Christ is Coming Again!

The audience's excited chatter died away.  Bells tolled from above, resounding throughout the old church.  Lights flickered out; candles threw shadows on the walls.  Children's voices filled the air with the slow haunting melody of "O Come, O Come Emmanuel."  And thus the Christmas concert began.
     I had the privilege of accompanying this song, along with many others throughout the special night.  In all, there were thirteen Christmas songs for which I got to play the church's grand piano - from "O Holy Night" to "Exultate Deo" to "Jingle Bells."  I was thrilled to be able to direct the middle school choir for one of their selections as well.  It was a busy night for me, so I was glad for the few moments during the concert in which I got to sit back, relax, and listen to the amazing bands.  Afterwards there was an extensive buffet of traditional treats from all over the world.  It was all-together a very successful night, thoroughly enjoyed by all who attended.  
    Christmas break is officially started, and Jake's here!  Now I'm the middle brother for awhile, which has been fun.  A lot of Jake and Kurt's friends are here as well, so it has been really good to get to know them all.  We've spent quality time walking around the city, going to the banya (sauna), watching movies, playing games, and planning an attempt to record a Les Mis song.
    We are also preparing for the rapidly approaching Babochka Winter Camp!  I spent eight hours last Saturday with Lewis and Zach Purcell, along with a group of Russian volunteers, learning/studying the camp theme - 5 Languages of Love (Encouraging words, Help, Touch, Time, and Gifts).  At camp, we will help the kids and each other discover our own preferred language.  There was a very nice Russian who wanted to practice his English, so he translated the whole meeting for me!
    Friday I met with a Babochka volunteer to learn the music for the camp.  In just under two hours, she was able to sing me the melodies to every song as I figured out the chords.  It will be so much fun to play and sing with the kids (once I learn the Russian lyrics, that is)!  I am very much looking forward to the camp, but it will be a challenge since I'll be the only non-Russian speaker.  Except for Steven Young!!  My good friend from Pettisville is coming to spend some time in St. Pete.  He is going to come to the camp as well, so that will be a crazy interesting experience for both of us.  If you don't know Steven, you should.  That guy's been all over the world in the last two months!
   
     The sun just came out for almost a half hour straight!  It's unbelievable how rarely we see the sun.  When I do see it, I stare at it lovingly as long as I can.  It looks more like a brighter yellower moon than the sun, and it doesn't hurt my eyes much! But I should probably stop staring at it...  Yesterday the sun rose at 11:01 and set at 4:54, and never got anywhere close to being visible above the buildings or through the clouds.  But it's all downhill from here, because every day will be a tiny bit longer than the previous day.

    New Years/Christmas is going to be a crazy fun time, but I'm sure gonna miss my family back home.  I hope everyone focuses on God's many blessings this season, and have a merry Christmas!

Fickle Weather and a Haircut

Hello everyone!
I'm sorry for the delay, but since I'm in a bit of a pattern, "bloggable moments" are a bit further apart than they were during my first months.  That's not to say things aren't a blast over here.  It's hard to believe I've been in St. Petersburg for three months already!  It really does not seem like it's been that long.  November has felt like the longest month so far, though.  Maybe it's due to the fact that I'm participating in a Camp Babochka fundraiser, Movember.  According to the rules, you can't shave above the lip for the whole month.   Kurt is doing a full out "no shave November", and I have to say, you should see his beard.  John also has an elegant stache.  Even though I've been true to the game, no one can tell:). But I'm looking forward to getting rid of what's there.

By titling this post "fickle weather," I mean that the weather is so fickle that it's not fickle at all.  Let me explain.  I thought that by this point we'd be under 3 feet of snow and below zero for awhile now.  Much to my surprise, it's still raining, and still in the low 40s.  I always knew that the weather at home was crazy, but I've never realized how crazy.  It's normal in Northwest Ohio to have a 15-20 degree difference between lows and highs, blizzards one day and tornadoes the next.  In St. Petersburg this is most definitely not the case.  All last week, the biggest gap between the high and low predictions was 4 degrees, and cloudiness was predicted every day.  The darkness, however, is more than I expected.  It's only November (so we have a whole month for days to get shorter), and the days are already ridiculously short.  If I go to school at 11am, the sun is just rising.  When I go home at 4:30, the sun is nearly gone.  At 12 o'clock noon, my shadow stretches around 30 yards (if the sun is actually shining)!

