Letter from Garth Moller in Russia
November 1, 2007
Dear Friends,
We started school this year, as every year, on 1 September. You may remember that this year, 1 September was on a Saturday, so this year we had one Saturday school day. 1 September is about as close to a sacred day as any in the Russian calendar. The kids came to meet their teachers, find their classrooms, and get their first assignments. Then there was tea—this is Russia—and everybody went home.
Nearly all of our children from last year returned, the major exceptions being our graduates. We even had one girl return for the eleventh grade. She was taken out by her grandparents several years ago to attend public school. However, she lost interest rather quickly in studying, mostly because she needed to protect herself from the harassment from other kids. Finally, she told her grandparents that she refused to go back to her school and would not go anywhere unless they let her come back to Kargel and Baedeker. We are humbled by this story and delighted that God has led her back to us.
One teacher who will not be with us for the first of the year is Sam Naylor. He has returned to the States for the fall to help his mother and to raise support. I have taken Sam’s teaching load—the upper level English students. So I am back in the classroom regularly for the first time in about five years. It is a good group of students, and several of them are becoming fluent. The trick is to push them to use the same English a native English speaker would use.
I am reading C.S. Lewis’ science fiction trilogy with them, and we will also read Mere Christianity. In addition to reading Lewis, we are reading Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. Dickens is a classic English writer and Lewis is looking to be considered the same. Both are writers who have strong Christian themes. Lewis, of course, is famous for his ability to show the reasonableness of the Christian faith. And the Dickens story presents the story of a man brought to remorse for his life, and through remorse to repentance, and from repentance to a new life as few writers have been able.
Also, I have found several seasons of “The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show” on DVD, so we can do some serious study of American culture, with a focus on American and Soviet relations during the Cold War. Does anybody remember Boris Badenov and Natasha Fatale, the two spies?
Thirty-three children are attending the Kargel and Baedeker School this year from Zhatva Church, which means "The Harvest."
We are starting to get more children from the neighborhood. However, the biggest increase came from a church. The church is an independent charismatic church called Zhatva or “The Harvest.” They have been trying to get a Christian school going for about five years, and up to the present have been renting apartments. Now it is clear that they need to think more seriously about a building.
Although Zhatva has support from several churches in the States, with the best will in the world, they could not find and renovate a building in under two years, and three is probably more realistic. Therefore, they approached us and asked if we would be willing to take them in for the next several years. We agreed to help them, and we now have an additional 33 children, bringing our total enrollment this year to about 75 students.
The church is not able to cover all their expenses. While they were in the apartments, they did not have many of the expenses involved in maintaining a building. So they are covering what they can, and learning something of what they will need in the future. We took them in because we have the space, and what they are able to pay does help. But we do need to find support for what Zhatva cannot cover.
Those of you have kept track of what our school has been doing in the past three years know that we have moved into a new building, and that we have had to do an enormous amount of renovation. Recently, the local government has begun to press us to fix up the façade of the building. We had hoped to put off starting this until next summer, but the regional administration has taken to calling us two to three times a week.
On top of the demands from the city, we have to bring the kitchen in order. Shortly after school began, we purchased a new stove, which put something of a hole in the budget. Now, we are looking to get a commercial dishwasher. Finally, one of our outstanding debts is for the alarm system for the building.
These are all prayer items, and we ask for your prayers. And if there are churches who would like to take on a project, either to purchase some equipment, or provide a scholarship for one of our children who cannot cover tuition, please email me.
For our friends who have been helping us all along, know that you have thanks from all of us. Without the help we have received, there would be no school. Thank you.
Garth Moller
The 2007 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 160
