Losing Tuesday
8:15 am
I was very grateful to have arrived safely in Vladivostok around 1:45 pm yesterday about 30 hours of travel time on four airplanes and layovers of at least three hours each in three airports (five hours in one of them). So from door to door, it was like this - I left my daughter's family's house in Marietta, Georgia, for the Altanta airport around 9:30 a.m. Eastern Time on December 27th. I have been blessed to have spent most of the last 17 months by helping out through being "Granny Nanny" for my sweet toddler grandson Jude, since a week or so before he was born and for his big brother, Seth, who will be five years old on January 24th. Then I arrived at my friend's house here in Vladivostok around 3 p.m. Even though I just napped a little bit while waiting for my friend to finish working, and went to bed about 10:30, I woke up about 4:30 a.m., jet-lagging. But that is to be expected!
It was good to get back here to Vladivostok and see everything with snow all over it. When we landed, the pilot said it was 3 above zero Fahrenheit, but it was sunny and not windy . . . the air was fresh, and I just had to get used to walking on ice again as we came down the gangway and walked over to a bus to take us to the terminal. Have some great ne VERY warm boots with good treads for traction . . . but I am a lot older than the last time I lived in the frozen north . . . in Alaska, so I need to hone my ice-walking skills. Or else! *grin* Don't want to fall.
Everything was fine going through customs and getting my luggage, and there was a taxi driver there waiting for me because my friend was working and she just had a cab sent to pick me up. There seem to be even more cars everywhere here than there was last May. The construction projects I saw in progress then have continued - especially along the highway from the airport which is quite a ways north of town - and some bridges that are being built in Vladivostok itself. Many of the new construction on apartment buildings in the city have been finished and all together things look good and prosperous.
Many of the billboards on the road sides and the banners over the roads were wishing everyone "Happy New Year!" So it was interesting to see them - some were from businesses and some were from the mayor of Vladivostok . . . maybe more of a campaign billboard. A lot of stores visible from the roads had banners with the New Year's greeting, too. Everything looks clean and shiny with the covering of snow, and the harbor downtown looked lovely from the main thoroughfare on a hillside above the downtown area.
When my friend got home from work it was great to see her again, and we had a lovely dinner with fresh bread prepared in her bread maker. Then we chatted a lot and got caught up some . . . watched an episode of "The Tudors" that she has on DVD, and then I pooped out and headed up to bed while she continued to watch T.V. until her bedtime.
This morning before she went to work for her last day before the two week New Year holiday here, we had some breakfast together and laid out the plans for the day. I have some errands to run and need to register . . . a requirement you need to get done within the first three days of being here.
Will write more later . . . oh! About losing Tuesday . . . of course because of flying all night over the Pacific, by the time I reached Seoul, it was pre-down on Wednesday, December 29th . . . even though of course it was only Monday the 27th when I left Atlanta. That pesky International Date Line! Brought back memories, though . . . the last time I crossed it going west was in 1985 when I went to an exercise in Korea with my friends, the F-15 fighter pilots with whom I worked in Alaska.
The layover in Las Vegas brought back a lot of memories of those pilots, too, since we deployed there twice for two Red Flag exercises. Also my son was married there in 1995 . . . and sometimes I end up going through there on Greyhound when I go from visiting my friends on the Western Slope of the Rockies to my son's in southern California. Anyway . . . I watched the sunset causing the Sunrise Ridge of mountains east of Vegas on Monday night - and last night saw the sunset over the hills of Vladivostok. Amazing how quickly you can get around, eh? Both sunsets were lovely as they all seem to be . . . and it's wonderful how much peace you can find watching them, don't you think?
Will write more later. Take care and have a safe and joy-filled New year's celebration!!
Blessings and Love -- Kathy
Kathleen Ware Harris © 2012
kwharris777@gmail.com
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
Losing Tuesday
Losing Tuesday
8:15 am
I was very grateful to have arrived safely in Vladivostok around 1:45 pm yesterday about 30 hours of travel time on four airplanes and layovers of at least three hours each in three airports (five hours in one of them). So from door to door, it was like this - I left my daughter's family's house in Marietta, Georgia, for the Altanta airport around 9:30 a.m. Eastern Time on December 27th. I have been blessed to have spent most of the last 17 months by helping out through being "Granny Nanny" for my sweet toddler grandson Jude, since a week or so before he was born and for his big brother, Seth, who will be five years old on January 24th. Then I arrived at my friend's house here in Vladivostok around 3 p.m. Even though I just napped a little bit while waiting for my friend to finish working, and went to bed about 10:30, I woke up about 4:30 a.m., jet-lagging. But that is to be expected!
It was good to get back here to Vladivostok and see everything with snow all over it. When we landed, the pilot said it was 3 above zero Fahrenheit, but it was sunny and not windy . . . the air was fresh, and I just had to get used to walking on ice again as we came down the gangway and walked over to a bus to take us to the terminal. Have some great ne VERY warm boots with good treads for traction . . . but I am a lot older than the last time I lived in the frozen north . . . in Alaska, so I need to hone my ice-walking skills. Or else! *grin* Don't want to fall.
Everything was fine going through customs and getting my luggage, and there was a taxi driver there waiting for me because my friend was working and she just had a cab sent to pick me up. There seem to be even more cars everywhere here than there was last May. The construction projects I saw in progress then have continued - especially along the highway from the airport which is quite a ways north of town - and some bridges that are being built in Vladivostok itself. Many of the new construction on apartment buildings in the city have been finished and all together things look good and prosperous.
Many of the billboards on the road sides and the banners over the roads were wishing everyone "Happy New Year!" So it was interesting to see them - some were from businesses and some were from the mayor of Vladivostok . . . maybe more of a campaign billboard. A lot of stores visible from the roads had banners with the New Year's greeting, too. Everything looks clean and shiny with the covering of snow, and the harbor downtown looked lovely from the main thoroughfare on a hillside above the downtown area.
When my friend got home from work it was great to see her again, and we had a lovely dinner with fresh bread prepared in her bread maker. Then we chatted a lot and got caught up some . . . watched an episode of "The Tudors" that she has on DVD, and then I pooped out and headed up to bed while she continued to watch T.V. until her bedtime.
This morning before she went to work for her last day before the two week New Year holiday here, we had some breakfast together and laid out the plans for the day. I have some errands to run and need to register . . . a requirement you need to get done within the first three days of being here.
Will write more later . . . oh! About losing Tuesday . . . of course because of flying all night over the Pacific, by the time I reached Seoul, it was pre-down on Wednesday, December 29th . . . even though of course it was only Monday the 27th when I left Atlanta. That pesky International Date Line! Brought back memories, though . . . the last time I crossed it going west was in 1985 when I went to an exercise in Korea with my friends, the F-15 fighter pilots with whom I worked in Alaska.
The layover in Las Vegas brought back a lot of memories of those pilots, too, since we deployed there twice for two Red Flag exercises. Also my son was married there in 1995 . . . and sometimes I end up going through there on Greyhound when I go from visiting my friends on the Western Slope of the Rockies to my son's in southern California. Anyway . . . I watched the sunset causing the Sunrise Ridge of mountains east of Vegas on Monday night - and last night saw the sunset over the hills of Vladivostok. Amazing how quickly you can get around, eh? Both sunsets were lovely as they all seem to be . . . and it's wonderful how much peace you can find watching them, don't you think?
Will write more later. Take care and have a safe and joy-filled New year's celebration!!
Blessings and Love -- Kathy
Kathleen Ware Harris © 2012
kwharris777@gmail.com
8:15 am
I was very grateful to have arrived safely in Vladivostok around 1:45 pm yesterday about 30 hours of travel time on four airplanes and layovers of at least three hours each in three airports (five hours in one of them). So from door to door, it was like this - I left my daughter's family's house in Marietta, Georgia, for the Altanta airport around 9:30 a.m. Eastern Time on December 27th. I have been blessed to have spent most of the last 17 months by helping out through being "Granny Nanny" for my sweet toddler grandson Jude, since a week or so before he was born and for his big brother, Seth, who will be five years old on January 24th. Then I arrived at my friend's house here in Vladivostok around 3 p.m. Even though I just napped a little bit while waiting for my friend to finish working, and went to bed about 10:30, I woke up about 4:30 a.m., jet-lagging. But that is to be expected!
It was good to get back here to Vladivostok and see everything with snow all over it. When we landed, the pilot said it was 3 above zero Fahrenheit, but it was sunny and not windy . . . the air was fresh, and I just had to get used to walking on ice again as we came down the gangway and walked over to a bus to take us to the terminal. Have some great ne VERY warm boots with good treads for traction . . . but I am a lot older than the last time I lived in the frozen north . . . in Alaska, so I need to hone my ice-walking skills. Or else! *grin* Don't want to fall.
Everything was fine going through customs and getting my luggage, and there was a taxi driver there waiting for me because my friend was working and she just had a cab sent to pick me up. There seem to be even more cars everywhere here than there was last May. The construction projects I saw in progress then have continued - especially along the highway from the airport which is quite a ways north of town - and some bridges that are being built in Vladivostok itself. Many of the new construction on apartment buildings in the city have been finished and all together things look good and prosperous.
Many of the billboards on the road sides and the banners over the roads were wishing everyone "Happy New Year!" So it was interesting to see them - some were from businesses and some were from the mayor of Vladivostok . . . maybe more of a campaign billboard. A lot of stores visible from the roads had banners with the New Year's greeting, too. Everything looks clean and shiny with the covering of snow, and the harbor downtown looked lovely from the main thoroughfare on a hillside above the downtown area.
When my friend got home from work it was great to see her again, and we had a lovely dinner with fresh bread prepared in her bread maker. Then we chatted a lot and got caught up some . . . watched an episode of "The Tudors" that she has on DVD, and then I pooped out and headed up to bed while she continued to watch T.V. until her bedtime.
This morning before she went to work for her last day before the two week New Year holiday here, we had some breakfast together and laid out the plans for the day. I have some errands to run and need to register . . . a requirement you need to get done within the first three days of being here.
Will write more later . . . oh! About losing Tuesday . . . of course because of flying all night over the Pacific, by the time I reached Seoul, it was pre-down on Wednesday, December 29th . . . even though of course it was only Monday the 27th when I left Atlanta. That pesky International Date Line! Brought back memories, though . . . the last time I crossed it going west was in 1985 when I went to an exercise in Korea with my friends, the F-15 fighter pilots with whom I worked in Alaska.
The layover in Las Vegas brought back a lot of memories of those pilots, too, since we deployed there twice for two Red Flag exercises. Also my son was married there in 1995 . . . and sometimes I end up going through there on Greyhound when I go from visiting my friends on the Western Slope of the Rockies to my son's in southern California. Anyway . . . I watched the sunset causing the Sunrise Ridge of mountains east of Vegas on Monday night - and last night saw the sunset over the hills of Vladivostok. Amazing how quickly you can get around, eh? Both sunsets were lovely as they all seem to be . . . and it's wonderful how much peace you can find watching them, don't you think?
Will write more later. Take care and have a safe and joy-filled New year's celebration!!
Blessings and Love -- Kathy
Kathleen Ware Harris © 2012
kwharris777@gmail.com
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
Places I've Visited
- Apollo Bay, Australia
- Ballarat, Australia
- Melbourne, Australia
- Gwangju, South Korea
- Almaty, Kazakhstan
- Astana, Kazakhstan
- Tokyo, Japan
- Amsterdam, The Netherlands
- Birmingham, UK
- London, UK
- Oxford, UK
- Moscow, Russia
- St. Petersburg, Russia
- Kharkiv, Ukraine
- Montreal, Quebec, Canada
- Anaheim, CA, USA
- San Diego, CA, USA
- San Francisco, CA, USA
- New York City, NY, USA
- New Orleans, LA, USA
- Boston, MA, USA
- Philadelphia, PA, USA
- San Antonio, TX, USA
- Atlanta, GA, USA
- Savannah, GA, USA
- Chicago, IL, USA
- Washington DC, DC, USA
- Seattle, WA, USA
- Virginia Beach, VA, USA
- View my profile
- Create your own travel map or travel blog
- Great vacation rentals at TripAdvisor
Kathleen Ware Harris © 2012
kwharris777@gmail.com
kwharris777@gmail.com
Saturday, June 5, 2010
More Reflections . . . June 5, 2010
Dear One –
I hope you are enjoying a beautiful June day, wherever you are.
