way this blog isn't about my time in Russia anymore! I'm refocusing it on the things I love in the world: films, traveling and God. Sure other things will probably pop up here and then, but narrowing it down to those three helps to make it a tad catchier. So here we go, we'll start this post off with a video you may or may not have seen. If you've hung around me much within the last two months or so I've probably made you sit down and watch it as I love it so.

And while on the topics of films: I've had quite a few conversation with friends about the presence of "christian" arts, publications, etc and how they, for the most part, seem sub par to their "secular" counterparts. As a filmmaker, my primary issue is with "christian" films ... the VAST majority of them all seem the same: protagonist is presented with a challenge and has two obvious choices, one right way and one wrong way. The protag chooses the wrong way and suffers for their poor choice, struggles, befriended, or refriended, by a leading christian figure who reminds the protag that God can solve all problems. Protag comes back to God, movie ends, everyone is happy.

For the longest time this has bugged me, but I haven't been able to put it into clear enough words to articulate why and then I started reading "Hollywood Worldview" by Brian Godawa and write in the intro are the words I have been struggling to find.

"Christian movies, though well intentioned and sincere, often suffer from heavy handedness in their desire to convert the unbeliever through art. Rather than being true to the ambiguities and difficulties of reality, rather than wooing the viewer with the right questions, an emphasis on answers often results in preachiness and a tendency toward platitudes ... Which is more to be avoided: a pagan movie that rings true or a "Christian" propaganda that rings false?"

-Brian Godawa

I really enjoyed reading this, especially as I start to get away from my documentary tendencies of filmmaking and plan some more short film type endeavors. I knew that I didn't want to make your stereotypical "Christian" films and now I know what exactly it is to steer clear. I want to make films that yes help glorify and pay tribute to my Creator, but also reflect the reality that everyone sees everyday. Life isn't simple, there is not a clear wrong or right in every situation. We see and live this everyday, christian or not. We shouldn't pretend, present things as they are.

And to end, I guess I'll leave you with my latest video. I filmed this for Northridge Church in Rochester, NY. We just finished the construction of our new sanctuary and, in what I call a dedication, we all went in and wrote prayers, verses and names on the floor so we can remember that the building is nothing without both a loving God and grateful people.

Video Time

So I've been back from Russia for just over a month now and things have been moving.

My time in Hershey was spent making video after video, I'm still catching up on all the editing!

And while I am catching up on the editing, I was able to finish a series of three promo videos that I was asked to make for a Confidence Conference that is being put on at the Hershey Evangelical Free Church this upcoming January (1/16/10 I believe). 

Check them out:

Promo 1

First of all, please ignore the countdown at the beginning of this video ... long story behind that one. 

I made this video with my homemade dolly, which runs on homemade PVC tracks. Overall, it cost about $60 to make, but it gets super sweet smooth shots so it is completely worth it!

After the filming I just had to spend a few hours editing to get the motion tracking of the text to work out to a acceptable standard. I did this in Final Cut Pro. I'm pretty sure most people would (and should) do this in Motion, but since I don't have Motion I make do here ... I happy with the results.

Promo 2

This one is all text animation, similar to the entry I made into World Vision's poverty competition ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-M0gBddPuS4 ). I can't remember the total time spent on this, but it took a good few hours. Even with all the time these type of videos take, I love the way they look so it's worth it!

Promo 3

This video is the third and final promo video I made. We filmed it at the same time as the first video and it was a whole lot more uninvolved. Honestly, all it was was my camera on a tripod, pointed at my black backdrop and a few lights. I played a tad with the brightness, contrast and saturation of the video to make it look a little more interesting, but overall there was very little production that went into this video.

Very Almost the End

So this last week has flown by and I'm scheduled to be back in America in just about 62hours from now, but you don't really care about all that. Here are the stories from the last week or so:

Last wednesday, right after I posted my last blog post, I headed down to the grocery store to pick up some, you guessed it, groceries. Now you have to understand that the clerks at the grocery stores here are very angry people. I'm pretty sure there is a box on the application that asks if you have anger issues and if you check it you automatically get the job. Well the cashier I had this day somehow managed to trick them into thinking she was an angry person, when in reality she is very nice. So when I got to the register she gives me a big old smile, which kind of threw me off guard since that had never happened to me before, and then she started talking to me. Now I still don't understand enough russian to understand most of the things people say to me, but by her tone and the few words I could make out she wasn't asking me for a bag or if I had exact change, which is what all the other cashiers ask me. My only logical conclusion was that this rather attractive young cashier was flirting with. I figuratively punched myself in the face for not being fluent in Russian and had to tell her that I didn't understand what she was saying because I don't speak Russian. She giggled and gave me my change. STUPID LANGUAGE BARRIERS!

Later that afternoon an american couple invited me over for dinner. I had met Ken and Heather back when I had spent the night at camp. Ken has lived in Russia for 12years now, 7 in Siberia and 5 in Kursk. Heather married Ken and has now been living in Kursk for 5years. They've got two kids, Kyle (4) and Vera (2), who are pretty hysterical to watch. So I spent the afternoon over in their apartment and had a wonderful dinner with them. Another guy ended up showing up, his name was Andre and he turned out to be a rather interesting character. He served as a paratrooper in the Red Army, when he got out he somehow ended up in jail where he became a Christian. When he got out of jail he ended up marrying a gypsy and starting a gypsy church of which he is now the pastor. We ended up talking mostly through Ken, but a few times we were able to talk a little between ourselves. Andre didn't know any english but through my limited Russian he was able to tell a little about his wife and children and we also had a little conversation about sports. Once again, the conversations were very basic, but it was fun to be able to speak a little!

Thursday: The only thing I remember happening on thursday was that I went to buy some more cornflakes from the grocery store and the cashier (not the same one as wed) asked me something and I had no clue what she said so I told her I don't speak Russian. She had a pretty good laugh at me, but I still got my cornflakes. So in a way, I won.

Friday: My big accomplishment on Friday was asking one of the guys I work with, who speaks zero english, for a key I needed. I was able to say that I would like the key and I needed it to get some of my stuff out of that room. I'm sure my grammar was a bit off, but he understood me and I felt smug.

