Next year's visa and residency updates

Our last trip out of the country was at the end of October to get student visas that would allow us to stay in the country for a full year. (Of course, things are never that simple here. They really were only for three months, but they could be extended to a year. We just finished that process this month. Or, I should say, the government just finished it for us, causing us to be "illegally" here for a day in the process of waiting.) So you would think we could at least rest for a while and focus on ministry, right? Not so in Russia.

We're now working on temporary residence permits, an option that we didn't think we were eligible for last year. I met with a lawyer to discuss the details in January, and it sounded great: jump through some irritating hoops, and you get to live in peace for three full years. Here is the blow by blow, which may interest some folk as an example of their red tape.

Jan. 16. Meet the lawyer, who gave me the name and number of another American whom he helped last year to talk to for details. (2 hours)

Jan. 19. (Mon.) I go to the local office of the Federal Migration Service (FMS) at his advise to see if their list of things I had to do agreed with the one he gave me. Each section of the city has one, and ours was at least close by, so no big deal. (You think I should have just called? Don't make me laugh. That never works around here.) The waiting room was daunting: a mass of people standing around. No lines, no information desk, no signs indicating where to go. I asked someone in the gathering near one of the doors who was last in line (they don't form lines here; people just ask who's last, or either it's mob, and it's every man for himself. But here they had to answer with a question: what was I here for? I hapened to have asked at the right door, and so the guy with the same need whom I was behind identified himself. When I finally got in, I found out I was at the wrong place. I needed to go to the central office, since I need to find out if I can get in under the city's quota (the Federal government only allots each area a certain number of people from each area of the world to come in by certain routes). (1.5 hours)

I spoke with the other American (Susan) who had a wealth of knowledge, and she suggested I go to the central MFS ASAP to get in under the quota, since it's still early in the year, and they only do temporary residence permits on Mondays. (1 hour)

I arrived there that afternoon to find a mob style line. The reason there was no real line is that no one could find out where the keepers of the lists were. Keepers of the list are regular folk in line themselves who maintain a list that FMS uses to let people in - sometimes. I was too late for today, but I found out that my window next week was only from 2-4pm, and it would be a "live line" - meaning no list, at least so I understood it. (3 hours standing in the cold).

Susan disagreed. No, there is always a list. Go early in the morning. She sent a bunch of docs to read over and answered a bunch more questions (1 hour).

Jan. 20. Diana and I and two of the kids go to the U.S. Consulate to get fingerprinted for our FBI background check. Simple process (these are Americans; I just had to call ahead for an appointment.), but it was a long walk there. (2 hours)

Jan. 22. I take our passports to get translated and notarized. (1.5 hours).

Jan. 25. I pick up the passport translations (.5 hours)

Jan. 26. (Mon). I arrived again early at FMS and found the keeper - several Afgani guys who were taking turns sleeping in a car. I signed up on the list (#97) while we talked about Obama (thumbs up!) and their desire to immigrate to the West. They told me I'd have no chance of getting in today at 97, especially since there were people on a list from last week. Since they work 2 hours a week on this issue, he figured they'd get to about 40. "But come back about 3:00 just to see how it's going." (1.5 hours including transportation)

I decided not a bad idea, and when I got there, there was the familiar mob, though I didn't understand why, since there was a line, right? Nope. I'm told they "destroyed" the list - back to a live line, meaning a mob. And boy did it get pushy. With about 30 people squeezing on a porch about 4x6, it was tight. I was on the top step, getting dripped on from the overhang for a while before managing a space for myself under "shelter." (Someone tell me if you can imagine this scene at the US immigration office?) When people were let out, they had to push through the crowd like through so many matresses. 4:00 came, and we eventually found out that, since only a small number of us in my category of person were (lucky enough to be) there then, they decided to go ahead and let us all in. I was in shock. I didn't have any paperwork, except passports. I was literally the last one in. Went to the desk of the officer, who asked for my passport, and said, "You can come back on March 30th." What about my family? "Family? They are not here, so I can't help them." I explained, patiently, "first of all, I didn't know anyone else needed to come. Second, my wife is at home with our three kids. Would you please have mercy, since I do have her passport here?" Praise God, she did, and wrote all our names down in the register. I was happy, but I didn't even know what I had just been given. "Bring all the paperwork, with your wife, on that date. You are on our list now, so we will call you in by last name." And the quota? "You are in under the quota."
Victory! Thank you, Lord! (2 hours)

In another God moment, I got a call while in line asking me to help voice over a video in English for a Christian TV channel (TBN Russia). A rather odd request, but I decided to help and went there after FMS. While there, I found out one of them was going to the US this week so could same me time and a lot of money and take our FBI request with him.