I made a couple of neat purchases this month - with no help from a translator (this means there was a lot of charades)!  At the metro station, I bought a monthly transportation pass from a cashier.  I originally wanted a simple bus/tram pass, but somehow I ended up with an all-inclusive (rather expensive) pass that allowed me unlimited access to the metro, trolley-buses, trams, and autobuses.  Although I spent more rubles than I'd planned, it has been an extremely handy card to have.
The second purchase I made was a haircut!  After some telling signs that I needed a trim-up, (a strange dream where Kurt was my barber, John finding a great deal at a nearby salon the next morning, and of course seeing my shaggy self in the mirror...) I decided to make a go for it.  I walked right into the salon (my first salon EVER by the way, thanks to Mom, aunts, neighbors, and cousins) and said я не говорю по-русски (I don't speak Russian)!  That really seemed to stress out the girl at the desk, and though I'm sure she knew some English, she was too uncomfortable to try it out.  It was funny that I felt like I was the one who was sure of myself, and the salon workers were flustered trying to help me.  It was a small place with only one barber (the first male to cut my hair).  It was fun to just sit there and watch as my hair began to look super Russian.  I really liked it, and since my hair is already quite long again, I'll be going back soon.

Wednesday chapels keep getting better and better.  The speakers are great, and the kids are so fun.  My schedule is really picking up this week as the Christmas concert approaches.  Again I will accompany several songs, and even have the privilege of directing and teaching the middle school choir a song!  I am thrilled with this opportunity, and so far it's been a success.  I love the people I work with at school, as well as those I don't work with as directly.  Everyone has unique and insanely interesting stories.  They've all been so many places!

Kurt and I always sing as we wash the nightly dishes, and one night we listened to the soundtrack to O Brother, Where Art Thou?.  John liked the sound of us singing "Down in the River to Pray," and convinced us to record ourselves singing it.  So, if you would like to hear some good ole acapella singing, you can click the link below.  Thanks so much for reading!  Your prayers are truly felt and appreciated.

God Bless,
Caleb

http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIKOAgRfzyM2TO1OaZC-xjA







     

International Day!

Happy Halloween everybody!  To be honest, I've never liked Halloween at all, and it seems Russia's the same way.  This year, however, a couple of stores are beginning to get into the whole Jack-O lantern and candy thing.  Today I saw evidence of this: a large orange sign with the English words "Treat or Trick!!" written on it.  Clearly Halloween still isn't as big in Russia as in the States.

Last Wednesday was a special day in the International Academy of St. Petersburg.  Appointed by the school as International Day, it was a great celebration of culture, diversity, and God.  The festivities began at 10 o'clock in the morning with a flag celebration.  The Christian flag led the way, and was followed by 13 national flags, carried by children from the respective countries.  Then, to begin the concert part of the day the high school choir opened with a welcome song from New Zealand.  Each grade, from kindergarten to middle school, sang songs that they had practiced during their music classes.  I was very fortunate to be the accompanist for each choral selection, and even though written music wasn't available for several pieces, all went well.  The advanced band also did spectacularly, as they  performed selections from several movie scores, including the Star Wars theme.  As the grand finale, the 3rd grade danced!  It was a traditional Russian dance and they nailed it.  They brought the roof down with their Russian leg kicks and fancy twirls.
    After the concert, we ate lunch.  Tacos, lasagna, and Chinese noodles were the global choices for the mid-day meal.  Immediately after eating, the students transformed their classrooms into cultural learning centers.  For example, one room was filled with Korean art and games, another had an island feel, and still another was a square dancing tutorial!  As you can imagine, this was a fun day that all of you would have enjoyed immensely.

As you may know, the 2014 Winter Olympics are being held in Sochi, Russia.  This week the torch was in St. Petersburg!  In fact, it was just a few blocks away on our island!  Unfortunately, I was not able to lay eyes upon it, but I've seen enough pictures from friends to know for a fact it was very, very close.  So I guess that will have to do.
Here's a fun story.  Two female teachers from the school are going to work at the olympics as translators for a security company!  They will get to go to events, work with CBS coverage teams, and even skate on the ice floors!  They will be gone for a full month, so my elementary teaching days may be back!