Saturday: I don't know if it really was, but Saturday felt like the hottest day I have been in Russia for. I don't know the actual temperature, but it was far too hot to do anything so I just messed around the whole day trying to find a way to stay cool.

Sunday:  I went to church in the morning and hung out a tad with Andy Petrov afterwards. At church I had remet one of the girls I had met at camp. She had lived in Florida for three years so her english is impeccable. She told me that a bunch of youth get together at the main church in Kursk after that church's evening service and that I should come. So when the time came I went to the bus stop to catch a bus to the church ... and I kept waiting. I ended up waiting for an hour and a half before I gave up! Buses had passed me, but none to the area near the church. God must really not want me to find a Russian wife! haha

At some point in time someone had told me that for every 5sec between seeing the lightning and hearing the thunder, that meant that the storm was 1mile away (5sec=1mi). Since I was disappointed by not being able to be at Grace Church, I went back to my room and figured out if that was true. In case you were wondering, it is actually 4.69seconds, but that is assuming this all happens in a vacuum which isn't possible because then there wouldn't be sound. So yeah, it's about 5sec.

Monday: I don't really remember special happening on Monday so I'm going to take that as nothing really happened.

Tuesday: Ken and Heather invited me over again. Not being one to turn down an invitation I agreed. I really do love their apartment. They live in one of the high rises, just like everyone else, and you honestly feel as if you are walking into an ambush as you walk into the building. Imagine a building in a movie filled with drug dealers and junkies, etc, that is what every high rise looks like here. Honestly, you walk in the door on the ground floor and you notice the mailboxes all smashed, dirt all over the floor, grafitti on the wall. Then you get into an elevator that you expect to catch on fire, snap the cable and then plumet to your death. Then you get out of the elevator walk through a concrete hallway that is the exact same as the one you entered through up to a big steel door that you open and it's like walking through a portal into a nice sunny house. It's a pretty cool experience, you'll just have to do it yourself one day as my words can't capture the imagery. But yeah, once again we had a great dinner and some good conversation and entertainment by the kids before it was time for me to head out. 

Wednesday: I forgot to mention this earlier, but John Feinberg is here and has been since Friday. Starting on Monday he began teaching a class on the inerrancy of the Bible. Three hours a day, but it's only about 1.5/2 hours of information as everything he says is then translated into Russian by an interpreter. So I've been sitting in on that class each day, but this day we, for some reason, went around and introduced ourselves. I'm the only american sitting in the class so there was no way I was going to do it in English. Luckily they were only saying their names, where they were from and what they do/where they work and I had taught myself how to say all those things. When it came my turn I did it in Russian and evidently no one was expecting it because I got a sudden round of applause from everyone (I know everyone in the class)!

 Then after class I conned them into letting me off work and go into Kursk with Dr Feinberg, Larissa and Igor. We went to a museum about Kursk, which was actually quite interesting, and then hit up a restaurant for dinner which was the best food I have had so far in Russia. A HUGE pork chop, then some delicious soup and bread, followed by a lovely salad and even some fries on the side. Absolutely no complaints here!

Today, I once again sat through Dr Feinberg's class before coming into work (he teachs from 9.30 til about 1 each day and then I work after). The big news for today is that I finished editing Graham Cole's course on Biblical Theology. If any of you ever end up going to Trinity Evangelical Divinity School I highly recommend taking this course with him. Not only is the course extremely interesting, Dr Cole is hysterical. The best parts are where he imitates the american accent. Just trust me on this one, it's quite funny to hear.

Tomorrow (friday) night I am being taken to Moscow. For some reason, someone is willing to drive me through the night to get to the airport around 9am so I can check in and be ready for my flight at noon (saturday). From then it is 18hours of travel time until I'm back in PA.

Hopefully everything goes smoothly and I'll be back in PA soon!

Now those of you who know me, know that I like to doodle while I take classes so this few classes with Dr Feinberg have been no different. Here are two drawings I did in them.

This is Dr Feinberg's translator. I believe his name is Ole, but don't hold me to that ... especially the spelling.

Here is Dr Feinberg for those of you who want to know what he looks like.

Finally, a proper picture for you. This is where I work. That is my corner straight ahead (with the cameras and computers). To the right of this picture is Dima's work station (is that what you call it?) and to the left is Misha and then Boris work's behind on the other side of Dima. 

Oh and to solve a mystery for you. I found out that K3T3 is not actually a word. It is an acronym, like FBI. So you just say the letters and you don't need to try and pronounce kztz!

Well that's it from Russia. The next post on here will be from PA! If any of you care I will probably keep this thing going when I get back although it will probably not be as autobiographical as it has been these past few months.

Last Gypsy Video

Here is another gypsy video (I like this song a lot more!)

And here is a link to all my Russia pictures on facebook. You don't need to be a member of facebook to see them, so enjoy!

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=268888&id=849515596&l=84287ba846

There is at least one more video to come, start getting excited!

Officially Offical: A Ruskie Month

So this past monday came along and that makes it officially a month that I've been living her in Kursk. Nothing special happened: no fireworks, parties or other such shenanigans. I just gave myself a nice pat on the back and smiled at my accomplishment.

Similar to my one month celebration, this past week has been rather low key. 

The most exciting thing to happen was that last tuesday into wednesday, I spent the night at a camp out in the middle of nowhere. Let me expound:

I left the school with Vitaly after work and he told me it's about a 40minute drive. What he didn't tell me is that is only about 20km (10-15miles outside of Kursk. So we drive for maybe 5-10minutes on proper roads, we cross some railroad tracks and then take an abrupt left into what I initially thought was a field. I had to look closely, but there turned out to be faint dirt road in the grass. The path (I'm going to call it a path since it was most definitely not a road) quickly led us into the woods and we continued. Now as soon as we got into the woods the path went haywire! The only thing I can relate this path to is a motorcross track, but instead of being on dirt bikes we were in a 10person van. Up and down, up and down the whole. Let me just say that this path is probably my favourite path/road ever, fun times.

