The gift of Love

Love... Always seems to be the word for the month of February. We celebrate Valentine's Day with our kids and significant other. We often times, buy gifts of chocolate and flowers, or go out on a romantic date, and spend more planned time with those we love. Why is it that we most often think about the word Love in February? We should focus on the word Love, each and every day not just when we schedule time in to plan special events.

According to Google, the Bible uses the word Love, 551 times in the NIV version. In John, it tells us that "For God so LOVED the world, that He gave His one and only son..." In 1 John, "We LOVE because He first LOVED us." And in Mark, "LOVE the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.' The second is this: ‘LOVE your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”

There are many more scriptures that talk about Love, but these scriptures I believe are so very important. We should LOVE always because He did so much for us, He LOVED us first. We are called to LOVE all people. Right now, in second grade we are having a difficult time loving each other. My children are constantly arguing, fighting, saying unkind things, and snapping at every sound each other makes. Trying to teach the word LOVE is not only used in my classroom in February, it is used each and every day. I show my students that I love them but ultimately how much God loves them. We do strategies each day about loving one another because that is what God says to do and we should want to love each person. When we stop loving the people and the world around us, we have stopped sharing God's love to the world. If we all chose our words wisely, thought about our actions and how they would affect those around us, but instead LOVED... what an amazing world we would live in.

Sometimes I struggle to love those around me. When someone makes me mad, my students don't listen when I am teaching, my parents only call when they want something, etc... But God loved me first and it is His will for my life that I witness to all of these people in LOVE. February is a month of Love and I will fall into the group of people who celebrate Valentine's Day with my students and my boyfriend, but I will also stretch this Love and think about how I can show love each and every day of my life. I choose to make an impact in someone's life by first Loving God and because I love Him, I can love, no matter what.

Happy February Friends and Family. I love you all!

Prayer Request:
 - Safe Travels to Greece this weekend
 - Being Intentional with my time left in Moscow (4 months)
 - Our school as we look for new teachers/staff for next year
 - Support

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

с новым годом. (Pronounced, Snovym Godom) Happy New Year friends. 2016 ended very well. As it is difficult to be away from family and friends during the holiday season, I found great joy being with new family and friends in Moscow.

The end of the year is always an extremely busy time of year. My end of the year consisted of things such as: Concerts, Art shows, Staff Christmas, a ex-coworker visiting us, wrapping up units in our classroom, classroom parties, chapels, HCA Christmas service, exploring the city lights, Christmas eve service, Christmas day with friends, and unfortunately being sick. That is just a condensed list of what the end of the year entailed.

Being in Moscow through all of this has truly been amazing. Worshiping our God with fellow believers has been a blessing. Even though the gifts and decorations are a great part of Christmas, being able to share the Story of Christ birth with my students has been a gift in itself. The awe in the children's eyes is incredible. I always bake a birthday cake for Jesus and we sing to Him at our Christmas party. This year I recorded my children singing Happy Birthday to Jesus in 3 different languages. What an amazing thing to be a part of and witness as a believer. If you are friends with me on Fb, you probably seen the video already. If you haven't, email me, I will be happy to share it with you!

Christmas Eve, I was invited to my bosses place for a mini Christmas Service. There were 11 people altogether singing songs, sharing in devotion, and enjoying great food and fellowship. It was a blessing to be able to be a part of a Christmas Eve service because here in Russia, Christmas isn't celebrated until January 7th. It is a strange thing to be able to go out shopping and out to eat on Christmas day because it is just a normal day here in Russia. With it being "so normal" here, it almost doesn't ever feel like Christmas unless you can get together with others and celebrate together.

My year also ended and started in Ireland. I have always wanted to go to Ireland and with it being my last year in Moscow, what a great opportunity to visit the countries I have wanted to. I was blessed significantly with support from you all to make my dream of going to Ireland a reality. Many of you blessed me for Christmas in a way that couldn't be captured in pictures. Although I have a ton of pictures, it is just a glimpse of what I really did experience. Ireland is a beautiful country and a great example of God's wonderful creation.

With all of this being said, I truly am a blessed girl serving in God's great big world! Thank you for your love, prayers, and support. Below are some things you can be praying for with me as we get ready to take on the last semester of the school year. With much love from Russia, Courtney.

