The Three Boys Hindman
Here is a quick side-by-side of our three sons at approximately the same age (one week, give or take).
Left to right: Malachi, Silas, and Ezra
It's such an interesting journey to watch each of our boys develop in their own ways following birth. I remember how, when Silas was born, I thought he looked exactly like Malachi. Of course, he quickly differentiated himself with his blond hair, blue eyes, and fair complexion. Malachi, meanwhile, has always been dark, right down to the deep, dark brown of his eye color.
So how about Ezra? Well, it's still early, but you can judge for yourself above. Although he already looks uniquely different than the other two, it seems to me that he looks a little more like Malachi so far. His coloring is more like Malachi's. His hair may turn out to be a darker brown, even. As for Ezra's eyes, that's still anyone's guess really. When he was born they looked blue, and I thought he'd be following in Silas' steps. But now they seem to be an enigmatic sort of brown-gray-green. I really don't know what color they'll decide to be.
Blog update and Ezra video
If you're reading this on our website (as opposed to in your email), you can see that things look a bit different around here ... again. I made some changes a couple of weeks ago that were just sort of intermediate (upgrading to a more recent version of Joomla). Today's change is more drastic, but mostly under the hood. I switched us over from Joomla to WordPress.* The posts were easy enough to get over from one platform to the other, but I had to write my own PHP code to export/import the comments. Fun times.
And now onto something that will be more interesting for 100% of those reading this post, here is a link to some video of Ezra that I just took yesterday.
*For those geeky enough to be interested in the details... Since this site is mainly a blog, it just made sense to get it onto something more directly suited to blogging. Joomla's lack of built-in commenting, for example, was just no longer something I could justify dealing with. For sites with more varied content I still like Joomla though. It has made some good progress in the last few years and recently acquired some particularly nice, built-in multilingual features that could come in handy.
Meet Ezra
We would like to formally introduce God's newest blessing to our family. Ezra Sage Hindman was born Thursday evening, August 25th.
The delivery went very well, and very quickly. He is a little guy. Each of our boys has started out that way, though at 6 lbs 8 oz Ezra is the smallest yet. His length at birth was 19.75 inches.
He came out screaming, but has been quite content since then. He is off to a good start as far as eating and is already working his way back up to his birth weight.
He had a few visitors from Legacy when he was at the hospital, and since getting home he's been able to meet a few relatives, a few more from Legacy, and a few neighbors on our street.
Denyce is doing well. We're all trying to allow her to take it easy and focus on feeding Ezra. We are fortunate to have Denyce's mom, Kathy, here with us to help.
Nicknames have a way of happening on their own, but Denyce and I like "Z" for short. Malachi prefers to call him "Ez." Speaking of Ezra's brothers, they love him. We find them multiple times a day admiring him, stroking his hair, giving him kisses, etc. Malachi likes to read to him, and yesterday he read a very special book to Ezra called "My Big Brother," which was given to us (to Malachi) when Silas was born.
We're not sure what it is about us that compels God to keep giving us boys, but we thank him for each one. And for our Kharkov mission team, this now makes six boys, and still zero girls!
We thank God for this gift!
If you missed the link in our last blog post, my Google+ profile is where you can find photos and updates from the first few days (no sign-in needed to view). A few more select new photos below...
(That's not crying; that's a big yawn!)
Off to the Hospital
Denyce is in labor and we're leaving for the hospital. Just wanted to post a quick note so you will know.
I'll be sharing live updates on my Google+. Click here to view. I'll post them publicly so anyone can view them, no Google+ account necessary (though after a few days I'll make them private again, so I still recommend you sign up for Google+!).
Pray for a smooth delivery. Can't wait to find out, and share with you, what God gives us!
A Little Blog Housekeeping
I'm in the process of doing some badly needed updates to this site. The only evidence you'll notice is the most obvious -- a new look (if you're reading this in your email, you'll need to click through to the website to see it). But more important -- and what's more motivating for me to do this work -- is some under-the-hood stuff that I'm doing. Our blog wasn't bad 5 or 6 years ago when I last updated it, but in the meantime it's stayed the same while the state of the web and of blogging software has continued to develop. In comparison to what is out there, this has become way too hard to post stuff to.
So I'm in the process of doing several stages of sequential overhaul on this thing. What you see here is probably only a temporary step in between our old blog and the end result I'm moving toward, so don't be surprised if it keeps changing. This new look, for example, is something that I spent all of five minutes slaving over, because it's not likely to stick around long.
Finally, as a little memorial to the past however many years, here is a screen shot of the previous site:
Any Day Now
Could be tonight.
The due date is not technically for another week (the 24th), but Denyce has been saying since we first found out a due date that she thinks it will be a little earlier than that.
For now we're just working and waiting. I've been working a lot during the days trying to get plenty done before the baby comes. This has included things like developing support contacts, retooling our financial tracking/recordkeeping (we used to be on an accountable plan, now we're self-employed Schedule C), and just starting to dabble in helping Missions Resource Network (where I'm officing about 3 days a week) improve some of their IT-related stuff.