Well after about 30min on the path we got within eyesight of the island, the only obstacle left was the river which made the land mass an island. Now you're probably think, obstacles left? You're already there. Ha, that's where you're wrong. They don't have bridges to this island. We forded the river in the van! Mind you where we crossed the water wasn't what you normally think of when you think of a stream, but was still fun. The water was probably about 2ft deep at its deepest and vans could make it across, but there were a few little cars parked on the other side which would've flooded had they tried to cross. 

So we got to the camp safe and dry. I found that Inna (Alenna's twin sister) was working the kitchen at the camp so I hung out with her a little. I also got to meet Anastasia (don't hold me on that being her name, I find myself being introduced to people and then immediately forgetting their names ... I should probably work on that) who spent a few years living in Florida and goes to California for parts of the summer. Need less to say, she fluent, un-accented english, but it felt strange to admit to her that I had never been to any of the places she been to and I've lived in America for 6years! After a while I went off to explore the island while the kids were doing their thing and the kitchen crew were setting up for dinner. 

Dinner was ramen noodles and hot dogs with a cup of tea. No real complaints there, it was pretty good. Then there was some volleyball playing. I don't know if I was just on my game or Russians aren't the best at volleyball, but I felt as if I could keep up with the volleyball skills going on and wasn't left in the dust like I normally am (that's what happens when all your friends are super athletic and both one sister was the captain of the volleyball team in HS and the other plays!).

Next up at camp was their night program, I just sat in the back for that and watched what was going on. Then it was snack time (crackers and more tea) right before bed time. I was put in a tent with a group of 8-10 year old boys and what I found is that when russian kids try and speak english with you they like to shout their words. So when I got into the tent I was greeted with "HELLO" and "WELCOME". I was able to "talk" a little with them aka ask their names, tell them mine On a sidenote, I am not going by the name Aaron (my middle name) as the russian alphabet has no real J sound, so Joel is a little difficult for most to pronounce.

Eventually everyone feel asleep and in the morning it was back to the school for work. Vitaly and a few others would commute every day, their families were staying and helping at the camp.

Vitaly and Misha went back another day and I was invited, but as much fun as it was I didn't really feel like going in the rain (the day I had gone turned out to be the only real dry day that week, score!) so I stayed back. Good thing I did. They made it to camp safely, but when coming back the next morning they came across a car that was stuck in the mud. This road is only one lane so they couldn't pass it and for some reason they couldn't go back to the island. So they ended up having to wait there on the road for a tow truck which ended up not being able to come until the next day. So their night was spent in the van. (disclaimer: while I am pretty sure that was the story Vitaly told me there was some ambiguity so I'm not 100% confident of that being the whole truth). 

In other news, the monday before my one month mark I successfully exchanged money by myself which I am rather proud of. I went into the bank and told them "Please, I would like rubles" in russian of course, handed them my dollars and they handed me rubles. Of course had they said something back I would've had absolutely no clue what they said, but they didn't and it all worked out! I then used some of that money to buy a russian-english dictionary which has been helping out a whole lot!

Hmmmmm, what else ....

Last saturday I went for a walk to a lake I had seen back when I had gone to the monastery with Sasha. Since that was a while ago I was kind of guessing at every turn on how to get there, but I made it safely and it was a fun little adventure. It was an hour walk there so I'm guessing it was about 6km away.

Sunday I went to New Testament Church in the morning (the main church that meets in the school) and then Grace Church in the afternoon. Grace Church is the biggest protestant church in Kursk. I believe they have just over 300members and while I didn't understand what they were preaching on the music was excellent. I don't know if I mentioned this before, but in russia multiple people preach each day. 2 or 3 people get up and give a sermon usually 20 - 30mins with some worship in between each sermon. So from what I can tell and have experienced, services go for at least 2 hours. 

On the work front, I am editing a course called Biblical Theology right now. At this moment I have forgotten the name of the professor, but he is australian and a very funny guy so it's a fun course to edit. Right now I am working on lecture 7 out of 13. I'm getting just about a lecture done a day and at this rate I will be able to finish editing this course right before I leave.

This friday John Feinberg arrives (yes that is the guy who's course I just finished editing) to teach two classes.  As a result I've been moved out of my apartment and into the dorms, which are really just a cluster of apartments with no kitchens. There is a communal kitchen across the hall from me. In actuality, I like my "dorm room" better than my apartment. Originally I was going to be sharing it with a guy who was describe as "the best theological interpreter in Russia" who was going to be translating for Feinburg, but something happened with his parents and is no longer coming. I was disappointed and relieved at the same time when I heard this. Relieved, because I like having my own room, but disappointed because this guy supposedly speaks 8+ languages including russian, english, polish and esperanto ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esperanto ) which is pretty cool. 

It is a weird feeling as this whole time I have been thinking "When Dr Feinberg gets here, my time here is just about over" and now he arrives later this week so that means that I'm leaving in just over a week. While I am excited about seeing and talking to my friends and family again, there's that little part of me that is sad about leaving. Whenever I visit other countries and cultures I love trying to be a part of them as I've tried to do here. I enjoy learning Russian and then trying out my new little phrases on the people around me as well as just going out each afternoon for a walk. In no way do I miss rampand consumerism and capitalist abuses in America. I don't miss the over abundance of cars or the endless roads. And I'm definitely not looking forward to looking around me and seeing tidy and pristinely maintained surrounding.

Here, there are minimal chain stores. I have not seen a McDonalds or WalMart my entire time here. The grocery store I do most of my shopping in has a grand total of 8 aisles where my shoulders can just about touch both sides of the aisle. As for cars ... the majority of russians don't own one let alone 3 or 4. Public transportation is a blast. 10 rubles (30cents) will get me into town in 15min. Also on my walks around various places I love seeing the stands here and there selling pretty much anything as well as the Babuskas squatting against walls selling whatever vegetables they picked from their gardens that morning. Sure walls are cracked, paint may be chipping, grass growing high and tree branches hanging low, but these buildings and paths have character. Each day I take a stroll down the same route and each day I can see something new. Getting to be apart of this, albeit for a short time, is what I love about travel and I think that most of America is missing out on these things. 

While Ireland and New Zealand still top my places for living once I graduate (similar experiences and atmospheres to Russia, just in english!), Russia's a pretty fun place and I like it here!