Here in southern California the hedges are laden with honeysuckle and jasmine blossoms. The smells are delicious! There are trees in full bloom with lavender flowers and gorgeous bushes and vines overflowing with bright pink morning glories or lush fuchsia bougainvillea. Here the lodgings range from mansions and beachfront luxury homes to apartments to old-style California bungalows. There has often been an overcast of dense clouds, and my son tells me here near the Pacific Ocean this time of year is often characterized by “June gloom.” The overcast of damp air and clouds wasn’t burned off by the sun until about 3 PM the other day.
Tom, baby Colin and I went to the beach where a bay comes into the ocean. There is a breaker made of large black rocks and the area is called “The Wedge”. A score of intrepid surfers, body boarders and other wet-suited figures challenged some large waves that peaked with a hint of indigo as the curl rose over itself right at the very edge of the water, almost. On the beach we joined about twice as many people scattered in the area, some watching the activity of the surfers.
After settling the baby’s car seat and diaper bag, the beach blanket, and our flip-flops in good view of the oceanic dramas enacted in front of us to the lovely sound of the waves meeting the sand, Tom stayed with Colin, who was still sleeping. And I headed for a walk along the edge of salt water and sand as the tide crept or flowed in, sometimes coming across my toes, sometimes surprising me by splashing all the way up to my thighs, drenching my bright green shorts, but gladdening my heart, feeling welcomed and remembered somehow by the big ocean.
Then later we watched a huge pod of dark grey dolphins cavorting in front of us, no doubt lunching on a wealth of bait fish. Sometimes the fins of five or six at a time appeared and one even jumped right out of the water all together, the closest they came to us. They were really show stealers, putting the surfers to shame with their playfulness and wet fellowship.
I thought about how I was at the other side of this huge ocean so recently, and of how many times I had flown over it and spent time on various islands in the middle of the deep. I was musing about time spent on the atolls on the tops of huge undersea volcanoes, swimming in watered colored by the reflections of the sun on bright white iridescent coral sands. I thought about other times on other beaches looking across various bodies of water . . .the Atlantic, too, of course, from Maine to central Florida, skipping down this way but not in this order: Maine; Massachusetts; Rehoboth, Delaware; and Ocean City, Maryland; the Outer Banks of North Carolina at Duck; and the first visit to the Atlantic – Avalon, New Jersey, the summer I was fifteen.
Virginia Beach; St, Mary’s Island, Georgia; Solomon’s Island, Georgia; too and then down to Florida: Jacksonville Beach; St. Augustine; the top of the Gulf of Mexico . . . Pensacola, a name beloved to some friends in the Navy, too . . . now sadly threatened by the gushing deep water oil well disaster . . . Satellite Beach, so dear to our whole family and my home off and on for many years . . . the beaches near Tampa; and of course Longboat Key where my parents have lived since Dad retired more than seventeen years ago . . . and all the way down back on the east coast to Jupiter Beach . . . back up to Sebastian were the huge eastern coastal waterway rivers empty into the Atlantic.
Virginia Beach; St, Mary’s Island, Georgia; Solomon’s Island, Georgia; too and then down to Florida: Jacksonville Beach; St. Augustine; the top of the Gulf of Mexico . . . Pensacola, a name beloved to some friends in the Navy, too . . . now sadly threatened by the gushing deep water oil well disaster . . . Satellite Beach, so dear to our whole family and my home off and on for many years . . . the beaches near Tampa; and of course Longboat Key where my parents have lived since Dad retired more than seventeen years ago . . . and all the way down back on the east coast to Jupiter Beach . . . back up to Sebastian were the huge eastern coastal waterway rivers empty into the Atlantic.
My thoughts turned not only to oceans and beaches and islands, but to the many people I love who are associated with those places. Some are family members, many are friends and quite a few were comrades-in-arms in the old Cold War days. Once a woman and I became friends while teaming on a spiritual renewal weekend in an Emmaus community in the Fredericksburg, Virginia area. I later visited her and her husband along with their new baby daughter when I was already in ministry serving the three rural churches in West Virginia. I was taking my first break, six months into the huge transition from student to brand new pastor. They had moved from the Washington, D.C. area down to Pensacola, Florida.
I had met her husband at a potluck luncheon back on the fall of 1995. We had lunch with family members while teaming during that last fall in Seminary. He was a helicopter rescue pilot, and I had been a non-rated aircrew member with a helicopter rescue squadron in addition to my main duties helping monitor the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty when I was first on active duty. I used to fly with the helicopter squadron members when we had space launches and missile tests if a Soviet ship was off the coast of central Florida monitoring them. I know I have mentioned this in other musings. This was in the era of the first five test launches of the Space Shuttle in the early 1980s.
Anyway, when I met my team member’s husband, because the helicopter rescue community is very small, we talked about friends we had in common for a short time, but there were a lot of people at the potluck lunch and I really only spoke with him for a few minutes.
About fourteen months later, when I visited them in Pensacola, my friend and I were sitting in the living room talking in the late evening, settling down to catch up with one another. It must have looked to her husband like we were dug in for the night, so he headed to bed. However, a few minutes later he came out of their bedroom again and had a funny look on his face.
About fourteen months later, when I visited them in Pensacola, my friend and I were sitting in the living room talking in the late evening, settling down to catch up with one another. It must have looked to her husband like we were dug in for the night, so he headed to bed. However, a few minutes later he came out of their bedroom again and had a funny look on his face.
“Didn’t we meet sometime in the Air Force? I feel like we may have dated before.”
My friend looked understandably shocked, and I looked back at him with a confused expression on my face. This was 1997, and they had been married for about five years, as I remember. Because the helicopter rescue community is small as I already mentioned, often those who work in it had to spend more time than many other active duty members on remote assignments away from their families. We started asking each other where we had been where.
It turned out that in spring of 1985 when he was still single and I had been divorced for a while, when I was working with the F-15 pilots who intercepted Soviet bombers exercising off the coasts of Alaska, I had accompanied them for about a month to South Korea. There was a big annual exercise and we were stationed at a base in the southern area and they flew over the Yellow Sea in between South Korea and the east coast of China.
It turned out that in spring of 1985 when he was still single and I had been divorced for a while, when I was working with the F-15 pilots who intercepted Soviet bombers exercising off the coasts of Alaska, I had accompanied them for about a month to South Korea. There was a big annual exercise and we were stationed at a base in the southern area and they flew over the Yellow Sea in between South Korea and the east coast of China.
My pilot friends had made me “Commander-in-Chief” of shopping (CINC SHOPPING) and I had made two round trips up to Osan Air Base, where a good friend, Kent, from earlier days in the Air Force was serving his unaccompanied year, leaving his fiancée behind in Los Angeles. The whole squadron had ordered Prussian blue flight-suit style outfits with a map of Alaska embroidered on the back. On the front of the suits there was also embroidery depicting their flight wings and their tactical call signs. You’d have to know them to understand why this was important to them.
(Later, the first time they all wore them when we were in Japan for a week on the way home to Alaska, they all looked really wonderful in them.)
(Later, the first time they all wore them when we were in Japan for a week on the way home to Alaska, they all looked really wonderful in them.)
Anyway, I was supposed to check and make sure the Korean tailors had all the embroidered names right, etc., and check to see that the suits would be finished by the end of the exercise. Within a few days of beginning our deployment, I flew up from Kwang Ju Air Base, where we were stationed, to Osan Air Base not far from Seoul. With the help of Kent, I found the tailor shop in the maze of the nooks and crannies of the marketplace outside one of the gates of the air base. When I went back to pick them up near the end of our deployment, I also took delivery on a huge amount of wallets, purses, briefcases and other items made out of eel skin. The pilots and their wives had perused catalogs and I was in charge of bringing those eel skin dreams to reality.
O.K. So, the first time I was up there, Kent had given me a tour of his work place, and then had to be on duty until dinner time. We made arrangements to meet at the Officer’s Club for dinner. I was sitting in the lobby of the “O” Club waiting for him when two men in the usual “green bag” flight suits with helicopter rescue badges on them walked into the lobby from the main door of the club. One was a good friend I had flown with in Florida. The other one turned out to be . . . you guessed it . . . the future husband of my friend from the Emmaus team in whose living room I was sitting in eleven years later!
We all laughed when we realized it. After knowing them as a couple for about four years, it turned out I had met and had dinner with him along with my other two friends about six years before the two of them had met.
Sadly, though, I found out two summers ago that my friend, Kent, passed away about three years before that. The things you can find out through internet search engines. You don’t always want to know all of it.
But it’s better to focus on the loving memories and fellowship that goes beyond time and space.
Poignant.
Endearing reminiscences.
But back to the other side of the Pacific so many years after that time. My son was on active duty as a US Marine when he participated in the same type of exercise in South Korea exactly ten years after I was there. And here we were together with his sweet baby boy on the other side of that big drink of an ocean, so often not at all pacific.
And I also couldn’t help thinking about the tensions between South and North Korea over the sinking of the South Korean naval vessel by a North Korean torpedo launched from a submarine in late March. If only all that wasn’t still going on . . . like a broken record, but affecting so many lives in so many negative ways.
And I also couldn’t help thinking about the tensions between South and North Korea over the sinking of the South Korean naval vessel by a North Korean torpedo launched from a submarine in late March. If only all that wasn’t still going on . . . like a broken record, but affecting so many lives in so many negative ways.
Jumping back to a few days ago, on the way to where we parked, we saw two tourists with rented surf boards and no signs of wet suits crossing a street and heading to the beach. Tom talked about how good it was the tourist season wasn’t in full play yet.
We commented on which houses we liked. Tom seems to prefer the Mediterranean style with orange or red-tiled roofs and fanciful arched windows and doorways. I liked some of them, too, but mostly just enjoyed seeing the variety and creativity displayed in the architecture of the houses as well as in the verdant and sometimes fanciful gardens.
Oh, and I don’t think I told you that last Saturday I took a walk with all four of my Southern Californian grandchildren to a nature center on the back bay. The area is the top of the same inlet that Tom and Colin and I watched empty into the Pacific the other day. Colin was in the stroller and Alexis, Drew, and Trevor were troopers walking along with me, or running ahead sometimes. The nature center has wonderful displays and is architecturally very interesting. You can look out of those big binoculars on the roof, or you can continue down the path to the center itself.
Inside, there is a children’s room with puzzles, snakes, spiders, turtles, books, and coloring papers. There are all sorts of nature displays about the flora and the fauns of the tidal marshes and the hillsides covered with tall grass.
We all had a lovely time. On the way home, though, it was getting hot. Tom and Lisa had been out doing errands, and Tom came to pick us up in the car, meeting us a few blocks from their home. We had probably walked about six miles all together and I was filled with joy from the opportunity.
When I started to write this I was thinking I would tell you more about the contrasts I have seen in Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan between 1994 and now . . . but I guess we’ll do that next time, OK?
Hope you have a blessed weekend.
As ever – Kathy
Consider the Lilies of the Field
[Jesus said,] “Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?
Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?
Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?
And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin:
And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?
Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?
(For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.
But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.
Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.
Matthew 6:25-34
Kathleen Ware Harris © 2012
kwharris777@gmail.com
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
Similarities and Differences . . . June 2, 2010
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Dear One –
It’s June, can you believe that?! How time flies. I hope you had a lovely Memorial Day weekend and that you are ready for summer.
Having experienced the Russian version of honoring those who served and gave that “last full measure” in World War II, I was struck by the contrasts between the way they take note and seem to think about all that ended sixty-five years ago – and how we commemorate World War II and honor those who sacrificed for our country.
I have actually been trying to write this for a few weeks, and I keep putting it off, still processing impressions and memories, I guess. Although I have thought a great deal about the Den’ Pobedy – Day of Victory in the former Soviet Union as opposed to our Memorial Day weekend, I have also been ruminating about similarities and differences on several levels.
