teisipäev, september 28, 2004
Prayer Requests
We've tried hard not to have this blog be the typical missionary newsletter full of prayer requests. Not that there's anything wrong with that! It's just not where we've been at. So we've taken turns (each blogging two days in a row), sometimes writing essays about what's been on our minds, sometimes writing more of a diary of our life here in Estonia, sometimes boring you to tears when we don't really have much of anything to say!
But today I really feel like we just need to lay it on the line and tell you what we need. Okay?
It's hard to be away from family, and we've got some concerns for health issues (Tim's brother and sister and mother, my mother), job issues (Tim's brother, my sister and niece), spiritual issues, marital issues, etc. My nephew David is in Iraq with the U.S. Army, and this gives a background of anxiety to the whole family -- but he's supposed to go home on leave next month.
It's also been a LOT harder than I ever would have imagined to leave our Chester Corps family. There were some pretty big unresolved problems when we left, and our hearts are still broken over a lot of it. I'm doing better all the time, but I still have dreams about employees, soldiers, etc.
This is such a silly thing, but I'm really struggling with the move to this house. I really LIKED the apartment, and I feel like I'm the one who benefits the least from being here. Every time we go to the apartment (it is where our cadet lives now), I feel homesick. We need to find a place for everything and get everything in its place here.
Our cadet is having a really hard time adjusting to being in Tartu, even though he's been here less than a week! We really need wisdom in knowing how to guide him. He could be such an asset to our work here, and has been already (for example, we've seen his compassion for others). But he needs to be trained, and this is our job. My parenting philosophy bends more in the direction of teaching than training, and I've always said that my 10 years as a stay-at-home mother were the best preparation for officership I ever could have had! So we need to learn how to work with Mario to help him develop his full potential for God and the Army.
Tim has been sick, and I'm worried. On Saturday, I really thought it was appendicitis (Internet diagnosis!) and almost took him to the hospital here. I'm glad we took a wait-and-see approach, because it now seems like just the flu. But I worry that he'll get dehydrated, and his energy level is very low. I'm also worried that the rest of us will catch whatever he has, although so far we seem to be okay.
Peter is thinking about learning how to crawl, and this means that soon we will need to be in the babyproofing stage, and our lives will change quite a bit. (This one sentence packs a punch that only some will understand!)
Christopher is still adjusting to being here, missing his friends in Pennsylvania, trying to find good places to ride his bike, beginning to make new friends. He's also got a lot of work to do with homeschooling. He has tried so hard to put the best face on all of this, but it does wear on him from time to time. We need to find more friends his age here in Tartu (not just at the Kopli Corps -- Tallinn is two-and-a-half hours away!).
We feel a real need to build a TEAM here in Tartu, and so far we're doing pretty well with the five of us plus Mario. But we wonder if there might be someone (or more than one) else who God would bring alongside us. We will need to hire a translator and tutor soon if this doesn't happen, and they would also be part of the team, of course, although in a different sense.
Being physically near each other and actually being in community are two different things, and we long for community not only with our fellow American missionaries (this has been awesome!), but with Mario and any other teammates as well as with our neighbors.
Tim started the second part of his Estonian-language class today. This is Internet based, so I will be able to learn from it too, I hope.
On Sunday, we went to Kolgata (Calvary Baptist Church) with Mario, which is where we also went our first Sunday in Tartu. It was nice to see how far we've come with language in 11 weeks. We are still little babies, but it does not sound so unknown to us now. I was able to make out that the sermon was based on the parable of the Good Samaritan, and many of the hymns make sense to us now (songs are great because they are so repetitive!). It reminds me of going from being totally blind to being extremely nearsighted. We still don't have perfect "vision" but at least we can make out shapes!
Elizabeth has been doing great with her homeschooling, and it has been a wonderful way for me and Tim to connect with her. We each probably spend about an hour a day with her on it. Yesterday, Tim and Elizabeth started a science experiment with radishes which she is excited about. They also really enjoy doing "Explode the Code" together.
