Potential Whatevers

Twas the night before the night before Christmas,
and all through the apartment...
the guys ate ice cream...
Well, that's what we've been doing tonight. We're here until lunchtime of the 26th and then we're heading up into more northern Siberia for a while. Then we'll return to Krasnoyarsk here on the 2nd of January. Then on the 5th we'll be heading to Ulan Ude, just next to Lake Baikal. It should prove to be quite the adventure!

Okay, I'll try again...

Twas the night before the night before Christmas
and all through the flat
all the boys were all eating
Until we were all fat
On ice cream and sausage
Pilmeenee* and bread
And fighting off sleep so that this could be read
I hope all are well, as we have been here
Likely next time I write you
Will be sometime next year
Thanks for stopping by the blog here today
May God’s grace and peace be with you always
Well, work hard for God and remember us here
And Merry Christmas to all and a Happy New Year!

*Pilmeenee is spelled phonetically for the use of pronunciation. It is like a small perogie that has some meat, usually pork, inside. It is similar to the Chinese wonton, but smaller. It is one of the commonly eaten types of food that are common to Russia…We ate it almost everyday on our first week here… O.o
.

We were down by the river today looking at ice sculptures... it's a big deal here and you can see them everywhere downtown. It's quite spectacular. Thank you all for the emails and comments... I love you all, and I sincerely hope you have a great Christmas back home. Here we're going to be celebrating Christmas twice. Jan 7th too.... :D Anyways, Merry Christmas and Take care everyone! Thanks for readin the blog!
Grace and Peace
Brother J

December 22, 2006
The start of a new day…yesterday was our very last program day for about 5 days which we’ll spend enjoying a North American Christmas and recovering from the last while of programs. I’m personally hoping to rest my wrist. Way back when we were pushing a car that had been stranded near Bogotol I’ve been having a bit of trouble with my wrist…Not serious…but annoying. It’s like if I had sprained it…I just can’t lean on it or bend it very far… Still prayer for our team’s health in general would be appreciated.
I had a really good time with Zhenya this evening. He plays guitar and basically just as well as I can. He’s been learning North American church songs and doing them transliterated…So we were able to sing along with some of them and it was a really great time of sharing songs and music. He doesn’t often get to play guitar since nobody around here owns one. That is too bad for there are a large handful of guys who would love to play guitar more if they had the chance. It really is great how much fun we had…I think I ate too much bread just before bed though…lol, it’s these late snacks they give us… *sigh* But the cheese spread is just so good!!!
It has been really good to see how much God has been working…Everywhere we turn we see God doing something great. And yet… strangely in all that God is doing it’s possible to feel alone. I’ll be missing my family this Christmas…it’s the first one away from home. Well, my immediate family. So to all, Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year.
From Russia with Love
~James

December 21, 2006
To ARMS TO ARMS! ‘Tis been a battle of sorts here in recent times. For the last three days we have had programs in places where we are to make no use of ‘propaganda’ of any kind. Which means, ‘You cannot speak of Jesus’. So most of the programs we did were mainly concerts to keep the people interested. Right at the end however, we played ‘One Way’… Jesus, you’re the only one that I can live for. The kids loved it, and we’d always catch a few who were dancing along with it… some were even singing it! In fact, yesterday at a college we were asked for an encore, and so we played Awesome God for them. Truly God is awesome that He has brought us into these places that for so very long have been absolutely closed to the Church.
We’ve been spending the last few days in a city named Dubinina. The church here is seemingly young. Most of the church leaders have been Christians for less than a year! It’s incredible the passion that they have. The director of Children’s programs in the area is named Zhenya (Zh = J in bonjour)…He was saved somewhere in the last 5 years I believe… I remember him talking about 2001 being a key year for him. Each of the people is an amazing testimony of what God can do with a person’s life. Most of the guys that we’ve worked with, less than a year ago were near the end of their life because they were doing so much with drugs. But God has completely turned them around. In Canada so often I’ve found my spiritual life kind of … complacent. Average and meh… But you can’t do that here. If you were to try to live life in the middle here, you’d get dragged right out of the church by your own mediocrity. Here you must be on fire for God if you want to do anything for Him. I sometimes imagine what Canada could become if we were as on fire for Christ as are the Christians here…. Wow…. It’s strange… our being here has given them a fresh potential in the area. Many places that they normally could never go into see our team from Canada and say, ‘Great! I never knew the church did anything good! Sure, come on back!’ Most people around here have been brought up thinking that the Baptists were some kind of small cult. But now they’re beginning to see, not only that we’re a lot larger than they thought… But also that within the Church, Russia’s people will find their only hope for their existence…the only way… the One way… Jesus.
Oh, how I need to be desperate …. We need to be desperate to see God work. This is a battle… And we have everything we need to win. We just need to ask for the help. We need to look past the simple physical problems and see that there is so much more at work right now. May God ignite in all of us a fresh passion from the Holy Spirit for the lost. May today be found fresh for you!
Grace and Peace
~Brother J

December 17, 2006
Well, we’ve arrived after getting delayed/lost for an hour… We’re in a fairly large town here and we’ll be here for about…4 days I believe and then we’ll be heading back to Krasnoyarsk… It’s hard to believe that in just a short while, it’ll be Christmas. We had a good service at the church that we had been staying at. I was a bit grumpy though as I didn’t get enough sleep… I have the foreboding feeling that it’ll happen again too. It’s actually after midnight… so it’s the 18th now… crazy. Speaking of crazy, I’ve come to the conclusion that Mexican movies are crazy as well…
It’s strange… though I know very little about the couple where Bryce and I are currently staying, it does indeed seem slightly Mexican… I don’t know why. Perhaps it’s because this is truly the most simplistic home I’ve seen yet. I was grumpy again this evening… Bruce and Olga were talking with Bryce and I… and it was in one of those moments that I felt very…alone. Alone and different. I strongly dislike moments like that… Because it makes me feel very small and useless. I hate feeling useless. Oh well… I realized it was like Sam in the Fellowship of the Ring. He’s not useful, and most people overlook him. It doesn’t seem like he could play a signicant… if any part at all… in the story. As it turns out, Sam is who keeps it going in the end when all hope fades. Perhaps… perhaps I was born for a moment. Just in order so that when that one day comes… that one moment that I can truly be useful…that I WILL be … I wonder.
We’re all useful in our own ‘special’ way I suppose. And hey, thanks to all who are saying in your heads, ‘He’s not useless!’… It makes me feel better when your prayers are headed this way. Anyways, I’m gonna let Bryce do some journaling. Have a great night sleep! Farewell and Namarie.
~Brother James



December 15, 2006 (EVENING)
Well, it indeed was another long day… I’m beat. We had a program at an orphanage and then we went out to a village in the area. It was not sure if the gospel had ever come there… There were about 15 people, but always some going and coming. One in particular who would come and go was drunk. He was covered in tattoos, had fairly dark skin and desperately wanted to sing a solo that evening… The audience was not about to grant his request… It really was too bad that man was drunk… He has an amazing story to tell I am sure. He was telling James L outside about how he had been in prison for 17 years and on death row at one point. On his back is a huge crucifix tattooed with some women kneeling on either side. On his front is a huge tattoo of Mary. He was claiming to be a Christian to James and then he wanted to go and get his tarot cards and tell his future… It was very interesting. It’s sad to see what people do to themselves… But what is really amazing is when God displays His power in places that are so bound by sin, Satan and despair. I hope salvation comes to that man, and to all his village there. That would be so awesome! We’ll have to learn what God does one day… I wonder…

December 15, 2006
Last couple days here actually have been ‘relaxing’…we had a later morning and a program later in the day. Pastor Sasha here is the twin of Pastor Andre in that little village area with the snowstorm. Recently I’ve been the klutz of the team. I banged my head on a wall yesterday really hard and it levelled me… and I had only got 5 hours of sleep the night before… so I wasn’t sure if that dull pain was from the wall or from sleep deprivation. Never the less, I did get some better sleep last night. The first night it was very cold. So this time I came prepared with all these extra clothes… and then we didn’t even use them! This time there was heat…. Oi! lol. That’s life. Then in the night I put a blanket against the corner of the wall where my head was because I was sleeping and then I smoked my head on that wall too! So then I rolled over and took Bryce’s elbow to my face… wow… it’s been amazing hitting my head on everything…I can’t wait to get more sleep. The girls I think have arrived which means I should go and have breakfast real soon…
Oh, right now we’re staying in a Baptist church that isn’t finished yet. What’s interesting is that when Bruce was first here, this building was only a dream. Russia for the longest time would make a church meet on the far edge of town in a shack away from people… so the change is absolutely staggering that we are in a LARGE Baptist church, but they were allowed to build it right in the heart of this city of 60 000 people. Go figure! Only God can accomplish things like that.
Praise God that he’s still working! He is still working today!  Grace and Peace…
~ Brother J

