Q&A2: Devotions, Holidays, and Top 5's

Sandra asks: What do you do for family devotions? How overt will your Christmas celebration be where you are? Are you aware of any needs there that we could support? How can we best support you?... Understanding that service is at a cost is important -- what are the five things that each of you miss most? ...The five most unexpected pleasures at your new home?

FAMILY DEVOTIONS
Nearly every night, we have "family time", where we read and talk about the Bible, sing songs, and spend some time in prayer. Right now, we're going through a book together called, "Training Hearts, Teaching Minds", that has pre-made short devotional ideas that teach doctrinal and biblical truth. Ethan really enjoys the teaching time as we discuss questions and concerns he has along the way, and Baxter is more interested in the singing aspects of it. But it's a short time that our family takes to focus on our Maker and to regularly teach our children the most important things in life.

CHRISTMAS
We are currently thinking about how we will celebrate Christmas. We have a few books and a nativity set that will draw the eyes of people who come to our home. We are considering having our own party for friends, just as they did for us last week (see "Fasting and Feasting"). We can share our customs and beliefs with friends in that way.

NEEDS
As far as needs go, we personally have no immediate needs, but we will address an overarching need in our next e-mail update (we'll send that out in the next couple of days). The very best support is by regularly lifting us up. There have been SO MANY times over the last 8 months that we have been discouraged, physically ill and injured but we are VERY confident that it is the kneebends of our friends and family that has kept us here and thriving, despite the difficulties.

FIVE THINGS WE MISS MOST:
1. PEOPLE- family , friends, Brothers & Sisters
2. FOOD- familiar and comforting foods from home
3. BOOKSTORES- we are BIG readers, so it's hard not to be able to take a quick trip to Half- Price Books or LifeWay for some new things to read! (We had a hard time deciding if this was #2 or #3, if that gives you an idea of how much we love reading.)
4. CONVERSATIONAL EASE & DEPTH- the ability to easily have a conversation about real-life things without having to explain what a word means, explain analogies, try to communicate cultural differences, etc.
5. TEXAS THINGS- the State Fair, the Dallas skyline, Cowboys and Rangers games, the big Texas sky with beautiful sunsets, Mexican food, pictures in bluebonnets, things like that. (Sorry to all you non-Texans, but it's the truth--we miss it!) :)

FIVE UNEXPECTED PLEASURES:
1. PEOPLE- I thought it would be annoying to be constantly stared at, but it is actually generally very fun. The kids make a great entrance for us to talk with people, and we have many more opportunities to smile and connect with people because of the "celebrity" factor.
2. FOOD- We are pretty spoiled, I think. The food here is delicious and generally cheap. While there are some disadvantages, they have really great food here. It's not home-food, but it's good. I'm actually going to do a big post sometime soon discussing food.
3. SCENERY- The mountains, greenery, and environment are beautiful. But I even like the differences in city landscape-- buildings, signs... it's all so different and there's something really wonderful about it. Though we don't "fit in" here, we somehow feel like we fit.
4. INEXPENSIVENESS OF LIFE- We knew it would be somewhat cheaper to live here, but we had no idea. Big Ozarka-sized bottles of purified water cost about .60 cents each. When we were furnishing our apartment, Jess bought three large pieces of used furniture (a hutch, a cabinet kind of like a sideboard, and a small dresser) and had them all delivered for a total of about $40. And it's so inexpensive to go out to eat. Saturday night we went out to eat (just the two of us) and a very filling and tasty dinner for both of us cost us $1.75.
5. WEATHER- We were told it was very cold here, and it was when we arrived in March, and it has been getting more and more cold in the past few weeks, but we had about 6 months of really nice, comfortable weather-- almost never getting over 80 degrees.

Thanks to Sandra for her questions! If YOU have questions, please CLICK HERE and leave a comment with your question(s) and we'll take time to answer yours.

Q&A1: Our Apartment & A Typical Day

These are answers to questions Kim brought. If you have questions about our lives here, feel free to go here to ask them and we'll answer them in a future post.

Kim's questions: I would love to see pictures, if you can, of your apartment! It's hard to picture where you live. Also, what is a typical day like for you all?

OUR APARTMENT:
Here's a long picture of the big area of our apartment. The entry way is to the right, kitchen area, and Maranatha's room doors are straight ahead (you can't see the door to her room, it's just ahead of Doug to the right in this picture).