If you have any prayer requests, please let us know!
Thanks for listening; I feel so much better just getting some of that off my chest.
Evelyn
But today I really feel like we just need to lay it on the line and tell you what we need. Okay?
It's hard to be away from family, and we've got some concerns for health issues (Tim's brother and sister and mother, my mother), job issues (Tim's brother, my sister and niece), spiritual issues, marital issues, etc. My nephew David is in Iraq with the U.S. Army, and this gives a background of anxiety to the whole family -- but he's supposed to go home on leave next month.
It's also been a LOT harder than I ever would have imagined to leave our Chester Corps family. There were some pretty big unresolved problems when we left, and our hearts are still broken over a lot of it. I'm doing better all the time, but I still have dreams about employees, soldiers, etc.
This is such a silly thing, but I'm really struggling with the move to this house. I really LIKED the apartment, and I feel like I'm the one who benefits the least from being here. Every time we go to the apartment (it is where our cadet lives now), I feel homesick. We need to find a place for everything and get everything in its place here.
Our cadet is having a really hard time adjusting to being in Tartu, even though he's been here less than a week! We really need wisdom in knowing how to guide him. He could be such an asset to our work here, and has been already (for example, we've seen his compassion for others). But he needs to be trained, and this is our job. My parenting philosophy bends more in the direction of teaching than training, and I've always said that my 10 years as a stay-at-home mother were the best preparation for officership I ever could have had! So we need to learn how to work with Mario to help him develop his full potential for God and the Army.
Tim has been sick, and I'm worried. On Saturday, I really thought it was appendicitis (Internet diagnosis!) and almost took him to the hospital here. I'm glad we took a wait-and-see approach, because it now seems like just the flu. But I worry that he'll get dehydrated, and his energy level is very low. I'm also worried that the rest of us will catch whatever he has, although so far we seem to be okay.
Peter is thinking about learning how to crawl, and this means that soon we will need to be in the babyproofing stage, and our lives will change quite a bit. (This one sentence packs a punch that only some will understand!)
Christopher is still adjusting to being here, missing his friends in Pennsylvania, trying to find good places to ride his bike, beginning to make new friends. He's also got a lot of work to do with homeschooling. He has tried so hard to put the best face on all of this, but it does wear on him from time to time. We need to find more friends his age here in Tartu (not just at the Kopli Corps -- Tallinn is two-and-a-half hours away!).
We feel a real need to build a TEAM here in Tartu, and so far we're doing pretty well with the five of us plus Mario. But we wonder if there might be someone (or more than one) else who God would bring alongside us. We will need to hire a translator and tutor soon if this doesn't happen, and they would also be part of the team, of course, although in a different sense.
Being physically near each other and actually being in community are two different things, and we long for community not only with our fellow American missionaries (this has been awesome!), but with Mario and any other teammates as well as with our neighbors.
Tim started the second part of his Estonian-language class today. This is Internet based, so I will be able to learn from it too, I hope.
On Sunday, we went to Kolgata (Calvary Baptist Church) with Mario, which is where we also went our first Sunday in Tartu. It was nice to see how far we've come with language in 11 weeks. We are still little babies, but it does not sound so unknown to us now. I was able to make out that the sermon was based on the parable of the Good Samaritan, and many of the hymns make sense to us now (songs are great because they are so repetitive!). It reminds me of going from being totally blind to being extremely nearsighted. We still don't have perfect "vision" but at least we can make out shapes!
Elizabeth has been doing great with her homeschooling, and it has been a wonderful way for me and Tim to connect with her. We each probably spend about an hour a day with her on it. Yesterday, Tim and Elizabeth started a science experiment with radishes which she is excited about. They also really enjoy doing "Explode the Code" together.
If you have any prayer requests, please let us know!
Thanks for listening; I feel so much better just getting some of that off my chest.
Evelyn
