Into Week Two!

Hello all!

I REALLYYYY want to call some of you today, but it depends on timing - the phone and computer have to be free at the exact time that I am, and it also has to be day time where you are. So if I ever say "I'm calling you today" (mom), it really means "I'm going to try really hard to call you." But today I really need to, because it's been way too long.

The newest plan is for me to move to Slavik and Tanya's today (yay!!), where I'll stay until Din and Inna get farther on the renovations and/or fix their internet. I'm really happy staying here on Puskina Ulitsa until then. Not because the living conditions are nicer (which they are) but because I'm really starting to get to know the three families here and it's so refreshing. I've been missing relationships. My Russian is bad, but it's much better than a week ago, so I can finally get my point across most of the time, although not in full sentences.

Natasja and Walter and the kids leave on Sunday to go to Turkey for a few weeks. My prayer is that I will rely on the Lord when I'm lonely without English speakers, that I will invite Him into that lonely place so that He can fill it with comfort and tenderness and joy. I'm grateful for everyone who is praying for me, as each day is filled with new struggles. Struggles to be patient, to be bold in speaking my limited and broken Russian, to serve and give even when I'm exhausted, to stay encouraged and passionate even during the long days. Struggles to seek new ministries instead of missing the USA. Struggles to listen to the Lord above the noise of my own heart, to know His presence, to listen to His leading. Nothing is coming easily right now.

It's hard to find time to spend with the Lord. There is always so much studying to do, people to talk to, places to go, dishes to wash. If you will, please pray that my heart will so crave Him that I cannot help but make quiet time my first priority. It's easy to forget how badly I need filling by His word and prayer. It's easy to just focus on always pouring out. I should know by now that I can do nothing without Him!

Today I'm going to the orphanage. Then I'm going to meet a girl who has heard about me through the grapevine and wants me to help her learn English. She is not a believer, but her mother attends our church here and works in the orphanage. I'm excited about this new ministry opportunity. I think she's about my age. I'm going to teach her a little English, maybe once a week or so, and just get to know her as well as I can. (And I'll use Natasja and Walter's Christian English curriculum and have her read easy texts from Christian books!) Pray for my time with her!!! Pray that I will be bold and kind and joyful, that I will be a good and patient teacher by the power of the Holy Spirit, and that He will draw her to himself. Even if I don't see the fruit, I will continue to plant seeds...just like with the orphans...

Yesterday I climbed a mountain. I'm not exaggerating.

Walter, Sasha, Andre, Ruvim, Vitalik, Rafael, David, Oleg, and I climbed up this mountain to a waterfall on the other side. I would be lying if I said I enjoyed it, because there were literally places where if I stopped looking straight down - at only my next step - I would have given up.

I just kept saying, "Ok guys, if I fall, it's no problem. I'll just see you at the bottom."

I'm glad they didn't tell me how hard the climb and descent are. I would not have gone. But since I did, I have pictures of the most amazing view...

It reminded me of what the Russia team has prayed for the past few years together: "Lord, change my feet to fit the path you have for me." And also what Luke and Anna encouraged me with a couple weeks ago: "God lights our path a little at a time so we will not be overwhelmed with everything He has for us." Also so that we have to trust Him in the moments. I really had to trust yesterday that I was going to make it to the top and back down. Wow. What a once in a lifetime experience.

Gotta get going. Thanks for your comments on the last post. Please keep them coming when you have a minute! It's a blessing to know how you are praying for me, and how I can pray for you...

Comments

  1. Joel GuinnessJune 18, 2010 at 4:24 PM

    Hi Jordan,

    Great to hear about all that's happening! Sounds like each day is an adventure of it's own! I will pray that you will find time (or make time!) to be in God's Word in order to be replenished and able to overflow with God's love to the people around you.

    Way to go with all the Russian you are understanding and beginning to speak! You feel kind of boxed in when you can't fully express yourself in a lnaguage that makes sense to you. Sounds like you are working hard at it, though. It'll come!

    The Lakers just beat the Celtics in the NBA finals last night. Any basketball fans in your hood? I bet there's talk about the World Cup soccer. The U.S. has played two games and tied them both, which is not too bad. I'm not sure if Russia has a team in it this time around...?

    Anyhow, press on!
    Peace,
    Joel

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousJune 18, 2010 at 4:37 PM

    So glad things are going well for you. (I'm looking at this on Aunt Ruthie's computer, while she is at work.) We went to Katelyn's graduation last weekend. It was very hot and humid in the school gym. I know the graduates were hot in their gowns. (It made me think I was back in Mississippi!) Erin was here for the graduation but had to go back to Virginia on Sunday. She missed her scheduled flight and had to go on a later one. I've been going to several libraries in the area to work on family history (on Ruth's days off). I'm still praying for you even though I can't figure out what time (or day) it is where you are. Love you very much, Gramma

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Wednesday Refrain

It's Wednesday today, the smack-dab-middle of the week; I didn't sleep again last night. Before the sun was up, my spirit was already bent beneath the weight of the day, like the trees under this new snowfall. A silent bearing, a stark remaining. My work is hard. I'm three years in, but there were three years before that, and four before that. Maybe it's not the duration so much as the intensity, the all-of-me that it requires, the vigilance and the attunement and the background-app-refresh of working with complex ideas day in and day out. Being a theologian means pondering the unknowable yet not turning away, almost as if what can't be known urgently must be known.  And indeed, it must. Or maybe the hard part is not the work itself, but coming to realize that who I am and what I produce is always going to be at the fringes of my profession. It's a reckoning with loneliness, I suppose. To look around and realize the brightest minds in bioethics are always going...
Read more

Finished

Well, you know I'm busy when I forget to blog. On top of being busy, though, I've been thinking about so much lately that it's hard to write about it. I'm kind of ADD about everything. God keeps finding something new to show me every couple hours, before I've digested the last hundred. As I wrote about in my last post, one of the major ways the Lord has been communicating to me lately is through beauty. I would tell you to please go walk to Belmont and stand under the red trees and look up into them and see God, but the truth is that you might not see Him at all. You might just see red leaves. And I would tell you to please get on Spotify and listen to Ronnie Freeman's "Perfect Love" album and hear God. But you might only hear some really cool worship music. I don't know. God has been playing in my life lately with the idea of completion. At the end of my shifts at work, I always grab a case or two of water bottles from the back and set them out fo...
Read more

Least of These

It's 3:30am in Nashville currently, but the Russia Team is in Moscow, where the local time is 12:30pm. I know they are insanely tired and ready to be here, so I've been thinking about them and praying for them a lot today. And updating everyone about which flight they are on, where they are, or how tired they must be :) I haven't done much the past few days, but instead of feeling rested I feel drained. I think it's because I've done too little. I'm not used to being so inactive, but the people here (especially the women) sit at home a ton. Talking, eating, drinking tea, sitting...It's been great for my language progression and relationships, but horrible for my energy level and health. Another reason I'm dragging is because I need the refreshment of talking to someone in full sentences who understands me. Too much is trapped inside my head and heart. And it's no small thing for me, an introvert, to say that :) Tonight I get to Skype with Mom (crossi...
Read more