Have you ever had the urge to sit with a group of people of your same gender in an extremely hot and humid sauna (naked and sweating like crazy), get whipped up and down your body with birch tree branches, put some shorts on quickly, run outside, jump into a really cold river, and then repeat the whole cycle again and again? Well, I did it this weekend! I officially experienced my first баня (pronounced bon-ya)! And surprisingly, the entire experience was very relaxing (complete with a tea break to keep from getting dehydrated), and I came out of it feeling very pure and refreshed! The group of us guy teachers had a great time even though it sort of brought me back to the days of junior high when we had to all strip down and take mandatory showers! Why the stark contrast in temperatures? This process is believed to remove impurities from the body, and I would venture to say that it is a quick way to lose extra water weight! One thing that we did that is different from most banyas is that we jumped in a river instead of the cold pool that is in the same building as the sauna; we did this because the cold pool just wasn’t cold enough! What are the birch branches for? They actually are very therapeutic as they help open skin pores! The entire process of being “whipped” doesn’t hurt at all, and it actually feels good on the bottoms of the feet!

The баня was only one small portion of an amazing staff retreat weekend. I am so thankful for the weekend that God provided for our staff. We were at a 4-star resort outside of Moscow in the town of твер (pronounced t-vehr…where Tchaikovsky was born), and it was absolutely beautiful and peaceful! The resort was nestled alongside the Volga River, which has special significance to me because I have ancestors from Germany who settled along the Volga over 100 years ago (so to jump in it was exhilarating)! The weekend was perfect on so many levels: serenity, natural beauty, teacher bonding, morning runs with fellow teachers, spiritually refreshing, deep conversations, clean air, quiet, lots of fun, tons of photo opportunities, challenging teaching, precious alone time with the Lord. The speaker, Donovan Graham (shown above with his wife and me), taught a series of lessons on God’s grace and how schools ought to be communities of grace. He is an excellent teacher, and his words challenged and encouraged me deeply, especially as he spoke about dancing in fellowship with the Spirit. The beautiful image of the Church, the bride of Christ, dancing with its bridegroom and lover Jesus was vividly etched in my memory and on my heart as a couple from the school danced to some powerful Hebrew songs. To realize that Jesus is so madly in love with human beings that He is filled with overflowing joy when He can look into our eyes as He embraces us and we move in harmony with Him, without fear and without shame!

The picture you see above of the dock and the Volga River beyond is of special significance to me.(I apologize that the picture isn't posted yet...the website's server is down right now and won't let me upload it...this picture and many more to come in the near future!) As I sat at the end of the dock a few times throughout this past weekend, the one simple phrase that I received from the Lord was “Rest in my love.” The dock represented the all too often separation between me and the depths of God’s love (the river that always flows; has a source, direction, and destination; and is comprised of millions of individual molecules that are cohesively held together but lose their individual identities as they form a steady stream of water). I know that Scripture is clear in Romans that nothing can separate us from the love of God (Romans 8:38-39), but resting in that love is a different matter entirely. Resting is our choice. While standing on the dock, I was virtually amidst the Volga River on all sides, yet I was not in it. I was suspended one foot above the water’s surface and could touch the chilly water with my hands, even take a sip of it! I could behold the beauty of the water as it flowed by at its silent pace. I could easily see the vegetation that it so consistently nourished. I could even figure out the direction from which it came and where it was heading. Yet I wasn’t in it. I was so close but yet so far. To get in, I had to jump. I had to strip off my clothes and dive in head first in order to get lost in the current. To rest in God’s love is to be carried by Him, not so much caring about “What’s next?” or “Where am I headed?” or “Where will the resources come from?” and more about the fact that I’m where I was created to be, in the Arms of Love. When we rest in the love of our Father, our perspective shifts. We often work so hard on the land, hurrying to and fro, occasionally catching glimpses of the beautiful river over yonder (which moves against the stationary scenery), and maybe stopping every once in a while to walk out on the dock, behold the river’s beauty, drink its water, and wonder where it’s headed. In contrast, when we live resting in the river of God’s Love, we see the land in relation to the ever-flowing water, trusting that the current will take us precisely to the plot of land that we were meant to reach, nourish, and cultivate. To rest in God’s love is to find our true identity, to understand who we are, why we’re here, and what we’re doing. (By the way, isn’t it fascinating to see the three nails in the foreground of the dock picture? The nails, to me, represent the three nails that held Jesus to the cross as He died, thus enabling us to jump fully into the river of God’s Love, which is just beyond!)

Praise God that He continues to help the students in my class who are struggling (keep interceding for them as well)! Praise Him also that many prayers are being answered for me to begin finding a balance in my first year on my own. Praise God for helping to develop strong relationships while I’ve been here in Moscow. Please pray for the handful of teachers who have to leave the country in the next couple days in order to straighten out visa complications, as it is a very stressful process. Please pray for Hinkson and the general legal battles that it faces as a Christian school within Moscow (expansion projects are currently being planned). Please pray for my class as they have the 5th grade chapel on Friday (tomorrow), that it might glorify God and bring the class even closer to each other. My students are responsible for all elements of this elementary chapel, which is held each Friday at 9:00 a.m. for 40 minutes. They have been preparing all week. Please pray for all of the parents of my students as they are doing God’s work in Moscow as missionaries, businessmen, or embassy employees.