The first comparison has to do with our two countries – or I mean the USA and the Commonwealth of Independent States (a name you can take with a grain of salt). The second evaluation involves the contrasts I have seen in the former Soviet Union itself from the first time I arrived there on December 27, 1993. I have been going back and forth to various parts of the former Soviet Union for varying lengths of time:
December 27, 1984 through January 21, 1984 (or so) –
Obninsk (city in the Kaluga Oblast – 230 miles southwest of Moscow),
Spassk Zagorye,
Zagorsk (now Sergeev Posad again), and
Moscow (all travel between cities and towns by bus supplied by Russian Peace Foundation)
June 5, 1984 through July 2, 1984
Pushkin (formerly Tsarskoye Selo – the Tsar’s “Village” where the summer palaces of Catherine the Great and other rulers of Imperial Russia are, outside of St. Petersburg, formerly Leningrad, formerly Peterburg),
St. Petersburg, then by train to
Moscow
July 2, 1984 through July 16, 1984
Kharkov, Ukraine (arrived there on overnight train from Moscow)
Kiev – just travel by car from Kharkov to Kiev’s Airport
April 8, 2005 – August 30, 2005
Alma-Ata and by overnight train to
Astana (then flew back to Alma-Ata, also called “Almaty”)
May, 2007
Moscow – volunteering in Bishop Vaxby’s office and
In the Moscow Seminary Office
April 10, 2010 through May 25, 2010
Moscow – the Methodist Building, working on two independent studies for my Doctorate of Ministry in Missional Evangelism until May 8, 2010 when I flew to
Vladivostok, arriving the morning of May 9, 2010
Now it’s hard to know where to start telling you about what has seemed to change and what has seemed to remain the same. I guess I first should tell you that I started learning Russian in the fall of 1968 when I was in high school. Then I majored in the Teaching Russian with an emphasis on Russian and East European Area Studies at the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana. My minor was French. I graduated from high school in 1970. (By the way, we’re planning our 40th reunion celebration for Homecoming Weekend – October 1-3, 2010 in our hometown of Barrington, Illinois, forty-five miles northwest of Chicago.)
I wanted to learn Russian after having studied French since eighth grade and Latin since freshman year in high school because of the trauma of the Cold War and a kid’s idea of trying to be of some help somehow. As a lot of us baby boomers were, after the Cuban Missile Crisis in the early 1960’s, we were subjected to civil defense drills, the spectacle of Nike missile sites in the Chicago area, and people who built fallout shelters in their back yard.
Because of whatever I understood (not much) about World War II and the Korean war when I was nine years old, it didn’t make any sense to me why after all that violence, death and destruction the leaders of the nations couldn’t just find a way to talk to one another rather than terrifying little children with the image of all out nuclear war. So I had this idea that maybe if I learned Russian I could somehow help explain us to them and them to us . . . or something. I know . . . idealistic and pie-in-the-sky . . . and I never thought I was the only one doing that kind of thing . . . and just wanted to help somehow.
Seems like I’m way off track. But it also appears to me that we are even in more need of peace, love and understanding in so many ways.
The biggest difference between how the people of USA -- my parents’ and grandparents’ generations went through World War II compared to how the people of the Soviet Union experienced it was that mostly we just sent people, money, equipment, weapons, food, and whatever else “over there”, whereas for the Soviet citizens the war was THERE. Estimates are that twenty-seven million people were killed. In the European part of the Soviet Union over 20,000 cities, towns and villages were completely destroyed.
Now, of course it is important to note that before the war, Hitler and Stalin signed a non-aggression pact and after Poland fell to Nazi Germany, the two leaders split it in half. The story is that in June of 1941 when Hitler’s armies invaded the Soviet Union it took most of the day to convince Stalin that it was true.
Anyway . . . the point is that there is really no comparison between what it is like to send millions of people to war, as horrible as that is, to what it is like for war to be waged on your territory.
And enough is way beyond enough.
We really have to work harder to stop the violence and keep it from happening. I know a lot of people are working on that on many levels, but there is always more to do.
Please don’t think that I am naïve enough to think it is easy. And sometimes it takes force or the threat of using force to protect people. But truly I don’t think we have tried hard enough not to use the weapons we have at our disposal these days.
And they are ever more heinous. Even the thought of using them should be unimaginable.
Another tangent. Please excuse me. I am going to try again tomorrow to more calmly tell you what I have been wanting to tell you.
Rest assured that God Who is Love and Peace, Justice, Righteousness, Mercy and Faithfulness has good plans for people of good will. And I believe we are privileged to be called on to help make peace, take care of orphans and widows, ensure domestic tranquility . . . and make it possible for every person and every family on earth to have decent homes, clean water, fresh food, job opportunities and all the blessings we take for granted. It’s a matter of sharing what we are given beyond what we need. It’s a question of the will to work for peace. It’s the idea that we can do it and find the people who believe that – don’t ask those who don’t believe in it to help.
With God all things are possible.
I hope you have a good rest of the week.
In Christ – Kathy
Peace is Possible
God will judge between the nations and will settle disputes for many peoples. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore.
Isaiah 2:4
Kathleen Ware Harris © 2012
kwharris777@gmail.com
Saturday, May 29, 2010
The Way I See It . . . . May 29, 2010
-->
Dear One -
I hope all is well with you and yours.
On this Memorial Day Weekend, I am still jet-lagging, and it’s the middle of the night. I seem to be still processing my time in Russia, and I would like to get some things off my chest, if you don’t mind.
Being in Russia was hard in many ways. And I really do believe we are coming up on a very difficult time because Russia is re-arming due in part, I believe, to the fact that its leaders fear China -- and they know they need to protect themselves. But we also have some potentially difficult problems . . . and look how we have made ourselves vulnerable in several important ways . . . we manufacture no steel to speak of . . . we are in debt to China . . . and our economy is a mess because we have given our jobs away out of greed in the name of the world economy . . . and we are persecuting undocumented immigrants when it was we ourselves who not only allowed them to be here, but took advantage of them by paying them as little as we could.
Meanwhile more greedy people have kept the rich richer and kept paying people ridiculous amounts of money when if they were just paid reasonable salaries all sorts of people without work could still have jobs. Just a soap box stance . . . my own opinions, and obviously up for debate.
We have become a nation of people who think God does not notice or care about greed and injustice. Concerning slavery, Thomas Jefferson wrote that he "trembled to think that God is just" and that God would bring about retribution for the sins of slavery -- and besides all the slaves that suffered, the Civil War decimated our country. And racism still negatively and unjustly affects so many people.
There are so many ways that we as a nation -- and most of the world that once was filled with predominantly Christian people has turned away from God in so many ways. I believe that the Lord is calling us to repent and come back to live obedient and faithful lives in God’s, peace, graciousness and steadfast love. It will be a lot of work but as the Body of Christ we can do it - and we can love and serve others no matter what they believe, no matter what their ethnic background is, no matter how they have lived previously. We can agree to disagree and still live in peace and fellowship by forgiving one another, blessing those who persecute us and turning out weapons into instruments to help feed, clothe and nurture people rather than bring forth death, disease, destruction and chaos. We can do it together with God’s help.
I believe that the Holy Spirit is calling us to live lives of repentance and institute obedience and justice, mercy and loving kindness again. Jesus read the passage we know as Isaiah 61 in His home town of Nazareth at the gathering place we call the synagogue on the Sabbath that passage was scheduled to be read in the way Jewish scripture was separated into sections so that the whole Torah would be lifted up over the year. It was not a coincidence that Jesus went there that day to proclaim that He was -- and is -- the anointed one chosen and sent to proclaim the acceptable day of the Lord -- the Jubilee when all who are slaves are free everyone lives in the fullness of love with all each person needs.
Jesus announced that the blind would see, the hungry would be fed, the naked would be clothed, the oppressed would be delivered and the imprisoned ones would go free. When He was born the peace of heaven came to earth and the Kingdom of Heaven was initiated on earth to be fulfilled when He comes again. But meanwhile WE are the Body of Christ and it is up to us to be obedient to God and to do what Jesus announced that He was anointed to do with God’s help by the power of God’s Holy Spirit in Christ.
It is up to us to open the eyes of those who are blind to the Good News of God's love in Christ . . . it is up to us to proclaim that the Kingdom of Heaven is among us and is in our hearts. It is up to us to feed the hungry, to clothe the naked, to proclaim to the oppressed that they are delivered and to the imprisoned that they are free. We are to live out the Jubilee -- to full participate in the celebration of the fullness of God's love, righteousness, mercy, faithfulness, and loving kindness.
And yet instead we turn away from doing the will of God. We go our own way like lost sheep and do as we like. The Good Shepherd is seeking us, though. God in Christ is calling us by our names because we are His. We are His flock, the sheep of His pasture. And when we allow Him to guard us, to guide us, and to take care of us we are protected from all that would come against us to harm us to scatter us, to kill us. We have wandered afar and been disobedient. It is time to return to the fold of our Father in Heaven.
The Spirit of the Lord is calling all of those who believe in God in Christ Jesus, the Son of God, to unite in God's love and to cast off the petty differences that keep us separated from one another. God is calling us to be in full communion with one another and with God in Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit. God is calling us to BE the Body of Christ to the whole world-- to live lives of loving sacrifice and giving. To serve one another in love just as Jesus Christ served His beloved followers in love.
Jesus Christ is the Way, the Truth and the Life. One of the biggest lies told by people in the world today is that all religions lead to God and that anything anyone believes is all right . . .and that just because society condones certain kinds of behavior those kinds of behaviors are all right. God is love. But God is also complete righteousness. And God is also the fullness of mercy. And it is only God who is the Creator of Heaven and Earth. Nothing in or of the earth is worthy of worship. Only God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit is worthy of worship.
We are coming into a time when all the wars of the last century and every other century in human history will seem like nothing compared to how it will be in the coming years. During this time to come the foundations of the faith of many people will be shaken and it will be a time of great tribulation. But those who know and trust the Lord now, those who have been called according to His purposes will be given tasks to help people through the time coming.
And despite to strife and deprivation, trials and tribulation, these people will be under girded by God's love and God's grace will see them through. God will help them help others and bring many people to a saving knowledge of God in Christ. These people will also be beacons of light when the world turns dark with the terrible time that is to come.
In what the peoples of the former Soviet Union call “The Great Patriotic War”, and that we call “World War II”, over twenty-seven million people lost their lives in the territory of the Soviet Union alone. When you read the statistics of the number of people killed in the Holocaust - six million Jewish people and millions of professing Christians, gypsies, handicapped and mentally ill people, it is so important to remember and to keep saying and acting out, “NEVER AGAIN!!”
Yet we still have weapons of mass destruction ready to be used. There are still armed conflicts in the world in too many places where children, women and men - non-combatants and military members alike are being killed, forced to be refugees and in other ways tortured, persecuted and made to live in misery. The hatred and violence, perceived need for revenge and the pursuit of power perpetuates conditions and activities we need to be working much harder to stop. Hatred begets hatred and there can never be true peace that is under girded by violence and the threat of violence.
There are ways to keep trying to understand one another. All human beings have much more in common than we have differences. We can find more ways to honor, respect and help one another. Even those who don’t have jobs or who are homeless can look around and find ways to help people. We can change our views of all that we consider valuable that is just materialism, and take care of one another out of love. We all belong to the human family given this beautiful earth on which to live. We can look around and do things to help our family members and our neighbors. Love begets love.
Love is the only thing that counts and the only thing that lasts. Nothing that seems material or “real” is as powerful as actions based on helping others in love. I believe we are at a critical time in the history of the world and that those of us who know the love of God in Christ have deep responsibilities to live out that love - not like we think we belong to some club that people have to jump through hoops to be connected with love.
Not like we think we are the only ones who know the Creator and have some kind of lock on all that is good and makes life easier. Not like that at all. We are called to love and serve everyone we come into contact with in this the life we have been given as a gift.