I hope you all are having a splendid fall.


GO HEAT!!

Live from Leningrad

It's been over three weeks since I last posted, and there have been quite a few changes in my every day life.  Due to the return of a teacher at IA, I no longer sub in the K-1 class.  I miss the kids, but as of this week I get to work with them again!  I am accompanying their fall programs with piano and sound effects, so I am having a lot of fun with that.  Every time I stick my head in their classroom to say hi, I can honestly say I know how Justin Bieber feels when he steps onto a stage!  The kids get all riled up and start yelling and running at me, clinging to my limbs…  it's quite a disruption, so I don't do it too often :)

I don't help with PE anymore either, so my time with the young ones has decreased significantly.  My after-school basketball games have also stopped, since official varsity practice has started.  Fortunately, I am able to use the school's weight room, so I'm keeping in shape that way.  This Saturday, I will play soccer with some guys from the school in a friendly match against the other private Christian school in the city.  Apparently, the son of Zenit's head coach plays on their team, so we are preparing ourselves for a solid defeat :) But it'll feel good to play soccer again!
 
I am continuing to lead chapel music every week, and my time with the choirs is now involving accompanying, sectional work, and maybe a little directing!  So just to reassure you who are worried, I still get to play quite a bit of piano every day!  I have also started tutoring high-schoolers after school Monday's through Thursday's, teaching Latin roots and English vocabulary to a class of up to 6 Koreans and Japanese.  That has been a very enjoyably challenging learning experience thus far.

The weather has actually been very glorious for a larger part of the last few weeks.  But this week I bought myself some gloves and a Zenit scarf, to prepare for the cold and rainy days which are now upon us.  It gets dark pretty early already, but I can't imagine what it will be like in the middle of winter.  The wind of the bay can be frigid in the morning, and when I walk through the 'dvor' (the tunnel-like entrance to an apartment complex), it's like walking through a tornado!  But it will get much worse in a month or two, so that'll be exciting.

This weekend I went to the movies with Kurt, Lewis, and some other friends.  We saw Stalingrad in a 3D IMAX theatre in the Galleria (a huge mall downtown).  Friday night was the opening night for the appraised film, which was the first IMAX movie ever produced outside of the U.S.A..  The entire production was filmed in St. Petersburg, so it's a pretty big deal in the city.  The war movie had potential to be just a huge epic fight scene, filled with gore, death, and pain.  And that's what I was expecting (it did have some of this, of course).  However, a truly inspiring plot involving intense action, endearing companionship, and sweet romance treated me with a pleasant surprise.  There was even some humor sprinkled in as well!
Of course, I didn't fully appreciate the film until it was over, when my kind Russian-speaking friends told me what had happened.  Oh yes, it was all in Russian (and a bit of German)!  Unfortunately for the folks in America, the movie will most likely not be shown in the U.S., otherwise I would strongly recommend Stalingrad to every one I care about.

My life continues to be one giant blessing from God.  I was listening to the French movie Amelie's soundtrack today as I walked through the misty streets of Europe.  It was an impeccable realization of the dream I've dreamt so often when I was young, after my first visit to Europe.  I thank God every day for my opportunities, and for all my friends at home who daily lift me up in prayer.

All praise to YAHWEH 

Update from Camp Babochka

Dear Friends and Partners,

We are just coming off a wonderful Saturday (the 21st) with so many positive emotions its hard to know where to start. The Soccer Match was a huge success on all levels.

To start with, God answered each and everyone of the prayer requests we made to you:

1)  safety - our ref Lewis, who has been our ref for almost seven years, said that he had never refereed a game with so much energy but without so much as even one dangerous moment with the wheelchairs;

2) the MiniPeople Club and the City Administration were both shocked by what they saw Saturday, they had never really seen the spirit of love that pervades our time with our kids, and they both could not help but comment on its beauty and power;

3) planning and details also went down without a hitch, with the MiniPeople even getting all the kids to the field early;

4) male volunteers - God found us five more volunteers the night before the match, right when we were just giving up hope, it was incredible!