Prayer Request:
~ All HCA staff and families traveling
~ Continued prayers for the laws and authority situations
~ Financial support thru the end of the year

Winding down the year

       Happy Thanksgiving (A day late) to all my friends and family reading this update. How can it be that Thanksgiving has come and gone and Christmas is just around the corner? Man,  this year is flying by before any of us  can even blink! Let me see if I can catch you up on everything that has gone on over the past month. 

 At the end of October,my roommates and I hosted a Fall Party at our apt for the female staff we work with. It was full of great laughter, food, and friends. We had a great turn out of about 16 people total. The following weekend was our school Fall Festival. I was unable to attend this event because I was sick and I had my masters classes to catch up on but I heard from my roommates that it was a great success. Fall is such a fun time of year! 

The beginning of November is a bit of a blur for me because I spent about 2 weeks off and on being sick and it seemed I was constantly playing catch up, whether on sleep, classes, my school responsibilities, or just adult life. But, November 10th, I had the opportunity to put everything down and take an evening out with friends to see the ballet, "Золушка" (Cinderella) in Russian. It was a magical evening. :) A few days after this event, I had the opportunity to take Christmas photos for a family that I have become great friends with here in Moscow who recently had a baby! The H family and new edition Baby E is a beautiful family and I just thank God for bringing these people into my life. 

 Life in second grade has become much more busy as we wind down the quarter and first half of the year. My class has finally caught onto second grade and have put their hands and feet in full fledged. They have really started to show responsibility and maturity since my last post. Praise the Lord. We had our first field trip to the Oceanarium and Zoopark where we explored 7 different habitats. To expand our knowledge on habitats, which is what we are learning in science right now, they also had to make their own habitat diorama. My students did a phenomenal job for only being 2nd graders. I am very proud of them! 

There are a lot of things happening at our school of which we are thankful for, Our building project is supposed to be finished on December 31st. What a blessing since the projected date was in February. This experience is very different because here in Russia, everything seems to be complicated and things tend to not get finished. But, the workers are actually living on our school campus in tin rooms and they work diligently everyday to finish in a timely manner. We praise the Lord for answered prayers and the diligence of these men. Also, we recently had some issues with people calling and complaining about our school, which has caused complications in many ways; well friends, the leaders in charge of investigating decided to drop the case because they said it seemed foolish and they had nothing to go by. Again, Praise the Lord! God is clearly watching over us and has better plans and future for Hinkson! 

This past week we had a Staff Thanksgiving, Class Thanksgiving, and Friends Thanksgiving. I am so grateful that I have the opportunity to experience so many wonderful Thanksgivings with people who are dear to my heart. God has truly blessed me. I am thankful for each of you who read these updates, pray for me, support me, and encourage me, I could not be here without each of you sharing life with me. Thank you all for everything you do! May the Lord bless you! 

Lastly, I want to inform all of you of my future plans. With much prayer it has been decided that this year is going to be my last year teaching abroad. I have been at Hinkson for 4 years and have loved every minute of it but my career path is changing, my future is changing. God is great plans in store for me and He is guiding me to bigger things in my future. I am leaning on Him and His faithfulness to carry me through and to set the path for me to take. Please be in prayer that His plans become more clear and that I will see them and follow through! 

Until next time, 

Much Love

"Falling" out of October

Fall in Moscow disappeared just as quick as it came this year. We have been in the highs of about 45 degrees each day. The sun has only made its appearance about once a week. The leaves changed and fell fast and we enjoyed it for about 2 days. The rain has been pretty consistent which changes things around here for our students, our commute to work, and our after work plans. Fall is my absolute favorite season and if you ask me, it is way too short here! My goal is to make it to a park here soon to catch some photography moments before Fall is completely gone. 

Since my last post, it seems like life has taken off on a path that I was not entirely prepared for. Some of these things I am unable to get into details but I can ask you all to pray for our school. Things are not looking too good right now for a number of reasons and we can definitely use the prayers from all over the world. As a staff, we recently had to go through our annual medical examines, which are never pleasant but we can praise God that everything went smoothly. Our building project, the gym, is still continuing to go up, we see progress everyday. The students, as well as everyone else, are anxious for it to be completed. Again, we praise God for allowing this project that was prayed about for 10 years or so, to be doing so well despite neighbors opinions and complaints. 