The peace we have to share as a gift of God starts in our hearts and just as “the rain falls on the just and the unjust” giving everyone the ability to feed themselves and their families, we are required to reach out to everyone and help people out of love in every way we are able to do that with God’s help. As it states in Micah 6:8 (paraphrased): ”What does the Lord require you? To act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with God.”
May the peace of God that passes all understanding be yours in Christ Jesus.
In His Love - Kathy
Kathleen Ware Harris © 2012
kwharris777@gmail.com
Dear One -
I hope all is well with you and yours.
On this Memorial Day Weekend, I am still jet-lagging, and it’s the middle of the night. I seem to be still processing my time in Russia, and I would like to get some things off my chest, if you don’t mind.
Being in Russia was hard in many ways. And I really do believe we are coming up on a very difficult time because Russia is re-arming due in part, I believe, to the fact that its leaders fear China -- and they know they need to protect themselves. But we also have some potentially difficult problems . . . and look how we have made ourselves vulnerable in several important ways . . . we manufacture no steel to speak of . . . we are in debt to China . . . and our economy is a mess because we have given our jobs away out of greed in the name of the world economy . . . and we are persecuting undocumented immigrants when it was we ourselves who not only allowed them to be here, but took advantage of them by paying them as little as we could.
Meanwhile more greedy people have kept the rich richer and kept paying people ridiculous amounts of money when if they were just paid reasonable salaries all sorts of people without work could still have jobs. Just a soap box stance . . . my own opinions, and obviously up for debate.
We have become a nation of people who think God does not notice or care about greed and injustice. Concerning slavery, Thomas Jefferson wrote that he "trembled to think that God is just" and that God would bring about retribution for the sins of slavery -- and besides all the slaves that suffered, the Civil War decimated our country. And racism still negatively and unjustly affects so many people.
There are so many ways that we as a nation -- and most of the world that once was filled with predominantly Christian people has turned away from God in so many ways. I believe that the Lord is calling us to repent and come back to live obedient and faithful lives in God’s, peace, graciousness and steadfast love. It will be a lot of work but as the Body of Christ we can do it - and we can love and serve others no matter what they believe, no matter what their ethnic background is, no matter how they have lived previously. We can agree to disagree and still live in peace and fellowship by forgiving one another, blessing those who persecute us and turning out weapons into instruments to help feed, clothe and nurture people rather than bring forth death, disease, destruction and chaos. We can do it together with God’s help.
I believe that the Holy Spirit is calling us to live lives of repentance and institute obedience and justice, mercy and loving kindness again. Jesus read the passage we know as Isaiah 61 in His home town of Nazareth at the gathering place we call the synagogue on the Sabbath that passage was scheduled to be read in the way Jewish scripture was separated into sections so that the whole Torah would be lifted up over the year. It was not a coincidence that Jesus went there that day to proclaim that He was -- and is -- the anointed one chosen and sent to proclaim the acceptable day of the Lord -- the Jubilee when all who are slaves are free everyone lives in the fullness of love with all each person needs.
Jesus announced that the blind would see, the hungry would be fed, the naked would be clothed, the oppressed would be delivered and the imprisoned ones would go free. When He was born the peace of heaven came to earth and the Kingdom of Heaven was initiated on earth to be fulfilled when He comes again. But meanwhile WE are the Body of Christ and it is up to us to be obedient to God and to do what Jesus announced that He was anointed to do with God’s help by the power of God’s Holy Spirit in Christ.
It is up to us to open the eyes of those who are blind to the Good News of God's love in Christ . . . it is up to us to proclaim that the Kingdom of Heaven is among us and is in our hearts. It is up to us to feed the hungry, to clothe the naked, to proclaim to the oppressed that they are delivered and to the imprisoned that they are free. We are to live out the Jubilee -- to full participate in the celebration of the fullness of God's love, righteousness, mercy, faithfulness, and loving kindness.
And yet instead we turn away from doing the will of God. We go our own way like lost sheep and do as we like. The Good Shepherd is seeking us, though. God in Christ is calling us by our names because we are His. We are His flock, the sheep of His pasture. And when we allow Him to guard us, to guide us, and to take care of us we are protected from all that would come against us to harm us to scatter us, to kill us. We have wandered afar and been disobedient. It is time to return to the fold of our Father in Heaven.
The Spirit of the Lord is calling all of those who believe in God in Christ Jesus, the Son of God, to unite in God's love and to cast off the petty differences that keep us separated from one another. God is calling us to be in full communion with one another and with God in Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit. God is calling us to BE the Body of Christ to the whole world-- to live lives of loving sacrifice and giving. To serve one another in love just as Jesus Christ served His beloved followers in love.
Jesus Christ is the Way, the Truth and the Life. One of the biggest lies told by people in the world today is that all religions lead to God and that anything anyone believes is all right . . .and that just because society condones certain kinds of behavior those kinds of behaviors are all right. God is love. But God is also complete righteousness. And God is also the fullness of mercy. And it is only God who is the Creator of Heaven and Earth. Nothing in or of the earth is worthy of worship. Only God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit is worthy of worship.
We are coming into a time when all the wars of the last century and every other century in human history will seem like nothing compared to how it will be in the coming years. During this time to come the foundations of the faith of many people will be shaken and it will be a time of great tribulation. But those who know and trust the Lord now, those who have been called according to His purposes will be given tasks to help people through the time coming.
And despite to strife and deprivation, trials and tribulation, these people will be under girded by God's love and God's grace will see them through. God will help them help others and bring many people to a saving knowledge of God in Christ. These people will also be beacons of light when the world turns dark with the terrible time that is to come.
In what the peoples of the former Soviet Union call “The Great Patriotic War”, and that we call “World War II”, over twenty-seven million people lost their lives in the territory of the Soviet Union alone. When you read the statistics of the number of people killed in the Holocaust - six million Jewish people and millions of professing Christians, gypsies, handicapped and mentally ill people, it is so important to remember and to keep saying and acting out, “NEVER AGAIN!!”
Yet we still have weapons of mass destruction ready to be used. There are still armed conflicts in the world in too many places where children, women and men - non-combatants and military members alike are being killed, forced to be refugees and in other ways tortured, persecuted and made to live in misery. The hatred and violence, perceived need for revenge and the pursuit of power perpetuates conditions and activities we need to be working much harder to stop. Hatred begets hatred and there can never be true peace that is under girded by violence and the threat of violence.
There are ways to keep trying to understand one another. All human beings have much more in common than we have differences. We can find more ways to honor, respect and help one another. Even those who don’t have jobs or who are homeless can look around and find ways to help people. We can change our views of all that we consider valuable that is just materialism, and take care of one another out of love. We all belong to the human family given this beautiful earth on which to live. We can look around and do things to help our family members and our neighbors. Love begets love.
Love is the only thing that counts and the only thing that lasts. Nothing that seems material or “real” is as powerful as actions based on helping others in love. I believe we are at a critical time in the history of the world and that those of us who know the love of God in Christ have deep responsibilities to live out that love - not like we think we belong to some club that people have to jump through hoops to be connected with love.
Not like we think we are the only ones who know the Creator and have some kind of lock on all that is good and makes life easier. Not like that at all. We are called to love and serve everyone we come into contact with in this the life we have been given as a gift.
The peace we have to share as a gift of God starts in our hearts and just as “the rain falls on the just and the unjust” giving everyone the ability to feed themselves and their families, we are required to reach out to everyone and help people out of love in every way we are able to do that with God’s help. As it states in Micah 6:8 (paraphrased): ”What does the Lord require you? To act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with God.”
May the peace of God that passes all understanding be yours in Christ Jesus.
In His Love - Kathy
Walk Humbly With God
He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.
Micah 6:8
Kathleen Ware Harris © 2012
kwharris777@gmail.com
Monday, May 24, 2010
The Fields of the Lord May 24, 2010
The Fields of the Lord May 24, 2010
Wishing You Joy, Peace and Love . . . Now and Always!
Dear One –
Hope this finds you and yours well and happy – and that no matter what is going on that you know you are loved in the most elemental way. You are unique and precious, and I am glad you are in my life in whatever way that is – as a beloved family member . . . as an old friend . . . as an acquaintance . . . remember that you are not alone. There is a reason you are here on earth and the most important part of that reason is to love and be loved.
Love is all that counts and will triumph over every circumstance, no matter how sad or how difficult. We are more than who we are physically. We live on many levels of consciousness and our reality is sometimes so diffused with wonder was can be amazed – at the joys that surround us.
Sadly, we can also be flabbergasted when people can be cruel beyond imagination to one another. But there is always a new chance to make things better. We only have to have hope and to seek that love that surrounds us and is within us.
I am so full of the joy that I have been given so many gifts by people I have known for a long time – or for several years – or who I have just met in the last two months. I don’t mean material gifts. I mean the trust of sharing their lives and thoughts . . .joys, triumphs, prayers, fears, worries and faith journeys with me. I feel so blessed and praise God for the opportunities I have had.
This weekend my friend here in Vladivostok whom I have known since I was a child worked very hard putting together a video of the sights around downtown Vladivostok. Unfortunately I had another touch of some tummy stuff and couldn’t go with her, but the results of her vision of the area was wonderful to see. She worked with a friend who is a college student, Anton. Several weeks ago we all went together to the coffee shop off the lobby of the hotel called “The Versailles”. So if you look on my Facebook page, you can see some of those photos.
The latest photos from the last week – and the last few days here are at this URL:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=24701&id=100000104723008&l=a998883252
Photos of the Crystal Trio that I described the other day are among those photos.
Also I finally met one the UMC pastors who is working on her degree at the UMC Theological Seminary in Moscow as a distance learner. She also spends two weeks twice a year there studying with the other student pastors from all over the Eurasian area. Her name is Valentina and it was a delight to meet her.
Unfortunately I was not able to make it to the worship service. Sometimes it is harder for me to get around here that I want it to be. But, God willing, I hope to come again – and this time make it to Khabarovsk, too. I am looking for a job teaching English or coming on an exchange program to teach at one of the universities. Please pray for me about that if you feel led to do so.
My friend and I had some very interesting experiences yesterday afternoon. Around 3:30 PM we met Pastor Valentina near the plaza down by the waterfront and had some coffee and dessert at my friend’s favorite café, connected to the Philharmonic Hall. Valentina and I spoke about our walks with the Lord and our ministries. I felt like we had always known one another. Sylva was glad to meet her, too, but took herself off to another table to work some more on her film . . . the behind the scenes production part that develops the overview, etc.
Then we took a little walk and drove Valentina home down Svetlanskaya Street, up the hill on Okeansky Prospekt, and then to an area of apartments not far from the Funicular.
After we parked near the Funicular, I was surprised to realize that the bottom of the hill the Funicular trams run up and down on is right next door to an Art Institute and the Pushkin Theater, one of the first places that Sylva took me. It was good to see it again.
Several men were waiting outside of the theater, and one of them turned out to a be a diplomat from Viet Nam. Sylva knows him well, so we went over to greet him. The other gentlemen with him were part of the Art Institute, asfar as I could tell.
There was an exhibition about Viet Name in the grand lobby outside of the theater on the second floor, so we were invited to go up and see it. I had actually noticed the photos and displays when we were there earlier, but we took the opportunity to inspect them more closely.
A young man who was an artist who had graduated from the Institute accompanied us, and there were some books about art and abut the Institute. He invited us to take the books since they were free to those who came to see the exhibit. When we went outside again, it turned out that the Director if the Institute, one of the men waiting out front, was the author of the books. I asked him if he would autograph the copies we had, and he graciously complied.
They gentlemen were all waiting for some cosmonauts to come and see the exhibit, and just as we finished speaking with them, a van pulled up. Out came some fairly elderly gentlemen who were treated with great respect, going inside to view the exhibit.
Afterwards, the Funicular was only going to be running for less than an hour, so we went over there. You can see some of the photos we took at the same web site I mentioned above.
The joy of spending time with my lifelong friend, of meeting and fellowshipping with Pastor Valentina, who is also a physician, as well as the chance meeting with the diplomat and the Director of the Art Institute made for a very special day.