But God went beyond these requests and provided us with some treats we had not expected. The soccer match was also the most team-oriented we have ever played. Often times in the past the kids in wheelchairs end up with much more "ball-time" than those who walk with assistance but not this time. Team members valued each other and at several points the match almost came to a standstill as players waited for those who were slower to kick the ball. It was truly beautiful to see the kids and counselors respect and love each other through giving each other this kind of time even in the middle of a competitive soccer game (the final score was 1-0).

Saturday morning it rained. But by the time we were gathered together to play the sun was out and shining, something very rare here in St. Petersburg. And the weather continued to be great for the rest of the day. This too was surely from God.

To list all the blessings of Saturday would take recounting the entire day, blow-by-blow, because God surely was with us through it all. I would just like to once again thank you for your payers.

You can view some photos of the event on the photos page of this blog.  The kids' expressions are priceless!

- "With God" (as we say here in Russia) -

Club Babochka Staff

"getting into the swing of things"

Haruka, Miroslava, Maxim, Ella, Gabriel, Sara, Olivia, Louise, Stephen, Alitheia, Anita, Katie, Anna

Russians, Americans, Japanese, Koreans, Bulgarians, Swedes

    This is the class of kindergarteners and first graders that I have been helping this last week.  They speak English at school, learn Russian in class, and converse in their native language with family at home (if different).  It absolutely amazes me to watch a 5 year old Korean girl read her Bible with crazy Korean symbols during Russian class until the teacher tells her in English to pay attention to class.  My first day, when I asked where they were from, many were unable to give me a sure answer.  It is so fun to work with such cultured kids, and sometimes I feel I can start talking calculus with them and they'll understand!  But... they still are kindergarteners :) They still have the same minds as the young folks back at Pettisville, and they still like to cause as much trouble!  

     I started unexpectedly last Monday, due to an absent teacher (it turns out she'll be gone for awhile).  Deb woke me up at 8 saying, "are you ready for an adventure?"  I was ready for another day of touring and getting to know the city (I had only been here for two weeks, you know).  Instead, we took a tram to the school at which Kurt is a senior, and I helped Deb sub in the K-1 class.  That day I taught Bible class, and led a group during reading.  I had such a good day.

     Tuesday, I helped John with PE, keeping kids in line and admiring John's energy with the kids.  We took buses to transport the kids to and from the gym, which was in a different part of the city.   Mr. and Mrs. Siegel sure know what they're doing!  After we were done using the gym with 3 older classes, I sat in the lobby, waiting for the next group of kids to come.  Soon, there was a nice line of K-1 children by the front door!  I was excited to reunite with them, and they all remembered me, but they had forgotten my name.  One tiny Japanese doll looked up at me and said, "Is it Mr. Carrot?"  The kids roared with laughter, and now more than half the class still calls me Mr. Carrot instead of Mr. Caleb.  

    I waited with them for Mr. Siegel, or another teacher, but then Ms. Katya asked me to take them to the playground, and lead their PE class!  So, I took them out, and did the warm- up drills I had seen Mr. Siegel do, and they listened well!  However, when I tried to organize a game for them to play, all they seemed to want is to run around.  So, I drew a line in the dirt, and told them to run from the line to me, and then back.  When I said GO, they formed two lines, and instead of running at me all at once, they did a relay! Wow. I should've thought of that...

    Then I had recess duty.  The Mr. Carrot girl wanted to swing, so I gave her a ride.  Apparently it looked like a lot of fun, because soon there was a line of kids wanting a ride, too.  Gradually, the swing turned into a space ship, and when they close their eyes they'd fly into space.  One girl told me, and I quote, "this is special!" That swing was the highlight of the week no doubt.

    Wednesday, I led chapel music all day.  From now on I am in charge of selecting music, and getting kids to help lead their mates.  

    Thursdays I will help the choirs, 

    and Fridays... I suppose I'll end up back with the K-1's. 

    Every day after school, I play basketball with the team, and am getting to know some friends through that.

    Saturday, I spent the day with Camp Babachka (the handicapped camp), pushing wheelchairs in an intense match of wheelchair soccer!  Next Saturday I'll go to a Champions League match, St. Petersburg Zenit versus its rival Moscow Spartak.  That has potential to be as intense as the wheelchair game, but it will be close.  

    Sunday, we went to church, shopped at a mall, played soccer in the rain, and relaxed.

   

 I feel like I'm getting into a groove.  A good groove.

