Class Chapel, Podolsk

On Friday, my fifth graders led elementary chapel, and the theme was "Attentiveness". We centered that theme around three main avenues: God's attentiveness toward us, our attentiveness toward God, and our attentiveness to others. What was involved in this big undertaking? Sharing Bible verses, creating and explaining a poster, leading worship songs, writing and acting out a skit, and adding silent dramatization to the song "Voice of Truth". It was a powerful chapel, as the Holy Spirit was most definitely there. I was so proud of the kids, for they truly did all of their hard work and the performance not for the praise of men, but for the glory of God!

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)?

Some of you may be curious about some of the puns I wrote for my 25th birthday party, so here are some of the ones that got the best laughs (or groans) from my friends :)

• Who is the leader of the disinterested? The chairman of the bored
• The rebellious birthday cake did what during his tour of duty? He desserted!
• What do you call fake human waste? Shampoo
• Have you heard about the felines and canines who are high in governmental power? They're the reigning cats and dogs.
• Have you heard about the crazy female deer? She's a doe-nut!
• Did you hear about the anti-trigonometry picketers? They were all holding Stop sines.