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

AFL Grand Final

Yesterday I saw my second ever AFL game- the relaxed final between Port and Geelong.

Our friends (from Australind!) Scott and Alison and their boys live on Sakhalin, working in the oil and gas industry here. They have a lovely home, and cable TV! So Scott gathered all the Aussie men from the neighbourhood to watch the game together.
It was also Alison's birthday. So they invited all 6 of us to spend the night and celebrate life in a very Australian way.
It felt like all of our birthdays.

We were laughing about it together-
our eyes wide, talking excitedly about visiting Scott and Alison, where we watched a game of footy, saw some Rage, listened to the new Missy Higgins album, ate 'real' sausages, home made sausage rolls, real BBQ sauce, and egg and bacon and cheese toasted sandwiches.

How does this sound to you guys at home? Exotic? Exciting?

It's the small things in life.

Recent developments

A young woman in our church who has a 10 year old son is out of work and as of last Wednesday, they had nowhere to live- so they moved in with us!

She has about half a flat's worth of furniture which has slowly been enveloping the girls' room, where Natasha is sleeping, and the boys' room which her son Vlad is sharing with Luke and Jake. It's interesting having another adult, and another child in the house (not in the teenage demographic!) - and we're slowly settling in around the changes.

We want to help Natasha find work and get back on her feet, and give Vlad some stability in his life (they haven't had a stable home for about 6 months I think)- so they'll be here with us for as long as they need to be.

You'll see more of them later.

Kateso's married!

Our Kateso's married!
Yesterday was the big day.

It rained- but by 3pm when she and her husband Ruslan, the bridesmaid and best man and their close family arrived at our house for the pre-ceremony gathering, the rain had stopped and the sky began to clear.

Thick clouds. Moist air.
Kate's ivory glowed against the grey and green.

At our house the professional wedding MC had arranged games and competitions after Russian culture. Kate waited upstairs while Ruslan and his entourage arrived- Ruslan had to complete various tasks to earn his bride.
























He had to guess which lipstick-kiss on a poster is his Kate's; to write Kate's name in rice on a board looking only into a mirror; to split a log of wood (determining how many children they'll have); guessing which shoe box contained Kate's shoe- and finally, when he'd passed the tests, Ruslan was presented with his bride.
























Lovely, isn't he? Jake, in his element.

Thankfully, Ruslan wasn't happy with the "bride" his friends had tried to fool him with- Kate came down the stairs on cue, ready to greet Ruslan and his family.

In Russia, couples marry in the registry office. The office is open on certain days of the week, so couples and their small groups of witnesses are lined up in the foyer, waiting for their turn.

We arrived a little late, thanks to the taxi's non-arrival... We missed the first two minutes, and the ceremony was nearly finished. There were some musicians at the back, who played bars of this or that song on cue; the photographer directed everyone to their places, and the wedding was conducted by a woman in a nice suit, wearing a tight bun.



















After Ruslan and Kate were presented to us, we greeted them and presented them with flowers etc. Then we were ushered into an adjoining room so the next wedding party could come through.
























In the adjoining room was a long table laid out with champagne glasses (enough for one per adult) and two trays of chocolate.

We toasted Kate and Ruslan, some people said some things, and we we chatted for a few minutes.
























Before leaving the registry office, we took group photos; and when Ruslan and Kate arrived, he carried her down the steps while we delighted in throwing plastic rose petals, grain and small coins at them.



















Kate particularly wanted the 6 of us to come with her to take photos between the ceremony and the reception; it's tradition for newly weds to pay their respects and take photos at monuments throughout the city.
So we visited Lenin Square, Glory Square, and Kate and Ruslan paid their respects at the Neftigorsk memorial (remembering the town at the north of Sakhalin that was devastated by an earthquake in 1995).
There they fed pigeons.





















































































The reception was held in a restaurant, and was a little more familiar- though there were still games, a couple of admirably short speeches, more kissing than Pearl Harbor, as Jake said, and dancing. It was a media event.

Congratulations Kate and Ruslan!