The streets were full of young couples, families, and just groups of people enjoying the beautiful day, even though it was a bit overcast. Fog rolls in quickly, just as it does in San Francisco. But when the sun shines, the light bounces around and the air is fresh coming from the Pacific Ocean of over the mountainous coast.
I am so grateful I was able to be here, and fee a great peace and joy. In this place there are many new buildings, bridge and road construction – and signs of mid-spring everywhere. White apple blossoms dot the hillsides and the spring green on the leaves and bushes refreshes the sides of streets and the hearts of the people, tried from the winter.
It was surprising to see the season so far behind Moscow, because Vladivostok is further south – but I am always happy to see what kinds of new weather patterns there are in the new places I am blessed to come and see.
I hope you are blessed whatever season you may be in either nature-wise or because of the circumstances of your life.
Remember that you are loved and that love must be shared for it to truly be fulfilled.
Kathleen Ware Harris © 2012
kwharris777@gmail.com
Blessings in the grace of Love --Kathy
The Fields are Ready for the Harvest
34"My food," said Jesus, "is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. 35Do you not say, 'Four months more and then the harvest'? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. 36Even now the reaper draws his wages, even now he harvests the crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together. 37Thus the saying 'One sows and another reaps' is true. 38I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor”
John 4:34-38
Wishing You Joy, Peace and Love . . . Now and Always!
Dear One –
Hope this finds you and yours well and happy – and that no matter what is going on that you know you are loved in the most elemental way. You are unique and precious, and I am glad you are in my life in whatever way that is – as a beloved family member . . . as an old friend . . . as an acquaintance . . . remember that you are not alone. There is a reason you are here on earth and the most important part of that reason is to love and be loved.
Love is all that counts and will triumph over every circumstance, no matter how sad or how difficult. We are more than who we are physically. We live on many levels of consciousness and our reality is sometimes so diffused with wonder was can be amazed – at the joys that surround us.
Sadly, we can also be flabbergasted when people can be cruel beyond imagination to one another. But there is always a new chance to make things better. We only have to have hope and to seek that love that surrounds us and is within us.
I am so full of the joy that I have been given so many gifts by people I have known for a long time – or for several years – or who I have just met in the last two months. I don’t mean material gifts. I mean the trust of sharing their lives and thoughts . . .joys, triumphs, prayers, fears, worries and faith journeys with me. I feel so blessed and praise God for the opportunities I have had.
This weekend my friend here in Vladivostok whom I have known since I was a child worked very hard putting together a video of the sights around downtown Vladivostok. Unfortunately I had another touch of some tummy stuff and couldn’t go with her, but the results of her vision of the area was wonderful to see. She worked with a friend who is a college student, Anton. Several weeks ago we all went together to the coffee shop off the lobby of the hotel called “The Versailles”. So if you look on my Facebook page, you can see some of those photos.
The latest photos from the last week – and the last few days here are at this URL:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=24701&id=100000104723008&l=a998883252
Photos of the Crystal Trio that I described the other day are among those photos.
Also I finally met one the UMC pastors who is working on her degree at the UMC Theological Seminary in Moscow as a distance learner. She also spends two weeks twice a year there studying with the other student pastors from all over the Eurasian area. Her name is Valentina and it was a delight to meet her.
Unfortunately I was not able to make it to the worship service. Sometimes it is harder for me to get around here that I want it to be. But, God willing, I hope to come again – and this time make it to Khabarovsk, too. I am looking for a job teaching English or coming on an exchange program to teach at one of the universities. Please pray for me about that if you feel led to do so.
My friend and I had some very interesting experiences yesterday afternoon. Around 3:30 PM we met Pastor Valentina near the plaza down by the waterfront and had some coffee and dessert at my friend’s favorite café, connected to the Philharmonic Hall. Valentina and I spoke about our walks with the Lord and our ministries. I felt like we had always known one another. Sylva was glad to meet her, too, but took herself off to another table to work some more on her film . . . the behind the scenes production part that develops the overview, etc.
Then we took a little walk and drove Valentina home down Svetlanskaya Street, up the hill on Okeansky Prospekt, and then to an area of apartments not far from the Funicular.
After we parked near the Funicular, I was surprised to realize that the bottom of the hill the Funicular trams run up and down on is right next door to an Art Institute and the Pushkin Theater, one of the first places that Sylva took me. It was good to see it again.
Several men were waiting outside of the theater, and one of them turned out to a be a diplomat from Viet Nam. Sylva knows him well, so we went over to greet him. The other gentlemen with him were part of the Art Institute, asfar as I could tell.
There was an exhibition about Viet Name in the grand lobby outside of the theater on the second floor, so we were invited to go up and see it. I had actually noticed the photos and displays when we were there earlier, but we took the opportunity to inspect them more closely.
A young man who was an artist who had graduated from the Institute accompanied us, and there were some books about art and abut the Institute. He invited us to take the books since they were free to those who came to see the exhibit. When we went outside again, it turned out that the Director if the Institute, one of the men waiting out front, was the author of the books. I asked him if he would autograph the copies we had, and he graciously complied.
They gentlemen were all waiting for some cosmonauts to come and see the exhibit, and just as we finished speaking with them, a van pulled up. Out came some fairly elderly gentlemen who were treated with great respect, going inside to view the exhibit.
Afterwards, the Funicular was only going to be running for less than an hour, so we went over there. You can see some of the photos we took at the same web site I mentioned above.
The joy of spending time with my lifelong friend, of meeting and fellowshipping with Pastor Valentina, who is also a physician, as well as the chance meeting with the diplomat and the Director of the Art Institute made for a very special day.
The streets were full of young couples, families, and just groups of people enjoying the beautiful day, even though it was a bit overcast. Fog rolls in quickly, just as it does in San Francisco. But when the sun shines, the light bounces around and the air is fresh coming from the Pacific Ocean of over the mountainous coast.
I am so grateful I was able to be here, and fee a great peace and joy. In this place there are many new buildings, bridge and road construction – and signs of mid-spring everywhere. White apple blossoms dot the hillsides and the spring green on the leaves and bushes refreshes the sides of streets and the hearts of the people, tried from the winter.
It was surprising to see the season so far behind Moscow, because Vladivostok is further south – but I am always happy to see what kinds of new weather patterns there are in the new places I am blessed to come and see.
I hope you are blessed whatever season you may be in either nature-wise or because of the circumstances of your life.
Remember that you are loved and that love must be shared for it to truly be fulfilled.
Kathleen Ware Harris © 2012
kwharris777@gmail.com
Blessings in the grace of Love --Kathy
The Fields are Ready for the Harvest
34"My food," said Jesus, "is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. 35Do you not say, 'Four months more and then the harvest'? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. 36Even now the reaper draws his wages, even now he harvests the crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together. 37Thus the saying 'One sows and another reaps' is true. 38I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor”
John 4:34-38
Thursday, May 20, 2010
Art and Music May 21, 2010
Art and Music May 21, 2010
Wishing You Joy, Peace and Love . . . Now and Always!
Dear One –
I hope this finds you and yours well and happy. How are things?
I decided to post some videos from Moscow and Vladivostok on YouTube. You can find them through my YouTube ID -- Peace777ofChrist. The first video of Komsomolskiy Prospekt is at this web site: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPSt8vNOBfU
And the first one of driving downtown in Vladivostok is at this website: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2G7744gPp9A
God is so good and so faithful!
Last night I had a wonderful time at a very special concert. The musicians were a very special group called “The Crystal Trio.” They were joined by two very wonderful opera singers for some of the pieces they played. The reason the concert was so wonderful was the instruments that these talented musicians used. One of them played on 36 crystal goblets filled with various amounts of water using his fingers wetted with water. Each of the thirty-six goblets was tuned to one note each of three full octaves (not just eight notes each, but if you can imagine a piano, by “eight full octaves”, I mean all the notes of the white keys AND the black keys for each octave) .If you saw the Sandra Bullock comedy “Miss Congeniality,” you saw an example of this kind of music, although she played popular songs and the Crystal Trio shared classical compositions.
The second member of the trio also played with wetted fingers, but this time there were glass crystal tubes of various lengths set in a wooden frame. Both musicians quickly kept dipping their fingers into a receptacle of water between them and their crystal instruments.
The third member of the trio played a kind of pan flute of an ancient design, but not made of wooden pipes – made of crystal tubes of various lengths and sizes. He played them by blowing into the pipes, just as anyone would who played a flute.
The result of the three musicians playing together was absolutely magical and mystical. And when the opera singers sang with them, it was completely lovely.
Before the concert it just so happened that my friend and I saw a young college aged young man and his little brother who we had met the evening before when we went to visit their art dealer father and their mother, who is a professional dancer. We had gone over to their apartment to visit with them and to see some water colors painted by a friend of theirs.
It was fun to see the young men again, and during the intermission and after the concert we had a snack with them. While we were in the café next to the Philharmonic Theater, the manager came over to talk to my friend and asked if we wanted to meet the musicians! It was a delight to go back stage and talk with them. They let us play the instrument with the crystal tubes in the wooden frame and we heard that they will be coming to perform in the U.S., too.
So if you see an advertisement for “The Crystal Trio” – go see them!! I promise, you will really enjoy it.
Backing up for a minute, I also want to go back to the evening we spent with the art dealer and his family. The water colors were painted by an amazing artist who had donated prints of some of his work to be screen printed on t-shirts that were sold at an auction to benefit babies and small children who have been born with HIV in this far east part of Russia called “The Primoriye Krai” or Ocean Coast Region.
Last week I went with my friend to the auction which was organized by a physician, some businesses and both various parts of the Russian government and the U.S. State Department. It was very well organized and held in a kind of student center at one of the universities in Vladivostok. The student center is called “The Underground”.
The way the auction worked was that some very talented artists donated prints of their art work to be screen printed onto t-shirts. Then student volunteers displayed the t-shirts while standing on lines that made the shape of the red ribbon that is familiar as the one used to remember victims of HIV/AIDS. There were two groups of these students, and they also had clipboards with a sheet on them so that people could bid on the t-shirts in the silent auction style.
As we came into room in “The Underground” where the fund-raiser took place, some other student volunteers pinned a red AIDS ribbon onto the clothes of each person who came into the room. Then we were ushered over to a counter where we signed in and received a piece of paper with a number that was to be our bidding number.
When I went to look at all of the t-shirts, it was really difficult to decide on which one to bid on. My favorite was a watercolor of a young woman holding a lamb close to her chest and nuzzling its head. Unfortunately I was out-bid on it, but at the last minute found another t-shirt that I liked that had not been bid on, and I was able to make my donation for that one. Strangely enough, I saw the original of the young woman with the lamb when we went to visit my friend’s friend, the art dealer and his family! I wish I could have afforded the original.
God is so good and so faithful!
During the time I have been here in Vladivostok, for some reason, it has been difficult to get connected with the pastors of the United Methodist Church I was hoping to see. Because my friend is going out of town for almost a month, I came to the conclusion that it didn’t make sense to try to stay here while she was gone. So I am heading back to the U.S. next Tuesday, May 25th, God willing.
Nevertheless, the day after I changed my airline ticket, I finally got in touch with the United Methodist pastor here. So I will get a chance to meet her and to worship with the congregation on Sunday, God willing. Sometimes it is difficult to understand why things happen the way they do, but I always trust that God has good plans for me and praise the Lord for His mercy and loving kindness.
May the Lord continue to bless and keep you and yours.
In His Love – Kathy
His Mercy Endures Forever
Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth. Worship the LORD with gladness; come before him with joyful songs. Know that the LORD is God. It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name. For the LORD is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations.
Psalm 100
Kathleen Ware Harris © 2012
kwharris777@gmail.com
Wishing You Joy, Peace and Love . . . Now and Always!
Dear One –
I hope this finds you and yours well and happy. How are things?
I decided to post some videos from Moscow and Vladivostok on YouTube. You can find them through my YouTube ID -- Peace777ofChrist. The first video of Komsomolskiy Prospekt is at this web site: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPSt8vNOBfU
And the first one of driving downtown in Vladivostok is at this website: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2G7744gPp9A
God is so good and so faithful!