December 13, 2006
Dima was up at 9 to make sure we had time to shower and to eat. We had a good time saying our goodbyes and then we went to the church to hear Pastor Sasha’s testimony. Apparently he used to be into a lot of ‘healing’… healing by demons… that kind of thing. And he told us the struggles and the story of how he met Jesus. It was really very exciting! It reminded me of both testimonies I’ve heard from Native people from northern Canada who have had spirit troubles…and also of the early church in Acts. He had aquired a huge library of these occultic healing books and certificates, and one day God got a hold of him and he went and burned them all in the back yard… then he gave up all of his former life and wealth and decided to live as a poor worker of Jesus. Wow. It was an eye opener for all of us, and it was hard to let us go.
Now we’re on the road back home. We’ll see what today brings. Take care!
Grace and Peace
~Brother J

December 12, 2006
This became a wonderful day to get out many of those issues that we had as a team built up from just being around each other too much. It was a good venting morning. We spent most the morning doing prayer, personal work time, and putting things right again. It was refreshing and yet strangely draining all at once. In the afternoon we went to a school, with mostly youth attending. It was one of the best programs we’ve done to date. It was really fun to do, and it turned out that all that had stayed at our program could have just gone home, as school was out, but they had chosen to stay. So for those that did stay, we felt very honoured. After I had carried some of the equipment out afterwards, I stopped to look at a curious stained glass art piece in the stairwell. It was of three Russian cosmonauts floating about a deep red sun. In the middle of the sun was a small man with a flower in his hand. It looked like something out of some Greek myth. It was interesting in any case. As I was looking at it, there was this older lady down on the main floor who began yelling. I turned to look and to my surprise, she was yelling at ME! I didn’t know what to do… ‘Uh…’ I muttered…’Yanee, pannee, my-you, Parruski’… Which is basically I don’t understand Russian. She looked at me really funny, and then a young boy, Victor’s son, Victor, had come up the stairs and told the lady that I was one of the Canadians and then grabbed my arm and whisked me up the stairs. I recall seeing the teacher look somewhere between confused and embarrassed. I was for a while too, until I found Olga and James and got them to tell young Victor thank you for saving my life. It turns out that she thought I was Russian and was wondering what in the world I was doing in this school… She wanted to know who I was and why I was there at all. ‘Ha!’ I told James, ‘I’m blending into the culture…. Even with my pompom toque!!!’
It was my triumphant moment for the day.
After we went back to the church where I was given a little teddy for a present to remember them by. I think it’s a Christmas tree ornament. And then Rhys and I finished the song about the duct tape Perspectives bag…to the tune of ‘A little More’ by Skillet. It’s quite interesting, and I hope some of you who want to hear it will get a chance to listen to it.
James and Molly came with AJ and myself to Natasha’s. After a while of waiting, Dima showed up to unlock the flat. We visited for a good long while there drinking tea and eating. It was exciting to hear about how they had grown up. Please pray for Dima… he’s searching but doesn’t really want to be a Christian right now…His mom is a strong believer. After almost all was said and done, AJ and I visited with Dima and Natasha after James and Molly had left. Natasha got out some paper and crayons, and we each drew them a picture. It was really fun, but it left me very tired. Oh, I gave Natasha a cd of some of my songs on it. She was really happy and kissed me on the cheek. Haha, she told me that since AJ and I were sons there now, we were entitled to special treatment. Dima was happy to call me a brother. That was really great. He’s near 30 now and is in the army… it’s weird having a big brother… I’ve always been the oldest until recently… it’s a really strange feeling. But pray for him… He needs the Lord. He needs fulfillment. He’s sick of life in the army…He said that AJ and myself were the first kind faces he’s seen in over a year. Pray for him. We went to bed … sometime before 2. I’m not really sure when we got to sleep.

December 11, 2006
Bogotol the village was called. The Pastor there was Andre…and we arrived for tea, chocolate and to sing them ‘It is Well With My Soul’. From there we went to our first program run by a lady who can speak very fluent French. France French. Indeed it seems like a very romantic language. We had some issues with the sound equipment which got us, moodwise, off on the wrong foot. It was very good though that the kids there were very fond of balloons. We made a bunch of different balloons for each of them and after it all was said and done, they sang us a song. But a song I had heard when I was a kid. ‘Higher, Higher… lift Jesus higher’… That was really special. Unfortunately, because we had to enjoy their wonderful hospitality we ended up being very late for lunch. So late in fact that we came in, prayed, sat down, ate 0-5 bites depending on how fast you could eat the hot stew (Rhys for example ate 0… I on the other hand ate five… but I burnt my tongue…), and then got up, put on our coats again and left. A huge snowstorm had blown in and it was very windy and brought with it, obviously, very much snow. Being it was so stormy, we drove fairly slowly and found a car that had just gone into the ditch. James L stopped his car and we got out and started trying to help him. When that didn’t seem to be working, we flagged down a big Russian jeep. After a few attempts, including snapping the tether line, we eventually pulled and pushed the car out. Back on the road, we found that now we would be an hour late. So when we arrived in our last program location, a small community hall, we very hurriedly began to set up our equipment. And right in the middle of it, the host lady came in and said that we must stop what we were doing and enjoy some tea, chocolate and cookies. So we did… you dare not argue with a host lady. So, eventually, about 2 and then some hours later we started our program. It went really well. We couldn’t stay a long time afterwards because we didn’t want to get snowed in or anything and we still were hoping to get to the banya. So, in the dark night we followed large trucks down the highway. There was blowing snow everywhere, the snowdrifts were crossing the road, it was hectic and scary driving… But we all made it safely back into town and by 10:30 we were
arrived at the local banya. It was nice. Basically to explain the banya, it’s hotter than a sauna, with drier heat, an overall lack of clothing…and leafy branches to thwack yourself with. Obviously there is a girl side and a guy side, so that made things more comfortable. But sweating with 5 other men in a small little room dodging the leafy birch branches that were swinging everywhere was really quite interesting. Oh, here’s a helpful sidenote… If ever you are having a Russian shower… turn off the hot water first. It can get very, very hot and in a very short amount of time. In you are not fast enough you can burn yourself. Just thought I’d let you know that…because it hurts and you don’t want to do that. Anyways, it was a very enjoyable experience. It was wonderful for the pores. That night I planned to go to bed right away.
We arrived home after 12 and so we were sure that our host, Natasha would be asleep. Nope. Turns out that her son had arrived that night from a 3 day train ride. That meant that there would not be an early bedtime. We stayed up for a while and enjoyed more tea and each other’s attempts at each of our strange languages. Natasha’s son’s name is Dima…(deema) and he was really great to talk with, though that night it was a lot shorter than I’m sure he would have liked to visit. Praise God there would be only one program for the next day. *sigh* Yes, in case you were wondering I miss you all back home every once in a while… God has been good. We’ve never had to experience the oppression that people like Pastor Andre have had to deal with. And yet we have the opposite issue. Let us not continue to be complacent…live every life as it were you last moment. You may not get another chance. Grace and Peace
~Brother J

December 10, 2006
Day off day… in theory that is… We went to the Baptist church in the area called ‘Living Waters’. It was a great time. Our team did a couple songs there, and on the spot they asked me to do a song I had written! Crazy! I did ‘Sunshine in the Rain’ as Bruce had been talking a bit about communion and about Bridgrooms and Brides… I was missing my Bride to be back at home. So I did that song because it was about Karina and it was about my Saviour. It was a great time. Afterwards, we visited until around 4… the service had started at 11. At 4 we were sick of sitting around eating… For real, we had been having tea all afternoon with different groups coming in to spend time with us. At 4 we all went outside and we had a snowball fight between Canada and Russia. We were quickly overwhelmed, haha, so some of the fellow Russians helped us out. I got one in the face real hard near the end. lol, it was a lot of fun, and I’m glad we did it. Afterwards we went inside to warm up and… You guessed it… had more food and more tea. *sigh* I was telling the rest of the team… I don’t remember what it means to be hungry. And I’m quite sure if I wasn’t filling my being with food all the time, I’d be losing a good deal of weight with all the walking and stairs and programs that we’ve been doing. But as it is, there’s no end to the food, and so there simply is no way I’ll be able to fit these trousers if this keeps up for much longer!!!
The same gal from the first program we did in the cinemas was there today. Her name sounds a lot like the French ‘vwala!’ …I think it’s the short version of Valintine. Russian language has a LOT of short form names. In fact they found out that my full name here if it were in Russian would be Yakov Blainavich…there was a short form of Yakov too I believe.. but I don’t recall it now. It’s crazy how much a name can change here.
After everything around 5:30pm we started heading back to our billets to relax…except for AJ who wanted to work on chalk art. In fact at 9, he’s still not home here yet. When I got back, Natasha was wanting to feed her dog, Gelda. I figured, sure I’ll come for a quick walk down to see your dog. She asked if I needed a fur hat. I told her I’d be fine with my little cap. I did take the mitts she offered though as I had left mine in the van. Well, the little walk was over 2 kms one way. Through the neighbourhood, out into the edge of the town to where there were hundreds of sheds and garages. I escorted her all the way down attempting to chat in my very very broken Russian. It was interesting. Eventually we turned into a small ‘alley’ which was fairly wide, but all of it was deep snow except for a small footpath that had been packed down. My ears were beyond freezing at this point and so I had pulled them under my hat. (It was because of the wind… the temperature was dropping to near -25 tonight) We walked a ways down this alley until we reached a small wooden gate. She unlatched it and let me come through. It was a garden! Well, I mean, it was still all snow.. But it was a large fenced in garden. Her dog stays there in a dog house and guards the area. Most of the dogs around here are treated a lot different than we would treat them in Canada. They’re treated a bit like semi-tamed wolves. They wander through the streets and through yards, but some are regular pets, and some are completely homeless, and then some are guards on the prowl. Anyways, Natasha stooped down and called the dog…no answer. She poured out all the food she had with her and called again. No answer. So she shrugged and walked away to leave. So I started to call the dog. ‘Here doggy!’…… Curiously, it was answered… I didn’t see her dog… But there was a low growl….*rrrrrrrrr* … I repeated the process several times enjoying the low growl and then we left. About 7 minutes later walking, I heard something coming; walking up behind us. I spun around when it started getting close, and there was a dog! Natasha let out a cry and started to pet the dog that looked a good deal like a german shepherd crossed with some other dog with black floppy ears. It was scared of me, but it enjoyed being with his master for a little bit and then she clapped her hands and sent the dog back home to do guardwork. Strange.