But the beautiful, warm days are over.  Leaves are falling like flies and the rain is too, from ever-greying skies.  Gentle breezes are now bone-chilling gusts.  The temperature dipped below 50F for good, and days grow short.                                 Winter is coming... and I'm ready.

People Count

       The other day, as I rode up the metro escalator the same way I had many times before, I witnessed something I won't likely forget.  As I rose from the depths of the underground tunnels, I saw what looked like a man laying on the floor of the metro.  I figured he must have had a heart-attack or had fainted.  As I walked past him I looked down at his figure, and immediately my head started reeling.  I looked away instinctively, and in a daze moved on.  But the glance was enough.  The memory was stamped in my mind like a picture frame on a wall.  The young man lay sprawled on the hard floor, limbs unmoving.  I saw his exposed belly first, with blood running from a hole in his chest to his navel.  My mind's eye moved up to his face, where his eyes stared unseeing at the ceiling, and his mouth hung open.  The picture throbbed behind my eyes the whole way home. It was as if I was looking through it to see the moving world around me.

       I couldn't get the picture out of my mind, so I decided to let it there.  I was struck by the fact that there were very few people staying by the man's side at the scene of the crime, and no police or emergency vehicles anywhere close.  People, like me, just glanced at it and walked by.  There were a couple of women standing nearby looking at him, but the rest of the station moved on with business as usual.  The more I reflected on it, the more disturbed I became.  I went to our balcony, opened the windows, and played guitar - playing and praying for the young victim, his family, and the killer.  I felt much better after twenty minutes of music and God, and was able to move on with the day. 

       Later that evening, John took me shopping, and we discussed what I had seen.  He wasn't surprised by the fact that the dead stranger was unattended, and asked me my thoughts on why no one seemed to care.  John had asked a taxi driver a similar question years ago, after he had been forced to walk over a dead body laying on the side walk of a main street one afternoon.  The taxi driver said a peculiar thing.  "Russia doesn't count people."  You can choose two ways to interpret this statement, but I think it's obvious that he meant that in Russia, people don't count.

       Then John asked me why the taxi driver's words were as true as they were.  I couldn't for the life of me think of why people wouldn't count, so John explained.  It comes down to the underlying beliefs of the country.  The reformation of Christianity basically was kept from Russia, so the Russian Orthodox church has reigned since the year 325.  The basic Anabaptist principals are lost to the majority of Russians.  The idea that humans are made in the very image of God and God loves every one of us equally is nearly nonexistent.  Inequality is engrained in their culture.  John told me it is understandable that "normal" people could feel un-important in God's eyes.  They are constantly confessing their sins to the priests, bishops, and deacons who dress in fancy robes and light scented candles in the otherwise off-limits Holy of Holies.  This is a logical reason for the general sense of uncaring the "higher-ups" show towards the normal folk.

       This experience has strengthened my Anabaptist beliefs, and I realize again how thankful I am that God loves me even if no one else does, and I will always be worth something with Christ. 

"Classic Russian Experience"

I have not begun to work with the Butterfly Camp (the handicapped camp) yet, so this week was spent leisurely touring the city and learning how to get around it.  On Thursday, I went to visit the Wycliffe office that Deb works at, where we had a prayer meeting with Bible translators from all over the world.  There were so many cool accents!  After that, I went to the Hermitage (Thursdays are free).  I saw some Michelangelo (The Crouching Boy), Leonardo da Vinci (Madonna and Child), Rembrandt (The Prodigal Son), and some mummies.

     Yesterday (Friday, Sept. 6th), was a day I'll remember for a long time.  I woke up at 9am, played guitar and wrote in my journal until 11. Then I took a nap to combat jet-lag.  Nice morning.  Then Deb took me to a Georgian restaurant, where we had a 2 hour meal of eggplant, tomatoes, grilled cheesy naan bread, spinach and nuts, and shish-kabobs. It was delicious!  On the way home, I was taking the metro home when I got taken aside by the police and told to step into a little glass room.  They checked me for weapons and let me go.  I guess I look like a southern criminal.  Must be my nose...  

     When I got home I left with John to go to a local gym to play basketball with Kurt and his team. That was fun, but exhausting as I have done no physical activity since my high-school's alumni soccer game.  