Now that I got all that out here is a media overload for you, a video AND multiple pictures!!! Yeah, you should feel pretty special.

Here is the video of the gypsies. I have a few more videos I took of them, I'll see what I can do with them and if I get them uploaded I'll post them here as well.

If you double click the video that should open YouTube in a different tab or window. Do that if you want to 1) send the URL to someone else 2) favourite the video 3) rate the video or 4)comment on the video itself.

Otherwise, just clicking play will play the video here.

Oh, I decided I want to have a beard like the old guy in that video!

Now a few pics from this last week.

This is a picture I took at the lake I found on saturday. Seeing how warm it is this weekend, swimming is a possibility!

I found all these little birds just chilling here on my walk back from the lake. I liked the sight and though of you all, so I took the picture for you.

Here is a picture on the island the camp is on. And there is the road (it was flat once on the island) and the van we used to get here.

That's about all I've got for now. Thanks everyone for all your prayers and support in all of this!!!!!

The week that makes it a month.

Fourth week and I'm still alive and working!

Today I just finished editing the last lecture (lecture 14) of John Steinbeck's course on the Problem of Evil. 14 lectures in 15 days of work, not bad. Now to edit each lecture I had to sit through the entire thing so I basically just finished taking an intensive of the course. I wonder if RIT will let me count it as a liberal arts credit!?  .... I just checked with reality and they said no.

Now that I finished this course, I have another course to edit. I'm not sure of the topic or teacher yet but I was told that it was for students with a bachelors degree from a secular school so it is a little more foundational than the last one. While I enjoyed the last course there was SO much that went straight over my head! Hopefully I'll be able to understand just a tad more this time. 

In other work news, yesterday a "band" of gypsies game to the school and performed song and dance that we recorded. In each DVD the school sends out they included a little musical/cultural intermission. They do this to 1) give the viewer a mental break and 2) since many of their students are not living in Russia anymore (S. America, Israel, Australia, USA) it is a nice reminder of home that many miss. Overall, let's just say that gypsies are pretty good at music and dancing! I recorded some behind the scenes footage of a few of the songs, but my camera battery died and of course I forgot the charger back in America. I'll see what I can rig together so you can see it. At very least I'll post it when I get home. 

In non work related news, 

I went out with that American team again on Wednesday. Instead of going to an orphanage, we went to a day care centre and once again played with the kids and the team did their program for the kids. After that we stopped by the christian bookstore in Kursk. Not wanting to buy anything and disliking small spaces with lots of people I went outside and sat on a wall while waiting for them to finish up inside. As I was sitting on the wall minding my own business a russian man come walking down the path. He stops looks at me and says hello (in russian of course). A tad confused I say hello back (also in russian) and then just look at him trying to figure out what he wanted. He just stood their giving me a dirty look. I had no clue what he wanted so I just kept looking back at him trying to figure it out. He made no attempt whatsoever to say anything else, so we just kept looking. Still confused and feeling slightly awkward I jumped off the wall (it was about 8ft off the path and beside stairs leading up to the bookstore and apartments above the bookstore). After I jumped off, he said thank you, walked up the stairs and into one of the apartment buildings.  I guess it's rude to sit on walls in Russia, oh well.

Thursday passed uneventfully.

All I did on Friday was work, but since July 4th was the next day my coworkers got me an Independence Cake. I had myself a good laugh on the inside as I've never really been one to celebrate the 4th. I'm quite sure I've worked straight through the last 5 of them as Hershey Park offered time and a half pay on the 4th. This said, the cake was good and don't worry I shared with everyone there. 

Saturday I went back into Kursk with Andy and Aleena, two of the people I met this past week, and we just messed around Kursk. They tried to give me a tour, but I had already seen most of what they showed me as I'm a pretty good wandered. The Saturday I had gone in by myself, I explored a good portion of down town, alleys and all. We did end up finding a carnival and getting some cotton candy. I felt as if that was rather american so I counted that as my July 4th celebration. We also went to the main orthodox cathedral in town. Let me just say, the inside of that cathedral is BEAUTIFUL! I guess we walked in during the orthodox version of mass and since we were wearing shorts and t shirts we just stayed in the corners as there was a nice big sign on the door forbidding shorts, tshirts, pants for girls (skirts and dresses only) and girls had to have head coverings. We broke all of those rules, but no worries.

Sunday was church time. Once again I had no clue what they were saying, but enjoyed it none the less. I then met Andy in Kursk in the afternoon and we went to the main protestant/evangelical (I'm not really sure what it is) church in Kursk. After that we met up with some girls who Andy's mother had tasked him with entertaining. One spoke decent english and the other knew just about english as I know russian so it was an entertaining time for all. 

In general news,

I have found both my favourite and least favourite place in and around Kursk.

It is a place called K3T3 (I'm using the three key as I don't know how to make a backwards E).

K and T are pronounced just as they are in english, but 3 is pronounced like a "z". So yes, you say K3T3 like you would say KZTZ. Good luck saying that. K3T3 is also my favourite place as the bus from полет to K3T3 goes straight from the corner near where I live to the centre of town.

Also I found out that I, in Russia, cream cheese and butter packaging looks just about the same. I wanted butter, but ended up with cream cheese. I figured it out when I opened the package and did not see any butter. On a more positive note, I found that you can still make grilled cheese sandwiches if you spread cream cheese on the bread instead of butter!

My plan for this week was to upload a video of the gypsies instead of a picture so I don't actually have one ... I've done a lot of things that would have given good pictures but I didn't bring my camera. I feel that when I bring my camera places I spend more time trying to take pictures so that "I can remember it better in the future" instead of actually enjoying it and making extraordinary mental memories. So call me selfish, but I haven't been taking many pictures. I'll make sure I get at least one for the next update though!

неделя три (week three)

We will start off with an update on work. I am still editing John Feinburg's course on the Problem of Evil, which, if you're going to Trinity, you should probably take as it's about some pretty interesting stuff (I get a free high level education while doing this. Score!) I am on 10/14 lectures, so things are moving along! And while I'm sure you would all love to hear lots and lots about all the editing I do, I'm going to disregard your emotions completely and tell you about the past week outside of work. Deal with it!