As far as second grade goes, well friends, it is going. I can sure use a lot of prayer for this group of students this year. After meetings with counselors, my boss, parents, and other teachers, I think we have come up with a conclusion that will help in the classroom. You see it is not just the energetic students I had at the beginning but rather behavior off the charts, disrespect, and a lot of aggression. These students are facing life to the fullest and have struggles that I pray I can help guide in the classroom. These students are also really low in academics and with their english skills. My days are exhausting and some days I feel like I hit a wall that I can't seem to get over. If you can pray with me for my students behavior, hearts, and desire to learn, I would greatly appreciate it. Pray that I have wisdom and strength to teach them and help in the areas they struggle with on a day to day basis. 

On another note, this coming week, we are having Elementary Spiritual Emphasis Week. We have a team coming from Calvary Bible College in Kansas City to help lead VBS with our students. This is a fun experience for a lot of students here have never experienced an American VBS. YAY!! :) 

Prayer Requests: 

• Our school as a whole 
• VBS Next week 
• Wisdom and Energy
• Decision making about next school year 

Another school year, another beginning

As I returned back to Moscow a little over 3 weeks ago, I have found myself reflecting back on my summer. An unforgettable summer that I praise God for daily. A summer of reconnecting with my family, friends, and church back home. A summer of making new memories, a lot of driving, making connections with supporters, and mending relationships. I am thankful I was able to spend my time in visiting great people that I miss terribly while I am away. I am especially thankful for the relationships I was able to mend and for new relationships that were created.

Leaving home was much more difficult this summer than any other but I am grateful for returning to a place that I can call "home." Having wonderful friends, a job, and a great community, I have been blessed to be a part of what we do here in Moscow. My transition from Florida to Moscow went as smoothly as it can when traveling internationally. Our teacher training and first week of work (without students) went really well. Being back in a work place where we all come for the same reason and love the same God is truly an amazing experience. It was a time of reunion with one another, getting to know the new staff, and being there to help each other get things ready for the beginning of school. This coming week we are preparing for our annual staff retreat outside of Moscow. It is a time for worship, building relationships, and relaxation.

We just finished our 2 week of classes and my second grade class is an exciting but exhausting class. My class consists of 8 students. I have 4 boys and 4 girls: Russian, American, Rwandan, and Korean students. This particular group of kids have much more energy than I do. I find myself hitting a wall of exhaustion by about noon each day, I definitely need prayer for strength and energy to last until 3:30 each day. We have had a good time getting to know each other, learn Ms. Macomber's rules and expectations, and what it means to be a second grader.

My roommates and I have enjoyed getting back in our new amazing apartment. We have found our place here and made it feel more like home. We have helped each other get all the cleaning and shopping done each week as well as chatting over dinner or a fun little game. We are thankful we are able to host in our home again this year. A couple weeks ago we held our first staff game night and it was an amazing turn out. We played games, ate great food, laughed a lot, and had wonderful conversations together.

I am happy to be back in Moscow where I can continue my updates as much as possible. I enjoy sharing what God is doing over here in my life, my work place, as well as the community. Until next time, love you all!

Prayer Requests:

• That I can connect with each of my students and meet their individual needs 
• Staff Retreat this week 
• Our gym building (We have a foundation built, now to finish out the process) 

Praises: 

• I made it safely
• Support raising (Thank you everyone for your support whether it is through prayer or finances. If you know anyone who would like to support what I do, please forward my emails on) 

Countdown to Summer

           The flowers are blooming, the sun is shining, Spring has hopefully made its full arrival to Moscow. Life since my last posting has been extremely busy and full of events, travel, goodbyes, baby showers, and so much more. The Lord has shown His great love and faithfulness for our school in so many ways. Hinkson had many positions to be filled and our goal each year is to fill them before leaving for the summer. Sometimes, this is unsuccessful but we have managed to fill every position with a month left of school. We also have been praying and working with many Russian lawyers in order to get approved for a new gym to be built on our property. Our director and our lawyers have jumped through many hoops, we have made many changes at our school to be in appliance, and we have raised the funds to provide what we need to go through with this project. With Gods great love and always providing, we have been approved and should break ground this summer. Prayers that there are no more hoops or documents needed to finish this project. 

We have had 3 teachers this year become with child. 2 of my coworkers have been told they would never have children and have gone through a lot of medical things while trying to get pregnant. Our God is so good and I am blessed to be apart of these families while they welcome these precious baby boys into the community here. Alongside the new lives coming we have also had the tears and hard goodbyes to great teachers who are leaving Hinkson to return home or somewhere new to teach and further their education. God has truly blessed Hinkson with a wonderful community of love and support for one another. I am also wrapping up the year with second grade, where 2 of my 7 students will be leaving at the end of the year. It has been an exciting year and I will miss these children very much. I have been so blessed to have been apart of their learning and their lives. Being a teacher at Hinkson has blessed me in ways I cannot explain to others who have not yet experienced this kind of place. The staff, students, families, the whole community is amazing. The hellos are incredible to add new people in, the goodbyes are tough, but we all love and know we share so much even across the world. 