At home, Denyce and the boys have been spending lots of time with Denyce's mom, Kathy, who has moved in with us. She lives about an hour and a half away, across the metroplex, but she can work from home at least for the time being.
Our weekly OB appointment is in the morning, so we'll see if that comes with any new revelations about how things are progressing.
Meanwhile, Malachi turns 6 this Saturday. We decided to go ahead and plan a birthday party for him for Saturday morning. We're not doing anything complicated, just a get-together here at the house we're staying at, and we've invited a few families from Legacy who have one or more boys around our boys' ages. Everyone knows that the party will go down if the baby doesn't come along first. Otherwise all bets are off.
Letter from Jacob
A good friend of ours is teaching a 3rd-5th grade Bible class in Sumter, SC. This summer she is emphasizing a missions theme and we agreed for the class to "adopt" us as their missionary family to learn about us, about Ukraine, and about mission work.
Last month our friend had the kids write us short letters, and she mailed them to us earlier this month. The letters were great, with lots of good questions we'll write back to them to answer. But this letter below, from a boy named Jacob, has really had us laughing (transcript below if you can't read the photo):
Dear Mr. ROB and Ms. Denyecy
I'm just visiting South Carolina
Because My DaD is in third Army &
so we came to visit for the summer. So what
do people in UKRANE use as wepons.
Not a Bad Way to End the Day
Just thought I'd share an overview of the day today, with a few photos too.
I spent the morning working on some translation and preparation for my sermon for our assembly time this evening (in the Russian-speaking church plant). I adapted and translated a study and handout that I did for our Friday night Bible study with the Nigerians a couple of months ago.
After wolfing down some lunch I hurried out to pick up the LST team from the apartment they've been staying at. David was there already and we all rode together out to the airport to drop them off. It's been a quick two weeks that this team of 5 from the Seattle area spent here, but it's been productive and has definitely broken some new ground in the development of the work here in Kharkov. They read the Bible with a good number of folks -- I don't have the final tally available, but I know it was at least 34. Both Friday evenings while they were here, we hosted an "LST party" for all their readers here at our apartment. This last time a couple days ago we had 40 people altogether.
LST party Friday night
Many thanks to Dave, Kathy, Leandra, Janice, and Amber for their willingness to come and for the service they gave. They, and the word of God, definitely made an impact on people during these two weeks and we look forward to seeing how God grows some of the seeds that have been planted. I'm heavy-hearted about the fact that right as it's time to start working on follow-up for these, I'm needing to leave Ukraine for an extended period of time. But our teammates will do a good job.
Interestingly enough, while driving from the apartment to the airport with them to drop them off, we happened to spot three of the people who came and read with them for the past two weeks -- one lady on one street, and a lady and her daughter at another spot a couple of miles away. "One and a half million people in this city," commented one of the LST workers, "and we've just passed three of our readers."
From the airport David and I came straight back into town to Brandon and Katie's apartment. When we arrived the English-speaking assembly that our team started a month or two ago was already underway. This assembly is mainly geared toward an initial handful of Nigerian brothers, but we pray that it can grow to serve and evangelize a wider swath of the population of non-Russian speakers in Kharkov. Just this last week one Nigerian young man that has come to a couple of our events in the past few months was baptized by a Ukrainian preacher here in town. He joined the other Nigerian brothers at this English assembly today and we made a point to celebrate his new birth in Christ with him. His name is Kelvin.
Three Nigerian brothers and the five AIM students. That's Kelvin with the black pants.
Directly after the end of the English assembly it was time to head straight to another part of town where our normal (Russian-speaking) church assembly was to gather. This week was the first time we've had a formal Bible class in conjunction with the assembly (the hour before it). We hope that will serve to edify the church and each person in it. Our numbers were down a little today with one brother sick and some people out of town, but it was a good time together. For the sermon time I shared my handout and the thoughts that came from this particular study of the word.
The kids coloring together after our Russian assembly.
On the way home at the end of all this, my phone started ringing. It was Sergei, a neighbor of ours in our last apartment with whom I had a couple of Bible discussions quite a while ago. I haven't had any contact with him in over a year since we moved, although I have thought about him repeatedly and have been wanting to call and reconnect with him. So it was very interesting that he called me, seemingly out of the blue. He called to thank me for the Bible that I had given to him (this was at least a year and a half ago now). At the time he had shared with me about how he was reading from his Bible, which is a traditional, old translation that is sort of the Russian equivalent of the King James. At that time I gave him a Bible in a modern Russian translation. At the time he seemed mildly curious about it but was put off by how small the text was (he had a large print version of the old translation).
So I was a little surprised but very delighted to get this call from him a year and a half later, and he is singing the praises of the Bible I gave him. He said he has been reading and comparing several different Russian translations and after all this time he has decided that he thinks the translation I gave him is the best. He didn't go into detail on the phone call about how he came to that conclusion but I'll be curious to hear more. He said that it (the one I gave him) is now his "настольная книга." Literally translated, this means "tabletop book." A looser, but more meaningfully accurate, translation would be "the book he keeps closest within reach," "go-to book," or even "handbook."
