Team Moss-Cow!

Well, I'm on a blogging roll, apparently. I have decided to paint a picture of my super-fantastic, absolutely ridiculous, incredibly gifted and encouraging team to all of you readers out there. I miss them a lot, even though it hasn't been very long since project ended. So without further ado, I introduce you to the 2011 Moscow Summer Project team!

Zach and Jamie Stephens.
Occupation: OU Campus Crusade staff
Skills: Shepherds, logistics management, previous experience in Moscow, being a cute couple, encouragement.
Favorite moments with Jamie: Bible studies, ministry at MGLU, the banya, team night at the flat.
Favorite moments with Zach: Day one ministry buddies, morning briefing, team night at the flat.
What I learned from the Stevenses: A Christ-centered marriage is a strong and beautiful thing.
Award: The Cool Parents Award. These two had to put up with our team's craziness and made sure we stayed out of trouble, but they stayed fun and hip while doing it. ;)

Jeremy Horton.
Occupation: College pastor, Wildwood Community Church
Skills: leader, iPad master, straight-talker, being American, previous experience in Moscow.
Favorite Moments with Jeremy: Ordering for him at Business Lunch, witnessing the MGU "running man," the cactus water song, my ministry team attempting to pickpocket him while walking around town.
What I Learned from Jeremy: It's perfectly okay to be straightforward when sharing the gospel.
Award: Jeremy, my ministry team named the courtyard at MGU, "Jeremy's Park." I feel like that's a pretty cool award, right?

David Powell.
University: OU
Skills: Metro navigation, balancing restaurant checks, speed-walking. not being in the girls' room.
Favorite Moments with David: Sitting next to him at TGI Friday's, plane buddies on the flight to Moscow, prayer walks across MGU, witnessing a proposal in the MGU courtyard, playing Fan Tan.
What I Learned from David: You don't have to be outgoing to be an excellent leader. (You were awesome, DLP!)
Award: Sleepy-Eyes Award. This guy was rarely, if ever, responsive until after his morning shower. ;)

Abby Coppedge.
University: OU
Skills: Negotiating with government officials, comfort, dealing with people occupying space on her bed with utmost grace, previous experience in Moscow.
Favorite Moments with Abby: Our day of "no plans," walking and talking together ahead of the rest of the team, singing high school choir songs together, speaking in "Russian" accents, giggling on the metro.
What I Learned from Abby: Relationships become more genuine just by asking deeper questions.
Award: Big Sis Award. Abby and I spent the vast majority of our trip in each other's presence (Holla!), and she was so amazing at looking after my welfare and the welfare of our whole team.

Stephen Pittman.
University: OU
Skills: Guitar and vocals, photographer/fancy camera owner, bargaining with Russians, intentionality.
Favorite Moments with Stephen: Chatting with Ignat, leading worship (that one time...ha.), watching Stephen go into artsy photography mode while traveling on the metro together.
What I Learned from Stephen: A passion for studying scripture.
Award: Costa Coffee Award. Stephen was all about coffee. Especially Costa Coffee. Pretty sure a large chunk of his per diem was spent at that establishment.

Steven Hudec.
University: OU
Skills: Charming Russian girls, words of encouragement, body guard for late night metro travel.
Favorite Moments with Steven: Elephant Love Medley duet with Brent, lunch with Dasha, Katya and Angelina, crossword puzzles, the tooth brush dance.
What I Learned from Steven: Even the goofiest of guys can have a sweet, sincere heart.
Award: Vogue Award. Steven strikes a (silly) pose every time he knows someone is snapping a picture of him. The picture to the right is one of few relatively normal shots I could find in my friends' Facebook albums.

Laura Peden.
University: OU
Skills: Scarf-wearing, moisturizer application, British accent, insightful bible commentary.
Favorite moments with Laura: Back rubs, chatting on Abby's bed, restaurant games, H&M, letting people make wishes in between the two of us.
What I Learned from Laura: We can delight in God's word every day!
Award: Best Smile Award. I mean, the picture right here just speaks for itself. :)

Kaleb Parks.
University: OU
Skills: Guitar and vocals, occupying Abby's bed during down time, toothpaste lending, metro napping, matching Jamie.
Favorite Moments with Kaleb: Singing "Lucky" together, language class with Sasha, talking about music, being Pizza Hut buddies.
What I Learned from Kaleb: Sometimes the best testament is being good friend.
Award: Morozhenae Award. I think Kaleb ate the most ice cream out of anyone during the entire trip. Magnum bars, McDonald's ice cream cones, McFlurries, milkshakes, coke floats, etc.