We quickly got everything ready to go that night. (1 hour)

Jan. 27. I delivered it to the station. (1 hour of transit time)

Feb. 13th. They actually make me go to the Post Office and buy stamped envelopes. Bought them today while picking up a package.

Plus, you don't pay the application fee at the office, you pay at a bank into their account. Got that covered today when I had to pay 1) our utility bill, 2) phone bill, and 3) Lydia's art school tuition. (15 min.)

Feb. 16th. Usually calling some place, especially state institutions, is a waste of time, but going to the two hospitals I needed to check out for the sake of our medical tests is such an out-of-the-way trek that I had to try, and after many many attempts, I got one and found out that we have to go to one hospital for testing kids, and the other for me and Diana. It's likely to have to kill two full days to do this. (15 min.)

Mar. 3rd. Phone calls with the lawyer and a couple of others who have gone ahead of me (30min.)

Mar. 6th. Diana and I went today to get our battery of medical testing done to prove that we are healthy enough to live in Russia. The sad part is that they won't do the kids' testing in the same hospital. The even sadder part is that Lydia has to get a urine sample for her part, but they won't do that at the children's hospital, so she has to go on both trips. I'm beyond even reacting to such stupidity by now. We arrive at 8:30am after dropping the boys off, pay and register. The process is that you go through what they call a "commission" - a series of medical personnel in different rooms testing for different things, each with it's own line:

• room #1: the blood test (AIDS and syphilis)
  
• room #2: the skin test. We called it the naked test. Take off your shirt, drop your pants, and spin around, getting poked a few times. I bet she hates getting asked what she does for a living.
• room #3: the tinkle test
• room #4: to TB test. We had a brief scare here, as they called Diana back for a more serious x-ray after saying there was some question about her first. After getting visions of returning to the States to die from cancer, we found out it was just a function of the poor quality print-out of the photo.

Total time consumed, including transportation: 6 hours.

Mar. 10th. The kids tests were at a hospital that would have been bulldozed a hundred years ago in the States (if you think I exaggerate, read Lydia's blog about our visit here). Our house helper Tanya came along since Diana was teaching online, and after going to the wrong hospital, we figure out where to go (the other hopsital had no idea, even though it was only several blocks away). Pretty much the same battery:

• blood test - they were troopers!
• naked test - the other reason for Tanya
• mental health test, consisting of the psychologist filling out the paperwork. No questions, no testing. I guess they just looked mentally stable.
• TB test, which for kids was a skin test

Total time: 4 hours

Mar. 11th. Diana went to pick up our test results (1 hour out of the way).

Mar. 13th. We can't just go get the kids' results. We have to drag them back again to get their skin looked at. Time: looking at skin - 1 minute; waiting for them to finish the paperwork - 2 hours. Total killed: 5 hours.

Mar. 20th. Drop off the kids' birth certificates to be translated (30 min).

Mar. 24th. Pick them up (30 min)

Mar. 29th. Fill out application (1 hour) and compile our file (about an inch thick - another hour).

Mar. 30th. Our big day at the federal migration office. Since they require both me and Diana there, we got a babysitter for the boys (Lydia was at friends for a sleepover) and left shortly after 1pm. We had to be there between 2-4 and wait for them to call our names - a much more civilized process than the way you first get in. Got in fast, but we were there about an hour and a half as the officer painstakingly reviewed our documents and found more problems than we ever imagined. It was maddening:

• we had an official copy, but not the original of our registration cards
• we were missing our marriage certificates (though they had told me before not needed)
• we needed the kids' birth certificates "legalized"
• Diana's name and "Virginia" was inconsistently transliterated by the document translators
• answers on the application were incomplete ("No" is not sufficient, for example.")
  