We saw some stars out there on the way back… in fact, I think that was first time I had seen stars since I’d been here in Russia. It had been quite cloudy most of the time we’ve been here. So it was really nice to see them out. They were exactly the same as at home. ‘Zeeovs-dee!’ she said, proudly pointing to the sky. Alas, we made it back and then we went through some photos of friends, family and our travels. Then Natasha went to read a book and I went to journal. And now here we are. AJ returned a sentence ago and then I caught him up with everything I just finished telling you here.
Please pray that Pastor Sasha will be given wisdom in how to go about building a large church. Right now they have a huge building that is next to the church that they’re working on. But Sasha doesn’t know how in the world to work on a building or anything. He just used to sell things. PLEASE pray that God would do something amazing for the church here. Wow. Oh, and for anyone who wants their church to grow? Prayer… that’s what will set in motion. Any age so long that it’s heartfelt. That and small groups meeting to discuss and pray…. Pray….and be at peace!
Brother J

December 9, 2006
Wow… we’re tired. lol, we had only two programs yesterday, but they took a lot out of us… or perhaps it was all the food we had to eat… Whichever…
We did a program in a medical school last afternoon. That was really fun! They were attentive, and we found out after that it was a miracle that they didn’t stop us in the middle of the program. We were forbidden to tell them about the evening program, yet a few of them knew simply because of the massive advertising the church had done for us here. They advertised us on TV! The evening program was actually in the cinema. There was a massive room for about 400 or so. It had a very large stage and we were nervous just being in such a large room. About 120 people came. Something like that. But we were very pleased to find out that many of those who came, perhaps even 60 or more weren’t involved with the church at all and many of the things they heard they were hearing for the first time!!! Praise God that it went well. There were issues. I had a bad cough and AJ happened to pick out the only bad cord to hook up his drums. Yet when push came to shove, God pulled us through despite our potential to fail. My voice didn’t just hold out, it was better at singing than I’ve ever done to this day. AJ noticed that his drums didn’t work at all at the start of one of the songs, but it wasn’t imperative that he came in at that moment. Literally he was able to fix it about 1 second before he came in, and then he came in with a wonderful ring of cymbals. It was wonderful how God provided.
Afterwards, Bryce, AJ and myself were invited upstairs to listen to some other music from a fellow musician who had come to watch us. They went with him when the program was over. The rest stayed to visit with the people still around. I was on my way out and then Olga stopped me. Apparently there was a girl who had wanted to fellowship… that was what Olga said. I’ll have to ask about what else they had talked about. But we had a good visit. She realized quickly how different Canada and Russia are. But as Olga was translating for us, we were able to compare our stories of how God changed our lives and it was really very interesting. Many of the Christians here are first generation Christians, and if there were any other Christians in their family, it was usually their Babushka…Grandmother. I have to hand it to those Grandmothers. It’s a reoccurring story about how these women of faith never let go of what they had been taught when they were growing up, even in the face of the despair that Communism brought.
During prayer this morning I was suddenly reminded of the goodness of Christ… of the wonder of his love. I remembered the struggles we’ve been having, the difficulties… the pain… the fatigue. And out of the blue, I was thankful. It’s these hard times that truly let us find fulfillment in these tasks that God gives us. We can look back at the end of the journey and be glad that we didn’t have it easy. And we can see that he has not let even one of our feet step without his knowledge or guidance. It is so comforting to know that our existence has been choreographed and planned out in accordance with the free will that God has given us. May He remind You of his undying faithfulness. Truly He is more faithful than even the rising of the sun.
Go in peace
Brother J

James Found the Internet!!

Ok, This is Karina on behalf of James...for all those who are wondering...

So James finally was able to connect to the internet some where! He had been saving up a lot of blog entries, and so when he finally had time to be on the Internet, he emailed all his blogs to me. So, the next 6 entries you see posted here are from James and his adventures in Russia!! Enjoy!

~karina~

December 6&7, 2006

Several important things happened on the sixth. We
met up with another Pastor Sasha in a nearby
city…We were supposed to do two programs but we
did 4 instead. I was absolutely beat. Not
sore… just tired. Yoora…our host here in
Nazarova had his 54th Birthday! We had a big meal and
lots of celebrating. He’s a great musician and
singer and has dreamed of making a cd of sorts of
songs for his friends and family for after he’s
gone. I gave him some money for the celebration and
for his dream. I hope it turns out well. He has been
a huge blessing in the last few days. He is so
incredibly on fire for God it is humbling. He’s
been an incredible encouragement to our team…
and as he’s been used by God to help
us…God’s been using us to help him. He
said that though he’s really enjoyed having
other teams come in the past… this is the first
team where we’ve felt like we were brothers.
Connected…in some mysterious way through
God’s Spirit.
While we’ve been here we’ve been able to
go into some schools where when previous teams came
through, they had claimed there was no hall in the
school at all where a program could be done…we
did programs in these halls that weren’t there.
Wow hey?!
One school director this year told Pastor Sasha that
he would rather the students all addicted to hard
drugs than to be exposed to Christianity… pray
for Russia…it’s not near as free as some
of us would like to think.
This morning I was awoken by roosters that live
underneath the floor… that was strange. We had
a few programs today… Pretty typical
stuff… except for this evening… After our
program in an orphanage, they asked if we would like
to stay for part of their Christmas program practice.
Most of it consisted of girls singing and swaying to a
tape on the stereo. There were some boys who must
have been around 11 years old who were trying out
breakdancing moves…. Wow… you need a lot
of muscle to do that…I still think the boys in
China who did backflips off their forehead still
topped them… but it was still amazing. What
made it really ‘interesting’ was that
after this exceptionally flexible gymnastic routine, I
was mentioning to Rhys that it felt a lot like those
characters you see in movies who are invited by some
prince in some exotic place in Arabia or India and
they call out those dancers… that was just the
feel of it…
Right in the middle of that statement, in came 4 of
the teen girls dressed up in very exotic
Arabian/Indian garb, and they started dancing…in
typical exotic style of course… All us guys
could think of was… ‘eye contact…
EYE CONTACT!’…
I think all us guys were surprised to run across
dancing and dress of that kind in the middle of a
smaller town, in the middle of winter… in
Siberia! Weird.
Pray that us guys continue to be strong in resisting
the ‘eye candy’ that tends to be quite
frequent.
It has been a truly amazing time here in the mornings
and evenings with Yoora. God has used him to refocus
our team on what is really important. I hope I can
learn a lot of lessons from just the way he lives his
life. It’s evident that he wants to be like
Jesus.
I want to be like Jesus…

It has been truly amazing to see how one who has so
little can have so much. Joy truly lives here in this
man and his family. You can see it in his
eyes…and he knows it. It’s strange how
often we want to have all these amazing and abundant
things. To have merely enough seems out of the
question… we need a lot. Yoora sang us a song
that basically says: ‘I don’t want an easy
life… make it full of hardships and struggles
that I might be counted worthy of you. All I need is
you with me Jesus. You are enough.’ Truly it
was humbling to hear it… and even Yoora was
telling us that that particular song is a tough bite
to chew… We shouldn’t ask for the
privilege to suffer should we?
Perhaps there is more to life than having a good
job… a great house… a loving family…
a clean bathroom… good hair… food in the
fridge… a fridge at all for that matter…
perhaps all the things that we
‘need’…aren’t….
Maybe all we need is Jesus.
Merely Jesus.

