Wayfaring Stranger

Hope you all had a wonderful 2008! Here is my Christmas letter. Merry Christmas one and all!

posted by iWantToKeepAnon at 4:37 PM | 0 Comments »   

My Russia '08 pics are now online! Click here : photo gallery to view my album.

posted by iWantToKeepAnon at 6:11 PM | 3 Comments »   

Hey, we're on the final stretch of the '08 English classes! We've all had great students! Most of our (Jerry, Tracy, and Rodney's) students stayed with the classes for both weeks and a lot of them came to McPeaks after class to hang out and chat. We also had a lot of fun with the students during the day; going sightseeing, bowling, etc...

Tonight (Friday night) about 17 of us will go to the Ekaterinburg Opera house to see Swan Lake. This will be my first time in the opera house and my first time to see a ballet live. :))

Many of our students signed up to go to the Forrest Fun Party, so I am really looking forward to that. The return trip is going to be kind of rough, but it is well worth it. We will leave the party to return to the hotel for a quick shower and to pick up our bags and then leave for the airport for the long journey back to the good 'ole U.S. of A.

Please pray for us! Please pray that many students will come to our Forrest Fun Party, that they would have fun and connect with the Kompass ministry, that they would listen and be open to the good news of Jesus, and for our endurance of the flight back home.

Thank you and God bless! ... Rodney.

posted by iWantToKeepAnon at 12:41 AM | 0 Comments »   

This year we have three English classes of about 30 students; so 90 students have been exposed to 4 stories about Jesus. Next week we will tell 4 more stories about Jesus; then on Saturday we will take the students to the "Forrest Fun Party" retreat. It will be a weekend of fun and games. After the retreat, the students will be asked to join Bible studies from the book of John.

Today the guys and Chris (Kompas staff) went to a Russian banya. We had a great time, talked about future ministry opportunities here and Ekat and in Russia in general. A banya is such a great way to start the second week; you feel clean, invigorated, and energy enough to tackle the second week. :))

Prayer Requests:

1. That God would bless the second week of the English classes.
2. That God would greatly use the retreat next Saturday to draw students nearer to Jesus Christ.
3. That many students would join one of the Bible studies.
4. We have to leave at 3am Sunday morning for the airport; but we won't leave the retreat until midnight (it's over an hour back to the hotel). So we will probably will not sleep at all before starting the long trip back! Please pray for our strength on the return trip.

Click here: English Class Students in 2008, to see a class photo.

posted by iWantToKeepAnon at 1:56 AM | 0 Comments »   

We're back at the Iset hotel. So I have access to the internet again. I've been offline since we moved to the flats 3 days ago. But I've been so busy, I probably would not have posted anyway. :p

The "Talk the Talk" classes are going great! We have 3 classes instead of the anticipated 4, but that actually works better for us and makes each of the classes a little bit larger. We all have a great group of kids and I have really enjoyed hanging out with them. We have been signing students up for "excursion" appointments during the day. And we hang out at a local cafe after class to talk, eat, learn about each other, and (of course) laugh a lot! :)) I enjoy teaching them slang and they like returning the favor.

Oh, let me tell you about our new digs. When we got in on Sunday we found that the hotel had mixed up our reservation. Faithfully, God provided us 2 flats to stay in for 3 nights till the Iset could accomdate us again. So this morning we get our bags packed and loaded into "taxis" (def: taxi == just 1 guy and his car) and get checked into the Iset hotel. I stuff my bags into the lift and go up to my room; I open the door and I find we are staying in a delux suite! Sweet! I guess since the mixup was their fault and they are a reputable hotel, and since we stay here every year; they decided to give us the "delux apartment in the sky" for the price of a normal room. Kruta! I think the rooms we got were well worth the 3 days of inconvenience. Maybe this was in God's greater plan?

Please pray for continued strengh, for 2 of our team members who are leaving for the US on Sunday morning, and for our students to continue with the classes and attend the "Forrest Fun Party".

See you soon .... Paka, Rodney.

P.S. I am getting some good photos, I will upload them when I get back ... stay tuned.

posted by iWantToKeepAnon at 4:04 AM | 0 Comments »   

Well, 27 hours of traveling and we are back in Ekat! We had an 11 hour layover in Frankfort Germany. So we put our bags in luggage storage and headed out to see the sights. It was a great way to spend the layover and break up the traveling.

So, we leave Frankfort and head out to Ekat. We get here and Irina met us at the airport and had a taxi waiting to take us to our hotel, the Iset. We we check in, NO reservation was on the books. Daring came in last month and met with them face to face and gave a written list of rooms and his contact numbers. But for some reason they expected Darin to call back in and re-state that he wanted those rooms. So guess what? We're not staying at the Iset. At least not for a couple of days. And the city is completely booked, no (ahem) room at the inns!

Luckily there are a couple of flats that we can rent by the day and we will be there for 3 or 4 days and then the Iset can accommodate us for the remainder of the 2 weeks. God is faithful to supply all our needs!

Please pray for those who need sleep, for our students to show up and continue to come, for us having to change housing twice more, the God would be glorified above all!

Thanks! Rodney

posted by iWantToKeepAnon at 3:29 AM | 1 Comments »   

When I packed my 4th shirt tonight, I thought to myself "Am I over packing?!". I guess when you have traveled to Russia 5 times you get used to packing for international trips. Just so you know, if I have 4 shirts; I will probably have more "outfits" than most of my students. Life there is very active, but very simple ... very uncomplicated.