The blessing of it all was that the officer was very patient and generous in showing us exactly how to fix all the problems. As we left, I took a step of faith and committed to a date barely two weeks out (April 14) to get everything done, the main issue being obtaining what we needed from the States. (3 hours)

Diana were going to go on a date to celebrate, but we came home instead and started working on ordering our marriage certificates and the kids' birth certificates with "apostilles" ASAP (1 hour). The good news is that the marriage certificates can be obtained in a few days. The bad news is that the birth certificates are supposed to take from 15-19 days. We need a miracle.

So far our running total hours spent is 41.

Apr. 6th. After various calls, to check on things over the last few days, I found out that God had indeed worked a small miracle: the birth certificates are done after 1 week and out to my parents (who took care of the marriage certificates).

April 7th. My parents send everything to a colleague associated with the Harbor (Alex Krutov), who has a friend at FedEx who offered to give us a break on shipping.

April 9th. For some reason they didn't get it out until today, and, what's worse, FexEx now says they can't guarantee delivery until the evening of the 14th. Not only is that late for our interview, it doesn't give me time to get everything translated in advance. Now we really need a miracle!

April 13th. After being stuck in "sorting" in Frankfurt for over two days, the package suddenly shows up in the tracking system in St. Petersburg! Rush to finalize our other paperwork, corrections, etc. (2 hours)

April 14th. I call FexEx when they open at 9, and they tell me the package is in, but they can't get it to me until evening. I can, however, come pick it up. Victory is in sight! I rush across town from dropping the boys off at school, then back across town to the translation bureau by 10:30. They finish their work by 12:30, in time for me to get to the immigration office to meet Diana in time for our appointment at 2:00. However, more errors and errands to run, and another week inbetween appointments. The good news is that they are all small enough to manage in that time, but we had hoped for a full victory today. The other assignment is totally stupid. They want some doc from the consulate to help them not worry about Diana's name change at marriage. (5 hours)

April 16th. I go to the hospital that did our medical testing, because they misspelled Diana's middle name in Russian.
I run to the translation bureau to have them fix yet another of their mistakes in how they spelled Diana's first name in Russian (but I did get to witness some to the lady who was handling it for me!).
I run to the Swiss Center, which is the organization under whom we get our student visas, to leave them my registration papers which they have to take to the immigration office in their district to correct. There was a mistake in my birthday. How could we have missed it?? I'll tell you: the volume of papers. This is already the 4th or 5th mistake that one office has made! (6 hours)

April 17th. I go back to the Swiss Center to pick up my registration (1.5 hours)

April 19th. Diana and I go over all our papers with a fine-toothed comb to find mistakes. Fortunately, nothing that requires going anywhere else. (1 hour)

April 21. Our third appointment at immigration. We were most nervous about one doc they had demanded for Diana from the consulate about her name change. It was nothing more than a generic letter saying women in the US do what they want to when getting married and signing papers. But it worked, as did everything else. Our papers are now officially out of our hands! Now comes a 5 month wait for the final decision, then one month of getting registered. (3.5 hours)

Total time to date: 60 hours, not counting the blessings of others, like our parents, who helped out, and Clifford at FedEx who didn't even charge for shipping. Thank you!

August 9. Having just arrived back in the country from staff conference in Hungary, our landlord called to inform us that she had decided against allowing us to register where we live. Thus began a series of panicked calls to my lawyer, her lawyer, people who have have either traveled this road ahead of us, and trips to the local immigration office to get some holes filled in our knowledge about whether this could jeopardize our applications and what to do about it all. The long and short of it is that it is not as big a deal as we had feared, and it should not be a big deal to register ourselves with anyone who is willing. (5 hours)

August 18. Pastor Igor himself today offered to register us at their house, a tremendous blessing.

