Gone

I wrote the following article for Keeping Current, a monthly publication of Northwest Yearly Meeting's Board of Global Outreach:

Gone are the days when missionaries left their homes, never to return, taking with them all their belongings packed inside their own coffins. It took William Carey 5 months to sail from England to Bengal in 1793. I can get on a plane tomorrow and be in Portland in about 15 hours.
Gone are the days when letters from the mission field took weeks at best to reach their destination and weeks again to receive a reply. Now, I can talk to anyone anywhere in the world live by using my computer equipped with an Internet connection and Skype. If we both have web cams, we can even see each other in real time as we speak together.

Gone are the days when missionaries all but completely severed ties with their home culture when they left for the mission field. Like it or not, media shapes much of what a culture is. Music. Television. Movies. All of these things, I can download to my computer and listen to and/or watch at my convenience through iTunes. That is exactly what inspired the writing of this article.

The other day, I downloaded a few songs by one of my favorite bands, Switchfoot. The lyrics to a couple of the songs served as a wake-up call for me. First, here is a portion of the song, Gone.

Gone, like yesterday is gone,
Like history is gone,
The world keeps spinning on,
You’re going, going, gone

Now, take a look at an excerpt from the song, This Is Your Life.

This is your life and today is all you've got now
And today is all you'll ever have

There is a compelling urgency in these lyrics that provoked me to question how intentionally I’m living each of my God-given days, especially in our current situation in Russia. Once a year, we must leave Russia in order to apply for new visas that will allow us to return and stay for another year. We’re fast-approaching another one of those times.

In mid-September, Lord willing, we will fly to Germany and then drive to France to apply in person at the Russian consulate in Strasbourg. Based on current trends in Russia and disturbing peculiarities in our application process thus far, we have a genuine concern that our request for new visas may be denied.

At the same time, we recently learned that the school at which we taught English last year was just permanently closed, taking away a fantastic opportunity for ministry. With such an uncertain future, we are naturally led to evaluate the lasting effects of our time and efforts here. That’s what makes TODAY so crucial.

I don’t want to sound paranoid. I know I can’t control whether I’m granted a new visa, how long I’ll be able to live in Russia, or really much of anything else, but I can control how I spend my days. I can choose to wile away the days of uncertainty now, or I can live like each day brings me closer to eternity with God, perhaps leaving the people whom He has given me to disciple in the dark forever.

We read in James 4:14, “Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.” Every day is a gift from God, given for a purpose. What is that purpose? Only God knows. How will you spend each day, reminiscing about the past, dreaming about the future or living as though it were your last?

Patrick Neifert

Happy Birthday, Megan!!!

Yesterday was Megan's 9th birthday and there was certainly no lack of celebrating in the house. It started with chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast. Since it was Friday, the kids still had school work to do, but the delay didn't seem to dampen their spirits. They finished by around 1:00 and started decorating for the evening party (Thanks for the party decorations, Pam). By 2:00, Leo joined them and the hours of frenzied playtime commenced. It seemed like every 20 minutes or so Megan asked, "Dad, how much longer until the party starts?" At one point in the afternoon, Christy and I left to do a little shopping for the evening meal and a couple more presents for Megan.

At 7:00, Sergey, Rina and Valya arrived and we sat down to eat dinner. On the menu were chicken fajitas, something new for all our guests. They were delicious, of course. Thanks, Christy. Dinner was followed up by opening presents and then eating a beautiful pink (strawberry) cake with vanilla icing covered with colorful sprinkles. It tasted as good as it looked. Afterwards, we retired to the living room where the adults watched part of an episode of National Geographic's Most Amazing Moments we recently downloaded on iTunes. The kids fled to Ethan and Megan's room to build a Lego set Megan received. The celebration ended by around 10:00 when I took our guests home.

I wish more of you could have joined us. We are truly grateful that Megan is a part of our family. We thank God for her life every day.

Patrick

Picture - From left to right are Sergey, Christy, Megan, Ethan, Valya, Rina & Leo enjoying a chicken fajitas dinner.

The McDonald's Bandit Strikes Again

A couple days ago (August 23), I was standing in line at McDonald's waiting to order. I carry a shoulder bag with me pretty much wherever I go, so it was hanging at my side as usual. I unzipped the pocket where I keep my money, pulled out my wallet to pay for our food and then replaced it. Unfortunately, I neglected to zip the pocket closed, leaving the contents vulnerable. Someone evidently noticed that and took advantage of the opportunity. A couple minutes later, I reached for my wallet for some reason and it was gone. I looked for it carefully in all the other pockets of my bag and in my shorts, but it was nowhere to be found. I immediately told the lady working at the cash register and she passed along the news to the manager who came out to talk to me. I explained what happened and he immediately called the police. He also told me there was a surveillance camera aimed at the cash registers that might reveal the culprit. We had time to eat and for Christy and the kids to head for home before the police arrived. When they did, I rode with them to the station (For the benefit of those not accustomed to it and to make the story more interesting, one of the policeman was carrying an automatic weapon).

Thus began the waiting process (I was at the police station for about 3 hours). While I was waiting, I called my friend, Sergey, who quickly came to my aid (He works only a couple blocks away from the police station) and eventually, we got in to talk to a detective who took down all the details of what happened before promising us that someone would return to McDonald's to review the surveillance tapes. I walked home and remained in kind of a semi-comatose state the rest of the day.

