Yes, I was able to go back to Red Square this weekend and do some exploring! Pictured behind me is The Church of the Intercession of the Holy Virgin, also known as St. Basil's Cathedral. For a small price, I was able to tour the inside and take lots of pictures. How beautiful!
Inside the 445-year old cathedral, the oldest building in Moscow.
This is the view from inside central church, the main meeting place within the cathedral. How cool it was to be inside Moscow's central church while also remembering that my home church is also Central Church!
Buena Vista! This is the view of Red Square from within St. Basil's Cathedral.
Gorgeous scenery outside the Kremlin.
Who wouldn't feel safe within the strong arms of the Lion of Judah? Something about beholding a majestic lion elicits awe and fear simultaneously within us. It's the same way with the Lord! When I saw this lion (and its identical twin in the background) outside Christ the Savior Church, I couldn't help but think of Jesus and Aslan, the Christ-figure in The Chronicles of Narnia.
This is Christ the Savior Church, which is without a doubt, the most beautiful building I have ever seen or been inside of in my entire life. Once I walked in, it took my breath away. Sorry...cameras weren't allowed inside!
Yes, it's true, my principal is nit-picking through my hair! He even went so far as to call himself "the nit-picky administrator"! Last Friday, lice were discovered on one student's scalp, and by the end of the day on Monday, 31% of the student body had been checked for lice: 48% of those students (and many staff) tested positive! We have a lice outbreak at Hinkson Christian Academy! How lousy (I couldn't resist the pun)! The situation is so serious that school was cancelled today! The day off was to give families time to treat their children and to recover emotionally from the entire situation. School is scheduled to begin again on Wednesday. I've never seen anything like it! Please pray that this situation would be nipped in the bud, that it would not persist, and that God would give grace for everyone involved, especially the school nurse!

Last week was another tremendous week of school, filled with many positive interactions with the students and staff. By the week's end, I had already learned so many more lessons about what to do and what not to do as a classroom teacher (the lessons come in scores during this first year). But just when I would start to think that I'm not doing a par job, I would get encouraging e-mails from parents or conversations with students or parents telling me quite the contrary. Thank you, Lord, for the timely encouragement!

Through life's circumstances and my physical exhaustion at the end of the week, the Lord brought me face to face with myself and my tendency to work too hard. It was as if He gave me a warning of what could happen in the future if I don't learn to live a balanced life; He exhorted me to heed His wise counsel about learning to cut back. I realized how I had allowed school to nearly consume me, taking precious time away from sleep, other relationships, and most importantly, my relationship with Him. I had a weekend to think about it, to really step back and evaluate my life and why I'm doing what I'm doing. At the end of it all, after much prayer and relaxation time spent on the town, I decided to set some limits. As much as it doesn't make sense initially, I'm just now learning that in order to delve into the limitless reaches of God's will for our lives, we often have to set physical limits for ourselves. Limits as a means to no limits. What I mean can be lived out in very practical measures. For example, I have purposed to leave the school no later than 5:30 each night, no matter what. I'm purposing to set a bedtime so I can get more sleep. When one of the key dimensions of life (in my case, body or strength) is out of balance, it undoubtedly affects all of the others (heart, soul, mind). Thank you, Lord, for giving me an honest reflection of myself and providing the grace to begin a change.

In the midst of all of this pruning God's been doing in my life, I began to also think about our call to live a life "hidden with Christ in God" (Colossians 3:3) and Jesus' teaching to "...go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you" (Matthew 6:6). We must cultivate this secret, hidden life. I can recall a number of times in my life where I was entrusted with a secret, and it was the coolest thing to know that no one on the planet knew about it except for my friend and me. There's something special about keeping secrets, knowing things that are not to be shared with anyone else. Yet, how often I am quick to share everything I learn in the secret place with all the people I know! It was a relief to me this week to begin to understand that not everything we learn, not every experience we go through, not every precious time spent with the Lord needs to be shared. Actually, Jesus has called us to pray in secret...to not broadcast the fact that we're doing it, just to slip away without an explanation and commune with Him. That's the essence of a secret. Our relationship with Jesus deepens when there are truths, conversations, lessons, walks, and precious times spent together that only Christ and we know about!

Finally, I got quite excited this week when I started to ponder some of the organs that God has given us, more specifically, the ears, skin, and tongue. What? Yes, it's true. I was thinking about those abnormal-looking objects on our body! I realized that of the five senses, the only two senses that have their main organ on some place other than on the front of the face are hearing and touch. Have you ever wondered why our ears are on the side of our heads, and not on the front like our eyes, nose, and tongue? Perhaps its because God intended the sense of hearing to not involve what we can see directly in front of us or smell quickly with the nose or taste accurately with the tongue. Perhaps God placed the ears in their irregular shape on the side of the head because He intended hearing to be concerned with those things we can't see, those needs that are going on around us that eyes can't detect, or the nose smell, or the tongue taste. And that's where the sense of touch comes in. We can feel with any surface of our skin. Neurens and receptors abound everywhere on our epidermis; the sense of touch is not bound to any one location on the body. When our eyes can't see and our nose can't smell and our tongue can't taste the beauty and needs that surround us, the ears can detect and move the heart to touch another life. Often times, the organ that is then called to action after the senses of hearing and touch have done their job, the organ that is called into action is the tongue. And as far as I can tell, the tongue is the only sensory organ that is both a receiver and a sender. The eyes, ears, nose, and skin all absorb from the environment and inform our minds; they can't transmit sensory information to the environment. The tongue, on the other hand, receives sensory information about taste and can then express the flavor with spoken word! It doesn't just taste - it can talk! Spiritually speaking, we can "Taste and see that the Lord is good" (Psalm 34:8) and then tell everyone we know about how delicious our God and His Word is! Therefore, it is obvious that God has given tremendous power to that little organ within our mouths. Will we use it wisely, to its fullest God-given potential? Lord, help us to be sensitive!

Since I've lived here in Moscow for 6 weeks now, I have been learning so much about myself, how I've been crafted, and what that all looks like within the body of Christ. Keeping this blog has been especially meaningful because it allows much time to reflect on God and what He's doing in our world. It's helped me come to realize how important it is to think and reflect, to remember and reminisce, to share our stories with others for the purpose of building each other up. Thanks for listening! Thanks for your prayers! Please continue to pray for wisdom, strength, and resources for the Hinkson family (students, staff, missionary and business families).