Hello to Everyone from Sunny Moscow,

WE ARE HERE!!!!!!!!!!

We have a balmy 14° F, a slightly overcast sky (aka cloudy no chance of sun!!).  Tonight's low will be 3° F.  Tom & I are doing well.  I apologize for being so long to connect with some of you and I equally apologize to the remainder for being redundant on a few stories.  We are learning that some things take time here and the internet is one.  You do not do anything in a rush. Patience is a must.  

We arrived on Tuesday January 26, after an uneventful flight, absolutely exhausted.  One of the missionary families who has children at Hinkson was gracious enough to let us stay with them until we could find our own place.  Wednesday morning, after arrival, we started off running (and really have not stopped).  We went to the school for orientation and shadowed some of our classes for the remainder of the day.  

After a full day we went with our friend Elena to apartment hunt.  That was a trip!  The third apartment, we were to have seen first; the lady rescheduled for later in the evening.  When we arrived at the apartment building we still had to wait an hour during which time two more groups of people came to see the same apartment.   The lady finally showed and whisked one of the other couples into the elevator which then became stuck between floors.  After another hour waiting for someone to free them from the elevator, she took the other couple in with her (even though we were there 30 min sooner) and they promptly took the apartment.  We were thinking it must be a wonderful apartment and asked to see it.  IT WAS NOT!!  Welcome to Russia LOL

We died on Thursday during the day then Elena took us back out to see more apartments Thursday evening.  God was gracious though and since He knew that we were to start work on Monday the first (and only) apartment we saw on Thursday evening was perfect.  We took it.  God has blessed us with a one room apartment directly across the street (10 min walking distance) from the school.  We have a nice entrance with a kitchen and bedroom / living room.  It fits into our budget (25000 rubles per month) and it was partially furnished (small table with one broken chair in the kitchen, a mirrored vanity in the entrance and a bed (queen size, big plus, mattress no box springs) chair, rug and desk with chair in the bedroom.  We have a nice view out the window of the city and our neighbors on either side are very quiet.  The landlord is very nice (which from what we hear is a definite plus) and easy to get along with though we have to have a translator.  The building is only 5 years old and we have a concierge (a lady at the front desk) who watches to make sure of who comes in and out along with keeping the entrance clean and clear.  We will pay her 300 rubles each month for her service.  Her name is Anna and has taken quite a liking to me and wants to make sure I have lots of English students so I can make lots of money where we will stay here a long time (she has been working at this).

So we had an apartment with in three days of landing in Moscow!!  Praise God!  We moved in on Saturday.  Everyone at the school has been wonderful and helpful.  Nick, the schools driver, moved our bags over on Saturday.  The apartment did not come with any storage so our first Russian lesson was in the procurement of something known as Shkafs - like unto armoires.  God again was gracious and there just happened to be a couple leaving Moscow in need of getting rid of said shkafs so we were able to purchase what we needed at half the price.

Friday night, the elementary school principal took us by Metro and bus to IKEA and Ashan (like unto Walmart only much larger) to start picking up stuff to get our apartment functional.  It's quite the ordeal when you have to buy everything!  When you come from having everything you need, then to have to rethink what you may need, it is complicated.  It also didn't help being three days off the plane and on a very tight budget. It was our first time at IKEA (it is called EeKaya here) so you can imagine our surprise at the size and volume of everything.  They have lots of shopping here but when you do not have a car you are dependent on others, to tell you how to get there (metros and bus numbers etc) and drivers to help you pick up and transport your acquisitions.  We are incredibly blessed to have a driver at the school (Nicoli).  During school time he is paid for by the school, off hours you make arrangements including payment.  This time the school picked up the tab and Nick picked us up in the school van and took us the empty apartment to deliver everything we had purchased, and then over to our host family for the night.  

On Saturday, after moving our suitcases over to the new apartment, another school family picked us up to go back out to the same places along with a shop similar to Home Depot called OB.  They spent the whole day with us helping us get more things picked up.  We got back to our bare apartment about 10pm, put sheets on the bed and spent the first night in our own apartment in Moscow.  It felt kinda weird.   

Sunday we visited one of the churches connected with the English camp and they welcomed us like family.  It was good to see everyone again.  

On Monday we did our first day of teaching at school, while still getting over jet lag.  Jim, who spent the day with us on Saturday, met Tom, the school driver, and 2 high school boys, in the afternoon to go pick up 5 eight foot tall disassembled shkafs and deliver them to our apartment.  It  took 2.5 hrs to get them down the elevator from the seller's apartment, into the van, up the elevator in our apartment building, off the elevator and into our apartment.  What an ordeal shuttling the pieces, keeping the elevator door open, and making multiple trips on both ends.  After that, Jim spent the next 2.5 hrs at our apartment helping Tom re-assemble 3 of the 5 shkafs.  It was like building a giant Leggo project without the instructions!  Tom put together the remainder of shkafs the following Saturday.  