Since my update last Tuesday a whole bunch has happened. Wednesday and Thursday were rather slow and I don't remember much to tell you about it.

Friday, I went out for a walk around the surrounding areas and stumbled upon a free concert in the nearby park. First up was a soft rock band of sort. They weren't too bad, easy on the ears. The next two bands were metal bands. And while I didn't appreciate their poor covers of western musicians, it was rather hysterical so I stayed the entire time laughing silently to myself. 

Saturday was my big adventure day. I decided I was going to go back into Kursk, but by myself this time. I knew that I needed to get to Lenin St and I was also told that most buses head straight into town so I gave it a shot. I was terrified so I sat at the bus stop for about 30minutes until I finally saw a bus that specifically said Lenin St (in russian of course, but I can now read most russian). I got on, gave the driver my money and just sat there waiting to see what would happen. Turns out it was the right bus and it got me right where I wanted to go! Then I spent the day wandering around, exploring and taking pictures. At one point, I went to one of the supermarkets to buy some bottled water (no water fountains here and you can't drink from the tap, you have to buy bottled). While I was deciding which water to get I heard some english down the aisle. I looked down and saw a young woman and man talking about some fruit. The guy looked slightly familiar, but I had no clue who either of them were and I wasn't in the oddly outgoing mood that I would've needed to be in to introduce myself to them so I just let it pass. More on this later.

It turns out that it was "youth day" so after dinner there were some free concerts going on in red square (there is a red square in each major town). With respect to the free concerts, let me tell you that rap is not one of Kursk's strong points ... not at all. In fact it was rather horrible!

After a few performances, I decided enough was enough and headed out. I knew where I needed to catch the bus and that I needed to get on the one headed for полет, so I got on the first bus that said it. Now this is where there was almost a problem. The bus went to my general area, but not where I was expecting it to go so I missed my stop. The real problem was that I didn't realize I had missed my stop until we had gotten to the end of the route (which thankfully wasn't far from my stop), turned around and I missed my stop a second time. Luckily, I was able to get out at the next stop and walk home. It was a little further than I was expecting to walk, but I made it home safely which is what counts.

Two different churches meet in the building I live in. I went to the upstairs one last week so I decided to check out the main one that meets on the first floor. I went in and found a seat in the corner by myself, trying to stay out of the way. There is one girl in the church that I have seen around a few times and she speaks some english. When she say me, she came over and told me that there were some other americans there and that I could/should sit with them. Not being one to argue I agreed and followed where she pointed. When I got over there I realized that the guy and girl I had seen in the supermarket on Saturday were there with two others so of course I introduced myself as "Hey, my name is Joel. Were you in a supermarket in Kursk yesterday because I think I saw you there." It turns out that the girl and her two friends are part of a short term mission team from Missouri and the guy I had seen was their interpreter who is also the son of one of my boss's. He looked familiar because I had seen a picture of his family in the last week. I spent the church service and afterwards with them and ending up convincing them to let me go with their team to do whatever on monday.

Monday morning, I took the bus into Kursk again and I met Andy (my boss's son) and from there we went and met the team where they were staying. They rented out a bus for their week and a half (?) in Kursk and we drove a hour out of town to an orphanage in what Andy called the suburbs. So we spent a few hours there playing with the kids, giving presents and then the team put on a program for the kids with games, skits and a Bible presentation. It was pretty cool to watch. We then headed back to their dorms where most of the team retired to their rooms until we were to head out to another orphanage. During this time Andy introduced me to some of his friends who work in the kitchen at the dormotories. Now these friends are twin girls. He introduced me to Ina first (without her sister) and then Ina went into the back room as I talked to Andy for a bit and then "she" came back out and started talking to me, but was asking me some of the same questions she had before so I was a tad confused. Then a duplicate of her walks out from the back room and I realized that I wasn't talking to Ina but her twin sister. They got me good, but as a result I can't remember the second ones name so now there both Ina ... In a way I'm the one who won ... so HA! They were fun to talk to. While they aren't near as good at english as Andy is (he grew up in america while his Dad went to Trinity seminary, so his english is just as good as mine), their english is better than my russian and they also know a little german. So between their decent english and spotty german and my decent german and spotty russian we had some fun times talking. 

After a while it was time for the team to head out again so we all loaded back into the bus and went to another orphanage where we played with more kids and the team did another version of their program. The kids really seem to love the attention and the knowledge that people other than their directors and orphanage works do really care about them. Then it was back to the dorms where I was lucky enough to get some dinner cooked by the Ina's and then it was back on the bus home. This time I didn't even come close to getting lost!

Tuesday has been more and more work, but Igor encouraged me to take the day off again tomorrow and go with the team again. So I just got off the phone figuring out what's going on and am going to be going to go with them again. While they are leaving tomorrow night, it has been a great blessing meeting them. Last week was really hard, I was getting lonely and wondering if this was really going to be 6 weeks of Joel-time. And while I do love myself, I don't want that much me time! This team has been a real encouragement! Probably the best thing though was meeting Andy and the Inas which I have a feeling I will be seeing much more of in the next month. Through this experience I also got to meet Victor who is Andy's older brother and also a translator for the team as well as Achmed (another translator) who is probably one of the funniest guys I have ever met, also to his credit I honestly believe he could kill me in a heart beat as he knows more types of martial arts that I can pronounce let alone remember.

Now with that last run on sentence and this picture I will leave you, probably for another week.

Praise the Lord for taking care of me physically and emotionally!

Weeeeeeeeek 2

Things have gone well since the last post. Currently, I have 5/14 lectures edited, but in case you're thinking to yourself "WOW, this kid is pro! He's going to run out of things to edit in no time!" you would be wrong. When/if I finish this first course, there is a whole nother one to do! I also get to help film a gypsy band on july 5th I believe and then the professor teaching the course I am currently editing is coming here july 15th to teach another course, which I also get to help film.

busy busy busy

When I'm not working, things are still kind of slow, but picking up. 