McCall Sanderson.
University: Texas Tech
Skills: Water conservation, conflict resolution, under-the-bed retrieval, Soularium.
Favorite Moments with McCall: Snuggling (that's right, folks. Snuggling.) in her bunk bed with Lauren and Laura, the banya, waiting for soup, H&M.
What I Learned from McCall: Good communication nips conflicts in the bud.
Award: Keepin' It Real Award. McCall is never afraid to speak her mind, and she often had us girls rolling in laughter from her bold statements.

Brian Gifford.
University: Harvard
Skills: The Russian language, prayer, blocking the sun's rays.
Favorite Moments with Brian: Hearing him yell (politely, of course) at the security officer when our group was separated in line at the Hermitage, shopping at Ismaylova, sitting at McDonald's with the other Techies.
What I Learned from Brian: Don't take Christian community for granted. Cherish it and seek it out!
Award: Best Laugh Award. This kid can bust up like no other. His laugh makes you laugh because it's so boisterous. Pretty fun :)

Brent Daugherty.

University: Texas Tech

Skills: Eagle Scout, metro napping, badgering Abby, ordering at McDonald's, learning Russian slang, teaching American slang.
Favorite moments with Brent: Watching him try to keep his balance on the metro, touring the Hermitage, crossword puzzles, shopping at Ismaylova market, plane buddies on the flight home.

What I Learned from Brent: When you're a leader, you have to let the Lord lead you.

Award: Song in My Head Award. Brent was constantly humming or singing a tune. Especially really weird things like Toni Braxton's "Unbreak my Heart."

Mark Osborn.
University: OU
Skills: Eagle Scout, British accent, the ability to make socks and Chacos look classy, escorting babushkas, gentleman.
Favorite Moments with Mark: hearing him order at McDonald's, joining in with Steven's and my tooth brush dance without hesitation, routinely wishing us girls a good night.
What I Learned from Mark: Chivalry is still alive and kicking, ladies. ;)
Award: Profound Statement Award. Mark would utter random, thought-provoking truths to our team, such as, "Hey, guys, can you believe that our bodies are made up of trillions of tiny cells?"

Lauren Young.
University: OU
Skills: Intentionality, hair braiding, befriending anyone, Magnum bar connoisseur, masseuse, garden hose engineer.
Favorite Moments with Lauren: carrying her flowers and her water bottle around after it spilled in her purse (in a church), shopping at Ismaylova, back rubs, girls' bible study.
What I Learned from Lauren: "They'll know we are Christians by our love."
Award: Creeper Photo Award: Just like it sounds. I mean, she took something like over 600 pictures. And she's good at getting candid shots.

Rachel Belth.
University: Cedarville
Skills: Personal chef, encourager, artsy photographer, Russian culture enthusiast.
Favorite Moments with Rachel: Fan Tan, touring the Hermitage, rooming together in St. Pete's, talking in the garden at Christ Our Savior, going to Red Square, sharing food at the Hard Rock.
What I Learned from Rachel: Everyone expresses love in different ways, and it's important to pay attention to that.
Award: Kind Heart Award. Rachel was always writing the girls notes of encouragement, and she was eager to serve anyone. Such a sweet person!



There you have it- a glimpse of the fifteen cool people with whom I got to spend much of my summer. We became a family! I'm so thankful for them. Lifelong friendships? I think yes! I can't tell you how much I gained from living in a Christian community. To have brothers and sisters around you, to build you up, to help you grow...it's a beautiful thing. I would recommend going on a summer project just so you could experience true and constant community like that. There's really nothing like it.

As iron sharpens iron,

so one man sharpens another.

-Proverbs  27:17

Having so fond an affection for you, we were well-pleased to impart to you not only the gospel of God, but also our own lives, because you had become very dear to us.

-1 Thessalonians 2:8

Thanks for a life-changing summer project, team.

Love,

"Sandy Pitts"

USA! USA!

