First Update

I just wanted to send an update on how life in St. Petersburg, Russia is going and inform you of some prayer requests. It has almost been two weeks since I have arrived here in Russia and immediately I was welcomed with open arms. The Lord has definitely been guiding and providing for me since I stepped foot on the airplane in Chicago. Traveling alone without a team was quite interesting, but it has showed me when you fully rely on God you need not worry. After boarding the plane in Chicago, I prayed that the Lord would guide me through the Stockholm airport and lead me right to my gate. Arriving in Stockholm, I got really nervous being that my plane arrived at 8am and my next flight did not leave until 1pm so the gate for my flight was not posted. Standing at the flight information board, I met a woman named Carol. She is an American who previously taught at Eastern Illinois University, but now teaches at St. Petersburg State University here in Russia. She teaches English to Russian interpretation. She was taking the same flight as I and so we sat together for 5 hours until our gate was posted. I told her what I was doing and she gave me her phone number and email address just in case I needed anything. After arriving in St. Petersburg, Carol also helped me through passport control and waited with me until my "family" arrived to pick me up. I saw this as a huge answer to my prayers. God works in such awesome ways!

After arriving in St. Petersburg, I met my family and we got acquainted. It has been awesome to observe how a Christian Russian household is run. It is so encouraging to me that I have brothers and sisters in Christ not only in the States but even thousands of miles away. Within the first week here, our family got a little bigger. We welcomed two new orphan graduates to our transition home. Now, we are a household of 6 females and 3 males. With a total of nine people living in a 3 bedroom flat, it has been interesting in many ways from being woken up early by little running footsteps (little Sasha, 4 years old) in the hallway to having to wait to use the restroom or shower. All in all, God is definitely helping me learn to have patience. Last week, Vera and Vova (parents of the home) had a translator come so I was able to tell them about my life in American and hear about their lives in Russia. The girls have stories you would not even believe. All the girls have lived in shelters (orphanages) most of their lives until now. Two of the girls living here are sisters, they are living together for the first time in a long time. As little girls, they were separated from each other and their other siblings. Their names are Nadya and Marina. Nadya and Marina are the youngest of 11 children, all of which lived in shelters. One of the other girls, Katya, did not even want to speak about her past. She has been living in this home the longest, 4 years. All she said was "This is my family. Those I live with right now. I am not going to talk about the past." After talking to a few people who have also lived in Vera and Vova's home, they all said they could not reach Katya. She is very closed off, but I have been praying that she would be able to open up to me. As the days go by I see her wanting to spend time with me. Yesterday, she wanted to look at pictures of me and my family, and she wanted to go for a walk. Please pray that the Lord will open Katya's heart to the love He has to give her, and that I will be able to bond more with her.

As time goes on, I will be taking on more roles and responsibilities here. From cooking and cleaning to Bible studies and English lessons, I will begin to do more so please be in prayer for understanding and direction on what the Lord has for me to do. Also, pray that as I am here I will learn the metro system a little better. For those of you who have been to Russia in the past, I have taken the metro ALONE, without Masha and Dan saying "Two stops! Check for your buddy!" :) But it is still very difficult to navigate the different metro lines.