Back in November I attended a conference where I met a psychologist with whom I was eager to follow-up, as she also seemed. After several attempts on my part, she called me in January and asked if she could meet with me in February with an “unusual request.” So I waited another month and finally…

The big coffee chain here, an obvious imitation of Starbuck’s, is called Coffee House, but I used to mis-read the name. In Russian it’s Кофе Хаус, which is only one letter off from Кофе Хаос (Chaos) so I thought it was the latter (House isn’t even a Russian word, one other reason I mis-read it.)…

Our last trip out of the country was at the end of October to get student visas that would allow us to stay in the country for a full year. (Of course, things are never that simple here. They really were only for three months, but they could be extended to a year. We just…

The following is an article from Arguments and Facts, a well-known national paper here, about some of the ways the homeless live here. It’s worth reprinting in its entirety. I used the Google translation tool, so it’s weak in places, even after some tidying up on my part, but you’ll get the idea. As an…

A reader responded to my post on helping my daughter go to sleep: I found your experience with Tobias and the prayer to relinquish the influence of another spirit fascinating. I think I understand and agree with what you and Tobias did. My question is this – how does one identify such foreign influences in…

Taking ispiration from Mayor Ed Koch, I thought I’d review my progress on attaining my 2008 goals, which I posted here last December. I do this as a matter of accountability to all of you who support us in prayer and financially. In this month’s newsletter, I mentioned my hopes for producing a multiplying deiscipleship…

For the first time in what seems like years, I am able to commit to the value of ongoing growth and self-feeding. Of course a man’s library is about a personal matter as they get, so no one will like everything I do. Nonetheless, I’ve got some great books I’d love to have you check…

I went to a wonderful conference on Nov. 14-15 by a group called “Light of Love” promoting a reversal of the unusually poor trend in Russians taking orphans into their own homes. This ministry focues on reaching Christians, by far the most capable (in general) of providing the kind of homes that orphans need without…

I wrote my August newsletter as an interview with my mother, who had visited here that month. Now that she has had time to reflect more on her time here, she has written a report that she gave me permission to post here. The Missions Committee asked me to give a brief sketch of what…

The boys and I had just started on our way home from school (11/7) and got out of the tram (the street car) to enter the Metro. I suddenly realized that Kerith’s backpack was not in its mandatory (on his back) location. The tram was just ahead of us, and we dashed to try to…