December 3, 2006

We’re back and it’s morning again in
Krasnoyarsk it was a good time overall. We met up
with Pastor Pasha, who was a good friend of
Bruce’s the last times that he had come to
Russia. With him we met a girl named Nastye…
that’s kind of how it’s pronounced.
It’s short for Anastasia. She came along with
our crew and helped a bit with translation and with
some of Pasha’s songs(She had just got back from
spending 3 weeks in Canada… She wants to attend
school there). The girls really enjoyed having
another girl on the team, and she gave us some insight
into the mind of some of the youth there. I, for
example, have large mitts, a bright orange scarf and a
toque with a pompom on the top of it. Typical
Canada… sort of anyways.  It turns out
that there are two reasons to chuckle at my wardrobe.
Pompoms on toques are usually worn only by kids under
5. But in my defence, there are some people now who
are getting with it and have pompoms too! I am not
alone! Anastasia came up to me yesterday morning and
she had my mitts. I told her that they were and she
explained that she had borrowed them because they had
a ways to walk the night before in the cold and she
needed them. Then she added, ‘Oh, and I took a
picture of them and showed my dad and he had a good
laugh.’… lol… it’s the mitts.
They’re these large white skidoo mitts with a
trigger finger. Haha, she said they reminded her of
the Ninja Turtles off of TV. That’s life I
guess.
Rhys, Bryce and myself were able to stay in the house
of Ira (ee-ra) and Natasha her sister. They were fun
to have as hosts, but we had a rough time trying to
communicate. Most of the time we tried to use
gestures and different sounds. They were very kind to
us and we enjoyed staying there. We had an Indian
meal once (I guessed RIGHT!!!) and I noticed that a
particular tapestry in the living room had a very
oriental flair to it and so I inquired as such.
Unfortunately I was told it was Russian… hmm, I
was thinking… it has to be from China… or
at least from near China. Right then Ira came running
back in and got out one English word.
‘Mongolia!’ she said with a large smile.
That made my day… it was nice to have a piece of
China in a room with me again. It felt very homely.


We did 3 programs the first day, and come to think of
it, 3 the day after too. At all of them Pasha did a
couple Russian songs. They’re really catchy.
They’re kind of blues meets jazz meets typical
Spanish. I am hoping to get one of his cds from one
of the churches here in town. Pasha’s one of
those guys that humble you just by being
himself… He reminded me a lot of Pastor Rob from
my school years. It is very evident that God is with
him. He told us jokes and tried pieces of English
here there and everywhere. In fact, he was the only
Russian so far who was able to pronounce Saskatchewan
fairly well! After all the 2 days of programs we as a
team were a little stressed … so we took some
time in the morning to pray and discuss team
issues…After things had settled we realized we
had used up the time we were going to use for sliding
at the hill…(or hills as Divnygorsk is all
mountainous hill type country). We were planning to
go tour the large dam in the area… but we
thought about it a minute, and we all decided we
should go sliding and just enjoy being with our
friends there. So we did! And we had an absolute
blast!!! lol, for Tim and Nathan, missed you guys
here… it reminded me of old times at little Red!
 There was a childhood friend of
Pasha’s there who was flying around the area on
a Skidoo, and if we were at the bottom when he was, he
would give us a ride up to the top. That was real
cool. 7 of us loaded ourselves onto a skidoo and a
dogsled tied onto the back and he’d motor it up
to the top… He had to push it real hard to get
it up there. Heh, I don’t think that skidoo was
unused to punishment though… it had no shell and
constantly backfired… I saw him trying to ramp
it up a ditch incline that was covered in rocks the
size of my head… lol, it was quite the sight!

Eventually we had tea at Pasha’s to say goodbye,
and then we had a prayer, packed into the vehicles and
were off to do a children’s program at an
Orphanage. When we arrived, we were greeted by
several of the children… it was really cool. We
went and set up and we finished getting ready for the
34 kids that would be coming… and when they came
in, we knew immediately that we were going to have an
interesting program. Two Thirds of the kids who came
were in their early or late teens. AUGH! lol, then
our cd music and sounds went on the fritz… that
was awkward… but I was sure glad we had a
guitar. We whipped out the guitar and many balloons
for everyone. Anyways, it all worked out… we
had a great time and we finished, came home and
relaxed and went to bed.
But alas! Today is new, we have a program in less
than 2 hours for a youth event. Have a great one, and
thanks for your prayers!
Take care and God bless!
~J

November 30, 2006

Alas, it again is morning and we have 3 programs to do
today. It will be a very busy one no doubt…If I
remember right, we’ll be about an hour and a
half south of here…And the city starts with a
D… Debvenorysk… I don’t know for
sure. City names here are hard. But apparently it
has a huge dam there… that’s why the town
is famous and hopefully we’ll be able to see it
for a while.
Our program yesterday went fairly well. We had some
issues with our drama because we changed a whole lot
in it and then we suddenly switched it completely over
to Russian, so we didn’t know our cues any
more… That led to some of us being COMPLETELY
lost up on stage… heh… that was awkward.
Never the less, we pulled through for the last part
and people there really enjoyed it.
Afterward we were invited out for tea with the Pastor
and some other folks who had been around to let us in
to the large school that we did the program in. The
place we went for tea was actually a drug
rehabilitation center with about 6 people there right
now. It was a bit like a little farm house. We had
cheese, chocolate, pickles, sausage, and of course,
tea… it was really good. And while we were
there, we heard several testimonies about how God
changed the lives of these people who were there. One
of those men had given his testimony during the
program. It was a moving story about how he,
literally, had tried everything to get off drugs and
couldn’t… until he met Jesus. Another
older man there, Nicolae, told us how he had two
divorced marriages and children by both wives but he
had been such a drunk and into so many drugs that he
ended up getting kicked out or just leaving
both… now his kids are grown and he hasn’t
been able to see them… But just very recently,
Nicolae heard about this drug center… there he
learned about Jesus and in the last few months now, he
has been completely drug free! He’s enjoying
very much the new start God has given him.
We would have loved to stay longer to chat with
everyone, but we had to get back on the road. It was
just under a three hour drive… so we ended up
getting home just around 11pm. This morning we have
to be on the road at 10 so that doesn’t leave a
whole lot of time for dilly dally. Anyways,
we’re off and I trust and hope that you are
still praying for God’s work to be
accomplished… Grace and Peace
~J

November 29, 2006

It’s not bright, but early this morning. God
let me sleep a lot more last night. I slept for an
hour and a half before bed yesterday… and then I
went back to sleep. I think I got near 9 hours of
sleep at least! That was a big lift as we had prayed
that I could get better rest the next day. We have a
program of sorts this evening. I hope that all goes
well. It’s going to be interesting trying to
get around to all these different places with all this
equipment and only a handful of people. It will be
extremely great to have James and Olga translating for
us. Pray that God moves… We could have a good
program and nothing may happen with the people at all.
God MUST be involved in all aspects. Pray that His
Spirit is with us while we do our programs!
Last evening we went for a quick walk downtown and
were able to enjoy some of the scenery. We went
through a couple of malls real quick as well as an
outdoor market. Again… they very much reminded
me of China. Just how they do the layout and
everything….It was so very familiar. While we
were there we had what I equated to Pork crossed with
a tortilla and a Hamburger… hmm… Perhaps
just a tortilla and a hamburger crossed… after
all, there’s still ham in that equation.
Anyways, it was pork that had been fried and then put
in a flour wrap with sauce, dill, onion and likely
other seasonings. It was different, but it was good.
I’ll try to send up some pictures of our walk
sometime soon. James is the one who took us down
there on the buses… I think that was my favorite
part…though it was also the most congested.
Take care everyone! Keep on praying with us!
~J