     At 9:45pm, Kurt and I went to meet with Lewis and Petyr (a Russian midget from the Butterfly Camp) to go to a banya.  We were supposed to meet at the metro at 9:30, but Lewis didn't show up until 10:30.  We then walked in a random direction for a half hour. We had to walk slowly due to Petyr's short legs.  He really likes to try and speak English! But he's super hard to understand.  After walking and walking, Lewis finally decided to tell us that he didn't get the reservation he wanted, and that we didn't get the banya (which was private) until 12:30!  Soooo we walked down to the Bay of Finland to see the giant port and huge cruise ships, and then headed back to the banya.  We saw dozens and dozens of big G20 buses in a row, and tons of Mercedes.  At one point, there were no cars on a street but black Mercedes!  That was the most evidence I've seen of the G20.

     Since we didn't know exactly where the banya was, we walked miles and miles to find it. Remember I was already super duper sore from basketball….  We finally did find it, though, and I was very much looking forward to it by that point.

     We stayed there for 2 hours, sitting in a steaming sauna, jumping into a freezing pool, taking a cold and hot shower simultaneously, relaxing in a hot tub, standing in a place where water shoots at you from all directions, dumping buckets of ice water on our heads, whipping our backs, legs, and chests with birch branches, playing pool, and singing karaoke.  

     So the 2 hours actually went fast, and then we walked back to the metro in the cold night at 2:45 in the morning.  We stopped at a 24 hour shaverma shop and ate one each (they are kind of like gyros), and then all went back and slept in our apartment.  I was soooo tired.  

    Today we bought a soccer ball, cuz there is a little field about 4 minutes away that is always open.  So yeah that's about it.  It's like France except the air is sea-fresh!  It's beautiful to breathe here.  

God Bless!  

First Day

I've been here for a full 24 hours!  Today was absolutely glorious in St. Pete.  It must have gotten up to seventy degrees, because I was comfortably walking around in a v-neck.  But I was about the only one in the city in short sleeves, so that will change tomorrow:).  Everyone here is very stylish, and dresses up for everything.
   It is especially windy on our island, due to the Bay of Finland that's a few blocks away.  Right now the windows of our all-weather balconies are wide open, letting the cool breeze bring the noise of the city flowing through the apartment.  I forgot my camera today, so I don't have pictures of the city to add, but I do have some of the apartment.  It is amazing!  I was prepared to live in tight spaces, but I'll be spoiled instead.
   The metro stations are like churches here, with majestic marble pillars and ornate tile walls, all under ground.  So far under ground, in fact, that it takes 5 minutes to get down to the tracks by escalator!  We took the metro and trolleys a lot today, and Kurt and his friends from school took me to a huge mall, where I ate an Italian crepe (pronounced "bleenee").  Actually Kurt had to buy it for me, since the money-changer rejected my money thanks to a few wrinkles... that and setting off the metro alarm were the only stumbling blocks so far!  I know I'm going to like it here.

Das Vidanya (that's what it sounds like at least)

From Germany

And just like that, I'm across the Atlantic!  Two movies, a nice nap, and plenty of delicious airplane food made for a quick flight to Frankfurt.  Now I'm sitting in the airport in Germany for a short layover.  We will reach St. Petersburg at 10am Ohio time, 6pm local time.

I left Ohio last night with no little amount of sadness.  But after a much needed "bawling session" with my family, I am feeling great and ready to take on whatever God sets in front of me.  (But first I'd like a good sleep in a bed... but I suppose that's for later:).

I hope for your sake that my future posts are more interesting, and if indeed they are, you might like to subscribe to my blog!  So if you'd like to, you can submit your email address at the bottom of the page, and you will receive alerts by email.

Now I will pull out my 3/4 sized guitar and play some Mumford & Sons with Kurt on the accordion.

Auf Wiedersehen

P.S:  Comments are cool, so... write it up!

Post numero uno

5 Days! 

I am about ready to leave, and I am still feeling as if it isn't' really happening! I have finally started packing, and it's turning out to be more difficult than I had imagined, due to all the restrictions on baggage these days.  I have been going over to the Siegels once a day for Russian lessons from Debbie and Kurt.  It's a challenge, but so fun!  I'm looking forward to practicing my few phrases in real life situations.  I especially hope I remember the words bread, cheese, and toilet :)