In November of 2000, I (Mike) moved to Russia to help establish a Russian Charity named MIR. A little over a year later I married Olga. In 2011, we welcomed a four year old Russian girl named Valerie into our home. Over the years, God has led us and blessed us in many ways.
We now live in Russia and spend time in the US, Finland, and Estonia. I’m the Executive Director of Stoneworks International, a Christian mission organization with projects in Russia, Belarus, Estonia and Montenegro.
We hope you’ll wander around here, learn more about us and see evidence of the goodness of God.
Here’s the view from our kitchen in Podgorica, Montenegro:
A mission team from Athens, GA arrives today. Tomorrow and Friday we’ll meet with university students and early next week we’ll run a youth camp.
Tags: Snapshot
We had a work day at Elama on Saturday. It was cool and rainy, so we didn’t get as much work done as we’d hoped, but we had a great time of fellowship together. Elama will host quite a few people this summer.
I’m now in Montenegro, awaiting the arrival of a mission team. The busy part of the summer will quick be upon us.
Here are a few pictures of the day:
Masha, Katya, Yan, Olga, Sergei (Kristina was with the kids, I took the picture)
Ksusha (one of Sergei and Kristina’s daughters) by the summer kitchen
of course, we cooked shashleek
We were all at dacha for the May 9 Victory Day holidays earlier this week. I go to Montenegro tomorrow to meet a mission team, and it was nice to have this family time before my trip.
The little white flowers are called “Under the Snow” and are considered to be the first flowers of Springtime. The daffodils are also blooming now.
The buds are on the trees:
We organized and cleaned the summer kitchen. It looks worlds better than it did:
Of course, we have a meal together. We cooked shashleek the day before and had good leftovers as well as traditional Russian salads.
Great-granddad Orest came to visit our home a few weeks ago. I like this picture:
Tags: Dacha, Orest, Springtime, Valerie
Yesterday Sergei and I went to Elama, our camp about an hour north of St. Pete. It’s time to start opening it up, and yesterday among other things we connected the primary part of the water system to be sure things are working. We also met with some workers who will clear some land and remove trash (see pictures below).
This summer the Elama calendar is booked solid. Next month we’ll host a team of 20 from the US who will run a camp for foster children. We’ll also host several church retreats.
You can see more at the Elama website. If you’re interested in helping, we need funds to help improve the bathing facilities. We’d also like to install flush toilets (we have outhouses now).
It was a great day, and I’m very glad we’re there for our 5th summer.
I drove to Estonia from Russia yesterday. The total driving time from St. Petersburg to Johvi, Estonia is about 4 hours, but the border crossing can take anywhere from an hour to 5 hours. Yesterday I made it across the border in 50 minutes. That was nice.
I’m working on Sunbeam, a day center for children with disabilities we are opening here in Estonia. You can read the latest news here. I’m helping set up some administrative items, and I’ve been building a simple website for Sunbeam.
I made a couple of videos of my drive in Russia. I’ll call them Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. First, the nice Dr. Jekyll:
And the rough Mr. Hyde. (It’s no wonder I need to get my car fixed pretty often.)
And another:
Just AFTER I made that last video, I saw a sign that said Rough Road Ahead. (!)
I’d like to point out that this is THE main federal highway from St. Petersburg into Europe.
Here are a couple of recent videos of Valerie.
By the way, she’s doing great. Beth Shanklin, a good friend who is a neuro-developmentalist, visited recently from the US. Beth assessed Valerie about a year ago and wrote a program to address some developmental issues. Olga has been faithful to do the program over the months.
Beth checked Valerie last week and Valerie is almost at her age level developmentally, with just a few small issues. Remember, just over a year ago Valerie said about three words (at age 3). She’s really catching up, speaking more and more English, too.
We went to a park:
And today she did something really great. I’ve set out my small travel hammered dulcimer for her to plunk around on, hoping she’ll take interest. I showed her how to play the Alphabet Song (she doesn’t know it as Twinkle Twinkle yet). Today, after some rough starts, she did this:
That’s m’girl!
Last week in Estonia we did some exploring between meetings. Estonia has many old manor houses, and we went snooping around for them. You can see ALL of them at this website. Estonia has some beautiful places.
One great thing we found was an old water mill. Water mills are always in great locations, near flowing water often with beautiful trees, down in a low spot of land so that the place is remote. I often look for watermills in the various countries we visit. I’ve found them in Russia, Finland, Estonia, Montenegro and of course the US.
In addition to a great location, this mill has some wonderful old buildings. They are in disrepair (but the roofs and foundations are good) and it was fun to imagine how they could be brought back to life and used as a ministry center. (Anyone want to chip in a few hundred thousand dollars?)
First a video and then some pictures:
the grist mill
the distillery
water race
I was in Tallinn today for a few reasons. I had a very good visit with my friend Heikki, I picked up my new Russian visa (!), and I met Beth Shanklin at the airport. Beth is a neuro-developmentalist who will be helping us establish Sunbeam; she’ll have a series of meetings with the leadership over the next few days, before we head to Russia on Sunday afternoon.
Oh, the picture is a view the Gothic town hall (c. 1403).
This was the view from my bedroom window on Easter morning in Jõhvi, Estonia. One would think we’re still at Christmastime:
I’m in Estonia getting a new Russian visa and having a great time with friends and ministry partners. The work at Sunbeam continues to go well. You can read the latest news here. Soon, we also plan to purchase a house and land to start a women’s rehab center. I’ll tell more about that later.
Olga and Valerie are in Russia and were going to join me in Estonia tomorrow, but Olga’s grandmother had to go to the hospital and so Olga’s grandfather moved to our flat to stay with Olga. Olga’s grandmother is improving, and we may yet work out a way for Olga and Valerie to come to me. I can enter Russia in a week, so it’s not too long before we can be reunited.
Easter is the proof that Christ is who He claimed to be. The Resurrection of Christ is the turning point of human history; the evidence of the defeat of death and the victory of love. Through faith in Christ, we can now be at peace with God and share in His divine nature. He is risen indeed.
Tags: Easter
I (Mike) took this picture yesterday, as Valerie was getting ready for bed. I am so very thankful for my family. Olga and Valerie are wonderful people, and I’m humbled that the Lord has called us together as a family.
We have some sad news to share. We lost a baby last week. Olga was about 8 weeks pregnant when we found out. She recently returned from the hospital and is doing well as she recovers. I was due to be in Murmansk right now, but it’s clearly the priority to be with Olga and Valerie as we recover.
Today at dinner Valerie started crying because the baby isn’t coming to us. She said we need to pray to Jesus and ask Him to send us one. I often say that we want to live in such a way that our lives are full of miracles, made up of relationships and events that are clearly not of our own doing. So, we await God’s miracle in this area.