That was one of those rare and very valuable "Oh yeah, this is what it's all about" kind of phone calls. And right before I'm having to leave for several months at least (he is out of town, so I can't even get together with him before we leave). But we agreed to exchange email addresses and I told him I'd love to hear, while I'm gone, about what he's reading (in the Bible) and what he thinks of it. God's word will be doing its work.
June Never Stops
This has been hands-down the busiest, fullest month in the work here in Kharkov so far. It's been wonderful, but at the same time exhausting.
Our new AIM team arrived at the beginning of the month. We've spent a good amount of time with them, helping them get set up and familiar with things here. Two of them (the two guys out of a team of five) are living with my family in our apartment and we are enjoying that. The team is two weeks into their full-time Russian language studies at a local university and I think that has been really challenging for them.
Separate from that, we're currently right in the middle of a two-week Let's Start Talking campaign. A group of five Americans from a church in Washington state is here working with us on that, and it's going well. This has brought us into contact with a number of new people and has expanded horizons in relationships with some people we already knew. It's a work in progress, and I look forward to seeing how the next week will go.
Separate from all of that, we've been planning and preparing for a second combined assembly of congregations, following after the very positive precedent of the first one we did on May 1st. This second one will be tomorrow, and this time around we are featuring the theme of help for those struggling with addictions and dependencies. We invited workers from a rehab center in a neighboring part of Ukraine, whom we knew about through mutual friends at Ukrainian Bible Institute in Donetsk. That husband and wife team of workers arrived in town today and he will be delivering the message at our assembly tomorrow.
In the midst of this we've also bought tickets and made arrangements to return to the US next month for some period of time to both have our baby, do our annual visa renewal process, and seek a sponsoring church and the monthly support we currently lack. We'll be leaving Ukraine on July 12th, arriving in DFW on the 13th, where we will be based for at least the next couple of months after that.
Well, there is a pretty minimal overview of what's been going on. Things have truly been going on overdrive at times lately, for both us and our teammates. Being so consumed with the work is not good in some ways but in other ways it's been very fulfilling to have so many good things to be working on, and to see some of the work that God is doing here. I could easily write a whole blog post about any given paragraph above. It's good to have so much that could be written, but at the same time, I didn't come to Ukraine to sit and write blog posts. But don't worry, I'll still cover it all in our next monthly newsletter, and may find time to squeeze in another blog post about some of this.
The Latest from Here (part 2)
Continuing from yesterday's part 1, here are more updates in regard to:
Previous sponsoring church: Sun Valley's partnership in our support is officially over at the end of this month -- in two days. As a congregation we wish them the best and we will continue to be blessed by many wonderful friendships there. They've transitioned about half of their Ukraine mission account balance to Legacy (the church managing our funds on an interim basis) and the rest is supposed to be transitioned by, well, two days from now.
Logistics: Assuming that our relationship with our sponsoring church would be at least the intended 6 years, if not for a lifetime, in early 2008 we moved almost all of our stateside logistical roots to the Phoenix area - mailing address, voter's registration, driver's licenses, etc. In the last month or two we've done as much as we can from 7,600 miles away to pick those roots back up. Denyce's sister and brother-in-law in Texas are now temporarily handling our mail. Voter registration and driver's licenses will have to wait until we are in the States, I think. We still have a filing cabinet storage box at the Sun Valley church building that we're going to have to get to Texas one way or another too.
Next sponsoring church: Who knows? I've written up a document articulating what we're looking for in a sponsoring church and we've sent that to a couple of places. We've been thinking and talking about various scenarios, and are looking into each of them, including such possibilities as:
- A church that already knows us and supports us taking on the role of sponsor in addition to their existing financial support.
- A church that has no financial resources to offer currently, but already knows us and would be eager to take on the spiritual, emotional, and logistical role of oversight.
- A church we've had no previous relationship with becoming our sponsor. This would require more time to establish the relationship, naturally, but we need to be open to that.
- One church has asked about possibly becoming a temporary sponsor all the way until our next furlough, but for now we are favoring taking the time to find a long-term sponsor sooner.
Support need: Since we got the news from Sun Valley, we have been blessed with a few new monthly supporters who have stepped up as the first part of replacing the support we are losing. As of right now we are still a little over $2,200 per month short, and we will be continuing to work on that.
Fundraising/Birthing plans: Before all of this came down in March, we had already made plans to go to Austria to have the baby later this summer. That is because 1) the medical care is very good there, 2) the cost of the care is lower there than in the US, and 3) our Ukrainian visas expire in August, which means our whole family has to leave Ukraine to obtain new visas at that time anyway. However, in the wake of our support situation now, and considering the input of some of our other partners and advisors, it seems like it might make the most sense to go ahead and travel back to the US to have the baby so that we can pursue in person whatever support opportunities can be available during that time. We haven't actually booked tickets to the US or cancelled arrangements in Austria yet, but we will likely be doing that this week. We'll keep you posted on this.