Kostya's back, and he's 21!

After 2 years- 2 years of waiting and praying, smsing, calling, writing, visiting, encouraging-
Finally he's back.

Kostya's home! And he turned 21 on Sunday.


Our house is full at the moment. Not quite to capacity, thank God. But... only 2 young people and baby Gela are visitors in these photos.



Men of the house.
Roma, Alissa and little Angelina

Autumn photo shoot

Crisp air, fresh skies, delicate leaves- the Glory of God revealed in Autumn.

This week in court

Wednesday morning was a continuation of Katya's mum's trial. Katya had received a letter requesting her presence so she could testify. She hadn't been allowed to attend the previous hearing(s).
Trac and I went with her-

She hadn't seen her mum since May, when it all happened and her mum was arrested.
To see her would be hard enough. But to be alone in the straight jacket of legal procedure in a small room where her mum would be caged behind bars in a corner...

We arrived at the courthouse and followed a group of people Katya seemed to know down the long corridor of closed doors. We stopped and waited outside one of them, until a young man who turned out to be a legal secretary opened the door, invited us in and explained some basic protocol.
Stand when the judge enters. Stand when replying to a question from the judge. Otherwise don't speak at all. Don't make noise. Turn off your mobile phones.

Guards entered with Katya's mum. She's short, like Katya, with dark chocolate-brown hair, and deep brown eyes, like Katya. She has a low, gravelly voice. Quiet.
She sat still in the barred corner, with guards on either side of the room. The female guard sitting next to me spent the entire two hours sending messages on her phone.

When Katya first saw her mum, tears started streaking down her cheeks- they didn't let up until she went to sleep that night.

The judge called Katya to testify. Her mum's lawyer asked questions- what kind of a mother was she? Why did you live in a children's home for 6 months? Where is your brother now? Why was your baby sister already in a baby's orphanage when your mum was arrested? Do you love your sister? Why did you let her go to the orphanage? Describe your relationship with your mum. Is that a hard question? Do you love each other? Are you friends? You won't answer? That's all.

After they'd finished with Katya, the judge asked her mum to give a full account of the incident- so we heard all the gory details. Thank God Trac and I couldn't understand much in this part of the hearing. But Katya could. She heard it all.

I lent Katya my sunglasses on the way home.

The hearing will continue next week.

HOME

THIS has been my home for the last year- but now it's time to start closing, finishing, completing, saying goodbye. I'm going back to Australind in 2 1/2 weeks.



The last couple of days at home have been very full of stressful things, but we are enjoying life and each other all the more for it.

Kostya (who's been in the army in Khabarovsk for the last 2 years) is coming home to Sakhalin next week. Two years of praying, waiting, supporting, smsing (Tracy's phone didn't often leave her hand these last 2 years! She's on 24 hour Kostya support standby) is coming to an end.

He's had a very difficult time, and new difficulties are arising with his return. Suffice it to say that we will not take part in the struggle going on for Kost. We're working through each new trouble with patience and endurance (thank you Lord for the passport and visa office, where we can learn such things!!)
We will prepare him a place in our household, and leave the rest for Kostya to decide.

Roma (above) has been going through troubles of his own. But in recent times he's turning more to us for friendship and relationship than previously. He'll be able to look for work again once his passport and documents are in order (they expired a month after he turned 20).



Natasha has grown and matured a lot since the summer. She spent the summer living with her sister (who recently turned 32) and working for her aunt, taking care of her baby cousin. For the first time Natasha has spent bulk time with these family members, and I wonder if she is finding a confidence and peace that comes with knowing who you are and where you're from, through her sister and aunt.

Nastya may have got herself a job today- she was calling around a couple of hours ago, and searching the papers for ads. She visits us occasionally, when she needs something (which is not uncommon)- but more often she's visiting without Anton, and I find her more approachable at those times. She finished her computing course this summer, and wanted to continue studying, but there's some rule about living at the school's dorm and money for a second course, which counts her out, at least for now. Hopefully she'll be able to earn enough money, stay focussed, and then pay her way through a second course. She can do it, it's just a matter of motivation...

It's a good thing I don't have paper airline tickets- I'm sure she would have taken them off me and hidden them by now ;-)

Day of Thanksgiving

We celebrated the Harvest Festival in a Day of Thanksgiving at church last Sunday.





The table at the front of the church was LADEN with fruits and vegies, produce from the dachas, cottages belonging to church members.
Groups of people, and individuals performed songs, dances and poems. I was not among these, although it wasn't for Pastor Peter's lack of trying to persuade me to ;-)





After the celebration service we headed upstairs for afternoon tea (after which we didn't need dinner!) and talked, sang songs, "hung out" church style.

Grils' Night! at Ryan's

I'm not saying Ryan was there: I'm saying thank you very much for lending us your pad!

While Ryan traipsed around central Europe, we took shifts to enjoy solitude, quiet, remembering what it means to be a human being at his place.

Friday night was girls' night which means one thing (well, two): good movies and LOADS of chocolate!

Beckles getting down with some cake.
Note: anyone interested in buying a snowboard, please contact Ryan!

We awoke to a taste of the season to come on Saturday morning: the first real snowfall.
It stayed on the ground all day-
Ryan, check your freezer for a snowball Beckles saved for you!

Chekov Peak: memories of Autumn

Chekov Peak

Saturday Ocober 6th opened with a thick fog across the city. As we packed for a day-long hike up Chekov Peak, thoughts turned to warm jumpers and beanies.


We were a group of about 20 people, who hiked together. Masha organised the trip as a birthday celebration for herself- and she did a good job of organising the weather too!

Chekov Peak is, I've been told, about 12 km walk from the city. After the walk, we began to climb. There were some very steep parts of the path- not rock climbing or cliffy, but hard going for someone of my fitness level. The ground was mercifully dry. I can imagine us all sliding down from the top in the mud!





With Masha

But whatever pain we individually went through was all but forgotten once we'd reached the summit. We could see the Sea of Ohotsk to the west; the city lay still thickly covered in cloud below to the south; mountains lay wherever we turned. The forest was radiant with some of the brightest autumnal colours I've seen.



Around the top we found a ground-covering plant carrying loads of red berries- brusnika, I don't know what they are in English. Like a mouthful of pure Vitamin C, we ate all we could. A resident of Sakhalin can never get too much of the stuff.



We were really slow going. What takes a relatively fit person 5-6 hours to travel took us a good 9 hours: it was dark as we walked back along the road into the city- again under the thick cover of cloud, with not even a start to light our way.

Goodbye Artor

Artor, our guitarist, song leader and sometimes drummer, has gone. Left the island.

IF I understand correctly
(it's a little frustrating, never being sure of anything because I may have misunderstood)
he is from Ogligorsk, about mid-way up the island. His pastor there asked Artor if he'd consider moving to Vladivostok on the mainland, to help with a new church plant there.
So- he's going.

It's hard on his girlfriend, Katya- but it may not be long before they get married, in which case she would probably go to live in Vladivostok too.

The music team is beginning to despair, and then I told them about my plans to go back to Australia by the end of the year! I'm sure that soon the tide will turn, and people will begin coming to the team again!!

Igor and Jarik Clayton

Ruslan 'barabanshik'

Supremers

Sergei Zepplin