You can see a wall opening that's to the left of Doug. It is directly across from the front door... off that small area, the bathroom is straight ahead, our bedroom is to the left, and the boys' bedroom is to the right. We are blessed in that (as you can probably tell) we were given a brand new apartment when we moved here.









I did something fun in MeiMei's room: she has all different bright-colored daisies lining her ceiling for a fun border. And we found a floral painting that has the verse "I know the plans I have for you" (Jer 29:11) written on it. Her room is like a garden!













Here's our living room area, complete with our new Kazakh rug we just bought this weekend! We are so thrilled to have something warm under our feet instead of the frigid tile that is growing colder by the day. Now when she starts crawling, MeiMei will have soft carpet under her knees with some very visually-stimulating patterns! We have a table with a bench for the kids tucked away in one corner of the balcony area, and our computer desk is on the other end.



Our bathroom (this is not really a great picture, but it's the best I could get) has a small sink area that balloons out into a small room on the other end. In the more narrow section are the cabinets, sink, and washer (we don't have a dryer). This area generally stays dry. On the far end is the toilet, towel racks, and the shower head. We also keep a large plastic container on the floor full of water in case the water goes off (which happens semi-regularly). The shower head is open to the entire room, which means that everything in the bathroom gets mist on it anytime one of us takes a shower. Without the window, it would get very musty in there, because the water just runs all over everything. The window helps, but there are still several open drains, and with less-than-stellar plumbing and very fussy water pressure, rather than describing them all, I will let your imagination run wild with the smells that sometimes permeate our restroom. :)

Being on the 6th floor, we have really nice views of the mountains (mountains almost surround the city), and there is also an airfield nearby, so in regular intervals throughout the day, we can see airplanes flying relatively close to our apartment. That is an exciting thing for the boys.

A TYPICAL DAY IN THE LIFE OF THE CONNELL FAMILY:
On weekdays, Doug and I will each have classes throughout the morning, trading off watching the kids so the other can go to class or study. We have virtually all our meals together as a family, which is really nice. Eating in is great, and eating out is cheap. Our new househelper comes for about 2 hours to help with dishes and tidying up, which helps immensely and gives us time to study. In the afternoon, the kids take a nap and we either have more classtime or studytime. After dinner each night, we play, read, ride bikes, study, or just hang out as a family, and then before bedtime each night, we have a 10-15 minute "Bible time" when Doug teaches us from the Bible and then we sing a few songs and pray together as a family. The kids go to bed around 8, and then we have more study time or reading time or we have time together to hang out and watch a movie or whatever.

Thursdays I don't have any class and that's a day that I get together with a friend who wants to learn English (so we can each practice language together) and we go to the market together (kill two birds with one stone-language practice & shopping). Weekends are less structured. Sometimes we have people over, sometimes we go somewhere as a family (see here, here, and here), sometimes we just stay home and rest. I hope that gives you some ideas of what our average schedule/day is like.

Thanks for the questions, Kim! To anyone else who has questions, leave a comment HERE!

Fire Away!

In a similar fashion to that of Dr. Albert Mohler's radio program, I want to "open up the lines today" and invite you to ask questions. Think of today as "Ask Anything Wednesday"!

Is there something you've been wondering about concerning our lives here?

Is there something in particular you'd like for me to take a picture of?

This is your chance. Ask away! There are some things I may not be able to answer because either I don't know the answer, or because of certain concerns, I may choose not to give a fully developed response. But I will try to be thorough in answering the questions you ask. So fire away!

What It's Like #1: FRIENDS

To answer the e-mailed questions from many friends, I'm going to attempt to give insight, real insight, into life overseas through a series of e-mails called "What It's Like". I'll try to stick to one topic per post, so this first one will be the thing that's been on my mind lately: FRIENDS.

Concerning old friends:
* It's impossible to fully describe what life overseas is really like. So they can't really imagine your day-to-day life. They can try, and things like e-mails, phone calls, and blog stories help. But they still don't really know what your apartment looks like, what your daily world looks like. On the flip side, you can pretty much fully imagine their life. You know what it's like to go to a grocery store, eat at a restaurant, go to Sunday morning church, etc. You know what their kids schools look like, what an American hospital looks like, and all the rest.

* Conversely, while you can imagine their daily lives, you don't really hear about them. You hear the big stuff ("mom just had heart surgery"), but not the little stuff ("Betsy is starting to walk now"). So they hear about your daily funny stories (this is especially true when you keep a blog), but you don't often hear theirs. You could imagine their lives, but you don't hear about them like you used to. So while you kind of feel "in the loop", you feel "out of it" also.