We are now into the last month of school and there is much to happen before we can all return home to our families for the summer. We had our annual English cafe picnic at Kolomenskoye Park, where we were able to play some baseball and enjoy some conversational english with Russians. Today, I had the opportunity to assist my coworkers in leading Hinkson to their Very First Track and Field Meet. We had about 25 students and 6 events. Many of our students placed very high and we look forward to adding this new sport to Hinkson's community. As we prepare to finish the school year we have concerts, banquets, field day, birthdays, goodbyes, and exams. As well as finishing the school year, I am wrapping up my final exams for my masters classes this week. Praise the Lord my first 2 classes in my masters program have gone extremely well and I look forward to taking the summer off. My roommates and I are attending a ballet and a hockey game in the coming weeks as well as moving to a new apt. We appreciate all of the prayers we can get as the next 3 weeks will be extremely busy with our work life and home life. 

Because I will be traveling soon to head back to America. You will probably not hear from me until after I get home and get settled over jet lag. Until then, stay well and keep praying. If you are in Florida, I will be home June 7th and would love to see you! 

Praises: 

• First 2 masters classes, down! 
• Gym has been approved 
• All 2016-2017 teaching positions have been filled 
• Successful year in second grade 

Prayer Request:

• Safe travels home 
• Financial support to continue 
• Good farewells 

A short yet eventful month

              February was a month filled with experiences that are not newsletter worthy. Although it was a short month, it will a busy, productive, learning experience. At the apartment we had some serious plumbing issues that took multiple days to fix, we got a brand new washer, our cat had her first bath (and yes we survived) and there has been a lot of discussion while we brew up our next and probably last girls night at our place for the year.

While February is a short month a lot happened at school as well. We started our month with medical exams at work which were very interesting but needed to be done for school/Russian policy. Our school has been undergoing a series of inspection and making sure we are fully equipped to remain open here in Russia. We are asking for much needed prayer as we undergo all the changes that need to take place within a certain time frame. The medical exams were extensive and required for all teachers at Hinkson, thankfully we were able to make the day a half day to meet the needs required from the country.

Spirit week was a blast at the school. All grades participated in a week of dressing up and creating skits and door decor to support our basketball as they headed to Budapest for the tournaments. Our girls team came in 2nd place in finals and our boys came in 3rd. Great job Huskies! After spirit week, we celebrated Valentine's day with our students and had a 4 day weekend where some stayed and some took the time to get away from Moscow and explore surrounding cities.

My class has been hit very hard with all sorts of sickness. For the majority of February, I cannot count on one hand when I had all of my children at school at the same time. We had everything from the flu, common head cold, fevers, sinus problems, rubella, rashes, to a busted head. It seemed like something was going on, I eventually caught the mess going around as well. Thankfully everyone is back to their normal selves and we are all catching up very nicely in class.

This past week was Dr. Seuss week and we celebrated Dr. Seuss everyday in class with a special activity. My children expressed themselves in many ways and even practiced writing their own silly stories. All of elementary came together on Friday and celebrated Seuss's birthday with shared activities, a story, and cupcakes! On top of Dr. Seuss week, 2nd and 3rd grade also was in charge of putting together music and skits for chapel. We had the opportunity to learn very well the story of the Good Samaritan and share what we learned with the rest of elementary! Our kids did a GREAT job!

This Tuesday is a Russian Holiday, Women's Day where all women are celebrated. It is a beautiful holiday and a day of being appreciated for being a woman! Because of the holiday we only have a 4 day week and then it is Spring Break. I am so excited about a vacation and a break from school. I, along with many of our teachers at HCA are going to Germany for a conference and following the conference me and some friends will be exploring the surrounding cities in Germany, France, and Switzerland! I look forward to being able to share those experiences with you all!

Praises:

• First inspection is over 
• 3rd quarter is coming to a close 
• Health is back for all teachers and students 

Prayer Request:

• Continued inspection 
• Getting everything done before 3rd quarter ends (Friday) 
• Travel mercies for Conference trip and all Spring Break travelers