Last night I had a wonderful time at a very special concert. The musicians were a very special group called “The Crystal Trio.” They were joined by two very wonderful opera singers for some of the pieces they played. The reason the concert was so wonderful was the instruments that these talented musicians used. One of them played on 36 crystal goblets filled with various amounts of water using his fingers wetted with water. Each of the thirty-six goblets was tuned to one note each of three full octaves (not just eight notes each, but if you can imagine a piano, by “eight full octaves”, I mean all the notes of the white keys AND the black keys for each octave) .If you saw the Sandra Bullock comedy “Miss Congeniality,” you saw an example of this kind of music, although she played popular songs and the Crystal Trio shared classical compositions.
The second member of the trio also played with wetted fingers, but this time there were glass crystal tubes of various lengths set in a wooden frame. Both musicians quickly kept dipping their fingers into a receptacle of water between them and their crystal instruments.
The third member of the trio played a kind of pan flute of an ancient design, but not made of wooden pipes – made of crystal tubes of various lengths and sizes. He played them by blowing into the pipes, just as anyone would who played a flute.
The result of the three musicians playing together was absolutely magical and mystical. And when the opera singers sang with them, it was completely lovely.
Before the concert it just so happened that my friend and I saw a young college aged young man and his little brother who we had met the evening before when we went to visit their art dealer father and their mother, who is a professional dancer. We had gone over to their apartment to visit with them and to see some water colors painted by a friend of theirs.
It was fun to see the young men again, and during the intermission and after the concert we had a snack with them. While we were in the café next to the Philharmonic Theater, the manager came over to talk to my friend and asked if we wanted to meet the musicians! It was a delight to go back stage and talk with them. They let us play the instrument with the crystal tubes in the wooden frame and we heard that they will be coming to perform in the U.S., too.
So if you see an advertisement for “The Crystal Trio” – go see them!! I promise, you will really enjoy it.
Backing up for a minute, I also want to go back to the evening we spent with the art dealer and his family. The water colors were painted by an amazing artist who had donated prints of some of his work to be screen printed on t-shirts that were sold at an auction to benefit babies and small children who have been born with HIV in this far east part of Russia called “The Primoriye Krai” or Ocean Coast Region.
Last week I went with my friend to the auction which was organized by a physician, some businesses and both various parts of the Russian government and the U.S. State Department. It was very well organized and held in a kind of student center at one of the universities in Vladivostok. The student center is called “The Underground”.
The way the auction worked was that some very talented artists donated prints of their art work to be screen printed onto t-shirts. Then student volunteers displayed the t-shirts while standing on lines that made the shape of the red ribbon that is familiar as the one used to remember victims of HIV/AIDS. There were two groups of these students, and they also had clipboards with a sheet on them so that people could bid on the t-shirts in the silent auction style.
As we came into room in “The Underground” where the fund-raiser took place, some other student volunteers pinned a red AIDS ribbon onto the clothes of each person who came into the room. Then we were ushered over to a counter where we signed in and received a piece of paper with a number that was to be our bidding number.
When I went to look at all of the t-shirts, it was really difficult to decide on which one to bid on. My favorite was a watercolor of a young woman holding a lamb close to her chest and nuzzling its head. Unfortunately I was out-bid on it, but at the last minute found another t-shirt that I liked that had not been bid on, and I was able to make my donation for that one. Strangely enough, I saw the original of the young woman with the lamb when we went to visit my friend’s friend, the art dealer and his family! I wish I could have afforded the original.
God is so good and so faithful!
During the time I have been here in Vladivostok, for some reason, it has been difficult to get connected with the pastors of the United Methodist Church I was hoping to see. Because my friend is going out of town for almost a month, I came to the conclusion that it didn’t make sense to try to stay here while she was gone. So I am heading back to the U.S. next Tuesday, May 25th, God willing.
Nevertheless, the day after I changed my airline ticket, I finally got in touch with the United Methodist pastor here. So I will get a chance to meet her and to worship with the congregation on Sunday, God willing. Sometimes it is difficult to understand why things happen the way they do, but I always trust that God has good plans for me and praise the Lord for His mercy and loving kindness.
May the Lord continue to bless and keep you and yours.
In His Love – Kathy
His Mercy Endures Forever
Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth. Worship the LORD with gladness; come before him with joyful songs. Know that the LORD is God. It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name. For the LORD is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations.
Psalm 100
Kathleen Ware Harris © 2012
kwharris777@gmail.com
Saturday, May 15, 2010
A Busy Week in Vladivostok May 15, 2010
Wishing You Joy, Peace and Love . . . Now and Always!
Dear One –
Do you believe it’s the middle of May already? Time is flying by so fast for me here in Russia, that I can hardly keep track.
Hope all is well with you and yours. Please let me know what is happening. I am always happy to hear from you!
This has been an amazing week here in Vladivostok.
Photos from the first part of my week here can be found on this web site:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=23464&id=100000104723008&l=2796453696
Getting used to being the time zone has been a bit of a challenge, as usual. Moscow is eight hours earlier than the U.S. east coast. Vladivostok is seven hours earlier than Moscow! So in the last five weeks I have had to adjust to life on new time zones twice and I think I am getting too old for this!! A few mornings this week my friend came up to my room to see if I wanted to join her while she did some interesting things, but I was just dead to the world.
Thankfully, she’s a world traveler and understands, but I was sorry I missed the events. Nevertheless, I was blessed to go to two concerts, see some presentations given to some Russian teachers who teach children how to speak English, and to take part in a fund-raising event for babies and young children who were born suffering from AIDs. Then this morning we did some Saturday morning shopping in both the kind of grocery store you would recognize, and in a more traditional shopping complex that included a bazaar area.
It’s been really interesting riding around town and also out of the city to a town called Artyom where the presentation for the English teachers was.
You can see some more views of both Vladivostok and Artyom by going to this web page:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=23514&id=100000104723008&l=e7c43f784c
I mentioned how lovely the first concert we attended was. It was so cool to listen to not only a Russian band, but also some of the U.S. Navy’s finest musicians. Arriving here on a holiday made things very interesting, too.
A few days later, my friend knew of a concert being given by a local orchestra and a solo violinist she admires was playing with them. The concert took place at the Pushkin Theater downtown, and it was delightful. Russian culture is well known for its symphony music, ballet, and opera, of course. Even in a remote city like Vladivostok, there are many classical concerts, plays and even concerts by rock groups to enjoy. Because my friend loves art and music, it is a joy to go with her to the cultural events and exhibits she delights in, and I felt very blessed to attend the concert.
Afterwards we met a friend of hers, a young university student and went out to dinner at a restaurant at the Hotel Versailles. We had a great time and the food was delicious. I had shashlik, which is the Russian version of shish kebob – marinated meat on skewers. My friend and her friend had yummy dishes, too. We all shared tastes of one another’s choices.
The first night I was in town we also ate out and I treated my friend for her birthday which as several weeks ago. I had black rice and seafood which was a gourmet dish, beautifully presented. What they call “black rice” turned out to be wild rice, cooked with the hulls so that it looks black or dark purple). Grilled vegetables and a delicious torte for dessert rounded out the meal. My friend shoes black spaghetti with seafood, pumpkin soup and tiramisu. (Don’t ask me how they made the pasta black, but it tasted good.)
One thing that was very interesting, too, is that we met up with another friend of my friend and had dinner out at a third restaurant (you can see I have been living it up here this week!!) It was another gourmet place with a very contemporary menu – not traditional Russian cuisine, and delicious. We split an excellent dessert, made with mangos, crème and layers of sponge cake.
After that we checked out a health club my friend is thinking of joining. It was very modern with a pool, state-of-the-art exercise machines, a wi-fi health food bar, and many types of exercise classes including spinning, yoga, Pilates, and every kind of offering you can find in my Life Time Fitness Club, Gold’s Gym, or LA Fitness back in the U.S.A. I had seen health clubs advertised in Moscow, too, but didn’t take the time to check any of them out.
More and more, I have noticed that there are fewer and fewer differences between the lifestyle of people with jobs here in Russia and the way the majority of people in Europe and the U.S. live. This should not be surprising, I guess, because it has been nearly twenty years since the break-up of the Soviet Union. But over the years since I first came here twice in ’94, lived in Kazakhstan for five months in 2005, and spent the month in Moscow in 2007, the similarities and differences have been more or less pronounced. It’s been very interesting.
More views of Vladivostok from a hazy Friday evening and a sunny Saturday morning can be seen on this web page:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=23608&id=100000104723008&l=edbb8566f0
One of the things that has been interesting is to watch the Armed Forces Network on television here, and to see “Good Morning America from earlier the same day at 11 PM! *smile*
Time is INDEED relative, as I have noted before!
There is probably a lot more to tell you, but maybe that is enough for now.
Hope you have a great weekend.
May the Lord continue to bless and keep you and yours.
Blessings in His Love -- Kathy
Dear One –
Do you believe it’s the middle of May already? Time is flying by so fast for me here in Russia, that I can hardly keep track.
Hope all is well with you and yours. Please let me know what is happening. I am always happy to hear from you!
This has been an amazing week here in Vladivostok.
Photos from the first part of my week here can be found on this web site:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=23464&id=100000104723008&l=2796453696
Getting used to being the time zone has been a bit of a challenge, as usual. Moscow is eight hours earlier than the U.S. east coast. Vladivostok is seven hours earlier than Moscow! So in the last five weeks I have had to adjust to life on new time zones twice and I think I am getting too old for this!! A few mornings this week my friend came up to my room to see if I wanted to join her while she did some interesting things, but I was just dead to the world.
Thankfully, she’s a world traveler and understands, but I was sorry I missed the events. Nevertheless, I was blessed to go to two concerts, see some presentations given to some Russian teachers who teach children how to speak English, and to take part in a fund-raising event for babies and young children who were born suffering from AIDs. Then this morning we did some Saturday morning shopping in both the kind of grocery store you would recognize, and in a more traditional shopping complex that included a bazaar area.
It’s been really interesting riding around town and also out of the city to a town called Artyom where the presentation for the English teachers was.
You can see some more views of both Vladivostok and Artyom by going to this web page:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=23514&id=100000104723008&l=e7c43f784c
I mentioned how lovely the first concert we attended was. It was so cool to listen to not only a Russian band, but also some of the U.S. Navy’s finest musicians. Arriving here on a holiday made things very interesting, too.
A few days later, my friend knew of a concert being given by a local orchestra and a solo violinist she admires was playing with them. The concert took place at the Pushkin Theater downtown, and it was delightful. Russian culture is well known for its symphony music, ballet, and opera, of course. Even in a remote city like Vladivostok, there are many classical concerts, plays and even concerts by rock groups to enjoy. Because my friend loves art and music, it is a joy to go with her to the cultural events and exhibits she delights in, and I felt very blessed to attend the concert.
Afterwards we met a friend of hers, a young university student and went out to dinner at a restaurant at the Hotel Versailles. We had a great time and the food was delicious. I had shashlik, which is the Russian version of shish kebob – marinated meat on skewers. My friend and her friend had yummy dishes, too. We all shared tastes of one another’s choices.
The first night I was in town we also ate out and I treated my friend for her birthday which as several weeks ago. I had black rice and seafood which was a gourmet dish, beautifully presented. What they call “black rice” turned out to be wild rice, cooked with the hulls so that it looks black or dark purple). Grilled vegetables and a delicious torte for dessert rounded out the meal. My friend shoes black spaghetti with seafood, pumpkin soup and tiramisu. (Don’t ask me how they made the pasta black, but it tasted good.)
One thing that was very interesting, too, is that we met up with another friend of my friend and had dinner out at a third restaurant (you can see I have been living it up here this week!!) It was another gourmet place with a very contemporary menu – not traditional Russian cuisine, and delicious. We split an excellent dessert, made with mangos, crème and layers of sponge cake.