September 22. Having been told when we turned in the applications on April 21st that 5 months would be the review period, and having found out from a person in line ahead of me one day that to wait for a letter was pointless, I decided to go check for myself if our applications were done. The way it works here is that you have to go really early in the morning to sign the list that someone standing outside is holding to get you in line. I arrived at the immigration office at about 7:30 in the morning. One lone guy who had nothing else to do with his time was there ready to put me down as number 14 (already that many ahead of me!). But at least I could leave until 11pm.
I arrived at about 11:30 and learned 1) that only the first person was in line, and 2) that I was in the wrong line. I needed the consultation line, instead of the document line, so I found the lady holding the consultation line and got on #5. So I left again and came back shortly after it opened at 3pm. This went a little faster, and so before 4 I had gotten to the front, but only to learn that not only were there no docs for us, but I should have had no reason to expect any before 6 months, despite the clear word from the other immigration office where we had applied. "You can try back in 2 weeks if you want, though."
I was told to go to yet another office to find out more about the visa situation, as this news gave me cause to worry about being about to complete everything we need before our present student visas expire on Oct. 21. At the other office, I learned that I can just extend our student visas.
Called our educational center, the Swiss Center, and found out that they could just barely pull this off for us in time, as it takes 20 days for immigration to complete the application. So I quickly scrambled to complete everything they needed, nonetheless bothered by the fact that it might all be in vain (including the $100 fee) if we do still get our temporary residence approved in time. Alas! (6 hours)

October 5. Our Russian tutor called Diana this morning (while I was slumbering in bed after a two-day visit to the hospital for a disk in my back that took me totally out of commission from a conference I was attending on fatherhood) and informed her that the Swiss Center had called to inform that our temporary residence had been approved! For some reason the approval had gone to there instead of the one here where we live. But who cares. Now it only remains to find out what our next steps are to finish this all up.

October 6. I go to the immigration office (UFMS) from which our letter came, only to find out that it had indeed come to the wrong place, so they sent me back to the UFMS for our region. The only good news was that they actually arranged for us an appointment to go get our stuff, and they gave us a list of things to work on for the next steps. (3 hours)

October 8. All 5 of us show up at our appointed time, and then still wait a half hour to be seen. "Have you gotten your fingerprints done?"
"No. We thought that was to be done here."
"I don't think we can do that, certainly not this late in the day.
Nervous moment while the official checks if they can. I prayed boldly for it to work. Yes! We wait for the guy another half hour. By the time he's finished, the office is closing, so they asked me to come back tomorrow. At least the kids don't have to! (3 hours)

October 9. I go, expecting to get our passports stamped on the spot. But expectations are a dangerous thing in Russia, even when others tell you how it happened with them. No, all I got today was 2 pieces of paper in exchange for our passports, saying that we would get them back in 10 days! (1.5 hours)

Meanwhile, we work on the paperwork for getting registered and for applying for exit visas (4 hours, not counting the work others did on our behalf)

October 19. Every celebration is only the initiation of a new trial here. We got our passports back today with the official stamps: we are temporary residents! However, although we were ready to apply for registration, which is necessary to apply for exit visas (our biggest personal goal at this point), we were now told that because we wanted to change place of registration from the city to the "county," it would take 2.5 months review. This was the last straw for Diana. Poor thing just fell apart.
But wait: they offered a solution: get the Swiss Center to extend our registration with them. Well, they refused. I went to the leadership meeting at church tonight plumb exhausted and totally baffled about what to do, and how to proceed. Our registration ends in 2 days, after which we will not be legally here, and will have no basis to apply for an exit visa. (2 hours)

October 20. Pastor Igor's wife, Angela, who agreed to let us register with them, found out this morning that we could go talk to their local UFMS, so she took me there right after we each dropped off our kids at school. This office thought that our UFMS had screwed everything up, and they said I needed to go back to them and work on the visa first, which made no sense, but what could I do?
So I went all the way across the city back there to a different window that does the registration and visas, and they gave me a totally new option: just go find anyone registered in this region who will be your "receiving party" and you can get on the "migration account," which is like a 2nd class registration, as near as I can tell.
I thought of 4 people I could ask, only one of which was actually registered here, and her parents wouldn't let her do it. At this point I pretty much just decided to let go of it. I have learned by now that there are times when the work needs to be turned over to God. I thought at best I would stay up all night and pray, but I wasn't going to work the phones and try to find anyone "by hook or crook." Besides, time was running out anyway. I came home after my marathon day just in time to sit down to the computer and teach a tele-class by Skype that Igor and I am leading for coach training. While in class, a call came in from a friend of a friend who herself does barely know us, and she was willing to lend us her name. Thank you, Jesus!
So, of course, we stayed up a while longer to do the last-minute paperwork. (11.5 hours)