Hello, everybody! I am back stateside! Happy Independence Day!
Once again, apologies for the tardiness of my blog posting...I still get that overwhelmed feeling when I sit down to write stuff because there's just so much information floating around in my brain. But, in light of my homecoming, and as a tribute to my country, I figured today would be a good day to bite the bullet and do some blogging! (With PICTURES. Courtesy of my team's photography...Lauren Young and Stephen Pittman, in this particular post.)
My team and I traveled home a little over a week ago, on the 23rd of June. We woke up at 2:30am (after going to bed two hours beforehand) and rushed to gather our belongings and haul them down four flights of stairs to the street. Everyone was sleep-deprived and on edge as we loaded into our taxi vans. I know I wasn't the happiest camper that morning. We got to Domodedovo Airport (I was so proud to be able to read its name in Cyrillic!) just as the sky began to lighten...you know, just before four in the morning. We shuffled through customs (Abby made it! Woohoo!), tiptoed through security, and plopped down on the floor near our gate. As we boarded our plane, I prayed for no airsickness for myself and my team members...
Well, right at about breakfast time, I barfed. It was NOT fun. I seriously don't recall vomiting since sometime back in high school. I hate it. I felt bad because I was sitting in between David and Lauren when this occurred, but it couldn't be helped. Lauren shifted into mommy gear and took great care of me. And David was quick to find me an extra barf bag in case I needed to hurl again, bless him. Okay, but enough about vom. Ew. Basically, I just felt pretty lousy during the first leg of our trip.
We had a layover at Heathrow, where at times, I caught myself trying to answer security personnel in Russian...whoops. By the grace of God, I found a bench without armrests that I could lie (Lie? Lay? I can never remember the rule...Eric?) across in order to recover before our last leg of air travel. I also had the pleasure of randomly meeting up with an old high school classmate, Derik, who happened to be passing through London at the same time our team was there. Small world! We had a nice chat and then it was time for my team to get to our gate. Apparently, our airplane was the plane to be on if you were traveling back from a missions trip. There was us, a group coming back from Kenya, another group traveling home from somewhere in Africa, and even four Mormon boys coming home from their 2-year missions.
Thankfully, the last leg of the flight was very pleasant. I had fun sitting next to and talking with Brent, was able to eat a decent amount of my food, watched True Grit and an episode of Modern Family (I'm a fan of British Airways, y'all.), and napped probably more than I did on the three previous flights to and from Moscow combined. I even managed not to toss my cookies!
As we landed at DFW and trudged our way through to awaiting family members, the sadness of leaving finally hit me. Summer Project had come to an end. Tears were shed as my teammates and I said our goodbyes and went our separate ways home. I'll always be thankful for this summer, and the many things that God taught me during my time in Moscow. What an incredible experience. :)

Okay, so since I've been back home for a week and a half, I have new lists of things I miss about Moscow, and things I am SO happy to have back at home! Drum roll!

I Miss...

My Russian friends! Sasha, Masha, Oleg, Katya, Tanya, just to name a few. I loved meeting and getting to know each and every one of the students I encountered. They were so much fun, and so very friendly to us! They showed us around the city, took us to yummy restaurants, laughed with us, played games, told stories. I loved being a part of their lives, even for just a little while. If any of y'all are reading this, I miss you and I hope we can stay in touch! :)

New Life staff! Thank y'all so much for your help and your encouragement to us while we were there! I am praying for you guys.

My SP family. Steve-O, Khleb, Plaura, B-Giff, McCall (hmm, no nickname...), Moz, Brenton, Gopher Girl, Rach, DLP, Abbs, Pittman, Jerms, and Jach and Zamie. It was a pleasure to live with all of you for a month. What a blessing to experience Christian community with y'all! :)

lamb shashlik at Ismaylova market

Russian food. I have been craving blinis and shashlik and pastries and sharma and yes, even kvas. Pretty ridiculous. I brought home a cactus water, but I'm saving it to drink in the fall. That's the plan, anyway....

The metro. Seriously, I miss Russian transit! I miss being able to walk to stores and restaurants, or just hop on the metro to get across town. Now I have to drive places. (Except I'm glad Nana [my car] and I have been reunited. She missed me.)

An example of a beautiful,
sunny Moscow day!

The WEATHER. It's. So. Hot. In. Flower Mound. I miss my breezy, low-to-mid-seventies Moscow weather. Even the occasional rainy days. It's a sauna outside in Texas, my friends. 95-100 degree weather. (35-38C)

Okay, as much as I really miss Moscow, 

there is no place like home. Yay, America!

I'm Glad To Come Home To...
My family! It's been great to come home to Mom, Dad, David, and my dog Roxie!
Giant glasses of ice-cold, fresh, clean, free-of-charge water.
Iced tea.
Momma's cooking. :)
Dr. Pepper. (We stumbled on cans of Dr. Pepper at a street vendor in Moscow for three American bucks a pop, but to have it for cheap and in unlimited supply in the States is quite a comfort.)
Virtually no exposure to second-hand cigarette smoke.
The English language in general. Speaking it, hearing it, reading it again.
Air conditioning.
Hot showers with good water pressure.
Not smelling people with awful body odor...(e.g. "Smelly Man" in our hostel, crowded metro cars)
Ample access to fruits and veggies.
Tex-Mex. Praise the Lord.
Fat Straws bubble tea! Holla!
My full-sized bed and space to store my stuff.
Christian and country music radio stations. :)

Well folks, that's all for now. But don't worry! I have a lot more Russian adventures to blog about. If you want to hear about any aspect of my trip in particular (hostel life, students, sights, my team, lessons learned, etc.), post a comment and I'll blog about it! That would help me decide what to focus on next. ;)

I just wanted to let everybody know that my team and I are home safe and sound. Thank all of you for your prayers and support throughout my trip! It wouldn't have been possible without y'all at home! God is so good.

In Christ,
     Laura