After that we checked out a health club my friend is thinking of joining. It was very modern with a pool, state-of-the-art exercise machines, a wi-fi health food bar, and many types of exercise classes including spinning, yoga, Pilates, and every kind of offering you can find in my Life Time Fitness Club, Gold’s Gym, or LA Fitness back in the U.S.A. I had seen health clubs advertised in Moscow, too, but didn’t take the time to check any of them out.
More and more, I have noticed that there are fewer and fewer differences between the lifestyle of people with jobs here in Russia and the way the majority of people in Europe and the U.S. live. This should not be surprising, I guess, because it has been nearly twenty years since the break-up of the Soviet Union. But over the years since I first came here twice in ’94, lived in Kazakhstan for five months in 2005, and spent the month in Moscow in 2007, the similarities and differences have been more or less pronounced. It’s been very interesting.
More views of Vladivostok from a hazy Friday evening and a sunny Saturday morning can be seen on this web page:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=23608&id=100000104723008&l=edbb8566f0
One of the things that has been interesting is to watch the Armed Forces Network on television here, and to see “Good Morning America from earlier the same day at 11 PM! *smile*
Time is INDEED relative, as I have noted before!
There is probably a lot more to tell you, but maybe that is enough for now.
Hope you have a great weekend.
May the Lord continue to bless and keep you and yours.
Blessings in His Love -- Kathy
Your Love, O Lord!
Your love, O Lord, reaches to the heavens, your faithfulness to the skies. Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains, your justice like the great deep. O Lord, you preserve both man and beast. How priceless is your unfailing love! Both high and low among men find refuge in the shadow of your wings. They feast on the abundance of your house; you give them drink from your river of delights. For with you is the fountain of life; in your light we see light. Continue your love to those who know you, your righteousness to the upright in heart.
Psalm 35:5-10
Kathleen Ware Harris © 2012
kwharris777@gmail.com
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Overlooking the Golden Horn May 12, 2010
Wishing You Joy, Peace and Love . . . Now and Always!
Dear One –
Hope this finds you well and happy. Praying that you are living in the fullness of God’s love, joy and peace in Christ.
I thank the Lord that I arrived safely in Vladivostok not long before noon on Sunday, May 9th – the 65th Anniversary of the Russian Victory in The Great Patriotic War against Nazi fascism. It was a well celebrated day here, in Moscow, and all over the former Soviet Union, as you may have seen on the news. British, French and US contingents were supposed to have participated in the parade in Moscow, but I didn’t get to see any of it on television here. I trust it was memorable. I wasn’t there for the parade, but saw (I did however see part of the practice for the parade on the evening that my friend Zhanna and I went to the Moscow Art Theater to see “The Master and Margarita”. That was interesting!)
Vladivostok is seven hours ahead of Moscow, and fifteen hours ahead of Atlanta and the rest of the U.S. East Coast. Being here makes it the closest I have been to the International Date Line in a long, long time. When I lived in Alaska, I was blessed to be able to go to Japan and to South Korea. And this is the way it worked. We had to stop twice on the way to the air base near a city on the southwest coast of South Korea, where we stayed for about three weeks.
Not very bright-eyed or bushy-tailed, we left Anchorage about 4:30 AM on a Tuesday, and saw the dawn on Shemya Island. The people stationed there wore t-shirts that said on them -- “SHEMYA – NOT THE END OF THE WORLD, BUT YOU CAN SEE IT FROM HERE”. It’s nearly at the end of Aleutian Archipelago. We stayed there just long enough to re-fuel quickly. Then we re-fueled again in Tokyo and took a break to have a meal in the terminal.
So, because of all those stops, and because of crossing the International Date Line on the way, it was about 3:30 PM on Thursday by the time we landed in South Korea. It was much more than two days after we left according to the calendar, but about 22 hours of either flying or resting and re-fueling.
On the other hand, after spending a week in Japan, we left for Anchorage on a Thursday morning and flew for about 10 or 12 hours, arriving early that same Thursday evening. I used to joke that of course there is a way, when you cross the International Date Line to actually arrive at your destination before the time that you left your point of origination. Dr. Einstein was right in so many ways when he figured out that time is relative (I know that is an over-simplification and don’t pretend to understand physics, the most mystical of the sciences. But I love thinking about it all!)
I once visited my eighth grade history teacher, Mr. Peterson, many years since I had last seen him as a young Middle School student, but not long after I had been to South Korea and Japan. He seemed to get a kick out of what I said about being able to arrive before you have left in some cases. It was fun to tell him about how my life had been since the days that he so enthusiastically taught. He and one of the other history teachers, Mr. O’Grady, took delight in drawing maps of battles of the French and Indian War and of the Civil war with colored chalk on the huge floor to ceiling “green boards” in our brand new state-of-the-art Barrington Middle School. Built without hallways, and with a plan that not only included team teaching, but also had unusual class scheduling, it was an amazing experience to be a student there.
I was in the first eighth grade class to graduate from the school, but it wasn’t completed until January of that year. The first half of eighth grade was spent in the already condemned building that had been Barrington Hough Street Elementary school. The seventh graders were with us, too, but the sixth graders were farmed out to Sunday school classrooms in many of our local churches. They finished the sixth graders’ wing at the Middle School first, and I think they started studying there in November of 1965.
That was all a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. I didn’t mean to get so far off the track on that sentimental journey . . . please excuse me!
However, speaking of a long time ago, the city of Vladivostok will be celebrating its 150th birthday in June. So that’s pretty exciting, and since they just finished the May holidays, I’m sure everyone is not only happy about the signs that spring is casting out the rough winter they endured here, but also that the summer will bring even more chances to celebrate.
The Vladivostok 65th Anniversary of the Victory in WW II included a parade, concerts and the placing of wreaths at monuments to those who gave their “last full measure” as well as lauding the veterans still among us in Veterans’ Homes or wherever they live. I was blessed that evening to go to a concert at the philharmonic hall in beautiful downtown Vladivostok, right on the port of an inlet of that part of the Pacific Ocean called the Sea of Japan called The Golden Horn. Mountainous islands and peninsulas shield the port from the open ocean, and it is very lovely.
The USNS Blue Ridge, which is the flagship of the U.S. Navy’s Seventh Fleet, was in port to help celebrate, and a Navy jazz ensemble played in a concert hall on a program that included a Russian band as well. The Russian band began the program with some rousing marches, waltzes and folks music. Then they were joined by six or seven U.S. Navy musicians and played some pieces together.
The predominantly Russian audience was very appreciative and the mistress of ceremonies was a gracious show woman. Everything was translated over the PA system so people who spoke either Russian or English could get the jist of what was going on. The music spoke for itself.
When the Russian band members gave up their places on stage and the U.S. Navy musicians began to play and sing it was marvelous. There were several encores called for each band, and at one point people were dancing in the aisles.
One of the most popular pieces seemed to be a big band number from the WW II era, but music by The Eagles and Stevie Wonder was appreciated as well. Of course a John Phillip Sousa march couldn’t have been left out, and the Russian band ended their program with the U.S. Navy’s “Anchors Aweigh”!
There was some dancing in the aisles, there were lots of cheers and applause, many smiles, much hand-shaking, many photos taken and there were even requests of some of the navy musicians for autographs. What a joyful time!
Have more to tell you, but I will leave you with all the above and look forward to sharing some more later.
May the Lord continue to bless and keep you and yours.
Thanks and Blessings – Kathy
The Joy of the Lord
Nehemiah said, "Go and enjoy choice food and sweet drinks, and send some to those who have nothing prepared. This day is sacred to our Lord. Do not grieve, for the joy of the LORD is your strength."
Nehemiah 8:10
Kathleen Ware Harris © 2012
kwharris777@gmail.com
Dear One –
Hope this finds you well and happy. Praying that you are living in the fullness of God’s love, joy and peace in Christ.
I thank the Lord that I arrived safely in Vladivostok not long before noon on Sunday, May 9th – the 65th Anniversary of the Russian Victory in The Great Patriotic War against Nazi fascism. It was a well celebrated day here, in Moscow, and all over the former Soviet Union, as you may have seen on the news. British, French and US contingents were supposed to have participated in the parade in Moscow, but I didn’t get to see any of it on television here. I trust it was memorable. I wasn’t there for the parade, but saw (I did however see part of the practice for the parade on the evening that my friend Zhanna and I went to the Moscow Art Theater to see “The Master and Margarita”. That was interesting!)
Vladivostok is seven hours ahead of Moscow, and fifteen hours ahead of Atlanta and the rest of the U.S. East Coast. Being here makes it the closest I have been to the International Date Line in a long, long time. When I lived in Alaska, I was blessed to be able to go to Japan and to South Korea. And this is the way it worked. We had to stop twice on the way to the air base near a city on the southwest coast of South Korea, where we stayed for about three weeks.
Not very bright-eyed or bushy-tailed, we left Anchorage about 4:30 AM on a Tuesday, and saw the dawn on Shemya Island. The people stationed there wore t-shirts that said on them -- “SHEMYA – NOT THE END OF THE WORLD, BUT YOU CAN SEE IT FROM HERE”. It’s nearly at the end of Aleutian Archipelago. We stayed there just long enough to re-fuel quickly. Then we re-fueled again in Tokyo and took a break to have a meal in the terminal.
So, because of all those stops, and because of crossing the International Date Line on the way, it was about 3:30 PM on Thursday by the time we landed in South Korea. It was much more than two days after we left according to the calendar, but about 22 hours of either flying or resting and re-fueling.
On the other hand, after spending a week in Japan, we left for Anchorage on a Thursday morning and flew for about 10 or 12 hours, arriving early that same Thursday evening. I used to joke that of course there is a way, when you cross the International Date Line to actually arrive at your destination before the time that you left your point of origination. Dr. Einstein was right in so many ways when he figured out that time is relative (I know that is an over-simplification and don’t pretend to understand physics, the most mystical of the sciences. But I love thinking about it all!)
I once visited my eighth grade history teacher, Mr. Peterson, many years since I had last seen him as a young Middle School student, but not long after I had been to South Korea and Japan. He seemed to get a kick out of what I said about being able to arrive before you have left in some cases. It was fun to tell him about how my life had been since the days that he so enthusiastically taught. He and one of the other history teachers, Mr. O’Grady, took delight in drawing maps of battles of the French and Indian War and of the Civil war with colored chalk on the huge floor to ceiling “green boards” in our brand new state-of-the-art Barrington Middle School. Built without hallways, and with a plan that not only included team teaching, but also had unusual class scheduling, it was an amazing experience to be a student there.
I was in the first eighth grade class to graduate from the school, but it wasn’t completed until January of that year. The first half of eighth grade was spent in the already condemned building that had been Barrington Hough Street Elementary school. The seventh graders were with us, too, but the sixth graders were farmed out to Sunday school classrooms in many of our local churches. They finished the sixth graders’ wing at the Middle School first, and I think they started studying there in November of 1965.
That was all a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. I didn’t mean to get so far off the track on that sentimental journey . . . please excuse me!
However, speaking of a long time ago, the city of Vladivostok will be celebrating its 150th birthday in June. So that’s pretty exciting, and since they just finished the May holidays, I’m sure everyone is not only happy about the signs that spring is casting out the rough winter they endured here, but also that the summer will bring even more chances to celebrate.
The Vladivostok 65th Anniversary of the Victory in WW II included a parade, concerts and the placing of wreaths at monuments to those who gave their “last full measure” as well as lauding the veterans still among us in Veterans’ Homes or wherever they live. I was blessed that evening to go to a concert at the philharmonic hall in beautiful downtown Vladivostok, right on the port of an inlet of that part of the Pacific Ocean called the Sea of Japan called The Golden Horn. Mountainous islands and peninsulas shield the port from the open ocean, and it is very lovely.
The USNS Blue Ridge, which is the flagship of the U.S. Navy’s Seventh Fleet, was in port to help celebrate, and a Navy jazz ensemble played in a concert hall on a program that included a Russian band as well. The Russian band began the program with some rousing marches, waltzes and folks music. Then they were joined by six or seven U.S. Navy musicians and played some pieces together.
