Wednesday, August 15, 2007

So What's Been Happening

There's never a dull moment here in the Slawson household these days. The past few weeks have been quite a whirlwind of events as you can imagine. Tomorrow marks four weeks since we have arrived. For those first two weeks about 90% of our energy was devoted to just figuring out how to live. Week three was down to about 50%. Now, as we have just about completed our fourth week here in SP we are starting to establish a routine and a way of life for ourselves.

Language Lessons

Our language lessons are in full swing now. Both of us are taking 6 hours of one-on-one Russian lessons per week. Mine are on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. My teacher Galina, comes here to our apartment. Cristy's lessons are on Mondays and Wednesdays, but for longer periods of time. The reason for this is because Cristy has to travel about an hour one way to go to her teacher, Ludmilla's, house. When we're not taking lessons, we're studying and doing our homework for the next lessons and taking, care of Isaiah and living. So far both of us have really enjoyed our lessons, and feel like the Lord is granting us real progress in our Russian.

Forming Relationships

Our friendship with Luda continues to grow, especially between Cristy and Luda. Yesterday Cristy had the opportunity to spend the day with Luda. They visited at Luda's apartment. Luda and Cristy read some sermons and discussed them together. It was a very profitable time.

Church Associations

We have been attending Light of Christ Reformed Church here in SP. The pastor, Mikhail, has welcomed us into the congregation. Right now, it being summer, a number of members of the congregation are out, and so an average Sunday attendance is anywhere from 10 to 20 people. When everyone is present there are over 40 people. The church meets in the sanctuary of the historic Lutheran church downtown. Since the Lutheran congregation meets in the morning our service does not take place till 3PM on Sundays.

The whole service is in Russian, of course, so we don't understand everything. But each week, especially after starting our language lessons, we understand more and more. I am meeting this Friday afternoon with Pastor Mikhail to discuss ways in which I can help with some pastor's conferences he wants to conduct here in SP. He's also stated that as my language develops further that he looks forward to me teaching some.

So that's the big news for now. We love and miss you all.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the great update Thomas, I will be certain to share it with the church this coming Lord's Day! All God's blessings to you! Fletch