Friday, I was convince to stay after work and play Call of Duty with the other computer guys I work with. I have never played Call of Duty or any first person shooter game for that matter, but I was sick of not doing anything that I had to! I'm not very good at CoD. I laster about 2hours and then I had to take a break. These guys are addicted to this game though! As soon as the work day end they're on there playing network games and killing each other. It's ridiculous, but I think I'm probably going to be playing CoD a good bit while I'm here ... I have yet to decided whether that is a good or bad thing.

On saturday, I was supposed to go and see downtown Kursk. That fell through and I ended up going to a festival at a monastery instead with the Dean of Students (I think that's his official title) and his wife. While calling him the Dean of Students makes him sound intimidating, he's not. His name is Sasha. He's probably only in his mid 20s, but his job is to make all the tests for the online students to take as well as creating manuals and such to go along with the DVDs that get sent out.

Well anyway, on the way to the festival we got stuck in a grand total of 3traffic jams all caused by people going really slow over train tracks! When we finally got there it was not at all like what I had thought a monastery festival would be like. There were vendors EVERYWHERE! Selling everything from a university education to John Deere farm equipment! We spent about 2hours there just walking around and looking at things. 

**Side note**

One of the first things I was told when I got here was that if I was offered a russian drink called KBAC (kvass) I should decline it as I would probably spend the next 24hours on the toilet.

**End side note**

As we are getting ready to head out Sasha tells me that he and his wife are getting some KBAC and wondered if I would like some. I immediately remembered what I was told upon arrival, weighed the options and decided that I should do because who knows when I'd get the chance again. I got myself a small cup and let me tell you, it does not taste very good at all!

Oh and I didn't spend the rest of the day on the toilet.

Overall the festival was pretty sweet. I was going to take pictures for you all to see, but when I pulled my camera out to take my first picture I noticed that I left my SD card in my computer. Oops, no pictures for you.

Then on Sunday, I went to the church that meets in the school so I just had to walk across the hall to get there. I understood a grand total of 5 words the entire time (worship and sermon) but I did get to meet an elderly couple from upstate Maine and another couple from Canada (they didn't know what was being said either). We got to talking after church and I'm now invited to go snowmobiling/ATVing in upstate maine if I ever have the urge ...

Monday, it was back to work. After work it had been arranged for an interpreter to take me into Kursk. So I met up with her right after work and into town we went. It was awkward at times because I didn't really have much to say and neither did she ... but the conversations picked up towards the end and I did get to see a LARGE portion of Kursk throughout the few hours we were there. I only found this out after I was back at the school, but their hospital/medical university was originally a prison. Back in the early 1900s, when the building was being built, the men in charge of the city went to St Petersburg, the capital at the time, to ask for money to build a hospital. Their request was denied, but they were given money to build a prison. So they took the money and built a 'prison,' which they closed after only 3years and turned into a hospital. 

tricky russians

But the trip was fun. My interpreter had just graduated from university here so she was excellent at english as well as the closest person I have met to my age so far. So that was nice.

Tuesday has just been more work and messing around the area. I found the big supermarket around here and stocked up on more food. I get a kick out of going to the supermarkets and walking the streets just trying to read stuff. I pretty much have the alphabet down pat and the words are coming along. I don't know if this helps much, but since english is no ones first language but mine I try to speak in simpler sentences so it's easier for others to understand. This also helps me as my simple russian vocab is growing. I can speak very simple sentences and when I'm speaking to others I can throw in the russian words I know. I'd say I'm at about 20% of the way to being proficient, not fluent but proficient. 

Oh and a picture for you all ... An veeeery small Orthodox Church, or Candy Land churchs as I believe Katie Kunkle called them. I'll get pictures of the bigger ones for you later.

That's about all for now.

Settling In

Things are going well and I'm beginning to settle into the routine here.

I work everyday from around 8.30am to 4/5pm. 

I'm logging and editing from a course called "The Problem of Evil" taughy by John Feinburg at Trinity in Chicago. Igor filmed it along with another course while he was in America a while ago. There are about 5 tapes for each lecture, so I have to load each one on to the computer and then edit them all together. So far I have worked 3days and been able to get 2lectures finished, which is rather good progress. They seem very appreciative of the work I'm doing as th

e courses are in english and while their other editor(s) know a little english it is very hard for them to keep up with Dr Feinburg and know where and when to start and stop cuts. 

After work I generally fall asleep for a bit due to a mixture of jet lag and work. Believe it or not, staring at a computer screen/camera can wear you out a tad. The past few days I've taken to exploring the nearby areas a tad, not too far but it gets me out of the building at least for a bit. Then it's generally dinner time and I spend the rest of the night doing some general reading and trying to learn some Russian. I'm rather proud that in the three days I've been teaching myself russian, I've managed to learn the majority of the alphabet and basic numbers. I'm sure my pronunciation is pretty horrible, but I'm not too sure as everyone speaks to me in English and I have to go out of my way to speak Russian. I try a little here

 and there ... I'll try more as I get more comfortable around the people. My big break through today was learning some verbs as well as the sentence "I don't know how to speak Russian" which would've been helpful yesterday as multiple people tried to talk to me on my stroll through the streets, oh well. 

So really no complaints although it would be nice to meet someone (preferably closer to my own age) to hang out with a bit. I'm all for introspective speculations and alone time, but sometimes you just need some other people. I'll make friends eventually, so no real worries.

On saturday, I'm going to downtown Kursk with a translator to see the city a little and hopefully learn how to use the public transportation by myself. I plan on making her teach me russian more than she translates, but we'll see how that goes.

Oh and check the view I got from my window yesterday. Double bows!

All's well on the slavic front, peace out girl scouts!

Making Things Up As I Go

After 27hours of being in transit I finally made it to Kursk!

The flying part of the trip went very smoothly, no missed connections or delays. 

I was blessed that there was no one sitting next to me on the 10hour flight from Atlanta to Moscow, but even then sleeping didn't work. You really cant sleep if the top of the chair is at the base of your neck. I love being tall, but sometimes being 6' 4'' is just a pain in the neck... literally!

