Christmas Greetings 2012

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Счастливого Рождества Христова и С Новым Годом!

From our family to yours we wish you Peace and Love in a world full of darkness.

May you know the Light and Hope of Christ! 

Thanks so much for your prayers and support! It's hard to believe that our furlough year in the US is nearly half over! 

Summer of Transition

Have you ever said "Good-bye" to home, to everything familiar, to everything that you love? Knowing it will never be "home" again? This is a critical phase for kids who have grown up overseas, one that can leave them at worst embittered towards God, their families and America, or at least leave them more confused than the average teenager about their life and their faith. 

Thank you so much for investing in this critical transition for our kids and our family. You have not only helped us get to and stay on the mission field, but you have helped the children and family that have grown up there get re-integrated into American life. 

As Gillian entered college this year, our whole family was going through this transition with her. We determined to give our kids and our family the opportunity to do this transition as well as possible. God provided for Gillian to attend the "MK Transition" seminar put on by Barnabas International, and our whole family attended the only of its kind "Debrief and Renewal" seminar for whole families put on by the Missionary Training Institute. In the meantime we put 10K miles on the van!

Personal Updates:

Bill: is enjoying being able to "give something back" to a supporting church in Rochester, NY by mentoring and counseling church staff, and assisting the pastor with staff development from a spiritual formation perspective. He has also spoken at the small group leaders' conference and gave the gospel presentation at this week's Christmas Eve service.

Priscilla: has done an amazing job making the missions house a home for us, and keeping the family on track as we learn a new routine and rhythm of life in the US. She participates in Community Bible Study and volunteers as a reading aid at a local city school and with various charitable projects at church as well.

Gillian: just finished her first semester as a freshman at Wheaton College (IL), enjoying her Education major, Bible and Spanish courses. She has lots of friends within the community of MKs and international students, but is enjoying learning more about America too. We visited her for Family Weekend, then she came to Rochester for Thanksgiving and now Christmas with other students from our supporting church here.

Karina: is a junior at Penfield High School and playing French Horn in the Rochester Philharmonic Youth Orchestra (RYPO). She also has a fantastic horn teacher! In February she will be playing in the RPYO at Carnegie Hall in NYC! Between school, church and orchestra she is meeting lots of new friends. One of her tasks this year is beginning to discern whether to follow a career in science or music.  

Liam: goes to Bay Trail Middle School and is in 8th grade. This transition was particularly tough for him, but an enrichment program has provided some consistent relationships for him. He has enjoyed having a room of his own, riding bikes around the neighborhood or on errands, throwing an American football with Dad, and Christmas lights.

Olivia: is a first-grader, and loves everything about school and America. Everything is "the best ___ ever!" except when something reminds her of home in Russia. She cries for a while, but then dives fully into whatever is happening at the moment. 

SF at SPCU 

This was my 14^th year teaching at SPCU -- Saint Petersburg Christian University. Spring semester I taught Spiritual Formation to 16 second and third year students. The students included a 70-year old man from the Russian Far East, who grew up under Communism in a Mennonite family, a pair of 20-year old twin girls from Kazakhstan, and sadly a 26-year old ex-convict and drug-addict, who had to leave the college because of his slide back into drug use.

At first I found this group of student to be rather resistant to engaging their own spiritual walk. Some had been hardened by life's wounds, many were from traditions that completely disregarded a personal relationship with Jesus, others had become cynical about an experiential faith in light of their theological education. This is why I had wanted to teach this Spiritual Formation later on in their program! 

I had decided to have the students write "weekly reflection journals" on the readings and lecture topics for each week. The journals became a meaningful forum where the students could reflect on their own lives with God in the context of our lecture topics, then I would respond individually to each one via email. When we started talking about Longing for God, the 70 year old student said, "This just keeps getting better and better!" 

At the end of the semester I met one-on-one with each of the students to discuss their impressions and questions. "N" is an intelligent student in the B.Th. program, who often challenged me in class. During our session he said, "Many of these topics about our spirituality are like a knife edge. Stray just a little and there is heresy on either side. But I soon realized that my initial resistance would dissolve by the time I wrote my journal or received your reply." This is why it is so important to talk about these subjects and give our students a language and a paradigm to help the church embrace a lively, maturing faith in Christ!

One-Year Home Assignment

We are taking the advice of many missionaries and our CRM supervisors and using Gillian’s freshman year in college to come back to the US before returning back to Russia. God has been so gracious in preparing our family for this huge cultural transition, and providing for our year in the US.

We will be living near Rochester, NY in the "missions house" provided by Browncroft Community Church, our supporting church in that area. We are so thankful for the housing and the opportunity to minister more closely at Browncroft, where the "Psi Circle" has been faithfully praying for us for 18 years. Bill has also been developing a relationship with the Spiritual Formation Pastor, who has asked Bill to speak at their Group Life Conference in October.

Before moving to the Rochester area, we will be in Lancaster, PA with family for much of July, and then head out to Denver, CO for three events in the same area: the Imago Christi summer Gathering, CRM's ORDERS Collective conference, and MTI's "Debrief and Renewal" seminar designed for families coming back to the US.

During this “home assignment” from June 21, 2012 to July 31, 2013 we will:

·      Be available to Gillian and her adjustment, and also provide the whole family with valuable debriefing experiences available for missionaries.

·      Guide Karina, Liam and Olivia through their first experience in American schools.

·      Raise additional support, following up on people who have shown interest in our ministry.

·      Engage in Imago Christi spiritual formation ministry in our supporting churches.

·      Discern the future direction of our ministry.   

We hope to see many of you during this coming year to thank you for your support of our ministry and family!

College Bound

Gillian is a high school senior this year, and has decided to go to Wheaton College, majoring in elementary education and specialize in teaching English as a second language. The international ministry blood flows in her veins!

We are so thankful that Gillian received an additional scholarship from the ChristianMissionary Scholarship Foundation that made Wheaton the most affordable option among the six colleges and universities that she was considering!

Missionary Kids (MKs) and Third Culture Kids (TCKs) are children who grow up in a culture of their own between their host and passport cultures. MKs/TCKs usually have a hard time adapting to college life in their parents’ home culture. This summer Gillian will be attending the "MKTransition Seminar" sponsored by Barnabas International.