Uncomplicated, simple, genuine. Yes, Russia here I come!

posted by iWantToKeepAnon at 10:02 PM | 0 Comments »   

Monday the 11th we started Backyard Bible Club at Hidalgo. Click here to see the photos.

posted by iWantToKeepAnon at 1:37 PM | 0 Comments »   

I just sent out my Russia support letter, you can see it online. The remainder of this post is the text from that letter, if you want to see the pretty pictures you'll need to click the link:).

Dear Friends and Family,

Northwest Bible Church is once again partnering with Darin McFarland and Compass by teaching the English class “Talk the Talk” in Ekaterinburg, Russia. I told several of you that I had a desire to go on our India trip this year, but I feel that God is calling me back to Russia. He isn’t through with me there, and I am happy to go back and be a part of what He is doing there! We will be leaving on October 3rd and returning on the 19th.

I want to tell you a little more about Compass in Ekaterinburg and why I have been going back each year. The follow-up after we leave is awesome! The Compass team sets up Bible studies, sporting events, social events, they celebrate holidays, etc… They have multiple contacts with each student every week! And they do this year after year with the existing students and the additional ones Talk the Talk bring in. Here is an email from a student that describes his experience (this was written to Darin):

“Praise the Lord for everything He is doing there. And for everything you all do. Actually I've been meaning to tell you you this for quite some time - I'm so very grateful that because of your ministry I became a believer. I know God used you to reach out to me, and I am so glad that He did. Thank you for not giving up on me through my many months of doubts and resistance. Life with the Lord is something absolutely amazing, and I don't know how long I would have been going in the darkness if it hasn't been for your ministry. Well, I guess that's it.. I'm doing OK. God has been kind and good to me - I feel rather safe and secure (more or less), and very peaceful too.. Love you with all my heart and miss you a lot. In Christ, Alexey”

Here are some of the students (photo is in the pdf link) you have helped us reach. Not every single one of these believers and seekers came to Compass by Talk the Talk, but most of them did. And some came because they were invited by the English students. So I thank you very much for your support, and I ask you to support me again this year. I need to raise 3,500 dollars to go on the trip. Our team also needs your prayers very much. Please pray for our preparations, that we would be kind and loving to our students, that God’s love will shine, and that our faith would be stretched!

If you decide to support me financially, just leave a comment to this post and I will give you the details (the details are also in the pdf).

Thank you and God bless.

posted by iWantToKeepAnon at 9:08 AM | 0 Comments »   

At Hidalgo Bible Club, we had a beach teamed party for our "End of School!!" party. It was mad chaos, and mad fun :)!! We played parachute games, relays, cake walk, built sand castles, and ate hot dogs and HOT cheetos. Here are the photos:

• End of School - Part Uno
• End of School - Part Dos

Labels: album

posted by iWantToKeepAnon at 8:36 AM | 1 Comments »   

You can see the photo album here.

Labels: album

posted by iWantToKeepAnon at 1:50 PM | 1 Comments »   

Merry Tossmas and Feliz Navi-Toss! If you'd like to celebrate Tossmas or just learn more, then click here.

It's not a boycott or plea to mail your congressmen. Just a suggestion to make you think ... and with a bit of humor to boot.

• Happy non-specified Holiday!
• What are you buying your kids for Thanksgiving this year?
• Can't find that right *Christmas* card? Or *Christmas* gift? Or *Christmas* decorations? Then why look in a *Holiday* catalog?

This and more in the video ... :-)

posted by iWantToKeepAnon at 10:26 PM | 0 Comments »   

No, they haven't gotten around to summoning babies yet. Following is an update on Chloe and following that is a note about my jury duty on Monday.

Chloe (from my brother-in-law)

It isn't over until the paperwork is done. The discharge paperwork has begun this morning! We will be headed home exactly three weeks to the day of admission. We are so grateful for the quick recovery. There are many families that have been waiting for weeks and months to bring their little ones home. Our hearts go out to those families in CVICU, remember to pray for them as they wait to be discharged. We feel tremendously blessed by everyone's support through this stressful time. God is good, all the time.

Jury Duty

I got summoned but didn't get picked somehow. I have been on 2 felony trials and was foreman for 1 of them. My "neighbor" (juror #29) got picked, but me (juror #30) did not. I like "Cops" and those type shows and kinda enjoyed (don't let it get out) my other jury experiences. But this one was an agravated sexual assualt case ... boy did I NOT want to hear that case. Luckily I didn't get picked for this one.

During vordire the DA was making a point about witnessing in cases like this. The DA picked a woman juror and told us we were going to do an experiment. She asked the lady to take the stand and tell us, in detail, about the last time she was "with" her husband. Including everything that was said, everything that was done, and how she felt. Obviously she said all this for effect and to kind of put us in the shoes of anyone having to give witness in this case .... BUT THE LADY STOOD UP! She actually started to head to the witness box! The DA stopped her, the judge about fell over, and I think I fell out of my seat. Too funny. Boy was she relieved when she was told she didn't have to actually go through with it. Do I need to tell you that she got picked as a juror? .... Nah didn't think so. :-))

posted by iWantToKeepAnon at 1:09 PM | 0 Comments »   

To view a day out at Bachman lake with the Hidalgo kids, click the image above or click here. Enjoy. :-)

Labels: album

posted by iWantToKeepAnon at 5:43 PM | 0 Comments »