Off We Go!

I'm all packed and ready to go out the door.  My neighbor Lee is going to take me up to Christ Church to meet Chris Arveson and the van.  We have to be prepared for a lot of security measures but we're doing God's work and He will make sure we get there OK.  I'll post to the blog whenever I can get to a computer - the next entry will probably be from the hotel in Tomsk.

Keep us in your prayers!  Do Svedanya!

Getting Ready

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas.  Mine was a little quieter than I planned; I caught a cold the first of the week and had to stay in and miss all the services and festivities.  I definitely didn't want to get on the plane Monday sniffling and sneezing.  As Michele Clark told me, if I'm sick, they won't let me in Russia!  We can't have that!  I've stayed home, taken my medicine and drunk lots of fluids and I'm almost all better.  The last thing I would want to do is take germs to the kids!

I'm taking lots of other stuff to the kids, though.  Thanks to the generosity of all my friends I have three big boxes of presents to take to the orphans.  Now I just have to get my stuff packed!

Grace Stows Away

Grace Churchmouse is the mascot at Canaan United Methodist Church.  Grace runs all over the church looking for people who are doing nice things for the love of God, not to get any credit.  Grace has decided she wants to stow away with me and see what it's like to go on a mission trip.  I think she'll be making some reports from Russia, too, if she can find an internet cafe!

Procrastination and Thanks

Well, I've just about waited too long to post anything to my blog!  There's been lots going on and I was always going to write on the blog tomorrow.  There have been Christmas parties and concerts LOTS of snow!

I do want to take a minute to thank everyone who has donated items and financial support for this year's trip.  A lot of children's hearts will be warmed by your generosity.  I especially want to thank the patrons of Jeannie Shew's Salon for the many gifts they provided.  Of course, my church family have provided much support and I can't forget my friends Missy and Mona for their financial support and prayers.

I'm in the midst of packing all my stuff to survive two weeks in Siberia.  The temperature there today was -30F.  It was around 30F here, so that's a difference of 60 degrees!  That's a lot of long underwear!

Borscht for Dinner

Would you like to find out what borscht (beet soup) tastes like?  Then come on down to Canaan UMC on Sunday evening, November 1 at 5:30 to have a taste.  Thanks to Frances and the Kitchen Crew at Canaan, we're going to serve up some Russian style food, including borscht, and I'll be hanging around with my photo albums to talk about my trip.  Any donations of items for the orphans or money toward the cost of the trip and shipping the items will be gratefully accepted.

New Picture

I just posted a new picture - how do you like it?  It is from our visit to the Psychological Orphanage at Sergei Posad in December 2007.  My friend in the picture is Viktor.

Time out for mission in Beckley

W.Va. Volunteers in Mission offers opportunities for local mission as well as in distant lands.  I spent a wonderful day today in Beckley, W.Va. at the Burlington Children's Home helping out with the Pumpkin Harvest Festival.  This is an annual event to raise funds for the Home.  There were craft tables, all kinds of tasty treats made from pumpkins, hay rides and games for big and little kids.  James Stull and I represented Canaan UMC and provided relief for the campus workers so they could take a break from monitoring the games.  We had a blast!

United Methodist Church in Russia

Because it had a presence in Russia in the days before the Russian Revolution, the Unted Methodist Church is allowed to have active churches in modern Russia.  I have celebrated Orthodox Christmas twice with the congregation of the First United Methodist Church of Moscow, and I look forward to worshipping at the Tomsk United Methodist Church this year.

A mission group from the Marvin United Methodist Church in Texas has traveled to Tomsk in recent years and have posted a wonderful web site describing their visit with the orphans.  I love looking at their photo gallery to get a taste of what I will experience on my visit to Tomsk.

Where in the World is Tomsk?

Most people have heard of Moscow and St. Petersburg in Russia, but where in the world is the city of Tomsk?  Well, if you look at a map of Asia, find the western edge of Mongolia and go north; that's where I'll be!  (Someone asked me if I were going to "Outer Mongolia" - not quite, but close!)

Wikipedia has a good general article about Tomsk, including history, climate, politics, industry and education.  Tomsk is a city of about 500,000 people and is known as the "Athens of Siberia" because of the number of colleges and universities found there.  It is also an industrial center; many factories were moved there during WWII to avoid capture by the Germans.  It has been described as "quaint" because of the many old wooden buildings with decorative carvings.  I'm really looking forward to visiting the city and learning more about how Russians live outside of the big cities.