November 26, 2006

This was our second day in Russia. It was -20 again
when we woke up at 8:30. We had egg omelets for
breakfast. That was all good.  James L.
came and found us this morning and we walked for a few
blocks to the bus stop and then from there we rode
about 10 minutes until we came to our stop. From
there we walked about 5 or 6 blocks… It may have
been longer, but it was around large apartment looking
buildings, a large park that had a nifty path and
trees, benches and a stage…There were long
streets with billboards everywhere … It reminded
me a lot of how China looked while I was there. It
was really interesting to see the look of everything
inspired by communism. I was mentioning to James
along the walk, I really enjoyed having to walk again.
They walk a lot in Russia because of the lack of
money and because most of the time things they need to
be near are close enough to walk. Anyways, that was
something we had to do all the time in China. I
really really enjoyed being able to go for a crisp
refreshing walk. I’m sure there will be days
where I tire of walking everywhere… but for now
I’ll try my best to enjoy the moving around. It
helps a lot that James keeps us from getting lost.
Oh… I was going to mention, I’ve been
trying to get the team to call me something else than
James… everyone calls James L. James…
therefore, everytime they need to talk to him,
I’m up looking around. Rhys has started to call
me Jimbo. Whatever works. 
Church was interesting… We sat in the very back
of a theatre type room in a school. Apparently the
church rents it out there. It was amazing. Being in
a country, with a Bible in my hand in a country where
not just Christianity, but God has been outlawed for a
good long while was something very awe inspiring and
humbling. The service actually reminded me a lot of
my home church, the New Life Indian Alliance
Fellowship. It was fairly easy going and had a lot of
testimonies, some accompanied by long songs, poems,
sparse singing throughout the service and food
afterwards.
Our team played through ‘It is Well’ and
were able to introduce ourselves, with some assistance
from Olga, a good friend of Bruce and our interpreter
for a good long while during our stay here. Our first
impressions of her have all been good. She has a good
sense of humor and an amazing gift for language. She
never studied English, but simply picked it up on her
own from reading bits and listening. I know she can
speak Turkish, Russian, and English at least… I
don’t know yet if she can speak any
others… But I do know that she just picked up
Turkish during this last little while. James was
saying that he wishes that he could wishes that a gift
that amazing could simply be purchased!
After the service, the grandmothers were very quick
and getting myself, and later the rest of the team to
drink some tea and eat the cookies and cake put out.
They would toss the crowd in front of us out of the
way and toss us into the gap and made sure that we
left that spot with our hands and mouths full…
lol, we speculated that perhaps they were getting us
to eat because they wished to spare themselves from
hearing our fragmented and simplistic Russian
greetings and clumsy responses. I experimented a fair
bit with trying to figure out what people were saying.
It didn’t go so well. Heh, I had to get one of
the more English people to help me out. The people
there are really interesting… But then I
suppose all people who are any bit different from
myself are interesting… foreign or not…
Interesting. Oh, speaking of English people. I met
another man in church today and I had a really good
talk with him… in English… REAL English.
Over this last month, I’ve met people from
England everywhere I went… in really fluke
situations…at least from a normal perspective.
In fact, I never even realized all these people I was
meeting until Janelle brought it up. I’ve been
pondering if there is some other reason that I keep
running into people from England … even when in
Russia. I wonder what God has got planned out. This
is going to be an interesting time here.
For those who are praying for us, keep team unity in
mind…and for our unity to be founded in nothing
or no one else other that our Savior. There are still
some tensions here and there… personality
clashes etc… But I can’t help thinking
that there is more at work here than mere personality.
Pray that our work here will not be hindered.
Tomorrow we start more ‘orientation’ type
stuff and we’ll go through some of our
programming with Olga. We’re going to be going
all over. I wonder what the kids, youth and adults
will think of our programs and all the stuff in them.
I mean, they won’t be able to understand our
songs for the very most part (we have one song right
now in Russian, but it still needs some work). It
truly is humbling when you can’t even converse
with a 3 year old… and it has nothing to do with
the 3 year old’s grammar…It’s
because you can’t keep up with the kid. Ha, all
I can say to them is Hello, I don’t understand
Russian, and thank you… as well as a few other
simple words, greetings and good-bye. It’s a
tough life. The missionaries have quite a different
life. Indeed the Russian culture is different. And
just some things that we would take for granted can
become very difficult. For example, tonight we needed
some groceries, so AJ and I watched our bags that we
still had with us at the door while the others went to
find the food we needed.
Meanwhile a real tough looking guy showed up. Shaved
head, black leather jacket, a scar on his face…
He was on his way out of the door to smoke and eyed us
down so I said Hello to him… He looked at me
real funny and then walked out muttering a
‘Hello’ back. He returned a little while
after and asked if I spoke English. I said yes and
asked him if he did… nope. He ended up getting
a couple of gals from the store to try and figure out
why I was there… One girl who was had been
working the till came and asked why we were standing
in the entranceway of the store, eventually… and
I do mean eventually… was able to get her to
understand that we were waiting for some of our
friends. I don’t know if they were planning to
kick us out thinking we were bums or something…
But I personally don’t think they were… I
think they just thought we were funny looking or
something and wanted to know why we weren’t
inside, nor outside… We were in the in-between
room. Anyways, whatever it was about, we were being
watched over by someone higher than any could ever
fathom or comprehend. Please pray.
Anyways, I must go get ready for bed… I think
I’m almost used to the time here. Have a great
day everyone… Feel free to email me… but
it may be a while before I’m able to respond.
Grace and peace…
~Brother J

November 23, 2006

In a quick summary of how our trip was, I suppose it
would be tiring…But I suppose that is quite
typical of people traveling to the other side of the
earth. I was glad to socialize for a little while
with the flight attendants… We traveled from
Calgary to Frankfurt, Germany, flying directly over
England on the way… that was cool. Then from
Frankfurt, we flew to Moscow…Immediately it
reminded me of Wuhan…very little English, wet
and humid (it was raining a bit), and a lot of big
communist style buildings. I had been in a bit of
panic for a while as I was desperately needing a
washroom. I never found one for a couple hours. The
Moscow terminal #2, in other words, the
uninternational flights, was very crowded and
congested. There was one bathroom on the far side of
the building…We were on the other side with a
thousand Russians going to and fro and standing or
sitting nearly anywhere you could think people could
sit… I’ve been so used to going to waiting
areas where there’s always a lot of room and
everything. I wish I had taken a picture of the
crowds there… It reminded me of China. See here
in North America everything is very individual
centered… in China and Russia, the individual
isn’t important… Only the group. In
groups of that many people there you cease to be
‘important’ … you become just
another number or statistic. Anyways, it was a strange
sensation all over again.
When we finally landed in Krasnoyarsk, it went from
the near Zero degrees we had experienced in Moscow,
and it suddenly dropped to below -20. WHooo! That
was a difference! We had to wait a good while out in
the cold for the building to open where they were
going to put our luggage. Oh, and speaking of
luggage… we found out in Moscow that the weight
limit was a lot different than any of the other
airports. They only allow 20kg per person…
total… for all of one’s luggage. In
short, it would have cost us another 1400 American!!!
God provided huge for us and we were able to get off
with paying only $500 of that. It still was painful
but we had to remember that this is God’s
money… He will take care of everything.
Anyways, we finally were able to get our luggage and
we loaded up to the hilt, a couple of vans. The girls
went to stay with Ronada. She was glad to have them,
and I was glad I didn’t have to stay there as
she had a cat… Quite a playful cat though…
Bandito enjoys string a lot.
Us guys are staying in an apartment. It’s real
nice here and I’ve got a lovely mat on the
floor. It’s real good!  Anyways,
we’ve got to go and shop around the corner.
Keep on praying that God will have His way. Have a
good one!
Grace and Peace
~Brother J

Here are some pictures of my last days in Canada!

Karina was tired after the Commissioning Service, and a little sad too.


But we were able to have a nice time together...she actually stayed around for a WEEK! YAY!




We walked up to River's Edge Bible Camp to see the mountains and take pictures...and I had actually been there before as a kid! It was crazy!!


Nathan kissed the cat good bye.





Our team got to help at the BIG Foothills Alliance Church in Calgary for their service about Remembering the Persecuted Church.


Family Picture...minus Jenna who wasn't able to miss school.



But Tim and I were able to have some fun and even do some Disco moves!!

Guess what? Siberia is actually warmer than Saskatchewan right now!! Ha ha ha...

More updates to come.

Saying Stras-voo-cha to Babooshkas

Stras-voo-cha! (Hello in English!)

I can hardly believe I'm here in Krasnoyarsk, southern Siberia! God is good and has answered many of our prayers! All of our flights were on time and there wasn't much turbulance at all. Our landing in Moscow was a bit bumpy... it may have been the tarmack! We had just enough time to get from one plane to the next (the longest we waited for our flight was 45 mins in Frankfurt.) When we arrived in Moscow, we made our way through Customs without any problems or questions. We walked over to the luggage carosel and there was every single piece of our luggage! James Lesheid and Chad (SEND missionaries based in Krasnoyarsk) were waiting at the airport with taxis to take us to the domestic terminal 20 minutes away. They were flying with us back to Krasnoyarsk. We were so grateful that they were there to translate for us and help us get all of our luggage through security and the ticket agent. Our luggage was very overweight, even with Chad and James taking some of the baggage themselves. We ended up only paying 1/3 of the overweight costs.

We arrived at Krasnoyarsk airport Saturday morning at 6:00 and walked across the tarmack in -20 degree weather to meet Pasha, Paul and Molly. They had woke up early to come and pick all of us up at the airport. Along the way, some of us were able to sleep on the flights, but we as a team decided to try and stay awake until 9 pm Saturday evening, so we could get our bodies in sinc with Krasnoyarsk time. Janelle and Coralie only lasted until 6:30 pm, who both slept through the night and have been sleeping well ever since. Us guys have been waking up earlier than normal (2,3,4 am), so we're hoping our bodies adjust quickly.

Sunday morning we went to a Baptist church. James Lescheid sat behind us and translated parts of the service/sermon for us. I enjoyed the time of testimony/sharing. People of the congregation shared answers to prayer from the week. It was also Mother's Day here in Russia, so a lady from the congregation receited a lengthy poem. She was very expressive, so we "felt" and understood the meaning of the poem that way. At the very end of the service, our team was introduced and we sang "It Is Well" for the congregation. We then experienced Russian hospitality... the babooshkas pushed us guys straight to the front of the food line and made sure we had chai (tea) and sweets in our hands at all times!

Monday and Tuesday we've had time set aside to practice our material with Olga our translator. She is an amazing lady, only 2 months younger than myself. We've already begun to alter scripts to fit with Russian culture, and we've been relearning parts of our Russian songs. We've realized that we have a lot of work to do before we do our first 2 programs on Wednesday. We are very fortunate to have James L and Olga travelling with us for our entire time here in the Krasnoyarsk area. They are great resources!!

Well, our bedtime is drawing near. Janelle and Coralie will need to be alert tomorrow morning as they try out the Krasnoyarsk bus system on their own for the first time tomorrow. They're coming to the guys apartment on their own...CRAZY!

Prayer Requests from the team:
1. Adjusting and recovering from jet leg
2. School Programs - know who to talk to about coming into the schools and how to communicate gospel truths/virtues
3. Language understanding & learning of culture
4. Creative use of time as we will be travelling a lot and doing numerous programs

Spech-on-eh-noy-che (good night!)

YAY!!

