Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Rachel Eggleton

Fly Away Home


If I had a flying house, all of my own, I would fly home. Now, you must understand my meaning. I have heard the phrase “home is where the heart is” many times. If this statement is true, then I have just confirmed my meaning.
I live in a big city called Saint Petersburg in Russia. It is my home. However, by nationality, I am American. My passport says so. In America, I live in a small town called Fulton. It is in the state of New York. It too is my home. I have lived in America for seven years of my life. I have lived in Russia for nine years of my life. I am a TCK or third culture kid. My home is supposed to be where my heart is. Well, what if my heart is split in two? Then where is home? Therefore, if I had a flying house, I would make my torn heart whole again.
I can see it. I could essentially live in two places, making the combination of two places my one home. How amazing would that be? On weekends and on school breaks I could travel to the other half of me to visit. I could see the people I miss so badly. I could be with those I love. I could be there for them and not miss precious moments in their lives.
Imagine never needing to say goodbye. With my flying house, I could go visit anyone, anywhere, practically anytime. Goodbyes have always killed me inside. They are always so hard. Sometimes, the good-bye’s said can mean never seeing that person again. With my flying house, things would be much different.
My family is currently living in Russia, so I would live here more often (with school and all). However, whenever the chance would arise, I would take off into the vast cloudy sky above my city. Saint Petersburg is one of the most beautiful cities you could ever see. It is historic, complex, and breathtaking.
I would fly over the great Atlantic like I have so many times before. This time, though, I am not in an airplane. My flying house has the speed of a winged horse, so it would not take long to get there. When I see the land of my birth, the place my passport says is my home, I would find the town I live in. It might be somewhat hard to find, for it is rather small. However, if I were able to locate the large stadium in Syracuse, New York, getting there would be a cinch. This town, though I was not born there, is my home because most of my relatives call it their home plus most of my friends as well. It is a struggling town, but nevertheless beautiful in the way small towns are. This town is called Fulton.
Once landed, I would find a place to stay (I would definitely not stay in my flying house). I would probably stay with my grandparents. I would then spend whatever time I had to hang out with my friends and family, trek around my town, eat out, whatever. I would simply live. I would be home after all.
That is what I would do with my flying house. I do not need to see the world (I pretty much already do that anyway without my flying house). I would just want to make my two worlds one. Though each half is radically different that the other, both of the make up the image of what my home is. I see my flying house as the doorway between the two. I cannot be in both rooms at once so I must step through the doorway to get to the other. My flying house would make it easy and just make things better overall.
Now I open my eyes and see that life is as it has always been. There is no flying house for me. However, I smile inwardly, dwelling on memories, dreams, and experiences yet to come. I am happy. I am ready to live life, every moment, to the fullest. For, I cannot rely on my flying house to make things happen. I will live my life in thankfulness, seizing every opportunity to make each half of me whole in the place that I am.

Dog days of summer





Dear Family and Friends,

THE DOG DAYS OF SUMMER
It's been a great two months since we last wrote. Most recently, St. Pete is having an incredibly long "beautiful weather" spell. We can't believe the number of warm and sunny days we've had. Now, to many of you 85 - 90 F (30-33 C) is not all that hot. But for Peterburgers, it is sweltering, especially in light of the high humidity. Few cars and even fewer apartments have air conditioning so staying cool is hard to do. Add to this the fear of cross-ventilation (drafts) and many people are in fact overwhelmed by the heat. Don't get us wrong, they love these rare days of sunshine. Fans have been sold out for weeks and one friend who timed it just right told us it took about 5 minutes for 50 fans to be sold out when the shipment arrived. He bought two of them.