Gifts for the Children

Here are the lists of items we need to bring to the orphans:

Infant and Toddler List:
Coloring book
Box of 8 Crayons
Tube of Chap Stick
Sheet of Stickers
Toothbrush/Toothpaste
Socks
Matchbox Car for Boys, Small Doll for Girls

Children and Youth List:
Make-up and Nail Polish for Girls/Cologne for Boys
Winter Gloves and Knitted Hat
Tube of Chap Stick, Tube of Hand Lotion
Toothbrush/Toothpaste
Pad of Writing Paper, Erasers
Pencils, Pens, Pencil Sharpener
Socks

For both age groups, a signed Christmas Card; please don't seal it or put anything extra in it but you can write a message (we'll get it translated) and 2-gallon Ziploc bags.  The 2-gallon bags are not as easy to find as the 1-gallon bags, but they do exist.  We can make do with the 1-gallon bags but it is a tight squeeze!  Also, as tempting as it is, please don't put the gift bags together yourself.  It is much easier to pack like items together, and when we get to the orphanage where we're staying we have a package stuffing party.

The first year I went I asked what the orphans would get for Christmas if we did not bring these presents with us.  The answer was "a box of candy".  Even more importantly, we bring smiles and love.  If you would like to be a part of the love, bring the presents to me at Canaan UMC (I'll make arrangements for collection boxes in the Worship Center and Sanctuary) or contact me by phone, e-mail or responding to this post and I'll make arrangements to pick up your contribution.  God bless you!

How You Can Help

When people find out about this mission trip, they want to help! There are several things you can do. First, PRAY! It's a long, hard trip (but well worth it!) and all of us on the trip will need all the prayer support we can get.

Second, you can make a contribution to W.Va. Volunteers in Mission (see the link to the right of the blog) or towards my expenses by sending a check to Canaan United Methodist Church with "Margie - Russia" in the memo line. The trip itself costs $2400 and there will be shipping fees for the presents we will be taking to the orphans (see below).

Third, you can help me gather presents for the orphans. I will be posting a list of the items that I will need to take with me to help make up the packages that we will give to the kids. (Thanks to Mona Meyer and Connie Crouch and the Canaan Kitchen crew for the items I've already received!) I've been asked why we can't ship the presents instead of paying airline fees for extra baggage, but when items are shipped to Russia, they don't always make it to their destination. If we take them with us, we are more sure that they will get there with us.

Any help you can give will be greatly appreciated!

Russia/Siberia Trip Details

This will be the 10th year that the W.Va. Volunteers in Mission has taken Christmas to Russian orphans. I was blessed to be able to participate in the 2006-7 and 2007-8 trips. We spent the first three nights in an orphanage and then visited many, many other orphanages in the Moscow region. This year will be a little different. We had the choice of visiting St. Petersburg or Tomsk in Siberia. As much as I would like to see the sights of St. Petersburg, it is possible to visit there via commercial tours if you really want to. It is not so easy to visit deep in Siberia! My roommate on the trip, Jan Blount, and I decided that we wanted to be part of the team that will make the trip to Tomsk. We will fly from D.C. to Moscow and then take another flight on to Tomsk. Moscow is 8 hours east of D.C. and Tomsk is 5 hours east of Moscow, so I will be 13 time zone away from home. We will leave on December 28, 2009 and return on January 8, 2010.

I'm BACK!

It's been way too long since my last post, but I've got some VERY good excuses! On February 1, 2008, I had arthroscopic surgery on my right knee. That went well, but the EKG didn't make anyone happy, so, to make a long story a little shorter, I wound up having a double coronary bypass on February 22. God is good (all the time!) and I had a fantastic recovery.

Also, on July 1 last year four United Methodist churches here on the West Side of Charleston came together to form Canaan United Methodist Church . I play keyboards in the praise band, sing in the choir and chair the Council. It's been quite a ride but I wouldn't have missed a minute of it. Well, almost all of it!

Anyhow, updating the blog kind of fell between the cracks. I wasn't able to go to Russia on the 2008-9 trip because I used ALL my leave time with my medical adventures (and had to take advantage of the leave-sharing program at work - grateful for it, too!). This year though, everything is working out for me to go. Look for the next post for details!