I gotta be honest, I miss being elsewhere. Being back at home was nice, but then I got into a routine. Now I am in Fay town and loving it, but soon I will be into another routine. That's one of the reasons I am so glad for the mission trip. I stepped out of my bubble for a short time and now I feel much better about doing so. This semester holds a lot for me. I already can see that God and I will be talking multiple times a day and I find myself floating to my Bible more than ever to find solutions to my machine dynami...life problems.
Something I really learned about in Russia is openess and activeness. We never know when our time is up and I know I have many friends who are not where they need to be spiritually. I'm not afraid to ask them to come to a Bible study and it seems no matter how much they say "no" I refuse to hear it. The Russians do it, even though it may cost them their families. They are not afraid to talk to others about God and they're sooooo excited to do it.
Another thing I've began to think about more is alcohol. I'm not sure what to think of it. I understand drunkeness is not right, but what about a random drink from time to time. In foreign countries, drinking is not as much of a "sin" as it is here and I wonder why. I guess one could make the argument that there is really no reason to drink, as we have other forms of drink available. It seems the main argument I hear for not drinking responsibly here is that others assume you are drinking to get drunk. But then when did I care what others thought and who are they to judge me? If I want to casually have a beer what's wrong with that? I personally happen to not like the taste of alcohol, but there are some drinks that just don't come nonalcholic. I guess since I'm not quite 21 yet, that's something I will put off for another day. Perhaps a day that doesn't involve staying up until 4am, eh?

Russia is soooo warm. It's been in the upper 80s for the past couple days and AC is hard to come by. I guess it doesn't help that we've also been out and about all the time either. It seems everyone realizes we are leaving soon and wants to get a few more meetings in. Can't say I disagree with them.
Just a few things we've been doing. First off, the AIM students are here and we've been accomodating them. They are a cool bunch and ever more diverse than our group. They come from Texas, California, Florida, and Texas. I guess God really did bless Texas eh? hehehe. They have been going with us to meet students and we've been taking them around town. Showing them the ropes. I hope they can keep up with the contacts we've made.
Speaking of contacts, we went to Alexia's house last night. He plays basketball with us and is very nice. Always apologizes for fouls and plays super hard. He has taken a liking to KT, so that was a bit interesting. He's 40 and married and his family is a beautiful one. His house is also amazing! Wood everywhere and AC and security and two hot water heaters, a dishwasher and a washing machine. He also has a banya (sauna) and a summer kitchen. I took lots of pictures. Jim says it was the nicest house he's been in in Russia and I believe it is up there in my list of American houses. AMAZING! He gave us jars of honey from his home in Kazakstan and some tea from Egypt.
We also got a chance to experience the open market. I bought a nice speedo and some other cool stuff. It's cool to haggle and we have a lot of fun doing it. BTW, those cool Russia hats run about $100 so we passed on them. It was kinda hard, but that's more than I want to spend for something I'll never really need.
As we get ready to head out, I think many of us are thinking this is somewhere we can see ourselves being missionaries. I personally would rather be an engineer here and also help the church. I think, though, that other places in Russia probably need me much more, but Tomsk is on my list to visit again. The people we've met seem to be very sad we're leaving and I feel their pain. We are going to have a shindig on Saturday to have one last talk with all the people we've met and introduce them to the AIM students. I know that will be fun and I hope it goes well.
Tomsk's been a great experience, as I am sure Germany was as well. For a town of 600,000 it has a very small town feel and I really like that.

Well we finally got a chance to go visit the Chernashofca. It's the half way house that the church here helps build and such. First off, when we got there some mosquitoes took Shaina and carried her a few feet until Titus could take them out. We helped till up some gardens and skinned some trees. We had lunch at 1 or so and I found like 3 or 4 mosquitoes in it. They're tasty btw. Another quick story about the place. It turns out that they regularly eat dogs.
We then loaded into the back of a small pickup truck and rode to a nearby Siberian lake. It was bit chilly. Since all the other guys there were wearing speedoes, I decided it wouldn't be too bad to jump in with my undies on. Quite refreshing, even though the paparazzi kept bugging me. A guy who was orginally Orthodox decided to be baptised, so Timur did the honors and baptised him. As he emerged from the water, Tolic yelled Haleluah. That makes three baptisms since we've been here. The Lord has such amazing power.
On the way back from the place we loaded a charter bus past capacity. It was exciting as we basically had enough room to stand and that was it for the 40 minute ride. We did get to spend time with a fellow American named Phil who is from Texas. WOOT! He's about 6'4" and a huge man. He is such a great guy to hang out with. He's older but very cool and always happy. He kept us in good spirits by stating things such as "you think Jesus was in a crowd like this when he said 'who touched me?'" He also took us on a cross city trip to find Dr.Pepper. It does not come to Tomsk.
Well that's not it for me, but I think I'm going to watch this way cool pirated video Shaina bought. For three dollars, I figure that taking a chance on the quality of a video isn't too bad. Have a great week!