HI EVERYONE!
I have now crossed the Prime Merridian!! Your today is my yesterday!! I made it to Krasnoyarsk!! Safe and sound!
More updates to come!!
Thanks for your prayers!

The Journey Begins!

Hello my faithful friends!
I will have some pictures on here soon of my last week of the training I had at VTI. Now, I am actually flying! I departed from the Calgary airport at 5:45 pm. I should arrive in Moscow some time on Saturday. CRAZY!! How am I posting this message while I am airborn? EAZY!! I have a lovely fiance who I can now get to do my dirty work...or...uhhh...who can help me out in that area! -_^ (I love you K!)
More updates to come...
Talk to you later.

There and Back again...

Well, we had a good trip. We left the training centre here about 2 weeks ago and traveled to Okatoks, Calgary, then to Prince Albert, then Nipawin. After that we went to Drumheller and Bysiker…I don’t know how to spell that… ;)

Here are some of the highlights!
Okatoks: This was a youth event, and our very first program on fall tour. We had a lot of issues with this program… Heh, the projector turned off in the middle of the songs… the laptop froze on a video…we did a song we hadn’t practiced because of a lack of communication… But anyways, everything DID work out really well. We stayed at Dan Schroeder’s place…(He’s the youth pastor). It was a great time being there as they are very very missions minded. It was really great.

Calgary: - Here we did a children’s program in Foothills Alliance Church. That is a BIG church… wowee! We stayed at the Good’s house…Melissa Good was on Karina’s team 2 years ago…
The next day we went to Rhys’ church. They meet in a community hall and it was great to see all the different cultures and peoples that met there. It’s a very ‘cultured’ church :D…This was also the first day I spoke a sermon on tour… that was scary… heh.
Oh, I had forgotten to mention. While we were there, we had a big snowstorm. So we had to drive real slow as to make sure we didn’t run over anyone. It’s absolutely crazy…the weather here in Calgary area. Weird.

After Calgary we did the … 8 hour drive I think it is, back to Prince Albert. It gave us time to listen to some of the Chronicles of Narina by C.S. Lewis on CD. That was fun. 

Prince Albert: It was great to be home again. All the guys were staying at my place and it was fun to hang out there. lol, Mom kept spoiling us there... lol, I was always full. It can get really hard to eat all the time!

While we were there we were able to tour NCEM, Northern Canada Evangelical Mission. Dad works there doing a lot of camera and computer work for Tribal Trails...come to think of it, Mom does a good deal of work there too.
Anyways, at NCEM we met up with Tim Gradin, Karina's father. He did an overview of prison ministy and the missionary work with Native people. He's the one who took us to both prisons. heh, he had previously joked about taking me to jail... ;D Mrs. R, (Howard Rensberry's wife) took us into the woman's jail. It was a really humbling experience. We did three programs in the ladies jail and 1 in the mens. They were all very well behaved and particularily attentive in the men's jail. It was a real great time we had to be with them.
On Friday we had a youth program at the Community Bible church...(Karina's church) It was fun and it was great to see so many new and old faces. There were several other groups who came out too. That was real fun. :)

Nipawin: After leaving PA, we arrived in Nipawin, my other home. We spent several days there and I was glad to hang out with Grandma and with all my classmates from last year who were attending again. There were some new people there that I knew, and some that I was able to meet for the first time. It was great! :D It was hard to leave both Nipawin and PA...

lol, on the way back to Alberta, we got ourselves lost and it probably delayed us almost a half hour. What was interesting though was that was what God had wanted for us. We showed up just in time to help a couple vehicles that had ended up in the ditch. There was ice all across the road. One huge layer. It was absolutely awful to drive on. Anyways, it was a great adventure to push out these people.


I'm running out of time... so I'll just say, ALberta was good! We had a few programs in different places for all ages and it was a real blessing to be there. We found that when we don't tape our programs we do them consistantly very well... whenever we tape them, something goes wrong. O.o Wierd.
At Coralie's place they celebrated all our team's birthday's this month. That's Coralie, Janelle and myself. It was great to be a part of another person's family get together.

And now we're home...my third home. VTI. Keep praying that God will move in the people the different places we go...and beyond for that matter. Consistanly we saw God move. It was incredible. People everywhere are so thirsty for something more than what they can get from tradition or religon...or attending church all the time. We want to go to these places to let God refresh them and revive them to do the tasks that He's given to them.
Keep on praying! God is doing amazing things!!!
Take care everyone! Go in God's grace!
~J

WE BE BACK!

We made it home... I'll fill you in on the details later!

It all started when...

Bryce found his sock that was lost but now was found...and there was much rejoicing...on his part anyways ;)
We finally made the tour to PA a few days ago... and today we are leaving again...:( We had a couple prisons that we did programs in and both went really well...Better than even our host Tim Gradin, Karina's dad, had anticipated. We had a really good time with all that and then we finished off last night with a youth event at Karina's church, the Community Bible Church. There were near 80 people and it was a great time. We were all very drained and fatigued, but the Adrenaline got us through. Don't worry we had a great sleep! :) I'm up a little earlier than some of the guys today though. I wanted to send this before we head out to Nipawin today.
Keep praying that God will do amazing things in the hearts and llves of people as we're going. I'm real excited to see what He'll do.
Take care everyone! Oh, and get this! The two girls and myself have our birthdays in November! Crazy!
Have a good one!
Go in the Grace and Peace of the Father
~J

Happy Halloweeneven

Howdy there everyone...
Tour is now underway. We're in Calgary right now for our day off. After tonight we'll be heading up to Prince Albert and Nipawin. I look forward to seeing all of you in that area again.
We had a great time in Oakatoks and at Rhys' family church. It was informal and multi-cultural... it was really great being there. I spoke my first sermon this tour at that church... it was pretty unerving at times that morning... that's for sure...
The morning of that day we looked out and there was a good 4-6 inches of snow... lol... it sure made getting to the church an adventure. God watched over us however, and we made it there safe.
I'll hopefully make another update soon. Take care everyone!
~Grace and Peace

Alas we have Survived!

We did our full length GA (General Audience) program today at Bethel CHurch. We made it! lol, I was so proud of my team! They really did their best and God let us pull it off! On top of it all, AJ's folks came down to see him here and they were able to see him do very well at Chalk and drumming... it was good. :P
To top it off we ended tonight with a good ol' game of RISK. And get this! It didn't take us any time at all! Bryce won... took the whole world, all 4 of us... in ONE TURN!!! The fifth turn. It was truely impressive.
To celebrate this occasion and the last week of our training camp, I shall post this graphic of wisdom. Enjoy. (I'd love to make it into a T-shirt someday... ^_^)

Ever have those days?

You know... the ones where you want to sit back and ponder why things are... why you feel the way you feel... why...
I had been talking with Helmuth the other day. He had made the statement that humans since the fall have not been normal.

What is normal?

So I thought about it... normal is relative. Your normality is dependant upon your perspective of what you define normal as... (ex. Normal = common Would mean normal is Chinese or at least made in China)
Therefore, I suppose from a human perspective, fallen man is 'normal' but from God's eyes it still would appear to Him 'abnormal'. There has only been one man who stayed truely normal all His life, and that was Jesus.

Normal.

~Grace and Peace

Frosty Morns...

Hello there everyone. It’s been busy at training camp…again…
That seems to be a reoccurring theme! We’ve working on getting down some dramas and new songs, puppet scripts, writing songs and scripts and Bryce and I have been working on sermons. We’ll be doing a quite a few of those this year. It can be overwhelming sometimes when everything is happening all at once. Anyways, we’ll be doing our best here. Again, if anyone wants to drop me a line, I do love emails, and thank you so much to all of you who have been keeping in touch. I really appreciate all your encouragement.
For an update for anyone wondering where exactly we are going, though this is an extremely vague list:
Fall Tour - North America…Russia – Ulan Ude, Krasnyarsk(I think that’s spelled wrong), and Moscow…England – London and elsewhere…Germany – Frankfurt (I think…), and again, elsewhere…
After that we have a break for a little more than a week and then we’re back at it until Aug.1 in North America going to churches, camps, city streets… wherever. It’s all good.

It’s been really interesting taking a course here called ‘Perspectives’. It’s all about missions, the history, the future and the present. It can be summed up with this statement: ‘Missions exists because worship doesn’t’…The purpose of missions is to give them the chance to know the God who made them so they can worship Him. (see Revelation 7:9)

Anyways, I’ve got to get back to the workforce here… Have a great day everyone.. I’ll try to keep you all updated. God bless you all!

JB from India...

JB was this guy from INdia who came to our training camp to talk to us about faith. About halfway through his hour long sermon, he set out a chair and asked if we had faith in that chair being there, not being a figment of our imagination. Naturally, we all were like, yup, that's real. That's a chair alright. And then he asked us if we believed that JB was standing in front of us. Again, naturally we all said, yeah... And then he shouted back, WRONG! He took off his shades, hat, and vest, and started to talk with a Canadian accent!!! It was Darrell, our speaker who we were told couldn't make it!!! That was wierd. We found out that he did play the part of JB accurately, as in sharing his testimony, but then we were so confused for a bit.