I arrived in Moscow with no problems, got through immigration just fine, found my luggage and was out to the real Russia. I was met by a man with a sign saying "Joel to Kursk" and I correctly assumed that he was waiting for me. We went out to his car which was actually being driven by his little brother (who spoke zero english and my russian is growing from zero, but very slowly) since his car was "how do amerikanz say, kaput?"

Then it straight to bumper to bumper, not-going-anywhere traffic for about an hour trying to get out of Moscow. I love how even though there are lines on the road, they don't mean anything. In Russia, if your car looks like it can fit in

 a space between two other cars it probably will and if it doesn't ... then just get really close until they move for you. I could've reached out my window and touched at least 3 other cars at any given moment. Ok, that was a bit of an exaggeration, but at least 1 other car is the simple truth. 

After we finally got outside Moscow, we were just driving through the countryside and while beautiful, I couldn't keep my eyes open for the life of me. I was so tired my eyes hurt so I dozed off.

Now Moscow to Kursk is only about 500km (approx. 310mi) and would only take about 5hours if I was driving in America. But in Russia we had a car that was at least 20years old and at one point we all had to get out and shift everything around  because evidently too much weight was on one side and was influencing how the car drove ... I don't really know. All this to say 500km took just about 9/10hours hald of which I slept. But in between the many naps I got to see a good many things including my first dead person

, which was an experience. It was on the freeway where we were moving quite fast and then all the sudden traffic slowed down drastically. As far as we could tell there had been an accident up ahead. In response, cars started driving over the thick grass median and on the other side of the 4land highway (it turns out they were actually told to do this by the police on the scene). But as we were driving past the accident I was looking and I noticed a guy lying on the side of the road ... I looked closer and he was most definitely dead, I won't go into detail but it was obvious. I guess he had been killed in the accident and they just loaded him up on a stretcher and took him to the side of the road and left him there, uncovered, until an ambulance (?) came to pick him up. This was pretty shocking to me and I was pretty disturbed there for a little (don't worry Mom, my driver was very safe and skilled. I'm alright and

 there weren't even any close calls!), but it just goes to help illustrate the many differences between Russia and the USA. 

Other than that the trip was rather uneventful until we got 50km from Kursk and we pull off the road by this shabby white car. The guy who picked me up gets out, points to the car and says "haha, my car, electic system kaput." Evidently he had started driving to Moscow to pick me up when his car died, so he called his brother to come pick him up and they just left the car there. So we all got out, pulled some 'tow ropes' from the boot of the car and hooked the two together. The last 50km were spent going around 40km/hr 

(25mph) while pulling a car behind us (with the guy who picked me up steering it). We took the car to their parents house because they had a garage there and then headed to the seminary where I'm staying. 

By the time we got there it was about 9pm and still as bright as day outside! Night doesn't fall until 10pm here. As soon as I got in I was shown my room, which is actually an apartment I have all to my self. I have a bedroom, kitchen and bathroom all to myself! It's pretty sweet!

 If you couldn't tell this is my bedroom

Yeah, I've got a pretty sweet bathroom

kitchen, part one

kitchen, part 2

 Then out of nowhere a nice lady named Anna came and started cooking me dinner. While I was pretty hungry there is no way anyone could ever be as hungry for the amount of food this woman made! I was made 2eggs, an entire bowl of ravioli type noodles, a plate full of egg roll looking fried pastries as well as half a load of bread. I looked around to see who was joining, but I was expected to eat it all myself. I made a valiant effort, but there was no way I could do it!

After she left I made it to my room and finally collapsed around 11pm. I slept soundly until 6.30am when I just couldn't sleep any more, curse jet lag! I was able to catch up on some reading and cleaning (myself, sorry for that image haha) before 8.30 came around and I met Vitaly Petrov. 

Vitaly gave me a introduction to the ministry they are doing and what it is going to be like living there. I also got to meet many of the other staff members here. Many speak english, but many do not also. So I am trying my best to learn Russian, I am sure I will be laughed at many times, but I will get it! I was given pronunciation advice by Vitaly, he basically said that in Russian you do not articulate the different syllables like we do in english. I'm taking that as advice to mumble the words!

Vitaly then gave me a tour of the building and while it doesn't look like much from the outside, it is gorgeous inside! He made the comment, "Many christians look good on the outside, but are bad inside. Here we are the opposite. Dirty on the outside, but very nice inside."

This is the new home.

And there studio has top notch video equipment! I was very impressed!

After Vitaly was done, I was handed off to his brother Igor who assigned me my projects. This is the part I was most nervous about, but it's all good now! I guess a while back Igor had filmed two courses at Trinity in Chicago. Each lecture is about 2hours long with two cameras filming it. I believe here are about 11lectures for each course. So my job is to digitize each DVtape, which can only capture in real time meaning I have to sit through each lecture twice as it is capturing, and then edit the two angles together. The work is tedious (read it takes a looooooong time) but I know what I am doing. I was able to learn their editing program within minutes as it is very similar to Final Cut Pro, which is a huge blessing!

So most of today was spent digitizing tapes. Since there is not much to do while they are capturing I did a lot of reading and trying to learn russian. I've got some basic phrases down as well as numbers and I'm starting to understand their alphabet a little more. For those who don't know, the Russian alphabet is nothing like you've ever seen before, unless you've seen the Russian alphabet that is. Check it out ( http://www.friends-partners.org/oldfriends/language/russian-alphabet.html )

So it's going slow, but I've got a while. I work in a room with the rest of their tech staff, the hardware, software, and designer guys. None of them speak english, but they're pretty hysterical so I should be entertained. Igor and Vitaly stop by every now and again to check on me and give me some people to talk english to. I hope I pick up on Russian pretty quickly as it would be really nice to be able to talk to anyone I wanted!

In an effort to beat jet lag I'm trying to stay up until a relatively normal bedtime, but it's only 7.30 now and I'm about to pass out. I'm 8 hours ahead of you all. To give you a reference, when you're waking up around 10am it's already 6pm here.

Thank you for your prayers and God has blessed me so far. I feel very comfortable in the seminary and I'm sure as the days go on and I venture outside I'll have many more grand adventures!

The Back Story

T - Zero days

I fly out today!