Howdy ya'll! I'm just sitting here by the window in Ashley and Jordan's room, thankful that the internet connection is pretty stable and that from where I sit, I can't see a single cloud in the sky. Hooray! And yes, my feet are hanging out the third story window, so I hope somebody down below gets a good laugh from that...

Today's a pretty crazy day here in Leipzig. As I'm sure some of you know, the World Cup games started last Friday, and today is the day for the first Leipzig game. The Netherlands versus Serbia-Montenegro. Yep, that's just right down the street a couple of tram stops away from me. So we were riding back into town this morning after being out at the Perrys' house for worship services, and things were starting to get a little crazy with all the fans. Wigs, hats, shirts, jerseys, horns, all sorts of stuff. Craziness...

Last week as our group was all talking, feeling somewhat frustrated with the slowness we can experience in European missions, Corey made the statement that it seems like missions in Europe is much like a soccer game. We Americans come from a society that's much more into football, basketball, baseball - the games that are filled with action and where there always seems to be something going on. And in some ways our view of missions is like that. We want more Bible studies, more activities, more baptisms. More bang for our buck. And then we come to Europe. And that doesn't happen. Oh my, how it doesn't happen. Missions here is completely different than in many parts of the world. It's like the soccer game. There's a whole lot of kicking the ball around, down the field and then back to the other end, while it gets blocked and stolen along the way. Nothing ever seems to happen... and then BAM! Goal!!!! And it may be that there are only a few goals ever scored in that game, but man, are they exciting and worth every minute of the work! We're here in Leipzig (and in Tomsk) doing what we can. We're helping out with passing the ball down the field, trying to work our way towards a goal. It takes a whole lot of work. Many meetings... time spent talking over coffee about random things, just getting to know someone... a 7 1/2 hour bike trip... inviting people to activities and being so frustrated when they continue to make up excuses... inviting people to activities and being surprised when they actually say yes... trying so hard to get someone to read from the Bible, which in some cases can take years... seeing many reject the Savior and the faith that are so dear to us... seeing the light in the eyes of the few who begin to understand. Those goals don't come often, but they sure are worth it. Worth every second, every cent, every bit of discomfort and embarrassment. It's wonderful to see! I wish you were here to meet the people I've met, to experience the things I've been priveleged to experience, to dream the dreams I'm dreaming for people like Carolin, Michael, Ina, Diana, Ines, Elfi, Dina, Konrad, Jenny, Carsten, and many, many others. I thank you for your prayers, and I especially thank our Lord for his grace and goodness! What a mighty God we serve!

Shashleek is rocking! It's like a shish kabob but it's so much better. None of those nasty vegetables, which seem to be hard to find around here. We've been cooking some in the apartment and eating out some. We found a nice pizza place where they know us so well we basically just come in, tell them how many pizzas we want and they know the toppings for us. Amazing eh?
I met some people who has been to Hot Springs and Mena yesterday. They were very nice and knew all about the U of A and the HOGS. We had a picnic with them and talked all about things they liked about America and things we liked about Russia.
I've also befriended some kids here at the girls' place. We play frisbee and they give me awesome tatoos and speak in Russian and a little english to me. They're very cool kids.
The team ate lunch at Timur and Ira's house yesterday. We had beef stroganoff. Very tasty. The have a daughter named Karina who the girls are in love with. She's cute, but afraid of me. Timur is a minister here and he's an amazing guy. He has some very deep thoughts and truly loves the Lord as much as any man I've ever met.
Speaking of the team, we've been having a good time with our RFC studies. On Mondays we meet to sing and talk about how an Old testament story relates to us now. On Fridays we meet to sing and one person has a devo. This Monday we are not meeting, as we are going to the Chernashofca, which is the half way house. A man is going to be baptised there, so we are VERY excited. All in all, we're getting along great. the girls have many more studies than us guys, but us guys have many more contacts in the Universities. Two guys, Slava and Ivan took us all over town looking for postcards and gifts and X3. They are really nice and I hope the AIM students can bring them even closer into the group here.
Well I skipped first service today to attend second service and find stuff for poppyseed chicken. It turns out that first and second service are basically indentical, so hopefully I didn't miss much.