October 21. Met our savior this morning and went to UFMS. Fortunately for her, they really only needed to see her passport and have her sign the docs then excuse her. I stayed there 3 hours working with the Oksana, whose name I know because I've been working with her so much, and because she is so incredibly gracious and helpful to me and everyone who comes to her. The good news, we got back on the "account" (учёт) on the last possible day.
Then came our visa applications, and even after all Oksana's help, there were still enough mistakes in to force me to go home and re-do them, largely because she herself was corrected by her supervisor on what was required. You can't even trust the bureaucrats themselves to know what you need around here. (5 hours)

October 22. I paid yet another visit to Oksana today to turn in our visa applications, and this time it worked with only a few minor corrections (she actually lets me get away with white-out, which I've never seen tolerated by the government here). One of those corrections was that she said we would have to back-date our application to yesterday, since our former visas also expired then. I don't even understand fully why that is important, but I am grateful for her doing that for us, or else we would have no basis for applying, apparently. So when can we buy tickets to leave, I asked? 20 business days was the answer. Yesterday the answer was 20 calendar days. Things change around here. Hold things very loosely, or you go crazy. Everything is in God's hands. I gave Oksana some chocolate and told her how much we appreciated her special care and treatment of us. I told her I could see her attitude was so unusual and marveled at how she did it under the circumstances. I think she was really moved, so it made my day as much as the relief of it all. She took the chocolate, but told me she wasn't supposed to. I assured her it wasn't for a bribe to do anything, just to say thanks. (1.5 hours)

So we are done with the paperwork and can finally buy tickets for the States!

October 26. But wait, there's more! Our kind Oksana called on Friday to say that they had found in the Grand Database that I have a work visa elsewhere, which of course is impossible, but I had to go to sort it out (not that they could, of course) by going to their counterpart office in the region of the city where we had our student visas registered. There they told me they were having computer problems and would sort it out and call me and the other office. (2.5 hours)

October 27. They didn't call, so I went today to Oksana, since she is closer, to see if they had called her. Nope. Go back yourself. Can't you call them, I asked. She actually told me they don't have the number of that office. I was floored. (1.5 hours)

October 29. Went back to the other office who told me there was nothing in their database about me having a visa. "Can you at least talk to the other office?" I asked.

"Give me the number." Oksana had called me on her cell phone on Friday and been so kind as to offer to have me call when I needed (truly amazing for these parts), so I started to give this lady that number. "I refuse to call a cell number." So I called Oksana myself to get the number. They finally talked and worked it out. All I have to do is go back to Oksana's office and write out a statement that I never had such a visa. So I went back, waited forever in line again, and did it. (4.5 hours). This was a total of 9 hours of work on my part that they could have resolved if the two offices actually talked to each other.

Total hours to finish all paperwork for us to stay in Russia and leave next month: 107.5

Homelessness in St. Petersburg

The following is an article from Arguments and Facts, a well-known national paper here, about some of the ways the homeless live here. It's worth reprinting in its entirety. I used the Google translation tool, so it's weak in places, even after some tidying up on my part, but you'll get the idea. As an aside, my Russian tutor, Ludmilla, introduced me to a friend of hers who runs a government homeless shelter. The lady seemed more than eager to meet me, but when I got there, she wouldn't even let me see the place, saying I had to write a request that would go through her boss (even though she is in charge). She wouldn't discuss anything about it with me, saying she wouldn't know where I came from and how I would use the information. They didn't even need volunteers, she informed me, saying they have a "different structure" than private shelters. I rarely get offended, but this peeved me pretty bad. I had walked a long way in the snow to get there, and she didn't have the courtesy to tell me or Ludmilla any of this in advance. Ludmilla was equally upset, if not more, and could only speculate that the shelter was actually making some money on the side by renting rooms to people who would pay market rates. Boy, does this society need Jesus, as you will see more of below.