The predominantly Russian audience was very appreciative and the mistress of ceremonies was a gracious show woman. Everything was translated over the PA system so people who spoke either Russian or English could get the jist of what was going on. The music spoke for itself.
When the Russian band members gave up their places on stage and the U.S. Navy musicians began to play and sing it was marvelous. There were several encores called for each band, and at one point people were dancing in the aisles.
One of the most popular pieces seemed to be a big band number from the WW II era, but music by The Eagles and Stevie Wonder was appreciated as well. Of course a John Phillip Sousa march couldn’t have been left out, and the Russian band ended their program with the U.S. Navy’s “Anchors Aweigh”!
There was some dancing in the aisles, there were lots of cheers and applause, many smiles, much hand-shaking, many photos taken and there were even requests of some of the navy musicians for autographs. What a joyful time!
Have more to tell you, but I will leave you with all the above and look forward to sharing some more later.
May the Lord continue to bless and keep you and yours.
Thanks and Blessings – Kathy
The Joy of the Lord
Nehemiah said, "Go and enjoy choice food and sweet drinks, and send some to those who have nothing prepared. This day is sacred to our Lord. Do not grieve, for the joy of the LORD is your strength."
Nehemiah 8:10
Kathleen Ware Harris © 2012
kwharris777@gmail.com
Saturday, May 8, 2010
A Moscow Evening May 8, 2010
A Moscow Evening May 8, 2010
Wishing You Joy, Peace and Love . . . Now and Always!
Dear One –
I hope this finds you fully enjoying the beauty of creation and the love of your family and friends.
I know that yesterday I said that would be the last of my travel journal entries from Moscow, but I was wrong! Last night some of the students and I went out for dinner and then went up to Christ the Savior Cathedral in beautiful downtown Moscow, not far from the Kremlin. We walked back and forth over the river on two different bridges and there were many people strolling along the banks of the river, in the beautiful gardens around the Cathedral. Some of the people we saw were young couples out on dates -- the young women had flowers that had been given to them by their attentive young men.
The air was fresh and the sun was taking a long time to set, as it does so far north this time of year. What a beautiful evening it was. The smell of the flowers from beds of tulips and pansies, the smell of the apple and cherry blossoms and the other blossoming trees wafted up and washed over us on beautiful light breezes. In addition, the slowly changing light from the lovely sunset coloring a few decorative clouds high in the western sky and good company made it all very memorable.
As I’m pretty sure I have told you before, there is a famous and beautiful Russian folk song called “Podmosckovniye Vechera” (Evenings in Moscow) – and the beauty of the city on spring, summer and fall evenings is lauded in it. Zhanna and I kept singing it softly or humming it off and on . . . was good music to stroll along with and appropriate since it WAS a gorgeous Moscow evening.
Although I haven’t written captions for them, I already put them on my Facebook page, and even if you haven’t joined Facebook, you can see the photos by going to this web page:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=23174&id=100000104723008&l=034bb9a14c
Artur took the photos on his mobile phone camera, playing our paprazzio once more! Highlighted in them are a few different things I should probably explain before you see them:
1. I am standing by some kind of amazing motorcycle-like vehicle that has the word “Monster” painted on it in Russian. Maybe I have mentioned it before. It is usually parked right outside the gate of the Seminary Building, though it wasn’t there this morning. Some people we saw standing around it with car repair tools seemed to be working on it, and maybe it has been used to go away for the holiday weekend.
Tomorrow is the 65th anniversary of the end of World War II for the people of the former Soviet Union. They are pulling out all the stops to celebrate and you can see stands being put up so people can listen to concerts and watch the big parade. This year the U.S, Great Britain and France have even been invited to participate in the parade. That is unprecedented.
2. We ate at a restaurant called “Moo-Moo” so that’s why there are the photos of us with the cow. Don’t ask me to try to explain WHY there is a restaurant called “Moo-Moo,” just accept it for what it is, and go and eat there if you get a chance. The food is great!
3. There are many photos of the Christ the Savior Cathedral, and I keep calling it that because of its size. However, the word “Khram” in its Russia title (Khram Khristos Spacitel’” really means “temple” and this goes along with the Orthodox characterization that Moscow became the “Third Rome” after the falls of both Rome in the 5th century A.D., and of Constantinople in the 15th century. My new friend Zhanna who is studying here (as opposed to my friend Zhanna who works here in the Bishop’s office, and who I met three years ago when I was here) and I had a long discussion about the fact that the Russian Orthodox Church uses the word for “temple” to designate certain churches, although in western Christianity “temple” is not used for any churches.
It was an interesting discussion since a great deal of my time here I have spent reading and writing about some articles in books concerning the similarities and differences between the Orthodox Tradition and the Wesleyan tradition. (The use of both capital “T” “Tradition” and lower case “t” tradition is deliberate. For many in the Orthodox hierarchy, there is an insistence that only in Orthodoxy does the true Church exist. Obviously this is often debated in ecumenical dialogs.
All rightie, then . . . I know that’s enough theology for me right now! Probably for you, too, no doubt!
I am not sure what else in the photos needs an explanation, but when I put the captions up, you can ask me if there is anything that isn’t clear, O.K.?
Oh, I almost forgot. When I write at one time about the statue of a tsar on the grounds of the Temple of Christ the Savior (might as well translate its name properly), I misidentified the tsar. It is a not a statue of Nichols II, but of his great grandfather, Alexander II who built the original Temple of Christ the Savior of which the current one is an exact replica. So now that we have THAT straight . . . when you see the photo of the statue of the tsar, you will know who it really is.
It’s 2:00 PM and Zhanna and I will call for a cab to take me to the airport to fly to Vladivostok around 4:00 PM. I’m all packed and ready to go, but loath to leave in many ways, as much as I am looking forward to seeing Vladivostok and being able to visit my friend there.
Everyone here has been so sweet and kind, all of them telling me they hope I come back. I hope I do, too, God willing.
Happy Mother’s Day if that applies to you . . . and if not I hope you celebrate or remember your Mom and have a blessed day one way or another.
Sadly, my Mom fell and broke some ribs the other day, so please prayer for her not to be in pain and for her to recover quickly. Skype is great and I have been able to talk to my parents, my kids and some friends on it. Even though I don’t have a web cam, my son does, and when I talk with hi I have been able to see him and his family. Last night when I was talking to him he asked if I will be able to talk to them on Skype tomorrow for Mother’s Day. Whether or not I am able to, I know that both my kids are thinking of me and praying for me, and I trust I will be able to make up for not being around them when I do get to see them all.
God is so good and so faithful!
May the Lord continue to bless and keep you and yours.
Blessings and Love -- Kathy
The Heavens Declare God’s Glory
The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge. There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard. Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.
Psalm 19:1-4a
Kathleen Ware Harris © 2012
kwharris777@gmail.com
Wishing You Joy, Peace and Love . . . Now and Always!
Dear One –
I hope this finds you fully enjoying the beauty of creation and the love of your family and friends.
I know that yesterday I said that would be the last of my travel journal entries from Moscow, but I was wrong! Last night some of the students and I went out for dinner and then went up to Christ the Savior Cathedral in beautiful downtown Moscow, not far from the Kremlin. We walked back and forth over the river on two different bridges and there were many people strolling along the banks of the river, in the beautiful gardens around the Cathedral. Some of the people we saw were young couples out on dates -- the young women had flowers that had been given to them by their attentive young men.
The air was fresh and the sun was taking a long time to set, as it does so far north this time of year. What a beautiful evening it was. The smell of the flowers from beds of tulips and pansies, the smell of the apple and cherry blossoms and the other blossoming trees wafted up and washed over us on beautiful light breezes. In addition, the slowly changing light from the lovely sunset coloring a few decorative clouds high in the western sky and good company made it all very memorable.
As I’m pretty sure I have told you before, there is a famous and beautiful Russian folk song called “Podmosckovniye Vechera” (Evenings in Moscow) – and the beauty of the city on spring, summer and fall evenings is lauded in it. Zhanna and I kept singing it softly or humming it off and on . . . was good music to stroll along with and appropriate since it WAS a gorgeous Moscow evening.
Although I haven’t written captions for them, I already put them on my Facebook page, and even if you haven’t joined Facebook, you can see the photos by going to this web page:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=23174&id=100000104723008&l=034bb9a14c
Artur took the photos on his mobile phone camera, playing our paprazzio once more! Highlighted in them are a few different things I should probably explain before you see them:
1. I am standing by some kind of amazing motorcycle-like vehicle that has the word “Monster” painted on it in Russian. Maybe I have mentioned it before. It is usually parked right outside the gate of the Seminary Building, though it wasn’t there this morning. Some people we saw standing around it with car repair tools seemed to be working on it, and maybe it has been used to go away for the holiday weekend.
Tomorrow is the 65th anniversary of the end of World War II for the people of the former Soviet Union. They are pulling out all the stops to celebrate and you can see stands being put up so people can listen to concerts and watch the big parade. This year the U.S, Great Britain and France have even been invited to participate in the parade. That is unprecedented.
2. We ate at a restaurant called “Moo-Moo” so that’s why there are the photos of us with the cow. Don’t ask me to try to explain WHY there is a restaurant called “Moo-Moo,” just accept it for what it is, and go and eat there if you get a chance. The food is great!
3. There are many photos of the Christ the Savior Cathedral, and I keep calling it that because of its size. However, the word “Khram” in its Russia title (Khram Khristos Spacitel’” really means “temple” and this goes along with the Orthodox characterization that Moscow became the “Third Rome” after the falls of both Rome in the 5th century A.D., and of Constantinople in the 15th century. My new friend Zhanna who is studying here (as opposed to my friend Zhanna who works here in the Bishop’s office, and who I met three years ago when I was here) and I had a long discussion about the fact that the Russian Orthodox Church uses the word for “temple” to designate certain churches, although in western Christianity “temple” is not used for any churches.
It was an interesting discussion since a great deal of my time here I have spent reading and writing about some articles in books concerning the similarities and differences between the Orthodox Tradition and the Wesleyan tradition. (The use of both capital “T” “Tradition” and lower case “t” tradition is deliberate. For many in the Orthodox hierarchy, there is an insistence that only in Orthodoxy does the true Church exist. Obviously this is often debated in ecumenical dialogs.
All rightie, then . . . I know that’s enough theology for me right now! Probably for you, too, no doubt!
I am not sure what else in the photos needs an explanation, but when I put the captions up, you can ask me if there is anything that isn’t clear, O.K.?
Oh, I almost forgot. When I write at one time about the statue of a tsar on the grounds of the Temple of Christ the Savior (might as well translate its name properly), I misidentified the tsar. It is a not a statue of Nichols II, but of his great grandfather, Alexander II who built the original Temple of Christ the Savior of which the current one is an exact replica. So now that we have THAT straight . . . when you see the photo of the statue of the tsar, you will know who it really is.
It’s 2:00 PM and Zhanna and I will call for a cab to take me to the airport to fly to Vladivostok around 4:00 PM. I’m all packed and ready to go, but loath to leave in many ways, as much as I am looking forward to seeing Vladivostok and being able to visit my friend there.
Everyone here has been so sweet and kind, all of them telling me they hope I come back. I hope I do, too, God willing.
Happy Mother’s Day if that applies to you . . . and if not I hope you celebrate or remember your Mom and have a blessed day one way or another.
Sadly, my Mom fell and broke some ribs the other day, so please prayer for her not to be in pain and for her to recover quickly. Skype is great and I have been able to talk to my parents, my kids and some friends on it. Even though I don’t have a web cam, my son does, and when I talk with hi I have been able to see him and his family. Last night when I was talking to him he asked if I will be able to talk to them on Skype tomorrow for Mother’s Day. Whether or not I am able to, I know that both my kids are thinking of me and praying for me, and I trust I will be able to make up for not being around them when I do get to see them all.
God is so good and so faithful!
May the Lord continue to bless and keep you and yours.
Blessings and Love -- Kathy
The Heavens Declare God’s Glory
The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge. There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard. Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.
Psalm 19:1-4a
Kathleen Ware Harris © 2012
kwharris777@gmail.com
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