Concerning new friends:
* You miss the ease of friendship. With friends who know your life story, get your jokes, and know deep and personal things about you. What you get instead is friends who you can kind of communicate with, on very shallow subjects. As language skills grow, there are more things you can talk about. But when you spend an entire language session covering the parts of the body or time & direction words, you can't really incorporate those into a meaningful conversation. :) Language learning is necessary and good, but in the beginning stages, it sometimes doesn't assist you in real relationship-building (although it is useful for giving directions to a taxi driver!)

* You sometimes aren't certain what their motivation for friendship is. Are they just wanting to practice English? Are they wanting their child to have the status of an American friend? Do they have hidden motivations? Even with less-than-just-being-friendly intentions, it can still make for a good friendship. But you still sometimes wonder.

* They can be great when you are willing to laugh at yourself, and at least try (even if you make mistakes) in language, pronunciation, or cultural situations. It is really interesting to talk about the differences in cultural norms, humor, shared wisdom/information, and dreams. It gives opportunities to share about more meaningful things because there are so many differences, but also so many similarities (priorities in life, desires, etc.).

Flat out, you miss your old friends like crazy. But it wouldn't be the same way it was, even if you were to interact with them daily. And you long to make new friendships, but sometimes that's slow coming. So there are differences in friendships and the speed and ease with which they are made in the States and overseas. Though my time is limited and spread out over various areas, like being a child of the King, wife, mom, language student, family chef, food-source-for-Maranatha, and other assorted duties, it is nonetheless an important and forefront goal to make genuine, lasting, and meaningful friendships here so we can share the Most Meaningful Things in life. Hope this gives you some insight into the changes that come in friendship via life overseas.

Typical college campus?

We live on a college campus, and there are some very familiar aspects of living in this environment, and some things that are quite different from a university in America.

As I rode my bike around campus tonight for some exercise, I noticed these things:

Similar to America:

* Guys were playing basketball out on the courts, even though the sun went down a long time ago and there was little to no light to play by!
* Couples throughout campus attempted to hide themselves in the darkness while kissing and whispering quietly to each other.
* Many different languages are heard as you pass through the campus
* Students stay up all hours of the night to study
* Dorm room lights were on, and the buildings were buzzing with activity

Differences:

* Nearly all men here smoke (at least 90-95%). There is a constant cloud of smokey haze that hangs. It is nearly impossible to get away from the smell of smoke, even when you're going really fast on a bicycle- it still gets in your nose (as I learned tonight!)
* There are all ages on our campus. I passed four "lao ren" (or elderly ladies) walking shoulder-to-shoulder in a line out in front of the campus bookstore. After I passed them, I almost hit a little boy (maybe 8 years old?) who was running to catch a basketball he and a friend were bouncing back and forth.
* The teachers and faculty live on one side of the campus, in apartments, and the students live on the other side, in dorms. We live on the side with the teachers, even though we are students, because we are a family.
* The dorm rooms here are small and the students are packed in them like sardines. Imagine the typical dorm room in America- small, cramped, but manageable between the 2 roommates. Here, the same size room is shared by 8 people. No room for dressers, trunks, a flashy chair, or even a bookshelf. 4 bunkbeds line the walls, with personal items stored on the wall by each bed (B.Y.O.S.--bring your own shelf!). And everyone shares community bathrooms...

...come to think of it, maybe SOME things are universal! :)

A'marketing we'll go

Today, I went down to a minority market area to look for furniture and to buy some almonds. I don't have a picture but I'm going to do my best to describe what I saw. They have one large building that serves as the furniture market for the town. About 100 or more vendors all rent spaces in this and sell their variety of furniture-some specialize in stools and coatracks, some sell wardrobes, some sell office furniture, etc. I looked around for over an hour, asking for prices and trying to comparison shop, and then left to get the almonds and get back home. As I walked out of the gate around the large furniture market, there were 7 men standing around playing cards and chatting. Nearly all the men here wear dark gray pants, white/gray shirt, and suit jackets, day in, day out. When they saw me, they all stopped and stared. These were not inappropriate stares- these were stares of men who have hardly ever seen a white woman.

