Is it already November?

Time here in Moscow is surely flying by, but that is good. The recent weeks and months have been filled with blessings, memories, and experiences for which I am so grateful. Allow me to share a bit through pictures and captions!

A recent picture of me in front of St. Basil's Cathedral on Red Square. It was a cool, grey Sunday afternoon.

During "Spiritual Emphasis Week" a couple weeks ago, I emphasized to my fifth graders the importance of developing their own Bible studying system, one that would make sense to them. Here they are highlighting their Bibles in color-coded keys that they devised.

A couple weeks ago, the fifth graders of HCA put on "Young Christians Super Talent Show", in which each student was able to demonstrate his or her God-given abilities for an audience of elementary students and parents. The kids did an excellent job, and I know that God was glorified as a great Creator of diversity, for each of my students is brilliant in their own unique way!

One of the boys created a tiger out of clay and passed it around the audience. It was really cool! (In the picture the tiger is in his hands.)

Some of the lively girls wrote and performed a skit and then added motions to the song "King of Majesty".

Here one of my students demonstrates how to correctly fence!

One boy shared 4-5 magic tricks and illusions.

This boy elicited the laughter of the entire audience as he made up a story on the spot...using random prompt words that the audience had written!

A humorous skit involving a clown and his friend

You might ask, "What did Mr. Hays do?" Well, I had the honor of reading one of my poems while juggling three balls. It took quite a bit of concentration!

Two weekends ago was our much-needed Fall Break (no school on Monday). It was such a blessing to be able to travel via train to St. Petersburg with four of my friends from the school. The weekend was a perfect blend of relaxation, sightseeing, good conversation, writing, reading, playing games, and exploring the city.

While in St. Petersburg, we visited the Hermitage, which contains an amazing collection of original art works from around the world. Here I am imitating Michelangelo's "Crouching Boy".

When St. Petersburg was the capital of Russia (for a couple hundred years), the Hermitage was the Winter Palace of the tsars. This is a picture of the stairs leading up to the throne.

One of the highlights of the trip was visiting the final apartment of Fyodor Dostoyevsky, a renowned author who is one of Russia's greatest literary gifts to the world. This is the office and desk at which Dostoyevsky penned his final work and masterpiece, The Brothers Karamazov (which I bought and intend to read while here in Russia...it might take a little while at 700 pages).

My friends and I took one afternoon to visit Catherine's Palace, which is in the Tsars' Village (Tsarskoye Selo), the Summer Residence of many of the tsars. It had such beautiful grounds that my friends (two student teachers) and I couldn't resist adding to the ornamentation!

Laurie, Chris, Luke, Laura, and Gail...a society of friends :)

Posed for yet another picture within the palace

A glimpse into the Amber Room from an adjacent room. I've never before beheld such an amazing room in my life. The entire room is covered with walls made of amber, a truly gorgeous stone of varing orangish/reddish hues. While standing in "The Eighth Wonder of the World", I couldn't help but think how many millions of dollars were surrounding me. A little trivia: during WWII most of the panels were taken away as loot to never be found again. After the go ahead from the Russian government, the room underwent a restoration project to restore it to its original glory; the project was completed in 2003.

Standing at the gate to the Catherine Palace, the same gate that Catherine the Great most surely entered through many times.

Attached to the Catherine Palace is this beautiful ballroom. What must that have looked like from the inside on a dark, starry night? Wow! (It reminds me somewhat of the ballroom from Beauty and the Beast :)

Five friends in front of the bronze horseman, a tribute to Peter the Great. In the background stands St. Isaac's Cathedral.

Traveling in the coupe on the way back to Moscow. I have always loved the top bunk!

Back in Moscow, my fifth graders ran their first timed mile run. I went out to the lake behind the school to cheer them on. Boy, did it ever bring back memories of Mr. Kelly's gym class in elementary school! I remember trying to break six minutes in fifth grade, a feat that I accomplished, and which one of my students surpassed this year with a 5:45!

Great job! Kick it in!

Almost done! Don't slow down!

Last Friday, I taught perhaps one of my favorite lessons so far of my teaching career. We were studying linking/state-of-being verbs and their predicate noun and predicate adjective modifiers. To help drive home the concept in a Biblical way, I lead the students through Exodus 3:14, in which God states his own name as "I AM." He is the ultimate being, and all other beings exist only because of Him. So we listened to and dissected a song that describes God's character (both nouns and adjectives) and then broke into groups to search through Scripture to find nouns and adjectives to describe our Maker. The students then wrote their words on corresponding slips of paper that they linked (using plastic chain links) to a chain hanging in the room. At the center of the chain was "I AM", and to both sides were approximately 70 words to describe God! The intention is to continue adding words throughout the year as we discover God's character through our studies! This week we're going to add some descriptors of us, words that should describe our character because of who God is (this will be on an adjoining chain link entitled "We are").


How has the English Cafe been? It has been going amazingly well, praise God! For our last two meetings, we've had 55 and 100 people, respectively! The word has been spreading quickly about our ministry, and many people are coming to improve their conversational English in a fun, non-threatening environment where snacks and tea are free of charge and native speakers sit at every table. Thank you for your prayers for this ministry. Your prayers for our "True Colors" night were answered! One of my Russian friends came up to me afterward and told me that he was glad to hear the gospel story again because it had been a while since he'd heard it at an English camp. He is seriously considering his beliefs about God and Christ. Continue to pray for him and others! Pray also for wisdom for us leaders and we must decide how to manage such large numbers of people ... a problem we're glad to have to solve!