While I have shared the story of how all this came about with many of you, there are a good number of you with whom I haven't shared so I'm going to write it all out here as it is a God story through and through.

*****

I first heard about the possibility of going to Russia this summer back in early November when my Dad mentioned it to me. Being one who loves adventures and traveling I instantly jumped at the idea. There were some initial emails and an intimidating phone conversation with, I believe it was, Vitaly Petrov over in Russia. Things were starting to look like this would be an actual possibility. 

Then the emails stopped and I didn't hear a word more a good long while and it looked like the whole deal had fallen through. At this point, I was rather indifferent towards the entire trip as summer was still a long away and there were a plethora of possibilities for the summer. As time went on, I started looking into other possibilities such as working with Mercy Ships ( http://www.mercyships.org/ ) or maybe an intership with InterVarsity's 2100 Productions ( http://www.intervarsity.org/2100/ ). I was getting excited about both possibilites as both would have been incredible experiences. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, I got an email asking if I was still planning on coming to Russia.

This email threw me for a loop. Out of all the possibilities for the summer, Russia was my least favourite. It would by far be the hardest of the three, I would be going alone to a foreign country where english was not the first language. With Mercy Ships I would be on a boat filled with english speakers and with 2100 Productions I would even have to leave America!

I took my time replying to the email because, in all honesty, I wasn't planning on going to Russia anymore and really didn't want to go.

In my mind, the decision was made, but there was a tiny nagging voice somewhere down inside was telling me that Russia is where God wanted me to go. I argued with this voice for the better part of a week, telling it to be quiet and that God wouldn't want me to go to somewhere I didn't want to go. The clincher happened one morning as I was walking to class. I was, once again, arguing internally when the story of Jonah came to mind. How God gave him a mission he had no desire to do and he refused only to end up in the belly of a giant fish. Now for those of you who know me, you know that I DESPISE seafood and the belly of giant fish is pretty much the last place on this earth that I want to be so I gave in to this voice and when I got home that day and typed up a reply saying I was still willing to work in Russia for the summer. I clicked the send button and a weight was lifted off my shoulders. From all of this I was taught that I have to follow God whether I like what I'm being told to do or not.

Then in the days and weeks that followed my reply, I heard nothing back and I started to, yet again, think that something had fallen through and it wasn't going to work out. I was like, "Oh God, you're a trick one, you are. Put me through the stress of deciding to follow what I know you're telling me to do or what I want to do and then when I make the right decision you don't make me do it." I thought that since I had made the right choice God was going to "let me off the hook" and follow one of those "fun" summer plans I had dreamed of. 

Then comes February and I get an email basically saying "Hey Joel, we're excited about your upcoming visit and here are some things you need to fill out so we can get all the paperwork together. From Russia with Love!"

Oh great, I wasn't off the hook. 

I sent them the information and it finally dawned on me that this is actually happening and I only had 3months to get everything ready.

While I was nervous, I now knew, without a doubt, this was God guiding my life and I needed to give it my everything. So in a flurry of papers and 'coincidences' I end up here today with a plane ticket to Moscow, a Letter of Invitation from the Russian Government, a Russian Visa, a man waiting to pick me up from the airport and a bed in Kursk.

I'm still not entirely sure how it all worked out, as most of it probably should not have, but it did and I am off. Our Father has turned the initial apprehension into excitement and there is not a doubt in my mind that this is what I am supposed to be doing.

Please continue to pray for me. That I may be useful not only to Trinity Equipping Centre but also to all the people I meet during my travels.

Next update will be from Russia! 

Ok update.

My visa arrived right as I was sending out emails to a whole bunch of people asking for prayer.

I don't know if any of you had time to pray for me, but I do know that I spent time on my knees praying for it and prayer is powerful and effective. Praise the Lord!

T - 13days

13 days until I'm heading out to Russia for the summer  and we've got a slight problem. I sent away for my visa a while ago and we were expecting it to come sometime last week ... it didn't. In case you didn't know I kind of need a visa to live in Russia soooo I'm praying really hard that it comes SOON!

Now here is the part you can help with!

If you've got a little time I would greatly appreciate it if you wouldn't mind praying for the timely arrival of my visa.

James 15.6 says:

... "The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective"

so please pray for me!

Preparations

So as many of you know I am heading to Russia in just about three weeks,

I'll be working at Trinity Equipping Centre (TEC) in Kursk. Theoretically, making filming classes, editing videos and creating DVDs.

Now I've traveled a good deal in my short life, but this is my first time to spend a significant amount of time in a country where English is not the main language. This said, I am more than a little nervous about my upcoming trip.

I have no doubt that this is what God has set out for me this summer, but I have no clue what is going to happen.

Now to the reason for this post, I got back from a run last night and for some reason went to check my facebook before going to hop in the shower. In the short time I was on there a friend of mine that I haven't talked to in far too long randomly started chatting with me on facebook chat. We got talking about summer plans and I admitted to her how I was nervous about the upcoming trip as I have no more Russian that "hello" "yes" "no" and "thank you"

She then made the comment that it would make everything a whole lot easier if God just gave me the gift of tounges and I was just able to speak Russian.

Now, without a doubt in my mind, I believe that speaking tounges is possible. I believe that to doubt the possibility of tounges is to attempt to limit the power of our Lord and Saviour. And while I believe it is possible, I have never felt prompted to speak in tounges and cannot ever imagine myself doing it. So I have belief, but I'm sure I have faith ... or enough faith. 

This was her response:

"You know, I think it is most important to first tell God that you have little faith and then BEG him for greater faith. He knows we need faith and He says things are ours for the asking. I know He delights in providing for us and that includes more faith and that can include tongues of Russian to speak love and proclaim Him!"

That last line there just got to me. So yes, I will be begging for maore faith. But my prayers won't be for Russian tounges, they will be that God gives me the ability/faith/desire to speak love and proclaim His word! If God decides to give me the gift of Russian tounges that would be INCREDIBLE and if he doesn't it will be for a reason and I will still do my best to serve His purposes.

I'm still nervous about going, but I'm also excited for the experiences and the lessons I'm sure to learn!

Please keep me in your prayers as I'm pretty confident I'm going to need them!