Just when you think you know a guy... O.o

Anyways, it's been good here. The Phillippine team is having a grand time trying to adapt to the jetlag. They did make it there safely... I don't know much more than that. These next two days are our spiritual reformation days, where we can relax a little and spend some time with God; refocussing for the second half of training camp. Please pray for us to be able to focus on God when things are easy and when they're hard, instead of the 'task'. We're called to worship God, everything else is secondary. If we give him our first place, then everything else will fall into their proper placement.

One thing that excites me this year is that the theme is STAND. That's what we need so terribly much over here in our conplacent countries. We need to draw the line and actually STAND for Christ. In our work, at school, in our community, and in our entire life. It's not a one or two day thing. We are called to recklessly abandon ourselves, completely surrendered to Himself, no matter the cost, no matter the odds, no matter what the outcome. We are His.
May the Grace and Peace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all...
Brother J

Well, there's that!

We did our first children's program today! It went well. It was hard, and required a lot of energy, but it all went very well. There was about 30 people... 17 kids, 6 teens and a handful of adults. It was fun and all went well, for all who were wondering. Tonight we're seeing off the 4wrd team! THey're off to the Philippines! So if anyone is ever trying to get a hold of me I'm usually here on monday... Well, this week I will... next week I shant. Anyways, have yourselves a good day! Keep prayin for all of us! We'll be needing it! O.o
Grace and Peace
J

With Great Power comes Great Responsibility

I'm not so certain about the great power thing... But I've recieved a lot of responsibility as of yesterday. I'm going to be the Team Leader of F&F63, as well as the Music Coodinator, a Puppeteer, and one of the Preachers(Bryce is the other). Bryce is the Drama Coordinator and other things... (i have the smallest list)...Rhys is a bunch of other things... Luggage guy, to creative teacher, to soundman. Coralie is our driver and ladies' advisor. It's all good. Janelle is the children's coordinator... tis a hard job. AJ is the youth guy... He's perfect for that part... He's always got a positive look on life and energy to boot! I think that's everyone... heh.
Anwyays, have a good day, I'm going to go look at the new snow that just fell last night. 3 inches! Farewell, Namarie
Grace and Peace
~J

The Infamous Training Camp

Well, I've made it through the first 2 days of training camp with only minor scratches. There are two teams here at VTI, one team, 4wrd is going to the Philippines and then there is the Friends & Followers team, which is my team. There are 6 of us now. Bryce, Reese, AJ, Jenelle, Corellie (sorry about the spelling guys) and myself. It's really been a blast so far, challenging and I know it'll get a lot more busy, but it's been really good. Thanks to all who are still praying and supporting me through this. We're really looking forward to how God is going to work. Oh, for all those wondering how my health is, primarily with my back, it's been quite exceptional. I need to work on still getting more sleep, but it's been a joy to see how God has been taking care of my back.
Right now the girls are out at a retreat, and the guys will be going on the same kind of mountain climb retreat tommorow morning. We spent today trying to build up the guys on our team. So, there was just the 4 of us and we had to accomplish tasks on obsticle courses of sorts. It was really fun and it did help build us up. The two girls on our team are the only ones on our team of six older than I. So, I'm the oldest guy, but I'm still pretty young. It's a strange feeling. Well, I'm looking forward to how God is going to move. Please pray for us!

Thank you everyone! Grace and Peace from our Lord Jesus Christ!
~James

Aug26

Twas the day of Jordan and Valean's wedding and all through the morning, everyone was sleeping, or else they were choring... being all ready for the big wedding day, but James and Karina were elsewhere that day...

That morning, we became engaged! :O THe soonest we'd be getting married is Nov next year...2007 so check back! And pray, VTI is still underway!

my email is: encaitar777@yahoo.com
if you want to chat... I'll have more info soon I hope! :D

howdy there everyone!

Well, it's the 21st of the month we refer to as July. I've been trying to prep for the coming year with VTI while I've been working at Davidner's western wear... that's kept me busy for about the last 4 weeks. It's been good there, but I don't think it's my profession... It's a great oppertunity to learn more and gain more experience. I've been trying to learn a little bit of Russian on the side... I can say goodbye hands down now, but I have a hard time with a lot of different other phrases... It's hard to make your brain look at an alphabet and reinterpret the sounds that the letters should be making... Heh, I think it's the closest you can get to Greek without learning greek! Meh, we'll see what happens...

The family all got home a little while ago from their trip to Ontario... Hey to everyone down there that I wasn't able to see this summer.... I really really wanted to be there... Perhaps I'll get to see you all soon. I miss Ontario sometimes... heh...

However, my time flies, and I must send out some more letters and some sincere thank you letters. Have a great day everyone! Keep prayin for me if you think of me. It means so much to me!!! Shalom. (peace)

A another new day...

Well, I started working at Tim Horton's this last week, six days in a row, and I found out something important... I don't think I was created to work fast food!

I had to finish there for health reasons... the long hours and stress work it's way up when you're there for a while. I found a new job I start tommorrow at a Western Clothing type store. I like the smell of leather there, and I think there is much more of an emphasis with the customer. That's the part I missed. Anyways, I am hoping that God continues to lead me in where I will work and how it will go, so I'll continue trusting Him.

Please pray for me as I continue to prepare for VTI!
~James

Dream Inspired

This was a piece inspired by our very own, Nathan Wolfe. He has very vivid dreams and this is a reflection of one of them! :) Have a good one!

Independence Igloos

Greetings all! I'll be posting up my prayer letter soon. The one for VTI. So, yeah, I've been chilling here this evening listening to 'GEtting into You' by Relient K... I've been lounging around laughing with K, and Dave Joseph, um... and Cathy, a friend of my mom's. Yeah, we've been laughing so much... I'd say that I've laughed so much I feel like I ran ten miles, but it's my face that hurts.

**
I just thought that I'd note that this blog is committed to the highest standards of broadcasting...and as such we've been eating all the freshest pineapples...
**

Don't ask...

It's one of those days I suppose. Yeah, those days where you wonder in your bed... 'Oh.. I hope I can get back those IQ points...' Yeah. It's tough, but I enjoy being me, and I enjoy it when people can be their me with me.

You know those zits that are really red, and you get them on your nose and they hurt alot? Yeah... They hurt a lot. That and I'm looking for a new job.

Did you know Karina has this thing with popping zits? That's why I don't tell her about the really painful ones on my face... *_^

Yeah... check out my photo webpage, I try to regularily update it with new ones, even if they're old ones. ^_^

Have a wonderful day everyone, I'll be back here soon enough. You all are awesome!


P.S.
Feel free to comment....

Anyone ever heard of...

Venture teams international? VTI for short of course. Anyways, I'm planning on going with them this year to, currently, the location is Ulan-Ude... just north of Mongolia in southern Siberia I believe...

In any case, it's Russia, and God's called me there despite the $15000 I'll have to raise... no doubt, soon I'll be sending out prayer letters asking for primarily prayer and secondarily money...

I'll keep you all up to date and I'm sorry I haven't updated this for a while. I'm looking for a job here in Prince Albert after I had another fall through. We'll see how that goes.

Thanks to all and to all a good night!
~J

AUGH

WEll, if anyone is wondering where I've been... I've been doing homework... Lots and lots of homework. That and I'll be doing my follow up check up in Saskatoon tommorow... so yeah, that's where I'll be... and for those who haven't yet... Check out my pics! I hope to have some new...old ones soon. :)

Have a great day everyone.
~J~

CHeck it out!

I have some pics up now! CHeck it out! It's that flickr button on the left side... :D
~J

GReEtings all to the WoRld

I am off to go touring with my team LIving Proof this afternoon. We have a banquet concert tonight, and then we play in Saskatoon tommorow. It'll all be good. In any case, I've been having a crazy time with homework and school. Of course there are always other things that crave attention in one's life that you just sometimes have to avoid.
Yeah, so I hope you all have a great day!
I'm looking forward to hearing how the new Superman movie goes. :D I hope it's good.

Anyways, I'm prayin for as many of you as I can remember. Please remember me! lol. I could use it...

~Brother James~

As a matter of fact...

I am alive! crazy eh? I am home for about20ish hours to relax after a great weekend at school doing three60five, the youth retreat at NBI. It was fun, and I think one of my favorite parts was seeing the movie thing we made. It was a bit of a matrix spoof, and several other movies/genres. It was fun.

Anwyays, I hope you're all doing well. I'm getting around, though I know I should be sleeping more. (I had to stay up all night to finish some work on the DVD) so yeah, I'm going to go to bed now. Check out Essy's page, she'll probably have some pics up soon if not already. Farewell!
(J)

Hey Yall

Well, here we are on a delightful Feburary the 25th, Saturday. I'm getting around the house now a lot better than I had been before. I've enjoyed the time resting, but now I'm getting very restless. Ergo, I am hoping to be back on campus at NBI but Sunday, like tomorrow, but we'll see how that goes. If I in fact go back, I'll be most likely be spending most of my time lying in bed. I really want to get back so that I'll have time to prepare a little for three60five, the youth event weekend there at school. I personally prefer to call it TSF. But meh...