Many of the other school staff have also been quite helpful, from loaning us a phone to bringing in much needed coat hangers.  One brought in rice flour and another soymilk when they found out about our allergies.  A previous teacher at the school left a phone which we were able to take over for the price of putting time on it (another Blessing).  

The school is over joyed with us being here.  Particularly Al Smith who has been teaching Tom's Physical Science, Algebra II and Physics classes along with his own.  Tom has 4 classes a day, those previously mentioned and Chemistry.  It has been hard on him, never having to do lesson plans for multiple classes every day.  He usually works on class prep in between classes and for most of the evening.  His favorite class to work with is his 9th grade Physical science class who had the reputation of being the rowdiest.  Tom is finding them to be a fun bunch.  He has a large number of Korean kids in his classes, only a couple of Russians, one kid from Poland and the rest American.  As the days go by it is getting easier, he is feeling more comfortable and relaxed teaching. There are a lot of things to take into consideration with these kids.  With the Koreans, as a culture they are good at straight memorization but have a hard time with application and thinking outside the box.  They also have a difficult time asking for help it just is not culturally acceptable.  Then you have the kids that are not English proficient.  Imagine being Polish and only knowing a minimal amount of English and trying to grasp Algebra II or Chemistry.  Then you have a lot of kids that are in and out of school, in and out of the country due to what their parents do.  They have Visa issues and the like.  Hinkson is dealing with a lot of educational issues that schools there in the states do not have.  

I am enjoying working in ESL and Educational support.  I have 9 children that I work with and 4 I am directly responsible for.  There are a couple I have connected with; Seung Hoon is a Junior.  He is a lot of fun to work with.  In Korea he was first in a class of 500 hundred.  His English is remarkable for only being at the school since the first of the year.  I am mainly helping him in his Lit. class.  They are reading "Uncle Tom's Cabin" Yuck!  Peter is 16 and from Poland and knows limited English (though far superior to what my Russian will ever be).  The school made an exception for him because he is so far behind his grade level.  His mother died of a brain aneurysm last year ( he is the second child I am working with that is dealing with a fresh loss of a mother), his father works out of the country in Norway.  He was taking care of himself pretty much and so his aunt and uncle invited him to live with them in Russia and learn English at the school.  He is not from a Christian family so along with dealing with the loss of a mother, father, friends and home; he is also dealing with living with people that he does not really know who have different view and way of life from him.  We really connected the other day when we were discussing Haiti and talking about change.  He shared about feeling different and not feeling like he really fit in.  He felt that the other kids were coming from perfect lives with no real worries.  I was able to share about being from the South and moving North, feeling different and about losing my dad.  I also helped him to see that a lot of these kids were also dealing with a lot more than they were letting on.  He told one of the other teachers that he had really enjoyed talking to me and that our talk was very helpful.  Pray for him.  

Over all we are enjoying city life.  We have found that they show "House" each night at 10:00pm (22:00)  The Russian voice-overs adds a whole new dimension of Gruff to the show and it is quite entertaining.  Things we have learned:  You do not shop you procure.  Shopping here is very primal; it is the hunt!  You do not walk you skate. They are very proficient here about shoveling the walk ways only when they are done what you have to walk on is the ice.  Living here is like being an infant again learning a new how to walk, talk, find our way around, even simplest task like cooking, washing clothes or shopping makes you feel absolutely like an idiot!  

We do have a couple of prayer requests.  Upon arrival we found that the school is in another visa situation.  The government sorta forgot to tell the school that they had revamped their visa policies and now the school had consequently missed some very important cut off.  The whole school is affected including us.  Most all the teachers here like us having to raise their own support and are on very tight budgets.  This change will mean leaving the country to get new visas and possibly getting new passports. We are not completely sure what this will mean for us.  Our visa is good until the end of March and they are hoping to be granted an exception by then, if not we will have to get new passports and make a visa trip to Spain or Ukraine to reapply.  This is an expense we did not count on and we are already on a very tight budget but God is in control we have seen His provisions during this whole process so I know he will continue to work on our behalf.  Also continue to pray for our monthly support.  With out it we can not stay in Moscow.  We came on a bare bones budget and this January support was way low.  We still need new churches and individuals.  Pray that God would touch hearts.

We are enjoying the school's winter break so we do not have school today or Monday.  My goal is to finally see Red Square in lights at night.  I hear it is beautiful!!!  I am hoping to do that for sure Sunday night,Valentine's Day.  It is traditional for lovers to kiss in Red Square.  

We appreciated all of the prayers during the move.  We know you are still praying for us; we can feel it.  Please remember to pray for us when you feel a butt freezing chill.  If you know of anyone who is not receiving our emails and would like to, please let us know.  We are still trying to re-coop our Moscow Partners files and I know we are missing some.  Pastors, if you could please share this email with your congregations as I do not know when news letters will be mailed out to those who do not have emails.

God Bless You All, Blessings
Lois & Tom Ford

P.S. I have included a picture of Lois at the school on Groundhog's Day with Gerald the Pennsylvania Groundhog.  There will be more pictures soon on face book.  If we can figure out how to do it maybe a CD or film clip you can share at church