How the homeless spend their winter
Eugene KOLESNIKOV
Published: January 14, 2009 11:56:46
Article from AiF number 3 of 14 January 2009 11:13:01

The middle of winter. Many homeless won't make it until spring. Our correspondent found out where and in what conditions the winter in St. Petersburg is like on the street.

Eat Seagulls!

The famous South landfill, near the cemetery for South Pulkovskimi heights. It is
the biggest in Europe. And since Soviet times, it shells and live homeless and any other questionable identity.

I fell into some primitive world. In the landfill rummage bearded men, similar to neanderthals with ... bows and arrows. They prey on gulls, which at a dump are likely invisible. They hunt for a gulls picking that pick over garbage. I was accompanied by a police officer familiar with the gun - one appears in such places is dangerous. He says: «This is a very terrible place, but many homeless from around the city want to come here. There's always food. The homeless build a hut of planks, plywood, felt, make a hole in the debris. Newbie here are not accepted. In the South there is a dump and a rigid hierarchy - even the semblance of taxes for ordinary homeless ». I note that the stench and the smoke in the air makes my head dizzy.

- But there are not only homeless here - continues the officer. - there are vagrants who do not want to work on the basis of some philosophical ideas. Some here even during Soviet times «kosili» from the army, got accustomed to it, and still live here.

Lohmatogo meet local residents. Nikolai, a bit «polomavshis», told us about his life: - Food a lot, and vodka turns up. Moreover - it happens that thousands of U.S. dollars have been found.

His fairly tattered sidekick adds: «A few times we've found guns and sniper rifles, maybe killers dumped. We sell them. In general, it's good here, a lot of food, a lot of debris, so you can burn fires in winter. So that winter, and this time normally ». Asked what the food - a typical tramp meal at South Landfill? A woman with cracked black lips and colored eyes met my eye: «There is always the bread, sausage, bones and meat; I often come across chips, chocolate, in some cases, cans with out of date red caviar. If you want fresh meat - kill seagulls, then you'll be full »...

«It was a scholarship» ...

Village Toksovo. Not far from St. Petersburg. There are elite homes, simpler houses,
and simply shacks (dachas - summer cottages). The latter are where many homeless spend their winters.

Alexander came to St. Petersburg from Tula, a student here at the university. But the rental
housing money he lacks. A dormitory is not provided, since they are rented at higher prices to guest workers, who pay more even for ten people in one. Sasha has to find cover byvarious means. Sometimes sleeps in summer houses in the winter.

- I am certainly awkward about doing this to the owners, but I do not damage their property -- said the 20-year-old student. - If my scholarship were normal, the problems would be no such.

Sasha is a unique person could live with their parents in Tula, but preferred to study in St. Petersburg, manage on his own, despite the difficulties. But he, though he does not look it, is a homeless person: a specific place of residence in it does not. When I visited him, Sasha left the electric train and began to search Toksovo for a house to spend the night.

All property - books

Subway «Moscow». Every day there on a bench you can see a high greying tramp. With him a big touring backpack, in which fit all his belongings. And it's a lot ... books. This tramp looks very intelligent, but dressed in rags. He is sitting, reading, standing passengers of the subway station to the has long been accustomed to. Do not touch the old man and the police. We talk to the homeless, who introduced Vladimir. On the street he was still in the middle 1990, his tricked fraudsters from real estate, as so often happened in those times. Then Vladimir was already retired, and worked all his life engineer. He is not asking for charity, goes to social dining. Also in rummages in garbage bins.

In principle, with no special problems with food, but sleep in the winter in the basement is not easy, but cold. Therefore homeless man waiting for the closure of the subway (at the same time, you can read in warm, and read Vladimir loves most in the world).

On this day, he kept a volume of lyrics by Lermontov. «All of my books I know by heart, - said Vladimir. - I have them for several years reread, others I did not buy ... »

Where to get help

Bypass. Town not far from the «Warsaw Express». There, on cardboard and even a flaw kuchno wander the most disheveled homeless alcoholic. Many have been in this position after release from prison.