Yeah, for all those wondering, I do still have leg nerve pain, and it's expected that it could be around for a while, short of the providence of the Father. I'm hopeful and I know it'll all work out right in the end. In any case, that's been annoying in general. The surgery did wonders for my left leg however, and that's been a real blessing, along with all your prayers and letters and many ecards, lol. Thanks everyone for everything. :)

Anyways, I'll be heading off now, take care everyone.
Farewell and xie-jin
~Bro J~

he's baakk...

Journalling by Karina Gradin
(Jan16/06--- "Uncut")
The Day of the Surgery...February 16, 2006...by Karina

It was a crisp, frosty morning with a chilly breeze. We left Uncle David’s house at 7:48 a.m. The temperature gage that was on the ceiling of the van said it was -32˚C. As we drove through Saskatoon to get to the University Hospital, Blaine had a hard time seeing outside the windows. Apparently some vehicles weren’t used to the cold weather and died in the middle of the road. That caused a barrier for us to maneuver around...a task not so easy when you cannot see who is coming behind you!!

After we escaped the rushing streets with the mystical, swirling snow, we finally arrived safely at the hospital. Blaine dropped Rachel, James and me off at the door and went on to find a parking spot that ended up being right close by. James laughed when I poked at his hand that was closest to me. He was carrying a bag of stuff. Finally I told him, “Switch hands,” in mid sentence of something else that we were talking about. We went inside and promptly found the admitting desk. This lady with white or blonde hair said to James, “Come with me!!” She reminded me of my dad’s voice in the morning...not pleasant, not angry, but a little gruff.

So James went to be questioned by the gruff woman, and Rachel slid over right close to my left side and smiled, bringing her shoulders up in a way that most females do. She said to me, “It was really good you could come!” Then we talked about how cold it would be at home and how my mom was going to manage today with the chores. Then Rachel jumped up and decided to see what was happening with the room situation. She walked over to James after the gruff lady had left to go print something off. Apparently, the semi-private room was $100 and the private room was $120. James chose the semi-private room. Hopefully he won’t have a roommate that is cranky and doesn’t like Winston (the small, nylon stringed guitar that we brought along).

After we left the admitting, we were told to go Same-Day Surgery admitting. We still hadn’t seen Blaine and we began wondering where he was. Rachel said, “James, he’ll see you with your orange scarf.” So James walked in the middle of the walkway. Up ahead, we saw Blaine come in and walk the other way. We laughed.

Then, when we got to Same-day Surgery, James got ushered into an interrogation...I mean, interview room. We were put in a waiting room that said “For the consideration of others, no food or drink in this waiting room.” And we hadn’t had breakfast yet. We asked the nurse if that would be a problem...she looked a little sheepish, but she smiled and shook her head and said, “go for it.” So now we amuse ourselves by Blaine flipping through the channels until he found the Olympics showing hockey, and I sit here and tell the story.

At 9:10 a.m. we were all invited to come into the interrogation room. James was given a stapled handout explaining all about his back surgery. We had fun trying to take pictures of his hospital wrist band that said all of his allergies: dust, cats (I thought it said rats...), and mold. He looked very lushing and dashous in his hospital garb. Then we all came and sat in the waiting room and stared at the lions...

At 10:20 a.m., we were joyfully joined at the hips...I mean we were joined by Tim and Nathan. They had gotten a little bit lost in the hospital. They ended up in the cancer ward...☺ Suddenly the room with the lions was no longer quiet. It began “roaring” with sound!!! We all laughed at the Olympic commercials of people running around and doing all their sports with a huge flame following behind them! At 10:55 a.m. we gathered and prayed for James. Meanwhile, as we continue to wait, Nathan amuses himself with his video camera. And Tim plays with a foamy dice...gambling.

At 11:27 a.m. the physio nurse came for James to talk to him. Tim, Nathan and I began to lip sink the people on T.V. as it was muted. Much to the amusement of the other waiting patients. Then we left the Same-day Surgery waiting room at 11:37 a.m. They were slightly behind schedule...typical Saskatchewan. The nurse took us all to another waiting room. There, all the doctors and nurses involved in the operation came and talked to James, telling him all what they would be doing. They gave us a really warm blanket! It must have just come out of the dryer. Everything in this hospital is warm!! Even the toilet paper!! (It was sitting right above the heat register.)☺

They took James to the operation at 12:26 p.m. We then went to yet another waiting room. Tim and Nathan parted our company to go shopping. Rachel decided that she was going to go start the van to make sure it would not freeze up. So Blaine, Rachel, and I prayed for James together, and then she left. So Blaine and I passed the time drinking our frozen juice boxes and listening to a family talk and laugh in French. Apparently they were from Prince Albert as well. They were waiting for someone who was coming out of ICU from heart surgery. His operation was 5 hours!! I’m glad that James’ surgery isn’t supposed to be that long!

At 1:45 p.m. I decided to have a nap. I sat with my head resting on my hand and Rachel read the paper and Blaine wandered and looked around. At 2:00 p.m. Dr. Griebel came in and said that it was a very successful surgery and that James is in the recovery room and is waking up now. So soon we will join him in his room upstairs. Praise the Lord!!

At 2:50 p.m. we finally got a phone call saying that James was going to be taken up to room 6315 in “5 minutes.” So we packed up all our things, and I grabbed Winston and started walking. I stopped and asked Rachel, “Do you think I can walk up with him?” They figured “why not?” So I stood at a corner a little ways away from the recovery room and waited for about 15 minutes. I heard his voice once when the door opened, and soon enough he came out with a couple of nurses rolling his bed down.

I called out and asked, “Is that James Witherow?” And the one nurse asked me back, “Are you part of his family?” I answered sheepishly, “Yeah...” So she waved her hand for me to join them. So I got to be the first person to see James!! Yay!! And we got to the room and no one was there yet. So the nurse came and cleaned up around the dressing...James warned them, “WARNING...I have NO pants on!!” They laughed. Then after about 20 minutes, Blaine, Rachel, and Uncle David came in. We all talked for a bit, then Uncle David left.

Rachel left to go get the Lindor Chocolates from the van, and actually ended up going to sleep listening to the radio in the front seat. Then a couple of nurses came in to do an “assessment” so Blaine and I were asked to wait outside. Then all these ladies came in and there was a big “party”...poor James...he still didn’t have any pants on...evil women!!! Grrr! They were trying to “help” him “void”. But one good thing was the LPN named Renelle grabbed some pants.

I asked James what happened when he woke up. The first thing he could think about after he woke up, was that he was hungry. His tummy was growling a lot, too. Rachel and Blaine left so James could sleep. He wanted me to stay with him. And about 5 minutes after he closed his eyes, “knock, knock, knock...Supper!”

whickwhack

So here I am, today is the day I head down to Saskatoon. My dad, mom, Karina, and I think some of my family, of whom, I am not sure, are all coming along this evening. The surgery is tommorow morning.

I had just realized that I haven't been able to post any pictures for a long time, and so I suppose this is to 'make up' for some of the winter pictures that never made it here to my blog. Oh, by the way, the pic above, if it has three people in it, is part of 'Stupid Mondays 2' our official homemoviemaking extravaganza. Yup, I'm a version of James Bond. Karina is a Russian spy, Tim although he looks dangerous is actually trying to steal a rubber ducky from a clueless fellow played by our esteemed director Nathan Wolfe, he, Tim and my brother Luke who's been doing all the filming for this deserve the most credit, namely for ideas and secondly for putting up with me being out of commission for the last while. There are also guest star appearences in this particular part of our movie. Luke and Nathan Siemens both play valuable roles! :D It's great.

Have a great day everyone, and I hope I'll be back soon to talk more. I AM ON READING WEEK!!! :D YAY! Fare thee well!

~Bro Jam~

It's nearly here!

Today is valentine's day! :D

Yeah, I got her roses for anyone who was wondering... hehehe...

But anyways, my surgery is on the 16th, which means two more days, though I must be there in the evening on the 15th. We'll have to see how that all goes. I'm praying that this will fix my pain problems, but it's kinda, I dunno, sad in a way. Being in pain so often helps one to focus more on God. Pain does that. But I'm glad this time has come and I'm awaiting good news with a thankful heart and an open mind. Thank you all so much for your prayers!!!

It's been a busy last little while. We're trying to get ready for the big youth event that will take place in the first week or so of March. I'd like to be back for that. It's called Three60Five and we're hoping that we'll get around 250+ kids. but that also is a prayer that will have to be answered, being that as of now there are roughly 30. In any case, we're hoping and we all hope that i'll be a fun time, though tiresome.

I sang a new song for class today and it went over very well. I had many people come to me later and encourage me. That was really great. Perhaps when I'm supposed to take it easy, I'll write some more. I want to get a few songs that are really good and done well so that when the time comes, I'll be able to record some more songs if there is given oppertunity. In any case, we'll see what transpires and I shall bid thee all adieu... I think that's how it's spelt... And farewell from the capus of NBI. Fare thee well.

~Brother James~

Chezigndnks

Well, there we go. Sitting here in the basement of NBI . My speeling is being corrected by none other than Elly from Melfart. There are about 12 of us here trying to think of anything we can do other than homework.

We are watching Brad for entertainment.

watching watching wattching.watshing.

Perhaps we shall overcome the fear of being stuck in the void of .... something... as Mike the Gandalf would say.

Farewell.
~Brother james~