The Oregon Trail home

So, lots of people were on the road today. In fact, we probably saw you on I-75 (there couldn't have been very many people NOT on I-75); we honked and waved, but you didn't seem to see us. I'm just joking; it wasn't that bad. But after it took several hours just to get into Henry County and we were pulling off to stop for car maintenance, it felt like we were back in 5th grade, playing the Oregon Trail game. I expected a dashboard message informing us that either Johnny had malaria or that we lost two oxen in forging the river.

But we're at my parents' in Dublin now, and we're having a good time. Hope the holiday is fun and beneficial to each of you. Top on our list of things (all in Christ) to be thankful for? -- you, our friends, families and co-laborers. Thanks for your friendship, prayers, encouragement and partnerships. We thank God for you!

"I'm sorry; we've got to let you go..."

When I got back from the meeting with pledges, Amber was watching the Martha Stewart Apprentice show. She said that it has bombed, though, and they're cancelling it after this season. For the last episode they should show NBC's board meeting discussing her failure and the decision to let her go. That'd be great.

Bible study with fraternity pledges

For a couple months now I've been very excited about the discipleship group with four freshmen. One of the guys in that group is a pledge with the Beta Theta Pi fraternity at Georgia Tech. He was a leader in Perimeter's youth group the last several years, and Amber and I first met his parents at church this past Sunday.

He joined the fraternity knowing that he'd easily make friends with his pledge brothers and has been hoping to share Christ with these friends. We've met with several of the other pledges 3 times now-- for the first time tonight we discussed some of the Gospel of John. However, the first semester pledge schedule is very trying, and they don't have much time. We probably will not meet next week since everyone will be going home for Thanksgiving. Please pray that these guys would benefit from our study, that they would find time to read the Scriptures and that God would work in their hearts to show them their needs for Christ.

Support update

Today I received a very encouraging e-mail confirming two new support commitments and several new contacts to follow-up. Thanks to all those praying for God's work at Georgia Tech and His provision for our family. Please join us in thanking Him for this example of His faithfulness. This progress (we're not there yet...) is very encouraging!

Early Thanksgiving Party

A glimpse of our condo complex-- leaves are falling, but the weather's still pretty warm.









We spent Sunday afternoon with the other CO Atlanta staff at the Woznickis' new home in north Georgia. So many young kids! Roster of children: 3 Watsons, 2 Beedles, 2 Woznickis, 1 Riddle... and it felt like more than that. But it was a lot of fun.

This is Abby Woznicki (2 yr. old). Her brother Caleb was born a few days after our wedding (10 mo. old).

Getting to know your opposition

So, we're watching the UGA-Auburn game with Steve and Shannon Wagner. Kenny Irons seems to be gaining a lot of yards, and it looks like he's pretty alright. But it refreshes an earlier link we again found enjoyable. We first posted a link to this interview on August 17th after receiving an e-mail from Jaymi Smith. Here's the current link:

http://auburntigers.collegesports.com/sports/m-footbl/spec-rel/062805aaa.html

Hope you're all doing well. Let us hear from you!

Go Dawgs!

Weekend full of events and some interesting new friends

We've had lots to do this weekend (nice that it's all here in Atlanta, for a change). Friday night Amber visited with some of the GT girls at Elise's apartment, then we went to a party for all the Starbucks employees I work with. Our boss's apartment had a great view of downtown-- facing south from the corner of Peachtree Street and North Ave.

We met one guy at the party from Bosnia. He and his family are Serbian and had to flee the country to Germany about 13 years ago. They moved to Atlanta about 7 years ago, and now he's a student at Georgia State. He's a really nice guy with an incredibly interesting background. I'm not that familiar with the whole Serbian- Bosnian- Croatian conflict, but he and his family experienced (some still are experiencing) it.

This morning we joined the Riddles and other friends for Jonathan's 1-year old birthday party. Cute kids, nice folks. We left there, met Amber's dad Charles for lunch at OK Cafe.

Charles and I went to the PGA Championship at the East Lake Golf Club. The weather could not have been better. We saw Rieteff Goosen, Tiger Woods, Charles Howell III, the leader Bart Bryant, and Stuart Appleby. The course is very nice, and the surrounding neighborhood and some very nice, recently rennovated houses.

Tonight we went to a pig-roast at one of my frie nd's house. He and his roomate had friends from each of their works, from church, family and others there-- totally around 85-100 people. Go-od food, and it was cool to meet some new peeps.

Great short video of typical life in Moscow

http://homepage.mac.com/russianjourney/iMovieTheater3.html

On a related Starbucks note

I don't know if we've mentioned on the blog that I (Michael) am now working at Starbucks 3 days a week (while we continue support raising and some involvement in ministry work at GT). For a part-time job, it's really working out well. I'm on campus, working mostly with students, instead of having a job that would pull me away from campus.

And, speaking of Russians and Starbucks (see previous post and linked article), yesterday while I was working the register, two people speaking Russian approached. When the lady turned her attention to me, I asked her in Russian-- "Where are you from?" She was caught a little off guard, but then responded in Russian-- "from Russia." We exchanged several lines in Russian, including her purchase total, payment, thanks and change. It was a neat treat for me to speak a little Russian, and I was encouraged by how quickly I was able to slip into it. It felt pretty natural. I would have been at a loss for vocabulary had the conversation developed, but for just a short purchase, it was really cool.

Odd/Funny news from Russia

"Russia has plenty of laws on the books that protect trademarks, copyrights and other intellectual property. What it lacks is the will to enforce those laws fairly and consistently, said Peter Necarsulmer, president of the Coalition for Intellectual Property Rights."

-- from Yahoo! news article linked here: http://news.yahoo.com/s/chitribts/craftyrussianseeksventiofcashfromstarbucks

It seems that the influencers in Russia never want to make anything easy for the outsiders. My briefest analysis: they don't have a mindset to comprehend that cooperation could be mutually beneficial. Their history primarily showcases power-grabs, oppression and long-sustained status-quo. So, it's not really their fault. Not that I'm particularly rooting for Starbucks; this is just a great example of a business frustrated by Russian standards and common practices.