- I got a minor and an adult and was freed without shelter - husky voice tells one of them. - In the deal, what to do and where to go from I was in the trolley-bus was stolen «wolf ticket» (certificate of release. - EK). And so as a passport, I never had, then I get him nowhere. Without a passport every moment requires me fees. And where do I get registered? Only buy a to buy, I need money надыбать. Надыбать бабла nowhere - without documents, no one takes. So that's zavertelos ...

Many of the homeless do not survive until spring. Waif named Sergei says: «Well, the past winter was warmer. Although Кolyan nonetheless gave out ... This is my koresh. Yes every winter someone dies, how else?»

More on hypnosis

A reader responded to my post on helping my daughter go to sleep:

I found your experience with Tobias and the prayer to relinquish the influence of another spirit fascinating. I think I understand and agree with what you and Tobias did. My question is this - how does one identify such foreign influences in one's life? I understand that it is through the Holy Spirit, and in this case clearly Tobias was led to advise you this was not of God. But, as an example, if I had learned some relaxation techniques in college (which I did), techniques which were secular (they were) and seemingly spiritually 'neutral' (meaning not related to yoga or TM or another religious practice), then...

Do these represent another authority and spirit, or are they more along the lines of, say, learning physical exercises such as stretches to relax muscles? What if you had simply made Lydia a cup of chamomile tea, but neglected to ask God to show her how He would help her?

No and yes. No, they are not grounded in the demonic, nor are they a denial of Christ. They aren't even wrong, per se. But look how fast we jump to "remedies" before we jump into the arms of Christ. Hey, what I am saying here is convicting to me. Why are we in such a hurry to solve the problem, rather than ask Jesus why I'm having a hard time relaxing. The Bible has plenty to say about relaxing, so there is plenty of reason to consider that there MAY be a spiritual connection.

As I begin to filter more of my life through what happened with this incident, it starts to get scary how much we are controlled by "vain imaginations" that have nothing to do with God. Look at Col. 2:8.
"See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ." I'm going to make a conjecture about this verse, and I may even post my answer to you to see if anyone will respond (though I confess Lydia gets more online responses than I do by far!). I'm well aware that non-Christian philosophies are damaging, not only because they deny Christ and all that implies, but also because of what they affirm. They are full of lies that lead people into lives that are destructive and even dangerous. That being said, I'm not sure that's the emphasis of this passage. I think that the discussion here is about the fact that they are "empty" and "human" - as opposed to Christ-filled. They are based on "tradition" and the "elemental spirits." There is debate over what the latter term "stoicheia" means. The word means "rudiments" or "elements." I think I am on at least defensible grounds when I suggest that we are talking here about systems that propose to follow "the way things are." That is, they follow natural patterns, or they conform to natural examples, or the well-founded traditions of men. Astronomy and all the modern sciences would fall under this.

Here is where my claim may seem radical, but not so if Paul is not emphasizing their wrongness, but rather their independence from Christ. Notice that Paul starts to admonish the Collossians in verse 8 and picks up the thread in verse 16. Everything else is a theological grounding for his insistence that their radical commitment to Christ is in fact not crazy, as their world would have judged, but rather the real Truth that informs victorious living. Read verses 9-15 from the perspective of someone caught up in the thinking of verses 16-17 and 21-23. Such a person seems to have a measure of wisdom grounded in experience. If a true test for comparison is the "philosophy's" impact on the person, then we see that the approaches advocated by the world (vv. 21-23) may have the desired effect on the body (e.g., behavior), but not on the flesh (v. 23), which, of course, the world cannot touch, because the flesh (spiritual nature) is a matter of the heart, which is deceitful and wicked.

Over and over again, third world Christians tell us that the reason there are hardly any miracles in the West is because we don't need them. How do we not need them? We act like we don't because of our dependence on Science and our implicit faith in naturalistic reasoning, which is Greek philosophy. This is where we get defensive and shout, "but are you saying that modern medicine is of the Devil?" If Paul, as I argue, is not emphasizing the wrongness of philosophy, but its independence from Christ, then it helps us see the resolution. The problem comes in actually trying to imagine what medicine would really look like if it were founded wholly on Christ. I think it's better to leave it at that for imagination's sake, rather than try to attempt a description. I think this approach disarms the whole polarized discussion about science vs. faith.