Then I passed two ladies, one in the normal Muslim dress of women here- skirt to the ankles, blouse past the elbows, and a scarf around the hair & neck. The other woman was wearing a full burqa, which is rare here, so I was looking at her. Both ladies were staring at me, and when we realized we were all staring at each other, we exchanged smiles and looked away. I assume the lady wearing the burqa was smiling with us. To my right, seated on the dusty cement in the road (but not necessarily where the cars drive) was a crippled woman with her child begging for money. They just lay there on the road all day hoping others will be generous. When I dropped the equivalent of about 60 cents into her bowl, she grabbed it and turned around and joyously shouted to the men behind her, who in turn gave her a thumbs up and smiles.

Crossing the road consisted of waiting until a donkey cart passed (a wooden cart with a man in it, being pulled by a donkey), jumping out in front of a taxi, scurrying across to the middle of the road, getting honked at by a bus that was driving in the middle of the road and running in front of that one, then hesitating because I thought another bus was coming, but no- it came to a rapid stop so I hurried along.

Walking to my left, still along the curb of the road, I passed about 12 ladies seated on little stools about 3 feet apart, each one cooking sweet potatoes right there on the road, and offering them to passersby. Why do they all cook the same thing and all sit right by each other? I don't know. But they do. Then I crossed over to the "nuts" section of the bazaar, where there are stands along one strip of shops that sell all kinds of nuts and herbs. I went over and picked up the almonds I was wanting and asked how much. He told me a price that was 25 cents less per kilogram than the last guy I bought from. That sounded good to me, so I bought a whole kilo. Then I walked back out, the same way I came in, passing a little old man with a Muslim hat on and a long white beard. He came about to my shoulders and had on a dark brown blazer, and I wish I knew enough language to talk with the older folks like him. You know his life story has to be interesting, and totally different from anything you or I have ever known.

Getting a taxi took longer than usual, so I had to cross that same intersection and walk in the sun, carrying my little bag, just like everyone else- right on the side of the street. Walking like that made me feel like one of them, until I realized everything in my entire experience today was totally different from anything I've ever known. And I was different from anything they'd ever known. Going to the market is always a nice reminder that, indeed, "We're not in Kansas anymore".

8 months and still kicking!!!

OK, OK, OK-- so I just got an e-mail from a friend accusing me of trying to "hide" my belly from sight... it's really not true!!! I just end up taking most of the pictures that go on this blogsite, and then when I have taken a picture, I've been sitting down most of the time. But, to satisfy my friend Kim and anyone else who may be curious, here's a look at the nearly-8-month pregnant Jessica (mind you, this picture was taken at midnight, so I may not look so bright-eyed, but at least you can SEE my belly, KIM!) with little wiggly squirmy Maranatha inside, almost ready to come out!A funny pregnancy story: the other day, my friend Gauhara and I were at a large store that has many small shops, each run by different people, and we had an interesting multi-lingual experience. Since we've lived in this city, we've learned that there are multiple languages spoken here: three of them are Mandarin, Uyghur (pronounced wee-ger), and Kazakh. Shopkeeper #1 spoke Uyghur & Mandarin, shopkeeper #2 spoke Mandarin and was also 8 months pregnant, Gauhara speaks English & a little Kazakh (which is similar enough to Uyghur to be able to communicate the basics) & I speak English and a VERY little Mandarin (enough to talk about due dates, ages of children, etc.).

This was nearly a Tower of Babel experience.

Shopkeeper #2 and I were talking in Mandarin about our pending arrivals & pregnancies, Gauhara & shopkeeper #1 were talking in Uyghur/Kazakh about our pregnancies, the two shopkeepers were talking to each other in Mandarin about what they were finding out from each of us, and Gauhara & I were talking in English about what we thought the other two were asking & saying! What a wild conversation! Only in Central Asia!

Why the name "Red Road Report"?

So you might be wondering, why the name "Red Road Report"... well, in Randy Alcorn's book, Edge of Eternity, the main guy (Nick Seagrave) is in a sci-fi-ish unknown land. There are a couple of roads from which to choose. He follows a gray one (nearly everyone's on that road), and after many days of travel he realizes it goes in circles, never getting you anywhere. So, in frustration, he decides to follow the red road he saw the first day in this new land. It's a harder road (only a few people are even on it) and it takes a lot of faith and perserverance, because there's no guarantees of where it's heading, except that he knows it's the one the Carpenter took. After choosing to stay on the road and follow the Carpenter's lead, one day he finds out that the reason why it's red is that it was tinted with the blood of the Carpenter.

That's not only Nick's story, but our story as well. We follow the Carpenter on the red road made possible by His blood. We also felt it was appropriate, because the country we're likely headed to has a love for the color red. Hope you like reading the Red Road Report!