To be honest (Please don't judge me too harshly without fully understanding our lives here), I was extremely angry at the Russian people at the time of the theft, so angry that I was shaking all over. If someone would have given me a ticket out of the country at that moment, I'm afraid I might have grabbed it and run for the border. Our time in Elektrostal has been everything except easy. It seems like we've only been given enough time to come up for a desperate gulp of air before another stressful situation pushes us back under. Of course, we've had some highlights at the same time, like our growing friendship with Sergey and Rina, our developing relationship with a wonderful Russian family preparing to move in next door to us and Leo, a great friend to Ethan and Megan. All the good things stem around relationships, and that's what keeps us going. That said, please continue to pray for us, for our cultural sensitivity, our physical safety and our emotional stability.

Thanks to Christy's actions while I was waiting in the police station, our credit cards were quickly blocked and our replacement cards are to arrive at our door on Tuesday. Fortunately, Christy's check card is not linked to mine, so we still have that to get money from an ATM, so other than losing a couple hundred dollars and a bunch of receipts for this month's expense report, we're in pretty good shape. Praise God my passport was not stolen.

Patrick

Picture - This is the one and only McDonald's in Elektrostal, just a few blocks from our house. We've been hit twice here by the McDonald's bandit, once last December when Christy's purse was stolen and now a second time with my wallet.

Back to School and Yet Not

Ethan and Megan are on the verge of completing their first week of school as I write this. They started Monday, August 13. They were excited to get started because they're using new curriculum this year that promises to be more interesting than last year's. Instead of being entirely text-oriented, this year's curriculum uses engaging videos to teach everything from science to Bible to handwriting. That makes Christy's involvement a lot less intense, relieving a lot of the stress that was ever-present last year. She's still there for the kids when they have questions or need clarification, but she doesn't have to be there every second of every school day. I'm very glad for her. For these reasons, this year promises to be better. However, the kids still long to be with their friends at Hinkson Christian Academy in Moscow. We know that, especially for Ethan, the lack of regular contact with these important people in his life, it is difficult for them to be content where we are. Please pray for Ethan and Megan to have the relationships with friends they need. I know Mom & Dad can't provide everything they need for their development and contentment. Thanks!

The "and Yet Not" part of the title has to do with our future as English teachers. As most of you know, Christy and I (& Liz) taught English several nights a week at Phoenix School last year. The building in which we taught is owned by the city, and the officials have recently determined that they can use it for something more profitable next year. Therefore, Phoenix School is now permanently closed and we will not be able to teach there this coming school year. That news made us sad because it was such a wonderful opportunity to develop good relationships with young people that we will miss. We are talking and praying about some alternative activities that will allow us to continue working with these students. Please pray with us about this. Thanks again!

Patrick

Pictures 1 & 2 - Ethan & Megan have already gotten through their first week of school. Here they are working hard.

Picture 3 - Here is a picture of me with 2 of my English students. I have been able to strike up a friendship with Dima (left) outside the classroom and look forward to seeing how that develops this coming year.

Homeless, But Not Hopeless

I just returned home to Elektrostal after a week of ministry to a handful of street kids in Moscow. I, along with Carrie and Amanda, a couple young ladies from First Denver Friends, went to The Salvation Army's New Hope Center each day last week to spend several hours hanging out with homeless teens.

Before the kids started arriving Monday, we were a little apprehensive, not knowing what to expect. When it was all said and done, about 15 kids showed up that first day. Some of them were quite wild; others were very quiet. We discovered that most of the kids weren't from Moscow at all, but from east of Moscow. Two of them were even from Elektrostal and one from Noginsk, a neighboring city. None of the kids approached us for awhile. We could tell they were feeling us out just like we were them. They weren't about to make the first move, so we had to. Fortunately, there was a ping-pong table at the Center, so I struck up a game with one of the kids. That's all it took. From that point to the end of the week, relationships grew, in spite of cultural, economical and spiritual divides. As I look at some of the pictures I took now, I find I'm already missing the kids. Praise God!

Each day, there was plenty of time for just spending time with the kids, playing games, listening to music, watching DVDs. In addition to that, at 3:30 every day, we participated in what was called the Circle. During this time, everyone gathers in a circle and shares 4 things with the group. Here's an example of the first 3 things: "My name is Sergey. I'm in a good mood. My plan for this evening is to go for a walk with my friends." The 4th thing is to answer the day's question, something like "If you could take a trip anywhere in the world, where would you go and why?"

Besides the Circle, there is a 30-minute class time when a social worker teaches the kids about something or another since most of the kids do not go to school. On Thursdays, the time is used for a Bible lesson. It's really a good program. The kids were surprisingly respectful, but then again, I guess they don't otherwise have a safe place to just relax and be themselves, so it's not something they seem to take for granted.

To end this post, I'm grateful for the opportunity to take part in such a worthy ministry. Perhaps we will start something similar in Elektrostal for the youth of our city. It's something we've been talking about, so the experience was invaluable.

Patrick

Picture 1 - This is the sign on the outside of New Hope Center. It says "The Salvation Army Russia."

Picture 2 - The young lady on the left is Angela, a staff member of New Hope Center. The girl in front of her is Inga, the daughter of another staff member. The other 3 are Anya, Katya and Dennis, beneficiaries of the program. The sign in the background reads "Our future begins today."