Sitting here in the quiet of the classroom on a cool autumn afternoon, with the smells of burning leaves sifting in through the windows, brings quite a peaceful calm to this almost 25 year-old (I will hit the quarter-century mark on Sunday). I just love this time of the year. School starting afresh, kids excited to be with their friends and new teachers, light jackets, crisp air, leaves soon to turn color, retreats with middle schoolers, the joy of the fall time. I'm so grateful for the changing seasons; they bring a welcome change on a regular, quarterly basis (well here it seems to be more like 1/2 winter, 1/4 summer, 1/8 fall, and 1/8 spring :)
While God has placed so much of this life on a predictable clock of precision, there is so much that is uncertain. I've been thinking about this a lot lately, about how we never really know what to expect in a day or week or month or year, how each day really contains so many surprises. This thought process really started to hit home when I was playing my new Philips MP3 player a few weeks ago (thanks, Grandma and Grandpa Hays, for the early birthday gift). While I've known about the "shuffle" function for a long time, I just recently started to use it. And I love it! Basically, for those who don't know, digital music players (Windows Media Player, iTunes, MP3 players, iPods, etc.) have an option called "shuffle", and it basically is your command to the player to play your songs at random. You never know what song will come up next. It leaves the listener in a bit of expectation. Sometimes, the song is the perfect fit, and the listener is so pleased that the song that hadn't been listened to in such a long time, was finally finding its way to their ears. At other times, it's a bit of a let-down, and in that case, the listener simply skips on to the next "shuffled" song.
I began to realize how our life really is in "shuffle" mode. We never know what's going to come our way. And I think that's a good thing. (One note: in real-life, however, we don't have the option of "skipping" to the next event...things tend to be a bit more unavoidable than that.) If I always knew ahead of time what my life would bring, it would be majorly unhealthy on two levels. First, if what lay ahead were traumatic, awful, and undesirable, then I would spend the nows of each day in crippling dread until the event arrived. Second, if what lay ahead were joyous and full of excitement, then I would spend the nows of each day in blinding expectation: I couldn't focus on any present person, task, or experience until that great event arrived. The adjective "brilliant" doesn't seem quite adequate to capture God's mind and plan in keeping all of life a surprise for the most part. This way, with daily life as a "shuffle" (a bit better connotation than "the grind", don't you think) we can wake up each day looking forward to the surprises of His grace, knowing that either 1) when it's tough, it's better to find out that God's grace is enough in that moment rather than freak out about it until it happens or 2) when it's a huge blessing, we're enraptured in the joys of our Father. Both ways, God is good, and we can learn more and more what it is to live in expectation of God's work in our unpredictable lives.
One interesting "shuffle" event for me occurred last Thursday night. I had arrived home from school, unpacked my things, played with Ira (who, by the way, is pretty much back to her very affectionate self and is slowly learning how to put more weight on her left front paw), and then headed out to take out the trash. I'd left my wallet and phone in the apartment. When I arrived back three minutes later, I was locked out! I had no way of calling anyone who could help, no money to get anywhere by public transportation, and quite a bit of frustration about being locked out with my crying cat inside, longing for me to feed her, and my school work waiting to be corrected for the next morning. Eventually, I quietly gave up fiddling with the key, prayed for help, waited for Max to arrive, and then trusted his engineering experience to figure out a way to get back in - which he did!
As I sat down to update this blog tonight, I decided to also catch up on my pastor's sermon series. Glen Gardner, my beloved pastor of Central Church of the Nazarene, has been doing a series called "Chasing the Lion", and it's stellar! I clicked on the August 3 sermon entitled "Embracing Uncertainty" (which was my last Sunday in the States and a sermon that I wasn't in town for), and was amazed at how his message tied perfectly in with what I've been learning lately. Check it out if you'd like:
http://centralnazarene.org/listen.shtml. This sermon series has really been shaping my thoughts and prayers these past couple months. Thanks, Glen, for being so faithful!
Now for some pictures of "the shuffle" from the past couple weeks here in Moscow!
Chilling with Baxter. He's still going to be our class bunny until December, when I'll hopefully be flying him back to the U.S. to be with his really mommy. Doesn't the Boston "B" just seem so appropriate for the little guy?
The kids at Moscow First singing songs they learned from this summer's VBS. All of them have now graduated from the "Kids' Club" and have joined the ranks of our youth group!
In front of the big fountain in Tsaritsena, my favorite park in the city. After church a few weeks ago, my friend Dima and I headed there to take some photos. What a fun afternoon!
May I take your picture, please?
A vertical shot of a birch tree. I just love birches: their colorful composition, their paper-like bark and texture, the little leaves that make such a beautiful sound when the wind passes through them. They're all over the place here in Russia!
Lots of Muscovites had the same idea we did on this very humid afternoon (we heard that it was the hottest August 17th in Moscow in 200 years).
Beautiful flowers stretching for about a fifth of a mile (in my estimation).
Gorgeous reflection of the bridge with some ducks passing through.
What an awesome class! Our first nine days together have been great!
The seven guys...they often start choosing their recess soccer teams while they're still eating lunch in the cafeteria. One of the boys (who makes his own lunch) intentionally buys pizza from the senior class on certain days so that he can trade it with one of the boys who brings his own home-brought lunch (both boys are happy with the trade)! A great group!
Seven of the nine girls (one was at a conference, another won't arrive until January). They're a very sweet bunch and quite spiritually mature for their age. Many of them have joined me for the optional "prayer walks" on Monday and Friday mornings. We pray for the kids in our class, teachers and classes throughout the school, and different needs that arise. The highlight is circling around the school and praying for God's protection and blessing!
Sir Luke-alot. Some friends and I attended a Renaissance Festival in the city on Saturday, which was quite an interesting experience. Like the costume?
Genuine sword-fighting! There was a men's and women's category.
Sweet!
This adorable little Russian girl sat in front of us during the Festival, and her dad had the hardest time keeping her hood over her head!
Leading the singing.
The skit - one girl was quite inattentive until she decided to give her life to Jesus.
In the skit, the girl who gave her life to Christ eventually realized that her mom had mentioned wanting to get a bunny. So she and her brothers headed to the pet store to get her one! Notice our bunny Baxter making his first stage appearance?
Jesus calling Peter to step out of the boat onto the crashing waves. 
What a great class!
English Cafe on Saturday night: we were pleasantly surprised to have 50-60 Russians join us for a great time of conversation and activities! We had a packed house for our "Frontiers" night. We discussed the motivations for families that traveled to the western frontier in the U.S., learned about homesteading, and then built log cabins out of pretzels, chocolate paste, and M&Ms! The top three tables (cabins) received Reese's Peanut Butter Cups as a reward! We then turned the conversation a bit more personal and talked about the frontiers that we face in our own lives. I was asked to share about my "frontier" experience of coming to Russia and how God had made it so abundantly clear that He wanted me to go. He had compelled me. At the end of the night, there was great feedback, and hopefully we will have even more Russian friends come to join us in two weeks. Continue to lift up this important ministry in prayer!
The winning log cabin: it had one door, two windows, a chimney, a peaked roof, and a fence. 
On Sunday afternoon after church, I had the honor of eating dinner with my friend Dima, his wife Olya, and his son Daniel at their apartment in Podolsk (the largest city in the Moscow region), which is about 45 minutes away from the church by bus. Isn't Daniel a cute baby (he looks just like his dad, in my opinion)? 