Our family enjoyed a wonderful vacation in New York in June and now we're back in action here. For Alan it ended up being a bit of a medical holiday as he had unexpected triple hernia repair. The great irony is that his surgeon was Russian :) In the four weeks we were in the States we:
- enjoyed seeing all 6 of Alan's brothers and sisters and almost all of their children
- loved seeing RJ get her driver's permit and drive any and every time she could. (She competed with Trish who also wanted to drive on the spacious roads and little traffic.)
-ate at a few favorite restaurants, including Olive Garden
-had each of the kids see many of their friends and also visit the school that they attended last year
-saw Toy Story 3 on the big screen on opening day
-threw rocks into Lake Ontario (see family picture taken there) and ate at the Loop
-had at least 23 doctor/dental visits
-got to spend lots of time with our parents - especially on Father's Day. Trish's mom and dad attended church with her :)

In our last letter, we mentioned that Alan's back was in bad shape. While in New York he was able to have it thoroughly examined and now he is on a regular regime to strengthen the problematic muscles and hopefully prevent a major muscle strain from happening again. Praise the Lord together with us for this help and also for his quick recovery from the hernia surgery.

LET'S PLAY BALL
Recently we held an English club event where we played kickball. 7 Russians came and our kids and the Friesen girls played as well. One of the Russian guys thought it sounded a little boring, but it was fun a few minutes later when he kicked a high ball to left field and a little girl (Lauren) promptly caught it. We had a great time followed by ice cream and fellowship in our new place. You can see the group in the attached picture.

Alan joined in a game of ultimate frisbee with a few others from the church and a bunch of their friends. After the event Andrei shared his faith with a young lady, Vika, who decided to ask God to forgive her for her sins and to live her life for Him. Please pray as we encourage her and help her experience new life.

As to our church, a wonderful event happened in May. Three young believers were baptized. You may recall that we mentioned Julia and Aleksei as they just became Christians in February through our English ministries and our church. The third was Pavla, a young girl in our church from a Christian family. Yasya, one of our most faithful attenders of English club, was also recently baptized at her church. Two pictures are attached.

OUT OF TOWN
Every summer the dacha phenomena happens in Russia. A dacha is a small plot of land usually outside of the city. It has a small house (or sometimes a nice home) where a family goes and lives for the weekend. Their purpose is to just relax and/or to work the land and garden at the dacha. Frequently in the spring and summer families leave the city to go out to their dachas. Some will even go every week if they have the time and others even live on the dachas for the summer. Seems like the city would be empty but there are still lots of people who have to work and lots of tourists arriving on a weekly basis. Many ex pats as well leave for the summer so in some ways the whole rhythm of life changes.

NEW NEWS IS GOOD NEWS
Our new teammates, the Hecocks (J.B., Iris, Gavin, Carter and Emmi) arrived safely in June and are getting nicely settled in. They're excited about helping us develop the Community Center. They are adding a whole new component for the center as their vision is to create a Coffee Cafe/ coffee roasting business. So, as a team, we are working through what we are doing next as we head into the fall. Some clear direction is to widen our offerings of English courses, continue our English club and make headway at opening a cafe. This cafe will ideally have enough space to allow other ministries and events to take place. Before it is up and running, we have decided to rent space and begin more of the ministries that an eventual Center will have. Please pray as we find a place to rent and begin just the right ministries that will help those in our community.

RACHELISM
Recently Rachel entered a competition for a scholarship. It was for ex-pat teens and we thought we would share her essay with you. Her thoughts about being an MK touch upon part of the mystery that we experience as international workers. Her essay, called "Fly Away Home", is attached.

APARTMENT SWEET APARTMENT

Our new apartment is terrific. It is larger and of much higher quality as our previous (where we lived for five years), and the price is the same. Best of all it is very close to the kids' school and to many of their friends. We are so thankful for it. Our team is now within 3 minutes walking time of each other. In the past it was 15-20 minutes one way by car to each other. This is a huge blessing! I've attached a picture of our neighborhood. You may be interested in knowing that this picture was taken at nearly 11:00 pm.

Friday, April 2, 2010

Kids want a blog!

Zach has lately been asking for a little space on the net. So we will be having Zach and Lauren add some of their thoughts /life into our blog. This will hopefully help me to blog more often :)

Zach's Karate Corner
Zach is hoping to learn alot of karate moves and flips in the future. We will see if this happens :) Recently he was able to talk to his best buddy Isaiah who is now in America. They had a nice chat on skype.