Light at the end of the tunnel...

So, let's try this again. I had written some and then the internet reset and wiped all my hard work out. Anyway, I was just chatting with a friend from Joplin who possess one of those very encouraging spirits! So maybe this time around, my post will sound more up-beat!

We have bought our tickets and are headed "home". (Home just doesn't sound right...we are in that odd place where we've been away long enough to not really have a home in the US, except for wherever family is, but not here long enough to really feel like this is our home.) Well, last week I was asked a question that really through me for a loop. Normally, we try to blend in, and do an okay job of it, but as soon as we open our mouths every one within ear-shot knows we are foreigners. Then, come the usual tide of curious questions. Where are you from? Do you have family here? What are you doing here? and then inevitably, "So, which is better, Russia or America?" After almost a year and half, we've pretty much learned how to answer this..."As with any culture or country, each has their strengths and each their weakness..." After which, time permitting, they will usually want us to tell them what is better in Russia... BUT, last week the questions took a turn i didn't expect! I've been going to this MAGNIT (minimarket) close to where I teach, and have begun to get acquainted with some of the ladies there. One of them last week asked me instead, "Where is it easier to live?" I scrambled for a truthful yet culturally acceptable answer, but in a moments notice could come up with nothing, but my gut reaction... "V amerike" (in america). To which I quickly added, that easier, didn't mean better and tried in my broken Russian to explain, but customers arrived and I left feeling like I hadn't done the best job of answering. But over the last few days, as I have pondered this question, I really haven't come up with an answer that they would understand. Honestly, I still believe that living here has its benefits for our family, but at the moment none that to them would seem worthy of the difficulty of living here! Because truth is life here is hard. It is hard for them and definitely hard for us. We live in a country that doesn't really want us, where we are constantly in a state of change, where the daily chores of life are much more difficult without the conveniences common to the American life--a car, cheap stores, a drier, and for us understanding what is going on around us! So, even if it were possible to explain all this to them without offending them, the questions that would follow they wouldn't understand the answers to... "So, why are we here?" Truly and honestly, we are here because we believe that Christ has called us here, because we love Him, because He saved us, because He loves them, because He want to call them His own... How can we begin to explain these things to them in our broken Russian? In the 5-10 min window we may get? I'm still pondering... Any thoughts?!