The conclusion: Your question takes off the table any question about an approach's demonic origin. That's good; it's a red herring.

1. Where is your reliance? Christ or the elemental spirits?

2. What is your goal? resolution of a problem, or God's glory?

How 'mi doin'?

Taking ispiration from Mayor Ed Koch, I thought I'd review my progress on attaining my 2008 goals, which I posted here last December. I do this as a matter of accountability to all of you who support us in prayer and financially.

In this month's newsletter, I mentioned my hopes for producing a multiplying deiscipleship process to empower high-impact leaders with a broad base of discipleship skills, including counseling, coaching, and spiritual formation. This falls right in line with what I wrote last year - to "start immediately duplicating the knowledge God has given me by investing in others who can teach the class [Biblical Problem Solving] and grow into trainers of trainers themselves."

Not only did this happen when Ilya started teaching the class, ...

"My January, therefore, may be dedicated in part to working in parallel with one of my students to teach this class there [at a mission training school nearby]."

..., but I have also started counseling two other couples with leadership potential. The vision has expanded beyond counseling, however, and coach training will be coming in 2009. I am currently under mentorin by my team member, Bill O'Byrne, in spiritual formation, and I hope to be able to mentor others by next year.

"I have a list of pastors and other Christian leaders, including Orthodox, I want to meet and listen to next year to find out where the needs are and where I might find other open doors."

I had significant first-time meetings with at least 4 pastors and 3 missions leaders. I had one other good meeting with an Orthodox priest who is active in ecumenical relations. I am praying for more key contacts with Orthodox leaders in 2009. My goal is at least 12 new relationships with church leaders, and at least 6 new ministry leaders.

I hoped to expand my work at the Harbor in 2008, and God granted relationships with Yuri, which grew throughout the year (and continues), and with Nastya, a former program participant, whom I coached for a few months. Additionally, I began coaching staff members at the Harbor. The one I am currently working with, Sergei, sees the vision I had last year of:

"exploring both how coaching might be used for the whole staff and for how it could be used for the program participants themselves."

Not only is Sergei beginning to use principles from what we do together with Harbor residents, he is very interested in getting coach training himself. We are tentatively looking at starting a 15 week program in March if God grants a group of interested participants.

"Outside the Harbor, I feel the need to do some research into the other ministries and secular entities serving the orphans and street kids. The street kid problem is radically different from even a year ago, as it appears that the government has actually done something good for a change and established homes for them based on a European model that works fairly well. I need to know more."

I did some initial research, which I reported in my April '08 newsletter. Beyond this, I sent out a call to the missions community here and to my supporters at home. The result: 4 people here interested in helping (one soon left the field), and none to help long distance. I decided that there wasn't much need, or that God didn't have that as a priority for me for the time being.

"Barely 100 paces from our house is an orphanage for school-aged children. I intend to find a way to meet the leadership there and begin serving, to include bringing at least Diana and Lydia along over time."

Barely a week after I posted this, God supernaturally opened the doors to ministry there, and the rest is history. One hope I have for 2009 that I did not write about in my December newsletter is to get access to at least one family associated with that orphanage who would like to reunite with their child and to work with the family as a pilot project for what could be developed further. The main obstacle from my vantage point now is that such families almost don't exist from what I hear. They are NOT motivated to get their kids back! I hope this is not true.

My biggest disapointment of the year was the work with a Christian businesswoman that did not come to fruition.

"My aim is to see her company (her mission, really) have deeper penetration into the secular business community. The possibilities are tremendous."

After talking about these possibilities for some time, Colleen did not feel that God was leading her in the direction of a partnership. Perhaps God has another such partnership planned for me. Trouble is, I don't know of any others at this point. I pray He will show me.

All in all, I'd say God gave grace to more than surpass these goals. Makes me excited about 2009.